Store is up and running....

Hello everyone,

It has been a very long time since I have even visited this blog.  Things have changed a lot over the last few years in our house.  We moved from Oklahoma in 2014 to Illinois and now we are already looking ahead to our next move.  We move a lot which is why I have a store on Etsy.  It allows me to sell stuff from where ever we are living.  We moved here in Illinois with three beautiful girl and we have added one handsome son to the mix. 

Things are starting to settle down again and I'm having to find a new routine but I have managed to get some sewing down and have started posting to my store again.  I missed making things for others.  I love to sew but in my down time I spent time sewing for my kids.  I had forgotten how much I loved sewing things for them.  I have also been spending time teaching them to sew small projects.  They are all at different levels but things are going well.  That is another reason I use Etsy.  I can post things as I have time to sew them.

I used to think that I wanted to make a lot of different things to sell and over the last couple of years I have realized that trying to keep up with many sewing projects is more stressful than stress relieving.  So I have decided to sell only a few different things.  I will be selling flannel baby blankets.  I hemstitch around the edges so they can then be crocheted.  I will sell some of them ready to be crocheted and some already done.  I usually only buy enough fabric to do make one blanket and 2-3 burp clothes.  I have posted a few of the finished ones on my store already.  Here are a couple:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/489764365/blue-flower-flannel-crocheted-edge-baby?ref=shop_home_active_8

https://www.etsy.com/listing/479947652/kite-flannel-crocheted-edged-baby?ref=shop_home_active_3

Here is a car seat blanket:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/493445183/car-seat-flannetl-crocheted-blanket?ref=shop_home_active_2

I will add table runners as I get them done as well.  Right now I don't have any done and I'm sewing lots of gifts for Christmas so I probably wont add any til January.

Another item I would like to sell are full size blankets.  Those take longer to make so I'll add them as I get them done.

If you have seen something on my store that you like but I don't add anymore don't hesitate to ask if I can make you one.  If I have time I'd love to help you out.

I'll keep you posted as I add things to my store.

Cloth vs disposable?

Tonight I was going down through the blogs that I am following and noticed a few posts about cloth diapers.  I know that my parents used cloth diapers.  I probably should use cloth diapers because it is cheaper and easier on the environment.  There are questions that I would like to ask all you who use cloth diapers.

1 - How many do you have to have on hand?
2 - Don't they leak? (that is one of my biggest concerns)
3 - How do you clean them if your child has a bowel movement?

I had more questions but as I am sitting here I can't seem to remember them.  If anyone would like to leave a comment and tell me more about cloth diapers I would be very appreciative.

Have a wonderful night.

Stake Women's Conference

Today we had a Stake Women's Conference.  I had never been to a women's conference before but was excited to go.  The theme for this conference was "Live Up to Your Privileges".  It was based on a quote from Joseph Smith "If you live up to your privileges, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates." 

We had six class options.  They were:

"Live Up to Your Privileges: Look to the Temple"
"Nutrition, Weight Loss, and Exercise:  True & False, Always & Never, What's a Gal to Believe?"
"Dare to Eat Your Food Storage"
"Courageous Parenting in the Digital Age"
"Receiving, Recognizing And Responding to Revelation"
"Making a Good Marriage Better"

We could chose to go to three of them.  It was hard to chose because they were all wonderful topics.  I chose to go to "Nutrition, Weight Loss, and Exercise..", "Dare to Eat Your Food Storage" and "Making a Good Marriage Better".  They were very good.

I thought I would share just a couple things from each class.  From the Nutrition class I really liked how they quoted President Ezra Taft Benson who said "There is no question that the health of the body affects the Spirit..." (Ensign 1988).  That alone made me feel better when I take time to go on my jogs alone.  Jogging for me is a destresser.  I unwind and am always in a better mood when I get back.  It is "me" time.  It is nice to know that it also affects the health of my spirit. 

The challenge that we were given was not to eat while standing or driving.  We need to sit and eat.  When we are standing it is usually in front of the fridge or the cupboards.  For exercising we need motivation and something that we like to do.

I went to the food storage workshop because I have been working on my food storage and need all the help I can get.  I have started couponing and have started building up my food storage but I think I needed a little direction.  We were told about www.tipjunkie.com, www.funwithfoodstorage.net and www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net.

She talked about making a menu plan for a month and then writing out all the groceries that would be needed for the month and multiply that by 3 and those are the groceries that you would need for 3 months worth of food storage.  You could even make other meal plans so you have more varieties throughout the year.

She also commented that we should put things in our food storage that we would eat and that we should be rotating our food storage so we should be eating them now.  We never know when we will need to live off of our food storage so we should be willing to eat it.

The last one that I went to was "Making a Good Marriage Better".  This one was really interesting because she really pull things out of the scriptures and showed us how wives in olden times were taught to be better wives even if their husband's weren't that great.  She put it better than that.  I have a wonderful husband but there are still things that I can be doing that will make our marriage better.  The example in the scripture had to do with a bad husband who wasn't living up to his potential.

It was so nice to spend time with the other sisters learning new things and getting motivated in all areas of life.  I just wanted to share it with you all.  I hope that you all have a wonderful Saturday evening.

Sewing a purse - a first timer....

Well my sister in law asked me sometime in December if I could make her a purse to carry all of her stuff to church.  I emailed her several options and she picked out a cute purse to sew.  I went to the store with my husband and we picked out several fat quarters and other material to add to my collection and that is where it had stayed until a couple weeks ago.

I finally got material cut out and ready to at least start on the purse when I had time around some of my other current projects.  Today I was able to start sewing and have thoroughly enjoyed it.  My one problem is that I forgot to get the main color.  I am learning new things with every project that I do and I just thought that I would share one that came to mind while working on the purse.

This tip really has nothing to do with the purse it just came to mind while working on it.  When sewing a quilt of any size you can use a bed sheet as the back of the quilt.  That way you don't have to any seams and if you buy a set than it all matches.  It is really quick and in some instances cheaper than buying all the material for the back.

When I finish the purse I will post pictures for all to see.

I finally finished the Cushions!!

Ok so I know that a few weeks ago I posted a picture of a cushion that I was planning on covering.  We have two cushions and we bought enough material to cover both of them.  We ended up standing them up in the corner in the living room so I wouldn't forget they were there. Well a week or so went by and I hadn't even started on them.  I had other projects that I deemed more important.  One weekend my husband really wanted me to work on them so he took care of our daughter and allowed me pretty much the whole day to work on it.  After a few trials and errors I finally got one finished and figured out how to do it.  I figured that the second one wouldn't take more than a couple of hours to sew plus the time to cut the material.

So my original goal was to have them both completely done by the end of November and I was one day late.  So I can't be too hard on myself.  They turned out great and we love them.

We used heavier more upholstery like material and stronger thread on them so they would last.  We did stripes on the top and sides and solid colors on the bottom.  One has a brownish cream color on the bottom and the other has a dark brown on the bottom.  We wanted them to match but the store only had so much of each material.  In my measurements I added just a little to allow for pulling on the material when moving around on them.  That is the ripples that you can see in the pictures but when you lay on them it tightens up but doesn't rip anything and it allows for the movement.

I also put a zipper in it.  The original cushions that my Grandmother in law made didn't have zippers and they worked great but we would wake up with a gap in between the cushions and one of us would inevitable be sleeping in that crack.  So I sewed a sleeping bag zipper to them.  When we zipped them up we were very proud of our idea.  They will not be spreading apart any time soon.  Also because of the placement of the zipper they fold on top of each other without having to unzip them for a double layer and for storage under our bed.

I learned a lot from sewing these.  I learned that sewing 3D isn't as hard as it may appear but it just takes time and thinking before acting.  That was my problem with the first one and the trials and errors.  I would sew and then go "oops" ad start picking.

I even have some left over material so I might be making some other cushions with the left overs.

Sharing our experiences with each other.

Growing up I didn't see a lot of sewing going on around me.  My mother liked to Cross stitch and Toll paint and is very good at both.  I was in highschool when I discovered that I like to sew and a few years later I bought a simple sewing machine and a few years and classes later I traded that simple sewing machine in for a newer, upgraded one.  I am still learning and will continually be learning.  I would like to share what I learn with you and would like to ask you to share what you are learning with me. 
If you craft in any way whether it be sewing, knitting, scrapbooking, etc and would like to share what you have learned please email me at IdahoAtHeart@gmail.com.  I would love to share your thoughts with those who read my blog.  I'm still learning about blogging and guest blogging so if I can't figure out the guest blogging part than I will post your thoughts for you and make sure that you receive the credit for the information.  Please let us know what you are learning.  I believe that we can all learn from each other.

Learning new things.

I have been sewing on a quilt on and off and I finally got to put the borders on and learned something that will make my life easier in the future.  I thought I'd share what I learned with you.  The instructions for the quilt border was to sew all the border pieces together in one long strip and then measure the two sides and then cut the measurement and sew them on.  Then I was supposed to measure the head and foot of the quilt including the border and cut those measurements and sew them on.

Did I do this?  Well no, I didn't.  Instead I decided rather than cut them to the measurements that I would come up with I would just leave it all connected and sew it to one side and then using my rotary cutter and a ruler I cut off the excess  material and then did the same for the other three sides.  I made sure to iron the seams to be accurate and it worked out amazingly.  I decided to try it this way because I tend to measure one thing and then when I cut the material and sew them together they don't always match.  This way they match perfectly.  It also seemed to cut out an extra step that wasn't so necessary.

It was very fun.  I was very confused when I first read the directions but after trying and altering the instructions a little it worked out very well.