it's a boy

 

i've finally begun my first of two boy quilts for my sons. last year, i bought a jelly roll of "superstar" by riley blake with the intention of working up a simple grouped-strips-and-open-space-panels quilt. i made a pattern that i called "bandwidth" - i think the name originated from a garbled idea of those bars that dance up and down on the stereo when music's playing and radio bandwidths. this time last year, i really liked this idea. i wanted an easy, quick pattern i could knock out for the boy.

but this time this year, i wanted more than just the one fabric line and also didn't like so much my picks for the wide open spaces. i bought some different solids to audition for the panels and picked out some coordinating prints to compliment the jelly roll, which i culled.

i cut all the strips yesterday and began piecing them together. (it was night time when i was working, sorry for the lousy photos.) it's coming along quickly, but i'm not at all sure about how this is going to look. i think i have a train wreck going here. even with the addition of the new fabrics, i am mostly likely making one big pile of "that's really ugly but my mama made it, so i love it anyway." i just don't know, friends!

this is the first section of strips completed. i'm thinking of using either the flat navy blue or the stone grey for the panels. maybe. i'm so totally undecided.

and at this point, two weeks away from Christmas and with 2 flimsy and 2 USO's (un started objects) on my plate, i'm just in need of a quilt! what on earth do i do? press forward, with my eyes closed and fingers crossed. if he really doesn't like it, and i'll know by how much he uses it, i'll get him another one made in the next year or so. i'll likely make him another one before all is said and done anyway.

wish me luck!

wish/to do list for 2014

i'm so good, i'm planning ahead for next year's quilting already. that was kind of a joke, the "i'm so good part", anyway. really, this is just me having way more to do than i can actually accomplish right now. i have 4 quilts at the top of my list to make.

first up, because it's a quilt-along for January, is sarah's awesome barn door quilt pattern. i started pulling some yellow/light green/browns for it (above). kind of floral and funky. i need to find more low-volumes, especially one like sarah's mini dot, and maybe another really dark brown for this. this pull is either totally awesome or really horrid. there is usually a fine line between the two for me.

i'm also going to get back to my spring house hst diamond quilt. i'm just making this up as i go, from my own whimsy. however, i have seen a few out there since i thought this up this summer. some patterns are just obvious, you know? so obvious lots of people design them independently of each other.

i did a big no-no a few weeks ago and bought a new pattern. this is bad of me because: 1) i already own dozens of patterns and books of patterns (not to mention all the great free stuff on the internet); 2) i have really been enjoying making up my own patterns or doing some simple improv lately; 3) the individual pattern was about half the price of a book, meaning it cost as much as i'd normally get 6 patterns for. but, dang it!, just look at how awesome this pattern is. meg really nailed it something fierce with the luminaries quilt.

i immediately thought of my anna maria horner/amy butler pile when i saw this pattern. upon closer inspection, i see she actually used AMH for her sample quilt, which means i'm not as brilliant or original as i thought. so this is one step closer to using up my stash. that, plus the sheer beauty of the design, justified the purchase for me.

meg made the quilt from scraps, so i have no illusions that this stack of fabric will disappear with this quilt. but that's good because i'd also like to use some of these in larger pieces that will feature them better. i had been considering a colorblock-type quilt before. maybe i can do a large colorblock backing and the luminaries on the front. two quilts in one. that sounds kind of exciting! oh, let's go start cutting! (refocusing myself back to what's on the table as i type. focus, hydee, focus! this must be where my boys get it from.)

penny patch 2.0 in teal and aqua blues/apple green/ greys/ fuschia pop.

of course, there is also the "leftover pennies" quilt to make, too. but i'm not itching to get to that just yet. it's a bit down the line.

honestly, if I can get these four quilts done, i'll be doing pretty darn good. this should take me through at least the first 6 months of the year and the fabriholics anonymous fast. see, I don't need to worry a bit about that fast! easy-peasy. let the new year and quilts begin!

I'm linking this in to Rebecca lynne's fabriholics anonymous wip/ufo link party.

it's official - i'm stocked

it's definitely official - i can call meadowdot in robin's egg/mint/whatever not only my all-time favorite, but also my signature fabric because i am now stocked beyond my wildest dreams. thanks to all the lovely ladies, starting with lucy on down, i was able to acquire several yards earlier this year. and now, thanks to natalie christensen, the craftin' mechanic, via rebecca's favorite fabric swap link up, i found another whopping 10 3/4 yards   of meadowdot at a small online shop!

merry Christmas, to me. i am now free to use it in abandon in any project i please without fear of not having enough left over. my first plans for it are to make a quilt, probably a plus quilt, out of my very first fabric purchase (the wheel of fabrics in my banner) and use meadowdot as the backing.

i was inspired by this plus quilt from blue elephant stitches. when i saw it, those first fabrics immediately came to mind. i think it might be a good pattern for them. with a meadowdot backing!

beyond that, all i know is that this new bit won't fit in the basket. i lost track, but i think maybe i have around 20 yards now. oh, glorious problem!

**in case you read my "hoard" post about limiting my purchases, and are wondering about this post, it was written and scheduled before my pledge with fabricholics anonymous.

still making christmas

 "twirly" is at the 95% finished stage: binding is machine sewn to the top, needs to be handstitched to the back. it's now completed enough to gift for Christmas and has moved to the handbinding que, which is behind the top completed/quilted que. i am quite pleased to report that i got the binding put together and fully on the quilt without having to consult one single tutorial or photo anywhere.

i get binding now! i know how to do it all by my big self, i can actually visualize how and why it works the way it does. this is a big step forward for me as a quilter. it was a tiny bit tight after i attached the tails, but i got it to sew on the top with no problems or weird puckering, so it's a success.

i did take an extra-long time, going super slow, to see if i could get the seam allowance more exact, thus making for perfectly balanced binding. it was tedious. we'll see if it was worthwhile or not when i do the handstitching.

in the interest of moving my Christmas makes along, yesterday i decided to forgo exercise, personal grooming, or a change of clothing in order that i might give all my attention to getting this thing done! sometimes sacrifices are made in the name of the greater quilting good. (today, however, i gave my children a slightly better example of motherhood by showering and dressing myself.)

i owe big thanks to my quilting crew for the large group, concerted effort to get this quilt completed. my number one pin remover did a great job depinning for me. littlest sister did her part by running around on the quilt, stealing everything she could get her grubby little hands on, and bringing over a ruler to take measurements for her own personal entertainment. (liz, princess would have died to see all 3 of us actually on the quilt at the same time!)

these are her go-to tools. and they are definitely hers if you judge by the way she screeches, "mine!MINE!!!" and sprints whenever she finds them.

the final quilting of the straight lines with the fmq foot went badly. very badly, indeed. but it's done and i've moved on. i'm hoping that when the creases from the hera marker disappear, and you can no longer see where the stitching was supposed to be as opposed to where it ended up, it won't look so poor. but that will only help a little, i'm afraid.

my only other concern: d3, who this is intended for, said yesterday she has decided she wants "her" quilt to have animals all over it. she doesn't seem too interested in this quilt. i hope it's not a huge disappointment when she opens up her gift and finds "twirly" inside.

on the funny side, d4 was trying to figure out who this was for when we were working on pins. she asked if it was hers (at least someone is interested!). nope.

"oldest sister?" nope.

"second oldest sister?" nope.
she was hot on the trail and i was preparing to evade the next question without directly lying to her when she asked (or maybe i said, can't remember exactly)

"oldest brother?" yes! oldest brother.

laughing hard, she replied, "but mom! this is a girl color quilt. why did you pick girl colors for a boy?" oh. i thought he liked pink. doesn't he like pink?

"no, he likes purple." i guess i made a mistake. do you think he'll like it?

she had a lot of fun telling everyone all day that the pink quilt was for oldest brother, that silly mom thought he liked pink. i can only hope d3, whose name i have quilted into the stippling, decides she likes a quilt that twirls like she does. even without animals or her favorite color: purple. in my defense, i started this quilt with her in mind last December before her color preference was so decidedly fixed. i hope what her younger sister d4 said, that d3 hates pink, isn't true! it'll need a Christmas miracle otherwise.

 

 

my week 8 making Christmas update:

d1 - "plus a diamond" needs handbinding

s1 - wonky stacked coins not started

d2 - "taite" needs handbinding

s2 - "bandwidth" fabric selections made, strips being cut
d3 - "twirly" quilted, binding machine attatched

d4 - flowered pillow sham some flower centers blanket stitched

d5 - "paris daydreams" flimsy

penny patch qal - top completed; a flimsy

 

linking in to the making Christmas blog hop and link party hosted by lucy at charm about you this 8th week.



considering the hoard

on a day when 10.75 yards of my favorite fabric arrived in my mailbox, i ordered some "rare finds" on etsy, and spent half my morning reading about fabric selection and stash building (parts 1 and 2) at blue elephant stitches, ironically i also happened apon yet another of rebecca's brilliant ideas: fabriholics anonymous. she's come right out and admitted the problem many of us have with fabric buying, not only admitted it, but pledged to do something about it! brave, brave girl.

liz and i talk about this from time to time. we joke our friendship is built on our naughty buying habits. well, it did start that way. and i had another conversation with someone (amandak, maybe?) a few months ago about this very topic and perhaps the need for some help from each other in our community to stop the madness and the enabling. rebecca has addressed the issue and fleshed it out for us with some great guidelines for a 6 month fabric fast. i borrow from her page:

GOALS:

- To use the Stash I already have!

- Finish UFOs without distraction by shifting to other new beautiful fabric.

- Stop the insanity of constantly buying the latest and greatest fabric.

- Save the $$ I spend on stashing.

- Destash the fabrics that I realize I am never going to use.

FABRIC FAST RULES:

1) No fabric purchases for 6 months beginning January 1, 2014.   

2) At 6 months reevaluate status and decide whether to keep going for full year.  Evaluation July 1, 2014.

3) Create a UFO list and complete them!

4) Exceptions

• Backing: purchasing a backing to finish a quilt top is permissible.  However, attempting to use fabric in your possession for a backing is preferable.
• Books and Magazine purchases are allowed as they are not fabric.  Notions acceptable too.
• Swap Mama Fabric: if hosting a swap you are permitted to by fabric to execute swap duties, but you may not join a swap simply for the sake of being able to buy fabric!
• Quilts for Publication: if you are making a quilt for a publication and need certain fabric to execute it correctly then that is a major exception - who can blame you?

there is a link up on her page if you want to join in and pledge publicly. i'm pretty sure know i need to do this, but am not quite brave enough just yet. i'm thinking if i modified the rules a bit, i could do it.

my list of quilts i want to make as soon as i'm done with the kids' quilts for Christmas is already about 6 projects long. and i have the fabrics for them, too. there is just no end in sight to finding more projects and more fabrics to buy. fortunately, i'm not aware of any lines coming out that i'm dying to own. but i'm sure that's only because i don't know about them.

 i guess it's just time to come clean on this. i missed the "show me yours, i'll show you mine" confession link party this summer, so this is where i personally stand with my own stash & addiction:
 

 i was doing pretty well in my bawthroom sewing area, had the table all cleared off and everything stacked on the shelf. but then i cleared out the dining area and it all ended up on the table. there are several boxes under the table, too. no more room there.  i'll leave the actual amounts here to your imagination.

i'm not even going to try to classify all this garbage. the majority of what is on the shelves, i purchased online or at my local store in the first 6 months or year of becoming a new quilter. i just wanted pretty fabric and bought a ton of it. patterns, too. looking at it now, i know there is a good portion of it i won't use the way i originally intended to, if at all.

i've changed a lot as a quilter in the last 3 years, or at least i understand myself and my style a lot better than i once did. i could eventually use all of this, even if for charity quilting, which i'd like to do. but the reality is there is a good chunk i'm not so excited about anymore. i destashed bits of it in Lucy's fugly party earlier this year, but i could realistically get rid of more if i made myself.

my weakness has been precuts (!!!) and sales, online or in person. I've actually gotten a lot better at this, but many of these pieces made their way to me when they went on sale somewhere. maybe it's safe to say that i don't buy a whole lot of fabric anymore, but that i once did and that's my main problem.

so that's the ugly truth hiding away upstairs. let's look downstairs in my public space:

 on the shelves are 4 wicker baskets containg some bits of fabric: liberty basket, purl soho basket, epp project basket, and stuff that just needs to be put away. not much here and acceptably organized.

under the table are several project or scrap boxes: hst diamond project box, 4sq baby blankets project box, epp project boxes (one fabric, one paper pieces), triangle binding scraps box, selvages box, string stuffing scraps box, "paris daydreams" project box, "twirly" project box. each of these boxes is either a project i'm right in the middle of making or is a permanent site for a long-term collection that is slowly building up over time. i'm okay with all of these boxes. this is within the healthy realm, but it needs to move upstairs and out of sight simply for the sake of our home's aesthetic appearance.

oh, there is also the bag (on the right) that contains my pull for penny patch 2.0 and baby boy quilts for my two newest nephews. i ran out of boxes. all of these fabrics are spoken for.

so the downstairs looks pretty good. it's the huge hoard, and let's face this, too - it's a hoard, not a stash -that is the real problem.

if i look at my purchasing over the last 6 months or so, it has become more responsible, but is still on the unhealthy side considering what's sitting around. i almost always only buy for a specific project these days. the three exceptions to this type of more responsible purchasing are favorite fabrics, zakka, and stash-building.

1) i've found lately that i'm coming close to running out of some pieces i really like and know i will use more of them if i can get it. so i go look for it when it runs low. this is fairly intentional and reasonable stash purchasing.

2) my new little collection of Japanese/cute novelty prints for patchwork, please! style zakka projects is perhaps the biggest exception to my healthy buying. i've been gathering a little pile of these fabrics, mostly in fat quarters, for a few months, here and there, online. i probably have enough to fill one project box.

3) i've bought a few quarter yards and precuts of fabrics purely for stash after considering them several times before purchasing. it was more thought out, but not really "necessary" buying.

fortunately for me, i haven't traded any real necessities nor have my children done without so i could acquire all these fabrics. all spending has come from a regular personal discretionary fund of my own. the fact that i can technically afford all these fabrics in no way justifies my purchase of them, my consumption for the sake of consuming. oh, i did have plans for a large number of these buys, but i can't produce fast enough to keep up. penny patch did make a small dent in one corner of the old stash shelf. but there needs to be more of this happening. perhaps what i need to aim for is getting all unused fabrics to fit on my shelving before i consider more purchases and new projects.

so to what am i willing to commit?
i need to work from stash. honestly, i have enough to keep me busy for months with just the few projects i want to do next year once . . . you know, my 7 current projects are done. let's revisit rebecca's list with my comments and modifications in color:

GOALS:

- To use the Stash I already have! check! use the items from my stash that i really love before getting new stuff. i'm gong to have to discern between what i will likely use and what will be put away for charity.

- Finish UFOs without distraction by shifting to other new beautiful fabric. check!

- Stop the insanity of constantly buying the latest and greatest fabric. check! the only things i'm aware of that i really want are the new anna maria horner line and the blender true color fabrics from amh and heather bailey. lucky for me, they aren't moda and will likely be around for a bit.

- Save the $$ I spend on stashing. check! while i whittle away at my stash, i should be spending my fabric budget on some worthy projects and causes instead.

- Destash the fabrics that I realize I am never going to use. i am torn on this one because i feel i can use any fabrics i have for charity quilting. and I'd like to do this, eventually. i will have to think on this more before making any commitments.

FABRIC FAST RULES:

1) No fabric purchases for 6 months beginning January 1, 2014.   ouch! okay. i can do it for 6 months.

2) At 6 months reevaluate status and decide whether to keep going for full year.  Evaluation July 1, 2014. check! great idea! it's not forever, there is an end in sight!

3) Create a UFO list and complete them! already working on this. find some of the cool link parties for motivation.

4) Exceptions oh, yeah, i have some of these!

• Backing: purchasing a backing to finish a quilt top is permissible.  However, attempting to use fabric in your possession for a backing is preferable. definitely agree!
• Books and Magazine purchases are allowed as they are not fabric. actually, i have more than enough of these. i'm waiting for lee's vintage quilt revival this month, and then no more until i have begun using the books i have.  Notions acceptable too. agreed! i tend to buy these on an as-needed basis anyway.
• Swap Mama Fabric: if hosting a swap you are permitted to by fabric to execute swap duties, but you may not join a swap simply for the sake of being able to buy fabric! i'm not a swapper, no issues here.
• Quilts for Publication: if you are making a quilt for a publication and need certain fabric to execute it correctly then that is a major exception - who can blame you? not me either! however, i retain the right to shop in the middle of a project for more bits that might be needed for that specific project.
• there are two kinds of fabric that i now know i use that i don't have stashed: low-volume and solids. so i will retain the right to determine if i need any more of these two types for specific projects. if i find any i really like on a bargain sale, i will consider at length my desire for them before giving in.

there. that feels reasonable. i can commit to this. i guess i better go sign the roster.

how do you feel about this, friends? where do you stand? how about only commiting to the fast until either your current quilt is done or for only 3 months? could you maybe at least think through your own habits and decide on some few ways to be more responsible?  i hope so! let me know if you need a sounding board or cheering section.

and thank you rebecca lynne!

on the reading shelf

 well, this is one thing we found on a reading shelf this week. hee, hee! her older sister asked me, "mom, is it ok that the baby is doing this?" yes, i'm okay with it. i even took a photo. lately she loves small spaces like cupboards and shelves. it's very cute.

 but really i was referring to the rotating display shelf in the reading corner. she did her reading there, too. this week's selections included:

Babies by Gyo Fujikawa (classic) {not on the shelf because she's reading it}
Otto the Book Bear by Katie Cleminson (book related)
The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst (altered fairy tale)
Chipmunk at Hollow Tree Lane by Victoria Sherrow (non-fiction/animal/science)
Princess Hyacinth: The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated by Florence Parry Heide (modern fairytale/friendship/dealing with differences)
The Mitten by Jan Brett (winter)
Cats' Night Out by Caroline Stutson (counting/rhyming/beautifully illustrated)
Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg (classic/rhyming/altered fairytale)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (classic/counting)
Madeline by Ludwig Behmelmens (classic/rhyming)
Olivia by Ian Falconer (modern classic/humorous)
various board books for baby

i try to keep a good variety of books on here, books from various genres that cover a range of subjects or interests. on occasion,  i will choose all books by one author or about one subject. but one of the main factors in choosing what i put here is that i have to like to read them myself for i know i'll be doing that a lot over the week they spend on the shelf. also, i don't trade out every book. favorites or books i want them to engage a little more stay here for longer than one week.

my next wips and some scrappy help

i've expanded my palette for s2's quilt beyond the jelly roll of riley blake's "superstar." i just wasn't feeling it with the one line so i found more blues, greys, brown, and oranges to add to the mix. this project is up next in the kids' quilts for Christmas line-up.

goodness, there's been a lot of orange popping up around here lately. just look:

this little pile is actually all from one line of fabric, heather bailey's  new lottie da, but that's not bothering me here. it's a pull for a very, very special quilt i promised someone 3 years ago and has now been called into service. it's a great story that i'll share soon.

as i've been pulling fabric and quilting away, i've had help from this little lady. doesn't she look like the most innocent being in the universe? oh, but she's busy! into absolutely everything, growing that brain of hers through hands-on knowledge construction. she keeps me on my toes constantly.

i will do most anything to buy a few minutes peace from her so when she asked to play in the scrap basket just after i'd organized it a bit, i happily said yes! historically, this lasts for about 3.2 minutes, but it was a few minutes i needed. besides, i love it when she plays with the fabric bits.

she got right ot work laying the scraps out just like i'd been doing with my penny patch blocks. i'm happy to say i believe she stayed engaged for a full 10 minutes this time before moving on to her next project. it's high time i finished my current wip and moved on, too!

some fmq and family, too

 after having difficulty with fabric pushing and bunching on my first attempt at the straight line quilting for "twirly", i took leah day's advice from her craftsy class and tried to do the straight lines with my fmq foot, to varying degrees of success and disaster.

it felt good while i was doing the fmq, but it wasn't always working as well as i thought. i did manage to keep my stitching pretty darn straight, for the most part. my main problem with it was that occasionally the needle would jump to the left a stitch length or two when i would stop to move my hands. this is horribly noticeable when you look at the lines.

when i stipple, i can move one hand or the other without having to stop very often for adjustments, but with straight lines, you have no choice but to stop to move your hands pretty much every time your hands reach the end of the quilting table. and that's when the needle would mysteriously shift over a bit and ruin the straight line effect. argh! i redid some of it and left other bits. i'm hoping a wash and crinkling will help hide the less-than-perfect lines in this quilt. i suppose i just need more practice and it will start to come more naturally to me.

the good news is that the fabric stopped shifting and bunching like it did under the walking foot. now the lines just don't look so good.

on the other hand, i tried out the wishbone pattern in the dark green sashing strips and it worked beautifully! i thoroughly enjoyed sewing this pattern and will definitely use it again. it was next to impossible to photograph, but it looks good on the quilt.

 all that looping was meditative and relaxing. it's a forgiving and pretty pattern.

 while i was busy quilting away, working out my arms (please tell me this counts as exercise of some sort because my arms are sore!), we had 4 daughters, 3 nieces, and 2 neighbor girls playing in the family room. they decided to create a play for us. of course they made a huge mess, but also a very cute production. i loved that they used as many of my quilts as they could find as part of the set. there were quilts laid out everywhere! they made it look homey, i suppose.

other family happenings this weekend: our snow pea plant produced it's first pods for consumption. the 5 yr old and i have been watering and watching these grow from seed since the end of September. it's the extent of our winter garden this year.

my oldest son sought out the hat loom and began a new hat for himself to keep his head warm in the dropping temperatures. i love that even my boys are handy with fibers when necessary. these are by no means high-quality hats, but they enjoy making them and will wear them around the house on a chilly morning.

d1 even made his own hook to replace the missing one from the kit. he fashioned it out of a paperclip and some beeswax. that's one handy boy.

happy holiday weekend, y'all

whether you had a lovely, long holiday weekend like we did here stateside or just a regular one, i hope yours included a good meal, some sewing, and enjoyment of a sort. personally, my weekend was spent with family, specifically highlighted by my 3 newest nephews, all under 6 months.

dylan, who is choosy about company, recognized a mother of many and let me lug him around a lot while his mother finished her hostess prepping for thanksgiving dinner. 3 different people tried to have a share with him, but it was either mamma or aunty hydee for him. everyone else got a squeal and crying.

on friday, one of my seesters hosted a brunch-til-bedtime family day at her house. we cooked, ate, played games, ate, talked, ate, gamed, ate. i took some time out for an almost-nap snuggling with baby trace. oh, yes, i could do this again. one more time.

i did my share of cooking, eating, and talking but no actual game playing because my hands were kept busy finishing the binding of jed's quilt. i literally finished burying the final knot just before they stepped out the door to go home. whew! it feels good to have that completed and delivered.

seeing as it was nearly 10pm and all good lighting was gone, i didn't get an official "finish" photo, but here is a different shot i took of jed and the quilt last month when i was working on the binding.

all these cute baby boys everywhere have my mr completely bonkers for another boy. at our age, we'll be lucky to get pregnant again period. we'll take what we can get or even just be satisfied with and grateful for the seven wonders we already have. they are at the top of my gratitude list this holiday and always. right there with them are God and my husband, who both had a hand in giving them to me. i am blessed and grateful indeed.

penny patch flimsy

penny patch: hello, quilt top! link party here.

books and quilts are us

reading time with the first grader on the couch, curled up under lolly lolly

this house has long been over run by books. now the quilts are starting to pile up, too. i think this is a good combination: books and quilts. what could be cozier?

when my quilting began 3 years ago (this month, actually!), i could not see down the line to a day when i would have so many quilts under my sewing belt. it just seemed impossible that i would find the time to make much of anything. now my kids ask, "where are you going to put all these quilts you are making, mom?" never fear, we haven't hit the saturation point yet.

reading and quilts collide at several points through out our day and our home.

sometimes we sit up to read during homeschool reading time with the younger girls and other times we lay down on the couch. d3 wanted to revisit BOB books, our go-to starter readers, a few days ago. since it was going to be easy, review type reading, we snuggled in on the couch. with the weather cooling off, the addition of a quilt was perfect. lolly lolly was her choice, of course.

 while she read, i may have also been studying the quilt in front of me. it's such a fascinating piece of work (not mine, you know - rachel hauser's). my fabric matching and purchasing has already been affected by it. i sure wish I knew what that awesome floral on the goldenrod background is.

most of the quilts i have in progress or in mind will either round out the collection of quilts that live in the family room, available for anyone to use in there, or will go on the play balcony for use during dramatic play. in addition to this, i've begun placing quilts in a few other strategic locations.

i recently turned this small corner of the landing at the top of our stairs into a junior readers corner. the little bookstand is nothing too special to look at, but it does the job of displaying books. perhaps i could paint it a pretty color. i was inspired to make this space by mariah bruehl's book playful learning. i won a spot in one of her ecourses about learning spaces 3 years ago and have been slowly implementing the ideas around the house. part of her philosophy is to make an attractive, inviting display to draw young learners in. (fyi - her website, playful learning, is a great parenting resource.)

this little corner could be a lot more attractive, but it's a good start and far better looking than the messy shelf of piled minutia i had here before. eventually i want to add some clip boards to the wall to hold the kids' art above the shelving and maybe make a comfy poof cushion for the reader to curl up on. for now, as an invitation to sit down and read, i'm using the little rocker d1 got for her first Christmas. at nearly 15 years old, it's starting to become a family heirloom. i draped out on a limb over the rocker for some added comfort and color in the corner. for the record, the invitation is working. even some bigger kids who can still fit their slender hips in that chair are perusing the selections or get suckered in to reading by their younger sisters.

each week, i change out most of the books on the shelf. this has been a great way to get them to revisit a few books several times during the week instead of just quickly browsing (and leaving huge messes behind) from the big shelves that hold literally thousands of children's books. with a few specially curated items, they engage more often and longer with individual titles. there is even a little shelf on the bottom for a collection of board books for the baby.

on the shelf this week:

stuck by oliver jeffers (hilarious)
the mitten by jan brett (classic/winter)
this is not my hat by jon klassen (again, hilarious!)
lilly's purple plastic purse by kevin henkes (classic/dealing with childhood issues)
each peach pear plum by janet and allan ahlberg (classic/rhyming)
oliver finds his way by phyllis root (childhood issue - getting lost)
the king who rained by fred gwynne (a child's literal look at common sayings)
why mosquitoes buzz in people's ears by verna aardema (classic fable)
the very hungry caterpillar by eric carle (classic)
olivia by ian falconer (classic/hilarious)
madeline by ludwig bemelmans (classic/rhymes)
the little house by viginia lee burton (classic)

maybe some readers would like to see what's on the shelf each week? i might could do that periodically.

another ritual around here that ebbs and flows in frequency is called "quilt time." my older children go to a math tutoring service for their math education in the afternoons. the 3 little girls and i have one hour to read together during this time. i tell them to grab their mama-mades and meet me in the family room for a read-aloud. it's the next best thing to an actual nap, which the older 2 don't do any more.

now that it's colder, they are piling on the quilts: one to lay on and another one or two to snuggle in.

our current read aloud picks: the flint heart by kathryn and john paterson, and the squirrel's birthday and other stories by toon tellegen.

so what's your favorite read under a quilt or spot in your home where reading and quilts collide?