Pondered In My Heart

Summer Coasters

'Mother, I'm done with my chores. May I use the sewing machine?' is a line I'm hearing often these days.

Anna Ruth makes a scrunchi to match her skirt.

The girls have been doing a fair bit of sewing this summer. They all have to take turns with the machine (when it's not being held hostage in the boys' rooms) so they mostly opt for quick and easy projects. It is also fun to make small projects as you get 'instant gratification' - great for younger seamstresses and newbies of all ages. A favorite quick project is these coasters from Jenny at allsorts. She has a tutorial on her site, but they are so easy I thought I'd show you here. Also, I've simplified them a bit, skipping the interfacing and lining part. These are a great way to use up scraps or charm squares if you have them. No finishing or hand sewing required!

These make great little treats to have around for hostess gifts or to tuck into gift baskets paired with a mug and favorite drink. You can also make them with seasonal fabrics. I am enjoying these pretty summery prints for now, but we have some muted ones we used in winter, and we plan to make autumnal colored ones in fall. You could also choose themed fabrics to suit your gift recipients such as music, cats, dogs, horses, Christmas, team colors - the possibilities are endless.

For each coaster you need five 4 1/2" squares of fabric. You can mix and match with as many different patterns as you like. Half the fun is choosing the yummy prints and arranging them together! A rotary cutter and mat make this part a snap, although just using scissors works fine of course.

Fold four of the squares in half, wrong sides together.

Place your fifth square on the table, right side up. I'm using the purple square in this example to be the backing. Place your first folded square on your backing piece with the fold towards the center of the backing piece.  

Add your next folded piece, overlapping the first, fold towards the center.

Add your third piece in the same fashion:

And now add the fourth piece, overlapping and tucking the pieces in as such:

Now sew around the edges with a 1/4" seam allowance. Trim the corners if you remember to.

 

Turn your coaster right side out, using a crochet hook or something to poke out the corners, and press if you like (if you're a kid you probably won't bother). That's it!

Anna Ruth also discovered that if you take one of these completed coasters, plump it up with a bit of stuffing inside, and add a button to cover the center, you get one cute and cozy pincushion!

Happy sewing! (And happy sipping with your new cheery coaster.)

Wordless Wednesday: My Sweet Husband

Family-Centered Learning Conference

I was there!

And I'm so glad. We set off on Friday afternoon to attend the lovely family picnic planned by Michele. As we drove along I was filled with the most unusual excitement and expectation. For days my children had been asking me which bloggers would be there, and Mary Rose even wrote down everyone's name so she could study the list. We were going to meet these wonderful ladies who daily inspire me with their wisdom and creativity and holiness while making me choke on my tea with their humor. I kept thinking what a strange feeling it was to be going to meet these dear friends I know and love that I haven't ever met before.

We were warmly welcomed and had a lot of fun at the picnic.

I especially enjoyed snuggling this sweet little guy (seeing how my littlest boy is quite big).

Can you guess who this chubby cherub is?

The conference on Saturday was lovely as well. The speakers were inspiring and entertaining (you can purchase the talks here). Alice made her liturgical celebrations and crafts sound so simple and doable, and as always we were encouraged by her resourcefulness. To quote the wise Minnesota Mom: Truly, she lives the theological virtues as effortlessly as some of us slurp coffee. (Ahem.) (or tea in my case). Only dear Alice could look at a wooden recipe box and see a miniature altar, and we all benefit from taking a peek at life through her eyes.

Margot  of Hillside Education encouraged and delighted us with her contagious love of literature.  Although our family is more like that 'unnamed naturalist from New York' who doesn't use study guides, Margot's practical steps for enhancing the discussing and writing and thinking deeper about the literature we know and love was inspiring and informative. (Students take heed! Analytical literary writing assignments may be coming this fall to a homeschool near you!)

Mary Ellen spoke on the joys and growth and learning that comes from having a special blessing in the family, and I found myself nodding and grinning and crying in turn at just about everything she said. Though our special children are so different in age and disability we share a lot in common, and now I think fondly of her son with the natural piety every time I see Eliza pretending to distribute Holy Communion with her customary great charm and reverence.

Meredith shared her typical sweetness and light with ideas for engaging the littlest ones in school time. It was good to have a reminder of how simple it is to do unit studies with the youngest students, and how they can benefit from having directed activities that delight them as they learn.

And then dear Alice had us all in stitches as she recounted her earliest encounters and subsequent, um, less than enthusiastic reaction regarding this bizarre new concept called home education (!). But God is good and He leads His children in the paths they should go, with a little help from Helen and Lissa of course, and as they say the rest is history. In Alice's case it's also a delightful book, which I am eagerly looking forward to reading. I haven't been able to get my hands on Haystack Full of Needles as all of my children are reading it. Even Eliza and Kateri sit and page through it to look at the pictures.

We also met the shockingly clever Karen, Michelle and her sweet daughter, fruity Diane, Heather and her lovely talented daughter, and super sweet Erica from California who I think won the distance prize.

The conference center was spacious and accommodating and Michele's organizing truly made it Family-Centered. We all went along for the day and there was room for everyone. After having been entertained by Margot's boys making music at the picnic, my guys of course had to bring their instruments to jam with them on Saturday.

They had a good time hanging out together. I don't have a picture (but Michele does) of my girls hanging out with the most entertaining and effervescent Maggie. I think Mary Rose has finally met her giggling match.

Michael enjoyed that sweet baby boy as well.

My only disappointment was to realize I hardly took any pictures (Josiah takes more inane pictures of things like my teacup or my ears on a regular day at home than I took all weekend, sigh), though as Michael pointed out it was because I was too busy having fun. You can see lots of lovely pictures taken by ladies who are better at multitasking, particularly the super efficient Michele who beautifully organized the whole event. I had a great time and even learned some things I never expected to learn such as why you should never bother to make earrings for Alice, or who drew the cover illustrations for some of our most favorite books (oh, this makes me GRIN), or that even when you are out of town having a blast for a few days you should still try to remember to feed the fish (don't ask).  It was truly delightful to get together with these wonderful real ladies and I am so thankful for the opportunity to meet them all in hug-and-squeeze-and laugh-and-go-ahead-and-pull-my-hair person. And I certainly hope we can do it all again someday!

She's Not in Minnesota Anymore

But I sure hope she feels better soon!

A Peek in the Vegetable Garden

I thought I would post a little update on our vegetable garden. I find it amazing how in a few short months this pile of dirt dumped on an empty space has grown into something remarkable. I love how the garden has turned into a place; you open the door and walk through into a different landscape.  

You can't help but slow down and look around, taking in all the greenness and life that surrounds you. 

It's a place literally bursting at the seams with new green growth and teeming with the tiniest of animal life as well. It's not a huge garden, but still we like to wander through it every day or so and see what's happening. The sights change almost daily and it's always interesting to take the time to explore, peeking here and there, peering high and low to see what there is to see. The transformations from seed to shoot to vine to bud to flower to fruit never grow dull. There are always new visitors, some welcome, some not - the old familiar friends and foes, and new ones to meet as well. We look to see if anything is unwell, and perhaps we can do a bit of pruning or topdressing or watering to help the ailing.

 

If you are hungry, you can always find a bite to eat.

It's a place to learn about patience as you grow excited with anticipation.

And you also learn that abundance doesn't always last long.

Because enemies do exist and they will invade.

Sometimes things shimmer with golden beauty on the outside.

But you must be ready to do battle with the foe that lies within, just waiting to charge forth. However tiny

or gigantic it may seem. You must do your best to conquer.

Because, after all, Dinner is at stake.

It should come as no surprise that the Creator of the universe can match colors with absolute perfection. But I am still always astounded at the incredible camouflage of the tomato hornworm. It also is amazing how in a first year garden the cucumber beetles still come and find the cucumbers and the squash vine borers find the squash vines and the hornworms find the tomatoes .... Do they just drop out of the sky when they spot my garden?

Still, I love saying, 'I'm going outside to pick dinner!', or sending the children to do the gathering.

For once eating local and organic is doable and affordable. :-) 'Five a Day' has never been more fun, or delicious, than when it's from the backyard.

We put up seven foot high deer netting to keep all of the furry critters out. The netting is practically invisible so at first the door looks kind of silly, like Aslan's door that doesn't seem to lead anywhere.

 

But now it clearly opens up into a wonderful, growing place.

 

Thanks for taking a peek into our garden. How does your garden grow these days?

Happy Birthday Anna Ruth!

Anna Ruth turned 11 today!

Lydia made her a cake with Northumberland Flower Girl (the horse) on it:

 

She extinguished all her candles in one fell swoop like a pro:

She got a beautiful chocolate brown cloak from Jonathan:

And two little parrot stuffies from Lydia:

She's been on a bit of a sewing binge lately so she got lots of yummy fabric (that fuzzy black stuff is actually called long haired poodle!):

 

Happy Birthday Anna Ruth! We sure do love you!

Wordless Wednesday: Pool Curls (boing boing)

 

Girls Skirt Tutorial

I made this sweet skirt as a birthday gift for Lydia. I've seen skirts with bows at the waist in several catalogs so it seems to be a bit trendy. It came out so cute and was so easy to make I naturally had to make more for my other big girls (I have two down, one to go).

 I often hear from mothers who say they would like to sew but can't find the time. I also hear from mothers who have difficulty finding modest clothing for their older girls. This skirt is very quick and easy to make - you don't need a pattern, there is minimal cutting, and I completed it in about an hour. The price is also very reasonable - using sale fabrics the skirt cost about seven dollars.

I made these for my ten and thirteen-year-old daughters. I purchased two yards of standard 45" wide cotton fabric. This allows for a little left over to play with, and it's easier than trying to remember exact measurements of what I need. You will also need a package of 'double fold bias tape' a.k.a. 'quilt binding', and one package of baby rick rack. (Okay, no one actually ever needs rick rack but it adds a nice touch.) Also needed is a length of 1/2" elastic and of course thread.

Anna chose bright lime green for her skirt, with accents of red (she like the Narnia movie 'CG' effect, hee). The first step is to cut two lengths of fabric as long as you want the skirt to be, plus four inches. Leave the pieces the full width (45"). For example, if you want a 24" length skirt you would cut two pieces of fabric 28" x 45". The 45" width makes for less cutting and a nice full, comfortable, easy-to-play-in skirt. Put the two pieces together, right sides together, and stitch up your side seams. Sew the whole length on one side.

On the other side, leave the top three inches open:

Press your seams open. By using the whole width of the fabric you have the selvages at the side seams, so they are already nicely finished and won't fray.

Now topstitch down along the part you left open as shown:

To make the hem, turn up 1/2 inch along the bottom and press:

Turn up another 3 1/2" and press again.

Now machine stitch your hem.

Next, place your rick rack over the hem stitching, and stitch it in place by machine (using a fairly small stitch length), covering up your hem stitching:

Now back to the top. Gather the fabric up at the top by pinning it into pleats. It will still be wider than the girl's waist, but you will add elastic later. Baste the pleats in place using a long stitch length on your machine.

Now you are going to add the seam binding at the top edge. The seam binding will be the waist band and casing for the elastic, and also the ties for the bow.  Starting at the open edge of your side seam, place the seam binding over the top pleated edge, covering up your basting. Leave approximately twenty inches extra on each end for the ties. Start sewing at the skirt edge, leaving the tie part open for now. Sew along the bottom of the seam binding, close to the edge:

Next you are going to insert the elastic into this casing that you just made. Cut a piece of elastic long enough to go around the girl's waist comfortably. I like to cut it a little big and try it on for size before I make the final adjustment to make sure it's a good, comfortable fit. (No girl wants to wear a skirt that pinches or that keeps slipping down, for sure.) Thread your elastic through the casing - a diaper pin is always handy for this.

When you have a good fit sew across the seam binding at the skirt edge, catching in the end of the elastic. Go over it a couple of times so it is nice and secure. Then continue on down the length of the ties, edge-stitching the seam binding closed. Turn in a bit on the ends to finish them off neatly before you sew them closed:

Here's another view of the waist:

That's it! You're all done. Iron- on cherries are optional but cute:

For Lydia, I made an elastic-backed headscarf with the extra fabric and seam binding:

Sew cute!

I hope these instructions were clear. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to email and I would love to see a picture if you make a skirt!

Happy sewing!

 

Feast of St. Bonaventure

Today is the feast of St. Bonaventure. The prayer of St. Bonaventure for after receiving Holy Communion is an ardent, beautiful, soul-stirring plea.

Dearest Lord Jesus, pierce the inmost depths of my being with the sweet and wholesome pang of Thy love, with true and tranquil and most holy apostolic charity, so that from sheer melting love and desire of Thee my soul may ever faint with longing, yearning for Thee and for Thy dwelling-place, asking only to be released from the flesh and to be with Thee.

Grant that my soul my hunger for Thee, Who art the Bread of Angels, the food of holy souls, our daily, supernatural bread, all sweetness and delight to the taste. Let my heart ever hunger for Thee and feed upon Thee, Whom the Angels yearn to look upon, and let the depths of my being be filled with Thy sweet savor; let me ever thirst for Thee, Who art the source of life, source of wisdom and knowledge, source of eternal light, flood-tide of pleasure, God's own treasure-house. Let me ever desire Thee; seek Thee and find Thee; have Thee for my goal and my achievement; think and speak of Thee only, doing all that I do for the honor and glory of Thy Name, humbly and prudently, with love and delight, with ready goodwill, and with perseverance to the end.

Be Thou ever, Thou only, my hope and all my trust, my treasure and pleasure, my joy and delight, my rest, peace, and quiet, my sweet and delicious fragrance, my food and support, my refuge and help, my wisdom, my heritage of wealth, my very own. Let my heart and soul be set on Thee, firmly and immovably rooted in Thee henceforth and forever. Amen.

Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

Lily of the Mohawks

Today is Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha's feast day. You can read more about Blessed Kateri here, and why our little sweetie is named Kateri here.

Here is a prayer for her canonization: LET US PRAY

O God, who, among the many marvels of Your Grace in the New World, did cause to blossom on the banks of the Mohawk and of the St. Lawrence, the pure and tender Lily, Kateri Tekakwitha, grant we beseech You, the favor we beg through her intercession, that this Young Lover of Jesus and of His Cross may soon be counted among the Saints of Holy Mother Church, and that our hearts may be enkindled with a stronger desire to imitate her innocence and faith. Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Happy Feast Day, Kateri! We love you!