Not So Little Helpers

 

Miss S was wanting to help me in the sewing room, so I had her start laying out the quillow for her baby cousin.

After a while, her brother came down and offered to do the higher parts she couldn't reach. No one believes they are twins anymore, Mr. L is so much taller. This photo has the perspective off, so here's a better one.

He's about six inches taller than she is, which seems a lot for nine year old (almost ten) twins. They remind me all the time they are almost ten, which to them means practically an adult ;-)

I did get the pillow sham I needed to make done.

It's made from the dress my late sister wore to her daughter's wedding. 

The dress was fitted and had a back slit plus a long zipper, so really only the bottom front of the dress was going to be easy to cut from. Thankfully, I had purchased a Kona color card, that has actual swatches of all the fabrics so I could match the dress fabric as closely as possible to a fabric for the back. It's not an exact match, but close enough. 

The treehouse baby quilt was delivered on Saturday, and the parents are quite happy with it. 

The quilts and pillow sham from my sister's clothes were delivered on Sunday, and it was an emotional, but good day. It was my late sister's birthday on Sunday, and I felt like giving her family quilts from her clothes was akin to giving her one last birthday present. She would have been 60 on Sunday, had cancer not taken her too soon. 

DH and I had one day with DD#2 and family this week. Mr LJ turns four on Saturday, and we needed to deliver his gift. DH works all weekend, so seeing them day of wasn't going to happen. 

I haven't had much time to sew this week, but I did finish laying out the quillow the twins started on. I also have another laid out and ready to assemble. I haven't sewn on the quillows this week, but I did press all the strip pairs I had sewn up, and I decided to sub-cut them before sewing the blocks together, and I finished that this morning. Two more seams per block, and I might be done all the blocks I need for this batch of quillows. I know I have enough for the 7th one, but I haven't counted the pieces for the 8th, so we'll see. 

I'm trying to get a handle on the holidays. We had planned a trip in December, but I'm not sure Covid isn't going to ruin that idea. I think the weather is going to cooperate and we'll be able to do Thanksgiving outside. We're going to have fewer people than normal for us, and by doing it outside, hopefully all will be fine. I was actually OK with not doing a get together this year, but my cooking seems to have other people not so willing to drop the idea...I'm planning games to keep the kids outside. I'm going to put DH in charge of making people stay outside, and I get the added bonus of no one bothering me in the kitchen. We have a small galley kitchen, and I HATE people trying to stand in there and talk to me while I'm cooking. There is NO spot in my tiny kitchen that you aren't directly in my way. 

I'm hoping to give each of my kids families their Christmas gifts quite early, so if Covid makes getting together for a family thing impractical, everyone will have their stuff. 

I was stuck on Christmas gifts this year. I like to gift experiences, zoo or museum memberships, movie tickets, restaurant gift cards, etc... but so many businesses have been closed or going out of business, I'm hesitant to do much in that department. For a couple of the families, I opted for a family game night theme. A couple good family games, a puzzle, and some fun snacks. I like giving consumables for gifts, because after it's eaten, it's not taking up space in anyone's house. That's why I like gifting experiences too. I read an article years ago on good gifts for grandparents to give, and experiences was on the top of the list. Sometimes your kids want to do stuff with your grandkids but they can't afford to. Most kids already have too much stuff, so giving an activity or a consumable eliminates adding to the pile of "stuff". 

I'm pretty mindful of what's in my house too, and I'm regularly clearing out stuff we don't need anymore. I've switched to ebooks only for fiction, but I still like cookbooks and quilt books in paper. Honestly, I'm willing to purge from all over the house to keep my quilting stuff. I've been whittling down the fabric stash by using it, and that's the way I want to purge it, as finished projects. As I've watched prices go up considerably this year, I'm thankful for the stash I have. I've been busting scraps since last year, and although I'm not out of scraps yet, I used probably 2/3 of what I started with, and I've made and am making some fun stuff from them.