Eleanor is 5 months old!

So here is the next monthly photo of her on her quilt:

And here's why I was so busy a few weeks ago:

Who said spas were relaxing? The older boys are watching the television. What does one watch from the spa? Play School of course!!!

I have all but completed 2 more DIN Surprise quilts; they are quilted and are labelled with my initials and the year, and are awaiting some child-free television time to stitch the back of the binding down by hand. I blogged a peek of one the other week, and here is as much of the next as you'll see until after Christmas:

I have cut all I can of the next DIN Surprise; I'm just waiting on a fabric in my latest eQuilter order to fnish the cutting and start sewing, but here is the palette so far:

And now I must get back to the sewing table...

Eleanor Update

It has been over a month since my last update. A long time in a baby’s life! Eleanor is now heading towards 5 months, and doing beautifully. She is still a pretty easy baby.She can now roll from back to front (although I have only seen the evidence of this, not the actual movement yet!) as well as front to back and can creep forwards about half a metre. During the day she sleeps on her tummy, and when she wakes we find her on her back, chewing a sheet, or doing this:

She doesn’t seem to be putting on much weight, but still has plenty of cute baby chub! We had friends visit from interstate this week; baby Zach is 5 weeks younger than Eleanor, but outweighs her by almost 2kg!Eleanor is starting to enjoy standing (while we hold her of course!). I remember James did this much earlier; we couldn’t keep him off his feet! She is also getting more balance in a sitting position, but is a way off sitting alone just yet.She also loves to be bounced; either on our laps as a game (which elicits delightful giggles) or on our shoulders, calming her for sleep. My fitball lives in the sitting room and gets a lot of use for the latter. She still likes to lie and watch us move around about her, especially James’ antics, although is happier still if I’m chatting to her at the same time. She also likes to hold her little toys - and moves they straight to her mouth. She's very dribbly!Eleanor is getting used to frequent cuddles from James. He loves to smother her (sometimes literally!) with kisses and cuddles, but gets a bit carried away about leaning on her, pushing and generally being a boisterous 2-year-old. She is very good about it all and puts up with a fair bit of rough play before the bottom lip wobbles, tembles and falls! Here he is changing her nappy!

We took her with us to a wedding reception a few weeks ago. She wore her first real dress and looked adorable, but wasn’t too keen on the crowds of people – although they loved her!

At last!

The professional photos we had taken of Eleanor at 6 weeks have arrived. I am writing an update on Eleanor now, but will post these photos first, so as not to overload Blogger! They're similar to the photos we have of James; now I just have to fork out even more to get them framed and work out where to hang them. The first isn't as high quality as the others; I had to scan it from the original as the only enlargement is too big for the scanner!

Very late - Eleanor's 4m quilt photo

Here is the 4-month-old photo of Eleanor on her quilt - it was taken on the day, but didn't get blogged. Not long until the next one, now!

Flashback

Today's photo was taken in June 1980. I was almost excatly the age James is now; 2 years and 1 month. Helping Daddy doing something in our garden.

WIP Wednesday

Today's WIP is the 2nd DIN surprise ready for quilting. And as Simon organised for his parents to have James tonight while he is in Hobart, I might actually get it done this evening.

But my photo is of me making my first machine-pieced quilt. It's an Around-the-World, marked with pen and cut with scissors. At least I was strip-piecing it! I came across the photo a few days ago. It's from 1993; so obviously I was mistaken that I learned to quilt in 1994!

Sunrise to Sunset

The first of my quilty surprises for members of my Due In November 2005 EB group was received today, so here it is.

The lovely mum is scheduled for a ceasarean tomorrow, expecting a little sister for her 2-year-old boy. She was having a bad day, so I was pleased it arrived to cheer her a little.

I have several more up my sleeve, but will struggle to get them done in time. My sewing room will be out of action from Saturday for about 5 days while we have some long-awaited visitors; my friend from Melbourne and her 2 boys aged 2 3/4 and 3 months. The 3-month-old weighs almost 2kg more than Eleanor!

Flashback Friday - transport

I couldn't find the photo I really wanted; the family at the boot of the car getting into ski boots etc, ready for a day on the slopes (in the days when we used to stay off-mountain and drive up 30 winding kms every day). So instead, here I am on the tractor (ok, self-rolling sprinkler) aged 1 1/2.

Stash update

I thought it was time to see how much closer I am to the kilometre-mark. After adding my latest purchases (excluding that destined for immediate projects) and subtracting some recently used, the current estimate is 642m. It could be time to try and use some of it. Maybe?

Ah, who am I kidding?!

Thursday's Threads

Well, it was still Thursday when I started this, so it counts!

In exciting news, I had a letter from AP&Q, and 'Eleanor's Quilt' will be in Vol 16 No 11, on sale 6th June 2008. A long wait to see it in print, but still a thrill. I have to have everything to them by mid January (so I expect a panic in early January!).

I had a productive day despite Eleanor only catnapping most of the day. One of my DIN Surprises is nearly complete. I sandwiched and started quilting last night, finished the quliting today, and machine the binding to the front tonight. Just have to sign it and hand stitch the binding down now. I had hoped to get it in the mail tomorrow, but Monday is looking far more realistic. Just a few peeks until it is finished, sent and received. This is some of the quilting from the back:

I have my mother visiting tomorrow, with one or both of my grandmothers. James is looking forward to it, but even explaning to him that the sooner he goes to bed, the sooner he'll see them, didn't get him in bed properly until 10.15pm! I suppose that's what you get when he sleeps in until almost 10am; just a pity Eleanor didn't this morning!

James' turn again

From this

to this
in 2 short years!

I'm not sure sometimes whether they should be called the Terrible-Twos or the Terrific-Twos. Between tantrums, James is delightful. He's less and less a baby and more and more a little boy. But wow, he has those tantrums down-pat. No-one teaches them, but they all know the routine - face down (or to the front door?!), bang fists and feet, and carry on as though their world is ending. About shoes being off instead of on. Or because I dared to offer a drink at the wrong time. Or because we can't do everything NOW!

But it's all worth it to see and hear him delight in the smallest things. Every evening without fail, when he hears Simon come home, James squeals "Daddy!" and runs to the door to meet him. He then usually demands his "spa nappy on", and they head outside together. As the warmer weather and longer evenings arrive, they'll also go the the nearby park some evenings.



But the thing I'm finding most enjoyable at the moment is the way little things are triggering memories for him, and the way he shares them. Over and over! Mention tractors or dust etc., and he tells us how the digger made lots of dust breaking the concrete while demolishing the house opposite my parents’ place. Mention Christmas or pageant, and he gets excited all over again about waving to Father Christmas at the pageant.
And over a week later he’s still giggling over Cocoa landing in the spa with us – “Cocoa SWIM! He he he!!!” (We take both kids in, and they love it. But Cocoa the Uncoordinated likes to jump up on the edge, and jumped too far last week.) He recognises planes and their noise, and reminds us that Simon's parents stopped at the airport viewing area with him to watch a 747; "Aeroplane take off, plane in sky!".

(With cousin Zoe at his party)

James has also started some imaginitive play. Bec (his oddly-named rabbit) cuddles Ra (Roar, the lion), flies, and shares his drinks. He also makes 'quito' noises and 'bites' us (after an unfortunate afternoon in the garden without a nappy, where he got huge red bites all over his bum!). AS well as his vocabulary., his pronounciation is coming along in leaps and bounds. Suddenly around his birthday 'pappy' became nappy. We knew he could say it; "Say NNNNNappy." "nnnnnn Pappy!" Grin! Sofie is now sofa, boffle is now bottle, and sadly cuggle is becoming cuddle! He still striggles with 'L', but that will come.

A late Flashback - Families

We have loads of group photos of my family; both my mother's and my father's side.

The first is my mothers' side; Gran and Grandad, all my uncles and aunts (though 2 uncles have remarried) and all the cousins but one. Those of us here are all within 4.5 years of each other; the last one didn't arrive until the youngest of this group was 10. Note the cat snuck in? Albert, I think. January 1981; I'm front left in the blue dress.

Here is the same family again 3 years later; I'm in front of Gran, wearing a white tshirt.

And here is my father's side in January 1985. Grandma, Grandpa and all aunts, uncles and cousins present; amazingly the only change since this, in January 1985, was the loss of Gaandpa 3 years ago! I'm in the front, to Grandma's right.

Oops! I did it again!

Eleanor and I went to some quilt shops today. Somehow we came away with 18m of gorgeous fabric, plus batting and backing for 4 small quilts. How did that happen?

We started miles away where Joy had told they had at least 30% off all fabrics..

Then to the shop at the end of Joy's street 'on the way home' where I picked up some backings and a few more treats...

And finally to my 'local' quilt shop, for the last things on my list, plus some...

I'll have to work out later what my recent extravagances have brought my stash to.

I had meant last week to blog James' 2nd birthday. You may have noticed it didn't happen! Maybe this week. And it's nearly time for Eleanor's next monthly photo on her quilt... In the meantime, here are a few quick photos of the two together.

Thursday's Threads

This week's WIP is the first of several DIN05 Surprises. The top is complete and awaiting some backing so I can sandwich and quilt it. Just a sneak-peek of this one.



I ordered most of the fabric for Leia's quilt through eQuilter and they arrived through the week. Then this morning, the feature fabrics that Leia had bought arrived, and here is my starting palette:

The toile and stripe are the feature fabrics. The right column is all the same designer (and the same range except the cream the the bottom). The bottom-left is an attempt to include some pink; her daughter's favourite colour! I'm itching to start on some test-blocks, but have a more urgent project at hand.

Of course, while I was putting in an order, I couldn't resist a few things for myself...

Now I need to get on with the DIN Surprise mentioned in my previous post WANTED! and see what fabrics I can find in my stash.

WANTED!

For one of my DIN Surprises, I need a range of marbles/batiks or similar style fabrics in sunrise/sunset colours like these. They go from aquas and even a touch of soft green through blue, purple, pink and peach, into soft oranges and yellows. Pieces only need to be 3x2.5", up to about 12" square. If you have any you'd be able to swap with me, I'd be delighted to exchange with you your choice of fabric size/shape/style/colour from my extensive stash!

The only 'but' - the baby is due in under a month, so I need to get to work ASAP!

Flashback Friday - Favourite toys

I had 2 favourite toys when I was little - Panda and Dorf (a frog, of course!) I still have both.

Although Dorf is actually Dorf2! I'm not exactly sure when I got Dorf, but I must have been pretty little. I used to take him everywhere, either in a little bag Mummy made, or pulled along on a matchinf green satin ribbon. One day I must have dropped him from the bike seat behyind Mummy, and he was rapidly (and unbeknownst to me at the time) replaced by Dorf2. A 3rd was also bought in case, but never needed. Dorf is very well-loved, and now sports stitching in various shades of green cotton on his back, where the gritty stuffing leaks.

Panda was a first birthday present, and spawned my love of Giant Pandas. My parents were forced to promise me if there were ever pandas in Australia, they would take me to see them. So in 1988 they took su to Melbourne to see Xiao Xiao and Fei Fei. And while we lived in the Philippines, one year I chose our Easter holiday destination - China to see Pandas! We did see other things, but our guide was amazed we wanted 2 full days at zoos! So, can you imagine how delighted I was to hear Adelaide zoo will have 2 Giant Pandas from early 2009? I think James and Eleanor are in for plenty of trips ot the zoo! One of James' first toys was also a Panda (hmm, better get Eleanor one, too!)

This is just after my first birthday; Panda in my arms and Dorf at my feet, ribbon and all! (Note the quilt on the bed. It was made of scraps by my aunt and disintigrated long ago -I really wish now we'd kept it!)

And at about 1 1/2 playing 'dressups'???

To show how much I preferred soft toys to dolls (yuck!) here is one of the first photos I took when I got my own camera; most of my toys! I remember saving for ages for my first Care Bear (Cheer Bear), and was really pleased to see them around again, so my kids can have them, too!

And yes, I have made both a frog quilt and a panda quilt!

James is 2!

And here he is on his new trampoline! More about his birthday after the party on Sunday...

Happy Birthday James! I hope this year has been as much fun for you as it has for us!