Glasses and Greens Quilt - Modern Quilt Guild Riley Blake Challenge Entry

Okay, so I'm squeaking this in right under the wire.  Months and months ago I signed up for the Modern Quilt Guild (MQG) Riley Blake Challenge.

For signing up, they sent us 6 fat 1/8th of Riley Blake Basics prints in different colors.  (Everyone got the same colors and prints.)  Then we could add in any solids or other Riley Blake fabrics to finish our quilts.

Ever since seeing V & Co's Ombre quilts a year or so ago, I've been wanting to try some ombre fabric.  It turns out that Riley Blake has their own ombre solids line, so I ordered 1 yard of Riley Bake Green Ombre fabric.  (I wanted to choose a color that wasn't in the fat 1/8th bundle for some contrast.)

I also had some Riley Blake Geekly Chic Glasses in Lavender from Quilt Sandwich Fabrics.  The color seemed to mesh well with the others and I though the glasses brought a little more personality to the mix.

Simple Glasses Case & Simple Sewing by Katie Lewis

My daughter Katie has been super excited about her Auntie Katie's (hereafter called Katie Lewis to distinguish her from my Katie) brand new sewing book coming out.  Everyday for a week, she'd come home from school and the first thing she'd ask was whether the book had come in the mail.  (Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy by the publisher, but I had already ordered my own.  All opinions are my own.)

At long last, it did come, and Katie got right to work browsing through the projects.  I had looked through the projects ahead of time, and really every single one of them is easy.  I felt comfortable giving Katie free reign to choose any project she wanted from the book.

Katie initially chose some other projects, but when she found this Geeky Chic Glasses in Lavender fabric by Riley Blake available from Quilt Sandwich Fabrics, she just had to use it...and the glasses case seemed the perfect fit for the project.

Katie's eyesight is so poor that she wears her glasses ALL the time...and since she's also a bedtime-reader, she often falls asleep with them on.  We're hoping have a fun case she's made herself will help her remember to take them off before she goes to bed.

Simple Sewing: 30 Fast and Easy Projects for Beginners really does have amazing instructions.  There are step-by-step photographs for every step.  I had Katie read the instructions and then tell me what she was going to do next, so i could make sure she understood.  Sewing with my daughter Katie, has been a challenge for me because she doesn't always like to follow directions from Mom.  I was really surprised what a difference it made having the instructions come from the book.

Super Hero Shirt and Cape - Easy Kids' Gift

Katie got invited to a Super Hero party last week by a friend and neighbor.  All the kids were to report in super hero attire for their super hero training.  This was super easy to put together...and would make a great Christmas gift for your own little super hero.

Since Katie didn't have any super hero costumes and didn't want to wear any of Seth's (can't blame her), she came up with the idea of making a costume to coordinate with her eye patch.  Since we try to do as much as possible to make wearing her eye patch fun, I couldn't say no.  The eye patch is to help Katie's weak eye get stronger.  I ordered this one from Patch Pals.  They have a lot of cute options if your child needs eye patches.

Turns out we had a purple shirt her size and an adult size purple shirt in my T-shirt stash.  (Man, my t-shirt stash is happy.  The t-shirt bin is down at least 10 shirts this last week or two.)

The cape was super easy to make.  We basically cut out around the collar in the front to just over the shoulders.  (You want the collar to stay on because then your child can put the cape on by sticking their head through the collar.)  Then the cape also kind of looks like a necklace or choker in front.

Then I folded the shirt in half (so there's a fold down the middle of the back) and cut a slanted line to make a cape shape.  I used what was left of the front of the shirt to make the super hero decal to cover up the words that were on the back of the shirt.  I thought about sewing some pink bias tape around the edge of the cape...and it would have looked cute...but ultimately I decided to make it easier on myself and just leave it plain.

Glasses Gal Pumpkin Tee - KCWC Day 3

I didn't get anything posted last night...so you get to see this now.  This is a project I actually DID make during the Kids Clothing Week Challenge.

I saw this adorable T-shirt via the Little Four Eyes Pinterest page a while ago.  I didn't plan on making it until I found this brown T-shirt in my stash and figured it was destined to be a Halloween shirt. 

Fancy Firecracker and the Spectacular Spectacles

Firecracker got her first pair (of what will likely be many) glasses last week!

They're probably not as fancy as something Fancy Nancy herself would have picked out...but they've got a little bling.  (Firecracker wanted gold and black to match the school colors...but she had to settle for pink and black.)

If you've got a little girl who wears or will soon be wearing glasses, I highly recommend Fancy Nancy and the Spectacular Spectacles by Jane O'Connor.  (We're Fancy Nancy fans in general, though, so it was a favorite even before we found out about Firecracker's eyes.)

A few weeks ago, Firecracker told us that if she closed one eye, that everything was blurry for the remaining eye.  We did some rough testing of her eyes at home...and sure enough, she couldn't see much of anything with her right eye.  In fact, if she tried to read with just her right eye, she could only read a few words before he got "TV vision" as she called it...meaning everything went to black and white fuzzies until she could refocus to read a few more words and then it would happen again...over and over and over.

We asked her how long she'd known she had a weak eye...her answer...since they tested her in kindergarten...over a year ago.  WHAT?!?!  I was shocked.  Isn't the school supposed to tell us things like that?!?  It turns out the school didn't know.  I'm still baffled as to how Firecracker could have possibly passed their vision test.  The school said she tested at 20/20 and 20/24 in her two eyes on her recent vision test.  The eye doctor measured her vision at something more like 20/200 in her "bad" eye and 20/60 in her "good" eye...which means she has a very strong prescription in both of her lenses.

It might have something to do with Firecracker being farsighted and they're mostly checking for nearsightedness...but I was there for Firecracker's vision exam and she could only see the largest letter with her bad eye.  (Now to the school's credit, I know they do a decent job testing the kids and notifying parents because several other parents have told me that it was the school that caught their kids' vision problems.)

Not only does she get to wear her new glasses, but she also has "lazy eye" and gets to wear a nifty eye patch over her good eye after school to help her weak eye get more exercise and get stronger.   (More about that in another post.)  Fortunately, she's was excited to be getting glasses...because the patching has not been fun for her.  Even with the glasses, it's work for her to use her weak eye because the doctor didn't give her a full prescription in hopes the eye will get stronger.  She has been obedient about wearing it for the required time, though.

I'd never thought to have Firecracker's vision checked because she's such an awesome reader.  She's never had any kind of problem in school.  We've never seen her bad eye wander or cross.  She could see things in the distance...she can see if the crossing lady is in front of the school from our dining room...after all...she is farsighted.  And of course I knew they screened the kids at school.

Bottom line though...we should have thought to check.  Her birthfather is farsighted and has always worn glasses...but even without a family history of it...we should have thought to check.  It really only takes a few minutes to pull up an eye chart online and ask your kids to read a few letters.

I'm so glad Firecracker finally thought to say something to us about it because her eye doctor told us that it's a lot harder to strengthen a lazy eye after a child is about 8 years old...so we only got a little over a year left in that magic window.  So you all might want to check your kids' vision.  You don't need to haul them off to the eye doctor...but pull up a vision chart and do a rough test of each eye yourself.