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Will’s school makes my ass twitch. I love the sentence ‘we don’t want them to wait a whole week to read a book!’ as if, if we don’t get a book home from the library, all our kids will have access to are twinkies, coffee, and video games. I’m soooo tired of the condescending letters home. Hey—guess what, teachers? It’s only okay to talk to FOUR YEAR OLDS like they’re four. The rest of us are actual grown-ups like you. Once Will’s car quilt is finished, this will be his next blankie–a Castle Peeps quilt (with some Wee Woodlands stripes and Riley Blake Cheery Circles thrown in for good measure).
This quilt was the forerunner for the longest time:
until I found this one:
Now I’m torn. 🙂 This is going to be the week of finished projects. I can feel it. The Halloween quilt is kicking it off, but Will’s car quilt and the chalkboard tablecloth are going to follow. All that organizing and reorganizing charm squares is done!
It didn’t come out as I planned–I had wanted to place the patchwork strips more randomly on the brown, but with six strips it looked weird. I also didn’t do my math before sewing, and my quilt ended up tall and skinny. When I laid it out on the kitchen floor to show Nic I led with “it’s kind of a stupid shape” and he laughed and didn’t disagree. Sooooooo….even though I am trying to quilt in a more relaxed fashion, this is a good lesson: math is still important.
It is my first quilt where I’ve felt like the binding had the power to make or break it. When I finished machine quilting the fleece back to the quilt top and evened out the edges, I was disappointed. But once the polka dot binding was on it looked a LOT better.
The quilt is machine quilted in white along the long rows. The binding is also machine finished–a first for me, but fantastic. Hand sewing binding always sucks, but this makes finishing a quilt super fast!
Will likes it, and was willing to pose for all of 3 seconds for me. I am looking forward to bringing this out annually and having it become part of their Halloween memories. Wrapping it around them in the car on the drive home from trick-or-treating, spreading their candy out on it, etc.
Details: fabric – Moda pumpkins gone wild charm pack + kona cotton coffee solid for sashing. pattern – inspired by the Charm Pack Squares pattern by Oh Fransson! (were I to do it again I’d follow the pattern instead of just peeking at the picture once!) Last year I was doing a bunch of knitting in anticipation of Ellie’s arrival. This sweater is one of the crowning achievements–a Debbie Bliss sweater from a cotton yarn (that I’d purchased a bunch of with the intent of knitting Will a sweater that I ended up chickening out of). After I finished this, it looked a little plain and boy-ish, so I ran some scrap hot pink wool yarn through the edges as a trim and it made all the difference. I’m so glad that it is the right size at the right time!
So cute! what a great idea to run the pink thru! You have excellent crafting skills! Sometimes Will is so independent it breaks my heart. I was sewing in the dining room, Nic was napping in the living room, Ellie was in her jumparoo and Will was playing all over the downstairs with his toys. It was 4:45. He went into the kitchen, and, without a word to me about being hungry or wanting a snack, emerged with a mustard sandwich. It was two pieces of bread with nothing but mustard in the middle. He had a paper towel and a plate (since a little mustard was dripping out the bottom of his sandwich). And a bowl of applesauce with a baby spoon for Eloise. He ate his entire sandwich of just mustard and bread sitting next to me at the table, so proud that he made it all by himself, and he attempted to feed Ellie as she jumped (this is virtually impossible, so I diverted him after the first spoonful). I absolutely adore him. I love that he was hungry and went about finding a solution. And that being hungry himself, he assumed that Ellie might be hungry, too, and took care of HER, too. |
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Kelly - I vote for the second one… 🙂 But then, it’s not for me, is it? 🙂
Meagan - I love the first one!