Design Wall Monday

Only a little more time left until the end of the year. I'm happy to say that I finished the Log Cabin Baby quilt and actually got it to the mom within days a finishing. This is particularly surprising since we don't see each other that often but I decided Saturday to keep the quilt in the car with me from now on just in case and, lo and behold, I saw her Saturday night!



Yesterday, I finished the machine quilting on Rooty Tooty. I had originally planned to use this as a couch throw, then S. claimed it as soon as the top was finished. It's a little bit of a weird size (52"x 73")since I was just playing and was going to use it for the couch, but it should be alright for S.'s bunk bed. While I was quilting it, dh tried to stake a claim to it so he and S. kept teasing each other the whole rest of the day about who was going to get to keep the quilt. I still have to make the binding and attach it before either of them gets it. I've got two Dr. Who DVDs coming from Netflix tomorrow which will be perfect for getting the handwork binding done.




If I finish that this week, then I'll work on one of the twin quilts from my UFO list. They both need borders to finish the tops and I'll have to piece a backing for each. I have yellow borders cut for them but I found out the twins really like pink so I have to decide if I'm going to frame them in pink or just stick with the yellow. If I'm super good, maybe I'll be able to get those finished (at least to the binding phase) by the end of the year.



I, also, have a scarf for the Special Olympics to finish up. H. kept trying to stake a claim to it, so I'll have to make one for him as well. The colors for this year's Special Olympics' scarves are perfect for a scarf for H. since his coat is navy blue with a red lining. I love serendipity!

Check out more design walls on Judy's blog.

In case you're wondering about what happened with the cut quilt, I told A.'s mom. She talked to her and A. still claims she didn't do it. We have a policy in this house that if you don't see it happen, don't blame anyone, so I've decided just to drop it but keep an eye on her from now on.

Design Wall Monday

Remember how I said a few weeks ago that all I had to do was quilt Log Cabin Baby and then I was going to get Rooty Tooty machine quilted? Hey. I just finished the hand quilting yesterday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can finish the binding in the next day or so and THEN I'll work on Rooty Tooty. I guess that's the fate of being a busy homeschooling mom. I only get bits of time here and there to work on my quilty projects. :P

I've also had a bit of a dilemma here the last week or so. I have a 9 year old girl that I watch in the afternoons while her mom works PT. She a bit mischievous and chatty and tends to have problems staying focused on finishing her homeschool work. She (imo) acts younger than her age probably since she's the baby of her family and came when her sisters were already teenagers. She and my Z. tend to talk a lot and distract each other so that they both get behind. She's here when we do our co-op class but has chosen not to join in. I'd been allowing her to work by herself in my girls' bedroom while we did our class downstairs. Usually this hasn't been a problem but about a week and a half ago, Z came downstairs and told me she had ripped her bed sheet. I went to see what she was talking about and found this...



The sheet was not ripped it had been cut, and it's a big cut. Apparently the little girl (A.) had pointed out the "rip" to Z. the day before. There was also scribbled ink on her sheet and S.'s and a scribble on their bunk bed. My girls are old enough to know better and Z. was very upset that I would yell at her for ripping the sheet;she had no idea that it had been cut. It became obvious that A. had likely cut the sheet some time during our class when she was by herself. I talked to her mom, we both talked to A., she apologized and bought Z. new sheets from her allowance. We decided as a punishment she would not be allowed to stay in the girls' room by herself for a while. A few days ago, Z. told me she found a cut in her quilt. I thought she meant her comforter so I went to look and this is what I found...



Most likely, this was done at the same time as the sheet but A. completely denies doing this. Z. uses her quilt all the time but doesn't really make her bed so she hadn't noticed before (and she never would have done it herself since she likes her quilt). I haven't told A.'s mom yet about the quilt. DH was home on the day we found out about the quilt and said that I should just tell the mom that we can't watch A. anymore. (A. overheard our conversation and I know she hasn't told her mom about what happened either.) Her mom's my friend and I don't want to create any bad feelings between us so I'm at a loss about what to do.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I know it's a busy time of year, but there's plenty of eye candy and inspiration on the other Design Wall posts on Judy's blog to check out if you have some down time.

Help Stand up to Islamophobia

I don't know if you are aware of this but there is a reality-type program on TLC called "All American Muslim". Since this program came on the air, anti-Muslim groups have targeted the advertisers of the show claiming it's "propaganda" because the Muslims represented on the program are too normal! How dare TLC show Muslims as being just like everyone else?!?

Unfortunately, those seeking to promote fear and hatred have succeeded with at least one company that they have targeted. Lowe's representatives have admitted to caving in by pulling their advertising from the show, which is really rather idiotic on their parts since there were many loyal Lowe's customers in the Muslim community.

I'm an ordinary, "run of the mill", average American who is also a Muslim. Guess what? So are most Muslims in this country. This is true despite what you hear in the media. We work hard, raise our children, pay our taxes, support and give back to our communities. Basically, we're just like everyone else. Are their bad apples among Muslims? Yes, just like every other group in America. But just like everyone else, the majority of Muslims are good, law-abiding citizens just living their lives.

It would mean a great deal to me if you would sign the petition and pass it on to others you may know so that other companies will not be so inclined to cave to the pressure of a few who are bent on demonizing an entire population.

http://signon.org/sign/defend-our-american-values

If you would like to read more on this, there is a good blog entry here:http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/all-american-muslim/0018896

or check out the show here: http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/all-american-muslim

Thanks for your support.

Barely a whisper

What's worse than a woman who can't talk?
A Mom who can't talk.
What's worse than a mom who can't talk?
A homeschooling mom who can't talk. (especially one that teaches two co-op classes with 7 active, talkative students and who was supposed to have an prospective homeschooling mom come over to chat and see how homeschooling works around my house)

I've had a bit of a cold for a few days. Yesterday, my voice was a little creaky but seemed otherwise ok. That is until I decided to give my mom a call in the evening. Within 10 min. of getting off the phone, my voice started to fade. By morning, it was barely above a whisper. I waited a while hoping it would come back as I got my day going. No luck! I had to call my friend and whisper that I'd have to reschedule. Her response? She made me a pot of soup!!! How cool is that?!?

I decided to go ahead with the classes today but thought I would talk just a bit and let them play "Take Off!" (a fun, geography game) and Mad Libs card game. I actually ended up talking much more than I had intended but it was the quietest class ever! They had no choice but be quiet if they wanted to hear what I was trying to say. By the time we got to the games, my voice was almost completely gone.

We have class again in the morning but it's a quiz and report day* so I'll have very little talking I need to do.

My kids are taking advantage of the fact I can't talk much by playing on the computer right now instead of getting ready for bed since they know I can't yell at them from my computer even though I'm just a room away. :P

*In case you're wondering-Report day started because the kids were starting to talk way too much in class (just random, stream of conscious type talking not on topic or even in the general neighborhood of on topic chatter) so I decided to give everyone an opportunity to talk in class each and every week. We alternate between reports on countries and scientist. The following week they have a quiz on what everyone presented. If it's countries, they have to tell me the country, capital, what the people are called and then find it on a map. For the scientists, they tell me who they were, when and where they lived, what they did and then place them on a time line. The students range from a 3rd grader up to 2 eight graders so it's a challenge to keep things as even for them as possible. I think I'm going to have to make some more accommodations for the 3rd grader since she's struggling a bit with memorizing the info.