Still Sick

The first kid to get sick is slowly getting better. He still went to bed at 6:30pm tonight. It has been 10 days. The other three started being sick two days after him and had fevers for six days that, hopefully, ended yesterday. They seemed to be a bit more lively today (at least they were able to make it through a meal without falling asleep, having to rest their head on the table, or crying).  

We have spent the majority of the time on the couch reading books, listening to books, or napping. No one has had energy for moving around the room or eating. I have been alternating between passing out cough syrup and fever reducers and filling up glasses with water and juice and pestering them to drink. 

I think we are turning the corner, but I haven’t had a chance to work on my quilt at all. Even though my fever is gone I’m still aching all over and worn out by little tasks. I will be grateful for good health after this. What a blessing it is to easily roll out of bed most mornings. And it is a wonder to sleep through the whole night without feverish, coughing children waking you up. It is easy to take those things for granted when you have them so easily without interruption. 

Maybe I’ll have quilt updates next week. I’m going to rest until next year. :) Also, my book list for 2022 should be coming soon. Thanks to being sick and a few audio books, I hit 70 books! There is a silver lining to being sick. 

Dress prototype and we have the flu

I bought this doll and it came with one dress. So I’m trying to figure out the pattern for more. This was my first attempt. 

The kids and I have what seems to be the flu - high fevers, achy body, and endless coughing - so I am stalled on all my projects. The doll will be first priority once my body stops aching. This of awful! 

Things I’m thankful for:

I was working ahead on all the presents and the majority are already wrapped. 

Target pickup

Niquil cough syrup

Audio books

E. Nesbit books

Warm soup

Hot showers

Ibuprofen 

Warm quilts

Antique store find

One of my kids is sick again with a fever of 104°. We’ve decided to call 2022 the year of sickness. So I haven’t done any more on my quilt. It is stalled. But I actually have an extra week or two of wiggle room because the recipient and we aren’t doing Christmas until later. 

So instead of a quilt or a house project, I have a fun antique find. We found this deacon bench (a few weeks ago) while looking for stained glass. We didn’t find any stained glass, but this is going in either the mudroom or front entry way once we finish moving things around. It is sitting in our living room waiting currently to be moved to its new home someday. 

It is solid oak and in perfect condition. Isn’t it lovely? We knew we had to buy it when the price tag said $160. What a steal. 

The kids are currently storing their hats and gloves in the bench and I love that they are out of sight. 

A door in the wall and brown paper packages

The part closest to the window will be a little sitting area or play area to the left. It will be a coat closet on the right. 

The middle section will be the washer and dryer and sink on the left and new furnace and table to fold laundry in the right. 

We are trying to get as much light in from the window as possible so we added an old door and stained glass window as part of two of the walls to let the light pass through. 

And I’m standing in the mudroom part where we will have places for shoes and coats. 

Here are all the kids watching Jared put down the brown paper to protect the floor until we finish the walls. 

Day 19 and 20

It took three hours to piece the squares all together. 

And I didn’t have any more of the fabric that I thought I had lots of (those blue stars) for the border so I ran over to Hobby Lobby and this blue was the only thing they had that matched. 

I spent $3. So that’s the total for the quilt so far. Everything else has been fabric I already had. 

I’m sewing a grey border around the blue one and then I’ll bind it in a light blue. 

Day 18

Playing around with squares and still moving them around to make the colors balanced. I might start sewing tomorrow. 

Days 15 and 16 and 17

It is about to get interesting!

Finished

 16 large blocks

36 small blocks

Trimmed

All the blocks (see the pile of scraps to the right for proof)

Day 14

Here are 25 of the little squares. 

11 more to go! 

Days 12 and 13

Finished:
16 large blocks
9 small blocks

To finish:
25 small blocks

I just noticed I sewed one piece backwards. Oops. I guess that makes only 8 small ones finished. I’ll have to seam rip it tomorrow and switch it around. 

We have a floor and a wall

Here is the before of the garage. 

https://gthfaith.blogspot.com/2021/02/garage-before-and-afters.html?m=1

Days 10 and 11

It doesn’t look like much, but I’ve chain pieced 144 of those little blocks at the top and they are ready to be sewn into the little 6” versions of the stars. So you should see some more stars tomorrow.  

Days 5-9?

It may not look like much, but this is 36 small 6” star blocks in progress. I’m chain stitching them; so there won’t be any exciting pictures until all 36 are finished. 

Time spent this week: 2 hours

We’ve all been fighting some cold-like bug (that is not the flu or Covid) and has effected each of differently - mainly we are just tired and congested. So not much sewing this week because the kids all needed lots of mom time.  So this week has been filled with lots of art project, models, read alouds, and audio books. The World Cup has given us plenty of math practice with its wacky scoring system. When the World Cup stated we colored all the flags and looked at where country is on the map.  We take the county flags down as they are eliminated. 

Extra picture of quilt

I don’t think I ever posted a finished picture of this quilt I made in 2021 for a friend of ours with brain cancer. If you look closely I quilted the words, “We rest on the, our shield and our defender” into the quilting. It is kind of a pun. You can say to the quilt, “We rest on thee”. :) But it was also a prayer and a reminder of God’s grace and goodness. Nothing can touch us apart from his plan. 

We were memorizing Psalm 121 at the time. 

I left my eyes to the hill, from where does my help come from. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth! 

What a glorious reminder. 

Christmas quilt 2022 - Days 2 and 3 and 4

Here are the first 16 blocks.  They are 12” blocks; the next 36 will be 6” blocks. It takes about 15 minutes to do two blocks if there are no distractions… so I am guessing it took about 3 hours to do all these.

I’m going to try chain stitching the little blocks to make the process faster. So there won’t be any exciting photos for a while. 

Mud room in garage window

Two new windows in the garage and the siding is painted. We may put a window box on it in the future. 

Jared is in the process of installing new gas piping under the house. I’m thankful he is willing to do that because I hate heights and small places. I did conquer my fear of heights last week and sweep off the porch roof (after this picture was taken). But I don’t think I’d make it long under the house with all the cave crickets and possible snakes. *Shudder.* 

A new quilt - can I finish by Christmas.

The start of a quilt project  

A school project  - we just finished studying most of the continents and some of these countries. So we are tracking the wins and losses in the World Cup and calculating points and such for math. These flags for a review of the ones we knew and encyclopedia skills to find the ones we didn’t know. 

It’s that time of year when I try to finish a quilt by Christmas. This one has 52 blocks (which are cut of 364 squares). 

Time spent so far: 3 hours

6 blocks down and 46 to go. 

A new house project - garage mud room

We are turning half the garage into a mud room and laundry room. The first step was demoing the wood paneling, sheet rock, and insulation board. There have been a lot of trips to the dump so far. Next up is starting to build!! 

Here is the before of the garage:

https://gthfaith.blogspot.com/2021/02/garage-before-and-afters.html?m=1

Lots of shoes

Doll hair

Someone gave us two American Dolls. (Which is two more than I ever owned growing up). Though I loved playing with my friend’s Molly and always wished for a Samantha. The hair on the dolls was in terrible condition.  I bought a doll brush and spent about 15 minutes combing out the tangles and it looks so much better. 

Now to stow them away until the baby is 6 or 7. 

Runner - Art Deco

I designed this runner to match some Art Deco hand towels that were on the bride’s registry. The quilting was super funky and fun. 

Beach

Our favorite place. 

Hair

I cut off 12” off my hair this summer and donated it. It sure is weird to have short hair. It hasn’t been this short since college and I’m missing the ease of a side braid. 

Robin Hood costumes

The boys requested Robin Hood costumes this spring and I finally got around to making them. The middle son then wanted to be Will Scarlett. So red felt and cloth was purchased and I started on another costume. They were super easy to sew. 

Bibs in grey

My sister in law loves neutral colors. 

I like things bright and colorful. 

 I made these as neutral as I could. 

Tablecloth to napkins

Some of our cloth napkins have been wearing out after almost 13 years of daily use. So I took this tablecloth that I had purchased many years ago and never used and turned it into 12 new napkins. The bonus was that they were already half hemmed since the table cloth was hemmed. 

Chickens

One of my kids asked for baby chickens for Christmas.  He specified that he wanted them to fit in an egg and that he could hatch them.  I searched and searched for a baby chick pattern that was cute.  And the only one that I could find was one that came with a pattern from ikatbag. It came with a pattern for a big chicken as well as the small one.  One I saw the big chicken pictures I fell in love with it and had to make one (and then two more).  I laughed out loud when I was making this chicken.  I opted not to make the egg chute in the chickens (the original chicken can pop out eggs). 

Picture with the baby for size. 

Picture with the Christmas tree for scale. 

Robin Hood Hats

I recently made 9 of these hats for my kids and some of their cousins. They were requested by my 9 year-old for his birthday party (that ended up being cancelled because of sick siblings).   Usually I don't like mass producing projects. It gets old to make the same thing repeatedly. But this one wasn't too bad and the end result is fun.