Monthly Archives: December 2015

Farmer’s wife update

Having finished up my sister’s quilt, which I was not thrilled with but will get around to posting about one of these days, I’m back to the Farmer’s Wife.

I’m not sure if I posted this picture before, but my farmer’s wife setup was a mess. I finally decided to get organized, and it’s made a big difference. Now, I cut the pieces needed for each block before I start piecing, and I have on my desk only what’s absolutely required – a few pieces of fabric, the book, rotary cutter, a couple pairs of scissors. Oh, and the wonder clips I got for Christmas which have been super useful for sewing paper-pieced sections together.

#16

#17 – This one came out very wonky as I realized halfway through that the paper-piecing instructions I’d downloaded required Y-seams. I ripped it apart and re-made it using the *other* paper-piecing instructions. I may have to re-make it. We’ll see. But I like the colors.

#18

#19 – This may be my favorite of this bunch.

#20 – I love the color combination in this one.

#21

#22- I made a bunch of mistakes trying to assemble this one as I was rather distracted, but I like the end result.

#23

I’m planning to pause when I’ve finished thirty blocks and begin putting the sashing fabric on. It’s going to be a bit tedious, and I’m not sure it makes sense to put it all off until the end.

Best of 2015

Best books

we Are All Completely Beside Ourselves By Karen Joy Fowler

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

17910054

History of the Rain by Niall Williams

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Best Buys

For whatever reason, we seem to get a lot of power outages in our new place. Hence, the Siege Lantern. I wish we didn’t get so much use out of this thing.

My feet love these insoles.

My Kindle paperwhite allows me to easily read in the dark, an incredibly useful feature with a baby in the house.

How did I live so long without knowing about Satin Floss?

Oral-B Complete SaTinfloss Mint, 50m, Twin Pack

L and I color with these colored pencils basically daily. They are way better than the Crayola variety.

Six bucks for rock awesome, comfortable and not bad-looking sunglasses. What more could you want?

My favorite buy of the year: my sewing machine.

And, last but not least, love this quilting book:

Best Day

I haven’t posted about our successful landing of our rocket, but it was a wonderful day. I can’t wait to fly it again soon. Autonomy and re-usability.

Best Netflix

The Walking Dead

Image result for the walking dead

Copenhagen

Bloodline

Angela’s Ashes

Best Quilt / Sewing

Facing West

I made quite a few quilts this year – I’ve lost track of how many – but this one was my favorite.

I also loved working on the Farmer’s Wife, but I have a long way to go on that one.

single

I just ordered L’s Christmas present today – a bike – and it’s coming via UPS tomorrow. I’m worried I won’t be able to conceal it from her. I mean, a bike is usually rather obvious, don’t you think? Apparently these days training wheels are passe and you’re supposed to get your child a balance bike before a bike. We’re going to buck the trend as we’ve been promising L a bike for many months, and she’s been obsessed with bikes literally since she was one. As has been discussed here before, she is not the most daring, athletic child, so we’ll see how it goes. Little by little, hopefully.

Christmas card photo-shoot outtake:

L is demanding my presence in the other room. H was out of town Wednesday through Friday last week, and is gone again today. I can’t wait until he is back! I honestly don’t know how single moms do it. I really don’t. Alcohol plus TV? My dad was raised by a single mom, and they didn’t have a TV – or a modern stove / oven, refrigerator, washing machine or dryer (or access to a laundromat), etc. Seriously. How? I would be in the loony bin.

I am working on a quilt for my sister for Christmas. I was sick the week before last, and with H out of town last week, I made no progress. I’ve settled on a ridiculously simple concept as a result. I’ll need to buckle down when H gets back.

Protected: again

Protected: a day

why won’t my child fatten up?

B had her 15 month appointment today. She has fallen to “Less than 3%” in weight. In other words, she’s fallen off the curve. It’s so frustrating. I am still nursing her morning and night. In addition, I give her as much milk as she is willing to drink. Five times a day, she gets as much solids as she will eat – bread, peanut butter, jam, cheese, turkey, and fruits and veggies. I’m not sure what else to do. What I don’t understand is how some babies can weigh literally twice as much as my little chubster at this age. I mean, she’s 18 pounds. What do other parents do that I’m not doing? Our meals last an hour or more, so it’s not like I’m rushing her. It’s possible that our nanny is not being as proactive, and I’ll talk to her, but I doubt that’s the problem. I know I was a skinny kid, but there’s skinny, and there’s “less than 3%.”

Maybe I’ll just start feeding her straight ice cream, morning, noon and night.

In addition, Bri is neither walking nor standing voluntarily. She can stand but chooses not to. Whether she could take a step, I have no idea. In any case, it’s not like I can dismiss the weight thing because she’s doing so well in all other areas. The idea that being half-starved is slowing her development is horrifying to me.

She seems like a happy child, and she does not usually act hungry. What the heck?

In other news, we got our Christmas tree this weekend. We cut down a beautiful Norman fir at a local tree farm. Everything went swimmingly until we got home and couldn’t get the darn thing to stand up straight. It’s still super tippy and I can’t figure out why. We’ve been getting trees for 7 or 8 years now, and we’ve never had any problem standing them up. It’s always been effortless. I’m not sure what’s different this year.