The Pregnancy Journal by A. Christine Harris, Ph.D.

I'm 15 weeks pregnant now and I was excited to get my copy of The Pregnancy Journal for the MotherTalk blog tour. I had seen this book at bookstores before but just assumed it was a blank book for writing in while you're pregnant. Turns out, it has detailed daily entries explaining what is going on with the baby and what is going on with the mom's body, for the entire pregnancy. There are a few pages at the front with prompts for journaling about things like the planning of your pregnancy, ways you hope to be a good parent, and how the baby will change your family if you already have children.

The main part of the book is divided into lunar months and weeks. Along with the baby and mom information, there is a lot of information about nutrition and health, along with occasional sections on pregnancy in other cultures and pregnancy comfort measures. Every week there is about a half page or so set aside for writing about whatever you want; there are also prompts for recording stuff like your weight, waist measurement, mood, and cravings throughout the book.

The daily notes continue for two weeks after your due date, just in case you go over, and then there is another journaling section that has a few pages with prompts for writing about labor and delivery, and the new baby.

With both of my previous pregnancies I found day-to-day pregnancy websites that I visited almost every day to get a little bit of information about my pregnancy. This book is sort of like those websites, only with much more information as well as all the places to personalize it with my own thoughts. I think it will be really cool to have it as a keepsake after this pregnancy is done.

maternity clothes

I just spent a couple hours making this skirt:


The fabric is a remnant from JoAnn's, just under a yard. I had to do some creative cutting and piecing (in the back) in order to have enough fabric to go around me. I don't think it looks too bad though. I made it a little bigger than I needed at first, then took it in, and had to adjust the waistband 3 times since the ribbing I used for it was stretchier than my pants. I think I have a good fit now, and I even made a pattern so I can make another skirt or two, only more quickly.

Last week, I made these pants:

I'm not totally thrilled with them. I do like the pockets and the piping, but they're too big. I need to take in the elastic in the waistband a bit more. The pattern is a modified one that I used 4 years ago, the last time I was pregnant. Only the pants I made then fit me when I was 6 and 7 and 8 months pregnant, not 3-4 like I am now. If/when I make maternity pants again, I'll try the Ottobre pattern again.

4th of July sewing

I finished up these shorts for my oldest plus a pair for my younger boy last week. This is the 3rd year I've sewn for them for July 4th. I'm going to buy them patriotic t-shirts soon to go with them. I got the prepatch fabric from Atlantis Fabrics and used the same Ottobre patterns (issue 2/05) as I used for their shorts last year. Same sizes, even.

So, now it's on to maternity clothes.

little update

I got some tips from this blog and also used the new (to me at least) blogger template stuff and changing things around wasn't too difficult. The photo could be better, I know that. But it's good enough for now.

2 sick kids

The boys are sleeping on the couch and the big chair in the living room. I wish they could just get and stay healthy.

I worked on sewing some maternity pants last Saturday and they are too small. But very cute. Too bad. I haven't done any sewing since. I did make a banner for the top of my blog but I'm a little scared about trying to tweak things.

watercolor quilt top

Well, I didn't finish this by the end of March as I'd hoped, but I did get the watercolor quilt top finished.



I'd like to put a 6 inch or so border around it, and am considering dark brown or black. What do you think?

Unfortunately it is going back to UFO status because I have a bunch of other things I need to make before I'll have time to finish this one. There are more pictures and a bigger view, if you're interested, at my flickr account.

MIA...

Well I finished the watercolor quilt top a few days ago but haven't gotten around to taking a picture yet. My sister's baby is due in less than 2 months and I need to make her Noah's Ark quilt... better get on that. And my latest project was surgery on my son's baseball jersey--why they buy adult size t-shirts for 7- and 8-year-olds is beyond me. It looks pretty good on him now and isn't super weirdly bulgy when he tucks it in anymore. I also fixed up my friend's son's shirt as well.

I have a few other sewing projects lined up and ready to go... whenever I get some energy. The main reason I haven't been posting or sewing for that matter is that I'm working on a bigger creative project, baby #3. I'm about 9 weeks now and am having some good days but I'm tired a lot and dealing with some nausea issues too. Hopefully I'll feel much better by June!

Finally!

It seems like we were waiting forever for my oldest to lose his first tooth. He's almost 8 years old, and the dentist has been telling us for the last year or so that he would start losing teeth soon, and to call him when it happens. Well, last week, my son told me his tooth was growing "over the gum" in his mouth. I looked in his mouth and it turned out that his permanent tooth had already erupted... behind his decidedly non-wiggly baby tooth. We had the dentist take a look and were told that the roots weren't dissolving and D needed to get his teeth pulled. So... today was the big day! D got 3 shots to numb the whole area, but our dentist is so good that the shots didn't hurt and getting those two teeth pulled was no big deal for my boy.

We designed the tooth pillow together this afternoon. The mouth there is a pocket, you see. Cute, huh?

Quilt-Along, Step 1

I've been thinking about posting the directions for making a Square in a Square quilt... this one:

We'll start with fabric requirements. The yardage listed here is for a baby quilt, approximately 38x50 inches. I may or may not eventually do the math and post fabric amounts for larger quilts. We'll see how things go. In the coming few weeks I'll post instructions for the two blocks used in this quilt and describe how to add the sashing (the strips in between the blocks) and put it all together. For now, here are the fabrics you need:

*5 fat quarters of coordinating fabrics for blocks. These cannot be regular quarter-yard cuts of fabric, they need to be fat quarters (18X22 pieces of fabric available at quilt shops or chain fabric stores)

*1 yard of a fabric for the sashing and to be used a little bit in the blocks (the stripes, in my quilt)

*3/8 yard of binding fabric

*1.5 yard of backing fabric

So... get your fabric ready (I recommend prewashing, machine drying is optional) and check back in a few days for the next step!

couple of finished projects!

I finished these up last night while we watched Bee Movie. They are made from Berocco Jasper yarn, and the pattern is Dashing, from Knitty.com. It's not the right weather really to wear these anymore (halleluia!) but they will be ready for next winter.

And, my skirt.

This is made from the Redondo girls' skirt pattern, adapted to fit me and also be a longer length. The picture is weird; my assistant photographer was holding the camera at a funny angle. The skirt is really a few inches shorter than ankle length but longer than mid-calf. It is a handkerchief weight linen blend and it feels really cool when I walk. I might need to make myself another one. I might even make one with two different (but not hugely contrasting) fabrics.

It feels good to finish up some projects!

Back from vacation

We got back today from an unexpected trip to Utah last week due to a death in the family. I'm tired but feel refreshed overall and glad to be home. I'm a little afraid that I might have forgotten a load of laundry in my washer while I was gone. I'm going downstairs to make sure in just a few minutes.

In sewing news, I need to get started on my sister's baby quilt. I know I mentioned that. She's due around the end of June. I also told Grandma that I'd make her a quilt from some of Grandpa's shirts. She gave me a bag full of shirts and I need to do some calculations and drawing to see if I'll have enough fabric. I also need to work on keeping up my end of the deal I made with Jan back in January--I'm going to finish my ages-old watercolor quilt top. By the end of the month. Guess that means I'll be getting it out tomorrow. Fun!

things to check out

I ran across the Big List of Sewing Blogs a few weeks ago and submitted my blog to the list. And now finally I'm updating my links. Go check it out, there are some cool blogs on there!

Another site I wanted to mention (have I mentioned it here before?) is Pattern Review. It's a great site for researching sewing machines (something I should do some time so I can start saving up and quit complaining about the machines I have now). You can also look up pretty much any pattern, from any company, that you're interested in making, and see how it went together for other sewing folks.

I need to get busy!

So I didn't finish any sewing projects in February. Oh well. Here are the cute skirts. I saw zebra and leopard fabrics at the fabric store, I might have to go back and get 1/4 yard of those for the Noah's Ark quilt I'm going to make.

skirts finished

I don't have a picture yet, but I finished two really cute pink and brown Redondo skirts today. Amidst screaming and slappy children. I was going to type slapping but slappy came out of my fingers and... I kind of like it. I have logo tags to sew on them, too! I'll also show a pic of those tomorrow. I really need to get going on some sewing for myself. Fabric shopping...sigh.

I'm off to watch Dr. Who with my husband.

better GReader

I use Google reader to keep up with the blogs and podcasts I like, and I get frustrated to no end by the ones that don't put the entire post in their feed. Dawn posted about Better GReader, which is available as a firefox add-on, and makes it so you can click the posts within Google reader and read the entire post. I installed it yesterday and it's great! Now I won't have to unsubscribe from the blogs that I wanted to read, thought had good information, but didn't allow their complete posts to be sent through the feedreader. This was the first time I've done anything to customize firefox, and it was easy!

In sewing news... I've been doing some custom sewing for a friend (I'll post photos of the cute pink and brown Redondo skirts when I get them done) and pondering doing something new and a bit different in the blogging arena. I think I'm ready to make the leap.

I'm going down to watch Moby Dick with the boys now. And thinking... how's that (the title back there) going to affect my search results?

Dashing--fingerless mitts

I'm making these. I've got one done except for weaving the ends in.



One of my new knitting needles wandered off while I was making the thumb here... I hope I can find it!

fabric cutting measurements for 3 sizes of scrappy log cabin blocks

For a 4-inch finished block:

center square 1 1/2 inches
logs 1 inch wide

For a 9-inch finished block (pictured above):

center square 3 1/2 inches
logs 1 1/2 inches wide

For a 12-inch finished block:

center square 3 1/2 inches
logs 2 inches wide

For all of these, I use one center square and then 3 rows of "log" strips, so a total of 12 log strips. There's a good tutorial for making these blocks at Melly and Me.

projects

I finished up some underwear for my boys the other day. I really like the football fabric, as underwear at least. The gray and olive fabrics are recycled t-shirts. I might make spring jammies for my younger son with the football fabric.



And, I started work on my watercolor quilt again. It's going pretty well! I'm not sure if I have enough of the medium-light fabrics to finish. I better figure that out so I can send out requests for fabric if I need to. I will be working on this more today.

linking love

I was so excited yesterday when I saw that the Annie Smith of the Quilting Stash podcast talked about my blog and linked it on her website! Thanks, Annie! She talked about my "Made in 2007" collage and I should have done this in the first place, but that post was inspired by Kristi at Lost and Found. I've been reading Kristi's blog for a while, and ought to get to know her better because I'm good friends (in the real life, down the street way) with her sister (who ought to get her own blog one of these days). Kristi has great vintage and thrifted finds and seems to be a very accomplished mom, always doing lots of great activities and projects with her kids.

Also I need to mention Jan here, the Creative Instigator. Jan is another real world person in my life; she works with my husband and I'm glad I've been able to get to know her. I love the creativity tips at Jan's blog. I love today's tip--when you want to apologize for something you've made, say "It's fairly new, but it smacks of genius." Can we come up with something like this for the housekeeping apology? I really want to stop apologizing for my house when my friends come over.

Fluffy, ruffly, outfit.

My niece just turned 6. I think she's going to like this. Just about a year after I made a similar outfit, I finally got hers finished. This is the Redondo skirt with flounces in between each panel, and the Hermosa shirt. Both patterns are by Studio Tantrum, which has cute and interesting and fluffy, ruffly, flouncy girl patterns. I get mine at Sewzanne's Fabrics.

J is requesting underwear. He is dragging around the fabric he wants it made from. I'm going to do that (have to trace a new pattern size) and then get out my infamous insane quilt project. I'm going to finish it this time, really.