A long time gone

Yeah... it's been a while. A new town. A new state. A new "career" for my husband - graduate student. Switching from having a "baby" to a "toddler". And a new baby on the way. Due any day now. :)

I'm just 8 months pregnant in that photo. A lot of people close to me have commented that I'm carrying the baby pretty small this time. Maybe it's a girl? We're planning on another home birth.

I've been trying to get labor going, but no luck! I'm open to a lot ideas, but not to castor oil. ;)

Leah

Last finish

The last time I finished a quilt... June! It's Bonnie Hunter's Crayon Box, made with hand dyed fabrics and a colorful batik.

Freshly washed and ready to mail off to my friend. I offered to make her a quilt almost 3 years ago, of her own choice. She quickly claimed this top, but it'd be another 2.5 years before it actually arrived at her house! :P

My cute little helper. :) All quilts need an adjustment and tugging, right?

Leah

In Simple Words

A little guy had his first birthday yesterday.

He's only said "mama" so far, and is on the cusp of walking.


We're also moving at the end of this month.

Lots of decluttering going on, but not so much with my quilting stuff, except for a few magazines.


And a wee little bit of quilting accomplished.

Now I just need to label, take pictures and mail it off to a good friend.

Leah

Am I a quilter any more?

That's that question that gets tossed around my brain these days: am I a quilter any more? I feel more of a poser than a quilter these days. I buy fabric, look at patterns, talk quilt... but where are the quilts?

After a few weeks of thinking about it, I realize I DO want to be a quilter. I've asked my husband for help, help me find time to quilt. It's not easy with baby Caleb around. Quilting will be done in stolen moments, but I do want to put some valid effort towards it everyday. I miss quilting.


I did go to my guild's quilt show in February. Not a lot of quilts stood out to me... but I had Caleb with me and needed to hurry because he was fussy.

And getting in the way. ;) I did manage to buy a few extra minutes by letting him nom on the camera.


Something that really helped the general flow of the household was giving up my sewing room. Yeah... it's Caleb's room now. Out went the two sewing tables, cutting table and computer table. In went Caleb's crib, toys and a twin mattress.

The mattress was supposed to be for me, so I can sleep and nurse Caleb as needed in the middle of the night. Well... he's taken to the twin mattress MUCH better than the crib, it's pretty much his bed now. He's napping there right now. :)

Cribs make good places to stack quilts, right?

But yes... I finally have my first finished quilt of the year.

Meander quilting with loops and stars. I sure started using my quilts more after Caleb was born.


Caleb might be a handful these days...

...but he can be pretty cute too. :)


Leah

Caleb likes quilting

Caleb is always helping and testing out my quilting supplies.

Hand dyes taste like fiber, you know. ;)

He's measuring pretty big these days.

It's not hard to see how the placenta cord was so wrapped around him when he was born.


It was wrapped around his neck 3 times, his torso 3 times and his foot 3 times.

I lost my foot pedal after letting him play with it several times. Finally I decided to get down to his eye level and found it pushed under the fabric shelves. Little stinker. :)


I try to make little as possible off limits, but if it presents a danger or he's abusing it, I'll take it away. Or take Caleb away from it. My ironing cord is permanently UP whenever I'm not using it.

He's been teething the last few weeks, so anything he gets his hands upon is as good as in his mouth too.


Maybe you can see a few teeth through the gum in this picture. I got tired of him taking chunks out of the batting, so that got stashed into the closet quickly. :P

The last two weeks have been a little rough with Caleb teething. He's cut two out so far (top left, bottom left) and I'm anticipating two more before we get a break. And more sleep!


Very little crafting going on, but my niece had a birthday 2 weeks ago and I put together a purse and apron for her.

I did kinda cheat, the purse and apron can be bought from Walmart, I just added my personal touch. No actual sewing done. :D

I so badly want to get back to quilting more, I just haven't figured how to balance it all.

Leah

A good start

A good start to the new year, more sewing time!

Organized fabric, mostly cleared table, cup of tea, sewing away... yup, happy hours. :)


My little helper is never far away though.

He's allowed to make a mess in order for me to get quality needle time. I just make sure he doesn't have any potential access to needles or pins; he's gotta stay away from the cords belonging to the sewing machine and iron.

I'm a little slower at the machine, but it works out well. :)

Leah

It's a new year

It's a new year, and I hope to be blogging back in full force! I've got a good reason, my mom has spent a week with me giving my sewing room an overhaul. :)


This quilt was given to the lady that runs the local breastfeeding support group. She was lamenting that the babies didn't have something to protect them from the wood floors... and I pulled up this cheerful quilt for her.

She also adores Caleb (her son is named Caleb too), and clearly Caleb finds her comfortable enough for a snooze. ;)

May you sew more stitches in 2011!

Leah

Busy Boy

Caleb has been a busy boy! Events include traveling to California, dipping his toes into the ocean and finally meeting his great-grandfather.

I also celebrated my 28th birthday, been trying to get ready for the holidays and will be spending Black Friday doing a serious declutter. I have no room for quilting, and Caleb is hitting the next level of mobility. He's tried to grab at my sewing machine a couple times now, and tested the edibility of fabric. ;)

Leah

Slacker

I've been unhappy with how few pictures I've been taking of Caleb lately. I went a little camera crazy the other day. ;)

He really grows by leaps and bounds. He discovered his toes the other week. He's working harder on sitting up.

He also disregards all my begging for him to stop growing. He might be 4.5 months old now, but wears 9 month outfits! A doctor appointment earlier this month put him at 18 pounds and 12 ounces. I'm sure he's over 19 pounds now. My back would have given out a long time ago if it weren't for chiropractor visits. :)

Caleb is still breastfeeding. He shows no interest in food yet, even when we bring it within inches of his hands. But he does enjoy going after the keyboard when he sits in mine or Chris's laps.

I shall blame all future typos on him. ;)

Leah

Close ups

Here's some close ups of the quilting on my mom's birthday quilt. I did something different in every row.

Playing with a tight wiggle
Loops and stars
Circles on a line (inspired by Christina's blog)

Vines and curls, the hardest row!
Frequencies
Big circles

Double loops
Tight meandering
Single loops with "mom" written in thread. It might look like "wow" in some spots. ;)

A wide open peacock swirl
Squares and corners
Connected loops

I really pushed myself out of the box on this quilt. I wanted to show my mom what I'm capable of free-motioning. She plans to "hire" me to finish her quilts. Yes, this is a shameless nudge!

It still cuddles just fine, even if it might not be perfect. :)

Leah

Happy Birthday Mom!

A little bit early, but I made my mom a quilt for her birthday. Caleb got to help a lot. :)

I was dreading the pinning part, but I couldn't remember why. Then once I started pinning, it hit me that the last time I pinned, I was over 40 weeks pregnant with exceedingly swollen feet.


Caleb surprised me at how well he was able to pull off the wrapping paper. It was absolutely hilarious to watch! He'll be in great shape for Christmas.

He got his whole body into it, hands pulling, feet pushing. He's such a big boy - and the scale agrees with me! At 3 months and 4 days, I had the chance to weigh him on a baby scale and he popped out 17 pounds and 11 ounces. Zowie! We're just about to start using 9 month clothes in a few weeks.


The quilt was 9 blocks by 12 blocks, so I made 12 rows of different quilting styles. Just having fun showing off to Mom what I'm capable of doing.

I was crazy, started the quilting Wednesday night, finished Friday morning and had the binding sewn on by Friday noon. Then I spent pretty much every moment Mom wasn't here hand stitching the binding down. Got it done in time! But I was prepared to give Mom some thread and a needle to finish it herself if I had to. :)


A tall brother makes an excellent quilt holder. At 3.5 months, Ben was 20 pounds and 5 ounces. So Caleb isn't the largest baby for my side of the family. We do hold hopes that Caleb will be over 6 feet tall as an adult.

Happy Birthday Mom... three weeks early! I'm sure it'll look great on your couch and will be snuggled with plenty of times. :)

Leah

Milestones

I've hit a couple milestones. First, my blog reached 6-figures of visitors. :)

And yes, thanks for stopping by!


Then I finally finished my first quilt since Caleb was born.

The batik snowball and 9-patch.

Backing fabric, using a hand dyed piece.

If I don't use my nice fabric now, when will I use them?

A close up of a corner.

It went off to a friend who gave me a portion of her cloth diaper stash. I wish her happy cuddling! :)


And I'm afraid every blog post will now have a shot of Caleb in it, one way or another. ;)

He's really learning how to grab and hold onto things now. He was in the kitchen either watching me do dishes or Chris and I cook. We try to include him in most of the stuff we do.

Leah

How close?

How close do you allow the quilt to get to the batting's edge?

The quilt is supposed to be 48.5" square, and the batting is 48". I think with a couple too large seams, the top was closer to 48" in one direction.

Too close? Probably, but I don't have a better option. My other batting is too thick to use the fleece for the backing. I really want a nice, warm quilt for Caleb this winter.

If I start now, will it be done by Christmas? :)

Leah

Slow down!

Somebody tell Caleb to slow down, he's growing too fast. :P

The first picture was when he was 6 days old. Cute and small.

Second picture is just before he was 4 weeks old. Just a little growth. I'll let it slide. ;)

The third picture? Exactly 10 weeks old and he looks gigantic!

I love his expression, it looks like "oh no! I grew! How do I stop?" He's such a good baby, I don't want this time to disappear in a few blinks.

He's also discovered a lot in the past 2 weeks. His hands. That he can actually grab stuff. He kicks the duckies in his bath tub. He'll try to talk back to us sometimes.

I've also started cloth diapering... that probably gives him another inch on his bum. ;)

Leah

Baby Caleb is growing!

He's getting to be such a big boy now. :) He hit his official 2 month mark yesterday.

He's sweet and cute to wake up in the mornings. Full of smiles and laughs. :) And speaking of such, I think he's about to wake up for the day.

Leah