Whew. . .we did it! (and I finally finished it!)

This blog is three months in the making. . . .yes I need more time in my life!!!!

I don't know about your family, but our family rarely takes a formal family picture.  We have pictures of my entire family from our weddings, but since my sister's wedding 7 years ago we have not had a formal family picture.  AND our family has changed a lot!!!  This past year, we decided that a family picture was something we needed to do and it couldn't wait any longer.  When my sister and her family came to visit we set up an appointment with my photographer to photograph all 17 of us!  Our amazing photographer was  Lynn from Memories Forever Photo Shoot Photography. 

It was August and nearly 100 degrees that day!  (At least it wasn't 110!).  We met at the park in the evening and the photo shoot began!!!  My oldest sister's family went first and I think their picture is adorable!

Then we attempted the impossible. . .the entire family!   Pretty good!

Our little family came next so G could get back to work (he was techically working!)

My parents got their own little picture.  Still laughing and smiling after 40+ years!

My sister and her fam

My brother and M

And LOTS LOTS more fun silly pictures!  Miss Lynn was so good at being patient and capturing our silly family playing and having fun together!  It was fun and playful, without the stress that sometimes accompanies photo shoots with big families!  Not to mention a story that we will never forget about that night. . .quite the event!  (you can ask me later for more details! haha)

Wordless Wednesday!

Trick or Treat???

I was looking for cute trick or treat bags for my girls.  I saw a few in catalogues that I liked and then I got the idea to make them.  After asking a few crafty friends and looking at websites I fell in love with a design.  It was a little more complicated than I really had time for, but they looked sooo cute!  It was a good project to expand my sewing/quilting skills.  This was my first time machine quilting and appliqueing- I usually do that by hand.  Since time was limited, it sounded like a good decision to try using my machine for everything. In the process I learned how awesome a walking foot is. . .definitely a good buy!  

Here are the fabrics I chose.  I always love the novelty fabrics at the holidays but have never had a project to use them with!  The color scheme changed once I found my main focus fabric (the black one with candy and words).  I also had to make sure my prints didn't have anything that Miss Pumpkin would deem scary.  No monsters, skeletons, spiders, etc. . . I knew she would love the candy!

Then I cut out and did the applique on each block.  My original plan was to have the kitty be for Miss Sweet Pea and the pumpkin for Miss Pumpkin.   Once Miss Pumpkin saw the kitty, she claimed it!  Next came the piecing of the blocks for the front of the bag. 

After I embroidered their names, wording, and added details to the face of the kitty and the pumpkin.  This was fun to see how much it changed the appearance!  Then I quilted around each applique and added the rick-rack.

Then I quilted the back fabric and sewed the bags together. 

Lastly I made the handles out of a really cute candy corn print.  Since the handles looked plain, I added black rick-rack to make them match the bags.

Here is the finished product!  They were the perfect size for my girls and I hope they will last for years to come!