Siblings Together Quilt - finished :)

We're on Summer Holidays!!

We're so excited to be enjoying Summer holidays around here!  Sleeping in, and staying up later are just a couple of the perks.  We also have swimming lessons, gymnastics, and camping all booked; and there will be lots of daytrips and bike rides.  We're also going to plan some Daddy dates to the movies for the girls.

Kinder Canada has teamed up with DreamWorks to promote the new movie Madagascar 3 - a great date night or matinee to watch with your kids this Summer!  And a couple Kinder Surprises make a great snack afterwards - you can pick up some at your local store with Madagascar toys inside.  What do you have planned with your kids this Summer?

Disclosure: I’m part of the Kinder® Mom program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

My 'real' full-time job and trying to keep things clean . . .

As much as I love sewing and quilting, I really don't spend much time on them compared to my 'real' full-time job: raising my little bunch.  My two older girls are in full-time school, but my two younger ones still keep me on my toes during the day . . .

Especially my little guy, he is into everything!  I seriously have child-locks on everything and he's almost three years old.  I spend most of his awake time cleaning up his spills, telling him to get off my counter, and trying to steer him towards his toys.  Have I mentioned that I LOVE nap time?

And don't let the little princess fool you - she likes to colour on walls, steal the ice cream out of the fridge and leave it melting behind the couch, and leaves apple cores and banana peels in her path.

I also like to involve myself in my daughters' school activities, sports days, volunteering, field trips, and fundraising which keeps me busy but is also a lot of fun.  And we have a Summer planned with swimming lessons, gymnastics, camping, and I'm sure there will be lots of playdates too.

And I've also hosted a couple friends kids overnight so they could have a getaway, adding an extra kid to the fun around here.  We had the luxury of getting away for a week to the Caribbean this past Winter, and it is so nice to have willing friends and family to take on our kids so we could have the break.

Through all this fun and sometimes chaos - my kids get dirty, and sometimes they even get sick.  And I'm not the best housekeeper, but I do know the importance of cleaning the bathroom and counters and making sure my kids wash up after using the washroom.  Thanks to products like Lysol's new no-hands soap, this is one job that's easy to get done.  Lysol is giving away 12,500 free Lysol® No-Touch Hand Soap dispensers - just visit the Lysol® Canada Facebook page for more details.

Disclosure: I am part of the Lysol® Healthy Families Ambassador Program by Mom Central. I received compensation as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.”

Boxed Strings charity quilt . . .

May was my month in the Joy Do Good Stitches charity bee, and I asked everyone in my bee to dig out their girly string scraps and make some simple 12.5" string blocks.  This past weekend I received the last of the blocks, and pressed them and laid them out so I could admire all these beautiful prints together.

Then, using the instructions I gave for my Boxed Strings quilt block, I whacked them all in half and reassembled them.  I think this makes such a fun scrappy quilt, and am looking forward to getting it all sewn up.  It will be donated to Victoria's Quilts, a charity dedicated to providing quilts to cancer patients.

Linking up to {Sew} Modern Monday and Fabric Tuesday.

Sweet Starlet progress and a quick finish . . .

My king-size Sweet Starlet quilt is coming along.  I've got the center star all pieced, I just need to attach the corner scrappy triangles, and start on the borders.  What backing to use has been on my mind and I'm thinking of ordering an extra-wide cotton but haven't found anything I like yet (something with a print, but not flowers, maybe swirls or paisley?).

And this is the quick project I got done lately - we live in a house with a small front entry that was always cluttered with shoes because our little guy likes to dump over the shoe rack.  After picking up this cubbyhole shoe organizer second hand last week, the situation was getting better.  Then a friend and I stopped at our local fabric store last week and I picked up some foam and fabric for a cushion - and now the kids can sit on it to put their shoes on, which gives us more room to get around each other when getting ready to go out.  And the best part - my little guy hasn't figured out how to dump this one out yet :)

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday.

Sewing Summer Dresses . . .

Sewing Summer dresses is something I love to do each year, and here's some of the dresses I did last year for my girls and my nieces.  I often get asked which patterns I use, so I thought I'd share some shops I love:

Siblings Together quilt top done . . .

Awhile back, I saw a post on Katy's blog generously offering free fabrics for quilters wanting to make quilts for Siblings Together.  By the time I commented, all the bundles were spoken for - but Katy hooked he up with Mary Ann who sent me a half yard bundle of Peak Hour fabric by Riley Blake.  I mixed in a couple fat quarters  of Dimples that I won in the Andover Schoolhouse Sweepstakes, and used the All About Me quilt pattern by Atkinson Designs that I won on the Alderwood Quilts blog a couple weeks ago.  Now I just have to pick up some batting this week, and piece together a backing.  I hope to get this sent off by next week to the Siblings Together project.

Linking up to {Sew} Modern Monday and Fabric Tuesday.

Some progress on my Siblings Together quilt . . .

I have half of the blocks done for this quilt now.  I'm hoping to start with the smaller blocks today and get it pieced this weekend.  I laid out what I had done so far for a pic, and my little guy decided he needed to be involved, maybe because he thinks anything done with cars must be for him?  Maybe I'll have to make him a pillow for his bed with the leftover scraps :)