Intro
It has taken me a long time to embrace the role of wife/mother/homemaker. I have a few other jobs too such as writing this blog and teaching many of you lovely people how to be more confident bakers, but my primary responsibility is taking care of my family and our home. It is how I spend most of my time.
I resisted this role. If I am completely honest with you deep down I found it degrading and so menial. I thought I deserved a more “important” role. (Can you imagine not seeing the importance of raising children?!) I didn’t want this position to fall on me but it has and I now embrace it and can say, joyfully, that I am a homemaker – except that I still don’t like that word – I think we need something else. Something more Martha Stewart-esque… hmm… I don’t know – we can work on that together.
I don’t bounce out of bed with a spring in my step every morning. My children don’t sleepily stumble down the stairs to find their mother serving them up a plate full of hot pancakes with a giant smile on her face and a lacy apron wrapped around her waist. More realistically they greet me at the side of my bed saying, “Mommy, get up! It’s time for breakfast.” I reluctantly roll out of bed and pray for patience and strength for the day. And we begin.
But the difference is I find joy in the daily tasks. I find more in some than others, for example, there is very little joy in folding laundry.
What I do love is baking and cooking with my boys. Seeing them beam with pride as they dump the ingredients into the bowl and proclaim to daddy, “look what I made!”
I enjoy instructing and guiding them – watching them learn new things every single day. Two days ago my oldest was just drawing scribbles and yesterday he drew a picture of his “sister baby”. She had a big round belly and nice plump face with a giant grin. She is going to have the best big brothers.
And lately I’ve fulfilled a nearly life-long goal of learning how to sew. I look forward to learning much more about this craft but have thoroughly enjoyed creating useful and functional products from simple sheets of cloth.
When I heard the news that a baby girl was on her way, visions of pink flooded my mind. I’m usually not much of a pink girl myself but I am fully embracing this sweet little feminine baby inside of me and insist on having many dresses and maybe even a few tutus around.
I had way to much fun picking out the fabric for this simple quilt project. If you live in Seattle all the fabrics you see can be found at The Quilting Loft (prints) or Jo-Ann Fabrics (solids). I followed the pattern like I follow my recipes – not too closely – but I was immediately inspired when I found the pattern in the book, Bend-the-Rules Sewing: The Essential Guide to a Whole New Way to Sew
This was a perfect first quilt for me. I learned so much throughout the process. I have yet to master the art of sewing a straight line but I’m sure my sweet little baby won’t mind the crookedness.
So while the laundry pile might not always get folded right away and toys may be scattered throughout the house you can be sure that there is a constant supply of fresh baked goodness, a small supply of home-grown produce from our little garden and now some hand-made blankets and clothing.
I have found my place in this new-ish role and I’m finding that it suits me quite nicely. Each day while I strive to instruct my children they teach me invaluable lessons that I am so grateful to learn – patience being one of them. 🙂
The quilt is gorgeous! You’re inspiring me. I’ve been dreaming of baby quilts lately too! Have you been to Fabric Crush? It’s also an awesome fabric shop in Wallingford 🙂 xoxoxo
Robin – Is that the one near Trophy Cupcakes? I’ve heard great things. I must get there soon. I can easily see fabric becoming an addiction. 🙂
That is beautiful! I wish I had sewing skills to make something like that.
This is so beautiful, what talent!!
Gorgeous quilt! You’re inspiring me as well – and baby quilts are really the perfect size to start with. My first (and, to-date, only) quilting project was the chuppah for my wedding, which for some ung-dly reason I decided needed to be 8’x8′. Holy whoa, was that ever a job. Even though it nearly killed me in the week before the wedding, it was so fun to piece together. I should definitely try my hand at something smaller!
What a beautiful quilt! I’m inspired to finally finish my quilt, which has been sitting in our closet for a year now.
Oh I love it! Simple, but beautiful with those fabric choices. Nice work! I only do quilts with my mom’s assistance. Meaning, she does a lot of the explaining, planning, hard sewing and I usually cut and sew the easy stuff.
you never cease to amaze me…what a gal! Lovely quilt and I can’t wait to meet little Princess Rodriguez wrapped up in it!
I am so excited to see this! My heart jumped… another food blogger who quilts?! Sweet! Nice first quilt. I love the colors… beautiful and understated. I have been quilting since I was a girl, but havent dont much since the baby joined our family. I just picked up the book Radical Homemakers from the library. Check it out – I think you may relate to the new slant on an old word.
The fabrics you chose give your baby’s quilt the look of one well-worn and loved. Very nice job.
Keeping a home for your family is, I believe, the single most important, dignified, and loving job there is. Making the effort to do it “from scratch” as much as possible only makes it that much more special. I applaud you.
So pretty. You’re an inspiration. (I’ve learned to knit, but really really want to learn how to sew.)
The quilt is lovely, but embracing the incredible role of raising your children, loving your husband and caring for the home you have been blessed with is the part I’m REALLY inspired by. This is an honest, awesome post and it brought tears to my eyes.
Thx for sharing your heart in this post. I am a SAHM, but I love it—well, most of the time! 🙂 The thing about raising kiddos is that you touch the future through them. Hopefully one’s children will be blessings to others someday. Then you can die a happy old woman knowing that you made a difference and did your best.
This is just gorgeous. What a wonderful mom and “homemaker” you are! Crossing my fingers that one day I can be too!
Love the quilt, especially the Heather Ross seahorses. I made my daughters first birthday dress from fabric from the same line. The quilt seems much more ambitious! And thank you too for that honest post, I’m in a similar position and feeling the same.
I love this part of your post
“So while the laundry pile might not always get folded right away and toys may be scattered throughout the house you can be sure that there is a constant supply of fresh baked goodness, a small supply of home-grown produce from our little garden and now some hand-made blankets and clothing.”
That is exactly how I feel about my home. I love it!
This is beautiful! I wish I could make something like this as well.
Magda
What a beautiful post. Thank you for being honest about being at home and I’m so glad you have found joy in your kids. The quilt is beautiful! I was never a “pink” girl myself until I had a little girl. Now, I do a load of whites, darks, and pinks.
Wonderful! Your’s came out much better that the blanked I tried to knit for our first little girl.
This is just beautiful. I too have been a reluctant homemaker…homecrafter, homemoulder…and I am just on the cusp of being ok with it. Thank you for being a lovely example of said profession, and giving new moms like myself a little hope that the writerly, bakery, makerly creative part of ourselves can flourish at the same time as children.
I loved you post about mommiehood. It is such a privilege. Including them in all the things you do is so special. The memories you are createing will be precious to them and you. Love every day. You are giving your boys a cozy refuge.
what wonderful writing. I am positive you are an excellent mother and take great care of your family. So proud of your quilt! It looks great, Ashley!
Your first quilt is gorgeous. You have caught the bug now. Its a slippery slope but oh so worth it. My baby girl is nine months old today and I think I made her 6 quilts before she was even born. There is just such an amazing variety of fabric out there, it is very addicting. congrats to you guys.
It’s really, really beautiful, Ashley. The shades remind me of perfect Neapolitan ice cream–in the very best of ways.
Kudos on learning how to sew, and embracing mommyhood or homemaking or whatever handle it goes by!
I totally agree with you – I had a hard time admitting that my “permanent boyfriend” was actually going to be a husband, and the term ‘wife’ was a hard one for me to handle…especially when I found myself at home a lot. And I used to tell people that I was never going to get married. I’m not quite at the point where I’m ok with trying out the “mother” role, but I’m doing all right with “wife” at this point…although I still insist that he call me, instead, either “darling” or “my marital bliss.” hehe 🙂
The quilt is just lovely!
Cheers!
Daisy
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