Ring Around the Posy Quilt Finish

I am excited that I finally got this quilt finished and on my girls’ bed!  When I saw this spring line from Aneela Hoey earlier this year I just had to make a quilt for my daughters.  The little bunnies and girls reading are just so sweet I couldn’t resist.

When I first started this quilt, I didn’t know what to use for sashing.  I had ordered a layer cake and two mini charm packs of Posy and thought I’d make a simple squares quilt with sashing.  I wanted to use stash fabrics, so after a lot of hemming and hawing about what solid to use, I ended up going with a pretty gray floral.

The reason I went with the gray floral is because I’ve long admired Susan’s quilts on PatchworknPlay, and tried to channel my inner Suz.  If you haven’t seen her quilts before, you should check out her latest finish Ginger Kisses.  She has a gift for picking beautiful fabrics together and it’s always a visual treat to see what she’s working on.

The quilt finishes at 70 x 82, which is too big to hang on my clothesline so my husband hung it up sideways!

I had the quilt top pieced for quite a while, not sure how to actually quilt it.  I ended up going with the decorative wavy stitch on my Janome in a salmon colored thread.  I debated quilting a flower in each of the big squares, but decided against it after it sat around so long, I just wanted to get it finished!  Plus, I like how the lack of dense quilting makes this quilt oh-so-soft and comfy to wrap up in! 

I pieced the back with leftover fabrics.  I just love the way a pieced back looks.  The binding is a pretty pink and white striped—can’t go wrong with a striped binding, right?

I was also organized enough this time to add a fabric label to the back.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Life’s Little Victories

#1  Needing a new ironing board cover and your cousin calling to say Ross has pretty Laura Ashley shabby chic covers…for less than $10.  Score!  Makes me kind of want to press some seams!

#2  Mentally debating whether or not to trim your latest bee block before you mail it--not because you are lazy, but because you want the recipient to have more to work with than less if possible.  Then, a few days later, reading on another blog you were supposed to leave it untrimmed!  I am a rule follower!

#3  Ordering a bunch of DS Quilts fabrics from Joann’s online and waiting more than 2 weeks for it to ship.  Finally receiving it and discovering almost 5 yards of extra free fabric was included!  Ok, now I don’t hate you anymore, Joann’s.  Sorry, I couldn’t get a photo of all the fabric still in the bags because, you know, I had to rip into them like immediately!

I’ve got two quilt finishes to share, but unfortunately the photographs I’d taken are not as good as I hoped, so I will be retaking them tomorrow morning and trying again.  For now I will leave you with two sneak peeks.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Weaning your toddler

Just skip this post if you are interested in quilts!  I want to share some advice for weaning a toddler who is not ready to stop breastfeeding.  I’m 35 years old, been breastfeeding over 7 years of my life, which adds up to about 20% of my lifetime.   I have three kids and the first two started sleeping through the night and breastfeeding less as they passed the one year mark.  Both stopped nursing altogether on their own around 2-2.5 years.  But my youngest, who is 2.5, has not stopped waking up several times at night to nurse and still was nursing all day long.   In fact, she liked to “snack” more times than a baby would probably nurse.  I was getting so tired from not sleeping and annoyed throughout the day when she’d ask to nurse every 20 minutes that it was time to stop.  It was interfering with our lives.  I couldn’t sit on the couch or a chair without her wanting to nurse, she’d try to nurse during dinner, and we couldn’t make it through reading a board book without tears over nursing.

A few friends suggested ways to wean her.  One directed me to some information about using vinegar.  We followed the directions exactly and my daughter understood about becoming a “big girl.”  The only problem was, she was more than willing to nurse through the vinegar taste.  It didn’t slow her down her for a second.  So I went around for 3 days wearing a vinegar soaked paper towel in my bra and smelling like a pickle only to have it not work.  I didn’t go out in public those days because I stunk and the vinegar would eventually soak through to my shirt, but I’m sure that the Schwan’s guy who stopped by one night wondered what was up!

At this point I looked online and found tons of information from the La Leche League and attachment parenting forums that basically suggested not stopping.  I felt really guilty after reading the information on those sites.  See, I definitely an am attachment parent and I strongly believe that mothers and babies should nurse as long as they want to.  But it was getting so out of hand that she’d prefer to nurse instead of eating and I literally felt like my shirt was pulled up 24 hours a day.

I decided to follow some of the advice I found on these sites and not put limits on the nursing so that she didn’t feel like stopping was imminent or that our relationship was tenuous.  It actually worked for a few days…the more willing I was to nurse in whatever situation the less she asked.  But then it just started up again one day and she was back to nursing constantly, no matter how cooperative I was.  The last straw was when we had a few tantrums in the waiting room at dance and I literally had to take her out to the car to nurse to calm her down.  It was getting even more out of hand than before.

I needed a way to wean her that wouldn’t make her feel sad or forsaken.  It seems to me that my kids have equated nursing with mother’s love, so I didn’t want her to think it had anything to do with loving her less.  And it had to be something tangible, not symbolic, so I could make sure she understood 100%.  Then one day while I was folding laundry it came to me!

I ran upstairs and put a bandaid right over my nipple.  (I should tell you that for the past year and a half she’s only nursed on one side, but I think this would work for someone who nurses on both sides.  Just put bandaids on both.)  The next time she asked to nurse, I pulled up my shirt and showed her that I had a boo boo and couldn’t nurse right now, but she could have a milk in a cup or a juice.  It worked!!!!!!  She’s asked lots of questions about the boo boo, so I have elaborated where necessary.  But I have not removed the bandaid.  She seems to accept that it’s “out of order” for the time being.

At first I just used the square bandaids that come in a multi-box (Cars of course!), but they were a real pain to remove.  So I switched to this brand which doesn’t hurt at all.

It’s been four days now and she hasn’t nursed at all.  What’s more, she’s actually slept completely through the night the past two nights.  She is in a better mood during the day and there has been a lot less crying.  I feel like a new woman and a happier mommy.  And we can share a cuddle on the couch or read a book together without nursing interfering. 

I hope this post can help someone who is not finding success using traditional weaning methods.  Good luck!

A little bit of sewing…

I was sick, now 2 of my 3 kids are sick (the third probably will wake up with a fever tomorrow), so I have not had the time to do much sewing the past few nights during my down time after (or if) the kids go to sleep.  Anyone else get cranky if you don’t get your “me” time?  So in between kids waking up and crying every few hours the past few nights, I’ve managed to get a few things crossed off my list.

These super modern wonky crosses are in the mail to Beky.  I loved making these blocks.  They were easy to do and pack a visual punch.  Can’t wait to see the wedding quilt she makes!

This is not my first x & + block I’ve made for a bee.  It’s a popular block and relatively easy to make, too.  I could just imagine making several versions of this quilt in different colors and fabrics if I had the time…

This star may be the death of me.  And the reason I might not sign up for another bee.  It literally took about 7 hours, which is a huge chunk of my weekly sewing time.  And it’s not perfect, kind of irritating after I spent all that time on it.  I realize some people adore paper piecing, but I now know I am not one of those people.  This is the second time I’ve had to make this exact block for a bee, so it was late going out in the mail because I basically procrastinated until the very. last. second. and then couldn’t get it finished by the end of the month.  But it was mailed on Monday and should be to its new owner by now.

 

This block I made recently but never shared on my blog.  It’s an Anna Maria Horner tutorial which I’m sure you’ve seen if you look at quilts online.  I found it to be pretty easy to make, but my block finished up a little shy of the measurements, so Jen kindly let me add a strip to the top and middle to even it out.

Here’s another x & + block in pretty blues and yellows.  I think this block is hypnotic with the relaxing colors and that Tula Pink wavy line fabric.  Look away, look away!

And then this is another bee block that’s rectangular and made from diamonds.  Loved it!  Probably because it was a challenge I was up to and purple is my favorite color.

This block is called a Bento Box I think.  It was fun picking aquas and oranges from my stash to include.  That orange/aqua strip is one of my favorite fabrics ever.  It’s Anna Maria Horner (I think LouLouThi).  It comes in other colors, but I really like the color combo in this version.

And this is one more block—I Spy Mittens—for Laura. 

We have been having many insect visitors this year.  My kids raised two batches of American Beauty caterpillars into butterflies and one group of ladybug larvae into ladybugs.  Then we collected every single tent caterpillar within a 1/2 mile radius of our house and had to feed these beasts twice a day with fresh leaves from a specific tree for almost 2 and a half weeks before they all finally made cocoons.  Now they are hatching into brown moths my kids love to hold, carry around, accidentally release into the kitchen where they scatter to the ceiling and I can’t get them down without a ladder.  But most notable are the cicadas.  This is the 17 year brood and it’s pretty darn crazy how many fly by every day.  They are not the most graceful flyers, and I laugh every time I see their romantic pursuits, unless it ends of course with one or both of them getting annihilated by the front end of my minivan going 60 mph on the highway.  Yes, they are everywhere, flying in front of traffic non-stop.  Climbing up and dying on my front porch by droves.  Luckily it’s almost over because the noise is unbearable some mornings.  Can’t even have my tea out on the front porch.

Here you can kind of tell they have bright red eyes.  Their legs are strong for clinging to your hands and clothes, but they don’t bite so my kids aren’t afraid in the least.  I was going to include a couple photos of all the holes they dug in my yard, but suffice it to say there about a million tiny holes the size of a pencil eraser in every conceivable spot in my yard.  Not a big deal though—their tunnels help aerate the soil so I don’t mind.

And here’s of those little brown moths that came from the tent caterpillars.  About 40 of those have hatched so far, and we might still have twice that many left to go.  I’m not kidding when I said my kids picked up every single one of the caterpillars.  For some reason, like clockwork the past three years there has always been a super HOT day after the caterpillars first emerge and if they spend too long on the blacktop road in our neighborhood, well they just dry out and get crunchy.  So my kids take it upon themselves to save them all.  So we did.   I will be happy when I can finally put the mesh butterfly habitats back away in the garage!

My caterpillar loving child, Bea!  This caterpillar is named Zig for the one bold zig zag on his back.  I thought we should send the photo off to Denyse Schmidt so she could use that idea for her next line of fabric.

Got a few other personal things going on right now.  The big dance recital is in two weeks and there are extra practices, plus I am a room mom for one of Bea’s classes (she does ballet, tap, & hip hop).  Esther is in tap & jazz, and little Ronnie just does the  minis.

And a few days ago we acquired a new pet.  Esther finally got her cockatiel.  Her name is Rosie.  Esther is ecstatic and so far has done an outstanding job taking care of her new charge.  She loves to read all about cockatiels and read to Rosie, too.  She even colors some pictures of cockatiels to decorate the wall next to the cage to welcome Rosie.  So we are now full up when it comes to pets.  “No vacancy.”

So between a new pet, everyone being sick, and the big dance recital coming up, I don’t think I”ll be getting a lot of sewing done.  I’m just going to concentrate on a new quilt I started. 

I’m going to call this quilt “taxi!” (imagine Carrie Bradshaw hailing a cab) I picked this yellow/black combo for my block for the Make It Modern bee, so hopefully with those 12 blocks and others I have been working on, I will have enough for decent sized quilt.

Enjoy your weekend!!!!!!!  Thanks for visiting!!!!!!!!