Lately

I took both gals to have their ear pierced on separate weekends lately.  It is an early birthday present.  We did Kate's so early because she will probably have surgery in December to remove the screw in her elbow.  We wanted to give her ears as long as possible to heal before then.  As I was caring for her ears, I decided it would be much easier to line them up and do them together, rather than care for Kate's for six weeks and then another six for Gabby.  Five was the age we offered to get Kate's pierced (actually I took Kate when she was five, but she backed out at the last minute).

Thankfully the girls have not had the trouble my sister and I did with ear piercing.  We both reacted to the surgical steel posts.  Every time we got them pierced we had infections that caused us to have to take the earrings out.  Finally, as teenagers we were able to get our ears pierced and use gold earrings which prevented the problems.

So, from our experiences, my gals have gold earrings and, at least so far, no problems aside from a hang up with the piercing gun with Gabby.  The poor girl had a rough time of it.  That caused the back of her ear to get caught in the earring back, which I found the first time I went to turn her earrings.  It was painful for her when I fixed it, but I was grateful that I could get it loose!  She was such a tough little cookie.  The next time I went to turn her earrings she thanked me for getting it loose for her.  I think most kids would have been really mad that someone had hurt them!

I took both of the girls to the food court for their choice of lunch after they had their ears done.  Kate picked grilled sandwiches and Gabriella picked pizza.

Friday Funnies

Total Randomness:

"Hey Mama!  I love butter.  Can you help me put my pants on?" -Nate

"I think that the reason that butter is called butter because it came from a cow's utter" -Kate

"Do you know why they call bread, bread?"

       Why?

"It's made out of Fred." -Kate

Blessings in a Leaky Roof

Our roof sprang a leak.  It rained pretty hard over the weekend and I noticed a wet smell in Nate's room and water staining on the ceiling.

The house had a new roof put on right before we moved in, but we had nothing to do with it.  We didn't know the name of the roofer and didn't have any paperwork.  Then I had a thought.  Our real estate agent was truly excellent.  (If you ever intend to move to middle TN, let me know and I'll refer you to him.  He was the best agent we have ever used, and we have bought and sold several times over the years.).  So, I emailed our excellent real estate agent.  He was able to get the name of the roofer for me.  The roof is under warranty, so they came to take a look the next day.  Nothing was found that should have been causing the leak, but he nailed down a few nails that popped up a bit and promised to return again if we had further problems.

It has been a year of these little things that have made problems, that could have been great financial burdens, be taken care of.  Justin's car died.  His parents had a spare.  My dad fixed the old one.  Kate broke her arm.  The medical expenses, huge expenses even after insurance, have been largely covered by a supplemental insurance because she was at gymnastics when it happened, instead of in our backyard.

God has been faithful to provide for us.  We are thankful.  We are blessed.

Growing Crystals

We are studying geology in science this semester.  I'm trying to come up with some labs to go with at least most of the sections we cover.  For the study of rocks and minerals, we made crystals using borax.

I set up an experiment worksheet and Justin worked with Kate on the project.

The instructions are fairly simple:

Form a pipe cleaner into a fun shape.

Pour boiling water into a jar (of course an adult should do this) and add Borax by Tablespoon, stirring often until the Borax will no longer go into solution (you have undissolved Borax at the bottom of your jar).

Tie the pipe cleaner on a string, and tie the string onto a pencil, such that the pipe cleaner hangs in the middle of the solution.

Allow to sit undisturbed for a few days.

Then you'll have a pretty little shape covered in crystals.

Record you methods and findings as you go.

Making Square Blocks

I had a request for instructions in making square quilt pieces, so here's how I do it.  It is somewhat time consuming, but the are perfectly sized when I'm done with them!

To make square blocks, you can purchase or create your own template using this method and then trace it onto your fabric.  For simple squares I have better luck just drawing on my fabric, since sometimes I don't get the traced pieces lined up precisely and then I have a lot of extra cutting.

First iron your washed fabric (assuming this is a project that will be laundered at some point, otherwise iron your unwashed fabric).

Create a straight line with your yard stick and mark it in pencil or a fabric pencil on the 'wrong' side of the fabric.  At first glance one would assume that the fabric edge would be straight, but I've found that to be unreliable.

Next create a parallel line the depth of your square.  You will make many adjustments as you measure repeatedly, moving your ruler or rulers to be sure that this line is completely parallel.  At this point, create a front end to your blocks with a line near the left side (see the brown ruler).

 Next, measure your width on the yard stick and top ruler, both set with zero at the front line you drew.  Your vertical ruler should measure the depth of your squares as a simple check.  Draw a line and you have your first block.

If you want, you can do two rows at a time after you have made another parallel line to the original, by simply doubling the depth.

Finally, cut.  You can use standard shears or a rotary cutter and mat.  It depends on the project which I use.  For cutting large sets, you can also double up your fabric by layering more than one fabric or folding your fabric, but you must be mindful that your underlying pieces are just as flat and come at least to the same edge as the fore piece if they don't extend past it.

Rainbow Dresses: And how to make them

I saw a beautiful patchwork rainbow dress online.  I was smitten. While I didn't have and extra $100 for each girl laying around, I did have a lot of fabric scraps.  I bought some red fabric for the bodice and a few small pieces (1/4 yards or fat quarters) to round out what I needed to finish the project.  All told, I probably spent about $10.  It will cost quite a bit more if you don't have fabric scraps though!  Be sure to pre-wash the fabric as it may shrink--not good after you've labored over making the fit just so.

First, measure your daughter at the widest part of the chest, be generous in this measurement, you don't want it to be too tight.  Add 3".  Cut a piece of red material to that width and the height you want the bodice to be (from under her arms down) plus 1 1/2 inches.  Empire waists would look very nice.  My girls are tall, so I wanted to get every inch I could out of everything I used though.

Iron the red material so that there is a 1 inch fold at the top (long side) (wrong sides together).  Also iron the two sides in (about 3/4 of an inch each), in the same manner.

Ironing the edges--this is the top ironed in

Next, cut a lining, I used white, of the same dimensions.  You will want to create the same type of folds, but make the folds a little further in, so that this panel ends up being a little smaller than the red, but the edges are on the folds.  Pin, but do not stitch.

Making straps

You'll take some of the scrap red fabric and cut it into two widths of 4 inches and the length you would like the straps to be (plus 2 inches).  Iron the fabric in half (long way).  Then iron the two edges to the middle.  You will stitch at the outside edge. to form the straps.

Determine the right place to set the straps (the dress will have an overlap of 1 1/2 inches, you should take into account).  To set the pins, you can place it on your daughter (careful of pins!) or use another dress that fits well.

 Please note, this picture was taken after the bodice was stitched to the skirt (it won't be at this phase).  You can see here how the white fabric is away from the edge a bit and the straps are set.

I carefully separated the white and red at the point for the straps (one at a time) and stitched the straps onto the white fabric.  I repinned the white lining and stitched the three folded sides together.

The next big step is determining the size of all your blocks.  The simplest method is to place the bodice on your daughter and measure for the length you want, from the bodice to where you want it to hit her.  Next divide that number by 5 (if you want Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple) and add 1/2" seam allowance.  If you want an extra row (Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet), divide 6 and add 1/2" seam allowance.  I did one of each, so that I could use the same sized squares on my different sized daughters.

Length/5 (or 6) + 1/2" = block side

So how many do you need?  Take that original measurement of your daughter's chest and divide it by the width of your blocks WITHOUT the seam allowance (essentially the number you got above before the 1/2" is added in).  Round up if it doesn't fit evenly. Add one extra block (That is how many orange blocks you need).  Add one extra block for each row beyond the row above it to make the dress grow fuller in each layer down.  (For example, a dress that has 7 orange blocks will have 10 blues.)  I used at least 3 different prints for each color, but you can divide them up however you want.

EXAMPLE:

My daughter's chest is 21"  I want a drop of 20".  I will use 5 colors (not 6). 

My blocks will be 20/5 + .5 = 4 + .5 = 4.5" square 

I will need 21/4 + 1 = 6 orange blocks
7 yellow, 8, green, 9 blue, 10 purple

Note the pin holding the tuck

Stitch each block of a certain color (1/4" seam allowance on each side) until you have them all together, then finish it into a circle.  (I don't own a surger, but I did zigzag stitch the edges to prevent fraying of the seams.)  I pinned one small tuck as I pinned each new row onto the previous (right sides together, keep the tucks and pins up on the machine).  You can make minor adjustments to make each row fit on the next that way.  To make it less bulky, I hemmed the purple/violet row before I added it to the dress.

the 'wrong' side of the skirt

When you sew the skirt onto the bodice, be sure that the ends of the top over lay as they should (1 1/2 inches).

Lastly, sew two or three button holes and buttons at the over lapping bodice.

It is a time consuming project with all the extra seams and a great deal of cutting.  That being said, it was a fairly easy project, if you know how to cut very square blocks (a guide to cutting blocks has been added here) and use your machine well.  I finished in about a week while home schooling.  It was definitely worth the $190 savings for me!

indigo & violet

ends in purple

These little gals seemed to think so too.

This fit in well with our study of The Rag Coat from the Five in a Row study as well as Joseph's coat of many colors.  Plus, it is just plain cute.

Linked to:

 

This past weekend (in pictures)

We spent the weekend at my parents' home.

We hung out with our Gam,

Picked up sticks in my old wagon.

Visited Grannie (my Daddy's mom),

And celebrated the 50th anniversary of the ice cream social with, well, ice cream.

Kate danced a jig.

We showed PawPaw how to get to the inflatables.

We hung out with our sister.

We slid down huge slides with no fear.

And sometimes we took our sister with us.