Lost Tooth, Spelunking, How to make a tied blanket...and apparently I am PERFECT!

Hey!

We are half way into another busy weekend here! I thought I would drop a little blog since so much is new and it is only Saturday!

WEDNESDAY NIGHT
Wednesday night was mutual and we helped the girls to tie quilts to take to girls camp this summer. At the end of the deadline they all got serious about the fund raiser and sold their boards! Whoo hoo!

The girls all got either red or blue fabric with stars on it. This years theme is "Like The Stars" so we are trying to incorporate stars into all the little extras we do!







I had to bring the little boys because Mr. Wresh was working late (bless his heart). Ryan was cracking me up because he was so interested in making a blanket! I had to promise him that we would make one for him over the weekend (we did - see below)!





ALL HE WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS...
My baby...my little Ry Guy...has lost one of his front teeth and I am devastated. I will never see that cute little baby teeth smile again. Oh man...this growing up is going waaaay to fast. Now he is going to have those big awkward looking man teeth that take years to grow into! :)

Here is the last picture ever taken of Ryan with his two front baby teeth (that tooth is LOOSE!)


And here he is with his new jack-o-lantern smile!


I have to tell you such a funny story.

Usually I take care of the tooth fairy duties. With this tooth I asked dad to take care of it since Ryan was not asleep yet and I was going to bed. Well...dad did a great job with the $ but he forgot to put the "fairy dust" on the window sill.

Whenever I am the tooth fairy I leave a little bit of pink and purple decorators sugar on the window sill. Ryan loves it and we laugh about how it must have come off when she squeezed through the window.

Well dad is not hip to the whole fairy dust thing. When Ryan got up in the morning he was excited about the money under his pillow but ran straight to the window sill to collect some of the fairy dust.

When it wasn't there he quickly came to report that it was missing to me. Mr. Wresh was pretty fast and said, "Oh shoot Ry. I didn't know what that was and I cleaned it up already!"

Ryan looked disappointed but did not say anything more about it until Dad left for work.

After he left Ryan told me, "I don't know why dad was worried about cleaning my window sill. Yours has way more dust."

:)

RYAN IS NOT AN ONLY CHILD
Sometimes I look back through these posts and see so many pictures of Ryan and hardly any of Joely or Matty. There is no favoritism at the Wresh house. Joel is simply never around! He leaves for seminary at 6:45 am every morning, goes straight from there to school, has practice after school for sports, and gets home about 7pm to eat some dinner and do homework so the photo ops are few!

Matty is around all the time but often reluctant to let me take a picture. This is an example of the kind of shots I get of him most often. I love him with all my heart but alas...the boy is a bit of a crank pot.



ON MY OWN
I was on my own with the little boys this weekend. Mr. Wresh and Joely went on a Scout Camp Out and went Spelunking.

Taken with a phone camera!

I had promised Ryan if he had a great week at school we would do something fun. He really wanted to make a tied blanket so we were off to Joann's for some pirate fabric!

So without further ado I bring you the...

HOW TO MAKE A TIED BLANKET TUTORIAL
Now I know there better ways of doing things...this is just how I did it! :)

1. If you will be using a quilting frame get it set up! I have a small PVC pipe quilting frame that I got at Joann's. If you don't have a frame you can lay the blanket fabric on the floor or a table. Just be sure to smooth it out as you work.


2. Gather your materials.

- 2 pieces of fabric cut to the size you want your blanket to be. I used 1 3/4 of a yard of fabric for this blanket.
- enough batting to cover the area of your fabric.
- yarn that coordinates with your fabric
- large needle
- straight pins
- sewing machine


All the PIRATE FABRIC!


Batting


needles, yarn, pins

3. Let's layout the fabric.

First layout the piece of fabric that will be the back piece of the blanket. Lay it face down on a flat surface.


Next layout the batting on top of the fabric. Make sure to smooth it out.


Trim any excess batting off


Now put your top piece of fabric on top with it facing up.




and the last part of this step is to baste the edges (basting is pining these three layers together with straight pins)


4. Set up your work space to tie the quilt.

You might be working on the floor or a table or you might have a quilting frame (Your mom or grandmother probably do if you don't!)

I was working on a small quilting frame.

How ever you do it. Make sure the layers of fabric stay straight, flat, and smooth.





This picture shows you the front and back fabrics we selected for this pirate blankie!


5. Tying the blanket.

Thread your yarn through a needle. Start quilting on the top face of your quilt. Go down and then bring the needle right back out about a little less than 1/4 of an inch away from the first stitch.


Now move your needle about 4 inches and go down and come back up again.


I like to find a spot on a pattern to bring it up over and over. On this fabric I chose the knot in the bandana on the skull and did every other row of skulls.


You can continue this process until you need to rethread your needle with more yarn. It should look something like this


Cut right in the middle of each 4 inch length like this


And then knot it like this. Repeat this process all over the layers of fabric until you have covered the entire area. Leave about 1.5 inches around the edges.


5. Hemming the edges.
There is a variety of ways to finish the blanket. You can do it by hand or use a sewing machine

I folded the edges from the front over to the back. I used the fabrics pattern to help me keep it even and pinned all four edges down so it could be sewed together.


And sew it up! Be careful to remove all the pins as you go and don't sew over them!


ALL DONE!


DID YA HEAR? I AM PERFECT!
So today the TV was on and an ad for The Girls Next Door came on. There were all these girls in bathing suits and Ryan stopped dead in his tracks to look.

I am always curious to see what he is thinking so I asked him,"Ry, are those girls pretty?"

He answered, "Yes"

So I said, "Are they pretty like me?"

And Ryan answered, "No, your not like that. They are thin."

Of course I had to see if he would actually call me out on being a chunky monkey so I said, "Oh? What is mama like?"

And he said without blinking, "Mama, you are like perfect."

Man I love that kid.

THE 12 WEEK CHALLENGE
Can you believe it has already been 12 weeks? Some of the last layouts have been posted and the prizes have been sent out to those who have emailed me to let me know they are done. I hope you enjoy your challenge gift. The real gift is this gift you have made that will be a blessing to your posterity!

I will start up a new challenge in a few weeks after I get some of my own personal scrapping caught up!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER COURTNEY!
She is 32. Don't let her tell you any different!

I am happy and sad to say that my sister and her kids are moving to Florida in a few weeks. Courtney is going to rent out her house here and go to Florida and live with our parents and go to school!

It is the very best thing for her but I will be so sad and will miss them so much. They will be gone for close to 3 years.

I have to say I am jealous too. Now my parents and both of my sisters are there in Florida. Plus all of the extended family from the Armstrong side. The only ones left here in the valley is our family, my aunt and grandma, and a few cousins. So sad.

I know I going to be bummed when I hear about everyone having Sunday dinners together and going shopping and I don't get to be there.

I know...I need to suck it up.

:(

TATTOO YOUR WALLS DUDE
Have you checked out RemarkableWalls.com? My site is back up after some upgrades and better than ever!

BLOG TREAT
Whew...it was another marathon post and you hung in there with me so I am leaving a little treat for you!


Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Sabbath Day!