On Being a Mother

Being a mom often means putting aside our own wants in favour of our childrens'.

Today it meant helping my girls finish their doll quilts. Even though I'd much rather have had my own time in the sewing room.

One day they'll be gone. Moved out or married. I have to teach them and love them as much as I can right now. And it's the last week of summer vacation.

One last photo for those who like to see photos of our family. Benjamin took this photo. There's a water spot or something on the lens but I still just love it! Getting tossed back and forth is sheer delight for Zachary and you can see it on his face.

Have a good week! Spend time with your little ones before they head out the door next Tuesday.

Corners of my Home: The Girls' Room

One of the things we liked about our new home was the room that would be our girls' bedroom. It was just perfect for them with two parts to it and a bathroom too. It is also light and airy with several windows. I've had fun making it cute for them. I am not a home decorator by any means, just making my house a home.

Looking into the room from the doorway. Carolin sleeps on the bottom and Deanna on top.

I bought the rug at Ikea. It likes to slip around the floor so I bought some anti-slip material to keep it in place. I just finished the window toppers the other day. I made them from the curtain that was hanging in front of their closet in our old place. As you can see, the centre panel is different than the outside panels. It's the way it had to be using the old curtain. Does it look funny, or is it a design feature? :-)

Closer up.

Looking toward the other section of the room. Kind of neat, isn't it? That's where Melissa sleeps and beyond that is the bathroom. The flower lamp is from Ikea too. The rug by Melissa's bed is from there too.

I love this picture. I bought it from A Little Sweetness. I just love her work. I bought some notecards from her too and intend to frame one of each to hang beside this one. The frame used to be brown. A coat of spray paint made it pink.

I decided to hang my quilt in here. I love it on the white wall. Melissa's bed needs some work. It has quite a few different coats of paint on it. Gord's Grandpa made this bed, along with another identical one, many years ago for Gord's sisters. We'd like to keep using this bed but I think it needs a good sanding and painting. One day.

The mirror and shelf were a garage sale find. The were white and got a coat of spray paint too. I love spray paint. It's so satisfying to make something ugly or worn into something beautiful with just a coat of spray paint.

And this wall hanging. I've shown it before, but here it is again.

So, that's the nearly completed girls room. The bathroom needs a paint job. Now that you've seen the room, what colour should I paint it?

Sometimes I Make Dresses

And don't take photos of them for a couple of months. What can I say?I finished Melissa's dress at the beginning of July and Deanna's sat around half finished until the end of July.
I'm glad I made them though. They've been wearing them every Sunday since. They are simple and cool, yet modest. (I won't go into a rant right now about the clothes one can buy for young girls. Maybe later.)
Pattern is Burda 9703. I've made this one three times now. I like it when I can use a pattern more than once.
And, all three girls together.

Sometimes I Make Pie

Though I've never made Peach Pie before. It was yummy!

And sometimes we go camping. This was the first time by ourselves with just our kids and it was fun!

Fires at night. Smores, popcorn, sausage. Mmmm.

Tuckered right out. Slept from 5:30 until 7:30 the next morning.

A really neat waterfall we hiked to. It was a very scary, unmaintained trail, but worth it I think.

There were several owls flying around the campground each night.

No, these weren't at our campsite but we drove out to them one day.

Smiling at the camera man.

She didn't know I was taking this picture. She's talking to Deanna.

Our whole family. Is this good enough for the Christmas card this year? :-)

My man. He makes breakfast every morning while we are camping. Pancakes, bacon and eggs. Mmmm.

We camped at Mable Lake, BC on the recommendation of several friends who love it there. We loved it too! We spent 10 days relaxing, reading and completely enjoying God's creation. He made many beautiful places in this world and we're thankful when we can discover and enjoy them.

BTW... We were completely 'unplugged' there and I loved it!

Tessa's quilt top is done!

Now here's hoping I can get it quilted and bound in the next few weeks!

 She's so excited to have her own quilt :)

It's been a long time....

...since I've posted anything on this blog!  We had a wonderful time visiting family in July and then had company here at our place once we were home.  It's been a busy and fun summer so far - hard to believe that the kids go back to school in a few weeks and only a couple short weeks after that we hope to meet our new little one!

Before we left for BC I finished a new bag for myself.  It's Amy Butler's Frenchy Bag pattern.

I really like how it turned out.  I used canvas from Fabricland (which seams to be thicker that what I've seen in the quilt store) instead of interfacing and I love the feel and weight of it.

Instead of making two dividers inside I made one and added a zipper pocket.

And a few pictures from our summer...

 Mount Robson

 Cousins

 the 3 sisters

 Lots of holding kittens

 An elk on the way home

 Learning to knit from Oma

Bibs All Around

Lately I've been making a lot of bibs. We've had several babies born in the last month in our church.

I've also had the opportunity to make 8 bibs for a local gift store. That was pretty exciting!

Bibs are an excellent way to practice different types of quilting. They are small, so easy to maneuver under the machine. I had fun with that.

I used my own pattern, of course.

I'm finished with bibs for awhile now. That's a lot of bias binding. :-)

Have a wonderful Wednesday!