Fair Ribbons For The Birthday Girl!

Yesterday my precious baby Ahnalin turned 6!

And what better place to celebrate than at the county fair!

And the best birthday present she could ask for was a

beautiful BLUE  RIBBON

for her very first quilt!!!!!

Yep! My girl won the blue ribbon!!!!

And there were several other quilts in her category!!

So she has a real reason to be proud of herself.

Unfortunately I cut off the top of the head of Ahnalin's doll, 

but this is one of the dolls she made this year to send to 

the orphans in Haiti. This one will get

sent after the fair. But she won a RED ribbon for this one!

And to complete the set, she won a WHITE ribbon for her pillow.

She was thrilled to win one of each.

And here is the thing, every child who entered something received

a "participant" ribbon, even if they did not place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. 

Ahnalin placed in every category she entered!!!! 

YAHOOOOOO!!!

She also got to pan for gold.

We live a few blocks away from the Empire Mine, which was a

very important gold mine during the California gold rush.

It is the oldest, largest and richest mine in California

so gold mining is a huge part of our county history.

Ahnalin LOVED panning!

She went on the Ferris Wheel with her big sister and friend Rini.

She loves to pet the animals.

I wish I had gotten this on video, 

but right before I took this picture, the mama goat 

sneezed all over Ahnalin, and she had goat snot all 

over her dress. She was thoroughly grossed out!

She rode every kiddy ride 

because the big scary rides are so not her deal.

She had so much fun with Dida (what she calls India) and Rini.

She opened her presents at home

and got lots of books, a Chinese Barbie, a doll outfit for her

American Girl doll and, of course, singing cards.

The doll dress is to fit her "Elizabeth" doll that we got her 

at the American Girl Place last month.

I still need to post those pics!

We had so much fun at the fair on her birthday!

I will post my fair ribbons tomorrow. 

Love to you all!!

Happy Sewing.

Ahnalin Finished Her QUILT!!

SHE DID IT!!!!

Ahnalin finished her very first quilt last night.

We will be delivering it to the fairgrounds today in 

time for judging.

I mistakenly identified the fabric as "Snippets" which is a Moda collection by American Jane.

I was wrong. This is actually "Patisserie" by Joana Figueroa.

I am just crazy about this fabric!

Ahnalin picked out the Charm pack and then she picked out the coordinating

prints for the sides, the backing and the edge binding. 

The only things I did were the ironing, the marking, and some of the safety pinning.

When I was sitting right with Ahnalin, her stitches were nice and even.

But when she was stitching in the car or while watching tv, 

her stitches got kind of big and exciting!

I think this is a masterpiece for a 5 year old! 

Congrats to you my darling girl!!!

Polka Dots, Gnomes and Quilting Too!

Can I tell you how much I love this little girl?

Can I tell you how much I love this dress?

The pattern is Simplicity 2711 and I have had it in my stash

for a while. I keep picking it up, and then moving on 

to patterns with a twirlier skirt.

But this time, I finally made it!

I love it!

I love the little straight sleeve with the ruffle.

 I love the pintucks and the ruffles on the yoke.

The fabric is Michael Miller's Gnomeville and I am crazy about it!

And look at this little button!

I got it several years ago in a lot of vintage buttons from Ebay and 

have been saving it for exactly the perfect project!

I cut a size 5 in width and a size 6 in length. 

It fits her with lots of room for growth.

She does not get to wear it again until after it comes home from the Fair.

I am busy making school clothes for her and will be entering many of those

items in the fair. Last year I won 19 ribbons and the Sweepstakes award 

for the most entries! Heehee!

This year, I am hoping to get 22 items entered, 

but we will see how many get finished.

And on the quilting front...

Thank you all for your amazing tips everyone!!

Because I truly don't know what I am doing, 

so I told her the wrong thing,

I had Ahnalin put her binding on before

I had her do the actual quilting. 

So, it was too late for perfection!

Heehee!!!!!

But according to Amber, I should

have her "safety pin like crazy!"

So, off we went to the dollar store to buy a huge pack of safety pins.

We need more already.

Then, based on advice from Roseiq, 

using my disappearing marker,

I drew stitch lines for her to sew on. 

She is doing great! 

She asked my why she had to hand stitch this when her

sewing machine goes so much faster, 

and I told her that we don't have a walking foot so I was

afraid it would get all puckery. 

And she need to build her confidence in 

her hand stitching anyway. 

Thank you all for your great tips, links and videos!!!!

You have helped me and encouraged us so much!

India is a bit behind in her quilt because she was

really sick all week. 

Her doctor said it was just another virus. 

Well, these viruses just wipe my girl out!

We appreciate your prayers so much.

As to the raincoat I am working on.....

Well......

Why on earth did I let my 5 year old pick out a fabric with such a HUGE

pattern repeat????

It is taking me forever to cut it out just right.

I am tempted to just cut it willy-nilly,

pattern matching-be-darned!

But I spent way more than usual on that fabric and want it to be......

Perfect. 

Thank you all again for your incredible help and encouragment.

Happy Sewing. 

A Question For Real Quilters ( as in, anyone who is not me...)

So, my girls are doing amazingly well with their mini quilts.

And remember, I am NOT a quilter. 

Well, in my heart, I WANT to be a quilter.

But other than a few basic quilt tops, and some really simple

almost-quilts where I either tied, or embroidered them,

I have never completed an entire quilt.

I have never taken a quilt class, even though I want to do so.

All of which would probably, and rightfully, beg the question,

"Why, pray tell, my dear Goosegirl, did you choose to have your daughters

make charm pack quilts as one of their summer projects?  Hmmmm?"

Well, like I have told one of my quilting crushes, Monica Solorio-Snow,

aka The Happy Zombie, I really, really want to learn

to quilt.  So maybe by having my girls work on these, I can kind 

of problem solve and get some ideas before I try my own.

So, I guess that makes them guinea pigs, and me the evil scientist....

Hm.....

I am probably telling them everything wrong. 

And anyone who is a REAL QUILTER is probably rolling on the floor at the thought

of the gross misinformation I am feeding my happy guinea pigs, er.....daughters.

Now, you make think to yourself, 

"Sivje, why don't you just take a class, or even read a book

on quilting?"  

Well, I have no good answer for that one!

But Ahnalin has DEFINITELY caught the quilting bug, and bad!

She has raced through her quilt and now the only thing left to do is 

the actual "quilting".  India has a few more steps for hers, but 

she is not far behind.

And Ahnalin wants to know what to do to finish her quilt.

Um.... well...... I have NO CLUE what to tell her!

So, please, I beg of you....

what do we do next?????

I got the kind of cotton batting that must be quilted because my local store did not

have the cheapy polyester batting that you can just tie.

So, please. Help a crazy mama out.

What should we do next?

Thank you!!!!!

Sivje (the evil scientist)

She Is Obsessed!!

I did mention that I have a daughter who is a perfectionist, right?

Well, she is so obsessed with this little quilt that she is almost done with it!

After she had sewn her strips together, she laid

them out in rows on the counter.

Yes, she is sitting on the kitchen counter.

I am a rotten mom.

(I did the ironing, ok?)

She must have changed the order of those strips about 50 times!

At last, she finally decided she liked the order.

She pinned them together and sewed the strips together 

and then when she was clipping the threads,

she accidentally cut too close and cut a HOLE in

one of the seams! 

Yes, a half inch HOLE!

She fell on the floor crying and it took a few minutes before she calmed down enough 

to show me what had happened.

She started screaming, so I told her it was time for bed.

No more sewing when kiddos scream!

But I also told her that since we planned on her "signing" the quilt,

she could embroider her name on some fabric and 

applique it onto the quilt and it would cover the hole.

As the sweet ladies on Sewing Mamas would say, it was a 

"Design Option", not a mistake!
I like that!

So yesterday, as soon as she got up, she started back to work on her quilt.

Here she is pinning some side panels onto the patchwork.

Those are her very own pincushion and pins. 

She adores them!

After she sewed the side panels on,  I gave her my 

disappearing ink pen to write her name on a piece of 

fabric, so she could embroider over it.

She got very frustrated because the ink faded several times before 

she finished embroidering her name.

The embroidery is NOT perfect, and she is ok with that!!!!

WOOHOO!!! 

No fits about the embroidery!!! 

YAY!!!

We had to take a little break from sewing because she wanted me to make a video of her

and her quilt so Grandma and Nana could see it.

Then she told me that she wanted me to enter her things in the Fair.

I had not yet submitted our entries and TODAY 

was the deadline so I dropped everything to get on the computer and

submit our entries.

The drop off date is August 5 so we have time to finish everything.

India is entering her quilt and hopes to make a skirt and nightgown 

to enter as well.

After that, I took the girls to go see "Toy Story" and 

then I got smacked with another migraine, 

so no more sewing happened yesterday.

(Yeah, I cried during Toy Story, alright?)

Today, we had to drive to Sacramento to some hospital appointments for India.

Ahnalin had already laid out her quilt top on the batting 

and basted it on. 

She insisted on bringing the quilt top with us in the car so she could

hand sew on her name applique. 

Sewing in the car........wonder where she learned that one......

Did I mention that she was obsessed????

We just got home and she is dying to finish her quilt tonight.

I said, "NO!" as it is after 9:00 PM and she needs to go to bed!

Can you see her name on the heart applique? 

She insisted on using lime green embroidery floss, even though it blends in too much to the fabric.

But again, she is happy with the embroidery and NOT having a fit about it, so I am thrilled.

She is hoping to finish her quilt tomorrow. 

Who knows?
She just may do it!

This is India's patchwork top.

She is going to add some side panels and she has

chosen a yummy brown Minkee fabric for the back.

She wants to get working on it now, 

so I had better get back to her.

Oh, her hospital appointments went really well and 

she is feeling good! 

As for me, this is my current project! 

I am IN LOVE with this Amy Butler vinyl coated fabric

and have been dying to make the Oliver & S  School Days jacket

since it came out. 

And about my previous post.....

Thank you all!!!

I LOVED every response!! 

I walk a very fine line with teaching my girls. 

Ahnalin's perfectionism and anxiety sometimes interfere

with her passion for sewing. It is hard!

And so I often struggle with my own perfectionist tendencies and 

want to help her just relax and enjoy creating.

(She is supposed to be in bed, but just yelled down the stairs that she wants to

finish her quilt TONIGHT!! NO WAY!!)

India is really enjoying the quilt top and seems to want it to be really nice

but is not freaking out. She is doing a really great job and is excited to finish as well.

Thank you again everyone. 

Now, if you could all just pray that I could figure out a way 

to encourage Ahnalin, so that we can hopefully NOT have

tantrums when she makes a mistake. 

I wish she would not take it all so seriously, 

but then, she does have me for a mama so my poor habits

regarding my own perfectionism are rubbing off on her.

Happy Sewing. 

I may show you more pics tomorrow!

Creativity VS Perfectionism -A Poll

I have a question for you all. 

What do you think is more important in teaching young sewists how to sew?

I put up a poll on the right hand side of the blog and I would love to hear your thoughts.

Here is the deal....

When it comes to sewing, I am a perfectionist.

The insides of my creations have to be just as perfect and beautiful as the outsides.

Well, that is how I am now.

When I first learned to sew, I was NOT this way.

Remember this post?

Look at those NASTY unfinished, improperly pressed seams!!!!

HORRIBLE!!

Yeah, this was the inside of the first dress I ever sewed for myself.

I was 14 years old and chose the hardest pattern I could think of.

But that is me. 

That is how I think.

But I want to foster a love of

creativity AND excellence in my children.....

in everything they do.

But I REALLY want them to enjoy sewing 

and be confident AND competent.

So, for this summer, I decided that each of my girls

was going to learn some basic skills in sewing. 

India is 18 and had her own sewing machine for 3 years.

She has rarely touched it and has NO IDEA where the power

cable or presser foot are. She has never really been interested

in sewing for herself because she knew that I would gladly 

recreate anything she wanted. 

Yeah, I have spoiled her with my sewing, but in essence I have handicapped

her because I have not made her do it for herself.

 

Ahnalin LOVES to sew.

She sews whenever she can, but she has some perfectionist struggles 

herself, so when I try to correct some of her sewing mistakes,

she freaks out and bemoans that she will never be good at it. 

She does not take instruction well, or like to go slow.

So, I struggle. 

How much should I emphasize correct sewing techniques?

Should I make them rip out their mistakes or just let them 

keep going so they can complete something, even if it is imperfect?

God is the only perfect creator.

None of us can ever compete with His perfection,

but I know I try pretty hard!

India is sewing on my machine while we wait for a new power cord

to arrive for her Brother SE 270D.

So,  because I want them both to learn, and have some 

simple sewing successes, we are working on some projects together.

The first project, and don't laugh all you REAL quilters out there,

is a simple mini quilt made from Moda Charm packs.

Each girl picked out a Charm pack and is sewing together her 

squares to make a little quilt.

India is blazing through hers and seems to actually be enjoying her enforced sewing.

Ahnalin, on the other hand, has broken 4 needles on her sewing machine from pulling 

her fabric too hard (yes, she is THAT strong!) and has

had a few screaming fits over her crooked stitches. 

A few times, I have helped her to use the seam ripper to rip out

crooked seams. And a few times, yes, I admit it(!!!), I have 

ripped out some seams and corrected them.

This is the charm pack all sewn together, and she is pointing out

to me where there are some puckers in the green piece. 

I am tempted to take them out myself to avoid her freaking out again.

But I remember seeing an Amish quilt exhibit at the DeYoung Museum and

the docent told us that the Amish women sew an intentional flaw into every quilt

they make. This flaw serves as a reminder that "Only God is perfect."

I hope the girls will enjoy sewing their quilts and I think we will

have some finished quilts to show off in a day or so.

But really, 

I would love to hear your thoughts on creativity vs. perfectionism.
How do you think children should be taught to sew? 

Please share your thoughts with me.

Even if you have never commented before, I would love to hear from you.

Oh, and if you want me to respond, please include your email in the post.

Love to you all!!!!!