Second quilt

As promised, I wanted to post a few pictures of my second quilt. My inspiration came from here. I really, really enjoyed making the quilt. It took many hours of L napping to get it finished. This quilt is for friends of ours who are having a baby girl. The quilt should fit a crib (it's about 37" x 50"). I'm actually really loving quilting. It's a great hobby for naptime and it feels good to do something with my hands that isn't too loud.

Here are some of my original strips. They are each 2.5 inches x WOF (width of fabric). 

Pieced top. It was a little tricky lining up the angles, but I got the hang of it (after messing up several times).

I added a purple border. It's a little unconventional since there is no purple in the pieced section, but I sort of loved the purple and pink for a little girl.

For quilting, I did every other column and followed the chevron (stitch in the ditch). 

The binding ties in the back fabric (a pink mermaid fabric) with the pieced colors. It's the same design as the back, but in white.

Back

Since our friends live in the northeast, I used a super warm batting. I personally love how soft it turned out. I actually have enough of the chevron pieces to make another one. 

I'm a little stumped about what I want my next project to be. I plan on updating L's crib skirt next, but that's a pretty quick project. 

11 months

(Title misleading.. he's 11 months tomorrow). I've been behind on posting. It's been hard. The past 2 months have been so, so busy. Summers always are. And I had been getting pretty frustrated with Luke's rather slow progress with physical therapy. I wanted to wait until I had something. I finally do! L has accomplished a variety of milestones in the past 2 months. I am really proud of him. And it's been cool to see the things we have been doing with PT finally pay off. The waiting was hard though. I saw the envy and pride in my own heart through it all. And it was ugly and totally selfish. He actually started making a lot more progress when I started to let go. Funny enough, our nanny has been saying for months that L would start crawling when she left for maternity leave. She started her maternity leave last Friday... the day L started crawling. So, for the cool new things L can do: CRAWL!, get from laying down to sitting and vice versa (controlled), get from sitting to kneeling, sort of pull up (he did it a few times in June and then hasn't since. I actually don't really count it since he cannot do it consistently), stack rings on the ring stacker, sort some shapes in the shape sorter, point to objects, flip light switches (thankfully he can't reach them without us holding him), wave (? he was waving consistently for a few weeks and then just dropped it since he has been learning to crawl. I miss his waves), and lots more babbling (but no words). I feel like he has gained a lot more control and intention in his movements in the past 2 months. He is also much more steady while standing (although not very close to walking quite yet). For other mamas who want to encourage baby's gross motor skills, I highly recommend mamaot.com. I have used this site quite a bit for supplemental ideas for working with L to gain strength.

With his favorite toy, the Mozart cube.

 Was not a huge fan of the pool

 At a winery

 At Nats stadium

 Pulled to standing

 Working on PT

New skill: grabbing his own pacifiers. This is so amazing!

We have been to 2 very fun weddings in the past 2 months. L stayed with my folks for one and J's for the other. We had a lot of fun dancing and seeing friends. We also took L to his first baseball game at Nats stadium and took him to our pool to swim. I also turned 30, and J celebrated his first Father's Day. We recently went up to J's family's lake house for the weekend. It was a little cold for L to swim, but we enjoyed the beach and watching the boats.

I have been keeping busy with a new hobby -- quilting! I'm in a mom's group and everyone seems to quilt in it, so I thought I would pick it up. After reading/watching tutorials online, I pieced together my first quilt! This one is for our nanny who is having her baby this month. I've actually completed another quilt since then, but since the recipients haven't received it yet, I'll hold off on posting.

 Top piece

 Squares sewn together

Pattern

I've also really gotten into the show, Pretty Little Liars and watched the entire show on Netflix. So addicting. I also fan-girled out really hard when I found out the author of the books is from my hometown and went to my high school. I kept seeing references to the area I grew up in the show, so I looked it up and got really excited. There are also references to my college alma matter. So cool, right? J is not amused.