Go Fly a Kite...

So I haven't been posting a whole lot of my own quilt/craft work lately. That's partly because not much has been going on here. For some reason I've been in a bit of a "slump". Part of it has been the general clean-up going on at casa de cornfields, but part of it has been that there have been other distractions. Like apple picking, and this weekend, a kite festival.

There were all sorts of kites and flying banners. There were giant windsocks floating in the air attached to kites in the shape of just about any animal you could imagine. The sky was full of dragons, teddy bears, colorful fish and of course, giant gecko lizards. (which for some reason my dd was very concerned would be coming towards us -- she got over the concern eventually -- but it was kind of funny) Not to mention all sorts of fun geometric shapes and not just your traditional kite shaped kite.

There were demonstrations by "professional" kite fliers -- who made stunt kites zoom in time to music and made me wonder how often you have to practice to have that kind of control. And, of course, what would a festival be without vendors selling -- you guessed it, kites. So dd now has her very own first kite. A far cry from the plastic ones I used to get every spring and that
Dad and I would take out to the local school yard. But, oh, just as much fun to fly. (and no spokes in this one to worry about breaking -- which usually happened to my kites on the first or second day I used them!)

And a little girl who had fun holding the string and flying her own kite. (ok, so Nana was really doing the flying here -- but SHE doesn't know it -- and she was so darned proud of herself!) Yep, it's worth not getting much done in the sewing department to have memories like these...

BUT -- I've been going into sewing machine withdrawals lately. Soooo...I did manage to get back to my machine late last night. And unlike other times when I've had one of these slumps, I did not start a new project to jump start my work. Instead, I decided to accept the challenge issued over at turkey feathers to Finish What You Have. I've got at least 3 or 4 projects in progress that need some work -- and a few more that are barely in progress and need to get finished. It sounded like a good way to extend my deep cleaning into my sewing area and make room for all of those projects I keep buying fabric for!

Enter today's FWYH entry. It is a pair of cutie patootie pj's for dd. I used the puppy fabric I bought with Mom a month ago for the pants along with this pattern. And an adorable puppy design by Anna Maria Horner for the t-shirt. I started these before I began my cleaning spree and they've been sitting abandoned set aside waiting for me to finish them up. Since it took less than an hour to finish them I have no idea why I let them sit so long.

I will admit that I cheated a bit with the puppy on the t-shirt. Anna Maria's pattern and instructions (available as a free download here) call for sewing down the applique after preparing it. Um, well, since I reduced it to 30% of actual size to fit on the t-shirt AND I was working with an existing t-shirt (amazing what a little applique will cover up -- some paint/gunk from daycare that just would NOT come out in the wash is now irrelevant!) -- I made the design into an iron-on applique by using some fusible interfacing. It worked pretty well -- but, I think next time I will use a heavier weight interfacing -- I just used what I had which was very lightweight. Nothing a little bit of fabric glue didn't fix at the extremities -- but still.

And just because I can -- one final picture of the back of these pants. I LOVE the little pockets on the tush -- don't know why, but I do. I can't wait to see dd in these -- but I thought that waking her up in the middle of the night to change her pj's was a bit much. Even to satisfy my crafty glee. There's always tonight!