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.

50/50 again?

Today I had another doctor's appointment.  I decided to take our ultrasound pictures from the 20th week ultrasound that determines the sex of the baby.  I had some questions.  When we had the ultrasound the lady/nurse kept talking about three lines that meant we were having a girl.  Well I couldn't see them at the hospital and my husband and I still can't see them.  So I just wanted the doctor to explain the ultrasound so I understood it.  I didn't doubt that we were having a girl I just wanted to understand.

Well I showed her and asked my question and she looked at it.   And looked at it.  She couldn't see three lines either.  She could see a dot.  Then she told me that she had no idea what that nurse was seeing because she couldn't see anything that would help her determine the sex of our baby.  So we are kind of back to 50/50.  She wants to do another ultrasound at our next appointment and see if she can determine the sex.

I'm still going to say we are having a girl until otherwise told.  I just don't like calling the baby a he/she.  The doctor was going to do an ultrasound on the 30th either way to determine the position and get some idea of the weight of the baby.  Well right now I can tell that the baby is laying sideways just from the movements.  The doctor felt my stomach and agreed with my assessment.  So I'll let ya know what the doctor finds in a couple of weeks.  This should be interesting.

Ultrasound

He did it.  He brought the ultrasound pictures home Friday but I didn't get them until Sunday.  So here she is.

This is kind of a front view.  She has her feet pulled up a little and her hands are there too.  She is looking down though.

It's a.....

Tuesday I had my official 20 week ultrasound.  They told us what we are having and I have wanted to share it here on my blog but I have been putting this off for one reason only.  My husband took the pictures to work and keeps forgetting to bring them home.  I wanted to share with you but I guess we'll have to wait until he brings them home.

We are having a little girl.  We are so happy to have a healthy baby that it doesn't really matter what we have.  Sarah was upset.  She wanted a brother.  Yana doesn't really have a clue so she could care less what we are having.

Well as soon as I get the pictures I'll share them with you.

Just in time for the holidays!

This is a cute Thanksgiving themed pullover bib.  It is sized for a baby up to about 2 years of age.  If your children are anything like mine then they don't like bibs all that much.  My oldest would rip them off.  She hated the Velcro and the snap buttons.  We even tried the ones that tied.  She hated them all.  I made one like this for her and she loved it.  She is now 3 and has some that are a bit bigger.  She loves putting them on and taking them off all by herself.

I have a 9 month old who is following in her footsteps.  I can't keep any bibs on her unless it is a pullover bib.  It is hard enough keeping their clothes clean and unstained as it is.  These don't cost much and can't protect so many of their cutest outfits.

They are machine washable and very cute...but then again I am a little biased. :)

Come check them out at my store :IdahoAtHeart

Exciting news!!!!

I just found out about an hour ago that my sister in law had a baby girl.  She came 5 weeks early and other than breathing problems is doing well.  She is 6 lbs some odd ounces and right now is in the NICU.  They say she will probably have to stay for a week but then hopefully she will be able to come home.

It was weird in a good way when all of my siblings were married and now all of them have children.  It is so fun to see my family grow.

Just wanted to share the exciting news.

The weekend when we blessed our daughter.

The last weekend in January we planned to bless our daughter and my husband's parents were able to come for the occasion.  It was a beautiful weekend.  It was 73 degrees Friday when they flew in and Saturday was 69.  We test drove a boat and then had a picnic.  It was a wonderful time at the campground where we like to go.  We had a fire and visited and just enjoyed being away from town.

We even made our own roasting sticks.  Grandpa is hard at work getting them ready for the hot dogs.  Sarah rode her bike and her scooter and just had fun.  I taught her how to gather twigs to help start the fire and she gathered a lot.  She is such a good little helper.

This is our daughter and she is 6 weeks old now.  We had her blessed on the 30th of January by her father, grandfather and friends.  I realize that in this first picture she doesn't look very happy.  I think that she was tired of all the pictures.

The unique thing about this blessing - that is between our two girls- is that I made this dress.  In my child clothing class one of our projects was blessing dresses and this is the one that I made.  I was so excited to see her wear it that I tortured her the night before and tried it on.  It was so cute.

Part of me wants to use it for a few Sundays but we wont.  It is going promptly into the hope chest where her sister's dress is also kept.

One thing that you can't really see is that she is wearing the same booties that her sister wore but also that her father wore when he was blessed.  They were made by his great grandmother.  I think that all of our children will wear them.

It was a wonderful day spent with family and we were sad to see Grandma and Grandpa go home.

Finished projects!

I know it has taken a while but I finally took some pictures of the projects that I finished right before Christmas.  I already showed you the Christmas dress that I made my daughter.  It turned out rather cute I think.  She really likes it which is the good thing.

When I first blogged about these projects all I showed you was the material and the pattern.  So here are the pictures of the finished products.

The above pictures are of the bath robe that I made for my daughter.  Yes it is a little big but I didn't want her growing out of it any time soon.  It was fun to make and I thought it turned out rather cute.  I am thinking about making some and selling them in my store.  My daughter picked out the material herself and we bought some ducky slippers to go with it.  She loves the slippers but as of yet hasn't decided what she thinks about the finished robe.  We think it is very cute.

The pattern calls this a bunting but I just call them sleepers.  However, this one is made out of fleece so it is really warm and it is more for outdoors than indoors.  She hasn't used it yet as we haven't really taken her outside a lot.  The hat is really cute but is way to big for her at this time.  As she grows she should be able to wear them.

I really enjoy working with fleece and had a lot of fun with these outfits.

The newest addition to our family!

Thank you all for being patient with me as I have not taken the time to post for the last 2 weeks.  Life has been busy with the addition of our daughter.  I was supposed to be induced on the 22nd of December and my water broke the night of the 21st.  She was born at 4:14 am on the 22nd.  She weighed 7 lbs 14 ounces.  At the hospital they have her height at 21 inches but at the doctor's office at almost 19 inches.  She is a healthy beautiful little girl.  We named her Yana Lue.

She lives the life of a typical baby...sleeps and eats and that is all that she does at this point.  Her sister Sarah just loves her.  She is always helping.  Whenever Yana cries she comes running saying "I'm coming Yana Lue, I'm coming!"  She helps put her clothes in the laundry basket and dirty diapers in the trash.  She loves to give her kisses and hugs and is always very gentle.  She is such a wonderful big sister.

My mother in law has been here for the last week and has been helping out with everything and it has been wonderful to have her.  She will be here for 2 more weeks and we are enjoying every minute of it.

Things are slowly starting to find a routine as we are figuring things out and settling into life again.  My husband is back at work and my daughter is back to taking naps.  This should allow me to get back to my sewing.

I bought some cute material to make Valentine's Day table runners with and will post pictures of them when they are finished - hopefully sometime next week.

I will also be posting pictures of the projects I was working on right before Christmas.  I will post them in on Friday.

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Enjoy 2011.

New posts to my store

Ok well you saw a picture of the different towels that I was turning into pull over bibs.  Now they are finished and posted at my store.  Come check them out.  They turned out very cute.  I went with a different softer towel than normal and loved it.  I think I will stick to that in the future.  They shed a lot but when I was done serging they stopped shedding. 

I have listed 4 new pullover bibs.  One pink baby girls bib, one pink striped toddler pullover bib, one solid red bib that can be used for girls or boys, and one green striped bib.

They are great to have at your house for your own children or if you babysit.  If you watch your grand kids they are also great to have on hand.  They are all machine washable and very durable.

They have knit collars so they are soft on the neck and very easy to put on and off.

Come check them out and spread the word.

These are only two of the 4 bibs.  Check out my store to see the other two.  www.IdahoAtHeart.etsy.com.

Pullover Bib Tutorial

This is a post where I show you how to make pull over bibs.  I do sell them at my store to make things simple but for those of you who like to sew and learn new things.  I thought I would share this with you.  I have broke it down into 12 simple steps with pictures.

Step 1

Pick your towel.  The one in this tutorial is a hand towel from Target.  It was the perfect size for a baby pull over towel.  You can also cut bigger towels into smaller ones to make more.

Step 2

You need to decide how much of the bib you will want on the back of the head and then fold it that much.

Step 3

Before this step you need to decide how big your neck hole is going to be.  I have mine drawn out on parchment paper.  You only need to draw half of it and then place it on the fold and pin in place.

Step 4

Once you have it pinned in place.  Cut the hole out.

Step 5

Now you need to mark it evenly into fourths.  If you mark it while it is already folded and then match those pins in the opposite direction and mark the other sides it works really well and quickly.

Steps 6 & 7

Then you need to measure out the knit.  It needs to be 3/4 of the measurement plus 1 inch.  If you measure from one pin around to the last pin, leaving a gap between the last pin and the first it works really well. 

Then you need to fold the knit in half and serge the end closed.

Steps 8 & 9

Know you open up the knit and fold the edges up together.  Then you need to also pin it into fourths.  The serged edge can count as 1 of the fourths.  Then you match the pins up on the knit necking to the pins already marked on the towel.

Steps 10 & 11

Now you serge around the neck edge.  Make sure you stretch the towel to match the knit.  Keep all the edges nicely lined up.  When you get to the start - keep stitching for about an inch.  Then stitch until you get a tail so you can finish off the threads.



Your finished and it looks great.



Now that you have finished serging just check the top side to make sure that you don't have any bunches and that you haven't missed any parts of it while serging.  When you iron it just don't iron the folded edge of the knit and it will look really good.  Now you can embellish or leave as is.

Some other options

Something else I like to do is buy the bigger towels and cut them in half.  Then you can fold and sew the cut edges and make two of the toddler pull over bibs out of one towel.



I hope that you have enjoyed the tutorial.  Like I said, I do sell them at my store for your convenience.  If you have questions please feel free to contact me.  The bib seen in the tutorial is a baby pullover bib and will be available Monday in my store so come check it out.

New baby pullover bibs are now available in my store.

Well I hope you can see what I'm selling.  I saw these cute kitchen towels and thought they would work great for baby bib.  They are pullovers with a knit collar so it is comfortable on the baby.  It can be used until the child is about 2-3 depending on how fast your child is growing.  They are machine washable and fun.  My daughter loves hers.  She loves to help put it on and take it off but she leaves it alone while eating and it has protected many shirts.  She never liked the bibs that tired, velcroed or snapped on when she was little and was constantly pulling them off and sometimes hurting her neck.  These have such a soft neck collar that she doesn't care if it is on.
With Thanksgiving coming up soon these could be a lifesaver to whoever buys them.  There are two available.  This one is actually sitting on one of the two Fall tablerunners that are left in my store.  Come check them out.  They make great gifts for children or grandchildren.  They are also just nice to have on hand at grandparents houses for when children come to visit.