Craft Hope Sewing Party

On Saturday I turned 26. And, to celebrate my big day, I decided I wanted to have a sewing party. I figured what better way to celebrate than with my favorite pass-time, and what better cause than Craft Hope. We fit about 12 ladies in our house with their sewing machines to whip up a bunch of Christmas stockings for Craft Hope and Christmas in Dixie to send to survivors of the tornadoes that happened this spring.

The party was super fun, although I must admit that I didn't do a stitch of sewing, except to thread my two machines, and I sat down for only about 10 minutes during the 6 hour party. 

Everyone just spread out and got right to work making stockings. I was hoping they would burn through some of the fabric in my stash, but they all brought their own fabric and hardly touched mine! Oh well.


There were many different skill levels represented at the party, from very accomplished seamstresses (like my mom, who made my wedding dress) to the "I've never touched a sewing machine in my life" gals. Everyone seemed to enjoy the day.

 There were a few babies who came with their mommies to the party and my husband really enjoyed that. He was playing with the little ones while all of us ladies chatted and sewed. I think he got a bit of baby fever, but Elora wasn't too thrilled with the whole "share your things with the baby" situation.
  

At the end of the day we had about 17 stockings and 5 more ready to be assembled. I am planning on whipping up a few more before shipping them off. 

Fun was had by all and we hope to do this again very soon!

Hello September!

Wow, where did July and August go? How is it already September 1st? Time is flying ridiculously fast and I can't believe that 2 months have passed since I was last here...sorry about that! Well, to catch up on what I've been up to, here's a little summary of July and August in the life of the Colmans :)

 Forth of July was pretty fun. We went to a parade in the morning but I don't think Elora really understood why we were there. Then we went swimming with Grandma and Grandpa. It was Elora's first time in a swimming pool and after taking a minute to get used to it, she totally loved it. The afternoon was spent at a barbecue followed by our very own fireworks show in the street. It was really fun.

 

 Later in July, my sister had her 4th baby, a boy, Eli Thomas. He was born at home on a Sunday afternoon while we had the other kids with us all day. It was a fun time and we were all excited to meet the newest little one. They did not find out that he was a boy before the birth, but I wanted to make something special to be able to give to the new baby on his birthday. So I ventured in to making my very first quilt, from this tutorial. I was quite proud of myself for sticking with the project and finishing it in time for little Eli's arrival. I went with a black and white color scheme since I didn't know he would be a boy, and I really like how it turned out. Like I said, this was my very first quilt, my first time piecing, my first time free motion quilting, my first time for everything, and I was so pleased! (sorry, no baby pics, I don't have any on my computer!)

One thing my sister requested that I make for her was a new diaper bag. She had some specifications like it has to be able to carry enough stuff for 3 kids and a newborn, and it must have backpack straps. Other than that, I was pretty free to design it as I wanted. This is what I came up with I love it! In fact, a lot of people seem to really like it and I have orders for 3 more! It was a lot of work but it was really fun to accomplish something like this. Oh, and my sister loved it!

At the beginning of August, we took a little weekend trip to San Luis Obispbo for a wedding. I made an infinity dress to wear. I really love it :)

While in SLO, we visited the beach, which Elora absolutely loved. She is such a water baby.

 We also visited Hearst Castle. I have heard about this place but this was my first visit and it's pretty spectacular. William Randolph Hearst had it built to display his Mediterranean art collection. Apparently, there are 8 of these types of homes built by Hearst in different styles for his various art collections.

I was pretty excited that I got my camera to take some decent photos in the dim lighting inside the castle without the flash. I'm slowly learning how to use my fancy camera :)

So....a ton of other stuff has gone on the past two months, but I just wanted to share a quick catch up and a few photos. Thanks for bearing with me :)

I'm really looking forward to the 3 1/2 day weekend we have coming up. Corey gets a half day tomorrow (so I will be braving the Joann's Labor Day sale sans toddler tomorrow). And he gets Monday off. So we're going to have great fun and I'm looking forward to a bit of relaxation.