Alexander 9 Months

I haven't posted anything about Alexander in a while and so I thought I would show you how he is growing up! He's already 9 months old! I can't believe how fast the time is going by. He's not quite walking yet, which I guess is a good thing, but he's been able to stand up and cruise since he was 7 months. Here are some photos of him playing with his fire engine that his grandma bought him. It has a little horn to beep, which he likes to use. See the Heather Ross outfit he is wearing? More homemade clothes from his mom. Poor thing.

He loves to be on the go! We took him to the beach last week for the first time and as soon as we set him down in the sand he took off in the direction of the ocean. The funny thing was that he didn't even look back! We had to go and stop him. He saw all that freedom and was gone. He really is full of so much personality and makes me laugh all the time.

I am still on the restricted diet and feeding him (as much as I can anyway) and I actually now see it as a really good thing that I am going through this as well. It has helped me learn how I am going to cook for him through the next couple of years. I am getting really handy at cooking Asian foods--lots of rice dishes with Chinese, Thai or Indian flavors. I also am getting used to many more baked dinners than I normally would eat. Alexander is benefiting in that he has tried so many foods that I think many adults have never even tried. He loves black sapote, hummus, tofu and avocado--all foods I never had until I was an adult.

I recently had a friend comment that I must have a nanny to be able to get so much quilting done. LOL. Now that is a good one. No, but I do make use of his nap times and then when he is awake we clean and cook together. He's very helpful sorting through the laundry basket, throwing the laundry pegs while I hang his diapers, tugging my pants off while I wash dishes, chasing and turning off the vacuum while I vacuum and that sort of thing. I think too, that on the farm there are fewer shortcuts. It's not like I can order out when I don't have the energy to cook a meal. I can't just drive to the mall or something similar to get a break during the day. I'm here all day every day--the nearest metropolis is 2.5hours away. So, can you guess that the nanny comment had me a bit riled? I'm with him every day all day and he has never been with any sort of sitter other than his grandma for a couple of hours. Quilting is there for me to keep me sane. Of course the comment could have been just stating that I manage to get a lot done--but still... A nanny? Please.

Oven Mitts!

So, I have been working on quilting my birds of a feather quilt. I love love love this quilt! I have started free motion quilting it--my very first go at free motion and I am so excited! It is actually so much fun. I never thought I would think that using a domestic machine to quilt could be so fun. Now, the only problem is that I started quilting this very small, which I think was a good thing as it seemed to be easier to practice small movements rather than larger movements. But, it uses a lot of thread and now I've run out. I had to order in more from my local sewing shop so I can finish! Oh, by the way, I had a few people asking what issue in the American Patchwork and Quilting magazine the Birds of a Feather quilt came out of---APRIL 2009.

In the meantime, I decided to make some oven mitts for my mother-in-law's birthday so I could get more practice quilting. These mitts were actually my own design (well, actually traced around my William-Sonoma oven mitts) and I am quite happy with the result. In case you are wondering about the fabrics, they are Michael Miller's Kitchen paired with Joel Dewberry's Chestnut Hill line.

No Luck with the Bleeding Quilt!

I thought I would show you what happened with the quilt I made that ending up bleeding on me when I washed it. I'm so frustrated by this as this quilt was intended to be a gift for a friend. I used synthrapol to try and get the bleeding out and that didn't work. Then I purchased some Dylon and that didn't work either. If you click on the picture you will see in greater detail that some of the fabrics bled. All the fabrics that bled were Japanese, so I don't know what that means, but I assume they have a different manufacturing process. Anyway, chalk this one up to a learning experience and move on. I'll use this one when we go to the beach or something, I guess.

I just wanted to add another picture to this post to show you a close-up of the quilt. A couple of you mentioned that you can't tell that it bled. Here in the first photo you can see the pigs, robots and cars all bled. I'm not sure if they were all by one manufacturer or not. Some were Kokka, but not sure if all were. But, it's the fault of the red backing--that will teach me not to use a Kona solid (or Moda Bella)!!!

Birds of a Feather

This is the latest quilt that I have been working on. It's a pattern from the American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. I just absolutely loved the one in the magazine and so have made it using Denyse Schmidt fabrics Flea Market Fancy and Katie Jump Rope. It was really fun to do the applique--I used a blanket stitch. Now to quilt it! I am going to try something new and have a go at free motion quilting. Yikes, I hope I don't ruin it. Actually, I like this quilt so much that I am thinking about doing it again with different background colors and giving them as gifts. So, hopefully I will get a bit of practice with the free motion quilting. The quilt only measures 36"X45" so it should be easy enough to handle in the sewing machine. I hope...

Summer in the City Finished!!!

Aaah, finally finished! This quilt I have had so close to be finished for such a long time, but didn't have the binding sewn down. I finished it last week, washed the Alexander drool off and have finally photographed it. This quilt was made from Moda'a Summer in the City line, which I love love love! Here I have it paired with a brown fabric from the Tiddly Winks line by Moda. Funny, but looking at my Designer Swappy Poo group it seems like I have not been the only one who has loved Summer in the City. This quilt was made from charm packs I had gotten on sale and I was always kicking myself that I just didn't buy a fat quarter bundle. Well, recently I found a bundle on ebay listed in a way that no one who adores Summer in the City would likely find it and so I ended up winning the bid for next to nothing! So, yes, now I have more to play with. Makes me sooooo happy. This time I will pair it with white in some way instead of brown which I had originally wanted to do.

Help! My Quilt Bled!

Does anyone have any experience with using Synthrapol for getting the bleeding out of a quilt? I just finished a quilt for a friend of mine and wanted to prewash it to make sure that the red back wouldn't bleed, but it did! I did some searching online and ordered a bottle of Synthrapol to see if it will help remedy the problem. I sure hope so! Please let me know any of your experiences...

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I thought I would enter one of my favorite quilts in the Blogger Quilt Festival hosted by Parkcitygirl. This happens to be a very simple quilt with nine patches using Amy Butler fabrics from one of her older lines called Charm. The layout of this quilt was completely inspired by a vintage quilt I had seen online. Sometimes I browse the vintage quilts on ebay for inspiration and I found a quilt similar to this that inspired me. What I thought was interesting about the vintage quilt was that the person who made it used like fabrics next to each other throughout the quilt rather than placing them randomly and far apart as I would have thought to do. I liked the idea of placing same fabrics next to each other and so this quilt was born. I also decided to arrange the patches in color areas on the quilt. If you look closely, there is a blue corner, a green corner, a pink one and an orange one. This quilt is currently being used on our bed.

More Red And Aqua

Ok, lately I am having a real obsession with red and aqua. I've also been inspired by RedPepperQuilts in the way that she uses a solid fabric with bright modern fabric choices. I see that she is going to be a big influence in the way that I quilt from now on. I just love the way the fabrics look when you have a solid fabric to give the eye a rest. I'm also a big fan of half square triangles because I know that I can cut them trim them and have perfect corners. It's taken me a while to become picky in my piecing, but the more I piece the pickier I become.

I also Finally figured out how to attach bindings with a hidden stitch using the ladder stitch. Where was I? How many of you use this stitch? I was using a very strange method before reading on a blog about the ladder stitch and now bindings get done much quicker!!! I love being able to learn so much from other bloggers!!!

Red and Aqua

Lately I have been obsessed with red and aqua fabrics together. It all started when I joined the Designer Fabric Swappy Poo on Flikr and saw all the beautiful collections of red and aqua. I also got a bit obsessed with collecting Flea Market Fancy fabrics through the group as well. Lots and lots of fun! Here is a photo of a small quilt I finished last week using my red and aqua fabrics. I've actually been doing the quilting myself these last weeks as I have decided I don't mind doing small quilts on the sewing machine. I will not do larger than 70 inches square though. Way too heavy.

Here is the latest photo of Alexander I took yesterday. He finally learned to clap hands and I was so happy and excited with him! He's a real ball of fun these days and keeps me hopping! The sweater he is wearing is also one that I knitted.

A Long Journey To Find Answers

Whew. What a long journey Alexander and I have been on. I haven't mentioned too much on this blog what a time Alexander and I have had since his birth. We've had a difficult time of it and being a first time mom one always second guesses oneself. From the beginning he was said to be "colicky", which is a term I believe just means something is wrong and we don't know what that might be. About 2 months in, my best friend from home got me onto her midwife who advised me to give up all dairy and wheat. He started to improve greatly, I suspected that wheat wasn't the problem and I went back on it. He did better for a while but was never easy in any way all along. I realized this when a Swedish friend came over and saw how he would scream and suggested that there was still some underlying issue, she suggested going off wheat again, but I was unsure too if that was the problem or yet something else all together. I took him to my GP right about the time I went off of the dairy and wheat. She told me that he didn't have an allergy/intolerance to dairy and that if he did he should be throwing up, etc. She wanted me to supplement him with formula and I didn't want to, but because he had a continual stuffed up nose he never fed properly enough to get enough from me. I did a lot of research and told my doctor that I would supplement only if I could put him on Neocate which is basically the only formula safe for a baby with food intolerances. I got the prescription from her and that was good. Later, she referred me to a peditrician from Sydney who just gave me creams to put on him and said that intolerance were only for throw uppy babies.. Then, a few weeks ago my GP refused to refill the prescription of Neocate again. After I had become dependent on it, plus it is a very unpleasant tasting formula and takes a while for babies to get used to. She wanted him to go on milk formula saying that he was now old enough and should be fine. Basically, just saying that I was wrong to believe he had any food intolerances and she would no longer support me. I was so upset because I knew that if I even tried giving him formula to test his reaction that it would be very difficult to interest him to take the Neocate again and I knew it would make him sick again anyway. So, I said to her, "What if your wrong? It's going to be me that spends all night holding a screaming baby, not you. I want to see a skin specialist!" She is a good doctor in many ways, don't get me wrong, but stubborn about believing she is right. And so am I! Luckily, I got Alexander in to the skin specialist right away due to a cancellation. He spent an whole hour with us and the first thing he said was that it was excellent that I supplemented on the Neocate as that was what he would have recommended. Within 10 minutes we knew from the skin test that Alexander is very allergic to dairy, but also to egg, and possibly wheat and peanut (borderline). He wrote a long informative letter to my GP re-educating her about eczema and food allergies in babies!!! And, I have to say I feel so much better since all along when I said he had a food intolerance people looked at me as if to say I was making it up! I did not feel supported by anyone, except my best friend who has dealt with this with both her kids. Also, the looks and comments you get about it being your first baby and how you seem to be having a hard time coping because you don't have the hang of raising kids yet... Etc. etc.

Well, it has only been a few days now since I've gone off of all nontolerated foods and he is sleeping at night, taking naps (he never did this well from the beginning), he's happier when he is awake, his skin is clearing up and life is so much easier. I now know that having a baby is Not as hard as I thought, but that I have been dealing with an unwell baby for 7 months now. This is such a relief. The photo in this post shows what he looked like just before going to the skin specialist. I hope in the next post to show you how much he has improved since then. In the meantime, I'm off all foods not tolerated and we will trial them one by one to see how severe his reactions to each are. This is much safer than actually giving to him directly later on so it is very good that I am still breastfeeding him. Hopefully his reactions will not be too severe and that he will in time outgrow all of these allergies. I feel that he stands a better chance to outgrow them if his system isn't bombarded with what he is allergic to!

There. I just needed to vent.