Lazy Sunday?

In order for me to do this:

I had to let them do this: (Check out that wall art installation in the upper left of the collage. It consists of a red feather and rainbow thread -among other things- taped to a post in the basement.) There was a lot of great collaboration between the kids and they really did play well together, unsupervised, for most of the day. There is a LOT for me to clean up. Alex is really handy with a pair of scissors and leaves huge piles of teeny tiny pieces everywhere. I'll probably spend as much time cleaning up after them as I did on the quilt, which thankfully, is almost finished (more on that when the intended receives it). Obviously, Ron was working today. I did plan on taking the kids out of the house at some point- maybe to get dinner? but we ordered pizza instead. Then, unexplicably, the kids demanded jelly sandwiches afterward. (See, it's not all gourmet food around here...)

In addition to the art-fest, there was also a major jet crash into the playmobil airport, a dumptruck full of pompoms and a jump start on the kids' Valentines. With the new baby due around Valentine's Day I feel like I'm just simply going to forget things, like my niece's third birthday and Valentines for school, plus Talia insists on an annual scavenger hunt; why I started that tradition is beyond me.

In other news, I cut the tip of my finger off two nights ago. I was using a very sharp 10 inch Chef's Knife to cut up some butternut squash. I know people say that using dull knives is a hazard but I always cut myself with the freshly sharpened ones. I rarely use that knife, as I prefer a slightly smaller one so it was still extremely sharp from my semi-annual trip to the knife guy in September. Ron and I debated going to Urgent Care to get it treated but decided there wasn't much to do, considering the skin there wouldn't really stretch well for stitches and the piece that got cut off was too small to reattach. We got a good look at it for the first time this morning (prior to that, every time I unwrapped it blood would start pouring out) and it looks like healthy tissue. I did bang it on something today and it started bleeding again. I can't imagine how long it will take to heal and I wonder if my thumb will ever look normal again. I'm guessing not. I will spare you the pictures of it. Unfortunately we ate the butternut squash dish (roasted, with arugula pesto) last night and it was NOT worth losing a finger over.

What We're Eating: Warm Farro Salad with Roasted Mushrooms, Feta and Truffle Oil

Oh, this was delicious! Original recipe from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop, modified by me-- I added more vegetables and truffle oil.

Warm Farro Salad with Roasted Mushrooms, Feta and Truffle Oil

1 1/2 cups farro or spelt
water, salt

extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 pounds mushrooms, halved or quartered (I used cremini; would like to have added some shiitake)
1 1/2 c cherry tomatoes, halved
6 shallots, sliced thinly

arugula
feta (the original recipe suggests feta, goat or pecorino. I would stick with feta or use parmesan)
parsley
truffle oil

1. Cook the farro in salted water for 30-40 minutes until tender/chewy, then drain and mix with a little oil
2. Toss the vegetables with oil, salt and pepper and then roast at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes. MAKE SURE you give them enough room on the roasting sheet or they will steam and not roast
3. Toss everything together, serve on top of a bed of arugula and top with feta, parsley, salt and pepper and do NOT forget the truffle oil!

Alphabet quilt for baby Jack

I made this quilt quite a long time ago but waited to give it to baby Jack in person during our trip to San Diego. I thought I took actual photos of it but I can't seem to find them. I sewed squares with his name into the backing fabric in the same font as the front fabric, which is from the Maisy collection. It came out really cute-- I wish I could find those pictures. Enjoy baby Jack!

What We're Eating: Israeli Cauliflower with Panko

Not sure what is "Israeli" about this dish but it was damn good. I've made it several times. The best part is that you cook the cauliflower in the microwave and then sear it on the stove in the same pan you toasted the panko (but remove the panko first). No steaming or roasting so it's quite quick. Sorry this picture is a little lacking... it keeps getting eaten too quickly! Here's the recipe from the website-- I highlighted my changes in yellow.

Israeli Cauliflower with Panko from Cooking Light

Ingredients
6 cups cauliflower florets (I just used one whole head)
2 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/2 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (I think I didn't use any because I didn't have any...)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preparation
1. Combine cauliflower and 2 tablespoons water in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at HIGH 6 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain.
2. Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add panko to pan; cook 3 minutes or until toasted, stirring constantly. Remove panko from pan.
3. Heat remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons oil and garlic in pan over medium-high heat. Add cauliflower; sauté 5 minutes or until golden, stirring occasionally. Add panko, parsley, salt, and pepper; toss to combine.

What We're Eating: Coconut Crusted Tofu with Thai Red Curry Sauce

I've been cooking a lot but haven't been posting about it because, frankly, I'm too lazy to carry the recipe upstairs to the computer. I also feel guilty about posting published recipes without permission so unless I can link to it I'm not too keen on reproducing it here. The dinner I made last night though, was a mix and match of different parts of recipes put together and a decent amount of effort so I'll share...

I knew I was going to make some sort of Tofu with Thai Red Curry Sauce and I needed an Asian salad to go with it. I threw together some leftover greens with thinly sliced red peppers and cucumbers. I took my dressing recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, which is a cookbook I don't use that often. It's too big; it has too many recipes in it. I can't read it like a book so I just use it as a reference guide:

Soy Ginger Dressing:

salt and pepper

2 tbl rice vinegar

1 tbl grated fresh ginger

1 tsp sugar

2 tbl soy sauce

The kids were having "Sushi and Edamame" for dinner. This after my house was cleaned yesterday; always a mistake as I ended up on my hands and knees picking up rice from the floor and carpet. For the side dish I just mixed the kids dinner ingredients and ended up with basmati rice with edamame and crumbled bits of Korean seaweed.

The Thai Red Curry Sauce was the inspiration for the dish and that came from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop. It's a great cookbook but often involves a lot of steps and too many (unnecessary, in my opinion) dirty prep dishes. I like it because it's organized seasonally. The actual recipe I was going to make was very simple and involved searing the tofu and simmering it in the sauce-- very quick and easy for this particular cookbook. Alas, I had also recently seen a recipe for Coconut Crusted Shrimp in my Cooking Light Magazine this month and that just looked yummy so I decided to try it on tofu and combine the two recipes.

Coconut Panko Crusted Tofu:

1 block of extra firm tofu

cornstarch, salt and pepper, dash of cayenne

3 egg whites

1/3 c shredded unsweetened coconut

1/3 c panko

canola or peanut oil

Slice the tofu into 1/4 inch slabs. Dredge in cornstarch mixed with salt and peppers, then into the egg white and then into the coconut panko mixture which you have pulsed together (I'm loving the Magic Bullet these days) to a powder. Coat the bottom of your pan with oil and heat to medium-high. Lightly fry the tofu a few minutes on each side and then drain on paper towels or a rack. Sprinkle with a little salt.

For the Thai Red Curry Sauce:

1/4 c unsweetened coconut milk

1/4 c vegetable broth

1 tbl soy sauce

1 tbl fresh lime juice

1 tsp thai red curry paste

1 tsp sugar

I just put it on the stove and heated it gently and let it thicken. Then I put it in a gravy container (actually I think it was a creamer...) and served it alongside the tofu. That way you can add some just before eating so the crusty tofu doesn't get soggy. The sauce was delicious and really easy. It was barely enough for two. Ron and I were fighting over it so next time I would definitely double it; especially since you have almost an entire can of coconut milk leftover anyway. It tasted great on the rice with edamame too. Just yummy yummy yummy.

All in all it was a really delicious meal. A little stressful for me with the tofu frying (I wasn't sure it was going to work!) but Ron and I each ended up eating a half a block of tofu and wanting more more more. Not too bad for you-- just a little coconut milk and some oil, most of which isn't REALLY absorbed during the cooking process (is it?). Remember the salad dressing didn't even have any oil in it. Ron really liked the salad, by the way. Alex, my little 2 1/2 year old chef, made the dressing and the red curry sauce. He's obsessed with cooking.

So that's all for now. I have a new cooking plan that seems to be working and I'll elaborate some other time (nothing shocking, just picking out a month's worth of recipes and actually cooking them). We've been eating healthily and home cooked around here-- trying to eat seasonally as well. That's the hardest part. Hope you're eating well too!

San Diego Vacation

We had a great time in San Diego over the winter break. I'm sure this is the last trip that will have seemed "easy" to us for quite some time. We finally have the whole process down pat and we had to go and have another kid. What were we thinking? The kids were extremely well behaved-- the flights were a cinch. We've stopped bringing the clunky DVD player. Instead we brought a movie or two on the ipod but they didn't really watch it. Alex played with his cars the whole time and Talia colored, played with her playmobils and played some ipod games. The key is to sit two and two, across the aisle. That way the kids don't fight over anything, the parents can switch or the kids can switch when someone needs a break and the parents can hand each other things across the aisle. The other key is have healthy meals and snacks plus a few special goodies. I think eating crap while traveling leads to a poor attitude in general. Also, a packing list really helps me stay sane and stress-free in the days leading up to a trip. It has everything my kids need from sunhats to snowsuits and I just print it out each trip and cross off what I don't need while gathering what I do. It helps when packing to go home too-- you won't forget your booklight under the bed if you see it on the list. And I'm not the most "list-y" person.

The weather wasn't as warm as we had hoped it would be but compared to Wisconsin and snow, it was just fine. Never warm enough to sit by a pool though, much less get into water. That's ok-- I'm not looking so great in my maternity bathing suit these days! We met up with my family (staying 75 minutes north in a resort while we stayed in my in-laws' condo) 4 times. Two of those days, unfortunately, were the colder, rainier days of the trip. We explored a little bit of the coast with them, went to Disneyland (my favorite part of the trip!) and hung out at the condo on one rainy day (played poker too and I won $40). My sister and her family came down to SD and we went to Seaworld. Without my extended family we went to Balboa Park and the Science museum and explored the cactus and rose gardens which was something we hadn't done before. We also went to the La Jolla farmer's market, which we love, and when my in-laws came at the end of our stay we went to the Wild Animal Park.

All in all, a lot of activities but I think that's another key to our trip's success. Make a plan and get out. We did all of our activities early and therefore were able to be home by 3 or 4 and give Alex a little bit of a nap. We ate many meals in the condo and packed lunches for each trip so we could eat healthy but save room for a treat. It just feels better that way. I actually lost a pound over the holidays despite being 34 weeks pregnant! Must have been all that walking. The kids actually slept together in a bed, in their own room, for the first time ever and it worked out great. I wish now that we had gotten the twin-over-full bunk bed so they could continue, if they wanted. Then again, they seem to be doing ok now that we're home so that's better. PUTTING them to bed together was nice but Alex is a kicker for sure. Ron and I were able to have our own room too, although sharing a queen is NOT the same as a king. Plus I need lots of room these days.

Now we're home, it's snowing again and it's time to settle in for our long winter's nap. 6 more weeks until the baby is due. It doesn't seem like a very long time. I have been on a spending frenzy, trying to control some anxiety through shopping for baby essentials. I bought ONE bottle and ONE pacifier and ONE box of diapers, a few outfits, a Moby Wrap carrier and one of those car seat cover things so your baby doesn't freeze when you take her outside (never needed one before). That may not sound like a spending frenzy but I also bought new bedding for the big kids (new beds = new bedding) and lots of other bigger ticket items that I can't seem to think of right now. I'm giving myself a break and signing up for the cloth diaper service for a few months-- I didn't use cloth for Alex when he was a newborn and he was never a pooper so I don't even know HOW to clean newborn poopy diapers. I'm excited about all the cute cloth diapers I've been seeing around.

I still don't know how I'll ever be able to take the kids to school in this weather with a new one but other people do it so I can do it too. Today Talia walked into school by herself for the second time (the first time a friend was walking in at the same time) and I was able to attach her snowsuit to her backpack so hopefully it worked out ok. I think I see a lot of that happening from now on. The parking lot is really small and messy and filled with snow. Often I can't even get to both sides of the car to open the doors. Enough procrastination for now-- I have a lot to do today!

The Big Boy Bed

Apparently not going as well as I had hoped. I put Alex down for his nap and found him here, an hour later. He is sleeping on the floor at the top of the stairs. He even brought out the toy he had asked to sleep with (a little orange digger). It's not like he couldn't have come downstairs-- I don't know why he chose to just sleep on the floor in the hallway. I was cleaning the house and listening to my ipod- but only with one earbud in so I could hear him! Actually, since this was taken things have improved. There are some protests but he goes to sleep ok at night and at naptime. He has been waking in the middle of the night and coming into my room and standing next to my bed and scaring the shit out of me but not every night. He certainly doesn't want to sleep in his crib. What he wants is to sleep with Sissy-- but on her top bunk, which is obviously unacceptable. Technically SHE'S not even old enough to sleep on a top bunk (you're supposed to be 6 which she won't be until March). Since she got her bunk bed (the same day he got her old bed) she's been sleeping better. I think she's just too lazy to come down the ladder and therefore just goes back to sleep on her own. We've only had this new bed arrangement for two weeks-- one week of which we were on vacation so it's only been a short while. The plan is for them to maybe sleep together but I think we'll wait for summer.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Wishing you all the best in the new year!

Recent Happenings

I would like to give some excuse for not posting in so long (almost a month!) but I have none. Everything is going relatively smoothly-- this has still been my easiest pregnancy. There are days when I feel less able to move around comfortably (today, for one..) but I can never seem to figure out why. Eight more weeks. I am starting to get stressed out a little bit about that. I'm realizing now that I'll never get all that house organizing done. I wanted to go through each closet, each drawer, each tiny space and get rid of everything I own. Maybe I need to watch an episode of Hoarders each day-- that does get me motivated! Instead I'm sidetracked by the everyday organizing and cleaning (that damn mudroom full of snowboots and snowsuits and school bags and lunchboxes and coats and groceries and...) and rarely get that enough under control to move on to organizing what is hidden away in the closets. I did get to organizing the kids' old clothes and ended up with about 12 huge bins that are organized by size. (Note that I have given away all of Alex's clothes under size 18 months and all of Talia's clothes under 4T so this sadly represents only a year or two. Must watch Hoarders more often!) I still have to go through their more current clothes and lots of miscellaneous shoes and winter gear that are just thrown on the floor in our storage room.

I bought a new point and shoot digital camera, which explains why I haven't been taking many photos (the LCD screen on my old one broke) and so I have some new pictures. I'm actually returning the new camera (too slow to respond...) and trying a different one but that's another story. The pix in the above collage represent the past week or so-- Talia and I went to see the Nutcracker. See how I'm hiding my pregnant self behind my kid? Nice. Hanukkah came and went with big gifts of an American Girl doll for Talia and the Playmobil airplane AND airport terminal for Alex (if we have to play with him we may as well make it fun for ourselves...) and many many many many smaller presents for each. Talia had her first ski lesson and was AMAZING! After an hour-long private lesson she was able to ski down the slope, get on the rope tow, come up, ski down, come up etc. She is even able to stop, troubleshoot, fall and get up. She loved it. I've been on and off with cooking lately but this past week I cooked a bunch of meals (butternut squash risotto, middle eastern chickpeas and spinach with yogurt sauce, orchiette with broccolini, chickpea and bread soup, cauliflower with panko). Last week I picked out a month's worth of recipes and that seems to have worked out pretty well. All the clean up is really too much for me though and keeps me from those other organizing projects (see paragraph number one!).

The kids are now off from school for TWO WEEKS. I'm really excited about not having to get them out of the house in the morning (though now they are used to getting up at 7am so I suspect I won't get to sleep in at all...) but not excited about entertaining them for so many days. I need to force myself to take them out for an activity each day. They don't really want to go (they are pajama homebodies like me) but it will give structure to the day. Tomorrow we are getting a HUGE delivery of a bunk bed for Talia's room. I guess that means that we are finally going to get Alex out of the crib. I wonder how that will go, since it seems like he couldn't care less about it. He's been crying at bedtime (and naptime too sometimes) lately so I can't imagine it will go well. He's welcome to sleep in Talia's room on the bottom bunk but who knows how that will be? Talia is such a light sleeper. If he cries she will certainly wake up and if I spend time cuddling him and trying to get him back to sleep she gets jealous. ("You love him more than me" is a popular phrase in our house; a topic for another day). I guess that's what winter break is for-- to try new sleeping arrangements out! We have no idea where to put the new baby-- not that it will matter for a few months, she'll just stay in our room-- but if Talia and Alex did want to room together it would solve some problems... We have an upcoming vacation as well so don't feel *too* sorry for me having the kids home for two weeks.

That's all for now. I get my new new new camera tomorrow or the next day so I guess I will be taking lots more pictures and perhaps will post a little more frequently... Happy holidays to all.

Library Book Bin

The Hanukkah Helper has been creating some mischief in our house each night. Last night he emptied the library book bin and climbed up a fairy tent vine. I'm actually running out of ideas about where to put him. The kids love it and it's actually easier for me to get Talia downstairs on school mornings because she wants to see what he's done. On the other hand, she's waking up earlier on weekends too...

Actually I'm writing this post to show off the Library Book Bin. I've been using it for a while but finally got around to decorating it. I matched the fabric to the colors in the fairy tent, used fusible web and just ironed on the letters and some cute birdcages (no sewing). Every week or two I go to the library and literally just sweep an entire shelf of books into my bag. I barely look at them. There always ends up being a mix of books for Talia and Alex to look through. If they don't like them they get new ones in a week or so anyway (not that it's ever happened!) At Alex's age Talia was still ripping books up but I've been able to get Alex library books for months now. It's so refreshing to have new things to read! We also check out DVD's and many many audiobooks for the car. I've noticed that Talia will listen to some books that are slightly above her level (Little House, the original Peter Pan, today we started The Borrowers) and her comprehension is great. We have the best library in the world. Have I mentioned that they don't charge for late items? Ever?

I Spy Quilt

Delivered this new I Spy quilt to a baby boy in our neighborhood today. This was definitely a more traditional pattern than I'm used to making and I enjoyed following someone else's math for a change! (Can't find a link to the quilt pattern, I'll try to add it later...) Amazingly, all of these "boy" fabrics came from my stash. There are lots of rockets, robots, cars and planes. For the back I used more of that Ikea fabric-- the one I handquilted for my nephew. I quilted this with a square spiral that was super simple. It was a continuous line so it took no time at all. I drew on the quilt top with Crayols washable marker again. I was nervous because there was a lot of white but... it came out in the wash, no problem. Of course, I was so nervous about it that the amount of time between marking the quilt up, quilting it AND hand sewing the binding was ONE DAY. Talk about a catalyst for getting a quilt finished!

For a big sister gift I made a little coloring book bag / crayon roll. Next time, more interfacing (a recent theme, perhaps?) and shorter rows for the crayons.

Hanukkah Garland

Talia is so jealous of all the Christmas decorations she sees in our neighborhood so I try to make her feel special by putting up Hanukkah decorations in our home. When I was growing up you couldn't GET Hanukkah decorations anywhere so ours were all homemade-- even though we weren't such a crafty family (well, I always was but certainly no one else...). Now you can Hanukkah decorations at Bed Bath and Beyond, Party City, Target and certainly online. I even bought some strings of lights with dreidels on them for this year. I wouldn't want them to be mistaken as Christmas lights, so I think I'll keep them inside.

I've been collecting Hanukkah fabric for a few years now. I wasn't sure what I'd do with it. I still might make a quick quilt but it would suck to work on something you can only use for a few weeks out of the year. I ended up making a Hanukkah Garland to hang in the house. I just looked at different garlands on flickr and came up with the concept. I made a dreidel template, cut them out of each fabric and appliqued the letters for "Happy Hanukkah" on it. I used a Jewish star to separate the two words, tucked it all into some navy bias tape and hung it up. I added silver, gold and blue ribbon in between the letters "for fancy" as Talia would say. I wish I used some interfacing to stiffen up the pieces. I knew I should but I was lazy as usual. It only took two or three days and interfacing would certainly have slowed me down. I'm always in too much of a hurry-- especially when the project is not a gift... A lesson learned, I suppose.

Recent Happenings...

We've had a very busy few weeks here at the Dolin household. I took a trip to New York - alone! while the kids went to visit their aunt Lisa in Pensacola with Ron. Last weekend Ron and I took a trip to Puerto Rico, just the two of us. We figured no one is ever going to offer to watch our THREE kids so we may as well leave while we still have two! As far as I can tell, the kids were great and had fun with their grandparents. Then my parents came to visit after we returned from PR. (Didn't I say it's been busy!?) For Halloween, Talia was Cinderella (AGAIN) and Alex was a rock star at one point and trick-or-treated as a fireman. We've been enjoying some warm weather here in Wisconsin-- soon to turn cold again. We have nothing major going on in the next two months, just a few little weekend trips before winter break.

I've been doing some quilting and sewing but I can't share until I give everything away as gifts. I haven't planned out a baby quilt for our new addition yet but I feel like I have time for that (even though it's only three months away!). This has been my easiest pregnancy so far and I have my fingers crossed that it stays that way. I never realized how stressed out I must have been while I was pregnant with Alex until I felt how NOT stressed out am I this time. Does that make sense? I wonder if that's why he turned out to be such a shitty baby! Then again, I would absolutely again take those terrible 6 months for the sweetness he is now.

Talia has adjusted really well to Kindergarten. I still can't believe how little time I have to myself even though T is in school 5 full days a week and Alex is in school 3 full days a week. I definitely feel like a chauffeur these days. Knock on wood, no one in my house has been hit with H1N1 or any other major illnesses. So we'll just try to keep warm and healthy and hopefully I'll be able to share some sewing projects soon!

Baby Kimono Set

I made this cute little outfit for a recent baby shower. The kimono is from the Martha Stewart website pattern, which I do not recommend. The pattern is a pain to print and tape together and is missing some crucial markings! I couldn't find a 3-6 mo (or 6-12 mo for that matter) pair of pants to use as a patterns for these so I just made them up on the spot. I think they are more 12 mo pants but... oh well. I repurposed an Old Navy T-shirt of mine for the pants fabric and added some applique to tie the outfit together. As for the baby shoes, they came out great! I need to make them in batches because they just take so damn long and would be amenable to assembly line construction. I used the Kaffe Fassett fabric from the "Dahlia Quilt" and the shoe pattern is from Michael Miller online.

Quilty Playmat for Baby Jeremy

I must have entered the creativity stage of pregnancy because I've been sewing like crazy and coming up with lots of new ideas for quilts and sewing projects. So many projects, in fact, that I'll never get to half of them in the next 4 months before this baby makes her appearance. My new sewing frenzy might also have come about from the liberating feeling I had finally finishing the baby quilt for little Benjamin. Whatever the reason, I'm happy to have my creative energy back!

This was a nice quick little sew for a baby in DC who is the fourth (!) child of a friend of Ron's and mine. It's a little too small to be considered a baby quilt, but is intended to be a playmat for Jeremy to drive his cars and trains over when he's big enough. I had hoped that the border would look more like a highway but it doesn't really. Those yellow lines are single fold bias tape, which was quite easy to sew on. I plan on making a number of similar quilts as many people seem to having boys these days. I'm going to try to piece a road border but that sounds a bit labor intensive, doesn't it!? Maybe I'll look online for some road fabric... Yeah, that's what I'll do...

Blogger's Quilt Festival, Fall 2009

Above: finished quilt

Above: Inspiration from a vintage craft book

Above: Sketch of quilt idea

Above: back of finished quilt

This is my entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by parkcitygirl. I made this for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap last spring (2008) and it is a favorite of mine. I was inspired by a headboard I saw in a vintage (60's? 70's?) craft book I found. After I sketched it I drew out the shapes on freezer paper and used them as templates for the individual pieces. I then used double sided fusible web to adhere the pieces to the background (a patterned white on white fabric). I sewed it all down as raw-edge applique, machine quilted it every 1/3 inch or so in an echo design and then added some beads and buttons for fun. It was a quilt very different from anything I've done before or since!

Another quilt I thought about showcasing would be this one I just finished, so check that one out too! Thanks for visiting!

Free at last

This is THE quilt I've been alluding to for such a long time. My best friend from childhood had a baby this summer and I really wanted to make her a special quilt. I worked on this for months and months. I put it down frequently because each time I came to a new step I stressed over how to proceed. The design was stolen from April at by small means. I loved the quilt and actually emailed her to get some ideas on how to construct it. I probably would have gone about it a whole different way if I had not communicated with her first (thank you)! I used the fabric Katie Jump Rope by Denyse Schmidt. I was holding onto it for a long time and since my friend's name is Katie, it just seemed perfect. I enjoyed making the top, as I always do and then I just got STUCK. I never know how to "quilt" a quilt. So I put it off and probably didn't work on it for 6 weeks. Then I finally kicked myself in the butt and got going. Basting is my least favorite aspect of quilting and this is a bigger quilt than I'm used to so that was one of the things that kept me away. My second least favorite part of quilting is choosing a quilt design and thread color. I have no confidence when it comes to that. I ended up finally choosing an all-over zig-zag design that I used once before. I actually used a Crayola Washable Marker to mark the quilt design. I did that once before too (same quilt) and it came out in the wash but I ended up having major anxiety dreams about it last night! Once I marked the top I wanted to get it in the wash as soon as I could so it only took two days to quilt it and two days to do the binding. Into the wash last night and here is the final product. I still have to clip some threads and add a label. I know it's going to be appreciated and I'm very proud of it.

Quilt for Baby Sarita

This was a fun quilt to make. I'm stuck on another quilt (but just starting to make progress on the next step!) so it was refreshing to take a break and sew up this quick little one in the meantime. I used a charm pack of Andalucia fabric and cut them in half, sewed them into strips and made this nice coin quilt. I enjoyed it so much that I'm on the lookout for other charm packs for future baby quilts. I guess I would have liked to do some more quilting on it. I really need to start practicing more with free-motion quilting. I finally have the right sewing machine but I need some guidance. I bought a book but would like to take a class. Anyone know of any classes or local teachers in Madison? Forgive the picture-- I took it with my phone!