Nurture Shock - In Review

Have you read Nurture Shock by PO Bronson & Ashley Merryman?  My book club chose this book to read this month and I loved it.  I thought this book was so informative, and maybe it's just the scientific/educationally-oriented part of me, but I loved that it was all based on research.  Each chapter debunks a commonly held misconception of children - about their learning, intelligence, behavior, etc. 

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Here are a few of the chapters that I found particularly fascinating:

• The Inverse Power of Praise: Sure, he's special.  But new research suggests if you tell him that, you'll ruin him.  It's a neurobiological fact.
• The Lost Hour: Around the world, children get an hour less sleep than they did 30 years ago.  The cost: IQ points, emotional well-being, ADHD, and obesity.
• Why White Parents Don't Talk About Race: Does teaching children about race and skin color make them better off or worse?
• Why Kids Lie: We may treasure honesty, but the research is clear.  Most classic strategies to promote truthfulness just encourage kids to be better liars.
• The Search For Intelligent Life In Kindergarten: Millions of kids are competing for seats in gifted programs and private schools.  Admissions officers say it's an art: new science says they're wrong, 73% of the time.

Intrigued?  So was I.   These are just a few of the topics, but I thought every chapter was so interesting.  I kept telling Joel all of these cools things I was reading about.  So much so that he probably feels like he's the one that read it.  This made me think about some of my behaviors as a parent and an educator.  I'm still in the pondering phase, but my eyes have definitely been opened to quite a few things.

If you have anything to do with children I think you would love this book- just be prepared to learn a lot.  I was surprised by some of the research findings- most of which are relatively new.  I will be interested to see if any changes are made in the educational system as a lot of these concepts become more widely discussed.

Scatter Brained WIP

I started out the week very focused - I needed to get the baby boy quilt done - he's coming in less than two weeks.  I spent my Friday Night Sew-In working on it and then finished it over the weekend.  It makes me smile looking at it.  (full post here)

 So- that part is good, but after I finished the quilt I got so excited about all these new ideas running around in my head that I went a little over board.  I think I was over congratulating myself for the finish.

First, I bought all the stuff I needed to make a diaper bag.  I've never made a bag before - it's always been on my bucket list, so even though I'm nervous I really want to try to make it.  I went pretty plain on the fabric, so that my hubbie wouldn't feel like he was carrying around a huge froo froo bag.  Your welcome, sweetheart.  :) 

 So I got the stuff, but then I was all sad that Skill Builder's been postponed and I thought now would be a good time to put together a quilt top or two from the 25 blocks I already have.  I have 2 different quilt top ideas floating around in my head, and I really think I want to do them both. 

But then, I saw all these amazing ideas for the Modern Mini Challenge being posted this past week and I couldn't help myself- I had to join in on the fun.  I've never made a mini quilt before - I don't even know what I'm going to do with it, but I wanted to do it anyway.  In order to justify my participation I made 3 rules for myself: 1- it has to be a block/pattern I've never done, 2- it has to be completely from my stash of fabric, and 3- I have to practice some Free Motion Quilting with it.

The lighting isn't the greatest for the picture, but this is what I have done so far: It's all cut out and ready to be sewn together.

And just because I'm feeling extra crazy this week I've decided to put together a tutorial on this block: the Album Four Patch (16" finished).  I'm hoping to have it posted by the end of the weekend.  I'm going to add a border or two for the actual mini-quilt, but I thought it would be a fun block to make for the center of the mini quilt.

So here are the ugly stats: 

Projects:
Skill Builder: working on 2 quilt tops simultaneously
Blogger BOM- next one comes out this week
Christmas Blocks - no progress
Halloween Wall Hanging - on some serious ice

Stats for the Week:
New projects - 1 (I'm not counting the diaper bag until I actually cut the fabric- for some reason that makes me feel better)
Completed projects - 1
WIP- 6

Check out what everyone is up to this week over at Freshly Pieced.  Maybe they were more successful at focusing than I was this week.

Multipurpose Quilt

I'm so excited about this finish: it took a while to make but I'm mostly pleased because it served so many purposes for my "gaining skills":  It is part of my Scrap Attack Quilt Along - I used a ton of scraps "making" the inside windows on the front and back, and I barely made a dent in my scraps, so I think I have more scrappy quilts in my future.

 This was also my test subject for the Free Motion Quilting Project.  I am seriously so relieved and pleased that my stippling went so well.

 Here's the back...  (I was so excited it was such a beautiful day outside, so I could actually get some good pictures of the quilt)

 The green thread really pops on the blue fabric - it's a fun corner of the quilt.

I also tried Amy's little tutorial for getting perfect corners on the binding.  Mine weren't perfect, but definitely better than usual, so I'm happy I tried her way of doing it.

My friend is having her little boy the beginning of March, so I finished the quilt just in time.  This is her third - they already have a boy and a girl, and I think sometimes when you already have "everything" it's nice to do something a little special just for that baby.

Sew-In Success

I loved my 1st Friday Sew-in, and my husband was working a night shift in the Emergency room last night, so it was a no brainer for me to participate again this month, and I had a HUGE break through in my sewing last night.  Don't you love when you actually see improvement?!  Free Motion Quilting has always stressed me out, because of a couple of major flops.  After a long period of avoidance, I've finally gotten to the point where I really don't want it to hold me back anymore, so when I saw a Free Motion Quilt Along - it called to me.  It actually made me excited to try.  They're already 6 weeks into it, but that's alright.

First I practiced the wiggle patterns to remind myself how to do it... (Week #1)

Then I stipled in rows in the center of the quilt... (Week #2)

 As you can clearly see on the back- I had some thread tension issues, but I fixed it for the next section I did...

It's funny that Scale is Week #3, because I noticed that my stippling got bigger the farther I got along in it, so I'm definitely going to have to work on that, but I'm thrilled with my first attempt at stippling...
I needed to stitch in the inner border (Week #6), and I am seriously so proud of myself for actually doing it! 

 You can see it on the back really well.

I decided to go all in and finally buy the quilting gloves.  I totally had one of those "I feel silly" moments - when I first put them on I was thinking, "what's the big deal with gloves?  I don't think they make that much of a difference."  Then I looked down and realized I had put them on so that the grips were facing up - oops.  I had a good, little giggle and then got stippling (with the gloves the right way - tee hee).  It is really funny though, because as soon as I started thinking "Oh ya- I got this" - that's when I started making mistakes...

Oops- I overlapped a couple of loops.

Despite the couple of mistakes I'm thrilled with the overall product.  I was grinning ear to ear when I finished top stitching last night (that's definitely a first).  When I turned off the light in the room I noticed that it made the quilting stand out a bit...

The other thing I quickly did last night was figure out which Skill Builder Blocks I want to use for the first quilt front.  I have 25 blocks and 13 of them have the black background, so I chose 12 of those 13 to put together.  This week I'll finish up the baby quilt and start adding sashing to these blocks.  It's gonna be a fun quilting week.

Squeaking By

We were out of town this weekend, so I just barely squeezed in the One Thing, One Week Challenge.  My goal was to piece together the back of the baby boy quilt.  I got it done right before packing to leave, so it was a close one, but it's done.  This quilt is part of my Scrap Attack, so I wanted to use some scraps on the back as well...

 It'll be a little further in the corner once the quilt is layered and bound.  I like how it turned out except for the one row of stars that didn't go together as well as I would have liked - I was trying to match them up and it didn't quite work.

For those of you visiting from the link up - here's the full quilt top.  The scrappy square is based on the front section of windows:

Scrappy Fun

It's taken a while to put together this quilt top, because of all the tiny scraps I used.  It's a little bigger than I normally make baby quilts, but I really wanted the scrappy border around the edge.  I feel like it ties it all together.  The top is based on the pattern Cabbages & Roses Picnic Quilt by Angela Walters.  I'm taking part in One Thing: One Week Challenge this week- my goal is to piece together the back of this quilt.  I have something scrappy in mind, because even after this quilt top I've barely made a dent in my scrap piles.

 I also finished Skill Builder Block #25:  Wonky Square-in-Square Log Cabin - I used a bunch of scraps for this one as well.  I like wonky log cabin blocks a lot.  I could see doing a whole quilt with them.

Other projects:
Blogger BOM- up to date
Christmas Blocks - no progress
Halloween Wall Hanging - on ice

Stats for the Week:
New projects - 0
Completed projects - 0
WIP- 5

Check out what everyone is up to this week over at Freshly Pieced.

Penny Pincher Me

So, I'm kind of a penny pincher.  I fully admit it, and it sometimes drives my husband crazy that I absolutely won't buy something if it's not in the budget (even if we probably do need it).  In the end, my penny pinching ways determined the background color of the baby quilt.  I was leaning toward red, but then I remembered that I had some fabric I could use for the back if I chose a green for the background.  The fabric already has the royal blue, so I just needed one of the other colors to tie it in with the quilt.  So even though I think the red would have looked great (probably better if I fully admit it), I went with green.  Sometimes penny pinching habits die hard.  It won't be quite as vibrant, but hopefully the baby will still like it. :)

I finished up the window section, so now I just need to add the background fabric and a scrappy border.  Hopefully, that will happen sometime this week.

Notes of Laughter

A little nerdy music humor to brighten your day....