I've been away...

No excuses here. I spent the week with my neice Katee - who stays with us for a week every summer. She went home today so now I have time to catch you guys up on the fun happenings around here while she was here!

First of all Katee is awesome! She just turned 11 and has been sewing with me for... four years? (has it really been that long!!??) I set out with the idea that we might make these purses that Kat made recently. I'd pinned the tutorial and it all seemed pretty simple although challenging enough for Katee. We've mostly made small flat items while sewing. This one required three pannels of patchwork that was sewn "quilt as you go." 

She rocked! No I didn't happen to snap any pictures of her in process (this mostly happened after 9:00 pm while my kid was sleeping). I do have to tell you about the back of her pouch. We'd already done the first two pannels doing typical paralell stitches in the quilt as you go pieces. I left the room to start fixing dinner and came back to see her with an almost completed panel featuring concentric rectangle quilting!! I'd not shown her how to do that or even that she could do that! I don't know that she'd even seen that done on any projects before! Katee rocks! Her color choice for the back was pretty awesome too!

She ended up quilting her initial and last name on the back as well. Pretty clever that one! :) I'm really impressed!

That project took us through most of the week - since we didn't have too much free (toddler free) sewing time to work. She did all of it but the free motion quilting on the top flap. - all the construction and everything! 

Among the other activities that the week included, we made a fort using her fort kit that I made her and her sister for their birthdays (link to tutorial here).

We also had ourselves a little tea party. It wasn't as frilly or pretty as I'd have liked... but it was pretty cool! We had finger sandwiches and tea and fruit. It was a yummy little party. I broke out my tiny espresso glasses for the occasion. :)

Hope you had a great week as well!!

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