Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Hylan the Homemaker

Sometimes Hylan's skills amaze me.

It's not that I'm amazed so much at his ability to figure out to sew something or even his creativity, though that is still impressive, it's the fact the he had an idea and had the desire to bring his crafty sewing project to fruition (pun definitely intended--see below).

A couple Saturdays ago, on Hylan's suggestion, (this is no joke folks!) we made a stop at Hobby Lobby to pick up some materials for a stuffed strawberry idea he had. When we got home, Hylan got to work right away on the design and cutting fabric. He was so excited about his project that we had to immediately make a trip out to his parent's home around 8:00 pm to make use of their impressive sewing equipment and facilities.

I sit and watch (well, really check facebook on my phone and read the Sunday School lesson I'm supposed to teach the next day) in awe of what takes place.


Hylan busily sews together the "petals" of his strawberry whilst his father sews black and white fabric squares together to begin a quilt. I mean, talk about "Kodak moment." Glad I had that phone with me!

I am 100% confident this scene would not occur in my family with the menfolk. I just don't think many sewing thoughts have ever crossed my dad's or any one of my four brothers' minds. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

So, this is what Hylan finished that night which he later dubbed "the prototype." The plushy strawberry which could easily double as a pin cushion (though I prefer to use it to play toss with inside our house) is about the size of a fist.

You know Hylan couldn't stop there with his mini plush strawberry. He has big ideas, I tell ya. Big! He wanted a stuffed strawberry to rival the size of a two or three year-old. So, guess what we end up doing on Sunday night?

Only, this time he got a little help from his mama, an expert in the sewing field!


I don't contribute much to this project because the extent of my sewing knowledge is how to make a pillow, easy cross stitch with pre-printed patterns, a blanket stitch for felt Christmas stockings (which I learned how to do at a work staff retreat), button sewing, and a single crochet chain to put fluffy edges on blankets (which I will post about later because someone will receive a gift soon. I also learned how to do this from a friend at work!). That's about it. Sewing doesn't really excite me too much, though I can see how those skills would be useful for instances like hemming pants or to make matching dresses for the pets and daughters I don't have. HA HA. Anyway....


This is Hylan's finished giant plushy stuffed strawberry complete with stubby legs and "potato sack" feet. I think there were plans for arms and hands, but that got scrapped when the project was taking too long. Also, the legs were originally longer, but they were chopped off because of a batting shortage. Tragic.

Okay, so if that wasn't enough...

This past Saturday morning, as Hylan was leaving for work, I told him that we should get a cat and name him "Kit Kat" (I know, right? I'm so clever!)

Now, of course when I say things like this I'm mostly joking, I don't think I really want a cat, I just like cute wittle kittens a lot. Sometimes I google "cute kittens" just because it makes me smile inside and out.

Anyway, when Hylan got home early, I was walking on the treadmill upstairs (to try to keep myself from falling asleep during general conference). He informed me there was a surprise waiting for me downstairs regarding something we had talked about earlier. I have to admit, my first thought was sweet, he got me some apples because he knows I want to make applesauce! But we hadn't talked about that that morning, so I had to think back to the cat conversation.

It took me about an hour before I went downstairs to see my mysterious cat surprise, which I knew for certain was not a a real live kitten with a bow around its collar in a basket floating through a rainbow, because well, I'm convinced I will probably NEVER have pets inside my house. But, I digress again...

And so this is the scene I walk in to.


It's Hylan's special quintuple-knot tie blanket. Yes, he went to Hobby Lobby again (on his own, might I remind you) and bought some soft cushy fleecy kitten fabric and then proceeded to make me a nice big cozy blanket to snuggle up with just because he wanted to do something nice for me.

Aww. Melt my heart. I will keep him.


This is a picture of the blanket draped completely over our love seat.

What a guy, I tell you. What a remarkably talented guy! I must have won the lottery when he picked me.

3 comments:

sarahflib said...

Wow! That's funny--and so cool that he took the initiative.

Bridget said...

Awwwww, that blanket was really sweet of him. :) And super funny/awesome that he made the strawberries, they are quite cute. But now I'm curious... why strawberries?

LadyEm said...

Bridget, I have no idea about the strawberries! It is my favorite fruit, but I don't think there is any significance to his choice.