As yet unnamed!

Another project and a happy N update

I finished the first block in the Sweet Peas Quilt I started over the weekend. I should've ironed the block before taking a photo but N woke up from her nap so I had to rescue her instead. This is just a fun project as the fabrics are so bright and colorful and the little stitcheries are SO cute! Eight more blocks to go! I think tonight I will shift my focus back to the Butterfly Garden block I was working on last week. Mainly because I've got the various applique pieces ready and I don't want to lose them!

I have a happy update about N. I took her in for a routine heart scan yesterday, her first one in 6 months, and everything looked great. I also had her weighed and measured and she has grown a nice amount since the end of September which was the last time I had her weighed. Back then she was 7.18kg/15lbs13oz (50th percentile) and height was 75th percentile at 66.5cm/26". Today she weighed 9.55kg/21lbs (75th percentile) and height was 76cm/30" (98th percentile). Though her health is doing great... not sure about her mental health. Just look at the crazy look on her face. With parents like us though it's really not her fault LOL! Actually, it's just another photo of her laughing out loud and being the happy baby she almost always is! Yay!

Really big chew toy

Photo taken shortly before her morning nap. I put her in her cot so I could get her bottle from the kitchen and came back to see her sitting and chewing on her cot. Good job they put those teething rails on cots or else she'd get splinters in her gums! Waving hi to Kirk... hope you're not freezing too bad! Pretty miserable here too... really windy and wet so no walks today. Boo hoo! We're going to get cabin fever.

Heart Update

I took Noemie to the Brompton this morning for her routine heart scan. It's been 6 months since the last one. I also had her weighed while there. She's definitely grown since her last weigh in. Back at the end of September she was 7.18kg/15lbs13oz (50th percentile) and height was 75th percentile at 66.5cm/26". Today she weighed 9.55kg/21lbs (75th percentile) and height was 76cm/30" (98th percentile). She's still tall and slender :) The scan went fine, nothing has changed so that's good news. Her sats were 100% which back before her surgery were around 85%. Everyone was stunned at how much she has grown and how well she is doing. It was really nice to see the people who have taken care of us since the very beginning. Apparently she had doubled in weight since she was last at the Brompton in August for her scan so the Dr hardly recognized her! She flashed her toothy grin and waved at everyone of course. I walked there and back so got a lot of exercise (it's about 40 min each way). We next go back on Oct 29th and I think if it's all good then, we will be seen annually. Weird to think that next time we go she will be running around in the waiting room!

I took these two photos this evening after she had dinner. The first one shows that though her health might be fine, there is clearly a reason to be concerned about her mental health. Then again, having parents like us, it might explain everything. The next photo was me trying to catch the look on her face when we put the plastic toy on her head. We call it a hat for lack of a better name. She's gotten too quick at shaking her head to make it drop off though so I can't snap fast enough to get the photo.

All in all a really good day :)

Sitting up and "dancing"

It's great she can sit up by herself but it also means more bumped head moments and crying. She is generally balanced then every so often will topple over and hit her head on something. Or sit up and lean forward into the coffee table. Short of removing our furniture, she's just going to have to learn. Usually the crying is for effect as the moment you pay attention to her she stops and smiles.

Lately she likes to wave both arms around in the air. I don't think it's a wave as she usually does that with one hand. She started doing the double handed wave when her music would be on so maybe she's dancing? This weekend her and Kirk sat facing each other on the living room floor and took turns doing the "dance". Of course the camcorder wasn't in reach at the time.

As photobucket seems to be playing nice today, I'll upload a few more after I feed her some lunch! Beef stew that took me nearly 4 hours total to make. Good job she loves it as I made 23 portions, lol!

D-7 "The Meeting Place"

I got this block done this morning as I woke up a tad early today. Like 5:15 am early though I stayed in bed for 30 minutes hoping to fall asleep again. When I realized that wouldn't happen I got up and decided to make use of the time. It was so nice and quiet in the house I now kinda wish I could get up this early each day. I may feel differently as the day goes on of course! Anyway, I hand pieced this block and it was so easy and straightforward. The pieces felt huge compared to other blocks I've done for this quilt too. This was block 9 for me and my new count is: 9, 0, 164.

I was going to do more work today on my Butterfly Garden block but as the next pattern now isn't coming until March (in order to get other people on track) I'm not as rushed to get it finished. So... I think today I will start cutting fabric for the first block in the Sweet Peas Quilt! Yay!!!

I think we're also going to the pub on our corner for lunch to eat their yummy burgers (N will no doubt want some as well) and then go shopping as we need light bulbs, food and a bookshelf. We keep putting stuff off each weekend so now we're living in almost darkness LOL! Just so many more interesting things to do than tedious house stuff!

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend :)

And it's done!

Got the four corners done so that means 8 more complete blocks to do before I can quilt and bind and all that stuff. Will be a long while before that happens! I've printed out my DJ BOW template, have more to do on the Butterfly Garden BOM and also want to work on that dollhouse screen kit I bought last week.

But first... I am going to go make that beef casserole so N can have it for lunch tomorrow :)

Project update

Remember the project I shared 2 weeks ago? I had done two of the borders but then cast it aside to work on the Butterfly Garden BOM. Today I decided to go back to the other project so I can get the block done as I am sure I'll want to start another block for it soon. During N's morning and afternoon naps then this evening I sat and watched TV and sewed. I just need to applique a heart to each corner and do a few stitches around the heart and I can call the block done! Not bad considering it's taken me less than a month to get it done. That's my goal... get all BOM projects done in a month, even if not in the month they are meant to get done!

I will print out the pattern to this week's Dear Jane block and work on it tomorrow. I need to spend some time in the kitchen first though, making more meals for N. I am going to try a beef stew recipe in one of my baby cookbooks. My Mom brought us a 1.5kg slab of filet mignon so I will make it with some of that and maybe K and I can have some steak this weekend as well!

Still sewing...

I've still been sewing each night and each nap-time and have made a lot of progress with the blocks but not much with the applique and stuff so there's nothing really interesting to photograph at this point. I've got 5 out of 9 mini blocks pieced now and will probably spend tonight doing applique and stuff then back to piecing tomorrow night. I'll share a photo of N instead, taken this afternoon wearing her cute little bunny dress. I fell in love with the fuzzy little tail and N spends quite a bit of time poking it with her index finger. Oh, and what a shocker to see her wearing blue rather than pink for a change huh? I've been taking a lot of photos of her lately and am slowly planning layouts in my head. Maybe one of these days the urge to actually scrap will come back!

The pointing finger

I bought this cute little dress for N last year as soon as I saw the bunny I knew she had to have it. They had it in pink as well but as she already wears an overwhelming amount of pink, I went for blue. I know, total shocker! Anyway, here is a photo of her looking cute in her bunny dress and then one of her with her "pointing finger". For the last few months she has been obsessed with pointing at things. She especially loves watches and rings and Kirk's eyes for poking, but will pretty much poke anything once.

My parents came over for lunch today. I was meant to go up there but as I haven't driven my car in a few weeks the battery died again. So I'll call the car place out soon to get it started again but for today, I called my parents and they came over. We went out for lunch at our corner pub, Noemie's first pub outing! She was so incredibly well behaved and one of the people who works there came rushing over as the last time she saw me was when I was about to pop. Noemie waved at everyone who came and went and they all either waved back or at least smiled at her. I was so happy she wasn't screaming or being irritating, etc. I hate when other peoples' kids do this (some say it shows the kid has personality and is "spirited", I say it's just an annoying kid with parents who just don't care/can't be bothered/are deaf/think it's spirited). I had a hamburger as this pub has the BEST burgers I've ever had. Noemie enjoyed her first sample of beef as well. She likes to eat bits of bread when we're out and about but today she was staring at my burger so I gave her tiny pieces fully expecting her to spit it out at me but instead she gummed it and then opened her mouth for more.

She's been sleeping through the night totally now. We stopped waking her for a bottle last week as she seemed to get more and more irritated with us. It's kinda weird to put her down at 7:30 and then not see her again until 8am or so. I won't complain though! Kirk and I have been getting uninterrupted sleep for a while now so I guess we're lucky to have a good sleeper!

Anyway, time to go feed her some dinner and then play some more before bath and bedtime :)

Block two

Even more applique on this one. I'm getting more comfortable with it though one of the petals isn't as rounded as I'd like. I have to remind myself this is one little section of what will be a much bigger overall quilt! Chris asked in the comments where I got the chart. I ordered mine from Mrs Martin's Quilt Shop in Australia. She is absolutely awesome to buy from, super fast at posting (I got this pattern in 4 days!) and is nice to chat to as well. I did find the chart in the UK at Buttonberry but they are selling it as a kit with fabrics which wasn't what I wanted as I preferred to buy my own. Buttonberry are really nice too though, I buy lots of my fabrics from them :)

Tomorrow's block has a cute little stitchery rather than applique which I am very much looking forward to. Then the day after it will be back to applique with another butterfly.