The Handmade Dress

Click pictures to enlarge, and don't look at my ugly, unmanicured, stay-at-home mother of three fingernails! As promised this is my quick and easy flower tutorial. These make great hair pins or barrettes. They could also be used to decorate gifts, to spiff up some ready to wear clothing, and baby booties. Let me know all the ways you could use them! I used sport weight yarn and a size H hook. This pattern will work with lots of other hook and thread combinations, as shown above. Chain 6. Join with a slip stitch to beginning chain to form a "loop". Chain 3. Work triple crochet in main "loop", over yarn tail as shown, repeat three more times. There will be four triple crochet in each petal. Single crochet, then start next petal. Work five petals. Slip stitch to beginning petal. Now using the yarn tail that you have crochet to the loop, gently pull the center tight. To finish off pull yarn to back of flower, cut, and tie to yarn tail using a s...

Rae and Molly Jake and Molly Lily is such a sweet girl, so laid back, easy goin, and she is still doing great; Iris is our little firecracker, she has been so active they had to sedate her because she was trying to pull the vent out! What sweeties, I love that we can already see their little personalities! Iris is starting to wean off the vent and will hopefully be off by tomorrow. Lily is doing so well that they expect Rae will be able to hold her tonight. Rae is feeling much better today , a little more "with it", she was able to stay with the girls for a couple of hours last night. Rae is the sweetest little mama, she seems more experienced than most new moms; Jake has been such a dedicated daddy, he has held up so well, taking care of all three of them at once. I am so proud of them! You would not believe this is their first! Please continue to pray for them, as they have a few more stressful days ahead. Thanks to you all! I will have more pics of Lily and Iris tomorro...

Iris, just a couple of hours old. Lily is still doing great, but Iris was put on a ventilator this morning. The doctor has found a tiny hole in her lungs. They have decided to put her on the vent, give her some meds to heal the hole, and they think she will be off the vent soon. Please be praying for our sweet girls. Rae is in a little pain from the c-section, she is very tired. Jake has been the best daddy, running back an forth between babies and mama, he is exhausted but he has been incredible! Please pray for this family.

Our Twins My sweet Iris. My lil angel, Lily. Look at the hair on these gals!!! God has blessed us!!!! We have two perfect little girls!!!! Thank you all for all the prayers, and please keep praying for our little angels. Rae delivered by C-section this morning around 7:30. Lily was first and weighs 4 LBS, 3 oz ; Iris was born less than a minute later and weighed 3 LBS 10 oz, both babies were 16" long. Our little 32 weekers will be in NICU for a few days, but they are very strong, both came out SCREAMING! I am an Aunt! Rae is doing well, she is always so sweet! I will try to give updates soon. Lily's foot and daddy's finger.

I love this stitch, it's so pretty and the flower is different than most crochet flowers. They are very pretty alone or stacked on top of one another. You can click pics to enlarge. Use a size 7 steel crochet hook, and size 1o cotton crochet thread. To start, chain 6. Join with a slip stitch to beginning chain to make a loop. Chain 3. Yarn over 7 times (wrap the base of hook). Insert hook in loop, yarn over, draw through all loops on hook, repeat this stitch 11 more times. I find that it is easier to draw through all the loops by leaving pressure on the wrap with my index finger. Join with slip stitch to beginning stitch. Chain 3. Bullion stitch in same stitch as chain, *two bullions in next stitch, 1 bullion in next stitch. Repeat from *. Join with slip stitch, and finish off.

This is the bread that I have carefully cared for the last 10 days, mushing the bag everyday, letting the air out, adding ingredients; but it was not good enough, I just don't have it. My friend Kim is like Betty Crocker, she can cook anything and make it taste good-I on the other hand, following the directions exactly, can't bake a simple loaf of bread. My sweet husband said he liked it, and I admit it did taste OK, but it could have been so much more. If only..... Dear bread, Why after I cared for you so did you not rise? I thought about you every day, held you, did everything as I was told; yet it was not enough. What could I have done different? I know I did not have a proper loaf pan, but I gave you the best I had! How could you do this to me after all I have done! Regretfully, Samantha Kim has a blog now! She is so funny! Please drop by and leave her a comment. Just click on Kim to see her blog.

I taught the first class this week on my book . I was a little nervous at first, but after meeting these women, everything was just fine! We had the best time! They said they expected an old lady to be teaching. LOL! I am going to teach another class for these girls in a month or so, on making booties. I hope all my classes will be this fun and easy. What a nice lookin bunch! From left to right there is Barbra, Mary, "Lady", and Ann. Thanks so much girls for making my first class so much fun! I can't wait to do this again! This is the bootie pattern I'm sending you. I want to say a big thank you to the gals at Elizabeth Annes in Hoover, they have taken me in and been so incredibly kind. This little heirloom sewing shop is wonderful! If you live in the area you should realy stop by, they offer a lot of classes, and the best heirloom fabrics and laces. Thanks again girls! If you want to leave a comment but do not have a google account; click on com...

YAY! Another baby shower! I have the sweetest friend, Heather, who is due to have her first baby in three weeks. You know I have to make all my baby shower gifts! I have been teaching Heather to sew for a few months now and she is doing great. She has made this baby girl a few dresses, so I decided on a diaper bag. I have been wanting to do some patchwork lately, so this was the perfect time to get it out of my system. I appliqued a lil dress to the front to give it that diaper bag feel, and added some nice big pockets to the inside for diapers, wipes, and a cell phone. I'm sorry these pics are so terrible but there was no daylight.

OK all you lurkers, it's time to comment! I have had so many people tell me that they watch my blog for months before they say hey. Don't wait months! I love to see all the lovely comments, so please, leave a comment!

I did not hear from Ben last night before we went to bed, that always freaks me out. I called him about midnight and got no answer. This happens every now and then when he has a call in the night, we pray for him, and I put the kids to bed, and try not to worry ( never works by the way!). I called this morning and he had been up all night on a commercial fire, and he is fine. I can't explain that feeling of panic, it is so crazy! I'm just sitting at home wondering where he is and if he is OK. He emailed me some pictures of early this morning, I was so glad to see his dirty face! They made me so happy I just had to share them. Now I can't wait to get him home, feed him, and put him to bed, poor guy! Ben Ben and Nate These guys are so tired!

Yay! I have a finished product! Now I have some baby gifts to get caught up on. I hope to be able to finish everything Monday. Click this pic to read the front cover. Ben, AKA the best dad in the world, has been finishing up the best tree house in the world. He says he will be completely done by next saturday. The kids are in love with this tree house, they have saved Birthday, Christmas, and Tooth Fairy money for about a year and a half! Dad is putting the roof on. Front view Side view The kids have decided that the toy boxes are better for watching movies than for toys!

I am exausted, but so excited! I hope everyone will take a look and tell me what you think! Thanks to all the sewmamas ! You have all been so encouraging. Happymama , thanks for your help, you are amazing! Well I'm goin to bed now, night night!

These are som pics I took for my crochet edgings book. Tell me what you think! ......Her candle goeth not out by night. She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. Proverbs 31: 18 & 19 I know you are sick of seeing this dress, but I love this pic! I want this one to be the cover background, but I can't figure out how to do that in microsoft word! Any advise would be great! This is one of the edging patterns in the book. For those of you who haven't heard, I am writing a little book. "Samantha's Crochet Edgings", an instructional guide on how to crochet edgings to fabric, including seven edging patterns. All the instructions for preparing fabric for crochet are in this book. I hope to have it ready soon, I had no idea that this book could take this long! I honestly thought I would type it up one night after the kids were asleep and be done with it! LOL! I mean seriously it's only like 13 pages! But then I dec...