In the Near Future....

Saturday the twins and I were out and about. I desperately needed to get to the bulk food store, and JoAnn's was have a fantastic sale, and I was armed with coupons from their Coupon Commotion promotion last week. Time for an outing, I would say! Those were the major stops. We also made some minor stops along the way. One was the Sears up at the mall, where they were having a sale on boys shirt and tie sets. The three younger boys definitely needed them. They looked very handsome Sunday!



I'll spare all the details, but JoAnn's was a stop that took a while. The girls all need new church dresses for this spring/summer, and since I could get the fabric very reasonably this weekend, it was time to start picking out fabric.

The patterns I already had.



The fabric we bought Saturday.



I'll not go into who is getting what, but leave a teaser here saying that as the projects get done, I'll post a finished pic. :)

A little while back, while digging through my stash of fabric, I noticed I had some suitable material for making some pants for Isaac. Of course, I couldn't find a pattern anywhere in my collection of patterns, so I ended up buying one.




Speaking of projects, another one on my list, this one I want to get done before our missions conference, is a valance for our living room window. The Home Decor fabric was also on sale. :)



I'll be making a family toothbrush holder with these items. It was a cute idea I read about on the web somewhere ages ago. Again, you'll have to wait to see the finished project before I explain what I did. :P



I had a myriad of notions on my list for the upcoming sewing spree. I needed threads, zippers, a new blade for my rotary cutter, water soluble fabric markers, and quilting clamps. The fancy quilting I'm about to do made me realize I needed the clamps for handling the bulk of the quilt. The clamps are attached to the part of the quilt that you aren't working on. You roll it up, then clamp it so it stays rolled up. It makes it easier to deal with the extra drag of the quilt while machine quilting. Usually my quilting is simple enough that I don't worry about it. But with the Sunflower quilt, I'm a little worried about the control of the fabric. We'll see how it works.



Another project I want to do is organize the toy corner of the living room. It is always very messy looking. I bought a solution to that, and I'll show the after picture when it is done. For now, you just get the "Before" pic. :P



With the growing pile of project in both my knitting and sewing pile, I've had to prioritize. Basically, the list looks like this: (These lists don't include the cleaning, cooking, laundry, school, and sundry chores we always do)

Before the Missions Conference:

1. Toothbrush holder
2. Living Room Valance
3. Organize Toys
4. Try and finish one of the unfinished quilts
5. Knit Jewelry Sachet

Okay, the Missions Conference is about 6 weeks off, so I think that is a doable list. If I don't get the quilting done, that is okay, but I'm trying to keep up on it a little bit at a time.

After the Missions Conference:
1. Church Dresses
2. Spring/Summer nightgowns
3. Finish my Azzu's Shawl
4.Carry on with the quilt making
5. Assess what else is needed for summer. :)

Seems simple enough, right? Of course, it is never that simple. There are always the everyday life chores, and gardening season is basically upon us, and outdoor work, and decluttering and organizing, and researching for next school year's curriculum, etc. etc. Suffice it to say, life is busy! Big surprise, eh?