Benjamin's Quilt

Last week, as I was thinking about the kids' Christmas gifts, I needed to come up with something for Benjamin. As the poor fourth kid, there is absolutely nothing he needs, but obviously we want to mark his first Christmas with something special.

I decided to make him a small quilt, just as fast as I possibly could... And I busted this sucker out in just a few days:

Sunday, I bought the fabric,
Monday, I cut and began piecing it,
Tuesday, I finished piecing it and made the quilt sandwich,
Wednesday, I quilted it, cut the binding... AND.... My iron died. IRON FAIL.

We left for Brian's company meeting, and my sweet sister gave me my kids and her iron on the way home, so Sunday, I bound it.

The quilt is backed in a cozy flannel that I found on Joann.com on Black Friday for $1.98 per yard. Score!

Finished size is 38x48

It Works!

So.  I've taken a bit of a break from blogging. My excuse is that the keyboard on my computer stopped working sometime in February, and I have no idea why. But we backed everything up and reinstalled the stuff, and well, it works again, so YAY! So I can blog and budget and sort out my overwhelmingly unorganized Pictures folder.

(really, I can't explain how wonderful it is to have a working keyboard. Ever tried to use your computer without one? I was about to go mad selecting one letter at a time on the onscreen keyboard with my mouse.)

(also, we don't have to buy a new computer!)

Moving on...


It's summer in the chatty household, and we've been laying low. I started a new quilt, one for Brian and I, while I try to figure out how to transition a toddler sized quilt I was making for Isaac to twin size.










Brenna and Isaac started gymnastics this week, and that's going to be awesome, and all three kids will start survival swim lessons in July.

Brian is working in San Francisco, in a job that has been a real challenge for him. I'm pretty sure he'll look back on this time euphemistically as a time of growth.






Benjamin is grabby, slobbery, smiley, and otherwise wonderful. He's a mellow little man, for which I am deeply grateful (and optimistically hoping will continue!). He is beloved by his siblings, and his socks are beloved by the dog, who keeps stealing them and eating the toes out.

Pink an' Puppow Bowfies

Drum roll, please!

(Sorry if that's pretty self-congratulatory. I'm sorta thrilled!)

It's finished! Sixteen months (about five more than I thought it was going to take)!

 

When I began talking to Brenna about what she'd like, she was three years old.  Pink and purple.  Butterflies. We looked and looked at what was available in the way of butterflies, and Brenna's three year old self liked some of it, but I just couldn't see loving it in the long term. Then I came across this tutorial.  LOVED IT.  I had found exactly what I was looking for. Obviously, I altered it to fit my needs, but it still makes me so happy!

 

5 bugs

 

12 butterflies

 

12 birds

 83 flowers 

The center panel is called Wave Runner. I really like it, but I'm still not certain the two styles go together. Too late now! One thing that just made it so fun to work with is how groups of stripes would pop up in places I wasn't expecting.  This little spot is one of my favorites!

This is what the back looks like.  Brenna picked out the soft purple floral.  It was an interesting experience having a three and four year old as a style consultant; she has a clear vision!

This was my first experience with free motion quilting. It was hard, and frustrating at times, but something I'm really glad I figured out. I think it'll go better next time. 

As is usual with my work, there are a bajillion mistakes. I had constant problems with my tension, and nearly chucked the whole sewing machine out the door on a couple of occasions.  I think now that I'm not working on anything, I'm going to focus on getting that taken care of, so hopefully I can avoid this next time.

 This is what I got when I tried to encourage my sweet girl to pose.  I'm not sure modeling is in her future, but I think she's happy with her quilt!

 

I am so glad it's done!  And I'm so glad she loves it!

Miscellany 04.12.2011

This morning, Brenna caught her finger in her bike helmet buckle.  Then she cut through her shirt and her skin with her scissors.  Tonight, she somehow collided with out neighbor so that his teeth left a substantial gash in the side of her head.  It's been a rough day to be Brenna.

*****

We sleep with three pillows on our bed.   One for each of our heads (obviously) and one that we call my Boyfriend, or alternately, "Phil". Last night, Brian cuddled up to me, so that he was laying on Phil; I told him, "you're going to fall asleep on my boyfriend, so that I can't have him when I want him." 

My mind was going a million miles an hour, so by the time I was calm and ready to fall asleep, Brian was asleep and I was laying on Phil.  But clearly, somewhere in the back of his head, Brian remembered what I had said.  He rolled over, yanked the pillow out from under MY head and handed it to me. Then he apologized. For falling asleep on the pillow, NOT for yanking it out from under me. I could not. stop. giggling.

I have wished since the beginning of my marriage that I would get it together and keep a journal next to my bed for the sole purpose of writing down the things Brian has said and done in his sleep. So here's to a new tradition!

*****

Whenever I have to list hobbies, on Facebook, or whatever, I write "sewing".  I think I'm going to start writing "seam ripping" instead. I do a whole lot more of that.

*****


Speaking of sewing (or more precisely, seam ripping): Brenna's quilt.  Just shoot me now.  I don't think that thing is EVER GOING TO GET DONE.  And it has caused me to hate my sewing machine. 

Busy, Busy, Busy

I feel like I'm going a million miles an hour lately, but I leave my house like twice a week.  I've been working like crazy on Brenna's quilt.  I find that I get super motivated, then I burn out and don't touch it for a while.

I have noticed that I seem to be an oddity in that I work on only one sewing project at a time.  So for the last two years that I've been making these quilts, I haven't touched anything else.

Saturday, Brian asked me to make the kids trick-or-treat bags.  I told him, "I can't.  I'm working on Brenna's quilt."  He asked me to anyway.  Can I just say, it was SO HARD to wrap my mind around starting something different?  Especially since I was MOTIVATED!  Like, how often does that happen?  And besides, as I've mentioned before, I like to make everything harder than it needs to be.  A lot harder.  Halloween pillowcases.  That's what I'm making.  Halloween pillowcases.

I started looking  at super cute lined tote patterns online.  I showed one to Brian, and he said, "NO." In his firm voice.  Good thing he knows me so well.  Halloween pillowcases.

 After another interrupted plantation tour (next time we'll go in shifts.  Isaac will NOT be in attendance.), we headed to the fabric store to let the kids pick out some Halloween fabric. 

Brenna chose the "pupple", Nathan, the Jack-o-Lanterns, and I chose the glittery orange and black for Isaac because I couldn't get either of the other two to pick it.


I spent probably 30 minutes on each, and only made them a little bit harder.  I take that back, Isaac's was quite a bit harder, but that was because the fabric was directional.  In the wrong direction.  So I had to piece it a bit.  And iron.  Oh, and I made it almost to the end without having to rip a stitch!  It was amazing!  Then I accidentally put Isaac's handle an inch or so off to the side.  Oops.  I hadn't cut it yet, but I was SO CLOSE to completing a project without having to rip a seam!  Bummer.

So there ya go.  We're ready to go beg strangers to give us something I don't want my kids to have.  It's gonna be great :)

7 Quick Takes Friday

I have a whole lot of little random things rattling around my brain lately.  I keep thinking I should write a post about that.... but it would be one sentence.  When I saw 7 Quick Takes Friday over at Conversion Diary, it was a little gift of brevity from God!

1.  I've been getting ready to start our home school year all week.  The curriculum I'm using is ordered, and I'm very excited about it, so our actual timeline will likely depend on when it gets here, since we'll probably just dive right in.

2.  I'm contemplating, after these many years of using children as an alarm clock, getting my own.  I KNOW!  It sounds terrible.  But there may be some relief in having my coffee before there are three little voices at the side of my bed making their imminent starvation my problem.

3.  I've also been working on Brenna's quilt, and as I've mentioned a time or two, I like to make things harder than they were supposed to be.  Due to my overestimation of my own abilities, I'm having a problem with the dimensions of the quilt.  The style I chose moves around a lot.  Anyhoo, I also don't really love the way it's all coming together.  It makes me glad I'm getting all this learning out of the way while my children are young enough to think everything I make is THE COOLEST THING EVER!

4.  Isaac is killing me.  He is loud, insistent, obnoxiously stubborn, LOUD, he hits, he throws, he screams, he's fearless to the point of injury, and he's loud.  All the time.  If he's awake, I'm stressed.  Definitely my hardest toddler.  Then he smiles, and oh.my.word.  He's beautiful.  Charming.  Such a gift.  Then he throws his shoes at me.

5.  It's been hot.  Big surprise, right?  So we've been traveling around the area finding things to do on the weekend just to get out of the house.  We figure it's better to be hot someplace interesting.

A few weeks ago we went to Oak Alley Plantation.  It was beautiful.  The tour probably would have been better if the above mentioned toddler hadn't felt it was imperative to be louder than the guide at all times, causing the two of us to have to leave, much to the relief of the other paying customers.

This weekend we're going to New Orleans Museum of Art.  It'll be the kids' first time at an art museum.  Yay for culture!

6.  I can't figure out what to do for the Brenna and Nathan's birthdays.  I'm a little wary of inviting three or four six year old boys over to climb my walls for a couple hours, but it will be too hot to do anything outside and I'm not willing to pay several hundred dollars to rent a birthday party venue for a total of eight children.  Anyone have any ideas for me?

7.  Ummm...

We got a good coupon for a set of tires, which we will need reasonably soon.

Or,

I can't find a picture I like for the place of honor in my wall of pictures, so the frame is still empty.  It's starting to bug me.

Oh, I know! 

This week I wrote my to-do list on the white board, really big.  It's awesome, because I can't ignore it!  I have been so productive.  Of course, that means that my children REALLY, REALLY need to use the white board that they've been ignoring all summer, because clearly it's the most desirable space in the house.

THE END

Practice makes... well, hopefully at least better.

I planned on quilting Brenna's quilt by hand... which would take approximately twelve and a half years.

But then I came across this and this.  So fabulous.

And I also love her free motion quilting.  Which is faster.  And hard.  So I started looking for directions, tips and tricks.  I found directions, but as for tricks... well, most everything I read said practice.  Practice, practice, practice.  I hope no one paid money for that advice.

So I have been practicing.  Since good quilting fabric is expensive, I went to my handy local Giant Discount Establishment and bought a couple yards of cheap fabric.  But even then, batting was still more expensive than I wanted to pay for practice materials.  So upon consideration of the materials at hand (meaning, spread across the floor of various closets) I decided to quilt one of the "mess" towels we keep around for cleaning up the plentiful spills around here.  Brilliant, right?  Well, sort of.  Not really smooth, and TONS of lint, but it's doing the job.

Free motion quilting is basically using your sewing machine needle to draw pictures on the fabric.  But instead of moving the pen, you move the paper.  So the key is to keep the foot pedal at a steady pace, while also moving this huge, heavy quilt around under the needle... and make it look nice.

 

I divided the quilt sandwich into squares, and I'm practicing a different style in each.

I love spirals.  And I suck at them. You can see here how moving the fabric and the pedal at the wrong speeds really impacts stitch length.  It's totally like learning to drive a car again :).  One of the tips that I keep coming across is "don't look right in front of the needle.  Look where you want it to go."  I think I heard that a time or twenty when I was learning to drive!

I think this is the one I'll use on Brenna's quilt.

How cute are these guys?

This one is Nathan's favorite.

I'm not ready to start on the quilt yet... I really want to get my stitch lengths under control, but I think I might be able to start next week sometime.  Yay!