Busy week with no computer

I have had a very busy week of Christmas preparations. I have been staying out of my studio mostly and instead of painting have been focusing my creative energy on Quilted Christmas Presents. I hope this post does not spoil any surprises.

 

I did get a painting started that is a wedding present for my good friend Sarah. Her wedding was so unique and beautiful I want to capture a small part of what made it so special. The beginning stages of the painting do not even begin to show how cool this couple is, but I hope that once colors and textures start being added it will truly capture something special.

 

I finished up some long overdue baby shower presents, before the baby outgrows them, I guess I had better get them delivered! The dress is an altered onesie and will fit for a long time. The other is a quilted faux chenille burp cloth. It may have been too much time spent on something for a baby to spit up on but hey, It is fun to make something special for babies.

Last year I was working on place mats and table runners for Christmas presents but only managed to complete the ones that were for my Husbands family since I would be with them for Christmas. This year I am trying to get a few of the other ones I had planned / promised completed.
My mom asked for a set of eight place mats. She loves mushrooms and so when I found some perfect backing material at the store with mushrooms I knew what her place mats would be. I picked eight different varieties of mushrooms and appliqued them to the batik background.

 

I use an iron on fusible applique method with Steam a Seam 2 and them sew over the edges.

I also used a fusible batting and ironed the quilt sandwich together instead of basting with thread or pins. This method is so easy and works so well. Sometimes I use the basting spray and have been very happy with that also.

Morel mushrooms and a glimpse of the mushroom backing

 

A detail of my grass quilting pattern.

 

My 1 year old watched the process and decided she needed to help also, suddenly sewing forward became more difficult.

 

Binding sewn on and ready for hand stitching on the back.

 I have also been working on a few more quilting projects. I have one table runner complete, three more nearing completion, one half done and three just started. Also my first quilted purse complete

Whew!

 

The kids have all been enjoying art projects at the table. I love to see them happily engaged in creating together. Goose was so excited to be sitting at the table in a big chair for the first time this week. Unfortunately she has also been climbing up a lot to explore the top of the table and any thing else she can use the chair to reach.

 

Enjoying the Snow

Debby Bird Art Website

Homeschooling Preschool

To begin our homeschooling adventure we added several important things to our dining room walls. We have a daily schedule that can be adapted for each day, A chore schedule with an assigned daily kitchen helper and an attitude chart.  For the chore chart we took pictures this morning so the kids can see what they should be doing until they learn to read.

 

 

We also added the Ten  Commandments adapted for kids and some rules for our family.

 

Morning routine in Pictures

 

Very Cute little Man that Nathan drew in Salt while practicing s's

Table Work Time

Learning to Color and Human Anatomy

My son has learned to color!

 

I am so excited because while I know kids do thing at different rates and they all have their own learning curve, it really bother me that my two year old was better at coloring than my 4 year old. Every time he tried he would just scribble wildly all over the page and my daughter would at least carefully try to color individual parts of the page.

 

All of a sudden this week while coloring organs for our anatomy study, (What can I say, my son loves to know how his body works) he suddenly started coloring almost entirely in the lines and coloring the whole picture.  He also did a very nice job drawing an avocado for our science observation notebook. So comforting to the artist in me.

 My youngest has learned a trick of her own. She was having a great time playing a game of crinkled nose grins to make me laugh. What a delight to watch these milestones as they happen.