Hello everyone!
It's finally time to share some photos of my recent trip out to Kansas to visit my daughter and her family. I'm thankful the LORD gave me safety all the way and I didn't have any issues driving.
My daughter, Melody, and her husband, Adam, are ministering at a Baptist camp in Kansas for the summer. They live in an RV with their four darling children and their German Shepherd, Shelbie. I was able to stay in one of the guest rooms at the camp. Very comfortable and I had my own bathroom.
I was excited about my road trip. If you remember my post after Christmas (see it HERE), I had made a flannel blanket for baby Charlotte for Christmas. Later, my daughter asked me if I could make the three older kids flannel blankets for them, as well.
Which I did, and I brought them with me. Here's a photo of the blankets folded up and tied, complete with matching pillowcases. They loved their blankets! The girls chose the fabrics for theirs which had a different design on each side. William loves dinosaurs and I chose that fabric for him which is the same on both sides.
I'll give you a quick synopsis of the place and what little activities we did before I share the sewing lessons I gave Olivia and Lillian.
The camp is situated in a rural area accessed by dirt roads - which means there are coyotes, cougars, and nasty snakes - which I did not encounter, thank the LORD! There are several homes in the area and the staff live on the camp property year-round.
We did see a wild turkey on the property and one of the camp staff was skinning a cougar in the long shed behind my daughter's RV one day. Do people eat cougar meat? My daughter did not know!
Most of my time was spent in the RV helping out and just being with my daughter and her family. My three older grandchildren were finishing up their homeschooling for the year. I read to the kids, made some progress on a book I was reading, washed dishes, kept watch over baby Charlotte, and was happy to be there when she turned one on May 5th!
Another day I had a tea party with Olivia, Lillian, and William with tea-for-one sets. They had hot chocolate and I had tea - with chocolate pinwheels - just like I did with my grandmother when I was very young.
The night before Mother's Day we had a tornado watch. My son-in-law decided that the three older children would fare better staying in the room next to me (which is in the basement of the camp office) just in case the watch turned into a warning. There wouldn't be enough time to wake them up and get them out of the RV loft in time and drive the 1/4 mile distance to where I was staying! Thankfully, the watch turned into a thunder and lightning storm instead.
On Mother's Day, we spent the morning at their church for a Mother's Day breakfast and service, then went to my daughter's in-laws' home for Sunday dinner. My daughter gave me and her mom-in-law beautiful matching mugs (Pioneer Woman) with a bag of Starbucks coffee!
The day before I left, we girls (minus baby Charlotte) went downtown to do a bit of shopping and enjoyed ice cream together in a cute little candy shop.
Now - let's see how our two sewing sessions turned out! We had the sewing lessons in my room at the front of the camp. Five-year-old William came too and spent his time playing with his toy trucks. Though he wasn't interested in sewing, he wanted to be with his sisters!
Our first session was spent learning some hand sewing - simple back stitching and sewing on buttons. Then we made tiny felt purses with buttons and buttonholes. The same kind I use for my Etsy shop to put jewelry in (see this listing HERE for an example). The girls - nine-year-old Olivia and six-year-old Lillian - operated my 221 Singer Featherweight themselves. I guided their hands a little. I used a pen with removable ink to mark the seam line. It helped them keep their stitches straight.
When it came time to stitch the buttonholes, I set up the buttonholer and they operated the foot pedal. That was easy!
I gave the girls a number of sewing tools - tape measure, needles, thread, pins, embroidery scissors, and hoop, etc. For their second lesson, they made zippered pouches to keep their sewing tools in until at a later date they receive their own sewing baskets. They did a really good job sewing the seams and stitching on the zippers! They were very proud of their handiwork! I was, too!
We were supposed to have an embroidery lesson or two, but it didn't work out, so we'll be saving that for a later date. Perhaps when they visit Gramma Linda and Papa Bill in South Carolina!
Here are the results of their handiwork!
And last, but not least, the last short leg of my family visit road trip before I drove home was to stop in Indiana for a couple of days to visit my dear niece, Audra, her husband Andy, and their little dolly, Ava. Just as a side note, Audra designed my business cards and my blog and Etsy banners (I gave her my ideas). She's a graphic designer. (smile)
I hope you enjoyed reading about my midwest trip and the sewing projects and notes of interest!
Have a great Sunday!
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