Christmas Traditions

On Sunday my 12 year old moaned, "Why don't we have any Christmas traditions?"

Me (defensive) : We totally have Christmas traditions.
Her:  What traditions?
Me:  We have ham and potatoes for Christmas dinner.
Her:  (Raised eyes, apparently food does not make a tradition.  It is just what you eat on Christmas.)
Me:  (Looking at the tree)  We wrap our presents in fabric every year.
Her:  That is just because you don't want to buy wrapping paper.
Me:  Noooo.  Reduce, reuse, recycle.
Her:  O. K.  (if you say so, mom, tone of voice)

 Me:  We make a Christmas ornament every year.  (Here is this year's made out of sequins stuck with pins into a styrofoam ball.)
Her:  Oh, yeah...we do.
Me:  And we make treats to bring to people.

 (From left to right, princess angel, shepherd, tambourine angel, Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus and wise man.) 

 Me:  And we read Luke 2 and act out the Nativity each Christmas Eve.  And Santa leaves you stuff in your stockings and we open presents!  (getting kind of desperate for traditions).
Her:  Ok.
She wasn't convinced, but traditions don't have to be big deals.  Just spending time with family can be the best tradition.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!  :)

 On a quilting note, I have lucked out two years in a row at the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild holiday swap.  Last year I received the beautiful rectangular pillow in the back from Jill and this year I was lucky enough to get the square pillow from Amy.  (Amy, it has been loved, snuggled, thrown up on, washed and snuggled some more this month.  Thanks!)  Making and getting pillows is one tradition that I would like to keep going.  ;)

This is the pillow that I made for the holiday swap.  Remember those selvages that I sewed up during the summer?  I made this pillow out of them.  I love it and am going to make myself one next year.  (The trees are just raw edge appliqued on with the ticker-tape technique so they will have fuzzy edges.)

I hope you all had a great Christmas!  Stay safe and warm this holiday season!

Improv. Asterisk Block Tutorial

I could have sworn there was a tutorial for this block somewhere out on the web, but I can't find one, so here is my own tutorial for a 12 inch square Improvisational Asterisk Block.  I think a whole quilt of these would be amazing!  (You might also want to check out this Shattered Glass Block Tutorial or this Basic Asterisk Block Tutorial).

To get started:

• Cut 3 strips approx. 18 inches long and 1.5-2 inches wide
• Cut 1 square approx. 14 inches to a side

Cut the square in half on the diagonal.
Place one strip between the cut edges.
Sew the strip to each cut edge.

Cut the square in half again at a different angle.
Sew the second strip in between the cut.
Be careful to line up your first strip on either side of your new strip.

Cut the fabric in half again where the two strips intersect.
Sew the last strip to either side of the cut.

Press and trim to 12.5 inches square.
Done!  Easy as pie!

Tune in later to see the finished quilt and have a Very Merry Christmas!

Becca Update

 I can't believe I haven't posted in months.  Becca has been growing and getting easier and easier to take care of.  Here she is at one month.  She was still waking up at 3 am and not going right back to sleep at this time.  Brian would take her down stairs and hold her until they both fell asleep.  (love him!)  She is also sporting some great baby acne.

 She wouldn't hold still and stop screaming, so this is as good as the two month old picture got.  She started going back to sleep at night after waking up to eat at about 7 weeks.  Yea!  She still sleeps in her car seat, because she likes it and I am too afraid to try anything else.  She also starts to develop cradle cap.  I scrubbed her head with baby oil and it came right off although it left her hair greasy for a few days.  Why didn't I try that with my other babies?

She also started smiling about this time - too cute!

When we went to her two month check up she had grown 2 inches and gained two pounds.  I can't find the paper they wrote the exact numbers on so let's just say that she weighted about 11lbs 5oz, ok?  She had dropped from 90th to 75th percentile, which is normal for our kids.  I make big babies and then the Gardunia genes kick it and they drop down to a petite 25-50th percentile by the time they are 6 months old. She got her shots too.  The girls were horrified that we were hurting her and she did cry out in real tortured anguish.  Her poor little legs were sore for a few days.  None of my other kids have really had a problem with shots, but I could sure tell when Becca's Tylenol was wearing off for a few days there.

We are trying to have Becca sleep in her little bed by ours and it it going pretty well except when I am so tired after feeding her that I forget to put her back in.  She is smiling and holding herself up pretty well now.  She still doesn't have a nap schedule, but she is working on learning how to grab things and loves her sisters and puts up with them man handling her.  We love our cute Becca Babe!