only 13 more days left

Jason left for 7 level school yesterday morning at oh-dark-thirty. It's been a day, I miss him already, and I'm not just saying that because I've had to deal with the boys all by myself. :) Wyatt did ok, I'm not sure how much he understands Daddy being gone. He's more concerned with the Iron Man action figure that's going to be his special present from Jason. The last time Jason was gone for any length of time Wyatt wasn't even a year old yet.

I didn't finish quilting the skull quilt in time, so I made something for Jason to take with him. It's a pinup girl on a tiny little pillow. I was embroidering furiously to get it done in time since I was determined Jason would have a memento from home to take with him. I think she turned out really well, and I'd be interested in doing a wall hanging or quilt of a whole bunch of pinup girls. It was fun looking for pictures of vintage posters and tracing different ones. I had to be careful doing the google search because I found a couple of links that lead to really trashy stuff. Yuck!

I don't have a picture of the pillow all put together. I was in mid construction when I took this photo. I wanted to show my friend Monica how it was going (that's her in the chat window to my left). I embroidered on a plain broadcloth square, used a piece of leftover batting and batiste for the back, then quilted around. Then, I used some leftover red batik for the outer backing and a ruffle. Oo-la-la! The red batik is leftovers from the skull quilt, and I thought the deep red color kept it from being too frilly for a man.

Here's another picture I did before I decided to go with the lovely lady in red. I will probably finish her and make another little pillow. I'm taking a break from embroidery for a few days though. It was difficult to keep the purple in my hair from rubbing off onto the picture (because I often reach up and scratch my head), and also to keep sticky little fingers and the furry childrens' hair off of it.

I suppose I could put off some of the crafting I do but it would make me crazy to not have an outlet. I've (willingly, I might add) sacrificed so much of myself to have kids that I'm not going to put off the artistic part of me just because it can be a real pain to keep them away from my things. I just choose crafts that are appropriate for being around the kiddos. I read somewhere once that in order to teach kids to love books, you need books all around the house and children need to see them being read. I see my crafting the same way.