Growth Chart

I thought I would get this post up before all the craziness ensues.  Tomorrow evening Kevin's family, my mother, my sister and her little boy are flying in to have a birthday bash for the girls a month late.  Don't ask why; that is just how this whole crazy birthday party day evolved over the months.  Wish I knew then what I know now.  I would have planned it much better, but I'm sure it will all turn out fine nevertheless.

Then a week from today, the girls and I are flying to California for three weeks.  We will miss Daddy but it will give the girls time with their grandparents.  I need to start packing but I've been so busy getting the house ready for company and planning the birthday party that packing hasn't happened yet.  I did manage to pull out the suitcase today though, so that is a good start.

I have almost finished both growth charts.  I still need to embroider numbers on the ruler portion of both and sew something to hang both by.  I also need to finish the binding of T's.  It is about a quarter of the way stitched down and shouldn't take long.

D's growth chart

This was my first time machine appliqueing and it sure does make that part of the project come together quickly.  Mistakes come faster too though so concentration is a must.  I got the idea for this project and the patterns for the flowers from the Fons and Porter website.  I also made one for my nephew for Christmas that had only one flower, a caterpillar and a grasshopper.  I was so rushed to finish it in time that I did not get any good photos of it unfortunately.  But the grasshopper looked really cute.

For each growth chart, I painstakingly marked the ruler lines and then machine sewed each of them line by line with two strands of thread (pink/purple for D's and pink/orange for T's and dark green/bright green for cousin H's).  The ruler starts at 2 feet which is the level I will hang it at and goes to over 5 feet.  I plan to use a fine tipped sharpie to mark the girls' progress.

"3" for 3 years old or for 3 feet tall

I used felt for their names.  Had I planned ahead it would have been out of another colorful material, but I added their names much later (I've been working on these since last fall) and had felt on hand at the time. 

Labelled so there is no confusion.

My goal is to finish them and hang them before we leave for California in a week.  Having family around to watch the girls will hopefully give me time to work on them.  But I have a lot to do and not a lot of time.  I hope I make it.