"The Kreu Quilt"

I had been working on a project for quite some time & today  I am excited to show you the 1st of hopefully many to come. So here it is "The Kreu Quilt." A Country Road original quilt.

"The Kreu Quilt"

 This quilt is a quick crib/toddler size quilt & goes to together fairly quickly with the help of chain piecing. The Monogram, is appliqued on & can be change to fit whatever letter you need.

   The back is a solid piece of brown with continuing arrows from the front  cutting in around a 1/3 of the way through. This makes it cute from not only the front, but also the  back.

       The pattern will be shared soon, so check back for it or e-mail me if interested. Anyways I am so excited about this one. It has been my first quilt that I took from my mind to finished project, and I hope you enjoy it!  Here are a few more pictures:

An New Apron

The other day, I wanted to sew something. I wanted it to be quick. I wanted something I could do start to finished in couple of hours or less. I have several quilts in the works, but I really wanted to see a finish product. I also wanted to go to a quilt store & buy fabric. I love a quilt store.

However, I am trying to be better about living on a budget on & it didn't fit. So I tried to get creative. I came across a men's shirt similar to this:

It happened to be in a bag of clothes that needed sorting through before being donated to the local thrift store. I happened to find  a green & yellow one, both  a XXL. I decided I would use what I had on hand to make an apron. I turned that over sized men's shirt, into a brand new apron.

It is double thick, & has a pocket, which next time I will add some decorative edge on, so it stands out more. But it was quick & I am quite happy with the result.

It was fairly quick, & not to difficult. I am working on a couple of more t-shirt aprons & will hopefully be able to put a tutorial on in a few weeks. Do you have any t-shirts that would work? Don't get rid of them quite yet.  Anyways, happy Monday & we will talk to you soon!

Hand stitching . . .

I love being a mother.

 A full time, stay at home mother.

 Who homeschools.

 To 4 boys.

 If you know boys, you know how that goes.

 And I love it.

 But every now & then I need a break.

 To do something that I enjoy.

 I normally love to sew, but as we travel a lot, that isn't always feasible.

 So I hand embroidery.

 It is nice, it gives me a break even if it is only 5 minutes.

 Creating new things makes me happy. I have been doing handwork since I was little, so it also relaxes me.
 
  (this isn't the pattern I have, just an example)

I use these iron on transfers. I love them. They are only a couple of dollars & if you iron gently you can usually get 3 or 4 transfers from the same pattern. It is a great way of sharing.

My mom picked some up, ironed them & then gave them for me to use. Once I am done I will pass them along to one of my other sisters or someone that wants them.

I recently just finished my first one & am working on the other 6.

 There is a pattern for everyday of the week. I iron them on flour sacks cloths. They are light, & incredible durable & hold moisture amazing.

Then I use them, &  smile. I love the little details & designs on the cloths as I use them in everyday.

Like I said, hand stitching is incredibly relaxing for me. And it travels nicely.

So what do you do, to help relax you?

Playing with Clay

Playing with clay. For Christmas we were given a huge tub of sculptors clay & my kids have loved it. I had every intention of teaching my kids a lesson from Deep Space Sparkle. They have wonderful lesson plans & instructions on how to teach our kids, but on this particular day we had just finished up a history lesson & used the clay to go as our additional exercises. The boys were to build a cup or bowl. My little dude, just made whatever his heart desired. We used the coil method. In which you make snakes & then coil them into the shape you want. 

After they are rolled out into long snakes you coil the clay into shapes you want. In our case cups.  Then if you don't want the coils you can smooth it with a little water & sponge.

             Then let them dry. It took our particular clay about 3-4 days of air drying. We did have the problem of having our handles fall of our cups, but I don't have a solution yet to this problem. I know there is one yet, but I haven't researched the answer. Sorry.

My little dudes Fish.

Once they were dry we added paint. It took ours about 3-4 days of air drying time, to be dry enough. I think you could add these into a warm oven to speed the process along, but we chose not to. 

We used an Acrylic paint that I had on hand already.  For my boys that wanted multiple colors on the same cup, we had a have a little drying time in between so the colors didn't mix.

They probably needed sealed once they are dry. We did have to wait patiently in between changing colors at 

times so that the colors didn't mix. They finished them & they looked fantastic. Sadly I don't have 

the finished pictures with me. (I will add them later).

All in all I would say the clay has been awesome for my boys. They are always begging to make things with it & have since created their own village. Creating cars, snow machines & a houses. Clay is something I will purchase more of & continue to use they have loved it.

Just as a tip, I always tape down freezer paper, (waxy side up) for any craft we do. That way my table is protected & it gives my boys a sense of their own working area. Once they are done, I rip of the freezer paper & throw it away & the mess is cleaned up. It works slick & my boys automatically get it out now.

Mosaics

We have been studying the Byzantine empire this week. When the emperor Justinian had to rebuild the Hagia Sophia (a large beautiful church) he has a lot of mosaics put in it.
So we thought it would be fun for our this week Art to make our own mosaics. Since I was slightly short on glass, gold, silver & other precious metals like they used in the church; we ended up making ours with tissue paper.

Menu Monday - 8/20 & Menu Board

First of all I have been eyeing cute ways of displaying your weekly menu's on pinterest for quite sometime. Here are a few: MENU Boards,. just to give you an idea.   It has been on my make list for a while, but with so many things going on around here, I haven't been able to make it happen. That was until about 2 weeks ago, when I went to a family reunion.   I was thrilled to find out we would be making one, and all I had to do was bring my scrap booking supplies & magnets.

 I haven't put all my recipes in it yet, but it has been fun to have!  Okay onto this week:

This Week's Menu     
   As you know, we have been taking a few more Road Trips.  Also we are working out a of town a lot this week &  weeks to come. So you will be seeing a few more crockpot recipes, just because I can have dinner cooking & still be working. & as almost always there will be a few repeats for meals this week.  

Monday:
        B- Cream of Wheat/Oatmeal
        L - Leftover Chicken & Mashed Potatoes
        D- Creamed Potatoes & Peas

Tuesday: 
         B- German Pancakes 
         L- Undecided
         D - Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken from Chef in Training

Wednesday:  
          B-  Waffles
          L - Macroni Casserole
          D- Crock pot Beef Noodles 

Thursday:
      B-     Cream egg on Toast
      L -    Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
      D -  Barbecue Blue Cheese Pork Chops from The Fit Cook

Friday: 
     B-  Sausage & Eggs
     L - Pork Fajitas
     D-  Beef & Broccoli (I am going to try this in the slow cooker & see how it works)

Saturday: 
        B. Cream Egg Toast
        L- Enchiladas
        D.-  Community Dinner 

Sunday:  
        B- Pancakes   
        D - Herb Roasted Chicken w/ Steamed Veggies 

Baking:  Homemade Wheat Bread,  Cookies for Mutal on Tuesday, & Sunday Treats 


As always I am linking up to Organizing Junkie.