Maxwell’s 6 Month Pics

 

 

 

 

 

It’s always fun to share some pictures of my boys – but it is especially fun to look back at my posts of the boys.  A little walk down memory lane . . . In fact, I just looked back at Carter’s 6 and 7 month pictures, just to refresh my memory.  Max is starting to develop his own look a little more.   He is quite similar in head size and length, but Max is almost 2 lbs heavier at this age – and I thought Carter was heavy.  Max got his bottom two teeth a few weeks sooner and slept through the night the last two nights.  Carter was still getting up once a night at this age.  They both get to me with those eyes.  They both sit and rub their eyes when they get(got) tired.  They both were big droolers at this age, so much so that I have to keep a lined bib on them all the time.  Max just started in the jumper and loves it.  Should have had it out sooner.  We have also started putting him in the high chair for meal times.   Mas adores his big brother and laughs most easily for him.  He watches everything he does and you can tell that he wants to be able to play with him.  It’s so cute.   How interesting (to me anyways) to see their similarities and differences.

 

I’ll be back soon with something quilt related.

Tips for Cutting Diamonds

This is a post I have been meaning to do for a while now.  Over the years I have gotten lots of questions on my patterns that use diamonds – usually via email and it is so hard to communicate certain things via email.  I thought it would be so much easier if I just took the time to take a few pictures and do a photo tutorial.   A photo tutorial with big pictures always says it better than the small diagrams that patterns usually have 😉

 

For my demonstration, I am going to cut a 4″ 60-degree diamond.

You start with a 4″ strip.  Cut the end at a 60-degree angle.  This can be done many ways, depending on what ruler you have.

The first photo shows how I have aligned the 60-degree line along the bottom of the 4″ strip.  I have made a small blue arch denoting where the 60-degree angle is.  Now just cut along the left side of the strip as shown

 

This photo shows that same step, this time using a different brand of ruler.

 

And the easiest way to do the angle – Just use a 60-degree Triangle ruler to establish the angle.  Any angle on the ruler is 60-degrees, so you can’t mess it up!  (The Creative Grids 8″ tall 60-degree ruler is my favorite).

 

Now measure over from the left cut edge of the strip 4″ as shown.  Notice how the ruler is tipped to match the angle that you just cut and then you measure over 4″ from the cut edge.

 

Now cut along the right side of the ruler.  That’s how easy it is to cut a diamond.

 

The part that I think causes the most problems is that some people use the lines of their mat to measure and cut, rather than the lines of the ruler.  (I was taught that this is the wrong way to do your cutting, for various reason.)

Just to demonstrate – if you use the mat to measure 4″ over from the left edge and make your cut, as shown in the two photos below

 

You end up getting a diamond that is a totally different size.  In the photo below, the one on the left was cut correctly and the one on the right was cut as shown in the two photos above.

Where you will see a really big difference in the two, is when you tip them the other direction – Again the one of the left was cut correctly and the one of the right was cut incorrectly.  In fact, the one of the right isn’t even really a diamond.

If you were to draw a line from corner to corner on these two diamonds, you will see that the right and left tips don’t even line up.  If you were to try to sew the diamond on the right together with another diamond, they would never line up!

 

I hope that helps eliminate any confusion.  The patterns of mine that use this technique are:

 

Diamond Diva

 

A Bling Thing

 

 

Awesome Blossom

Good Night Owl

 

Happy Dance

Happy Dance Topper

 

Starlit Evening

 

Vintage Diamonds

 

February 2015

Life is pretty busy here – as I’m sure it is for many of you.   I haven’t had time to prepare a formal blog post on anything, so I just thought I’d share a few pictures of what is going on over here.

 

I have been busy quilting and binding projects for my book that will come out at spring market.  Here are two of my favorites –

This fabric line is Aloha Girl by Fig Tree Quilts.  I said it on Instragram and I’ll say it again – the blue border fabric is beautiful!

This quilt is made using one of Basic Grey’s new lines – Fresh Cut.

 

This little guy turned 6 months.   I haven’t had time to take his official pictures, but here are a few iphone pics.

 

We just had his 6 month check-up last week and his head is the same size as Carter’s was at this age (huge), but he is shorter and about 10% heavier.

 

Max also got his first two teeth last week and figured out what a spoon was for.  He loves peas and is a bit indifferent to the rest.  I hope there is a little break before he gets more teeth.  He practically didn’t nap for the entire week, but he (and I) are doing much better this week.

 

Is there anything cuter than a baby having a bath in the kitchen sink?

Or maybe this?

And we are trying our hand at potty training for the first time – Carter is doing pretty well with it, but there has been a little bit of bribery involved.   Last night I traded a puppy puzzle for . . . ?  I’m sure you can guess it without me having to say it.  It was so cute to hear him yelling “I did it Mom!!!”, over and over.  He also said he was stinky like a dinosaur, which made me laugh too.  The things I never thought I would be doing or celebrating over . . .

 

Lastly, we are very sick of winter.  Carter keeps asking where his beach went and why the lake is frozen.  That’s about as exciting as it gets around here.

Have a great weekend!