I am not a Pinterest mom – just a MOM

Remember a time when you would click on the TV and watch Martha Stewart show you an amazing new idea on how to organize your home.  A great craft or recipe that you could not have ever imagined you would stumble on to from a magazine.  Remember when you would bring your kid to the playgroup and beg them to give you the recipe for play dough because your kid loved it.  Wow ! Genius ! you never even thought of putting sparkles in it!

Now every mom has a secret weapon, a special little tool in their back pocket (some of us with smart phones – literally)  where we can just type in an idea, and POP up come a million answers to it.  Its a Crafters Dream, a designers inspiration,  a mavens motivator and for a mom it is all those things plus a teaching tool for our children.

Countless times I have racked my brain as a stay at home mom.  Trying to come up with fun ideas to do with kids.  Crafts that teach them, games that engage them.  Most ideas have been from word of mouth or read about and thought up on my own.  Now that Pinterest is around I feel that we are all able to feel a bit like “super moms”.

Now I have also heard the negative side of Pinterest.  People feeling like everyone is out doing all this stuff!  all the time!  I am sure no one has that much time on their hands- and if they did- well I would be surprised but I wouldn’t hate on them.  ”oh you must be one of those ‘pinterest’ moms?”  Really, isn’t there enough we have to feel guilty about as a mom.  Stuff we should not feel guilty about at all.  I guess before Pinterest, there really were just people like Martha Stewart, and I we have all heard  the numerous quips about her.

Haters gonna hate  :(    photo credit

I think that people should just relax and see Pinterest for what it is –  not as something that they need to live up to or some sort of standards.  If there cake doesn’t turn out “just right”, or the party isn’t everything it could have been.  There is a huge amount of “mommy guilt” from what we see on Pinterest.  Sure- I buy it.  The countless times I have tried a Pinterest endeavor and it failed miserably.  Was there any guilt on my part?  Maybe high expectations because I saw how amazing it could have been? Do I think I am a sucky Mom because I tried to do something really awesome and failed?  No… that’s life and I am just a Mom.  Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose.  Sometimes we end up with a big pile of sticky dough and there doesn’t seem to be enough flour in the world to fix it.  Life goes on…

I am just going to keep on keeping on…  I will get lost in the hours looking through tons of Pinterest pages, filling my boards with fun ideas (most of which I will probably never ever look at again). I will share all my good ideas too because I am proud to be able to give a little back once in a while.  My plan will also include doing as many fun things with my kids as I can because I have a window that is open to them.  How could I possibly shut this window and not even try to show them all the fun ideas that are out there.  Ideas that have blown my mind, ideas that I chat about with other moms over coffee… “hey, I saw this thing on Pinterest..”  .  You know you do it too…

Until then… Happy Pinning !!  

A Quilt for Kindergarten

This September was Loveliness’s first year in Full day Kindergarten!

We were very excited and so proud of her.  She was going to be going off for a whole day on her own. It was going to be a scary adjustment for her I am sure.  All her friends from Senior Kindergarten would be going to Grade 1. She would be taking the bus all day and meeting a new teacher and new friends. I would also have to get used to this too.  I will not have my little chatterbox with me all day.  I will have to be making full lunches.  I was a little scared too, but I was also looking forward to the time I  could spend with Sunshine alone.

 

We learnt that in Full day Kindergarten there would be nap times in the afternoon.  The children didn’t necessarily need to nap, but they needed to relax and just wind down.  For this it was encouraged that the children brought a blanket to lie on.  I decided to make a nice little quilt for Loveliness.  I tried my best to get it ready for her first day,  but unfortunately I was unable to have it completed.  I waited till after the Christmas Holidays to give her her new quilt and she was so happy with it.

I chose my colours that I thought would look nice together. I loved this Pink Corduroy 

 

I chose my fabric and sewed strips of three together.  I cut them out and alternated them so all the dark pink rows lined up.  I took the Pink Corduroy strips and lay them out in between each of the blocks.

 

 

I sewed all the strips of three together then i trimed the rough sides off and sewed it to the pink Corduroy.

 

all sewn together

 

Once everything was all sewn together i made a strip of Corduroy going around the outside of the quilt like a binding.

I then lay it with the wrong side down on the table and I placed a layer of batting on the top of the entire quilt.  I made the mistake of pinning the batting.  So i had to do it all over again. That was what made me take so long in making this quilt.  I put it aside because I was dreading having to take apart all my work.

here is a close up of a simple stitch I made in the batting to keep it from slipping.

 

After making a bunch of stitches in the layer of batting, I lay the bottom piece of material with the nice side facing the batting.  I sewed all around the quilt and left a space to turn the quilt outside in.

I turned in the open seam and quickly stitched it shut with the sewing machine.  I then thought it would be a good idea to do a crazy stitch on the top of the quilt.  My mother in law told me about this technique and I thought I would do it not problem.

 

Problem is when It was going horribly wrong I chose not to stop and just kept doing the whole strip.  I spent the next hour pulling all the stitches out.

a close of of the atrocity I did on the top layer of the quilt. Never again will i try to free hand stitch the top of the quilt

 

I decided to just go with my original plan and do a simple running stitch in a square all along where the corduroy meets the fabric.

And this is the finished product.  Sure it is a little later than I had intended but now Loveliness has a special quilt from Momma.  She has also been asking for it ever since September so I am relieved that it is finished.

 

Catching the Quilting Bug Part 2

I am so proud of myself, I have actually finished a craft.  Normally all the things I make I give away, this time I actually have something to show for all my hard work.

The first part of my project can be found here.

I have taken all the strips and sewn them together.  It was quite easy once I started going.  I then proceeded to make a strip that goes around the outside.  I mitered all the corners of the quilt, and I am quite proud of how that turned out.

all trimmed and pinned in a nice straight line

top of frames quilt

all sewn up and i just need to trim the edges on the top and the bottom

each corner is mitered. I trimmed off the excess fabric from the back - then i trimmed along the top and sides to make a nice neat finished look

After the top layer was complete and all trimmed I placed wrong side down and measured out my backing material against it to get a good size.  I used a fleecy cotton fabric that matched my tie dyed colours on the front.  Since the fabric was not the entire length of the front I had to use two pieces.  I made sure that the seam ran along the middle of the piece that I put on the back.  I pinned it together and sewed around 3 sides and left one side open so I can flip it “pillow” style later.  Looking back in hindsight i think I will leave about a foot of space on the fourth side.  A crease formed when I was trying to sew it and I had a rough time with the fabric.  I eventually creased it and tucked the extra fabric and made it disappear into the seam that ran along the middle of the back piece.  Hard to explain without a picture - sorry

I lay the entire piece down and put my quilt batting on top.  There are a few pieces of batting that were previously cut by my MIL.  I put them down and stitched the seams of the batting together so it would not move.  I hope it lasts?  I whip stitched the batting in place so it would stay as i flip it inside out.

I then proceeded to stitch all around the pattern and along a little + pattern that some of the squares formed.  I think it looks rather nice and it keeps the batting in place.  This is the end results.  My first quilt, and I can’t wait to make another one.  I think for the next one I will work on a super Mario / Luigi quilt.