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We had a neat family from Panama staying with us at Tranquilo Bay last week. Unfortunately for them and ultimately for us, their son had a virus and ran a fever most of the time they were here. We all thought they had kept him away when he was contagious, but as it turns out our son T ended up with it two days ago. Thus no posts for a few days. T is doing much better - it is all we can do to keep him from running around.

In the past two days B has decided she is walking everywhere she goes. She pats herself on the chest as if to say look at me. She is also talking all of the time. It is so much fun to watch her grow. B and T love each other so much :) - T constantly gives me the play by play when his sister is doing something new. She loves to walk over to him and give him a hug or tease him with a toy or a blanket.

I finished a bag for my dear friend M last week. I actually cut out the pieces before I moved to Panama and just brought them with me when I neglected to finish it in Houston. So, as I am attempting to work on a variety of things I decided it best to finish the bag before I moved onto any new projects. All in all it turned out okay - for the first bag I have sewn. If I were going to make bags on a regular basis, I would need to study into it a bit more. For now my challenges are clothing and things for the house as I really have no need for additional bags nor any real way to get them to people if I was to make them.

So first after the kids went to bed on Thursday night and then yesterday afternoon while the kids were pretending to nap, I went to work on a pair of pants for B. They are from this pattern. I read over the pattern review here a few times and I was sure I was ready to make them. The problem was I sew like I cook. I consider the instructions to be a suggestion not necessarily the way to do things. This is usually okay, but here it wasn't a good idea. I made the ruffle fabric a bit longer and then doubled it over and serged the ends. Then I turned the fabric right side out and attempted to ruffle it. As you can imagine the fabric just kept getting thicker and thicker. Then when I attached it to the bottom of the pants I was dealing with a mess. Instead of catching my snap and doing something about it immediately I pressed on. One broken needle on the conventional machine, one broken and one bent on the serger and a bend on the faceplate of the serger machine later I decided to hand sew the remainder of the ruffle and top stitch by hand. So I was a little slow on this project. I am blaming it on the lack of sleep between the migraine and the sick kids. Then I managed to sew the legs of the pants up incorrectly and had to rip them out with a seam ripper and do it again. I finished the pants way too many hours later and put them on B after she got out of be from her pretend nap. They fit perfectly and I think I have made enough mistakes the first time around that the next round should be much easier. I haven't taken a picture of these pants.

I am practicing with the patterns and fabric I have here and I can get off of the internet prior to my big load of stuff that I ordered in the USA. My dad is shipping everything that came to his house in the next few days and I should receive it all in about 2 or 3 weeks. We shall see how this attempt at shipping goes as it is supposed to be much less expensive than the way we currently receive mail.

So - grateful for:

Migraine is gone :-)

T is just about over the virus & B doesn't seem to have the virus

I didn't cuss up a storm when I ran into the variety of self imposed issues on the little pants for B

B IS WALKING AND TALKING - so fun

J is just about caught up from being away for a week in Columbia

My goodie box is on its way from Texas

We have had some serious quality family time this past week

Until next time - RHK

Posted at 02:17 PM in gratitudes, ninos, sewing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)