more sewing with boys

We are gearing up for the thanksgiving hustle and, like always, I sew best when I have a jillion other things I SHOULD be doing. I decided to follow this tutorial and make some crumb blocks (yes, I needed a tutorial for that...it was really helpful!). 

I decided to invite one of my children to help me since crumb blocks are inherently messy and the tutorial suggested it.  My middle son (5) volunteered.  He picked fabrics he liked because of a picture and picked the favorite colors in our family.  He picked whatever appealed to him and I let him.  When things hit a lull I'd grab a hunk and sew while he was deciding on his next addition.  I think he did a great job.

I am not a big fan of wonky, so I knew I needed to do something to add a little order into the chaos.  Once I cut the crumbs into 5" squares, inspiration hit.  I have always wanted to make this quilt:

I met Stefanie (the designer) at Quilt Market and she was lovely.  It reminded me of her lovely design that was in my bucket list.  Once the crumbs were charm size, it was a no brainer.  Charming Crumby Stars!

I apologize for the darkness of the photo...it's very vibrant in real life!  I stuck it on my mantle just to stare at it.  I love it!  My son was really proud of it, too.

 OOOOOH...I also finished this to go with a "baking theme" raffle basket my twins' class is doing at school.  I am not the best at embroidery but it turned out fine.

And by the way, the next time you see some Martha Stewarty Meyer lemonade recipe on pinterest, I want to show you the reality:

I have scrapes on my arms and hands (lemon trees are very thorny!) and that is NOT a good thing when you have this many lemons to juice.  I have been juicing about a gallon a day (with latex gloves).  I'm up to 3 gallons of pure meyer lemon juice in my freezer.  I begged people to come take these and almost nobody really wanted any until I got desperate and picked them myself to pevent them from rotting on the tree.  At that point I went all Little Red Hen on them.   I guess we will be drinking a LOTTA lemonade around here.  1.5 cups lemon juice + 2 cups stevia + 1 gallon water= heavenly.  The trick is soaking your good looking rinds in the juice for 24 hours before freezing/using the juice.  It gets all those good lemon oils into the juice and takes it to the next level.

Final lemon recipe: to get rust off of your counters, pour salt on the stain then squeeze a fresh lemon over the salt.  Wait 24 hours and the salt will draw up the rust.  Magic!

Hope everything has a great Thanksgiving!  Eat something good for me!