Judah's First Birthday: Part Two

Secondly, the Mama Makes

I had all sorts of plans that didn't happen.  But given the time that I had, I actually got a fair amount done.

Decorations
We didn't have a party, but I still wanted to decorate for Judah's birthday.  So I made some garlands out of circles I cut out of felt and sewed together and another with some wool felted balls stung up on yarn.  I also used some pom-pom fringe I had on hand.

I forgot to take a picture specifically of the garlands all hung on Judah's birthday.
They looked better then, but this gives you an idea.

Here's a [terrible] picture of everything all decorated.

Crown
I made Judah a birthday crown loosely based on this pattern.  I'm hoping that I can just replace the elastic as his head gets bigger, so I just tacked the 1 on a felt diamond that I can easily replace with a 2 next year.

Spoiler Alert: You'll see more pictures of the crown in the next post in the context of the day's festivities and (more importantly) on the head of one very adorable birthday boy.

Crochet Ball
For Christmas, I crocheted a blanket for Judah.  I had some yarn left over, so I decided to crochet a ball for him to match.  I used this website, which I found on pinterest.  But the website is in German, so I had to improvise a bit here and there because despite taking 2 years of German in high school and 2 semesters in college, I was never taught crochet vocab.  Can you believe that?!?  I feel a little cheated by the sub-standard quality of my education.  (Sidenote: In adding this website, I just noticed that google chrome can translate it into English for you.  That would have been helpful to know 3 months ago.  Also, I just realised that I probably could have easily found another pattern for a crochet ball with a simple google or ravelry search, but this also did not occur to me.)

Draw-String Bag
Back in the fall, Jason and I scored a bunch of books and toys for Judah at a yard sale that we saved for Christmas and his birthday.  We got this set of blocks for 25 cents, but they came in a ziplock, which I thought was unacceptable.  So I made Judah a drawstring bag to put them in.  (Sidenote: no matter how many bags I make with flat bottoms, I always sew the corners wrong the first time and have to rip them out and redo them.)  And speaking of ripping things out and redoing them...

The Quilt Saga that Epically Broke My Heart
I finished the top of this quilt before Judah was born...so that's over a year ago.  It was loosely based on this sewing machine cover design in this book by Malka Dubrawsky.  I used a log cabin strip quilting technique to make 120 little blocks.  I pieced it together beautifully.  This thing was perfect...every little block perfectly squared.  But I never got around to quilting it.  Because I had this baby, and the rest is history.  Still, it was just so pretty that I used it in Judah's monthly photo shoots.

I was determined to have it finished for his first birthday.  It was going to be his big special gift made especially for him by his mama.  I worked on it all week...adding the borders, laying out the backing and batting, pinning every few inches, and finally, quilting it all together.  It was hard to pull all the layers through my basic singer sewing machine, but it was a matter of will.  I got to the end and inspected my work, and here's what I had done:

My perfectly squared blocks were all askew.  The back was all ripply.  I had ruined my masterpiece.  Apparently, the reason it was so hard to quilt was that my tension was off, and I didn't have a quilting presser foot.  I called my mom to ask her what I should do.  She said, "Well, you have two options.  You can just add the binding and call it done.  Or you can rip it out, bring it down to Jersey, and quilt it on my Elna 6003 Quiltmaker's Dream.  Do you want it to be finished, or do you want it to be done right?"  Boo.  I was hoping for "It's not that bad.  You're being silly."  But she was right.  This was Judah's baby blanket, and I wanted it to be an heirloom.  So I put it aside with a frowny face, feeling like a total failure of a mother, artist, and person in general.  Nevertheless, this was Judah's birthday.  And I wanted it to be about him, so I put the quilt out of my mind and moved on to the celebration.

[Edit: Since then, I did take the quilt down to Jersey, where my mom and I patiently ripped out the quilting.  She gave me a new piece of backing fabric, and we pinned it together.  Then she set up her Elna 6003 Quiltmaker's Dream, and I went to town.  And it turns out...it wasn't my Singer's fault after all.  I'm just a bad quilter.  I think I hold the fabric too tightly as I pull it through.  Because Judah's quilt was still ripply.  Jason and my mom both said it looked better, but if that's true, it's a minimal improvement.  I wasn't about to rip it out a second time, so I let my mom sew on the binding fabric, and I proceeded to hand-stitch it to bind the quilt together.  Finished.]

[Edit 2: But then I ran it through the wash, and the batiks bled onto my beautiful, clean, bright white fabric.  My mom says that if I keep washing it, eventually, the fabric will stop bleeding, and the stains will go away.  But the machines in my building are $3 per load, so that's just not going to happen any time soon.]

So for now it lives on the back of Judah's little recliner...wonky, wavy, and splotched.  So very far from the perfection of my original vision for the project.  But he is my sweet little boy, and he has compassion on his mama, and he's started taking it down and playing on it just to let me know that he likes it and that he loves me, despite all my insufficiencies.

Thanks, Judah.  I love you, too.

Valentiney

So I'm back at Gordon, working at that job I quit two years ago.  If I could go back in time, I probably would not agree to do this--it's put a good amount of strain on Jason (taking care of Judah while I'm at work) and on me (having to leave Judah and sit in an office by myself).  But this is where I am, and I decided that while I was here, I would make the best of it.  And that is why, when an email went out to faculty and staff announcing a game of "Secret Heart," I decided to be a little joiner.  Secret Heart is kinda like Secret Santa, but it centers around Valentine's Day.  You have a few weeks to send encouraging notes, candy, little presents to your person and then there was a big reveal party...which I did not go to...because let's be honest: I'm not REALLY a joiner.

But I did put together a little make for my Secret Heart.  I tried to think about what would be encouraging to me...sitting at my desk...bored and unmotivated.  And I thought that something homemade with a daily little encouragement would be nice.  And this is what I came up with:

 

It's a little bunting with five little pockets, one for each day of the work week.  It was a simple construction...didn't take me very long.  And I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I filled each pocket with a verse or several...some of my favorites in the "chin up" category.

And I wrapped it up with a note of explanation (because sometimes I just get self conscious and wonder if a recipient will "get" a Robin-made something), a mini box of chocolates, and a little felted heart.

I actually drove to Gordon and dropped it off, Judah in tow, which I was pretty proud of myself for doing because I don't get out much, just me and Judah.  When we got home, I decided to have a little photo shoot with my little man to send to his daddy while he was at work.  So to round out this little Valentiney post, I thought I should share some pictures of a boy I love very very much:

Forget toys.  He prefers coasters.

Paper is pretty high on his list, too.  Especially for a light snack.

Happy [belated] Valentine's Day!!!

Disclaimer: I do not actually allow Judah to ingest paper.

2011 CM11: Sadiebug

I don't know if little Sadie has a stocking or not, but I decided that she should have a handmade ornament for her first Christmas just the same.  She came up to visit me this fall (along with her parents, sister, and Gramby--the grandkids' name for my mom), and while she was here, Megan bought her Halloween costume so that come Halloween, she could be a little Sadiebug.

Get it?  It sounds like Ladybug.

So one night, after I had finished and packaged all of the presents to be sent to Jersey, I had a friend over for a little felting lesson.  After a long day of Christmas crafting, I just didn't have it in me to tackle one of my umpteen complex Christmas felting projects (documented here, here, here, here, and here).  So I decided to felt something simple: a little Sadiebug ornament to commemorate her name and her first visit to Boston and her very first Halloween adorableness.  And here it is:

Megan took these pictures for me because I forgot to document this little creature before she was shipped off to Jersey.

My favorite part is the little antennae.  Just 2 simple knots make all the difference.

Sadie with her Sadiebug

I think this means she likes it. :o)

Molly wanted to get in on the photo shoot, too.

So I have made it almost to the end of my Christmas crafting on this little space.  The final Christmas craft was certainly my biggest and most time consuming endeavor ever.  Get pumped.  It's pretty magnificent, if I do say so myself.

2011 CM10: A Little Lion for My Little Lion Man

Another important part of the stocking is an ornament.  When I got married, I had a huge box of ornaments to take with me to decorate my own tree.  (Thank you, Santa.)  And now that Judah has a stocking of his own, I plan on continuing the tradition...because that's what I do.

So this year, I went out and bought the mandatory "Baby's First Christmas" ornament.  It is currently hanging on the tree--no, we have not yet taken down our Christmas tree, and yes, we will get around to it sooner or later, and yes, there are pine needles everywhere--with an empty little window waiting for Jason or me to fill it with an adorable picture of Judah on his first Christmas.  But I also wanted to make Judah a very special ornament, since this ornament would be his very first of all.  (I made sure he opened it before the generic hallmark one.)

Now, between his name being Judah and me wanting to decorate a Narnia-themed nursery (which I never actually did), Judah has more lions and lion-themed things than any baby could ever actually need.  But when you have something that works, you run with it.  So this is the little lion that I made to be Judah's first ornament:

It may be one of my favorite things that I have ever felted, both in the process and the result.  I especially love his mottled mane, which I did by teasing together yellow, orange, and brown wool.

Note: this picture makes Judah's head look bigger than it actually is.

Ever since he opened it, this little lion has been Judah's favorite ornament on the tree.  It has even displaced his former favorite, the Nutcracker.  Whenever I hold him up to the tree, he always reaches out for his lion as if to say, "This one is mine.  Mama made it especially for me, and I love it, and I love her, too."  I'm sure that if he could talk, that is exactly what he would say.  It gives me warm fuzzies every time and guarantees many handmade ornaments in Christmases yet to come.