My first finished sewing projects and other random pictures

First I wanted to share some pictures of the first sewing projects I have ever actually finished. This first one is a lap quilt that I made for my mother-in-law when she retired from being a math teacher back in June. I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture or not, but the blue fabric has little math problems and pencils on it. It's a "rag quilt" which means that instead sewing the fronts together, you sew it with the backs together and then wash it a couple of times when you're done to make the edges fray. There is no tying or quilting involved because the back is cut into squares along with the middle flannel layer and all three layers are sewed together at the same time. Very easy! I think next time I would pick softer fabrics so they would fray a little more, but overall I'm really happy with how it turned out for my first finished quilt!

I had bought this American flag fabric a long time ago for another project that I never did, so I decided to make Isabelle a pillowcase dress from it for the 4th of July. I even had enough fabric leftover to make matching dresses for my two nieces. We finally got around to taking pictures of the three of them together in the dresses!

On Saturday the 12th, we went to a small wedding reception for my brother and his new wife, Suzanne. They got married spontaneously last month, and not all the family got to be there, so they had a small reception for the family at their church.

Some of the very healthy and very tasty food that Suzanne made: She made the bread and the carrot cake from scratch, and they were both yummy!

Me with the happy couple:

Isabelle cuddled up on her Daddy's shoulder:
I don't get to catch too many moments like this on camera.

Then this past Saturday we went to my sister and brother-in-law's house for my niece Ainsley's 8th birthday party. She is really into Junie B Jones right now, so that was the theme for her party.

Here she is standing by her cake:

Izzy playing with Sienna's "compurtle" as she calls it.

MMM, chocolate.

More chocolate: Izzy helped me make some brownies one night at home. She has really been wanting to "help" in the kitchen a lot lately.

She has also really been into her "costumes" lately.
She put this combination together herself:

I have one more post to go about our beach trip, and then I should be all caught up!