The Sweet Life of Jake

Ah, to be a dog must be a glorious life :-) Let me state my case:

1. You get to lay around and sleep 20 hours of the day! you really don't have to be up and about unless you are going for a walk or play ball with your master!

2. You get all the loving you want! All you have to do is walk up to a human and wag your tail. Then you cock your head to the side and through a soulful look up with your beautiful puppy eyes. Any human will melt and pet you like crazy!!!

3. You get the most delicious table scraps... a human (named P!!!) might "accidentally" toss over their cup of melted ice cream and the ice cream might drip down on the ground .... where it will end up being licked/ and up/slowly savored by... what else!... a dog!!! :-)

Yup, life is good for a dog!

Take care,

Me

Taking Pictures in the School Playground

We stopped by the school playground to take some family pictures.

Have you taken your family out to a special location for picture taking purposes?

Take care,

Me

Back to School - Book Cover Tutorial

Your wish is my command...even if I am a bit late :-)

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Choose two fabric pieces. You’ll also need a 13” piece of elastic, 

and matching thread. ( I used contrasting colored thread so you can see 

a.) what I am talking about  and 

b.) my horrible stitching..

Measure width of book and add 0.5 seam allowance + 7” for the flap. 

In my case I ended up with the following: 18.75 + 0.5 + 7 = 26.25

Measure the height of your book and add 1”. 

In my case I ended up with 11.25 + 1 = 12.25

 Cut a piece in accordance with your 

measurements out of each of your fabrics. 

Mine is 26.25”x12.25”. 

Put one piece of fabric with the right side facing up down on your table. 

Measure 3” from the right hand side. 

Place your elastic there and pin it down.

      Place your second piece of fabric with the right side 

facing down on top of your first fabric. 

Pin it in place. 

I marked a six inch gap with double needles. 

This won’t be sewn because it is your opening through 

which you are turning your fabric right side out.

 Sew around all sides with a ¼” seam allowance.

 (you should have a sewing foot for that!)

 Don’t forget to leave that 6” gap open.

Take your needles out and clip your corners

 but be careful not to cut your seam.

Turn it inside out and iron it. 

You can use scissors or a pencil to carefully poke out your corners.

Sew your opening close with a 1/8” seam.

      Pull the right flap in and measure it so it is 3.5”. 

Pin it down ( I also iron the side so I have a nice flat crease!) 

and sew it down with a 1/8” seam.

Don’t forget to pull the elastic out of place!

Try it on your book.  Hopefully it fits!

Pull the other side in tight. Hold it / Pin it down and pull the book back out.

Sew that flap down as well.

Put it back on your book and enjoy! 

Let me know if you run into a problem or if something is confusing. :-)

Take care,

Me

Shooting Bows

Our bows and arrows came in on Thursday. And today was the perfect day (not too hot and not too cold!) to try them out! I let the expert go first :-)

We got some hula hoops from the Euro store for some cheap distance target practice. It's also one of the things they use in the archery club!

P had the most fantastic shots after a couple of rounds. We walked up to retrieve our arrows and P started to dance for joy! We realized that she got not only 1 but 2 in the hoops. ..

... and when we looked closer we realized that she actually embedded her arrow into the hola hoop! :-)

Here is one happy P...

We all loved it. Now I have to buy one more bow because M and I didn't really like to sit out for a round at a time :-)

Take care,

M

Those darn WIPs!!!

I am currently working on 11 quilts and a few other projects. They are in varying stages and I am having a hard time keeping track of them all. I am actually scared that one of them will be dropped because I "forgot" about it. So I wrote them all down to help me keep track of them:

1. Love Birds (large lap size) - need to finish to sew on the binding by hand

2. Sherbert Quilt (queen size) - working on the blocks. It looks good but I need to order another jelly roll!

3. Swoon Quilt (queen size) - I cut the fabric and it is ready to be sewn together

4. S's hounds tooth (twin size) - I purchased the fabric last Saturday in Grafenwoehr and I am getting ready to cut it

5. N's flowers (twinish size) - I have to put the border on it

6. Snowballs (large lap size) - sandwiched and ready to be quilted

7. Large Star (queen size) - top is finished; I need to sandwich and quilt it

8. A's christmas quilt (large lap size) - same here; I need to sandwich and quilt it

9. Square Dancing (king size) - the rows are done; I just have to sew those together... It is so huge that I am reluctant to tackle it!  :-(

10. Crazy Quilt (twin size) - ready to be sandwiched and quilted

11. Loulouthi Tiles - I have the fabric all ready but I just don't feel like getting started on it! 

12. Pajama capri pants for P - she needs three pairs: I have to finish those this weekend!

13. Computer table cover - Yup, another one of those utility things that I keep on dragging my feet on doing this

Now I am scared I won't finish one of these project as I am looking at this huge list.  My mantra should be: Stay Strong and Keep on Sewing :-)

What is on your plate right now?

Take care,

Me

P.S. Just because I hate picture less posts: here is P and Jake hanging out while M is shopping :-)

Bulls Eye!

P participated in the Archery Camp this summer.

I got to shoot a couple of arrows as well. It takes a lot of skill to aim your arrow the right way!

P had so much fun doing it that she decided to take part in the newly offered archery club (after school activity). The club will not only practice target and distance shooting, but they will also have competitions against other archery clubs in Grafenwoehr, Heidelberg, Vilseck and I believe Vincenza! 

They are looking for an additional volunteer coach. M is quite experienced in bow hunting. So maybe I can persuade him to do  that :-)

Have you ever shot with bow and arrow?

Take care,

Me

The Pros and Cons of Paper Piecing

Have you ever heard of paper piecing? Basically, you have a paper template on which you sew the individual pieces of fabric. I just finished paper piecing this beautiful block together... (excuse the yellowish tint of my dining room lamp but I couldn't wait until the morning to show you!)

I admit it is gorgeous! I love how I am able to put such an intricate (at least to me!) block together which I normally wouldn't even attempt otherwise. But what I really don't like is the time it involves. It took me 1.5 hrs start (sewing) to finish (tearing of the paper) just for this one block and I still have 4 more to go! It takes a lot of fabric and it leaves a huge mess as you can see in this photo:

That is all just from one block... I am still on the fence on if it is worth it!?!

Do you like it?

Take care,

Me

Back to School - Binder Cover and Book Covers

P started middle school last year. She had to have a 3" binder for all her classes. She wasn't very gentle with that binder so after using that binder for about 6 weeks it was trashed! It ripped in the folds of the spine! I had to pay $15 for another one. We couldn't find a cover which I hoped would protect the binder from some of the abuse. But heck, I can sew and make my own! She chose some fabrics and I this is what I came up with:

Three velcro tabs which would help keep the binder close:

And a pencil holder:

The binder still took a lot of abuse but at least this time it lasted the entire school year! 

For the upcoming school year, P chose this funny dog print:

They made me smile every time I looked at them as I was sewing up the cover! Here is a closer look at the fabric:

P wanted only one velcro tab this time:

And she wanted a pencil holder that would close with velcro as well:

Also, last year, our school decided that it was a must for all students to cover their books. We looked at all the options available to us. We could cover it with a plastic foil, paper or even buy a fabric cover. All of those options were very boring to P! So she asked me if I could make some for her... and I did!

Here they are:

As you can see, I placed an elastic band in the back which folds to the front to keep the book shut when you move from class to class!

They held up really well! I washed them once through out the year but that was it! 

So this year, she choose a hidden frog fabric for science, flowers for math, and the American stars for History. 

I am reusing the covers from last year for our set of school books at home. I got those used for $7 - $10 from Amazon. This way P doesn't have to bring the books home for home work. 

Do you have to cover your kids binders and books?

Take care,

Me

A Sunday Walk

We decided spontanously this morning to go for a little walk... 

P got some training in with Jake. She is doing really well with him. He sits for her, stays, and comes to her on command. Overall they are a great team. I don't have any concerns when she takes him on a walk. She keeps a firm hand with him... as a woman should with any male :-)

We walked down to the canal. First P and Jake went down, and then I decided that I needed to cool off, and shortly thereafter M came in as well. 

I also got this photo of P and M hugging! I love seeing that happy smile on M's face!

How was your Sunday?

Take care,

Me