Sewing projects

 

Last spring I decided to sew the denim quilt together that has been sitting about for 13 years.  And then Ana came to live with us for the summer and she decided to use the rest to sew a quilt for herself too.  So two denim quilts got made this summer.  So random.  

Ana's is actually tied with navy yarn.  So this one is mine.  We went to Grandma's house (she picked up some quilt frames for me in Preston ID) and she helped me tie them both.  Only it was a horrible day because Jubal left the hose running into their window well and flooded their basement, so we had to tear up carpet and they had to buy new carpet.  Ughhh.  It was awful.  

Dad shoeing horses that night, with cats and the neighbor boy for company.  

The two quilts all tied.  Amy and Chad even helped.  

Carpet all torn up and Isabel and me mopping up the water.  At least my house flooding twice this spring had well prepared me and I knew exactly what to do.  Garrett helped me haul all the furniture out immediately.  

And then I sewed over one hundred masks.  I swore I wouldn't sew any, but I broke out in a horrible rash for two weeks after working four 12 hour shifts in a row, and so I decided I needed to sew my own so I could wash them with my own detergent.  And the kids needed them for school.  

Here's some of the ones I made.  

And Emeline and stayed for a couple of days and I felt so bad because I made her work hard at sewing.  We sewed six dress-up shirts and two dresses for her and all her siblings in three days.  It was a lot of sewing. 

Nicolas's Birthday

 

All Nicolas wanted for his birthday was a transformer, and I was thinking of making some cool transformer cake, but honestly I was tired, and decided on a road cake for his transformer car.  He loved it anyway!!! And the cake was tasty, which is more important.  I can't believe I literally have no pictures from his baptism though.  Isn't that pathetic?!?!?!?  Ana even mentioned it to me, and I was like, later.  Well, later never happened.  Sigh.  

He got scriptures and a tie and a CTR ring.  He was pretty happy about it all.  

August

August seemed to go by in the biggest rush!!!  We visited Grandma and Grandpa and their cute puppies.  

Everyone had dentist appts.

We picked chokecherries and I failed at making syrup and jelly--both went to runny.  Well, first I burnt the syrup and overcooked it, so I added more water, and well, it was just kind of a mess.  And Andrea's family came out and picked chokecherries another day too.  

Picking our neighbor's tree. 

And Efraim.  

 

Leo made a table!!!

Finished!!  YAY!!!  I should have made this picture a lot nicer, but oh well.  You get the gist.  We bought the ash slabs for this table in Casper two years ago, but then we moved and it went into storage.  This summer Leo worked like crazy and was able to finish it.  

Ana helped sand one time--it was super helpful.  And Leo's cousin Nicholas came and stayed with us for two weeks in June/July and he's done a lot of woodworking so that was really helpful too.  He helped Leo with the epoxy.  And Leo had several coworkers that lent him tools.  Super nice of them.

These were the two original slabs.  We had to take them to a place in Ogden to get them cut precisely.  (Ugh, I can't remember now what it was exactly.)

Maybe it was just for this edge, because then Leo joined the two slabs together to make our table top. 

Lots of sanding.

The two slabs joined together!  And this was as far as we got for a year and a half.  

Then Leo bought some tools and went to work. 

Okay, out of order.  Sorry.

Before the bench was finished. 

And here it is mostly put together but not completely, it's just sitting there like a puzzle.  

I love the chocolate color.

Sebastian helped with the finish.  We were going to do an epoxy finish for the durability but I hated the shininess, so instead I did a spur of the moment search and found Rubio Monocoat and we love it.  Super, super simple to apply and get a professional looking finish.  

Sebastian torching epoxy bubbles.

I joined in for the finishing touches.  That part was fun.  

Our garage spelled like heaven while Leo was hand carving the base.  

This is how the base is held in place, with hand carved wedge things.  Leo did such a good job!!!  I'm so impressed!!!