My First Sewing Project

I have told in previous post that I have always loved to create and make things.  As an elementary student I would sit and stare at the same simple worksheet for what seemed like hours convinced that I could not do it, but when a school project came about I thrived.  I loved participating in art, science and history projects.  Pretty much anything hands on was what I loved to do.

 

When I was 9 or 10 years old I discovered a book of children’s sewing projects in our school library.  I had great grandmothers who could sew very well, and my mom would mend things from time to time but I had never sewn anything.  Immediately after flipping through the pages of the book, I found a project that I knew could do.  It was a stuffed animal in the shape of a cat, and it had buttons for its eyes and nose.  After checking out the library book I brought it home and talked my mom into letting my younger sister and I make one.  We gathered our supplies and took off.  In no time at all we had each made a bean filled cat.  I was so proud, I took the cat to school at showed it off to the librarian and my teacher.

That little project brought me such joy and accomplishment, I made something all on my own.  I still love that feeling.  Hopefully in the near future my girls and I can recreate that little cat and they will love it too!

Since I am on the topic of my first sewing project I thought it would be a nice time to share a simple hand sewing tutorial with you all.  I am quite certain most of you have seen these Yoyo’s around on home goods as they are quite popular right now.  This could be a great first sewing project for a little girl or boy.  If you have been sewing forever this might be a new addition to all of your sewing knowledge. 

What will you need?

Fabric

A cereal bowl to trace.

Scissors

Thread

Sewing needle

 First layout your fabric and put the cereal bowl open side down, so that you can trace around the edge of it.  (You can make Yoyos as big or small as you like.)

You should now have a circle traced on your fabric.  You can continue by cutting it out.

Once the circle of fabric is cut out, thread your needle and fold down the very edge of your fabric

 circle.  Like seen in the picture below.

Start to stitch in and out all of the way around the circle.  As you go it will gather.

When you get to the end pull your thread tight and tie it off. Your finished Yoyo should be just like this. 

Now you might be asking yourself, “What do I do with it?”.  The possibilities are endless.  My Great Grandma Opal used to make many of these and put them together for table toppers.  She even made an entire bedspread out of them.  It was beautiful!  I make and use them for embellishments on dresses and clothing I make for my girls. When I finished their Easter dresses they were cute but need a little something more.  After making some yoyos, I put a button in the center and added it to the dresses as a flower.  It looked perfect!  Like I said the possibilities are endless.  If you have a child or grandchild that loves to make and create things.  This could be the perfect little project for you and them!

Hope you have a great day!

God Bless

Melissa

Annie's chicks - From Our Guest Speaker Lisa Steele at " Fresh Eggs Daily"

•  

I am so excited to have been asked to guest post on Chicken Scratch Poultry's blog! Two weeks ago, one of our Australorps hatched five chicks from fertile eggs that Angie and Larry sent me and I would love to share some photos that I took chronicling their first two weeks.

ANNIE'S CHICKS

Meet Annie. She's an Australorp, which means she has the tendency to go broody (sit on eggs until they hatch instead of laying her daily egg and hopping right back out of the nesting box). Australorps are known for their broody nature and Annie, true to her breed, goes broody quite often. 

In fact, she helped me write my article on Breaking a Broody Hen last spring because we didn't have room for any more chicks and I wouldn't let her sit on infertile eggs.  But she really wanted to be a Mom.  So I promised her that this spring, if we could coordinate our schedules, I would let her sit on some fertile eggs.  We did, and she did...and now Annie has five brand new baby chicks!

As soon as I realized that Annie was broody again (a quick peek at her bare breast confirmed my suspicions after catching her sitting in the same nesting box on each trip down to the coop for the past day and a half), I confirmed that my order of hatching eggs from Chicken Scratch poultry was still on schedule. My eggs were due to arrive in two days, which was perfect timing.  

I ordered a mix of Blue Ameraucana, Coronation Sussex, and bantam Chocolate Orpington eggs and here's what hatched...

I believe these two little cuties are both Ameraucanas.  I just love the coloring on the first little one.

 

I tried hatching some Ameraucanas last spring because I love their blue eggs, but Angie sent me all 'boy' eggs and I ended up with two roosters.  She said this time she would sent me 'girl' eggs, so we'll see how good she is at sexing eggs (This is said tongue in cheek of course, sexing eggs is impossible).  

I chose the Coronation Sussex because I have a Light Sussex already who lays beautiful pink eggs and is quite a gorgeous hen herself, white with a black 'necklace' around her neck.  This little beauty is our Coronation Sussex.  She will be white with a light gray 'necklace'.

The bantam Chocolate Orpington is the one I am really excited about. Already a gorgeous chocolate brown and yellow color, she's the smallest, but very feisty!

 

I also decided to put one of our Olive Egger eggs under Annie as well.  I hatched an Oliver Egger hen and rooster last spring from Chicken Scratch Poultry eggs, and am curious to see what a second generation Olive Egger looks like and what color eggs she lays!  Olive Eggers are half Marans and half Ameraucanas, and you can see the Marans coloring on this little one!

Annie and her chicks are nice and safe in a large dog crate in our coop and Annie has been busy teaching the chicks how to drink and what is good to eat.

Starting around day four, I let Annie and her chicks out for supervised outings at least once a day for some fresh air and so Annie can start to teach the chicks how to look for food, take dust baths and other critical chicken activities. She gently coaxes them out of the crate and then out of the coop.

I stick close as she teaches them what is good to eat and keeps an eye out for danger.

Annie gave the chicks a lesson in dust bathing yesterday afternoon. Not much interest yet from the chicks.

The chicks much prefer running around looking for seeds and worms.

Then they head back into the crate to rest and warm up.

Annie and her chicks will stay in the crate for another week or so and then move to a larger pen with an attached run separate from our laying hens until the chicks are probably just about 18 weeks old.  That way I can keep our layers in the main run eating layer feed and not worry about having pullets in with them who need starter/grower. By then Annie will probably be sick and tired of them and ready to hatch a new brood of babies!

This was my first time hatching eggs under a hen. I've only used an incubator in the past, but I am definitely going to get more hatching eggs from Chicken Scratch Poultry soon and try again. Maybe with Annie or maybe one of our other hens wants to give it a shot.  Chicken Scratch Poultry offers so many beautiful and interesting breeds, they make it easy to want more chickens!

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK

So you don't miss a single photo of Annie and her chicks!

Blog:           fresh-eggs-daily.com

Website:    lisasteeleauthor.com

Facebook: facebook.com/FreshEggsDaily          

Twitter:   twitter.com/FreshEggsDaily

Pinterest: pinterest.com/fresheggsdaily

Feathering Your Nest

I can see from Aunt Angie's post that things on the farm are quite busy!  Even though we are not raising chickens in our home (yet) things are equally busy most of the time.   Last week our church was in revival.  This meant that we had church each night, I cooked for the guest preacher and his family all but two nights, and still had to take care of all of my mom duties.  It was a wonderful yet exhausting week.  While all that was going on I was still attempting to sew during naptime in preparation for the "Ruffles and Rust" flea market and craft fair I am a part of.  On Friday evening bad weather settled in on us and it rained all weekend.  The craft fair was canceled and while I was disappointed it was also quite a blessing.  Now there is an extra week to prepare and I don't feel quite so rushed.  

I thought you all might like to know about the market since it is now being held this Saturday May, 11th.  It is going to be at a very neat store called The Nest.  If you are near southern Illinois it would be well worth your time to come check it out.  There will be vendors of all kinds.  If the store is any indication of the cute things that will be there then it will be a very fun day!

Lots of sewing has been going on and I'll give you a sneak peek of what will be in my booth. Pillowcase dresses are perfect for the hot and humid summertime weather that will be here before we know it!   I have several different sizes and some very cute design choices. 

For babies I have some boutique style burp clothe sets, taggie snugglers and applique onsies for boys and girls.  All of these make perfect baby shower gifts!

One of my personal favorites are my out-n-about wristlets.  These are prefect for ladies on the go.  It is a zipper pouch just big enough for all of your cards, cash, and checkbook ect.  Since I rarely carry a purse separate from our diaper bag my wristlet is essential.  I have many different color and pattern combinations.

I have some new home décor items ready for “Ruffles and Rust”.  Making these pillows and table runners was so fun!

Like I said if you are in the Southern Illinois area and have some free time on Saturday come and   checkout the “Ruffles and Rust” flea market!  It will be located at The Nest in Mt.Vernon, IL.  If you are like me and often rely on GPS to get me where I want to go here is the address:

1800 Waltonville Rd, Mount Vernon, IL 62864

If you get to come out be sure and look up the Naptime Stitches Boutique booth!  Hope to see you there finding the perfect things to “feather your nest with”!  

God Bless!  

Melissa

**  The Nest store has a Facebook page.  Search for Nest and you should be able to find it.

The Farm Is Always A Work In Progress

Over this past year many changes have taken place here on the farm.  We're always trying to make it a better place to raise our birds.  It seems it's a constant work in progress.  Anything that makes things easier, faster and a more productive use of our time we are eager to embrace and change.  Last year we decided we needed extra room to raise all the different breeds that we have, so that meant building a new barn.  We began building it late summer or early fall.

Once the barn was up, Larry decides he can make it even better by adding an over hang on each side to keep the chicken runs dry, which makes for cleaner eggs and rain or shine the birds could be outside.  When the over hangs were finished Larry and our son Brandon computerized the barn to have automatic lights and doors.

 The barn was up and useable by the time winter set in but not really quite finished.  All winter the barn was powered by extension cords running across the ground and we had no running water at this barn.  We do have a water system but I'll need to explain that some other time.

 



So today we ran the water and electricity to the new barn.  Good thing Larry wears many different hats and today he had on his plumbers hat, he probably also has on his plumbers crack had I taken the photo form a different angel.  Poor man I'm hard on him.  

 

We also moved a shed to the farm last summer from in town.  It was given to us and we gladly excepted the offer but with that offer comes more work.  We plan to make this our brooder barn to raise and sell the chicks out of.  We now invite our customer into our Morton building to buy their chicks and it is always a mess in there and we have to feel the need to apologize when they walk through the door.  Larry has put a floor in the little shed, fixed the doors and installed a window.  We will soon give it a new paint job, some insulation, plug any holes and move the chicks in.

 

 

 

So today we also ran water and electric to the little shed.  Can't wait until it's painted red!

 



 

For all of you great customers we've had the opportunity to welcome to our farm, very soon we'll have the little shed ready to invite folks in.  We want you to know we appreciate you all and have enjoyed meeting each one of you.  My mom loves it when she's out here and chicken people come to buy chicks, she's always fascinated that we can stand and visit like we've known each other forever.  I look forward to meeting many more of you as I call and let you know your birds are ready for farm pickup.  If you've visited the farm in the past leave us a comment we enjoy hearing from you.  Well we better get back to work.   God bless.

 

 



Finishing your pillow

Good morning!  I hope that you have had plenty of time to finish the first part of your scrappy egg pillow.  If you are reading today and have know idea what I am talking about, then look back to the Let's Get Stitching post and you can find Part 1 of this sewing tutorial.

1.  To start we will take the front and back of our pillow and place them right sides together.  Before sewing them together make sure that they are lined up well.  After doing this sew down two outside edges parallel to each other. ( I know its early in the day for talk of parallels and such!)  Sewing like this will keep the fabric from shifting, you will end up with a much more square pillow.

2.  After you have sewn two sides turn and sew the third.  On the forth side I like to start at each corner and sew into the middle leaving a two or three inch gap.  The gap is required to turn and stuff the pillow.

3.  Before you turn the pillow right side out go to each corner and trim the very tip off the fabric.  Be careful not to trim into the stitching.  If you do that you will have a hole in your pillow.

4. You are ready to turn the pillow right side out.  When doing this I turn the pillow and then use the tip of a pencil to push out the corners making them all look them same.

5.  The pillow is now right side out and you should be feeling pretty excited because it looks so cute!  Now take your poly-fill and start filling it up.  I usually start in the corners because that seems to be the hardest place to get it nice and full.  If you are having trouble evenly stuffing use the end of a wooden spoon or a dowel rod to push the filler around until it is lump free.

6.  Last you need to stitch up the hole left in your pillow.  I find it easiest to tuck the stuffing in and iron the edges so that they are folded in.  Hand stitch the hole closed.  The pillow is finished and should look like this! 

It is such a nice feeling to complete a project.  I hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial and will give it a try.  If you made a pillow be sure and leave a comment so I know how it went for you. 

In Part 1 of this post I said that if you left a comment you would be entered to win some scrap fabric for your egg pillow.  We only had one comment, so Diane is our winner!  Thanks for the encouraging words Diane!  

Hope you all have a great day and find some time to do something that you love!

God Bless 

Melissa