What's Cookin'

Here's a little taste of what's been on the back (and front) burners in Robinson County...

Norah is loving her "play kitchen", as she's dubbed it. I'm a little concerned about the health of her "play family", because she seems to think they can survive on a diet consisting solely of macaroni and cheese and cookies.





Chopping onions making you weepy? Here's Norah's solution.













The play kitchen is plenty of fun, but Norah likes cooking in "Mommy's kitchen" even better. (Which means my diabolical scheme to trick her into taking over all my household duties is working!) She is especially interested in knowing what we're cooking (which was pretty funny on this particular night, since it was jambalaya, and she was determined to pronounce it correctly). She also likes our dinner guests (ie--Daddy) to know that SHE cooked dinner. (Because everyone knows that the key to a well-seasoned meal is stirring the pot!) Her favorite thing to help with in the "real" kitchen, ironically is the same as one of her play favorites, cookies! (And I know you're probably thinking it's because I let her lick the beater, but actually Jason usually beats her to the punch...he does at least share with her! And she still eats her fair share of chocolate chips!)


This is one of my cakes from last week. It was for a baby shower for a new couple at church. (Their baby's nursery is decked out in purple with a Baby Snoopy theme) It was so much fun to make a cake so different from my "usual" requests!




And finally, this is a crib quilt that Mom and I designed and made for my cousin Helen, who, along with her sweet hubby, Clint, welcomed their firstborn, Kylie Virginia, into the family on Tuesday.

We chose the colors based on how she and Clint decorated their nursery, and tried to make it fairly similar to Kylie's bedding, so hopefully it will be a good match, and something she'll like.


Here's a close-up of my favorite square. The lines inside the flower's petals are hand-embroidered to give it a little personality. Mom hand-quilted around everything to give it that special, hand-made look.

I'm so excited that Norah and Eli will have an "almost" cousin so close in age!

Christmas Goodies

Sorry these aren't photos of the kids...those are coming (as soon as I can remember where I put the camera). Instead, here are a few of my sewing projects from Christmas '07.


This is a quilt I made for my mom and dad. (Yes, Denise, I actually finished it!) It is a king, so, unfortunately, I couldn't really get a good photo of it in it's entirety. There are two more borders outside of the brown-- the first is forest green, and the second is gold/tan. Mom loved it so much, she's gearing up to paint her bedroom a coordinating shade of green! (It's on my bed in the photo)



My little sis requested a shirt with her childhood nickname ("Manda Panda") on it...this was what I came up with. (I fell in love with the green and blue fabrics when I saw them at Lonestar Quiltworks, which recently relocated much closer to our house!)

This was an initial t-shirt ordered by a friend as a Christmas gift. (More fabric from Lonestar...)









These three shirts were special-ordered from Abilene as Christmas gifts. The red shirt was actually for a soon-to-be newborn, so I had to wait until he arrived to put his "surprise" name (which, by the way, I love, Meg) on it.


The family's last name is Knight and each year they send out a Christmas card with a Knight/Night play on words ("Silent Knight", "I'm Dreaming of a Knight Christmas", etc.) so I thought these shirts were a very clever and thoughtful gift. They were not my idea--the concept and sketches for the shirts were dreamed up by Kelly McDonald, a friend of the gift recipient.

Q is for...

Quilt...One of my most favorite sewing mediums. I've also determined that I enjoy designing my own much more than following someone else's pattern. (I've never been very good at following the rules when it comes to sewing) To date, I have made five of my own (two hand-quilted, three machine-quilted) and have assisted with a sixth. One of my favorites is pictured at left. It features hand-embroidered names and the favorite scriptures of three generations of Robinsons, and was a Christmas gift to "Mom R" (she also surprised me with a beautiful hand-made quilt that very same Christmas!).

Queasy... I've been blessed not to experience morning sickness with either one of my babies. About the only thing I can think of that does make me queasy is needles. But I'm getting better. After all, it's pretty hard to ask your kids to "soldier up" and get their shots if Mommy passes out when she gets hers.

Queso...mmm....Who doesn't like spicy melted cheese? This is definitely a favorite homemade party-food...but we also enjoy it on our fajitas (in lieu of shredded cheese). I've craved the Tostitos brand queso (the kind that comes in a jar) a lot this pregnancy too, but I haven't indulged too much.

E is for...

"Eh-bow"...One of Norah's favorite words of late. Anytime she sees a bent elbow, Norah feels the need to approach it's owner and give it a gentle tap, while she enthusiastically explains to them what it is called (sometimes 5-6 times before relenting, just to make sure they "got it"). She's an equal-opportunity educator, too. She's more than happy to impart this knowledge to perfect strangers in the grocery store, post office, or parking lot of wherever else we happen to be.

Efficiency...Something I strive for, but generally fall short of attaining. I always plan errands in a way so as to use the least gas. I love it when we eat all of the left-overs in the fridge (rather than forget about them and throw them out after it's too late). And I definitely squeeze every last drop of toothpaste out of the tube before succumbing to opening a new one.

Embroidery...Growing up I never cared too much for handwork. I abhorred counted cross stitch (after one half-hearted attempt to learn it), and for that reason, I never attempted to branch out to any other embroidery mediums...That is until a few years ago when I made an heirloom quilt for Jason's mom, with the favorite scriptures of each of our family members embroidered into it. Through that experience, I discovered that I love to embroider! Since then, I have used my newfound "skill" on Gramps & Granddad's 50th Anniversary Quilt, Norah's Quilt, and numerous other gifts ranging from pillows to onesies. One other plus of embroidery...it is the best pastime I've found for a long car trip!

Happy 50th Gramps & Granddad

On May 26, 1957, Donald McCall Shelby took Mary Louise Whiffen to be his bride. 50 years later, they've shared countless memories, raised four children, enjoyed ten grandchildren, and one great grandchild. Congratulations on 50 years together, Gramps and Granddad!

Last Sunday the family celebrated together by attending worship at Gramps and Granddad's church, followed by dinner at their favorite restaurant. Here is the proud couple standing by their anniversary cake.

After lunch, we announced that there was a special "Golden Anniversary Honeymoon Suite" awaiting them at the historic La Salle Hotel in downtown Bryan.




When they checked into the hotel that night, they found one, final surprise. The hotel staff had made their bed with a 50th Anniversary Memory quilt that our entire family had been secretly working on for the past year! (My Gramps gave an amazing "family tree" quilt that she created to her mother-in-law on her 50th wedding anniversary, so I guess its sort of becoming a family tradition)

There are over 100 blocks on the quilt, each one containing photo memories of the two of them together, their wedding invitation, photos of their kids growing up, as well as grandkids and great grandkids. Each family member contributed their favorite pictures, then 2 of my aunts, 3 of my cousins, my mom, and I all worked to sew the photos into scrappy squares.

The blocks are divided by black sashing, cornered with tiny muslin squares, each one containing a hand-embroidered gold heart (mom was responsible for those). The quilt is bordered on 3 sides (left, bottom, and right) by more muslin, which is also hand-embroidered in gold with the entire text from 1 Corinthians 13 ("Love is patient, love is kind...") That was one of my contributions to the project.


My favorite fabric used in the quilt was the backing. It is a cream-colored fabric, covered with rich, golden-hued berries. I thought it really tied in well with the muslin and gold embroidery on the front.

I'm pretty sure Gramps and Granddad were happy with their surprise. (Granddad kept referring to it as a "work of art") It has been so hard keeping this project under wraps for the past year...its nice to finally have it out in the open!

Tada!!

It's finally finished!! Last night I put the final stitches into Norah's quilt. She had enjoyed a couple of months' worth of playing in her special "tent" while I did my quilting, but didn't seem to mind one bit that her tent had disappeared this morning.

I stretched her quilt out on the floor so I could take a few pictures of it, and she danced on it, spun around and around in circles, and sat down to admire the "flors" (flowers).


I don't know how many memories she'll wind up having from the time that mommy spent working on her quilt. I'd like to think she'll remember the days she spent working puzzles in her little tent, or playing peek-a-boo with Mommy and Daddy under her quilt. Maybe she'll remember the gazillion times she got in trouble for stealing Mommy's thread or trying to snatch my little, purple scissors.











Even if she doesn't remember any of the above, at least she'll always have her quilt. She can look at the thousands of (sloppy) stitches and know that each one was made in love for her by her mommy.







Here is a photo of the finished product. I had to get way up high to fit the whole thing in the picture, that's why it looks like it's wider at the bottom than the top--it really is a true rectangle, honest.

The quilt back is the same color as the outer, aqua border. (Though, I hope no one will look back there at the mess I made quilting it!)












Each of the quilt blocks is bordered by an embroidery stitch. I had a lot of fun learning new stitches to keep it interesting. My favorite was one called the "herring bone". (bottom left, shown in orange)






There are 5 blocks with appliqué flowers on them. I made up the patterns for them as I went along. On the flower blocks, I did a little bit of embroidery, just to brighten them up, and then I echo quilted around them.

The flower blocks have a lot more quilting stitches in them than the plain square blocks do. I think it added a little variety and dimension to the quilt.





This completes step one in my conversion of the guest room into Norah's "big girl room". I hope to have her moved in by November at the latest, so that she can have a couple of months to get comfortable in her new nest before the baby arrives. I really want to avoid making her feel as though she is being "kicked out" of the nursery to make room for baby, so I hope to make her new room a happy, calm, special place.

Excuses, Excuses

Alright, so it's been roughly 100 years since my last post, give or take. But I'll do my best to fill you in on all that you've missed in my absence.

Norah's still growing like a weed, as you can see. I thought this first photo showed her teeth pretty well. She's up to 11 now, and we sure think they're purty.

In the time since my last update, Norah has hit a momentous milestone--she has a set bedtime, and she doesn't fight it! For a solid week, we have maintained a new routine, and she seems to really like it. Before, Jason or I would rock her to sleep and then carefully transfer into the crib, hopeing not to wake her. In the event that she did rouse, we'd either have to stand there with our hand on her back until she fell asleep again, or start over with the rocking. It was fun for a while--sweet time with just us and our baby girl...but sometimes its not a good night to rock, and you just want her to go to bed...so we decided it was time to set a routine.
So here's a break-down of what works for us:
7:30pm, bath time with the duckies.
7:45pm, put on PJs, desitin, lotion, etc.
7:50pm, commence with bedtime stories (read with lights dimmed, night light already on, and noisemaker going...for those wondering, noisemaker is set to either a gentle waterfall or chirping crickets)
8:00pm, lights out, prayer time
8:05pm, place fully awake Norah in her crib, and leave the room

As I said, for an entire week we've had great success with this routine. Sometimes she sniffles a few times when we leave the room, but it never lasts more than about 10 seconds. What an answer to prayer!



So onto my excuses for failure to blog...I've still been staying busy with Princess and Diva birthday cakes...I had a princess cake last week and I went with a little different design and really enjoyed it. You may not be able to tell from the photo, but the necklace and crown have a little rhinestone in them. I thought it turned out pretty cute.



Probably my biggest excuse for not blogging in so long is pictured here. A little over a week ago Jason came home from work exhausted. He had a double-header (softball games) at 9:15 and 10:15pm and Norah was wound up and excited to see him when he got in from work. I decided to take her out to kill some time to give Daddy a chance to take a little nap before his games. While we were out, we went to JoAnn Fabrics with no intentions of buying anything. Little did I know the muse of inspiration awaited me there.

After weeks of perusing Pottery Barn Kids, debating over whether or not to buy the overpriced quilt that had caught my eye, I found some fabric that I liked even better. And then I found several coordinating fabrics..and before I knew it, my basket was full of several bolts of fabric. I just got swatches that night, but as you can see from the photos, I didn't waste too much time in going back and buying/getting started on a quilt for Norah's future "big girl" room. Granted, I have no idea when she'll need a "big girl" room...I also don't know how long it will take me to get all the components together, and you might as well work while you're inspired, right?
Each of the flowers is embroidered, and each of the blocks also has an different embroidered border around it...or at least they all will when I finish. I'm currently up to 15 finished blocks, with a total of 24...so I'm over half-finished.

Once the embroidery is all completed, I'll sew on the outter borders of the quilt (its a solid aqua fabric) and begin hand-quilting it. I plan to quilt 3 nesting squares in each of the plain blocks, and echo-quilt around the flowers in the blocks with the appliquéd flowers in them. I have had so much fun putting this quilt together!


The fabric to the right was my previously mentioned "inspiration" fabric. I've always been a sucker for little prints, and I thought the colors were too fun. I bought more of this floral print to make a reversible duvet cover (with the stripe print from the quilt as the other side)

So, basically, my main excuse for not updating my blog in 100 years is that I've been pre-occupied with quilting. Thankfully, Norah's been in a mood to play contentedly by herself, and Grandma, Great Grandmother, and Grammy have also allowed me to have some quiet time in which to work. (I am so blessed to have such a loving family so close!)

I thought I'd close with a photo I snapped today mid-lunch. Norah had fallen asleep while she was eating---but she kept waking up and taking another bite, then falling back to sleep. It was very funny to watch, but I couldn't laugh, because I didn't want to wake her. She actually makes a habit of sleep-dining, but it never gets old to me---its still funny every time.