Ever since I got the sewing bug while I was pregnant with Brenna and in my last days of art school I’ve thought it would be fun to design fabric.  Then I became a quilter, discovered designers like Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner (who also has 6 kids) and have thought over and over, “I could do that….. if I could just figure out how to do that.”

Well, I decided this is the year that I will learn to be a fabric designer.  I got myself some books

which have helped me immensely.  I learn by reading.  If I can read about how to do something in a book, then I can do it, but reading directions on the computer, experimenting by trial and error– they just don’t do it for me.  Kim Kight’s Field Guide to Fabric Design is fantastic.  All the tutorials for digital design are for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, but since those aren’t quite in the budget I’m having to translate things into GIMP and Inkscape, which are free.  I also got a vector drawing app for my iPad call iDraw and a stylus so I can draw right on my iPad.  It’s like a glorified sketchbook, though I have been using my real sketchbook a lot too.

And then there’s Spoonflower.  I’ve known about it since it first started in 2008 or 2009 and signed up as soon as it wasn’t just by invitation only, but have never figured out how to make designs until now.  And look!

My first test swatches came in the mail!!!  My designs are printed on real fabric!!!

Anyone remember the story I told about Ian coming downstairs one morning and telling me, “Mom, we’re going to get a girl baby and her name is going to be Eva and she is going to be zero and she will have a pink shirt that is a dress”?  Well, he further described that pink shirt that is a dress as having blue butterflies on it and a skirt that is blue with pink butterflies.  I’ve been on the look out for pink shirts with blue butterflies, pink fabric with blue butterflies, blue fabric with pink butterflies.  None.  I guess I’ll have to make some.

And I can!!  How fun is that?

Have you ever sewn leather?  It’s always seemed a bit scary to me, but my sewing machine has a special button for sewing leather and every time  I’ve sat down at it I’ve wondered, “Could I really sew leather?  What would I make?”  It was an itch I needed to scratch, so the other weekend I ventured to Denver Fabrics.  It’s a crazy HUGE place that is completely overwhelming for me, but I knew I could find pretty leather.  That I did.  I bought a supple brown lamb skin and brought it home.  I made 2 projects with it, but today I’ll just show you one.  (The auto focus on my main camera lens is dying and I only got okay photos of one of the things I made.)

Behold the little shoes:

Aren’t they perfect?  I love them.  They are such a cute shape, with a wide toe.  Robeez are cute, but sometimes the decoration on them is a bit much for me.  I used this pattern with a few modifications.  Since I was using leather instead of fabric I didn’t make the heel or sole two layers.  I did line the toe part with some fabric, though, so I had a little channel for the elastic to go through.

I used the suede side of the leather for the sole and a decorative flower stitch to topstitch them.  The actual sewing was just like sewing regular fabric.  I made sure I had a leather needle in my machine and that was it.  Piece of cake.

And because I can’t resist it, here are some pictures of the other end of my little shoe model.

The camera clicking woke her up.

How will I survive when she’s not a baby anymore?  I need to freeze time.

I know it is January and Thanksgiving was way back in November, but that’s just how things work for me these days. I get to it when I get to it.

Here are some family pictures from our trip to Idaho.  I wish I had taken photos of everyone sitting at the dinner table, of the kids playing legos for hours on end, of my sister in-law pouring over the Black Friday ads.  But, alas, I was too busy actually experiencing it all to remember to pull my camera out.

It was so fun to all be together.

One of my brothers is missing, but he’ll be in the next family picture for sure.  (And I promise my Dad really does like all of us– just not the picture taking part I guess )

Look at all those cousins!  The boys definitely out number the girls.  That’s how we do it.

And look at the babies.  My brother’s wife came down with severe preeclampsia about a week after Eva was born. There were a few scary days and finally the doctors decided they had to do an emergency c-section to save her life. Her little baby was born at 32 weeks and just 2 lbs. 14 oz. There was a scary lung colapse when she was about a day old, but since then she’s been a tough little girl. Just tiny. Here they are at 3 months old– Eva is about 15 lbs. and Savanna is 7 lbs. How fun is it that we have girl cousins one week apart?! Very fun, if you ask me.

We also visited friends on our trip and had so much fun. I think a post about them is in order too. When will I get to that do you think?

(So, these pictures are completely unrelated to what I’ve written here today, but they sure make me smile.  I love that my basement is Thor’s motorcycle course.  I love that Ian has all his clothes on backwards.  I just love it so much I can hardly stand it.)

It’s the end of the first day of the year and I feel like I need to just sit and write something. 2011 was good. I grew a baby, fell deeper in love with my husband, watched my children grow into more of themselves. I feel privileged to be here to witness it all.

I’m also feeling like there is more growing I need to do, like I’ve been in a state of stagnation, like I need to push a little deeper and grow into more of myself. I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions (generally because I’m horribly inconsistent and not super good at following through on things) but I do believe there is power in putting things in writing so I’m just going to make a list of things I want for this new year.

• I want to read more– to have meaningful things to think about.
• There are three things I want to do just about every day– scripture study, yoga, and writing.
• I want to design fabric.
• I want to feel like I’m using my time just as God would have me use it– to end each day with no regrets.
• I want to stop comparing myself to others.
• I want to stop worrying about what others think of me.
• I want to feel confident that the relationship I have with each of my children is just what it should be. I want to feel confident that there is no doubt in their minds how much I love them.
• I want to organize and decorate my home with beauty and intention– filling it with things that are beautiful, meaningful, and useful.
• I want to be a source of inspiration for someone- to somehow make another’s life better by something I say or do.

I’m sure I could go on. There is always so much room for improvement. I have t his mantra I often repeat to myself

Be content and reach.

Be happy with the place you’re at, but always, always keep trying to be better.

How about you? What do you want for the new year?

Last year we didn’t get a Christmas letter written or a single card sent.  I was newly pregnant and oh, so tired and nauseous, with in-laws in town.  That was my excuse.  There’s always an excuse though, isn’t there?  Now I have a new baby and on top of that pink eye ravaged through our family these last couple of weeks so I couldn’t take a good Christmas picture for our card.

I faced those would-be excuses head on, went through our photos and found one of each kid that was cute, enlisted the help of my husband to make them fit right, and placed my order at Costco.  The bummer– we didn’t notice Hunter’s name was misspelled until we had 100 HunDers in our hands.  Oh well, done imperfectly is better that not done at all.  Right?

Getting them out the door was a team effort.  One big kid did address labels, another return addresses, and the third did stamps.

The little kids obviously couldn’t be left out, so they had stickers and envelopes of their own.

The littlest supervised while doing her favorite new activity– sucking her finger.

There were even a couple addressed to me

In January I took my Christmas money to the yarn store and came home with 5 big soft squishy skeins of  beautiful green Madelinetosh superwash merino yarn.  (The color is Malachite, but I’m sure I bought worsted weight yarn and I’m not seeing anything that looks like it on their site.  I think Madelinetosh Vintage is the most comparable.)  I wanted a sweater with sleeves, so I cast on for my very own February Lady Sweater.

(this photo by Jonah)

It’s the biggest thing I’ve knit with a fancy lacy stitch pattern.   I made a hat for my mother in-law last Christmas which I constantly miscounted and messed up so bad I had to start over, so I was a bit nervous I would mess this up too, but none of those mistakes are noticeable and I never ripped a single row out.  About halfway through the body I realized I was twisting my yarn overs wrong which resulted in smaller holes in the lace, but I just kept on with that mistake for consistency’s sake.  I think that was a good thing actually because I think it would really stretch out of shape if it were knit any looser.

(this photo by Brenna)

I finished it the week we were getting ready for our Thanksgiving trip to Idaho.  There’s nothing like having a bunch if things I need to do (like laundry and packing) to make me feel ike I really need to knit or sew or create something.

It is itchless (hooray!) and warm.  I picked out the buttons with 3 littles in tow and have since decided I need to change them to something round that won’t be constantly skiwampis.  I’m also wishing that the buttons went all the way down, instead of just being at the top because I’m so newly un-pregnant.  Oh well.  I’m sure I’ll love how it fits next fall.

It certainly is the prettiest thing I’ve knit.  I love the magic of knitting.  I know I probably say that in every knitting post, but it is just so cool that a really long piece of string can be looped and looped into something lovely and useful.

Sleeping Beauty.

Iron Man and Ian creating a masterpiece for the mantle.

Math games with beans and homemade dice…

Ahhh, Hunter can still wear his hat.

Figuring out elf ears.

I love having a Moses basket for a newborn.  It is so nice to have a cozy place to lay baby down right next to me wherever I am in the house– on the couch while I’m reading to other kids, on the floor next to my sewing table, in my room next to my bed.  It’s her own little sanctuary that even the 2 year old understands is the baby’s bed.

So, when I was dreaming about Eva coming I decided I wanted to make a Moses basket and write up the pattern to add to my SweetPod collection.

Here it is!  It’s been in constant use for the past 4 weeks (Really, it’s been 4 weeks?!) and I’ve decided it passed the functionality test.

It has a removable, washable quilted bumper pad,

and a mattress with a removable, washable cover.   I’m just about done with the pattern writing.  I have had such a hard time making myself sit down and write it, but I made a lot of headway today and will be ready to send it out to testers by next Friday for sure.

I have to say up front this is not a quick project or an inexpensive one, but as a mama of 6 I definitely think it is worth the work and money to have a super cute, comfy place to lay my perfect little bundle.

Anyone want to try it?  **I’ve got all the testers I need, thanks!** I’ll need 2 testers.  If you’d like to be one send an e-mail to jessica {at} seedpodcraft {dot} com and let me know how quickly you think you could get it done (give yourself at least a week) and what kind of sewing experience you have. Luckily, all the supplies should be available at your local JoAnn’s and quilt store.  I’ll let you know whether or not I’ll need you as a tester by Wednesday and get the pattern e-mailed to you by Friday next week.

So…

this is just to let you all know (if you’re wondering) that I don’t have a baby yet.  My official due date was yesterday, and I know, I know, due dates are arbitrary things, but the last desperate days of pregnancy are not rational.  All the hormones, the unknown-ness, the waiting, put you on an emotional roller coaster.  4 of my 5 previous births happened at least a week before the date– and those days of contractions can sure get my hopes up, then dash them to pieces.

I’m just not sure what to post about these days, so I’m just going to wait until I have pictures of a fresh new face for you.

All I ask is for some good vibes and prayers sent my way that this baby will come on out!  We keep telling her it really is more fun out here than in a dark water balloon.  I guess she’s not quite convinced…

I can’t be pregnant forever, though, right?

I’ve been pregnant a lot of times, but I cringe at nearly every picture we have of my swollen, life growing self.  I have several really flattering ones of me sleeping in the passenger seat of our van, belly bulging, head tilted back, mouth open, during our most recent road trip.  Lovely.  And there are a few hurried snap shots taken right before we’ve rushed off to the hospital with a couple of our babies.

But this time I’m quite certain I’m never going to do this again.  This is the last time I’m going to harbor a whole other being, to give it a beginning, to share my space so completely. The last time I’ll feel a baby stretch and push and try out new limbs, or feel the excitement and anticipation of meeting my little person who has become so familiar.  This is a pretty amazing, miraculous thing my body can do, and I’ve done it over and over because I know that when it comes down to it, there isn’t anything more important or more valuable that I could do.  Saying I’m thankful to be a mother is an understatement.  In so many ways I feel like I was born when my first baby was born and every one has taught me more about who I am, what our family can be, and what life is really about than I could have learned any other way.

I wanted some way to remember the beautiful part — so we braved the mosquitoes in the warm evening light and Barry took some pictures we could treasure.

And now I’m counting the minutes.  The end is the hardest part because there is so much uncertainty, so much wondering and waiting.