Saturday, February 27, 2010

Not So Out of This World

It took more than two months, but I completed the quilt I've been working on for my son, and I was so excited to give it to him. While I was sewing, he would ask, "It's a special blanket for ME?!?", so I thought he was going to love it. While he was at preschool, I went into his room and made up the bed with his new quilt, then told him I had a surprise for him when we got home. He ran up the stairs and into his room, filled with excitement, then stopped and said, "Um, I don't really like quilts, Mom."

Sigh.


So, for the last week, he's been making nests out of his old baby blankets and throwing my quilt off of his bed. Then, after putting my son to sleep tonight, my husband came down the stairs and told me that he said, "I'm cold - I want my quilt, Dad!" Maybe all of those late nights and pricked fingers weren't a huge waste of time after all...





If you're looking for modern or whimsical fabrics, I highly recommend Fabricworm. I shopped from Etsy, but they have a separate website, too. Cynthia & Andrea are super helpful, answer and ship quickly, and Cynthia helped me immensely with the fabrics for this quilt, even putting together and taking pics of the ones I liked, so I could see how they looked before I bought everything. It's difficult for me to see separate pages of fabrics and visualize how they'll look assembled, so I can't thank Cynthia enough for that.

Here's a close-up of the fabric and the borders and binding I added. I started with a pattern for a lap quilt, and used that for the basic layout with the double border and changed the dimensions to make it a twin. I also bought a book, Better Homes & Gardens Complete Guide to Quilting, that had detailed instructions for rotary cutting the squares and the border/binding strips, how to attach the binding, etc. which was very useful, since I had just been winging it before. I'm still not very precise, and I can't sew a straight line to save my life, but luckily, I like things to look handmade.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Sweets For My Sweet


I finished the felted sugar cookies shortly after I made the oatmeal cookies and am just now getting around to posting the pics. These are really simple to make with a round cookie cutter, some natural, undyed wool, and a few candy colors for frosting. I use a multi-needle tool to make the initial cookie shape quickly, then finish with single needles.

After "eating" all of his cookies, my son said he was very thirsty...

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Tea Party

While cooking at his wooden kitchen playset, my son asked me where were his cookies. I've been meaning to needle felt him a few cookies for months (and months!), so I felt a twinge of guilt, then put them on my mental "projects list". Nevermind that my husband says I don't need any more projects, since I'm currently sewing a quilt, needle-felting a doll, and working at my Stella & Dot jewelry business, all while renovating our kitchen. I like it this way, I tell him.

So, one night, I felted two oatmeal raisin cookies, though the husband (he has quite a few opinions, doesn't he?) said they looked like chocolate chip. I don't like chocolate chip, so I say they're oatmeal raisin, though I can see how they could be either. In the morning, my son was thrilled, and decided to have a tea party with the cookies. Since his main interests are cars, trains, machines, and demolition, I was pretty pleased that he was so excited and took literally 54 photos of him playing. Sadly, uploading those pics is still on that mental "projects list", so I'll have to post those later...

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

In Another Life

Lately, my three-year-old son has started saying to me, "You're my best mommy ever!" Tonight, I asked, "Exactly how many mommies have you had?"
"Two," he replied.
"Who was your first mommy?"
"It was you!"
"So I wasn't that great the first time around?"
"Yes, you was!" he laughed.
"But I'm better at it this time?"
"Yes!"

I just love the idea of lifetimes of being this happy, trying to get it right with this kid, and each time, being his "best mommy ever".


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