Ascension Parish Inclusion League Kickoff

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of being a part of the kickoff of APIL (Ascension Parish Inclusion League) an all inclusive, non competive league for children of all abilities.

We attended a BREC tball game for a similar league in Baton Rouge to watch my neice's son, Abram, in the Spring of this year. My daughter, Betsey, was inspired to start something similar in Ascension Parish. She is graduating this December with a degree in Kinesiology and plans to work as a coach/teacher but has always had a passion for children with disabilities. Betsey contacted the Ascension Parish Recreation Department and things started rolling from there. The parish was very excited about the proposal and with their help, guided her through the necessary steps to make it happen. The Resoucre Center on Psychiatric and Behavorial Supports Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities came on board and applied for a grant. They were able to get the grant as part of "The Jambalaya Project" which will not only help fund this program but also programs in other parishes in the State. Representatives from several organizations have joined in the effort including Families Helping Families of Greater Baton Rouge, COEA, ARC of Baton Rouge and ARC of Louisiana.

Everything started to fall into place and happening fast which tended to be a bit overwhelming for Betsey but with God's grace and blessing, we had the first event this past Saturday. Although there wasn't a huge attendance this first time, we know the program will mature and grow with time.

The first event was a "fun day" and a way to introduce the program to families as well as get input for future projects. We had sprinklers, a slip and slide, balls of every size shape and texture, arts and crafts, face painting, volleyball and a list of games and activities to draw from.

Here are a few pictures from the event.

What can be more fun than a slip and slide.

I think the water balloons were the biggest hit of the day. The parents and volunteers were on the receiving end of several balloons. Brother and sister getting in on the water balloon fun.

One of the children wanted to do the face painting instead of getting his face painted and several of the helpers volunteered for his request.

Paints, markers, paper and other crafts were available. A parent or guardian is required for each child and, as you can see, are very much a part of the activities.

I learned that there are many activities for a parachute but just having everyone lift it up and down was fun. The parents, friends and volunteers helped with this one.

The volunteers enjoyed the event as much as the children and were blessed to be a part of it.

As you can see, the volunteers enjoyed the water balloons also. All in all it was a great experience for all who participated.
If you are in the area, and want more information on the program for yourself, someone you know or to volunteer, call (225) 621-9661 or email Betsey at betsey.baldwin@yahoo.com.

If you aren't from the area and have a child with a disability or work with children with disabilities and have some activity ideas, please comment on my blog. I'm in charge of arts and crafts so would appreciate any input you may have.

Halter top and Skirt

Polkadots seem to be a theme I've used alot this year. I've made things with small dots, big dots, bright colored dots, black and white dots. The top is halter style with the open back and lined. The skirt is a simple aline with elastic waist and slits on the side. I had ribbon that matched the dots on the top perfectly so I added it as trim along the skirt hem.

Jungle Print A Line Dress

This is a simple A line dress made from fabric found in the home decorating fabric section at Hobby Lobby. The animal print was so bright and colorful, I thought it would make a cute dress. This is a great basic pattern that can be very versatile.

This is the same A Line dress pattern from a balloon print and lined with red. Bows were made from some ribbon and added to the straps. By adding a ruffle along the hem, applique or monogram on the front or a fabric flower near the hem can change the look and this pattern can be used over and over. Shortening this and adding pants is another option to change the look.

Bitty Booties by Riley

I picked up my "adopted" granddaughter, Riley, to come for a visit tonight. When she comes over, she likes to do "projects". I keep a crate of craft supplies for those occasions. First she decorated two foam door hangers, one for her and her baby sister, Ava. After that, she wanted to make a dress for her sister but that would have taken too much time so we downloaded a pattern for Bitty Booties. We looked through my stash of fabric and found some white fleece for the soles and light pink with white dots for the top.

I cut them out and she sewed them together by hand. She did very well for a 6 year old, especially on the first one. She got in a little bit of a hurry for the second shoe. I think she was ready to be done with them by then.

Here she is with the finished product. We used the 3-6 months size but they were still very very small. I'm not sure if it had something to do with the printing so I'm going to try to enlarge them on the copier at work and maybe we'll make another pair next time I see her.

Here is a closeup of the shoes. They are really easy and fun to make and a great beginner project.
Here is baby sister, Ava. We put the shoes next to her feet and they were about 1/2 the size we needed. I told Riley they were the practice pair and we would make them larger next time.

Curtains and Pillows

My latest project was curtains and pillows for my daughter. One of their friends gave them 5 1/2 yards of fabric. How cool is that!!

I got them one of the double rods for sheers and curtains and rings with clips. Since we used the rings with clips, the curtains were only two rectangles lined with tan, light weight curtain lining.
The fabric could have been used on either side and with the scraps I had left, I made two pillows. They were made using both sides of the fabric and some trim from Hobby Lobby. Since I was limited on the fabric, I bought some gold tone corduroy for the back.

While searching for something for the back of the pillows, I came across this red fabric with a touch of gold and thought it would be great for the chair. I used some of the same trim around it that I used between the strips on the other two pillows. The corduroy and red fabric were 30% off at Hobby Lobby and the lady working in the department gave me a 40% coupon to use on the trim.

Sundress and jacket

I found this fabric on the sale rack. It is various fabrics pieced together. The fabrics have different textures also, kind of a crazy quilt look.
I lined both the dress and jacket in a off white broadcloth.

The only drawback on this fabric is it is hand wash and hang to dry. I generally try to use wash and wear fabrics for children's clothing for obvious reasons but I knew I could make something really cute with this so decided to get it anyway. I have accumulated quite alot of stash by doing this like most people who sew. I recently went through the fabric I had and donated some of it to a local charity.

Child's Dress from Men's Shirt

While browsing the web one day, I came across a craft blog called Craftzine that had alot of tutorials and other interesting items. One of the tutorials was how to make a child's dress out of a man's shirt. Here is a picture of it and the link to the tutorial. The tutorial has pictures of a little girl wearing the dress. What a great idea for recycling men's shirts.

New Pillows

I had a chance to rethink the pillow issue and decided something just didn't look right. After "sleeping on it", I realized there was nothing to tie them all together. So after church this morning, I came home and made two more pillows to replace the previous two I didn't really like. Here is the result. I think these look much better than the first two and having black in all three helps tie them together. What do you think??

I am slowly doing a little at a time to get my bedroom decorated. I finally hung the headboard and got a new bedspread. See previous post for the headboard project. I bought some frames and mats from hobby lobby to frame the flower pictures I had enlarged to 8" X 10" and made some pillows.

You can see the pictures I framed in the background. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to hang the pictures over the bed or on another wall and get something else for over the bed.

The pink pillow is the first one I made and the one I like the least of the three. I made the square based on a pillow insert I had and it just didn't fit right. I ended up taking the stuffing out of the pillow insert and stuffing it directly into the pillow I made. The green and black was the last one I made and I think it is the one I like the best. I wish I had made the smaller ones a little bigger. I'm not sure if this is the look I was going for but for or if I'll make more pillows. For now, I think I'll put the room decorating aside and work on my new epattern.

Memory Quilt Finished!

My first memory quilt is complete. If you are reading about this for the first time, here is a link to my previous post when I started this project.

This is one of the pictures I printed on a Quick Fuse Fusible Inkjet Fabric Sheet. Three of the squares had pictures and an article printed on these sheets.
All the squares were layed out on my table to make sure they were the correct sizes and to place them in the order we decided upon.

I used orange fabric to join the squares and to back the quilt. I put one layer of batting in the middle. Once the back, batting and front were placed, I sewed all three together along the seams used to join the squares and trim. This part was challenging. With the size and the bulkiness of it, I had to roll it as I sewed. I can see where those large quilting machines would come in handy.

I left an extra few inches of the orange backing all the way around to fold over the front to finish the edges.

Here is the finished project. There are some mistakes and it is definitely not perfect, but all in all it came out pretty good. I think David's friend will be touched by the memories included in the quilt and appreciate the fact the my neices wanted to give it to him.

I have many projects left to complete which include curtains for my daughter, some pillows for my bed, something for a friend who just had a baby girl and the other two memory quilts for my neices. Besides all that, I have some other ideas for epatterns to put on the You Can Make This website.

Looks like I'll be busy for awhile.

Doggy Days Giveaway Prize

I recently received the prize I won on the Doggy Days Giveaway. Crystal at Paper and Paste allowed me to pick the item I wanted. I chose these adorable hair ties. I know just the little girl who would love these. Thanks Crystal for participating.

Confederate Rose

Someone I work with has one of these bushes at her house. It's called a Confederate Rose but is actually in the hibiscus family. Here is a link to the description. "The flowers open pure white and change color over a three-day period until they are deep pink and then as they die assume a dark "blue-pink" hue". My co-worker had some on her desk and each time I passed I noticed that the pink was getting darker. It was really pretty amazing to watch. These pictures were taken towards the end of the day. You can see how bright the pink is.

Upholstered Headboard Project

Here is the result of my first attempt at making an upholstered headboard.

I did some research on line to get an idea of a size I would want and the general instructions. I went to Home Depot and purchased a sheet of 1/4" plywood. They also offer a cutting service so I was able to get them to cut it to the size I needed. You have to purchase the whole sheet and I took the rest home for possible use on something else. This project was fun so you never know what I might try next.

The next step I did was mark where I wanted the buttons and drilled the holes for them.

I purchased the batting, fabric and buttons from Hancocks. The lady at Hancock's recommended upholstery batting. I bought enough batting to have 3 layers on the headboard. I wanted it padded well.

After getting the batting in place, I wrapped it around the back and stapled it to the plywood. After I stapled it on, I turned it over to the right side to make sure it was smooth.

I then cut the fabric leaving 6-8" all around to overlap the batting. I folded the edges under about an inch and stapled one side. Before stapling the other side, I made sure the fabric was pulled tight and evenly placed. I then stapled the rest. For the corners, I pleated and folded so that the edges were smooth before stapling.

I covered 1" buttons with the fabric. I used a long needle with a large eye for ease in getting through the layers of batting and the holes . I considered using fishing twine or something similar but didn't have any at home so opted for the embroidery thread (all 6 strands) to attach the buttons. I wasn't sure how to keep the buttons in place so I put a staple near the hole on the back and wrapped the thread around it. I stapled it so that their was room under the staple to put the needle through. To make it look tufted, I pushed on the button in while tightening the thread on the back.

Here is the finished product.

Instead of attaching it to my bed, I used "hercules hooks" to hang it on the wall. Hercules hooks are great for sheetrock. They hold up to 150lbs, make small holes in the sheetrock and you can put them through without any tools. I ordered them off QVC when I first moved into my house about a year ago and have used them for everything I've had to hang.

Here is a closer view. I'm not sure what I'm going to put over the bed - possibly something metal. For one of the other walls I plan to frame some of my flower pictures. I am also planning to make colored pillows to match the flower pictures to put on the bed.

The cost for the headboard was approximately $64

Plywood $18

Batting, Fabric $38

Buttons $8

Family Beach Vacation

We had a family vacation at the beach this past weekend. We took my mom and dad last year and they enjoyed it so much, we decided to go again this year. When we all get together we have so much fun. We laugh, talk and reminisce. This time we took some random pictures of things for fun. Here are a few.

FEET

HANDS

(My mom, myself, my daughter, son & niece)

SUNRISE

SUNSET

CLOUDY SKIES

SURF

Halter Dress for Toddlers

This is a very old Simplicity Pattern I've had for twenty something years. I remember my middle daughter wearing dresses I made from this pattern when she was a toddler. She is now 23 years old so that will give you an idea of how old the pattern is. It is still one of my favorites. It's fast, easy and can be made for everyday or dressed up for a special occasions.

This one was made with just the basic pattern without pockets.

I decided to change things a little on this one. I added a second gathered skirt, shortened, on top of the first and put some cute trim along the seam.

Here's the back. As you can see, I lined the top with the same fabric I used for the 2nd gathered skirt.
This one was made using the basic pattern but with some shadow embroidery on the bodice.

Here is a closeup of the shadow embroidery.

Halter Top with Bloomers

Here is another old simplicity pattern I've had for years. It has the top with or without the ruffle and either bloomers or shorts.

This is the front view. The fabric was a small floral print with the stripe for the ruffle and bloomers giving some added contrast.
This is the back view. As you can see, I used the sripe to line the top and the back has elastic that can be adjusted to fit. This was an easy pattern and great for the summer. Cool and comfortable.