The insanity spreads

I'm a crafter...  I hope one day to be able to call myself a fiber artist.  Until then, I will just spend my time tormenting my friends and family through tours of my projects, supplies, projects and stock. 

However, it appears that it is catching.  My 5yo sees me do things and desperately wants to do them too.  I guess this is the natural order of things.  But - it still increases the level of insanity in the house. 

After many frustrating attempts at knitting, I finally broke down and bought her one of the fancy spool knitters at Michaels.   She plugged away at it for along time, but eventually got tired of it.  I'm still impressed with her progress.

Then her pleas turned to sewing like mama...  I don't have pictures of the first rice bag we made.  But it was fleece and a small square.  Then she convinced me to help her make another one.  She chose some cotton in my stash.  We had to quilt it to some flannel to make it thick enough.  I helped to guide her hands but she ran the peddle mostly fed the fabric.  She also got to fill the bag.  I think that was her favorite part. 

Then I got my spinning wheel.  So far she only treadles.   But, I'm sure that it won't be long before she gets the hang of drafting and is able to spin something. 

And then there's her loom.  She works on this most days.  Generally, she only does a row and then moves on.  But - she seems to think it's alot of fun and very relaxing.  

And, finally, we made some progress on the knitting.  Each painstaking stitch by painstaking stitch, she has worked through these few rows.  "Under the fence, catch the sheep, back we go, and off we leap" :)  She generally likes to work on it on her own, then I find it on the shelf in some state of chaos, fix it and put it back.  Today, before I took the picture, I undid a row that had been knitted with the tail.  She ran out of tail with 3 stitches to go and left it for me.  

So now what?  This afternoon she announced to me that she wanted to make the cats a quilt...  O_o  So we went through my stash and she picked 5 fabrics.   After we'd put them in the washer to wash, I suggested that we look on Pinterest for ideas.  We did for awhile and then she said, "What about something like this." and then she went and got some paper to draw a square with a rectangle attached to it. 

This is my rendition of her idea.  

Next up - ironing her fabrics.  Somehow that doesn't scare me as much as working with her to cut the pieces. 

Not living a dream

I'm a dreamer and a planner.  While this has given me some kind of direction and focus in my life, it's also lead to spending alot of time dreaming rather than living.  I have spent alot of time dreaming about what I want to do with my life and yearning for the next phase to begin.  This last year has been really good for me.  I've been actually doing the things I've spent so long dreaming about. 

As I started to prepare for this summer, I felt myself slip back into my old habits.  My instinct was to spend my time waiting for next fall.  Figuring out how to keep the girls happy enough to leave me alone so that I could pass the days.  And then it hit me.  I need to stop living my dreams and start living the now. 

I have four months of time to enjoy my kids.  We can play games and go places and do stuff.  The now isn't interesting on it's own merits.  It is interesting because of what I make it.  I can sew, knit, dye, spin, design.  I can create things for my kids and help them create things.  I can retake control of my house!  That might just be the most exciting part of all this.  I have spent the last 8 12 umpteen months doing stuff.  I think the last time I was this much in control was when Natalie was a baby.  Once I went back to work, I got busy and stressed and spent my free time with little family.  Then I got pregnant and sick (for what was really a very long time with everything combined).  Once Gwen was born, I plunged into a world of colic, reflux and PPD.  When I emerged from that fog, I entered the crazy world of babysitting.  And then came school.  Right now there is nothing.  I have 2 kids who are at an age where I can actually do things.  Natalie's in school for 3 hours a day and Gwen takes the most obliging naps. 

So, what am I actually going to do with my now?  The possibilities are really endless. 

The answer I think is very anti-climatic.  I think we're mostly just going to relax.  It's time for a change of pace.  No dreams this summer. 

My second quilt

A few months ago, I was fabric shopping with Amanda on a lovely Friday afternoon and I asked her the fateful question "So - how do you pick fabrics to make a quilt?"

Without hesitation she informed me that generally, you find a fabric or two (or a line) that you fall in love with and then you build the quilt from there.  I accepted this and continued browsing.  In the very next aisle, my eyes fell on the blue fabric:

 

I HAD to have it.  So I bought it.  Then, slowly but surely, I started seeing and collecting others from the same line.  I now have most of them.  :)  I cannot tell you how ridiculously happy  these fabrics make me.  When I was struggling to study and work  on school stuff, sometimes I would just look at and think about what I was going to do with my trees.  I finally figured it out.  Enjoy!  (I know I will.  I'm already sitting here cuddling under my wonderful new couch quilt.)