April's Birth Quilt

This quilt has been in the works since December. There were lots of delays (and procrastinating on my part because, well, I hate quilting) but at last it is complete. This quilt is in celebration of April's birth. I was inspired by the days when people used to make quilts to celebrate big life changes such as a wedding or a baby. Friends and family each made a square and I assembled it (and made some squares of my own. You can click on the picture to see it larger.

Clockwise from the top left:
My mom made this square. It is modeled after our wedding invitations and has the initials of everyone that made a square embroidered on the tree trunk.
My friend Lindsay made this one. She traced her daughters hands. She was inspired by these quotes: "A mother's heart is always with her children" and "Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”
Jon's aunt Mary Ann made this one. I'm not sure of the story behind it.
My grandmother made this one. The two large hearts are attached at the shoulder and the little heart is attached to one of the big hearts by a little umbilical cord.
My aunt Karen made this one. She modeled it after the design on our wedding program. They are two love birds and the mommy bird has a baby in her belly.
My friend Kyrie made this one. A strong family tree grown from love.
I made this one to commemorate April and my shared love of music. I hope to sing and make music with her her whole life.
My mom also made this one. When I was little my favorite thing about my stuffy was the tag on the back. I loved to rub the tag in my fingers. April loves tags too. This little bear has the perfect tag (by his foot).
I also made this one. I embroidered a baby sleeping under the stars. It is my sweet dreams square.
Jon's mom made this one. It reads Eyes Wide View Miracles. It was to remind me to keep my eyes open when April was being born (but I was so focused on pushing I kind of forgot).
Jon's aunt Joan made this one. In the center heart is a little head down embryo, surrounded by love.
My aunt Karen also made this one. It is April's initials and an umbrella. All made from her wedding dress fabric.
And finally, I made the center square. I was inspired by a quote I heard once. "Before you were born I carried you under my heart. From the moment you arrived in this world until the moment I leave it, I will always carry you in my heart."
I will hang this quilt on her wall for now, but when she is older I think I'll let her use it for special days like when she is sick or hurt and needs to be surrounded with love. I really hope this quilt stands the test of time and gets passed down to her children.
Thank you to everyone who helped create this quilt.

More Garden Goodies

We've gotten nearly 10lbs of peas from the garden and there are still tons more to be picked. We've picked about 5lbs of cabbage (but there is still so much more out there and I just don't know what to do with all this cabbage). Unfortunately we only got about 2lbs of broccoli. The weather has been so weird that it seems to go to seed before I can pick it. We've also gotten blueberries, raspberries, kale and cucumber from the garden.  So things aren't as grim out in the garden as I thought. Time to start planting for fall.

5 months

She is 5 months old. She is becoming such a big girl. She can almost sit unassisted, she can laugh, she's on the verge of crawling and has a tooth coming in. Not a newborn any more.

It has been a month of first. Her first laugh, her first trip across the border and her first real trip to the beach. She loved it, she had so much fun wiggling her toes in the sand. I can't wait until it is warm enough to go in the water with her.

In general she is still the happy baby she always has been but she has been having a tough time in the evenings I think because she is tired and her mouth hurts. I've started implementing a regular bedtime and a nighttime ritual which seems to be helping but until I can get her to nap more during the day I think we will still be having these nightly meltdowns.

This month her favorite things seem to be daily walks, bath time, books, frozen soothers and when Mama gives her raspberries. Seriously, this child gets cuter by the minute!

A Summer Outfit

Today my aunt hosted a summer BBQ so of course I needed to make April a new outfit.

 I made her this sweet little pinafore. It's a little too big but I'm ok with that because this girl is only getting bigger. The fabric is something I got on sale at JoAnn's, it was just so summery. This dress helped me to discover the automatic buttonhole setting on my sewing machine and I am so pumped to use it more! What an awesome setting.

I made her this matching reversable bonnet. This really didn't take very long (that's the great thing about Rae's patterns) and looks really cute. I didn't use the piping that the pattern calls for because I didn't have any but I really don't think it makes any difference, it looks just as nice without it. Again I made it a bit to big so I need to fold up the brim so April can see.

What a cute summer baby!!

Garden in Bloom

Things are really coming along in the garden. I've got beautiful flowers in my front yard and yummy veggies in my backyard. I think things would be further along if we had more warm weather but I will take what I can get. I've already been lucky enough to enough some broccoli, spinach, kale, strawberries and raspberries from the garden.

 

Sweet Williams

 

Roses

English Peas

 

 Curly Kale

 Blueberries

 Raspberries

 Green Cabbage

 Potatoes (Yukon Gold, Red Pontiac and Russets)

Pickling Cucumber