Silhouettes

While surfing the blog world, I ran across several tutorials about making silhouettes. After thinking about it, I decided that would make a great gift for my mom! So, I took profile pictures of Elana, Zachary, and myself. Then I edited them in a photo editing program to remove the background and make them one color. Then I turned the pictures gray and printed them out on card stock. After that I cut out all the details and framed them. I think that usually it's a black silhouette on a white background, but I decided to reverse that. Mine is a white silhouette on a black background. Dad did a really good job picking out the frames! Mom LOVED them! Apparently she has always wanted some of these. We hung them up on the wall that's on the side of the stairs Christmas night. Elana gave dad a frame that has three slots with black and white portraits of all of us. I think we decided to put it up underneath the silhouettes. I think the silhouettes really look like us, although Zachary wasn't happy that I put his "chicken feathers" in there. (That's what we call the little hair on the back top of his head that sticks straight up no matter how much you brush it.) Anyways, I'm thinking I could make these to sell. People could email me a profile picture of their kids and I'll do the work and maybe frame them, but definitely mat them. What do you think? Would that work?

Here's a closeup of Zachary's. I had to do his twice because I cut off his eyelashes! :) The white thing in the bottom is our window. I couldn't find a way to get that off.

I just took this personality test at mypersonality.info. It was kind of neat, it said that some of the people that have the same personality are Andrew Jackson, John D. Rockefeller, Sam Walton, Lucy from Peanuts, and (oh dear!) Rachel Lynde from Anne of Greene Gables. Oh my! Anyways, I thought that was kind of neat, although I don't know about that Rachel Lynde thing! :)

Tatting project gone bad

Well, I started on a tatted heart. I've made it before, but I think I gave it away before I got pictures of it. It was going SOOOO well......until both of my threads broke! Not just the one coming off the ball, but also off the shuttle! Arghh! I could work with the one coming off the shuttle, but I can't work around the broken ball thread. I'm really frustrated! Maybe I can use it somehow with just half of it. It might be kind of cute if I do it right, hmmm, I'll have to think about that some more.

Bonanzle Booth!

Well, after getting pretty frustrated with the sales (or lack there of) that I was making on etsy, and after hearing some local reviews on Bonanzle.com, I decided to give it a try. I listed a quilted wallet and a coordinating keychain. The link to them is on the right-hand side of my blog. If you could, please hop on over and maybe rate my items at the bottom of the screen. I think Bonanzle is getting a lot of frustrated ebay sellers. Anyways, I hope I start selling some more stuff!

Color Wheel Quilt Issues!

100_1588
Originally uploaded by SouthernKnitWit

I got it all pieced together, I even bought some white background fabric last night. It won't lay flat though! I thought I was pretty accurate with my seam allowances, but maybe some of them got off? I'm not really sure what to do to fix it, here are my ideas.
1.) Hope it fixes itself during quilting
2.) Alter a few key pieces - If I do this, I will free motion quilt it on the inside of the quilt and then outline the colors along the lines. Since I won't be altering the outside diameter, I could still have lines coming out, or I might free motion on the outside as well.
3.) Take a slightly bigger seam allowance on each and every piece. This would take forever, but it might be the best option.
I don't know what to do! Argghh!!! I thought this quilt was supposed to be easy!

Let me know what y'all think! I would really like to get this project finished up.

Pretty Picture and WIP

Paint Shop Pro Photo X2
Originally uploaded by sourpatch007

This is a really neat picture! Of course, I'm a bit biased since my little sister took it, but oh well. It's still a good picture! I can't believe she takes these with a point and shoot! It's amazing. I have the same camera, and I can't get these kind of results with mine.

We got back Saturday night from Fort Smith. That was where the robotic competition was held. We won 1st pace in the t-shirt competition, but we placed 17th overall. It was a lot fun, even though it was a grueling three days! I got to stay in my fancy black dress all day since I didn't have a chance to change into anything else. I even wore it to robot check in! Those heels just about killed me though! :-) I felt really young though since most of the other "kids" were seniors in high school. A lot of them were 19 years old! I was so sick of junk food, that I just wanted a big salad. If you ever go to Cracker Barrel, I highly recommend their BLT salad with ranch dressing. It was SO good!!!!

Okay, onto the WIP (Work In Progress). I can't remember if I mentioned this, but I'm working on a color wheel quilt from the book Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. It's off to a good start, I have all the color pieces put together and have started chain piecing them together. I'm hoping to make this a stash quilt, but I think I'm going to get some white for the top. I think that I'm also going to put some more of the white on there to make it look good on a twin bed. Okay, scratch that, I just looked up the dimensions for a twin size quilt, and I think that might be kind of complicated. So, I'll just make it the regular 56" square. I might hang it on the wall instead. Or, I might leave it in a circle shape, and make a rug out of it. I don't know yet, do y'all have any ideas? I will try to post pictures when I get back home (I'm at the library now).

My First Pair of Pajama Pants!

Well, this is getting to be a habit. I mean the not posting and all. I haven't been sewing much lately because we have been deeply engrossed in our BEST (Boosting Science, Engineering, and Technology) team. We have the regional competition in 4 days, 13 hours, and 52 minutes, but whose counting? :) Here is our website: http://wolfchasehomeschoolengineering.webs.com/. There are some pictures on there of our robot.

Anyways, I FINALLY made some pajama pants from Amy Butler's book In Stitches. They turned out really well. I originally intended to use this fabric (purchased at Wally World for $2 a yard) for a tiered skirt, but I was still unsure how it would look as a skirt and since I only had 3 yards anyways, I just made some pajama pants. They look a lot better in real life. They are really comfortable! And yes, I'm wearing a blouse with my pajama pants! I traced the pattern out on newspaper with a marker, and that worked out really well. The newspaper has a nice weight to it, so that I didn't even have to pin it down. I would definitely not use newspaper on a fabric that is real light, but I definitely plan to use it again. I can't wait to make some more, and Mom wants some too.

I'm Back!!

Well, it's been a long time since my last post, but I've actually got a good excuse this time! First off, my birthday was a couple weeks ago. My family gave me a serger. It's a Janome 7034D. I love it! It goes so much faster than a sewing machine, and it trims your fabric all at the same time! Mrs. Debbie gave me some fabric and some pink thread cones. The fat quarters are just gorgeous, and the fabric that she dyed is almost to pretty to use. I think I might frame some of it to put in my room. She also gave me the book Sew What! Skirts. I have big plans for that. Now, if I can just find some time! She also gave me a really cool barrette that looks like a butterfly. It's really neat.

We went to east Tennessee on my birthday. I had a forestry competition that weekend. I spent the night with the team at the hotel the night before the competition. That was really fun, we stayed up "late" (10:00, but that's late for me) talking. As a team, we placed 3rd and we were only 8 points away from 1st. Individually, I placed 2nd and was only 3 points away from 1st. The guy that beat me was a year older though, so I hope to get 1st next year. So, that was fun. When we got back from the trip, Dad finished painting the new house. We're now officially moved. We have some of the heaviest furniture! Mom and Dad have a solid cherry sleigh bed that was a nightmare to move! My room is a spring green (you can see it in the serger picture) and it has a little alcove that I can put my sewing stuff in. Elana and I share a bathroom, and Zachary has his own. She painted her room neon green and blue and the bathroom is the same blue. After moving my sewing stuff, I have decided that it has multiplied or something. I don't remember having this much stuff. It's going to take forever to put away. Everybody really likes the new house, though. It's a good bit bigger, which is good, because we were running out of space.

We've also been really busy with the BEST robotics competition. We've been having meetings 2-3 times a week to get the robot built. It is a six-week program. I'll try to post pictures of the robot soon. The engineering notebook is do in a couple of days, so we are going to be working on that pretty hard. Alrighty, that's the update, and I'm going back to my sewing project! :)

Inspiration

Well, I've been pretty busy here lately. I'm working on another amigurumi for another friend. I finally figured out what to make him. It's a surprise, so I'll post pictures of it after I give it to him. I also made a fabric basket from the tutorial here: pink penguin fabric basket tutorial. It turned out pretty cute. I'll try to post pictures sometime soon.

Other than that, I've been working on forestry and we started a new engineering group. Oh, we went to Barnes & Noble looking for a school book, so while mom looked for that, I got to look through the sewing/crocheting books! If you haven't ever done that, I highly recommend it! It was so much fun! I definitly have some ideas to possibly order from ebay.

Also, I think I need a denim skirt. I was thinking maybe Simplicty 4188. Really light weight denim. Of course, I could just draft my own pattern. I found a tutorial online (here) That's a pdf so it might take awhile to download. It looks pretty good, and you have to use a tailor's ruler (I think it's a tailor's ruler, nope, I think it's a french curve.) Anyways, that looks like a good tutorial.

Well, we're heading out the door for dinner at my grandma's. I'll try to post the pictures later.

Finger Sewing

And no, I don't mean sewing by hand. At our last 4-H sewing day, we had a girl decide that it wasn't enough to just sew on the fabric! I was standing at her table, helping another girl when I heard her machine stop. I looked over, and she had this panicked look on her face and her finger was under the needle. I kind of softly wailed to Mrs. Debbie. One of the other girls at the table yelped in surprise. Her head snapped up, and she dropped what she was working on and ran to our table. She assessed the situation and started camly giving out orders. She handed me her phone to call her mom. When I got back she needed the screwdriver. Apparently, she unscrewed the needle (it was in the down position) and held onto it with the hemostats (surgical clamp thingies) while rolling the wheel up. Then she told the girl to look at somebody and she pulled it out really quick. Apparently, it hit her fingernail and broke and slid at an angle away, but still through her thumb. It went all the way through, but it was just about a 1/8-1/4" in from the tip of her thumb. Anyways, that was our scare for the day. And all that happened after we had a safety talk in which we mentioned not to get too close to the needle. It wasn't the girls fault, though. It could've happened to anybody. So, who has actually done this? I plan on avoiding this if at all possible. These sewing machines are dangerous though! I had a little, tiny fragment of a needle hit the white part of my eye the other day while free motion quilting. So, safety goggles are in order next time I free motion quilt.

Followers

I love the new feature on Blogspot called Followers! It's great to see who follows your blog. Although I do know that some family members follow our blogs that do not have usernames. So, they're not incredibly accurate, but if you could "follow" this blog, the link is a little on down the line there.
Thanks,
sourpatch

Amigurumi

Amigurumi is a Japanese word for knitted stuffed toy. They can be crocheted though, too. I crocheted an elephant and a penguin following a pattern off of the Lion Brand website. They turned out pretty cute. I'm giving both of them to a couple of friends.

On another note, my fabric swap package arrived the other day, and I will (hopefully) take pictures and post about that soon.

Also, has anyone every appliqued or decorated a hoodie or sweatshirt before? I was thinking it woul be neat to do some for the forestry senior team, but I've never pictures of one before.

Wordle

Here's a wordle based off my blog. They take the words you use most often and arrange them. Supposedly, the bigger the word, the more you use it, but I don't think that's true. Anyways, you can make your own here: Wordle.net

Industrious

I've been busy! Actually, that would be an understatement. In fact, industrious would probably be a better word! I've made two flannel baby blankets, another camera strap, another tissue holder, and a fabric bowl. I also somehow (don't ask me how) managed to convince Mom to take me to Hancocks! I love Hancocks! I have discovered that buying several pieces of fabric, but small amounts of each gives me a lot of options. The fabric bowl was really easy, I will definitely be doing another one soon.

We went to church this morning and we sat in the balcony. I really don't like sitting in the balcony, I get kind of dizzy and feel like I'm about to fall off. Of course it doesn't help that I have nightmares about going to church and sitting in the balcony, while there is no railing.

Anyway, I'm going to go list some stuff on etsy. If you're interested in any of this stuff, just pop on over there! Elana wanted the camera strap, but I'm going to try to sell it and make her another one.

Patchwork Bias Tape!!!

I couldn't hardly sleep last night, since I was thinking about what I could make to sell and what I could make for myself. So, I made some patchwork bias tape! I think it came out really cool! I made a tissue holder from some of it. I scorched the corners, so I can't sell it, but it's still perfectly usable. I listed the bias tape as well as a quite a few other things in my Etsy shop. There should be some more shop updates coming soon.

Forestry Regional and upcoming sewing projects

So, we had the 4-H Forestry regional competition. And..... we placed 1st!! I also placed 1st with my individual score. They messed up the scores, though. They didn't count all the points. They drop the lowest score in each category if you have a 4 man team. We had 4 people, so they were dropping the lowest score. One of the team members scored lower than the rest of us in almost everything. He had a perfect score in compassing. They had his score written down as 56. We were all shocked that his score would be that low. Upon further inspection, that was the amount of his score that was contributed to our team score. His actual individual score is 116!! Perfect is 170. 116 is really good. They messed Brooklyn's up to. Three of us had the same compassing score, and since her name was at the top of the scorecard, they dropped her score. That cheated her out of 47.5 points! I had 149.5. She should have been second high scorer. It's really ridiculus.

Today, I went on a shopping excurision with some friends of mine. First we headed to JcPenny's to get some kahkis for Mikey, and then we went to Hancocks!!!! Yay! I've been craving some new fabric, so this was a much needed trip. I got some fabrics for some projects I'm planning. Mrs. "W" got me a whole yard of some fabric that I absouletly LOVE! She also got me some flannel for baby blankets to crochet an edge around. (Thanks so much!!) I will be listing those in my etsy as soon as I finish them. So, I've got a lot of plans for my etsy shop. Including patchwork bias tape. I got some really cool fabric, and can't wait to start working on something! I'll try to post pictures of something as soon as I finish. Then we went to Mikey's soccer practice and out to eat afterwards. Thanks for feeding me! Again!

http://www.jonessoda.com/gallery/view.php?ID=990886&offset=9 A friend of mine entered a picture into the Jones Soda co. contest. I have no idea what kind of soda that is, but oh well. He's a really good photographer! Anyways, if you could vote for it, that would be great. You don't have to register or anything. Here is his link to his flick account so you can see some more of his photography: http://www.flickr.com/photos/asablack/

Another Giveaway ;)

Fabric giveaway for some fabric. From what I can tell, she picks out some yummy fabrics!
http://mcmawblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/it-must-be-time-for-give-away.html

Quilting giveaway link

Here's a quilting giveaway for those of you that quilt: http://debiquilts.blogspot.com/2008/08/200th-post-giveaway.html

Adorable Camera Strap Giveaway

Okay, I know a lot of y'all take pictures. I found this absouletly adorable camera strap giveaway! Go enter, and maybe you'll win one. http://thevintagepearl.blogspot.com/2008/08/win-camera-strap-these-are-coolest.html Hurry! The contest ends tomrrow (friday) at midnight.

My hetic week, or two, or three

These past three weeks have been soooooo busy!! I've barely had time to breath, let alone post. We started school a couple weeks ago. We are using pretty much all Bob Jones University. We are also doing the videos with them. It's pretty interesting. It's a lot better if you can speed them up to 1.5 or even 2 times the speed. You can do that on some of our computers. Cyberlink is the program we use for that. You can still hear the sound and everything, but they just talk faster! :)
We are also shifting into high gear with forestry. Regional competition is next saturday, so we are trying to get ready for that. We're having practices three times a week. One of them this week we had another junior team come so that we could help them out a little bit. It lasted for 6 hours! Everybody is starting to get sort of burnt out with it. I get really stressed the last 3 or 4 weeks. Escpecially when we have trouble with something. We are having a TON of trouble with the compassing. We're ending up like 15 feet off the mark. There are four of us on the team this year. One of the guys has never done it before. The other girl and I have done it for awhile. The other guy went to regional with us last year, but didn't go to state. We got him to join really really late this year. He's not going to be able to come to any practice until the week before! I don't get stressed out during the competition though.
Later today, we have a sewing meeting. We are working on table toppers for a church. They are going to pay us for doing them, which is kind of exciting.
I think Elana is getting sick. I hope I don't get it. We are real bad about drinking out of the wrong glass, since they all look the same, and we all drink water.
So yeah, it's been pretty busy. I haven't done any sewing or anything in 2 or 3 weeks, I think I'm going into withdrawal. (I don't think that's spelled right, but work with me here! :))
Thanks for listening, or reading! :)

4-H Fair!! and a finished purse! Yay!!

Finally, a new post! I've been sooo busy this past week or so! We had the 4-H craft fair, which always stresses our family to our limits. We know that, but we still do it every year?!?! Oh well. One of the things that I entered was this purse from the Amy Butler book In Stitches. I recently bought some of that gorgeous Dick and Jane fabric because, well, just because! I matched the other fabric to the color of the words. This picture definitly doesn't do it justice. Something is seriously lacking in my photgraphy skills. Of course, maybe that's why Elana is the photographer and I'm not? :) So, that lasted for 2 days, then we had the forestry workshop (yep, we went out in the woods in 103 degree weather!) and then, we had a tour of a local university's engineering department. So yeah, it's been a long week and it's not even over yet!! We have meetings from 12-5 tomorrow. Saturday is looking really good right now! But anyways, back to the purse, if I did it again, I would make it a lot shorter (1/3-1/2 shorter) and probably stiffer. But, I do like just about everything else about it. Now, I can finally finish up some of my UFOs (UnFinished Objects)! I really want to finish some stuff before starting another project. I don't know if that will happen though. :)

CD Case and Coffee Cozy

So I started a CD case the other day, since some of my schoolwork is going to be on DVDs this coming year I might as well have something cute to put them in. I embroidered my name on the front after getting Elana to write it out on a piece of paper. (Ok, ok, I admit it, her penmanship is MUCH better, she freehanded that name, and it looked like I printed it.) I lined the cd slots with satin (gotta baby those cds ;)) I probably wouldn't do that, since it was hard to sew and I couldn't get the edges really squared up like I wanted. The top fabric of the cd slots are some of my favorites that are once again in the stash. The denim for the front was stash fabric as well. If I had to do it again, I would do the closure differently, probably a loop of elastic that fit over the button. I like the ribbon though, it is very girly! :) I made the pattern up myself since I couldn't find one I liked online. I could post a tutorial if anyone wants one. Anywho, I'll probably make one for Elana and Zach. Do you think anyone would be these? I could make some to put on etsy.
Next in line, I made a coffee cozy sort of from the tutorial here. I altered it a little bit, but basically kept the same measurements. Mom picked out the lining fabric, since it is for her, but I like it too. And I still have a lot of scrap!! YAY!!! I embroidered her name upside down the first time and didn't realize it until I had the whole thing sewn together. I had to rip it out and do it again, but it turned out alright, and I'll know better next time. We don't really drink Starbucks around here, so I made it to go around Mom's regular coffee cup (her favorite one of course). It's insulated to keep out the heat, or cold, whichever you like to drink. I can make one (or several) of these for those of you that are local if you want. I can do it for free if you buy the fat quarter and a matching button and let me keep the scraps. I think I might list these on etsy as well. Sorry these pictures are blurry, I'll see if I can get Elana to take better ones later.

Color coordinated Pencil Roll

Elana was flipping through the book Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts, and she saw the color coordinated pencil roll in there and wanted one. So, we drug out all my scraps (that's kind of fun to say :)) all over the floor. Then she picked the colors she wanted and I stiched it together. I think it looks pretty good. It's kind of cool when you untie it and let it roll out with all the colors. I'm happy with it. That is one of the neatest books by the way. Let me know what you think of it.

I saw this game on the Happy Zombie blog. I thought it was kind of cool. I altered it just a bit.

1. Sunny morning on Rachel Avenue HDR, 2. Arriving at the Italian Riviera, 3. So this is what I do with my summer before starting 8th grade., 4. Shower Fresh, 5. Lemonade, 6. Eiffel Tower at night, 7. Chocolate Brownie Cake W/Strawberries, 8. Randy Travis, 9. Bemused Train Engineer Watching the Idiot Photographer who has Too Much of his Body Protruding from the Train Window to be Safe, 10. Praise be to God Almighty!, 11. Kissie ... life can be very serious ..., 12. 100_0393

The Game:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Labs Mosaic Maker.

The Questions:1. What is your first name? Rachel
2. What is your favorite food? Italian
3. What high school did you go to? Homeschool
4. What is your favorite color? Pink
5. Favorite drink? Lemonade
6. Dream vacation? Paris
7. Favorite dessert? Brownie Dessert (see Elana's post here)
8. Favorite Singer? Randy Travis
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Engineer (At least I think so, it might change :))
10. What do you love most in life? The Lord and my family
11. One Word to describe you. Serious (I guess?)
12. Your flickr name: SouthernKnitWit

Journal Cover

I made a notebook cover from this tutorial: here. It looks pretty good. If you ever fuse anything with Heat 'n' Bond Ultra, you may have trouble sewing through it if you don't have the right thread in it. Try changing thread, it worked for me. Anywho, this fabric was some of my favorite scraps, and I still have some left! (insert evil laugh here). It was really easy, too! And it's removable!

Quilt Specs and Capes!

Alrighty, I forgot to mention that the quilt squares were 6" each, I think. I used A 1/4" seam allowance, but probably should have cut the squares 6-5/8" each and used a 5/8" seam allowance. I don't know how big that makes it, but Those squares were the perfect size to get the most out of each pair of jeans. And, if it looks wet or whiteish/dusty, that's because of the water from ironing or the baby powder.
And, I forgot to mention that I want to make a cape, or cloak, or whatever you want to call it to wear this winter. It must have a hood and it has to be long. Why you ask? Well, um, because! I need to find a pattern and figure out what fabric to use. I'm thinking for the color dark red (I'm not talking little red riding hood!), black, or brown. But anyways, I guess I need to finish some other projects first. ;)

My quilt is finished!

I finally finished my denim quilt. This is the before picture layered on top of the batting and the backing (yes the backing is under there!) The next two pictures are after the quilting and binding (that's the edge). I quilted it with cowboy boots, hats, and some horseshoes. I printed those out on a manila folder and punched holes in it. Then, I placed the design where I wanted it and stamped it with baby powder I just so happened to have in a sock. :) It got pretty thick upstairs while I was doing it, but it didn't take that long. I finished the edge the next day. It is really heavy which is a plus, since my family likes heavy quilts/blankets the best. I need to make a quilt label to sew onto the back. I also finished a chicken pincushion the other day, but am having difficulty getting the pictures to turn out, I'll see if I can't get Elana to take some pictures when she gets back from her vacation with friends.

On another note, we had the 4-H Honor Club picnic the other day. We grilled out and played baseball. The night before, Mikey and I made oreo balls. They are ground up oreos with cream cheese and dipped in chocolate. They are so good! If anyone wants the recipe, let me know. My oldest cousin and my grandma came to the picnic as well. His visit included going to Kroger for cheese dip at 12:00 p.m. and then talking until 2 in the morning, but it was fun. I fell asleep almost as soon as he left. We were out in the sun a good bit, and my arms are sunburnt. Oh, then Zach's b'day was tuesday. He is now officially in the double digits! He got a bow and arrow for his birthday. He was really excited.

Tagged!!!

I was tagged by Sourpatch
The rules:
1) Answer all the questions honestly
2) Tag at least three people
When was the most recent time you were burned?
Okay, I finally came up with something. I burnt my tongue on hot chocolate from Mcdonald's on the way home from Washington D.C. You know what they say about how hot Mcdonald's coffee is, well the same holds for their hot chocolate. It was really good though.
Can you cook?
Yes
If yes, name your specialties
Lasagna (aagghhh, there's more, there really is, I just can't think of anything)
If yes, do you like to cook?
It's okay, I don't really enjoy it, unless of course I'm cooking for a guest, then I enjoy it. This is more of Elana's specialty
If no, do you want to be able to cook?
N/A
What color is your kitchen?
Green and White Plaid with a Red Apple border and White cabinets
Do you bake?
Yes!
If yes, specialties (max 3).
Brownie with whipped cream and chocolate pudding, peanut butter cookies, (something else, but I can't think of it right now)
If yes, do you like to bake?
I do like to bake. That's kind of my thing.
If no, do you want to bake?
N/A
What color is your apron?
My apron is PINK! What other color would it be? :)
I tag: There's really nobody else to tag. I could tag Bryce I guess, but I don't think he'd appreciate it. :) (Bryce, let me know!)

We're Back

So we got back about midnight on Saturday. I had a really good time, I made some friends, and I got to see all the monuments and memorials. It was very interesting. Yesterday, we went canoeing. None of us kids have ever been canoeing before. Mom and I were together, Elana and Lysa were together, and Zachary was with one of the park rangers.We were getting pretty close to the end when the ranger in the front yelled back to be careful since there was a snake on one of the overhanging branches that was at roughly the same height as our faces. Elana and Lysa were ahead of us, and before I knew it, Elana was yelling "Turn Lysa. Lysa, turn" Anyway the were headed right underneath it and Elana was in front. She is terrified of snakes, so she jumped out. Yep, that's right, she jumped out. She quickly hopped back in the canoe. The snake had also fallen in the water. Then right after that, Mom and I ran up on a sand bank in the middle of the river. The current wasn't really strong at all on the whole river, but that was the strongest part. I guess she was leaning over to try to push us off, but we both ended up flipping over. Thankfully it was pretty shallow. The canoe was filled with water, the ranger told us how to flip it, but I couldn't hardly stand up in the first place, let alone flip the canoe. It still had a bunch of water, but he said it would probably be alright. Oh yeah, I lost my paddle, too. So our canoe was a little less than half full of water, and only Mom had a paddle. If we leaned in one direction hardly at all, the boat would lurch that way. We ended up pulling over to the side with the ranger, and he helped Mom flip it again. That time it actually worked and there wasn't any water in the canoe. So anyways, it was fun, except for falling out.

Early Bird Activities

So the day after the tug-of-war, Wednesday, we went to meet our representatives and take a picture of the capitol building. That was pretty interesting. We also got to go to the Library of Congress and ride the metro (subway). Then we went to the mall :rolls eyes:. All but three of us wanted to go shopping, so they looked around, and we sat down and cracked funnies. Mason is hilarious! Alrighty, the next morning: I'm on the Healthy Living Committee, one of the things we have to do is get up and be on the front lawn for "Early Bird Activities" at 6:30 in the morning. Hardly anyone outside the committee showed up, and even then, that wasn't the whole committee. Then we went to the zoo. That was pretty uninteresting, especially compared to the Memphis Zoo. I was pretty disappointed! Then we had lunch and then there was a town hall meeting, where we broke into groups and discussed controversial issues. There are definitely some, ah, interesting people in the world. Then we got really dressed up (I love getting dressed up!) and went to the play Shear Madness. I wouldn't recommend it, it had a lot of innuendos in it. It also had a queer guy in it (He was the source of most of the innuendos). Anyway, it was kind of funny. What was really funny though, was looking down the row at Mason and seeing him either recoiling in horror, or his mouth would be wide open with shock. Then we went and ate at 600 which is a restaurant at the water gate hotel. That was really good! Today, we are going to get pictures of the white house and some other stuff. I am so exhausted, that I think I'm about ready to go home. It's going to be hard leaving though. Mason left at 4 this morning, so that was really sad, since he provides most of our entertainment on the trip. There's also going to be a talent show tonight. Jessica is going to clog.

Tug-of-war

Tug-of-war was, ahh, interesting. Yeah, interesting. There's only like 4 or 5 guys in our whole delegation, so the some of the girls ended up doing it. I wasn't going to, but we only had 9 people so I helped. It was pathetic. The other team was almost all guys. The trick to tug-of-war is to jerk the rope over and over. We lost, it was pretty pathetic. Before that though, we had a water fight, and that was fun. Except getting hit between the shoulder blades with a water balloon isn't exactly pleasant, especially when it doesn't have enough air in it, meaning it doesn't pop properly. Anyway, we got pretty wet. Then that night we had meetings and dinner (my favorite part of the day) then we played cards for a while. That was fun. Anyways, curfew is in 5 minutes, so I got to go.

Mt. Vernon and Memorials

So yesterday morning, we went to Mt. Vernon. That was really exciting, it was fancier than Monticello. It was really hot though. Then we went to our meeting :roll eyes:. First we talked about some current bills, then we talked about the farm bill. That is going to be our main focus. The problem is, that only one person in the room really knows what it's about. (Not me:)) Then we went to our Committee Workshops. Mine is called Healthy Living. We give our state the weather report and a healthy tip. Then the committee worked on the derby. The derby is not for horses! We are going to play water games, volleyball, capture the flag, and then were going to play tug-of-war, state vs. state. We are going to have a maximum of 10 people per team, since Nebraska has like 70 people and we only have about 30. You can have as many teams as you want though. Then we went to the war memorials, I can't remember them all, but one of them was the Lincoln memorial. That was interesting, except we were out until 11:30 at night. We were so tired. Then my friends and I decided to meet for breakfast at 7:00. That didn't work too well. My alarm was set for 6:30, but I didn't even realize it was going off until 6:38! I felt really bad, since my roommates didn't want to get up that early. Only one of the guys woke up in time to eat with me. Anyway that's what I've been doing. I'll post again later probably tonight.

We're finally here!

Well, we got up early this morning and went to Montecello, the home built by Thomas Jefferson. Montecello is in Virginia. It was pretty neat, it wasn't as big as I thought it would be though. Then we drove for three more hours (after two to get to Montecello) to get to D.C. So anyways, we are finally at the 4-H center. It is pretty nice, it has a cafeteria, game room, and bunk beds:). Everyone is really excited about having their own bed. They also have computers, so I can keep y'all updated when were not about to pass out from lack of sleep. We had to sign up for a committee, one of the options was the talent show audition, but everyone signed up for that one fairly quickly. So anyways, I ended up signing up for the Healthy Lifestyle. (Alright y'all stop your laughter!) Anyways, I think we have to get everyone moving around in the mornings. That shouldn't be too hard, since I am a morning person. We are going to go to Mt. Vernon in the morning. Oh yeah, whenever the say the TN delegation, Jessica is going to go "1, 2, 3" then we're all going to start singing a rousing chorus of Rocky Top!

Washington D.C..... Almost

We're in Staunton, VA! We got to the hotel at about 9 our time last night. I'd been in the bus for 14 hours so far. The hotel is really nice, they had little duckies in the room for us to keep. I have pictures, but can't post them from here. My roomates wanted to talk late last night! It's a good thing I'm a fairly hard sleeper. I got up at 6 this morning, my roomates are still asleep. Alright, today we're going to see Mt. Vernon. Then I'm not sure what were doing. Some of these people are really weird (cue "He's weird" from National Treasure 2 :)), but some of them are really nice. I think we're going to stay in the 4-H center which is renovated dorms, with bunk beds. Yay!!!
P.S. to find out why we are here, check Elana's blog .

Gone fishing......

Actually, gone sightseeing to Washington, DC.

Be back Saturday.

Green Tote Bag

A new post! Alright, I promise, I'm going to try to do better with posting. It frustrates me when other people don't post, but I'm worse than most of them! :) Right now I'm making a blouse from butterick pattern B4457. The fabric is blue, and I am making view "A" (That's the pink one in the picture). It is supposed to have pintucks (that's where you take in the fabric on the outside, so instead of it being smooth you have a crease of sorts in the front), but I don't really care a whole lot for pintucks, so I made darts instead (where you take the fabric into the inside so it's smooth on the outside). So far, I have the collar sewn in and am working on the neckline. Then, comes the dreaded button holes!
Hopefully I can finish this soon. Then maybe I can work on finishing my quilt, or the split skirt, or maybe the blue skirt, or perhaps the pajama pants, or the multiple pincushions that are half finished. Arrggghh! My works-in-progress (WIPs) are taking over! I wish I could finish stuff more quickly! Anyways, I finished that tote bag "E" mentioned. I didn't use a pattern, but I followed the directions in the book Bend the Rules Sewing. It gives dimensions and since everything was a rectangular it worked out fine. The only thing I changed was the pocket size. I had read that it was huge somewhere else, and decided to make it a lot smaller. I can't remember right now exactly how much smaller I made it, but it was quite a bit. The flower and part of the arcs on the front are hand stiched. By the way the outside is made of denim and that green polka dotted material is quilting cotton I got on sale. The lining fabric is just some I had on hand, I have no idea what it is. And it does look better in person and when it's full. And what do y'all think of the stitching? Some people like it sort of messy, but some think it needs to be more precise.


And, (I know, I know, this post is getting really long, but I've got a lot on my mine) I got some quilting magazines at a garage sale and now I really want to start a quilt. The hardest part about quilting has got to be picking the pattern and the fabric! There are so many options!
Okay, I think I'm all talked/typed out. I feel better now!

By the way, the flower in the header picture is a picture that "E" took.

Agghhh!!

Rachel, shame on you for not posting in months.



Rachel recently made a tote bag for herself. She made it out of denim and green polka dot fabric. She used interfacing for the bottom, but next time, cardboard is going to be used. I'll try and get a picture of it and post later. I'm about ready for church....



sourpatch

I'm SO excited!!!

I sold my first Etsy item!! It was the green crocheted scarf. I can't wait to put some more stuff on there. (For those of you that don't know what Etsy is, it is kind of like Ebay except only for handmade stuff.)
Sorry I haven't posted lately we've been really busy lately. We had the MHEA Banquet and then the Graduation. It was really sad watching my friends walk across the stage. I am working on a denim tote bag, my machine was messing up so I haven't been able to finish it. If you are sewing on denim, USE A DENIM NEEDLE!! Otherwise you'll end up thinking your machine is hopelessly broken. I cut out fabric for a blue blouse last night, and "E" cut out blue fabric for a shirt (not really a blouse). We are going to work on that at the sewing class today.
I think we are going to clean the house all day, since we are having people over tomorrow to can some strawberry jam with us. We already took a ton of stuff we don't use anymore to goodwill. (by a ton of stuff I mean the bed of Dad's truck was full, and there's still a little bit more stuff)

The much anticipated updates!!!

Alright everyone, I hope y'all are bearing with me and my lack of posting. I've been pretty busy, and haven't been able to sew or post much.

First of all, we had much anticipated company come in over the weekend. One of the cousins has written a couple of books and currently has one published. The one that is published is a choose your own path book about being A Courier for Stonewall Jackson. Anyway, he was holding a few book signings here locally. (Shame on those of you that knew about it, and didn't come:) )

Then, we had the 4-H bread baking contest last night. I placed first, but I was the only one in my grade so it wasn't very satisifying. (I guess it has been a long time since I've posted, since "E" is hanging over my shoulder gasping!) I also entered my Death by Chocolate desert (brownies, cool whip, chocolate pudding, and chocolate bar). I was competing with 7th-12th graders with that one, but it didn't place at all. It is really good though. The layering got kind of messed up, so I think that affected it.

So, I haven't had much time to sew or anything lately, and I feel incredibly unproductive.

I did FINALLY finish the baby blanket I've been working on. It is two layers of flannel sewn together, and then crocheted around. It took FOREVER!!! I made it with the intention of selling it if it turned out nicely, but I put so much time into it, I may just keep it! I'm thinking about starting a hope chest, and will put it in there. I also have some baby booties (they're blue) around here somewhere. I got some really strange looks when I made the mistake of working on those out in public! There's a tutorial here: Sew Chic Blog.

I also finished a little notebook cover. You put one of those little flip open notebooks in the pocket on the left, and a pen in the middle, and something in the pocket on the right. I also made those from a tutorial. It looks better in person. The front is quilted a little bit.

Skirt

Rachel recently made a very nice baby blue skirt, however, I am not at home right now, so I don't have pictures, but I'll see what I can do when we get home. She drafted it herself out of another white skirt that she likes. Also, yesterday she finished her baby blanket she's been working on. It is a double layer pink flannel blanket that she has sewn around, then she went and crocheted "shells" on the edge. Get back to you later..... sourpatch

Quilt Backing Fabric

Hello all, this is sourpatch!

This is the fabric that Rachel bought for the back of her quilt. It's feminine, yet not too girly, if there is such a thing. The print is flowers, assorted blue flowers and butterfly's to be exact. She is still to get batting to finish the quilt. So right now, the project is on hold.

Right now, as I type, she is making a baby blue pleated skirt to wear in the spring and summer time. She copied the pattern off of one of her store bought white skirts. I'll post pictures when it's done. Signing off ~ sourpatch

Denim Quilt Top

I finished my quilt top! And yes, those are real, working pockets! Now, if I can just decide what to back it with, and how to quilt it! Argghhhh, I'm so indecisive! I'm standing up holding it, and with the bottom touching the floor, the quilt is about 5.5 feet tall! It's really only a lap quilt, but it's big!

If I stitch fast enough, does it count as aerobic exercise? ~Author Unknown

Homemade Pin Cushion

This is yet another craft that Rachel has completed. It is a pincushion. Basically, it's a stuff circle, then you put thread around it, and sew a button in the middle. It was pretty easy for her. The botton picture is the back of it.

She also almost completed a blue jean quilt, but she wants to post about it....