by Sherri Sylvester | Sep 9, 2016
Not sure how the fall sneaks up on me, all of a sudden it’s our first week of school. It seems every year the summer goes by a bit faster. The re-set to our schedule is always refreshing, despite not wanting to say goodbye to our lazy summer pajama days!
Speaking of fall, our fall weather is not here! We abandoned our new “first day of school” jeans and grabbed shorts instead since we have had heat alert days all week and the kids’ school doesn’t have air conditioning.
As is the custom – we took “first day” photos on our front porch. I searched through the blog and found some photos of my oldest from 2012 – she’s so little! We’ve got 2013, then 2015 as well – it’s so fun to look back and watch them grow up.
This year my oldest is almost 9 and in Grade 4, the little one is 6 and starting Grade 1. Both of them have been great through the newly re-scheduled week and are loving it. I’m so glad they are excited to go in the morning!
I’m also looking forward to the second annual Daddy -Daughter Weekend coming up. LOVE that my husband and the girls can spend some fun time way together. I’ve been getting ready by making them all matchy pyjamas – so they don’t forget about me while they are away. (hee hee!)
My plans for the coming weekend? I’m hoping to get some quilting done! I’ve got so many almost-finished quilt tops and projects I’d love to finish up. It’s hard trying not to get too far ahead with plans, I’m hoping to recharge for the fall too!
What would you sew if you had an entire weekend to yourself?
by Sherri Sylvester | Sep 2, 2016
Wow – did I just say six?! Craziness – my little baby is so big! This year for her birthday party she requested a cat theme and I was really happy to comply. This party was the simplest we’ve pulled off yet – just add cat ears to everything!
Since she is a summer baby, we have had parties each year at my in-law’s pool. A bit ironic, since real cats would have nothing to do with the water! It’s so nice to be able to sit around and let the kids work off their party-sugar in the pool.
I saved a ton of inspiration in my Cat Birthday Party Pinterest board. Thank goodness for all the amazing and creative people on the interwebs! We copied a lots of our ideas from there.
My oldest used her drawing skills to make most of the signs. I tried to make a cat cake – pink as per the party girl’s request. It turned out super cute – but my buttercream melted a bit in heat. The sides of the cake slipped and the cat ended up sitting in a puddle of frosting – yummy – but not exactly as planned. (Next year’s goal – better buttercream!)
All the party photos look a bit bedraggled since we couldn’t keep her out of the pool long enough to set up before photos. Life will go on! #justkeepingitreal
What is your favorite kids’ party theme? (I might be planning next year already!)
by Sherri Sylvester | Jun 30, 2016
Wow – time flies! Says everyone every year, right?! It’s the kids’ last day of school today, and we are so ready for some down-time this summer.
As is the custom, here are the comparison shots – first day of school, last day of school. I’ve officially got two kids in “real school” now – meaning they are both in a grade level. Wow, a first grader and a 4th grader in September – yikes! (BTW, Did you see their pink hair?! They’ve been patiently waiting for their promised “summer hair” for months and they are SO excited about it!)
Our back to school gifts have been sent to school with hand written notes and will hopefully be happily received. A one-hour baby blanket for my youngest’s pregnant teacher. It’s made from the cutest fabric I got from the now-closed Double Decker Fabrics last year. The characters actually shape the letters of the alphabet. I’m so excited to finally use this one. (and excited that I have a meter or so left in my stash!) I shared a photo on Facebook and Instagram this week.
I totally forgot to take photos of my oldest’s gifts. #bloggerfail She chose fabrics so I could make some Sunny Glasses Cases for her teachers. These are my go-to teacher’s gift since they are (hopefully) universally useful and can be made in about 1/2 an hour. Blue and cameras for the French teacher and Reds for the English teacher – apparently their favorites. I hope at least! It’s always a guessing game with end-of-year gifts. I’d love to know what your favorite teacher gift is. Or, if you are a teacher – what would you like to receive?
On a fabric-lover note, I’m so excited for my latest happy mail that came in earlier this week! Fabric Spark has asked me to curate a fat quarter bundle for their Monthly Sparks fabric subscription. As always I am humbled to be included in such an amazing list of bloggers that curate these bundles. Wow! It’s been sent out early to avoid our possibly impending postal strike… argh. So I get to share it with you today!
This bundle started when I noticed a lack of yellows in my fat quarter stash. Seeing as how my oldest has decided her bedroom redo will be a mix of turquoise, yellow and pink – I thought maybe it was a good time to replenish the stock – plus, isn’t yellow a nice fun summery colour? Mixed with the pinks I think it’s my favorite of the bundles I’ve put together so far. #funinthesun
I built the bundle off of the multi-colourful Andover Hothouse Flowers from Mo Bedell. The small splashes of greens in the pinks and yellows make me happy! Plus, who could be sad when there are cats and yarn involved. It’s my current favorite Cotton & Steel print. 🙂 Fabric Spark has a waiting list for the Monthly Sparks subscription bundle, and if you can’t wait, there are 4 other amazing monthly subscription bundles you can sign up for! And, have you heard of their fun Summer of Fabric Love? They have a new giveaway, deal, promotion or surprise every week, all summer!
I’m off to finish up some deadlines and plan the last details for our Canada Day/End of School pool party tomorrow. Have a wonderful weekend, Canada Day and/or Fourth of July!
by Sherri Sylvester | Jun 10, 2016
Thank you so much everyone for all of your kind words on my last post. I have found that rest is helping so, so much, and I am doing my very best to not overbook myself going forward. It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed by the number of creative things available for doing – but I am learning that it is ok not to be “doing” all of the time. Also, I was relieve to find that the number of people visiting this blog did not go down while I was away – good news for sure!
I’ve pulled an oldie-but-goodie project today (read: made last year and sat in the mending pile until last month!). This also happens to be Thread Riding Hood’s 499th post – wow! I think I will do a little pdf pattern giveaway next week for the 500th. Crazy that I’ve written that much! I am so grateful for each and every one of you for coming back post after post.
Last year around this time, my youngest had an end-of-the-year school presentation for her junior-kindergarten class. Her teacher had chosen to act out Eric Carle’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar – and worked for months on the project I’m sure. It was so cute! Little 4 and 5 year old’s each being one of the foods in the story, while a “caterpillar” ate them up. My daughter was chosen to be a narrator (ie. “read” some of the book) and she was SO proud! How could I not sew something for her to wear? Of course this happened the night before the presentation, as usual!
I’ve always loved No Big Dill’s Once Upon a Thread series, so making clothing based on a book seemed natural. Eric Carle’s design style is amazing. I love the illustrations in his books. He paints onto paper and then cuts it out to create each shape. I figured I could sew up another Potato Chip Skirt and do something with random fabric piecing. Turns out it works great!
I left all of the edges raw to make my life easier – but since they are fused to the skirt they haven’t frayed too much so far. The button caterpillar was based on this idea for a onesie that I found. Instead of embroidering the antennae I used a paint pen for them.
I tried to photographed the skirt while my daughter was on her way out the door to school. (Explaining the different photos in this post.) Here begins the adventure that has lasted a year. Sending a 4 year old to kindergarten in a white skirt required a trip through the wash. In the wash one of the sun’s rays fell off. The skirt then landed in the middle of a giant mending pile.
I finally found my embroidery floss a month or so ago and stitched each fabric piece onto the skirt. Now she can wear it whenever she wants – thank goodness. Turns out she’s talking about bugs right now in school – it’s perfect, like I might have planned it even. (Our little secret, right?!)
I am still so happy with the results – despite being terrified to let her wear a white skirt. Really, if I could I would love to frame it – but she wants to wear it, so that will have to wait. Kinda makes me want to sew up a giant one as a baby quilt though…. The only thing I was a bit sad about was not piecing in the smiling sun face – but that would have been a bit over the top for a “the night before” project!
What crazy last-minute (or not!) projects have you made lately?
by Sherri Sylvester | May 27, 2016
I’ve got a few exciting catch-up newsy things to share with you today!
I am thrilled to let you know that I will be speaking at Quilts at the Creek in Toronto this summer. I was fortunate to talk to a few members of the York Heritage Quilters Guild while at the spring Creativ Festival and they have asked if I would present a trunk show once each day. (Yay!) I’ll be showing fun inspiring projects, talking about the background of Thread Riding Hood and how it (and I) have grown over the past 4 years. This huge quilt display happens at Black Creek Pioneer Village once a year. Quilts of all types are displayed around the village, perfect for a fun summer event. (I’m bringing my kids!)
They are accepting applications for quilt submissions until June 15th if you are interested in displaying some of your hard work. They also feature workshops and vendors – some of my lovely sponsors and many more! My trunk show will be at 1:30 each day, July 23rd and 24th. For more details you can find more trunk shows and workshop information on their website. I would love to meet you there!
On to more exciting news! The winner of the above Ellipse Tote from Among Brenda’s Quilts and Bags is Joanne S! I will be putting her bag in the mail today or Monday. SO thrilled! This bag is super fun and I love the colours. Don’t forget that you can find more pre-sewn purses + patterns to make your own Ellipse bag and others on Brenda’s website.
And a little announcement: The above photos are a re-cap of what’s been happening lately on my Instagram feed. Lots of new fabric and projects, with more on the way! Despite the crazy amounts of new things going on around me, I’ve been told (by a reliable source!) that I should take some time off and rest. Unfortunately, I’ve had difficulty doing simple tasks lately, along with exhaustion and new-to-me feelings of anxiety.
I think that I have pushed too hard with too many things on my to-do list for so long that my body has decided it’s time to get me to take a small break. I tend to put “me” on the back burner and I am (so excited) to be taking a tiny bloggy vacation. One week (or so) to just have fun with my kids, sew projects I’ve been wanting to work on, and not “feel bad” for stopping to read a book. Remembering to take it easy is going to be so hard for my go-go-go brain to do! But, as someone reminded me recently – If I don’t take care of me I will be of no use to myself, let alone anyone else!
I’m hoping to share more about my journey to “calm” as I learn how to re-work my life and deal with stress in a more manageable fashion. If you have any tips they would be most appreciated! See you again soon!
by Sherri Sylvester | Apr 27, 2016
I’m a bit embarrassed to show you this project today… I love taking pictures of perfectly sewn products and posting them here. Of course, it’s not a realistic view of how I live – my house looks like I haven’t cleaned in a month right now! (Which might be right – argh!) But it sure is satisfying to make everything look pretty.
I promised everyone at my Creativ Festival Trunk Show over the weekend that I would post the quiet book that started my free 12 page Quiet Book patterns. The one I made my oldest for her first birthday, about 8 years ago now! This Quiet Book is anything but perfect. I had so much to learn about sewing and was working it out as I went along. It has so many things I’d change now, least of which are my fabric choices. Pattern & character overload – wow!
This book’s unperfectness (#itsaword) is exactly what I want to share today. Things don’t have to be perfect to be loved and given away. My oldest was thrilled when I found this book in storage. She spent time looking at each page and laughing at the photos. Her smallest cousin isn’t even in the book, and everyone is 8 years younger. Crazy how fast things change. She doesn’t care about the overuse of the zigzag stitch and fraying edges. She just likes it because I made it just for her.
So here’s my unPerfect Quiet Book. I’m hoping it might inspire you to go ahead and make that project that you’ve been putting off – because you “don’t know enough” or “won’t get it exactly like the Pinterest photos”. Comparing is not allowed when you are doing what you love!
I’ll be sharing my Creativ Festival re-cap later this week and the lovelies I brought home on Instagram as well. See you again soon!
