I Spy - more blocks

Here are some completed blocks.

And some more.

More

I love these little blocks. 

I Spy - the latest blocks

Are these cute, or what?  Blurry, but so it goes.

I Spy

I decided to make an I Spy quilt for Benjamin, our toddling grand.  It is such fun!  I'm using the Missouri Star Quilt Co. youtube on the exploding block, and it is easy peasy.

This is the prototype block.  I love it because the corners are deliberately not pointy.  Yay, not having to match that!

Just playing around here.  The blocks need that last bit to make the final block.  Before sewing together, each block is approx 6", and I figure a 50"-ish quilt for the kiddle.

Here are my favorites so far.  They will square up with the second block, so they won't look diagonal.

I love the llama and the doggie on the first row.  The lion and the doggie on the 3rd row.  All the chickens, of course.  We love dopey chicken jokes.  I have another chicken fabric, and a yoke fabric, too.  Plus lots of other fun fabrics to fussy cut. 

Design Floor Monday

Here is my HST quilt so far.  I'm loving doing this.  Not that my HST skills have gotten better, but it is still a lot of fun.

I'm now at the I'm getting bored phase and am starting to think of the next quilt.  Might be an I Spy quilt for Benjamin.  Or not.

A toddling kid

And he's off and running.  Benjamin is officially a toddler.  At day care, he's now in the toddler room.  He drinks from a sippy cup, walks nonstop, and is beyond adorable.  But I still think of him as The Baby.

His day care is staffed with lots of lovely ladies from someplace south of the border, and he's learning a bit of Spanish as he goes along.  If you ask him if he wants water, he says "agua".  Bilingual child.  He knows both words.  Needless to say, he's a genius.  All grandchildren are brilliant.  Goes with the territory.

This is the Greco-Roman style of diaper changing.  He wants to go, not get changed, and the only way you can hold him down is to drop your leg over him.  He protests mightily.  So it goes.

They are all back home now, and my house is so quiet and orderly.  No toys all over the place, no Miss P swiping my Kindle and my chewing gum.  No parental units to chat with.  It was lovely, and I miss them very much.  Good thing elder DD lives nearby.  Yay, elder DD.

So what to do now?

My cute little quilt in progress.  Look, Ma, some of my points really match!  Hah!  Thank goodness for bias, 'cause it lets me fudge.

PSES

Post seder exhaustion syndrome

Conked out toddler (I could be him.)

Yep, that's what I have.  I'm pooped.  Totally wiped out.  Zonked.  

For those of you who are Jewish and have ever given a seder, you know what I'm talking about.  That total "I can't move a muscle" feeling after the Big Event.  It's a nice feeling, however.

If you are not Jewish, I'll explain in a few words:  On Passover, we tell the story of how the Hebrews left Egypt and slavery so many millennia ago. "Seder" means "order", and we tell the story in a specific way.  We read from a book called the Haggadah, and the Haggadah tells the story for all the children present.  Orthodox Jews will use only Hebrew, but I'm Conservative and we do mostly English with enough Hebrew tossed in for us to feel comfortable.  Half of our guests are not Jewish and don't read Hebrew.  Plus we want the kids to understand the story.  We do have one son-in-law who is Catholic and who taught himself Hebrew to get through the very long Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services.  But that's it.  So, we want everyone to know what's going on, and an English/Hebrew Haggadah works well.  Our Haggadah also gives transliteration, and everyone can follow along.

You say lots of prayers over wine, matzo, bitter herbs, etc, etc.  Lots of symbols.  The highlight of the seder is when the youngest child (or the one who can read Hebrew) recites the Four Questions.  

The Four Questions

What makes this night different from all other nights?
1. On all nights we need not dip even once, and on this night we dip twice!
2. On all nights we eat leavened bread or matzah, and on this night, only matzah!
3. On all nights we eat various vegetables, and on this night, bitter herbs!
4. On all nights we eat sitting upright or reclining, and on this night we all recline!

And then the rest of the seder is answering all these questions.  That's it in a very small nutshell.  Penelope, our almost-12-year old grand, gets to do the Hebrew.  This year, we added in Ben, our 8 year old grand, who masterfully did the English.  And Lili, his 5 year old sister, helped with setting the table and with the hand-washing.  The trick is to get the kids involved, so I ask for their help as often as possible.

We do lots of singing, and I've mined the internet for goofy Passover songs.  There's No Seder Like Our Seder, etc, etc.

It's a lot of fun.

It's a lot of work!!!!!!!  The Hubz and I had to baby-proof as well as do the usual Passover cleaning.  I made enough chicken soup to feed the entire state of New Jersey.  Matzo balls, all the food symbols that explain what's going on, the meal.  You get the picture.  And now the baby, ahem, the Toddler, is toddling around and getting into lots of trouble.  So I set up various exploration sites in the living room and kitchen for him to dump things in and out of. 

The Minnesotans arrived Fri afternoon.  3 of them slept in a nearby hotel, while Miss P stayed with us.  Benjamin the Toddler is not great with restaurants at this stage.  He has this little motor inside that tummy that makes him want to move nonstop.  So I did the breakfast/lunch/dinner thing.  I'm not used to cooking for more than 2 people any more.  But I fed them, and very well, too.

Elder DD came in Sunday night, her guy arrived Mon morning, and then all the rest of the gang came for our 5 PM seder.  We held it very early this year so that the Toddler could be up.  It actually worked out very well.  We never did go back to the service after dinner, not with 3 little kids running around.  The whole thing disintegrated by dessert, but we knew that would happen. 

It was so much fun!  I love it when everyone is together.  And now everyone has gone home, and the house is so quiet, and I'm still pooped.  But I feel a trace of energy coming back.  Yay, energy.  Now if I could just find all the stuff we removed to make the house toddler-safe.

Quilt Monday

Half Square Triangles!  I am determined to master them, and this quilt has only HSTs, so it's now or never.  I'm using a video from the Missouri Star Quilt Company as my guide, and I understand it.  That doesn't mean that I can cut a straight line or sew one either, but the bias from the squares helps me match my points.   Real Quilters will howl with laughter or shake their fingers at me, but hey, I'm enjoying this, so if I have to fudge, I don't care.

My pressing also leaves something to be desired, but here's what I've learned from the few quilts I've finished:  When you wash and dry them, all that lovely quilty crinkly stuff happens and then my wonky cutting, sewing and pressing all work out.

Why is knitting so easy for me and quilting is not?  I tried hand piecing for a little bit, and couldn't get that to line up either.  Oh piffle, I'll just do my thing and enjoy it.  I am getting pretty good at nesting my seams and such.

If only I were not such a perfectionist.  I may be the only quilter who like bias.  It helps me match points.  I guess I'm just biased in its favor.  Groan.

Go away, Quilt Police, I'm never going to be great at this.  But it's fun, and I like it, and I'm the only quilter (such as I am) in the family, so no one has anyone to compare me to. 

Off to clean.  Passover starts next Monday, and I have a ton of cleaning to do.  Yesterday we tackled the living room.  Benjamin, who is now 15 months, is coming.  We have to baby proof.  Today I start the sewing room.  I hate cleaning.  Elder DD told me that we need a focal point for our decorating.  Focal point?  In her dreams.  We just have too much stuff.  So we're tossing like crazy.  I really hate doing this, but with a toddler who will assuredly get into trouble, I have to do this.  It's probably good for us.  Sigh.

Vest on Friday

The Hubz' vest continues.  I'm up to 11" and need to be at 16" before I start the armholes.  It does seem very small, but I measured his favorite vest and that's where it is.  The armholes are, however, pretty long.  The circumference is 50", and I'm knitting on a 32" circular needle, so even though it looks very skinny, it isn't.  I spread the vest over 2 circs, and yep, it measures 50".

Once it's washed and blocked, it'll all appear smooth and lovely.  He likes it, which is good, because 326 sts takes a bit of time to knit.  I am enjoying it, so if he wants another one, I'm game.

The top pic is a close-up of my cute little cable, and is much lighter than it really is.The yarn is Palette by Knit Picks, and the color is Ash, which is a lovely charcoal gray.  I like knitting with it very much.  Soft, flows through my fingers, and is nice and woolly.  

I'm also knitting a hat for charity and 2 pairs of socks, but this is the main knitting at the moment.  Lovely, mindless, soothing stuff.