Ember Costumes and Crafts

The Hexes Are Done!!! I was kinda in shock when I finished. I wasn't sure what to do with myself. What will I do while I watch T.V. now? Just sit there like a lazy log?? It almost overwhelmed me, keeping me from enjoying the fact that all the hexes were sewn together into a magnificent masterpiece of actual-size Catan hexagons. It includes 513 land hexes and 479 water hexes for a total of 992 total hexes! Behold:  I had to stand on a stepladder to take this picture. It is currently about 78 inches tall and 105 inches long. My "map" and a pic while standing in my kitchen Rosemary and Grogu "helping" me take pics. Now I have to decide how to finish the edges/add a border, and then it will be time for quilting!! I do want it to be a bit more square, particularly I want to add some length to the top and bottom. I cannot just add more rows of water hexies because this is all the water fabric I have left:  I actually have quite a lot of yardage of the honeycomb fabric

 Another baby quilt! This one is for my cousin's baby William, and it is made from Dear Stella's "Go Wild" fabric which is soooo cute. The tiny animals! The sloths!! SO CUTE!  I've been kinda swamped this month but I really wanted to get this one done for her asap, so I went with an old quick but favorite pattern using the half-hex template. I mixed it up a little by keeping the half hexes as trapezoids except for a few big blue-green hexes. These pictures don't do it justice, it's much nice in person. I only had one day to take the pics between finishing it and handing it off to her parents before they headed up to help her with the new baby!  \ The back is a muted green color minky that matches the green of the pattern on the front, and the binding is white satin blanket binding. I love the combo of textures for baby quilts. 

For my nieces Lilly and Saoirse I bought them a boxed set of the Little House on the Prairie books, and then I made them each a prairie outfit for their dolls complete with coordinating bonnet and apron!  And an extra outfit for me...I'd been meaning to use this fabric to make another prairie dress anyway so I added it to the assembly line! The bonnet and apron are made from a thrifted sheet. Plus two full sets of underclothes: shift, petticoat, and bloomers! One trimmed with lavender ribbon and the other trimmed with pale blue ribbon. 

Last weekend we had a once-in-a-lifetime amount of snow for Central Texas with 5 and a half inches!! I have lived here for most of my life and the most we've ever gotten is an inch or so every three or four years. I was amazed! And so were my kids! They weren't too keen on how wet and cold the snow was, and I wasn't too happy about the huge wet mess of clothes and shoes that our walk made (and the mud all over the floor!) but for once every few years I guess it was worth it. I do NOT want to live somewhere that snow is a regular occurrence!  The pond by our house!  She looked so tiny in the big white world! Watch your step! This is still Texas, after all! Jack was so excited! He's the only one who never complains about being cold. Who can make the biggest snowball? James can, of course! He flopped around in the snow right away and was cold and wet for the rest of our walk. Miles with snowy lashes!  Do you want to build a snowman? I didn't because I didn't want m

All the "costubers" or historical costume youtubers have been raving about this pattern for a "hussif" or "housewife" aka mini sewing kit! I needed a gift for my mom's group secret Santa and I wanted something quick and rewarding to sew, so I picked through my leftover fabric from Alli's Stargazer Quilt and made this little kit for my Secret Santa! I also went to the fabric store and grabbed a seam ripper, some little snips, and a few bobbins of thread, then filled in the kit with some of my own spare needles, clips, and safety pins.  Happily, my friend loved it! And so did I! So I made another one! This time I used fabric from my own Stargazer quilt leftovers, which turned out beautiful but is a little bit annoying when I have it on my lap while I'm cuddled under my Stargazer quilt which...has been a lot lately since it's been so cold here in Central Texas lately!  Overall I love mine! It's been nice to have while I listen to audioboo

Um, okay...so the last one of these I did was in September. Yikes! I am a bit behind! And I'm still mulling over my 2021 goals, but that post is incoming soon.  Reading The Dresden Files 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 When we left off here I had just finished #13, and since then I have finished the series all the way up through the two new releases! Of course, by the time I got to the last few I was just ready to be done with the series and read something else, but I did enjoy the new installments overall.  Peace Talks was a little slow, and Battle Grounds was a little bit grueling--it was pretty clear that they were meant to be one book but someone up the pyramid decided that it should be two books instead, which I think is what threw off the pacing. As a series, it's INCREDIBLE how much the characters have changed and grown over the course of the series, and incredibly rewarding too. Reading them all in a row like that was an interesting experience...remember when Harry could only do lik