The dreaded stomach bug has struck our house.  At first it was just the kids, which gave me way too much time to surf the internet while they watched movies (God bless Disney!) and took it easy.  I found myself back at Quilttaffy looking for some Kona solid aqua and I, of course, found plenty more that I really needed.  Waiting for it to come in the mail is no problem because now I am sick and can barely muster the energy to get off the couch to move let alone sew anything.

Before I got sick I started fooling around with these Alexander Henry Farmdale prints I had to have.  My mom has 4 laying hens and my sister, who lives in Maine, has around 40 chickens.  Anytime I see a cute chicken print I can't resist.  The plan was to make potholders and a coordinating tablerunner for each household.   First I started by cutting 3 inch strips, then I played with them for a while trying to figure out the best way to display the directional prints, and so I decided on log cabin blocks.  I experimented even though my Kona aqua and ash hadn't arrived yet, and I plan to make that block the front of a pillow for my sister's couch.

Table Runner for Preschool Auction

Bea, my oldest daughter, and I just finished up sewing a table runner for her preschool's annual spring auction.  I was planning a reprisal of the popular Easter bunny table runner, but I gave one of those to the charter school so I decided to do something different.  For Valentine's Day I gave Bea a set of Farmer John's fruit and vegetable fat quarters I bought at the local quilt shop.  She is now 5 and wants to (and is ready to) learn to sew.  So, we made our first project together:

The binding is finally sewn on and it looks great!  She is itching to make another one.  If I could just get the baby to stay asleep when I lay her down we could get a lot done around here.  It's kind of hard to operate the sewing machine with a baby on your shoulder:)

When Bea first showed an interest in sewing we went to Michael's and picked up one of the American Doll crafts they carry:

With this one you sew both a big and small owl plush stuffed animal (one for yourself and one for your doll).  Bea doesn't know diddly about American Dolls, but she was all over this sewing project and made the little one for her baby sister Veronica.  I highly recommend this product!  The box says for ages 8 and up, but anyone 5 or older with an adult to help read the directions and provide guidance could do it.  The only thing I didn't really like were that all the stitches were already prepunched so you'd know where to insert the needle.  I'm not sure if they were necessary, and my little girl got frustrated a lot when she couldn't get it "exactly" right.  But, all in all, it was a perfect first project and I'm sure lots of little girls out there would love to make these.  Plus--you can use the 40 or 50% off Michaels coupons on it!  It doesn't get much better than that.  It'll run you about 10 bucks with a coupon.

When I was at my LQS I picked up some fat quarters for myself, too.  They are from Eleanor Burns's Victory Garden collection that came out a couple years ago.  I know they are intended to be more patriotic than Eastery, but I will be using them for the Easter bunny tablerunners I mentioned.  I think the stars will add just the right amount of whimsy.  Notice there is one 30's repro on top---I couldn't resist!  30's repros are my major weakness!