Native Woman Sews, Crafts, Writes, and More

Secret Projects

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I’ve spent a good part of January and February working on secret projects. Secret projects for family and for friends and I can only talk to certain people about certain projects. This sometimes leaves Chris to wonder what the heck I’ve been doing during the day when one friend comes over!

I’m not sure who is reading these days, but I’m going to keep things secret for the time being. Earlier this year I told Shannon I wanted to make something for Chris, she thought it was a good idea and wanted to make one for her husband too. I ended up talking to more people and so did she and I think at this point there are eight other people also making something for their husbands. How awesome for this to come from one small idea I had!

All in all getting the projects organized and working on them has been really fun. I’m done with one and started on another, and one friend is just about done with hers too. I will definitely have pictures and show everyone what we’ve been working on down the road. We have been working quickly and it’s amazing how fast you can get a project done!

I’ll leave you with a great necklace Chris picked out for me for our anniversary (which was in December) along with a cute fabric I recently bought. Secret project pictures later. 🙂

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Eight Things In 08

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Have I mentioned that I am so happy it is a new year? The past couple of years have been freaking hard for us. Hard professionally, personally, emotionally and everything in between. I’m ready for a different year that’s for sure. I saw that my friend Andrea had posted 8 things that happened in 2008 and I thought that was a good way to look back on things.

1. We spent six months away from Chris (more if you count the schools he attended once we got in the same area as him) but during those months, he graduated from Officer Candidate School and is now an officer in the military.

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OCS Graduate, May 2008

2. The kids and I lived with my Dad and watched my nephews for almost three months. Then two of them (nephews) came with us to Texas for a few weeks. I miss the boys so much! Being away from family is really hard.

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My Dad, Alice, and Jake feeding the horses

3. My relationship with my brothers is so different now – different in a really good way. We’ve always been a close family but I feel like since I got to live there and be around them, it is so much better. And I’m pretty sure I wasn’t too bossy when I was there either.

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Bro leading kids around – I titled this “follow the leader”

4. My Grandma died in August. I know I am lucky to have had her in my life for as long as I did, and I am grateful that she went quickly and with no pain. I know she is in a better place now, even though my heart is still broken.

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Grandma, picture taken in May 2005

5. We moved to Texas. We don’t love it here and will be moving sometime in ’09.

6. I’ve kept homeschooling the kids. I homeschool for a wide variety of reasons but the more days and months that go by, the more I really love homeschooling them! Homeschooling in Texas has been really great.

7. I turned 30! I love being 30 for no one reason. I had a good birthday even if I did have to make my own cake.

8. We survived! Yes surviving is a thing that can happen! We spent time moving, staying with relatives, moving again, watching my nephews (there were some days that were flat wild as can be!), moving again, visiting people, my Grandma dying, a year since George died, crazy work stuff, crazy weather (two hurricanes, maybe three – worse humidity then SC) and so much more.

I look forward to what the upcoming year will bring! The first week has been good – I’ve finished projects, hung out with the kids, talked to my family, hung out with friends, read a couple of books, worked online, cleaned, organized and am happy. Chris had a vacation which was nice for all of us. We got a lot done around the house – we are almost able to park in the garage! – while he was home. I’ve picked my word (or phrase in my case) for the year and will share that soon. I feel like I’m starting out the year so great, it will stay great throughout.

Secret Project Fabrics

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Secret fabric all sewn together ~

Kids with secret fabric

I finished sewing together the secret fabric! There are eight fabrics and I have eight sets of them. I need to cut and sew and cut and sew and I’m sure cut and sew some more, but here they are. They came in a package with all the fabric I need to make a quilt! I’ll get the pattern name and be sure to post that too. This is the second quilt I’ve made with this pattern and I really like it! It’s fairly quick and easy to put together so I can see myself using it many more times.

Short post today because I’m on day two of south beach and a headache is taking me out.

New Sewing Machine

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Remember how thrilled and happy I was when I got my last new sewing machine? I loved that thing! Looking back on it, I didn’t sew all that much really. Sure I made a blanket or two but no machine quilting. And I did sew a lot of Chris’ uniforms, a lot. But considering I had it for about a year and a half (since it was in storage for half of this year) it really did not last that long. It broke a few weeks ago by clunking and making a horrible noise – after the noise it would not sew at all. Sure the needle moved and the material would go through it like it was sewing, but once the material was taken out the pieces would just come apart. I was at a friend’s house and she said it was probably the timing.

When my last sewing machine broke my Mom said it was probably just best to buy a new machine if it was the timing since that can’t always be fixed and since it could end up costing a lot. So into Target we walked and off the shelf into the cart the machine went. I didn’t want that again since it broke so quickly. A sewing machine is an investment and one I want to have for many years.

My friend Shannon (see her new quilting blog at angelic quilts!) just bought a Janome 6600 – it is so nice! It is a great machine that is perfect for her because she is what I call a hard core quilter. She had a lot of quilts she was working on for Christmas gifts and several others in progress or that she just wants to make. She even has more fabric then my Mom – which I wasn’t sure was possible.

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Secret project on the machine!

I got a Brother 450 at a local sewing center. It is so nice! Everything works on it easily, it comes with tons of stitches and it isn’t as heavy as my last machine. It also came with an extended warranty and the shop will clean it for free during the first year (I think just once, but that’s okay with me!).

I started on the secret project tonight and will keep you posted. 🙂

Horse Baby Blanket

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I finished my newest nephews baby blanket! Okay I finished the other day and had to tear it out. I know that knitters do the whole tearing out thing, but as a seamstress or quilter, rarely have I!

It didn’t take very long to get the top put together and when I realized I had batting, the entire thing was basted in minutes thanks to my friend’s new Janome sewing machine. She has a tacking (or maybe the machine calls it tying?) function and we did it in really, three minutes or so. Super fast. All I had left to was the binding, and considering this was a couple of weeks before Christmas I put it on the side. The blanket wasn’t a Christmas gift, but rather a welcome to the family gift. He was born at the beginning of October so I’m within baby gifting time.

This is the first blanket where I used the sewing machine to sew on the binding completely. I’m not happy with it at all! Maybe it’s because the binding is silk but it didn’t look nearly as clean as I want it to. I used a zig zag stitch and left a little edge – the front looked mostly good, there were a few areas here and there where the fabric didn’t move fast enough so the stitches are super close. The corners looked rough though. I didn’t think about how to do the corners before getting to that point, just did it. I tried to cover up the corner with a design – which wasn’t aligned, I am thinking it’s because of the silk. I’m definitely practicing on scrap fabric before I do that again! The back didn’t look that great at all. I’m definitely more unhappy with the back.

Notice I’m talking in the past tense? Yeah that’s because I tore the binding off. It looked that bad. And I would show you pictures but my camera batteries died. We did buy rechargables and a charger and of course with all the video game playing that’s been going on, those are in need of a charge. I will show pictures when I get it redone because it is very cute.

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