mama urchin

When Amanda Jean said she wanted a red and white quilt — only red and white — I thought, no problem. I have a ton of red fabric in my stash. Well, it turns out I didn’t have any of the right red and all the right reds had a little something else in them too — green, pink, tan. So I finally got myself to a fabric store last week and picked up a few red and white prints. I decided to make a star since Amanda Jean helped me begin to conquer my fear of triangles. I had to rip out the last seam about four times before I was satisfied with it. It is still not perfect but the points in the middle match so I’ll live with it.

Courtney sent three solids and asked us to create a square that was bordered in the muslin color. Courtney said: feel free to tea dye, distress fabrics, or to pair them with things that appear just a little “off.” And if it’s a fabric that looks like it was your grandpa’s work shirt, or your grandma’s house dress even better. So I wanted my square to look like it was pieced together with little leftover or re-used scraps. I think I did it. Well, I hope I did.

Remember how I made a few apron sets to have on hand for birthday gifts? Well, they’ve been a huge hit and the birthday parties haven’t stopped. So, I’ll be working on something new to have in the stash soon. This, however, is about the boys. Katie hasn’t been invited to too many boy parties this year but we have had a bit of a run on babies that have big brothers. And any mom of two (or more) knows that gifts for a new baby are always better received when they come with a gift for the big sister/brother too.

The dinosaur backpacks are made from the same clearance fabric as Katie’s dino dress. They were super easy to make and I finally got to use some grommets — something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. The contents include all kinds of Dinosaur stuff I got in the dollar bins at Target — grow tablets, stickers, dinosaur skeleton kits, tattoos, etc. I also included a couple of Schleich dinosaur figures. Really, you could find almost all of this stuff at the dollar store. And as a mom I know that I like when Katie gets gifts like this. The stickers and tattoos get used and used up, and then they’re gone. The figures and the skeleton can be played with creatively and won’t be quickly outgrown. And all kids love a bag to put their junk in — I had a lot of trouble getting this one off the model. It’s so much better than another Polly Pocket or Spiderman figure. I also change the contents slightly depending on the recipient. A dinosaur book would be good for an older boy while a dinosaur coloring book and crayons are just right for a younger child.

The pillows from my bloggy birthday give-away are headed out today. Finally. Man, I am slow with the sending. These got held up with zipper issues. Why can you never find a zipper that is the right color and the right length? So there is one pillow where the zipper color is the best I could do and another where the zipper is way too long. Still, I think they’re pretty cute. Click through to flickr to see who gets which one and individual photos too. And here is a photo of my prop master — always ready to help me with the photography.

This is a quilt for some friends that had a baby at the end of last year. I wanted something soft so I made a huge log cabin from blue and green flannels. I backed it with minkee so it will be soft against the little guy whether it’s used as a play mat or a crib quilt. Wow, though, I need to get with the program on getting gifts made in a more timely manner.

And an update on the other babies. As of this morning I was fairly convinced that Mama Bunny had not returned since Sunday. So, while the urchins were at preschool we carefully pulled back the leaves and fluff and found that the babies were still there, doing well, and a little bothered that we were disturbing them. After some online research and some info from some of you I felt much better that they were doing fine — i.e. they hadn’t been abandoned/orphaned — and that a rabbit nest in the middle of the lawn is not that unusual. To be safe I moved a plastic Adirondack chair near the nest since someone walking to the front door from the street would probably step right on them. Then tonight as we were heading out after dinner we saw the Mama tending her kittens — did you know baby rabbits are called kittens? Unfortunately, she saw us too so she quickly hopped away but she was watching to see what we did so we just got in the car and drove off. Turns out, she’s a good mama after all.

Before we scooted off to mission control — more rocket pics in Papa’s flickr stream — someone in our house turned five. She has been telling us for months about the mermaid swimming party she was going to have. My philosophy on children’s birthday parties is that themes are fun for them, even if I personally find them a little too much. And if you are going to do a theme, I say go for it whole heartedly. So, a mermaid swimming party was had.

The inside says:

We had the party at our local recreation center so we couldn’t really decorate too much. I just got all kinds of shells and some ocean-colored beads to put on the tables.

For food we kept it simple. Papa made an awesome cake — with art direction by Mama — and we had ice cream cups and swedish fish. Let me tell you, I had forgotten how good swedish fish taste. The castle cake was made with a nordic ware pan. We made a sheet cake to be the ocean and decorated it with homemade candies, store bought sugar fishes, and two theme-appropriate playmobils.

The mermaid princess seemed pleased, if not a little overwhelmed. She’s already started planning next year’s party, a fairy teaparty — do you think she’s been reading Daria’s blog?

With delays for illnesses and vacations and all kinds of things we are finally able to call this round of miniswap complete. Katrina and Tristan were paired with Caroline who loves puppies, kittens, playing with dolls, etc. We decided for Katie and Tristan to each direct a project where they could help participate. Tristan’s project was a coloring set. I made the bag and sketchbook and the urchins helped with the crayons.

After looking through The Cute Book Katrina decided we should make a kitty for Caroline. We used the basic shapes included in the book but made some adjustments and made a mama cat too. Then we decided to make some toys and other things a la Lyn and include them in an old wooden box that originally held olive oil and balsamic vinegar. So Mama Kitty and her baby have a fish and a mouse as well as a pillow and some milk bottles in case they get tired or thirsty. Mama’s apron comes off for when she’s not chasing Baby Kitty’s messes.

We also included a rice pillow that matches Katie’s — fabric choices made entirely by her — and some other purchased things that we thought Caroline might enjoy. Caroline and her mama, Amber, spoiled us and you can see what they sent here, here, and here . Thank you Caroline and Amber, and thanks Molly for another great round of miniswap.

….Everybody was doing fine.
Steggy was slurping his swamp juice,
while Iggy sat down to dine.

So begins Tristan’s favorite bedtime story. He got the book with a dinosaur softie from Santa. The last two weeks have been dinosaur weeks in Katrina’s preschool class and today is her day to bring a dinosaur show-and-tell. She’s asked Tristan about a hundred times if she can borrow his book — which they both know by heart — and yesterday we got two Schleich dinos for her to take. Katrina has never been into dinosaurs but the idea of a dinosaur dress was particularly appealing to her. Conveniently I had bought something like 6 yard of dinosaur fabric a week ago off the remnant table at my local fabric store. No pattern, just a quick — and not perfectly executed — sew. It will probably end up in the dress-up box and eventually cut into to make something else, because Dinosaurs aren’t quite girl-y enough for her. In the meantime though, she’ll be roaring with the best of them.

It’s hard to achieve. This is my block for Kathy’s quilt — the March quilt of the Virtual Quilting Bee.

Kathy asked for the blocks to be log cabin in spirit and offered some Gee’s Bend quilt images and the quilts of Nancy Crow as inspiration. I knew I would have to use some solids and after seeing Anina’s block I knew I wanted to do wonky seams — coincidentally the tutorial for wonky seams is by Kathy. I really liked how the variation on strip sizes looked on this pillow top I made so I wanted to go with that design. My idea was for the seams to get wonkier as I progressed through the log cabin. The block ended up way too big so I had to cut it down. It’s hard to pre-cut for the wonkiness too. You can see more of how Kathy’s quilt is shaping up over in the flickr pool.

This is the first thing I heard over Tristan’s monitor yesterday morning. It actually was more like Oh no… I feee terwible quickly followed by Oh no… I neee a tiss-ooo. He’s actually doing pretty well, I think he’s just heard someone else saying it all week. She’s still suffering with a low fever so there’s been no preschool and there will be no Celtic dance recital tomorrow. We even had a St. Patrick’s Day card for her teacher.

Anyway, back to Tristan. Hopefully this new outfit will help him feel a little less terwible. I’ve had the fabric forever, I mean seriously a long time. I saw Laurie’s robot iron-on transfers last June and bought a set knowing they would be perfect with pants made from the Trefle Robot March fabric — which did I mention I’ve had since last May? These took about 30 minutes to make, what exactly was I waiting for? They are basically short pajama pants. I considered doing a fake fly front but came to my senses. We’ll be in balmy LA a week from now and my little man has nothing to wear, speed and finishing are key here.

…know where I can get some natural/ivory colored fishing net to make into bags for mermaid Katrina’s upcoming underwater birthday party? I’m planning to make the bags from fabric and use the net as an overlay so the hole size isn’t too important.

…know where I can get fun goggles for the party cheap? I want to try to get some of those goggles with eyes shaped like shells or fish or something.

…have a good source for cotton chenille? I’m looking for some ivory/natural chenille to back my pink and brown quilt squares. All the stores around here have basic striped chenille and I was thinking something more floral in pattern. This is one of those times I have something in my head, now I just need to find it.

…have shopping recommendations while we’re visiting LA over Easter weekend? I might have a little time between the family events we’re going to attend and I wouldn’t mind finding a good Japanese bookstore/everything store. Yarn and fabric store recommendations are always welcome too. We’re staying north-west of downtown in Agoura Hills.

Thank you in advance for the help I know you’ll give. And thank you also for the well wishes. We found out yesterday that Katrina has strep again and an ear infection. I’m hoping a few doses of the antibiotic will have her feeling better soon. The photos in this post are pillow tops in progress from my bloggy birthday give-away. Once made into pillows these will be going to Kris and Inga. I have plans for both Amy and Capello next.