quilt is done! Now I can watch Glee again.

Yeah, seriously, I wouldn't let myself go to the library and check out any past episodes until it was done...I'm a slave driver.    It's all done!  I submitted the online form for it to be added to the school's auction at the end of the month and I'm sending it to school with Bee tomorrow.  I'm just pretty much glad to have it done. 

It really came together pretty quickly, especially considering how BIG it turned out to be.   If I remember right, it's like 55x66.  There are 17 kids in her class (lucky teacher!) and the teacher added her hand print as well.  I needed two extra squares to fill in all the boxes, so I just used some extra fabric and made little 'log cabin' squares to fill in.    Here's a previous post about it that talks a little more about the construction.

Bee took these pictures for me.  That frustrates Lou.  I've tried to let him, he's just not ready to play with the good camera.

The idea for this quilt came from this sweet one I saw at Helping Little Hands.

Sharing here:

Made by You Mondays @ Skip to my Lou,


Tutorial Tuesdays @ Hope Studios,   Anti-procrastination Tuesdays @ New Nostalgia, Talented Tuesdays @ My Frugal Family,  Get Your Craft on Tuesday @ Life as Lori,


Tooth Your Horn Wednesdays@ Silly Little Sparrow,  Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts,  Show and Tell Wednesday @ Blue Cricket Design, We did it Wednesday @ Sew Much Ado


Strut Your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple,   Look at me, I'm so crafty @ It's fun to craft, Show off your Stuff @ Fireflies and Jellybeans, Catch a Glimpse Thursday @ A Glimpse Inside, Open House Party Thursdays @ No Minimalist Here,


Feature Yourself Fridays @ Fingerprints on the fridge,  Fantabulous Fridays @ Momma's kinda crafty,  Fridays I'm crafty Party @ So You Think You're Crafty,  Fibers on Friday @ Visions of Sugar Plums,  Christmas in July Fridays @ Just Another day in Paradise,  Fabric Fun Fridays @ Cheap Chic Home,  Creative Girl fridays @ The Girl Creative,


Wednesday's A story + art = A Great stART  @ A Mommy's adventures,   Made by Little Hands Mondays @ delicate CONSTRUCTION Wednesday's Kids Get Crafty @ Red Teg Art's Blog, Tuesday's Show and Tell blog hop ad ABC and 123,  Tot Tuesdays at Delicious Ambiguity,  For the Kids Fridays @ Sun Scholars

peer pressure

It was total peer pressure.  I didn't want to do it.  I didn't want to join and get sucked in.  I didn't want to have another thing that called for my attention and time.  I think though that this will be a time saver.  No more searching for a lost idea or trying to cite a source that I can't find. 

I joined pinterest about two weeks ago.  It's like a tidy way of organizing cool things. Again, I didn't want to join because I didn't need another thing to do online, but I'm so glad I have.  All of the cool ideas I see online get easily 'pinned' or marked and sorted into my own categories.  I don't have to read the whole idea or write down the directions.  I can quickly go back when I'm ready.  I have one for kitchen, one for sewing, preschool, kid fun, etc.  When I see anything online that I like I hit a button on my browser bar and it pins it for me.  When I want to go back and see my pins they are all there, sitting pretty for me to see again.  

Here's another cool thing,  I can follow people who I like and see what they have pinned.  I can see that my cousin really has great home decor taste and my old friend from high school loves to cook (or least collect) great recipes.  Facebook can help you find friends who also are on pinterest or you can just find strangers with similar interest and taste as yours.

The best part is probably that it lets me see tons of ideas in just a few minutes. And allows me to add them to my boards so quickly. It also links them to the source, so no more uncited projects!

Anyway, I'm a fan.  If you want to see what things I like and have pinned, here's my page.   There's still a bunch I don't fully understand about it, but I'm glad I'm weak and gave in. 

unrelated photo:  At our teacher work days (which included Lou) he was sent home with this awesome track that never worked out well at school.   Too bad for the kiddos at school, because we are having fun with it!

haircut

Lou has never had a real haircut.  We've never taken him anywhere, it's just been me giving him a tiny trim here and there.

We all love the curls, but with school starting for him this next week, it was time for a cut.The 'girl' comments were starting to get to daddy.

My friend Jennifer cuts hair, so we went to her house.  We traded a haircut for some babysitting.  Lou sat so still.  He couldn't wait to play with Jennifer's son's cool toy. 

She did a great job.  I told her to go a little short, it grows fast enough. Gulp.

Later that day, Lou was doing his work by daddy doing his work.

Check out how the boys are sitting just the same below.

 

Just the same.

Hard at work.  Just the same. 

There are still some curls.  I miss the longs ones (see the first photo here) but I've stopped staring at his head all day with a quivering lip.

class quilt

The squares were returned for the class quilt.  Another happy parent volunteer helped the kids stamp their hands in ocean animal shapes and I added eyeballs, bubble, fish lips, etc.  I heat set the paint with the iron and hope that they will survive the wash.  I have a test square to wash this weekend.

The quilt top is done.  It really came together so quickly.  The white hand print areas are 10 inches squared and the strips are 4 inches wide (green is 4x10 and blue is 4x4). If I had to do it again, I'd go about 2 1/2 rather than 4 to make the overall quilt smaller.  It's turning out bigger than I had though. 

Here's Bee's silly little crab.  She's the only one with green seaweed.  I'm sure it would have been more time consuming for the volunteer to have kids wash and paint again.  Bee must have asked nicely.  She has a way of getting what she wants.

Entering this long weekend, the front and back are both done and pinned together in a quilt and batting sandwich.  This weekend I hope to get it quilted and the binding sewn on the front. I'll hand sewn the binding on the back then through next week.  I'm figuring 3 hours for the quilting and 8 for the binding.  I hope to have it done and pictures on the school auction website by next weekend.

the weekend

The gumballs were collected, so off we went.  It was our first time going to Holiday World and we had a blast. Excuse me while I indulge in some pictures.

Lou loved the rides.  Bee would only ride things that mama and daddy could ride on as well. 

Driving the cars was a favorite.

I pushed the pedal and Lou drove.  He was a natural!

I had to snap a picture of our lunch.  Look at the food groups represented here.  Pizza, fries and pop.  Nice and healthy!  -I must add that this pizza was delicious!

 They have a whole water park area, but we didn't even make it there.  We'll have to save it for next year.  We did find a nice spray area and playground that were just as fun.

 

The only mistake we made on the trip was staying too long.  We stayed past the point where we were all happy and having a good time.  We left with two children crying and two adults shaking their heads. We'll know better next time. 

Its a trap

Just try to get through there. I dare you!

It's not duck tape, or goose tape... but if it's going on the walls, green painters tape will have to do.

Pay no attention to the overflowing pile of laundry in the back of the hall.  I can't even get to it with this trap in place.  It'll have to wait another day!

letter quilt

I hate when this happens.  I saw an idea somewhere and didn't think much of it... then I keep thinking about it and make it up.  Then, I can't find the original source... This is one of those times.  I have since signed up for pinterest, so this shouldn't happen again.  EDITED TO ADD:  I found it... look at the end of the post.

 I saw this cute letter 'quilt' made with scrap fabric on an old sheet.  Well, I did end up making it and I love it, and I wish I could give credit where credit is due.

This is one of the ideas I shared at our back to school idea teacher meetings.  I came up with 5 different ways to play with this mat.  I'm sure you could come up with a dozen more. 

 1.  Someone calls out a letter and another player goes to stand on the letter.

2.  throw bean bags at the letter mat and then say the letter that the bag landed on... or the sound of the letter, or a word that starts with the letter. 

I just love a project like this because I get to remember all my special projects while raiding the scrap box.  The X and Y are fabric I had hung on my bulletin boards my first several year teaching.  Z is scrap from a dress my great grandma made for her town bicentennial celebration in 1955. M is fire fabric I made Lou some pj pants from. 

3.  Cover one letter (we used blankie).  Another player tries to figure out what letter is covered.

They can peek if they need to.

4.  Pass out a bucket of toys to the right letter.  P for polar bear.

5.  Match lowercase to the uppercase on the letter mat.  I only have one lowercase letter done.  Making more is on my always growing list.  

Can you think of other games to use with this mat?

 Found it!   This idea came from Teach Beside Me. 

interview with Lou

Lou:  Mom, do you think you could get me some of that goose tape?

Me:  Goose tape?

Lou:  Yeah, I could fix anything with it. 

a minute later.....

Me:  do you mean duck tape?

Lou:  Can you?  I have a lot of things to fix.

Oh my, I just love that silly guy.  I think I can find some duck tape.