I left my job on January 4th to stay home full-time with Griff. Then we all got really sick, and we spent the first week I was home going to the doctor and running to CVS for prescriptions and the grocery store for orange juice and watching way too many episodes of “Thomas & Friends” on Netflix to keep Griff amused while we all recovered. Finally, this past Monday, we were all feeling relatively decent. Sean went to work, and we started easing into our new routine.

Things have been going pretty well. Griff is at an age where he can amuse himself for periods while I’m working around the house or cooking a meal. He’s happy to hang out in the basement craft/play room while I run a load of laundry, or sew.

For example, this blue pyramid scrap quilt! I finished piecing the top in February of 2011 using all kinds of fabric stash scraps, tried tying it, hated how it turned out, ripped out all the ties, and left it in a box until this week. I decided I just wanted it to get done so it could be used, so I backed it with some blue patterned polar fleece and treated the fleece as both batting and backing. Then I machine quilted it in the ditch, turned under the edges of the backing, and self-bound it.

This was my first machine-quilted quilt, and it turned out awesome! The fleece was very forgiving. My sewing machine is technically a 3/4 size machine and the harp space is not that big, but I had no trouble at all stuffing this 70″x54″ quilt in there and using my walking foot to quilt it. I am very excited because this means I should have no trouble using the same technique to make Griff a twin-sized quilt once we get him a big boy bed. The fleece also makes it so very cuddly. I think I’ll be making all my quilts this way until Griff is older and I once again have the time to hand quilt.

Griff and I had fun making birdseed “ornaments” this week as well. We used this tutorial. It was a great hands-on toddler activity, although I’ll be finding millet and sunflower seeds in the kitchen for a few months.

First, you mix the seed, flour, water, gelatin and corn syrup.

Then you pack it into molds. We used some mini Bundt pans and some big cookie cutters. The mix is very sticky, so greasing the molds is a must.

Pack it in as firmly as possible to get the best results.

I stuck in some straws to create a hanging-hole in the ones that weren’t Bundt pans. It’s really important to let them dry in the molds 24 hours, unmold, and then dry another 24 hours. I got impatient and one of them started falling apart when I unmolded it too soon.

Here’s how they look once they’re done.

I strung them with yarn scraps and we took them outside to hang once the snow had melted this afternoon. I have no idea if the birds will actually eat them, especially since we had to hang them fairly low on branches Griff could reach, but we had fun making them.

Griff is wearing another very recently finished sewing project, the Tie Dye Diva Reversible Fleece Hoodie. (I had to start making stuff other than jammies when I realized there was literally no more space left in Griff’s jammie drawer to add any new ones.) I used polar fleece on one side and some dinosaur-themed flannel on the other. I love how it makes him look like a little gnome. Vests seem really practical for toddlers, especially with the hood.

Griff’s getting pickier about his clothes (for example, he refuses to wear the socks I knitted for him because they “feel funny”), but he loves this vest and is very excited about a second one I’m making him in red fleece with fireman-themed flannel lining.

It’s hard to believe that this afternoon…

…came after this morning.