I'm playing with layouts that use both 6" and 9" LeMoyne stars, in a roughly 45"x60" configuration. No clear winner yet, though I'm considering just alternating them on point with blank squares, or the one shown here.
This is my current quilt project:
The bigger one is 9", while the smaller are 6"; I had enough fun with the ones that went into Denton's stocking that I couldn't stop. My plan is to lay them out pseudorandomly, with large and small mashed together (for the size I'm thinking of, I need about a dozen large).
I feel like my color choices have been getting progressively less inspired, so I hit the fabric store again today and came home with mustard yellow, bubblegum pink and two more batiks (purple and green).
My mother sent the boys knitted stuffs. Here's Denton showing off cozy lined mittens in his favorite color:
George trying on for size his hat and sweater:
I have my dragon curve quilt all done, binding, label and everything. No good place to take its picture, though. There's a 180-degree rotated dragon curve that's picked out in quilting thread only, which isn't easy to see here.
I've been wondering if my response to discovering the accidental loss or breakage of an item is excessive. I will generally not be able to move past active constant searching or regret, without obtaining a replacement.
Today, I discovered the loss of a large bag of scraps from cotton quilt battings. Replacement value: $20 (for an intact batting of equivalent weight) or free (if I can stomach asking freecycle for scraps or waiting for them to accumulate again). Probable cause of disappearance: cleaners mistaking it for trash. Cause of regret: having stored it in a white trash bag liner in the middle of my room.
The facts of the situation add up to a rational shrug. But, in this case, I've been wrestling with it since 4pm, applying the "exact replacement, ASAP" ritual doesn't make rational sense, and I'm trying to dissect the ritual to come up with a more practical variation. And maybe acknowledging my irrationality (this post) will help.
Exacerbating factors:
Denton can now do the 24-piece airplane puzzle pretty reliably. I think the sideways tongue means "thinking" but sometimes it means "cat". Picture taken by Monty, hence the correct whitebalance.
The only prompting I provided was to ask Denton not to pick his nose.
They're not rare these days... he's looking at Denton.
I couldn't figure out how to make George happy, for a long time on Saturday. Finally set him on the floor and walked away, and he cheered up almost immediately. It turns out we haven't been giving him nearly enough time to flail about on the floor, and he'll spend quite a lot of time perfectly content there.
Weird kid... or is he the normal one?
I made Denton a stocking; I wanted to make some LeMoyne star quilt blocks just to see how hard the Y seams were. The color that's eaten by the artificial lighting is a strong plum; the other side has red in it's place, to be more Christmasy.
I found the little six inch stars quite fun to make; I am considering making many more. I think this is because they have a fair amount of sewing compared to the amount of cutting out and finding fabrics. (To which Monty said "oh, you like them because they're hard" but that's not quite what I was thinking.) Also, all the pressing they get can be done at the end (I cannot supervise children while ironing). I am still pondering a scrappy approach, or all two-color.
Last week, a breakfast time spit-up incident (George) and subsequent flailing lead to my bowl of oatmeal smashing on the floor. I asked Denton to sit in the corner and hold George, while I cleaned it up, since he clearly wanted to help, and was going to get involved with the oatmeal and broken crockery unless I was specific otherwise.
The experience clearly made an impression, since yesterday he told me the story again, and we replayed the holding George part.
George feels the cold far more than Denton ever did, so he's getting to wear many of the sweaters that never worked out for Denton. I think by the time Denton grew into this one (knitted by my mother) he was too active for the longer style.
George is smiling, quite often in fact, but I have not managed to catch it in photographs.
I'm not getting a good feel for the tail shape distinction; it seems to depend a lot on how he holds it. But my size impression (I had a jay in view at the same time) is that this was a largish bird, and the back of the head says "Cooper's" to me.
( two more pictures )
I think Cooper's, but we can debate Cooper's vs. sharpie when I've processed some more pictures.
It spent a full half hour eating a male house sparrow. I got Denton down to see it, and he watched politely for a while, then asked if it was a peacock.
Here's the most recent wooden puzzle I mentioned; link is to the page with all of them, except for a few that are embargoed until xmas.
Denton tried the spacewalk one this evening and got quite a number of pieces in before wandering off.
This here is our advent calendar; each framed square is a pocket. Around the pockets I did some free motion quilting (my first try at that). So far I've left Denton one small plastic alligator that was new to him, and stashed in my room; I may resort to chocolate soon, since creativity won't hold up.
I got the concept from a Sew, Mama, Sew! feature; decided that I did not want to applique numbers, so I chain stitched them by hand (which went quickly). Denton knows his numbers and was fascinated by the process; I think he learned to "read" numbers 11-24 as I was working on it.
My current take-along sewing project:
That's 7_1, 7_3, 7_7 and 7_2 from the Rolfsen Knot Table.
What I eventually do with it depends on how far my patience extends.
Here's the slightly disheveled Denton, after a long trick or treat outing.
He was a cheetah, made the same way as his last few costumes, because I am a one trick pony as far as these things go. Yes, the black dye wicked along the back of the fabric and left greenish streaks - next time padding the costume before painting it is needed.
I couldn't convince Denton to actually say "trick or treat" to anyone, and in fact he was pretty silent, until the last block of the trip home, in which he started saying "happy halloween" to everybody he passed. Being silent scarcely mattered; he seemed to get a lot of double handfuls and full size candy bars. One neighbor even chased after us with candy because Denton decided he was tired and skipped her house on his way home.
There seemed to be decent numbers of trick-or-treaters out anywhere there was a row of houses with decorations, but long gaps where the houses were dark, and nobody was about.
Denton has definitely been working on his stamina. This morning, he tantrummed for 57 minutes, over the fact that I made oatmeal for breakfast, when he wanted yogurt instead. (Yogurt would have been an acceptable breakfast choice, had I been notified prior to making the oatmeal.)
I even provided a mutually face saving option to fix low blood sugar (juice) to no avail. Well, more specifically, he threw it at the wall.
Navigate: (Previous 20 Entries)
