Evelyn & Tate

A friend of mine had twins last week. A boy and a girl, named Evelyn and Tate. I really like their names. There are a few reasons that they will be in the hospital for a little while, so I thought blankets with their names would be nice to have in their bassinets. I had a little stash of flannel on hand and these are 2 of my favorite prints.

I originally thought I'd do the traditional pink and blue, but I liked these prints so much that I changed my mind. I think they still say "boy" and "girl". The name labels are variations of designs from Oma's Place. I think they were both freebies, but they may have been from the blanket label set. I took out the original words and put their names in. The applique "tag" is on white pique.

Close up of Tate's blanket.

Close up of Evelyn's blanket.

I'm just starting work on Andy's 4th of July sunsuit and I still need to finish up the ruffly girl outfit I showed a while ago. Hope you are all enjoying the nice summer weather!

My Embroideries are Available on Etsy!

I finally had a chance to photograph and list some of my own machine embroidery designs. I will be adding more soon! I hope you'll take a look and just for readers of my blog, I'm offering a Buy 1, Get 1 Free until July 2. Just buy the one you want and in the comments, tell me which one you want free. Use code: MASBLOG

Click to go to my Etsy Shop

Look What Followed Me Home!

My girls are bargain hunters, just like me. Late spring, summer, and fall are yard sale season around here. A few weeks ago, we attended an Estate Sale (where most of the contents of a house are for sale) run by a lady who does this for a business. I signed up for her emails and now I get advance notice of her sales. There was one near us this morning and it said they had "sewing items" so I thought we'd check it out.
I was hoping to find some patterns or books, maybe a little fabric, but look what followed me home instead!

 It's a "Modern" Standard Electric Syncomatic Sewing Machine. I didn't know if it worked when we bought it, but I hoped it would. I plugged it in and the light came on, but the knee-pressed pedal didn't do anything. Boo hoo.

Then I tightened all the plugs inside and it worked!!

 It took a long time for me to figure out how to thread it.

 It came with this nice little table with a pull-out drawer.

Here is the stitching, which is quite nice! It goes forward and backward and you can adjust the stitch length. That's all it does!!
I can't find a date on it at all, but I'm guessing the 1930s from the style? What do you think? Would you have paid $30 for it?? I am happy with this great deal!!

Tidbits

What a busy month this has been! The end of school is always filled with activities, but this year it seems even more so. In the past week, I ran Andy's birthday party, chaperoned a field trip, attended a chorus concert, volunteered at 2 field days at my kids' schools, one dance recital dress rehearsal and had Father's Day. This week, 4 kids will finish school on 3 different days, we have an elementary school graduation tonight, and we are hosting a party for about 25 of the graduating 6th graders on Wednesday. Katie has an 8th grade party tomorrow night and Rosie has a dress rehearsal and 2 dance recitals at a performing arts center. Here are some pictures from the activities:

 At one of the field days, the kids made a 2012 and one of the Dads who is a pilot took an aerial photo!

 Rosie is our daredevil and loved this roller coaster that fell at a 97 degree angle, then did a loop! This was the field trip I chaperoned.

 At Davy's field day, I "taught" the classes to do the chicken dance, Cotton Eyed Joe, Macarena, and other dances.

Rosie had a preliminary dress rehearsal for her recital.

This is a sneak preview of the one little bit of sewing I did. I will show the whole outfit when it's done, but I can tell you that it's going to be really cute!!

A Sesame Street Birthday Party!

 My little Andy had his 2nd Birthday party this weekend. We had a Sesame Street theme, since he loves Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird and Abby Cadabby. We had perfect weather and it was great to see everyone. Andy enjoyed playing with our new neighbor, who is 2 1/2. I made him a jon jon with a Cookie Monster applique. It was nice and cool.

Doggone Good Cake!

Not much sewing happening here, but I do have a story to share with you!
Pete, 16, had a Robotics competition on Saturday. He left at 6:30am and traveled with the team. After the competition, they had their team party. It is a large team, with over 60 kids plus mentor adults. Each family is expected to sign up to send some food for the party. Pete wanted me to send cake- the most perfect food on earth in our opinion. "Should I buy a big one at a bakery, or do you want me to make it?" I asked. "Oh, make that delicious scratch chocolate cake with the yummy fudge frosting" Pete answered. "OK, happy to do that for you darling son." I signed up for the cake on the group spreadsheet and then was informed that it should also say "Happy Birthday" for all the team members with summer birthdays. "OK, no problem." Well, I never had a chance to do anything about it and before I knew it, it was Saturday. It was a day of torrential downpours, a good day to stay inside and bake. I took the other 4 kids and went to the store for the supplies, came home and baked not one, but TWO of the cakes, decorated them, and loaded everyone into the car again. We drove the cakes to his school to meet him between the competition and the party. We quickly dropped off the cakes in the rain and went home. One of the mentors told me pick up would be around 8 or 9pm. I heard from Pete once around 8 and he said he would call when the party ended. At 9:30 I started to worry a bit and called, but he didn't answer his phone. I finally heard from him at 10:20, at which time Hubby went to get him, so I didn't see him that night. The next day he slept late, then I was out doing errands and took the girls to a movie. The whole family finally met at Burger King for dinner. Once we were settled, I finally had the chance to ask Pete how his day was.
Pete: "It was great. Our team won first!"
Me: "That's great! How was the party?"
Pete: "It was fun. I played foosball, Wii, and we even went in the pool (in the dark and rain!)"
Me: "Wow. How did everyone like the cake?"
Pete: "Well, we had lots of cake. Mike brought a huge one, too. But yours was really popular!"
Me: "Did both cakes get eaten?"
Hubby and Pete exchange guilty glances.
Me: "What?"
Pete: "Well, your cake was the most popular and 1 1/2 of them got eaten. The rest was on the table when we went out to swim". In a soft voice "Then one of the mentors said the dog was eating it."
Me: "A DOG ate my homemade from scratch, delicious chocolate cake!!??"
Pete: "Ummmm...yeah."
silence...
Katie: "Dogs get diarrhea from eating chocolate."
Me: "I hope he had diarrhea all over their house."


If you want the recipe, you can find it in my previous post, titled The Most Scrumptious Chocolate Cake.