Hearts Full of Joy

christmas cozies

always in search of fun projects for our hand made (or written, or second hand) christmas, i am looking for cozy pajama projects to use with this selection of flannels from my shop:

 

i love vintage, and feel blessed because that's just about all that's available in pajama patterns now. i'm considering some of these options i found on etsy for my littlest girls:

 

it would be so fun to live closer to my mom (for many reasons! including:) so that i could raid her vintage pattern stash for the perfect nightgown, like i did for easter dresses in 2008. 

i love this idea for little man,

but i'll use my own jenbei pattern i bought in japan to make summer jammies for my little japanese babes.

etsy

etsy is so much more fun than i ever anticipated! we've been surprised to find ourselves shipping packages off to germany, australia, the netherlands, japan, and three to the UK. i feel back in touch with my antique quilt business in japan, which is a happy feeling. and i'm meeting the nicest, most interesting, incredibly creative and talented people.

one of them has me feeling very inspired.
she is expecting her eighth baby, has two fun etsy shops -

check out the adorable scripture bags on this one,
 
she also homeschools, and has a fabulous blog.
i feel honored that she is using my "squares & stripes forever" quilt kit

as a give-away prize on her blog.

a few more shops that i love:

drawingroom's shop

sweet nellie's shop

lexi is loving this:
DanaCastle's shop

look to right-hand column to see my featrued and most recent etsy shop listings.

finally did it!

so excited! i've done something that has sounded so fun for so long. thank you to gloria who gave me the push.
i have a shop on etsy.
etsy is a magical place if you love handmade goods. all things sold must be handmade by the seller, vintage or antique, or supplies for making handmade items. that is my niche exactly.
i only have a few items listed so far, but will be adding regularly.

a few of my etsy items will be listed on the right side bar.

aprons

aprons with a quilt block bib: a fun project i've designed for the shop.

churn dash block. i made this one in mother & daughter or big and little sister sizes.

trip around the world block

saw tooth star block

the shops

finally some photos of our shops. i've been waiting for the signs we were promised a month and a half ago, to start snapping photos, but tired of waiting and started snapping anyway.

the blue building is a summer kitchen, imported from carthage, years ago. it is our fabric & notions shop. the "phelps" building is a prop from the movie "legacy". it houses most of our antique quilts.
inside the blue building:

tashi cutting fat quarters & fat eighths, amid vintage & antique quilts, quilt blocks, & fabrics, patterns, 1800s & 1930s reproduction fabrics, books, gifts, handmade goodies, etc.

inside the "phelps" building: antique quilts and baby clothes. brock remodeled the interior of this building before we moved in:

the pink wild goose chasequilt top above and below was made in the 1840s or 50s and  gloria's. wefound it while antiquing. love it!

the quilt below was also made in the 1840s.

if you're going to be in nauvoo, stop in and see us....

~1240 mulholland, behind the temple house art gallery~

mia's little fingers....

made this!

i was commissioned to made a valentine's quilt last year, two actually, that were a copy of another quilt. i didn't care for the quilts, they weren't my style. but i had a lot of red & white strips of fabric left over, that became the inspiration for this "churn dash" quilt. which was also inspired by a quilt made from vintage quilt blocks by darlene zimmerman. i love it and use it for christmas & valentines decor, like this. i still had a lot of red & white strips left over after that project, and  asked mia if she wanted to make a "chinese coin" doll quilt with them. that was over a year ago. mia is my most difficult child to teach. it is not an intelligence issue, unless it is over-intelligence, but rather not wanting to be told what to do. so we had some rough patches, and it would sit, ignored, for long stretches. this week she decided she wanted to finish it for gracie's birthday, and because this was HER idea, she was motivated and got it done. she pieced, quilted, and bound it almost completely by herself.

she is happy, and i am impressed, and relieved.

new patterns for the shop

"playtime pals" baby quilt from the 1930s

"sue & scotty" days of the week embroidery for tea towels or quilt blocks, from the 1930s

"baby angels" days of the week embroidery for tea towels or quilt blocks, from the 1930s. (gracie's coloring in the previous post is on part of this pattern.)

i've also made a pattern for this 1880s "eveing star" baby quilt, and i'm currently working on 2 more from the 1800s, with many, many more planned.
 

our shop is moving along. we have one building open, and one close to open. photos coming soon.

the easter bunnies

this is what the easter bunnies wore this year. mia & noah recycled and wore what i made them last year. i tend to do that with both halloween and easter - my built-in anscestral thrift...or laziness?. grace had outgrown last year's dress, it is now a shirt, and so i made her a new outfit with the 1838 pattern book i have been enjoying so much.

she is wearing the cap and pantaloons i stitched by hand. the dress was machine sewn, but also a complete joy to make.

oh, and mia & noah really are the true easter bunnies. mia was born on easter, and noah was due on easter, although he kept us holding our breaths and chose to come 6 days late. i found that to be a much harder wait with adoption than it had been with my own pregnancy. gracie, well she's just a bunny.

the rodenbergs joined us for easter dinner and an egg hunt!

gracie wearing last year's easter dress (by pure coincidence) as she helps brock plant a tree. we have planted seven more trees, 4 fruit which brings our orchard to a total of 12 trees (two each of apple, peach, pear, plum apricot, and cherry), a red bud, a dogwood, and a maple. i have planted 22 flowering plants: hollyhocks, peonies, columbine, lillies, and dahlias, 25 strawberries, two grapes, and grass seed in some bald spots. our lettuce has finally come up, and maybe our first pea, and onion bulbs have now been planted. it's so interesting learning the quirks of a new climate. we are in love with not having to water our lawn, garden, and landscaping, and so enjoy the wildlife that regularly visit: deer, cottontails, squirrels, cardinals, etc. but with every up comes a down, and we are fast learning to battle the moles that are tearing up our ENTIRE yard and flower beds, and the raccoons who dig up our grass looking for grubs, while trying to keep our trees, flowers, and garden safe from the deer and rabbits. we can tell you which repellents work the best. we planted a new baby grape yesterday that had leaved out. this morning it was nibbled to a 1/2 inch nub.

 

 

spring is coming slowly, but surely.

vintage goodness, the joys of sewing, modest dresses, and beautiful girls

friday was "mormon prom". youth from three stakes of our church descended on columbia, missouri for an evening of fun, modest, and appropriate dancing and partying. the week before, i stumbled across an ebay auction for a vintage 1950s dress, and since tashi didn't have a dress for the event, and was planning on borrowing, i snagged it for her, hoping it would fit.
 
it did! a puffy concotion of pink flocked chiffon, "home made"  (as most dresses were then, a sadly lost art). it had the sheer wrap, but we decided it needed more. the "cumberbund" sash had incredibly long ties, enabling us to cut off the ends and cover her shoulders. add a fluffy crinoline, also from ebay, and we were done. she loved it. so much funner than buying a new dress for 5x the amount we spent on this. lexi wore the dress we got her for her junior prom, coming up in a few weeks.
nauvoo 1st & 3rd ward laurels in columbia

lexi missed the memo...only pink or black dresses lex!

ande (far left) made her beautiful dress. and sarah (pink dress in center) & her aunt made her jacket) we got lexi's for steal, on sale at kathleen's bridal.

our friend brady was at mormon prom too. when he posted photos on facebook a girl asked, "why do all the dresses have sleeves?" i can't imagine allowing a daughter to dance all night with a teenage boy in a strapless gown. what are most parents thinking?

a big shout-out to amazing young women's leaders who sacrificed so much time in driving the girls to the prom (three hours each way) and staying overnight with them!

recent projects

i started this mini lone star quilt over a year ago when my quilt guild asked me to teach how to make this type of star, and it has sat, almost finished, until now. all of the fabrics are 1800's reproductions. i love the indigo serpentine stripe, and i quilted along it's wavy lines.

this is my new temple bag, made completely from vintage feedsack fabric. even the lining, binding, and straps are vintage feedsack muslin. i LOVE working with feedack fabric, so soft to the touch, vibrant colors, funky prints.

this is my church/relief society president tote. its beginnings are pictured here. many of these fabrics came home from japan with me, and lexi and brock have brought some home from their travels to japan in the last year. it reflects my life in the orient, and my love of vintage. here is one side:

and the other:

i have a passio for fabric and love putting as many fabrics as possible into everything i make.