Let's Make Baby Quilts! {9/30/16}

How many baby quilts can I back with a four yard length of polar bear fabric? So far, the total seems to be three with the possibility of one more.

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Vintage Blackboard Quilt

I'm not usually a fan of anything that's too school-ish, especially not flashcards, but it was love at first sight when I saw this novelty print. For years it sat in my "too good to cut" stash. I used a little bit for a bag that didn't turn out at all well, then a bigger piece for a rice bag. Seeing the way it looks when I cut it for the rice bag made me decide that the busy novelty print would be great as a wide border.

But a wide border for what? I couldn't decide until I saw an Irish Chain quilt that someone had made with a black background. That made me think of chalkboards...and then I found this fabric in my stash. It was intended for a different project, but with its dusty black color and the paler flecks it was the perfect background. That other project will have to use something else. 

I didn't write down the measurements I used, but the nine patch blocks seem to measure 1 3/4" and the finished quilt is 16" x 21"ish.   don't measure tiny blocks after you quilt them - it's not even remotely accurate.  

I'm loving this little quilt so much that it's currently hanging over my sewing machine in the space that Strawberry Fields had been in since 2011. I'm always pinning little blocks up there and I figure this one is better suited to be a sort-of bulliten board. 

Going back to the picture at the top of the post, the bell belonged to Great Aunt Molly, who taught at a girls' boarding school.  I'm told that she used it in her classroom. The Bobbsey Twins books are from the library bookstore where I scored a huge stack of them for fifty cents a piece. I was never a big fan of that series, but I couldn't leave them behind...not at that price. And once Grandma saw them and told me those were the ones she'd read as a girl, there was no way I was going to part with them!

This post is linked to Crazy Mom Quilts

There's Hope...

If I knit quickly, I may be able to get my September Scare socks done before the first Super Sock Scarefest pattern is released next week.  Last year, I only managed to finish two pairs -- neither of them within the deadlines. This year, I hope I can do better.




The thing I loved best about You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott was the author's voice, which was like watching a crime drama with a dispassionate narrator explaining what led up to the tragedy and its aftermath. I still felt close to the characters, maybe because the entire book focuses on one woman, the mother of an elite young gymnast, and she's not hiding anything from the reader as she figures out the ugly truth. If you're looking for a thriller that isn't too far-fetched, this one may be for you.

Disclosure -- I was provided with an advance review copies by the publishers. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along, Crazy Mom Quilts , Wrap up Friday  

Because I've Got Fabric With Polar Bears on It...

I had four yards of fabric with polar bears on it and one finished blue baby quilt top. So I made a second top. That left me with enough fabric to back a third blue baby quilt, so I pieced another top. 

The pattern is Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips Around the World. To keep the quilt symmetrical and baby-quilt sized, I used 2" strips.

Aside from laying out the strips to see if any of my blues were oddly glaring, I let the colors fall randomly. Am I the only one who sews the blocks together and then waits until the light is good for picture taking to actually look at the finished quilt?

The backing and batting is cut to size and I've got just enough fabric for one more quilt, as long as I keep it small and/or piece the backing a bit.

I've got to admit that I'm not a fan of this fabric, but it's quilt shop quality and suitable  for babies and - at probably fifty cents a yard - it was definitely the right price!

Be My Neighbor

I love, love, love quilts with houses on them but -- except for that single red schoolhouse block -- I haven't made a house quilt yet.  I've got patterns. Lots and lots of patterns. But there's always been something else to do first.

Last week, I stumbled across the Moda Be My Neighbor Pattern Club and printed the first two patterns. And then I actually got a few quality hours with my sewing machine...

These blocks are HUGE. I know, the measurements are right there on the pattern, but my brain wasn't quilt processing how big an 18" block actually would be. I rarely work with pieces this big and, after making these first two blocks I don't plan on changing my ways.

What this quilt really has going for it, besides houses, is that I can make it with my existing fabric stash and it'll be a great utility quilt when it's done.

This post is linked to Patchwork Times. 

Halloween Supplies

Have you seen the Halloween Haul videos on YouTube?  I discovered them last week and I'm absolutely fascinated.  What struck me most is the difference between those videos and my own trip to the Dollar Tree for seasonal supplies. None of my stuff looks like Halloween -- yet.

It's easier for me to justify the purchase when I'm making something, not just hanging something ready made on the wall.

The bigger part of the haul, which I didn't take a picture of, was the supplies for baking. I've got a working oven this year, cranberries are back on the menu, and I'm determined to bake all of the wonderful yummy things, starting with Homemade Maple Pecan Cranberry Granola.

My boys love granola for breakfast (we get ours from the bulk section at Winco), but I've never tried making it. This is definitely a recipe we'll use again.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 6 1/2 yards
Fabric added this week:  0 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 29 1/4 yards (+2 sheets)
Net added for 2016: 22 3/4 yards

Yarn used this Week: 0  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 5500 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 9118 yards
Net added for 2016: 3618 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Messy Fun With the Boys

The plan was to make Galaxy Playdough, but after I tracked down the glitter and the black food coloring and read the instructions again, I realized that I do not have the patience to go back to the store for cream of tartar or to cook playdough on the stove....so we used our usual glue/water/borax mix and added the food coloring and glitter to that.

I do the measuring, the boys do the mixing, and I don't get bluish green hands. And once the slime is mixed it's an outdoor experience to keep it far away from quilts and carpet and couches. We're all happier with that system!

I'm linking up with WFMW at Giving Up on Perfect.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {9/23/16}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Triangle Bag

I'm not sure what I'll keep in this oddly shaped little bag, but I love the way it turned out! 

The pattern is Triangle Bag, a free tutorial from Elm Creek Quilts and the fabric is from a black and white scrap bag I bought while we were doing the Row by Row experience. (The original plan was to make a Zentangle quilt, but I've got more than enough fabric to do both.)

Instead of the 2 1/2" squares the pattern calls for, I used 1 3/4" strips. I also adjusted the construction a bit because I was feeling too lazy to try something new.

This post is linked to Elm Street Quilts,  Crazy Mom Quilts , Wrap up Friday

{Thrift Store Temptations} Stuff and Mayonnaise

I've bee wanting to stop at the new thrift shop in town for a while now, but the timing is always wrong. The actual name of the store is Stuff and Nonsense, but Teenage Son read it wrong out of the corner of his eye and his version makes a much better post title.

Yesterday I left the house a bit early. I was hoping to find a scrap of doily to make that spider pincushion, but this isn't that kind of thrift shop. They didn't have a lot of inventory, but what they did have was pretty neat. 

I can't tell you how badly I want a sink like this. I know there's a bathtub out by the barn...maybe it's time to explore a bit and see if we have any other interesting old plumbing fixtures.

This old bookstore sign was neat -- and probably worth what they were asking -- but it was too rich for my blood and I'm not courageous enough to hang a glass sign in my house at this point in our lives.

We had identical gold chairs in our living room through my entire childhood. I love that feeling of coming face to face with something you'd completely forgotten.

Someday, maybe this particular table will fall into that category. Grandma bought us a set just like it when we were first married and, nineteen years later when the top separated from its base, she managed to replace it with its less attractive twin. Same table, same company, different finish.

I am so ready for a different table and chairs!

I was tempted by the ottoman, but it wouldn't go with anything else we own. Hopefully someone with an appreciation for mid century furniture in great condition will find and treasure it.

Do You See the Pumpkins?

I spent way to much time at the doctor's office last week and fell behind on my September Scare socks, but things are looking better now. (No more welts! Still no explanation, but as long as they stay gone I'm happy.) Two more evenings of knitting and I'm halfway through the second foot and the heels are straight forward short rows. Depending on the leg pattern, I may get these done before the next sock pattern is released.

Or not. I still haven't decided how I feel about the pumpkins. They're a neat trick, but mine look a little messy. I think I need smaller needles or tighter stitches or something.

Luckily, feeling too yucky to knit isn't the same as feeling too yucky to read.

Hellhole by Gina Damico is a fun black comedy. The trouble all starts when Max Kilgore steals a sparkly pink plastic kitten from the convenience store where he works, hoping it will cheer up his sick mother. It's a small crime but, combined with the pit to Hell that he just dug, it's enough to unleash a devil with an insatiable taste for junk food (but only if it's stolen) and reality television. Max hopes that if he gives the demanding devil something extra, his mother will be healed in exchange. And we all know how well deals with the devil tend to turn out...

Disclosure -- The book came from the library. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along   

I Hope She's Being Careful!

Looks like Thursday is the "try not to set your dress on fire" day of the weekly chore schedule. (If it makes you feel better, I found an article that says death by setting her dress on fire wasn't actually the number two cause of  death for Colonial women and another that  says women didn't dip their hems in water to keep them from igniting.)  

What I didn't find, probably because I didn't look, was a foolproof method for coming embroidery and applique. The vintage pattern I found online didn't have any instructions and the method I did use wasn't a success, probably because the details of her hat and sleeve are small. 

See the interfacing that's visible along the edges of her hat? And the way her hat looks like a sleeve but her arm is coming out of her waist? I've seen some weird quirks in vintage embroidery patterns, but I managed this problem on my own. The pattern wasn't like that. 

That's probably the best thing about projects that are destined to be used up and worn out. It doesn't matter if my results aren't perfect. It'll dry the dishes and make me smile just the same.

Design Wall Monday

This weekend, I spent some quality time with my rotary cutter, cutting 2" strips for another blue baby quilt and 1 1/2" neutral strips for a project I'm dying to start.

If you think it was an attempt to avoid crawling around on the floor and pin basting, you're right.

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Black and White Appliances

It's time again for the Blogger's Quilt Festival. 

I've been having so much fun with my embroidery this year that I decided to link up Black and White Appliances.  This is the only embroidered quilt that I've actually finished, so it's the one I'm posting. Still in progress, I've got the Anatomy quilt, the Garden Party quilt, and a redwork kitchen quilt. And Hocuspocusville. How could I forget that one, especially with October so close? 

These are the sort of appliances you don't see much any more except in old black and white movies and television shows...and stitching them in black meant that I didn't have to choose realistic colors and still somehow make all of the blocks look good together. Building on that idea, I had a piece of fabric in my stash that's white on white with little dots. The dots made me think of static, which fits with the whole "black and white television" idea. So that was my background fabric. I think the black is what was left over from the nail polish quilt, fabric which was originally purchased for something else entirely.

My family owned an appliance store when I was growing up and I love the look of old television sets -- although the one depicted here is way before my time.

I've got a washing machine that's similar to this one out in the barn. The friend who sold it to us says it worked the last time she used it. It's my backup plan for the next time the "real" one gives out.

We had a telephone similar to this one (ours had buttons, otherwise the shape and style were the same.) I had to give up on it when it stopped ringing, but while it worked it was my favorite phone ever. You could actually hear it from across the house! That's why I replaced our cordless phone with the old one. My last cell phone had a ring tone that sounded just like it, which was wonderful unless I was watching old movies or Perry Mason reruns.

And I just think canister vacuums look neat.

No pattern for this one -- I bought the embroidery patterns at Grandma's Attic last spring. There were others available, but these were the four I couldn't live without and thought would make the cutest quilt. The blocks are 9" finished and I made the pinwheels with my Easy Angle ruler and 2" strips of fabric.

Stash Enhancement

While I was doing the Row by Row Experience, my folks were travelling in other parts of the state. The rules say that any person who walks in the door can request a pattern. My dad is a person. So is my teenage son. So when we weren't on the road together, I picked up patterns for her and she picked them up for me. 

I think there are another twenty patterns in this stack to add to my collection. Now it's time to pick my favorites and decide how to combine them. When we started, I had my doubts about whether or not I'd finish a quilt. Now I'm thinking I've got at least two in my future. 

Did you see that Sew Fresh Quilts is doing a Quilt Along for the Mod Bear Paw pattern? 

I'm seriously loving this quilt and I've had a Craft Warehouse gift card riding around in my purse since Christmas. I'd gone into the shop once or twice and come out empty handed. Friday, I headed out in search of brown fabric to use in some Bear Paw blocks. 

No luck with the brown, but I did find shirtings and a couple of novelty prints at a great price. 

And a new-to-me brand of sock yarn for three dollars a skein. I was drooling over this yarn a few weeks back at twice the price (plus shipping), so every color they had in stock made it into my cart. Three dollar pairs of socks? Yes, please! It may push my numbers deeper into the hole, but when I want to do some mindless sock knitting in months to come, I'll be happy to have it.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 6 1/2 yards
Fabric added this week:  11 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 29 1/4 yards (+2 sheets)
Net added for 2016: 22 3/4 yards

Yarn used this Week: 250  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 5500 yards
Yarn added this Week: 1752 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 9118 yards
Net added for 2016: 3618 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Ever Used a Free Motion Guide Grip?

I have tops to quilt. There are the two blue baby quilts, and that little vintage school quilt from last month, and Alex's low volume quilt, and Heath's seals, those drunkard's path turtles,  and the nail polish quilt (once I find that fabric I need to finish the outer border...) 

While I was procrastinating last week, I found a post on Inbox Jaunt talking about the Viking Husqvarna’s Free Motion Guide Grip and had a vague memory of  Mom buying something like that years ago. So I called and asked if it actually existed and, if it did, if I could borrow hers to see if it's really as wonderful as Lori made it sound.

So now I've got a guide grip, and a new package of bobbins, and a new pack of needles.

This means I'm out of excuses, right? I'm anxious to see how the grip works.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {9/16/16}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Not the Baby Quilts I had Planned for This Post

I was hoping to have two new baby quilts finished this week. The tops were done, the batting was chosen, I had time set aside... And then I wound up in Urgent Care covered in red welts. Twice. Whatever shot they gave me on my second visit worked wonders and I can move my hands again. (Look -- typing!)

So instead of pretty blue baby quilts you get to see the mittens that I finished last week. I was going to wait until I had a few more pairs done to post pictures, but this will work.

They're destined for the annual mitten tree at the public library.  The yarn I used for the center pair is left from a pair of fingerless mitts I knit for myself back in 2008. The other two pairs are from a skein of Red Heart Strata that I bought at an estate sale for fifty cents in (maybe) 2009.

It feels good to use up really old yarn, doesn't it?

This post is linked to Crazy Mom Quilts. 

September Scare, the Second Clue

When I saw the chart for the second September Scare clue, my first reaction was "not gonna happen." Then I started to see pictures of what the other knitters were doing and it looked really pretty and I already had the toes done from clue #1, so I figured I might as well give it a shot.

The knitting is way easier than the chart looks, elongated stitches that travel a bit and are easy to keep track of. I'd hoped to have one  sock's worth done by the time clue #3 came out, but I'm having a whopper of an allergic reaction and spent yesterday first trying not to pass out in the Urgent Care waiting room and then home sleeping.  I've never had anything like this before -- red welts from head to toe, swollen face, swollen and throbbing wrists (which forced the no knitting part.)

The doctor says that most of  the time people never figure out what triggered it. There's absolutely nothing new in my life to blame, but I'm looking around my house and hoping that whatever it was isn't waiting for me to get into it again.




Music City Salvage needs a big job, one that will get the family business back onto stable footing. The Withrow house looks like exactly that, in pictures at least, so the owner scrapes together the cash for the purchase and sends his daughter and her crew to start pulling down everything they can sell. Leaded windows...marble fireplaces...copper roofing... the house exceeds their wildest expectations.

Because the characters spend all of their time in old houses, there's no discussion of whether or not ghosts are real. They take their existence for granted and don't panic once things start to happen. For them, it's all part of the job. They're troubled when they discover an unmarked cemetery on the property but that's just a Halloween prank dating to the last century, unclaimed stones made by the the family business a century earlier. The graves aren't real. Even after Dahlia and her crew realize that whatever spirits linger in the Withrow House are different and more dangerous than what they've encountered on previous jobs, they just turn on every light and stick together. They can't afford to leave the job unfinished.

The Family Plot by Cherie Priest is a genuinely scary haunted house novel. I can't tell you the last time a book made me think twice about pulling back my shower curtain and turning on the water. (Actually I guess I can -- but it wasn't a book, it was the made for television version of The Shining twenty years ago.)  If you like scary stuff, I can't recommend this one enough.

Disclosure -- I was provided with an advance review copy by the publisher. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along,    

{Garage Sale Temptations} I needed those!

Last weekend, Hubby and I headed off to the movies. We made it out of our driveway and down to the stop sign before we were sidetracked by a garage sale sign. It was pointing to the top of a hill I haven't gone up before. The houses up there are newer, and nice...but we had a couple of minutes to spare...

While Bill got a great deal on a lawn mower, I wandered into the garage. They didn't have a lot of stuff and none of it was particularly old or interesting, but I saw the flour sack towels. They're not perfect, but from what I could see without undoing the tape, they're better than most of the ones I've been using. I'll clean them up and they'll either go into the kitchen or add some variety to the fabrics I'm using for the Garden Party embroidery quilt.

Then I saw the empty film canisters. I've been looking for some for a science project with no luck. Now I've got more than I need -- and did you see those prices?

The flat sheets were a dollar each. The brown ones are probably going to be backgrounds for scrap quilts. (Starting with Saddle Tramp, if I don't change my mind.)  The dark green one is fitted and will go on a bed. As for the light blue one, I haven't made up my mind yet. It might go on a bed or might be used up for free motion quilting practice.

I have a hard time walking away form old wooden spoons, so I picked the ones I liked best. What's thirty-five cents worth of spoons when you add them to a lawnmower purchase?

They were still starting up the lawnmower and talking about its finer points, so I wandered over to the free box at the end of the driveway and found myself an iron. I asked the gal if it worked and she told me that it works great, she just refuses to buy anything that needs ironing and doesn't need it anymore.

When I was paying for our stuff, she told me how she'd had the idea of scattering free things through the sale so that people would look through everything. It's a neat idea -- but I would've paid for the flour sack towels and film canisters!

Design Wall Monday

To use those four yards of polar bear fabric as backing, I'll need to whip up a couple more tops...

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Year of the Stash Update

It's looking less and less like this will be the year that I finally get my yarn and fabric beautifully organized. There's just been too much other stuff going on for me to get up to the sewing room. What I may pull off though, is a year when I use more stash than I bring into the house -- at this point I'm only thirteen yards of fabric and ten or so skeins of yarn in the red!

I've used a lot of the yarn that's come home with me this year, but one of my goals is not to ignore the perfectly good yarn that's already sitting in my stash. It would be way too easy to focus on the pretty sock yarns and ignore the rest, so I'm always looking for mindless knitting ideas that will use up the worsted weight acrylic.  So far this year, that's been the creeper afghan and the Snoqualmie Wrap.

Now I'm thinking about mittens for the mitten tree that the local library has in December. I pulled together a bunch of bright acrylic and, instead of worrying about sorting through every last thing, I dumped the project bag into the bag the acrylic came out of. I'll knit now and sort through that later.

While I was pulling out the fabric for my Circus Purse, I found a four yard length of polar bear print. Part of my wonders why I own this, but I think I've got a vague memory of seeing it in one of the Craigslist hauls. It's perfectly good quilt shop quality fabric, but polar bears aren't my thing.

What polar bears are is blue...and I needed a length of blue fabric to back that lozenge baby quilt that I still haven't finished. Wonder how many other blue baby quilts I can back before I run out of polar bears...

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 6 1/2 yards
Fabric added this week:  0 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 18 1/4 yards (+2 sheets)
Net added for 2016: 12 3/4 yards

Yarn used this Week: 400  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 5250 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 7366 yards
Net added for 2016: 2116 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Accidentally Cooking from Scratch

The last time I made Swedish Meatballs, the seasoning packet had a problem which left the sauce and meatball seasonings all mixed up. I know, you're supposed to cut them open carefully. This wasn't one of the nights I'd been in a hurry and forgotten. (One the times that I have forgotten, it's easy enough to keep one portion of the pouch pinched shut while you pour out the contents of the other side.)

Dinner was in an hour. I can't tell you how much I hate it when I've got dinner planned and the ingredients, stuff that's fresh from the store and shouldn't have any problems, won't cooperate. I wound up searching for Swedish Meatball recipes and adapting this one to use what I had on hand.

It turned out okay. So okay that when I made Swedish Meatballs again this week I didn't bother to buy the spice packet. That's a couple of dollars that I can spend on something else.

Some things taste better when I use the packet (white chicken chili comes to mind, along with tacos), but just because I can make it from scratch doesn't mean I want to. I didn't think I wanted to with the meatballs and sauce, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {9/9/16}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

{Thrift Store Temptations} Finally!

We have been waiting and waiting and waiting, not at all patiently, for the new thrift shops in Salem to open. The "coming soon" signs had been up for months and every time we got back from a trip, I'd swing buy, sure that they'd have opened by then.

Finally, they're open!

I can't say that I was thrilled with either. Teenage Son found a couple of gaming guides that he's excited about. And I found something I've never seen before --

I've never had a vignetting need, so I left it behind. I wasn't even aware that "vignetting" was a verb until Teenage Daughter explained it to me.

At one of our favorite old haunts, I found a bag of miscellaneous K'nex (the first I've seen in a year of looking), two sets of vintage nylon circular needles, and a four dollar bag of zippers. Not that I was in danger of running out, but I figure it increases the odds of my having the colors and length that'll work for whatever I make next.

Making Up For Lost Time

After almost two weeks of not knitting at all, I'm making up for lost time. The new Fabel sock is up to the heel and I've finished the first clue of the September Scare socks.

This is the first time I've knit mystery socks and I'm not sure how enthusiastic I am about the idea.
I figure I've got the orange yarn already and I'm chomping at the bit to for Super  Sock Scarefest to start, so I might as well give it a shot.



The Sister by Louise Jensen claims to be "a psychologist thriller with a brilliant twist you won't see coming." I'll admit, I didn't see the twist. Or the twist that came after the first twist. But an unpredictable ending isn't the only quality I'm looking for in a book. I didn't love this one.


Disclosure -- I was provided with an advance review copies by the publishers. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along. 

Homeschooling

My kids are homeschooled. These days, I rarely have to explain that to anyone. There are plenty of homeschoolers in our area and the public schools have a four day a week schedule (or at least they did the last time I looked.) We don't get the "no school today?" question much at all anymore.

Except for that cashier at the grocery store a couple of days ago who sternly told my son that it didn't matter if he was homeschooled, he had to go back to school. She'd asked him if he was excited about starting school and he'd told her that he does school all year and I don't know if she didn't understand his answer or just didn't like his answer.

And the cousin who asked me one night if I just sat the kids down at the kitchen table and told them what I thought they needed to know. No wonder he'd treated me like a lunatic when I first mentioned homeschooling.

I'm not teaching my kids just what I think they should know. Or just what I know. I'm not trying to shelter them from opinions or lifestyles that I disagree with. In this day and age, I don't think I could do that even if I wanted to.

We don't participate in those online courses that they advertise on television. Those didn't even exist (at least not in their current form) when we started with our oldest.

What we do started out as a "school in a box" curriculum. We bought a package that included all of the books and a teacher's guide with a schedule that tells you which pages to do on which days.

Over the years, we've strayed more and more from the strict schedule, replacing the math portion with one that worked better for us, skipping some books and adding others, studying subjects when the kids were interested in them instead of waiting a year or two until it comes up in the curriculum, and learning about things that aren't in the curriculum at all. The goal is for them to learn as much as they can about our big wonderful world, not for them to learn it in a particular order.

I'm deliberately not going into my reasons for homeschooling here. I'm kind of rabid on the subject, at least when it comes to my own kids. If you want to have a private discussion about the whys and hows, send me an email.

What's Pleasing?

It's time once again for the Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade, hosted by My Sister Made Me Do It. Whether or not my pincushions qualify as "perfectly pleasing" is probably in the eye of the beholder...

I like them! 

Complete details about the skull pincushion and the eyeball pincushion are in the original posts. The rest of my pincushions are in last year's Pincushion Parade post.

Halloween is coming and I dug around on Pinterest and found a bunch of other creepy little pincushions I'd like to make...

Spider Pincushion -- this one calls for a little scrap of doily to use as the web. I don't have doilies, but I've got yarn and knitting needles...
Phrenology Head Pin Cushion
Coffin Needle Case
Sugar Skulls -- actually sachets, but that's close enough to make me happy
Voodoo Doll Pincushion -- complete with button eyes and yarn hair.