All White Cuddle Quilt - Baptism Quilt - Wedding Quilt - Baby Blessing

As a quilter one of my favorite ways to commemorate a milestone event is with a quilt.  So when our daughter turned 8 years old and chose to be baptized a member of the LDS Church  a couple months ago, I made her this All White Cuddle Quilt to help her remember the special day.  (Note: Fairfield World and Shannon Fabrics sent me supplies and compensated me to make this quilt and write about it on the Fairfield website here.  This personal blog post is entirely my own.)

In the LDS Church we believe that the Holy Ghost (or Holy Spirit) is a member of the Godhead and helps lead, guide, and prompt our decisions.  He also acts as a Comforter in times of grief, pain, and/or anxiety.  Since this special girl suffers from severe social anxiety (selective mutism), I thought this physical reminder of comfort would help her remember that the Holy Ghost can also help comfort her soul.

Fall Entryway Showoff and Prints of Peace Sale

***If you're looking for The One Ring Giveaway, you can enter here.

As much as I love to sew and quilt and do crafty things, I don't fell like I'm all that talented at home decorating...you know taking a space and making it look just my style, and giving it the right balance between uncluttered clean lines, seasonal decor, and a few well chosen accessories.  I tend more toward the I've-been-quilting-all-week-and-the-house-shows-it type of decorating.

But I took some time this week to clean-up our entry way and get it looking festive...and I really like how it's turned out.  I don't like cheesy/cartoony decorations, nor gory/scary decorations, so this fits my style.  It's even up with a few weeks to go (in comparison to last year when I decorated for Halloween ON Halloween.)

I've envisioned having a quilt of some kind hanging in this space for a long time.  I finally realized I coudl use a curtain rod and rings to hang a quilt without having to put the hanging slip on the back...and make it easy to switch out different quilts for different seasons, and decided to start with the Modern Bat Quilt that I made a few weeks ago.  It's still listed in my Etsy Shop, but for now it's hanging out in my entry way.

I made the paper bats last year from Dana's tutorial on MADE and saved them.  The little twig pumpkins I picked up last year at a rummage sale.

The family name sign was made at a craft night several years ago and is more or less a permanent fixture no matter the season.

And I'm really excited with my newest addition...This autumn print of the Manti LDS Temple from Stacy at Prints of Peace.  I've loved her work ever since discovering her Christmas paintings last year, and couldn't resist this one when I saw it listed at 50% off her already great prices.  (It's less than $6 on sale for an 8x10).  I ordered these myself, but since then Prints of Peace has decided to become a sponsor, which I couldn't be happier about since she offers such beautiful prints..  Besides being a beautiful painting in it's own right, the Manti Temple is particular special in my husband's family because his grandparents, parents, and sister were all married there.

Feeling Peace...

It's been an emotional few weeks, in good ways and hard ways.  My Granddad passed away and our family gathered for a celebration of his life.  My brother's family was preparing for a move across the country for a new job when their whole family got sick, and I was too far away to be of any help.  And of course the national tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Even as my heart has ached these last few weeks, the most constant emotion has been a deep peace that in the end things will work out...that things will be okay...

...so this message really resonated with me.  I hope you enjoy it.

Big Boy Crayon Roll & Full-Size Scripture Tote

After I made Becca's little I-Spy Scripture Purse, I realized that Seth didn't have a scripture tote of his own...and...um...he's 2 years older.  Gotta fix that.  After all, Seth is growing up.

Seth carries around full-sized scriptures, and I wanted the bag to be fun for now with the crayon pockets...

...and functional enough for him to use it a long time with room for a full set of scriptures, pencil, and other pockets.

I Spy Scripture Purse and Crayon Roll

I've been itching to try something with all the I-Spy squares that I got through the I-Spy Swap at Hammer and Thread a month or so ago.  (If you're interested in participating in an I-Spy Swap, I'm starting another one.  Go here to sign up.) I didn't think I'd get a chance to touch them until after Christmas, but then I found a way to work a few into a little Christmas gift for Becca.

Becca turned 3 last year which means when the new year hits she gets to go to the "Sunbeam" class at church.  (The first "real" Primary/Sunday School class for the children at our church.)  Becca is really excited, so we bought her a mini-Book of Mormon, and I figured she needed a little scripture purse to carry it in.

And as long as I was at it, I figured I'd add a little place for carrying crayons.

DIY "Y" Gear - Freezer Paper Stencil and Applique

I was so busy with Halloween and some quilt projects last week that I didn't get around to posting many projects, so here's a fun and fast one we did.

Two weeks ago was Anti-Drug week at the kids school.  One of the days was "Team up against drugs" and the kids were supposed to wear clothes showing off their favorite team.  My husband follows a few sports teams via the internet, but he's not a fanatic.  And since we don't follow sports that much, we haven't invested in any "team" gear for the kiddos.

I found a BYU t-shirt for Katie in my T-shirt stash, but we didn't have anything for Seth, so...
we pulled out some freezer paper and found the Y logo online.  I'd just bought a couple of plain, longsleeved shirts for Seth at Goodwill all ready for decorating.

We did the freezer paper Y onto a scrap piece of T-shirt from another project.  Then I added some Heat'n Bond to the back of it, ironed it onto the shirt, and then stitched around the edge.  I think the whole thing took about 15 minutes.

Happy Fourth of July and...

...a BIG THANK YOU to all the service men and women, past and present who have fought to keep our country free.

However you celebrate Independence Day, I hope you have a safe and happy one, surrounded by people you love.

Love this video...

When I've had a hard day with my kids...

...I love to listen to this message.  It's a talk called "What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be?" by Lynn G. Robbins and has some wonderful parenting advice.

It encourages, inspires, and reminds me why I MUST be a better parent, without making me feel guilty for my shortcomings.  I've probably listed to it 10 times since I first heard it in a few months ago.  Each time, I notice something new.  The first part is kind of an introduction and the focus on parenting starts at about the 3 minute mark.

Enjoy!

America the Beautiful - Singing Time

I was recently called to be the Primary Music Leader...which means I lead the singing time in the younger children's Sunday School Meeting.  I've been using many of the Flip Art files shared on Sugardoodle because I love having the words there for the kids to see.

The first verse of America the Beautiful describes our area in central Washington wonderfully, so I wanted to sing America the Beautiful with the kids leading up to the Fourth of July.  Sugardoodle didn't have a Flip Art for it, so I made my own...and now you can find it on Sugardoodle here.  The flip art just includes the 1st and 4th verses, since that was about as much as I thought I'd be able to teach them in so short a time.

Anyone else out there a music leader?

Fabric Mat

If you read my blog regularly, you know I've been kind of obsessed with faux embroidery (You can see my full faux embroidery tutorial here).  I can't help it!  The doodle people from Twin Stitchers are so cute...and it's fast and easy to personalize.  So I'm at it again.  I teach the 6 year-old (turning 7) class at church and wanted to have something for each of their birthdays.  Of course it needed to be cheap and easy and something I could commit to giving to each of the six kids through the year.

So faux embroidery was the answer.  I whipped up this cute little wall hanging using the girl from My Sister...My Friend, and the CTR sheild in the Tidbits All Occasions! pattern, both available from Twin Stitchers.  One of the things I LOVE about Twin Stitchers patterns is that they're so easy to mix and match.

I did the words on my own and did my best to immitate the Twin Stitchers cute doodle writing.

Language of Love

I just have to  brag a bit about my friend.  We knew Maria and Sam when Hubby and I were newly weds at BYU and their oldest son was younger than Sweet Pea. 

I love this video about their family.


And Maria's got an amazing blog Busy as a Bee in Paris that you can see here.  She has a little bit of all the usual crafty/cooking kinds of things, but also some amazing posts about raising multi-lingual children.

General Conference Highlights

A few weeks ago, I posted about our Neck Tie Pancakes and Homemade Blender Ice Cream that were part of what we did to make General Conference weekend fun and special for our kids. 

If you missed General Conference or are curious about what it's about, there's a highlights video that just came out.  You can watch a snapshot and hear a bit from many of the messages our modern-day prophet and apostles taught us and fits the highlights of a 2 day conference into just about 18 minutes.  If you'd like to watch, hear, or read the full conference talks, you can go here.

Enjoy!

General Conference Pancakes

One of the things that's fun about pancakes is that you can make them into any shape you want.

The kids requested pancakes this morning, so I was trying to think of something to make it go with General Conference.  And I came up with these...

So I know you're probably thinking it's a little weird to make them in the shape of ties...and it is...but I couldn't think of anything else...and the kids were super excited to eat them.

Should you want to make your own...I'll give you a few tips.

We were given this pancake pen as a gift a while ago, and it works great.  You don't need a pancake pen though...you can also use a condiment bottle (like for ketchup...about $1 at Wal-Mart) and just cut the hole bigger. 

It turns out the mini-chocolate chips and the colored sugar worked the best as tie decorations.  When using the sugar it worked best to pour it gently out rather than to sprinkle it through the holes.  The other kind sprinkles, just kind of made an oozy mess.

The most delicious variation (and messiest on the griddle) was the mini-chocolate chip and banana spotted tie.

The kids had fun coloring their General Conference packets we printed off from Sugardoodle.

And since we were watching General Conference via the internet and the computer is in our dining room next to the table, we turned our table into a General Conference tent (to go with the story of King Benjamin from The Book of Mormon.)

If you're not familiar with General Conference or the LDS faith (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or commonly called Mormons), we believe in living prophets and apostles, just as in Christ's day.  We believe that there is a prophet on the earth today.  Twice a year during General Conference which is held in Utah and broadcast throughout the world, we get to see and hear our prophet (Thomas S. Monson) and other church leaders speak to us and inspire us to live better, more Christ-centered lives.  If you're curious about the LDS faith, tuning in to General Conference is a great way to learn more.

Homemade {Almost} Ice Cream - No Ice Cream Maker Required

This weekend our family will be watching LDS General Conference via the internet.  We try to make it an extra fun weekend for our kids.  I printed off some conference packets available on Sugardoodle for the kids to color while we're watching conference.  We're also going to make a "conference tent" to sit and watch conference from.

And we always try to think of a special treat or two.  This year we have a new recipe we came upon kind of by accident.  Hubby's chemistry classes had "Liquid Nitrogen" day last week, which involves making liquid nitrogen ice cream, and there was plenty of ice cream ingredients left over...but no liquid nitrogen.  We don't have an ice cream maker...so what to do? 

We invented...

Homemade {Almost} Ice Cream

(Okay, I'm sure we're not the first people to come up with this...and it's really just a glorified smoothie...but it's SOOOO good.)

Combine in a blender:
Lots of frozen fruit
Half frozen half-and-half.  (We put it in the freezer for a couple hours before we're ready to make it.)
A teaspoon or so of vanilla (to taste).
Several tablespoons of sugar (to taste).

Blend until thick and smooth.  You may need to add more half-and-half, depending on the strength of your blender.

As a general rule, we don't buy half-and-half.  We usually use use regular and/or low fat milk, and it still tastes great.  (Not as creamy, but a whole lot healthier.)

Does it pass the taste test?

Definitely!!

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