Luka has been going to a daycare every day for the past six months. It is a full day program, but we have to prepare all the food - luch, and any snacks they will give them during the day. In addition, he needs extra clothing, sheets and blankets for sleeping, diapers, wipes... So until now (shame on me) we have used various plastic/paper bags to bring all this stuff in - I just could not find a suitable bag. And his diaper bags are not really useful in this case. So, finally I had a little bit of time (procrastinating in school) and I made a bag for him, from some fabric I had lying around. I used two fabrics - thicker blue cotton (I bought this fabric at a local Flap Happy factory store where they also sell fabric remnants for very little money - and their designs are fun!) and prequilted yellow fabric I bought also as a remnant at JoAnne's Fabric. I am really proud of the way it turned out, conisdering that this is a very first bag I have ever made. I also like the thickness the quilted fabric proivides - the bag can stand up (as in the pictures) on it's own. It has outside side pockets and one inside pocket. There is really only one problem - Luka's sippy cup does not fit in these side pockets, they are too narrow. If I make more of these, I need to make these pockets wider and then put a bit of elastic at the top. It is big enough (35inx30inx10in) to hold his luch bag, a sippy cup and his bedding. No more plastic bags!


And it is reversible too (here you can see the inside pocket).

I finished this quilt in August of last year, and was reminded of it today when I read Laura's post over at thimble about her alphabet quilt - she used the same vintage insipred alphabet fabric by Moda!
I made this quilt for a friend's baby for her christening. When I started out, I had no idea what kind of a quilt I would make, not even when I saw this fabric. All I knew was that I loved the fabric. When I got it, I went through my stash and took out some fabrics I had, to try and design the quil,t but I did not like anything I came up with. I did not want it to be too busy, but I also did not want it to be too white, including only the letters of the baby's name. I really only wanted two other colors in the quilt, two that stood out in the letters/pictures - vintage blue and red. So I drove all the way to Anaheim, to M&L fabric store and picked out the rest of the fabrics (and much more, but that's another story).
The final design included squares from the main fabric and muslin and strips of red and blue checked fabrics for the "frame" around the letters. The smaller pictures (cut out from the same alphabet fabric, only without the letters) and the smaller red and blue squares were appliqued on muslin squares and then quilted around. The rest was quilted in the groove and around the letters. The background fabric was a funky robots fabric with the same basic colors - here are a few more pictures of the quilt.
This is the fabric I used for the letters and the smaller pictures. I saw it initially at equilter.com, but finally bought it from Bear Paw Quilt Co because it was considerably cheaper. However, I almost did not buy it from them because their website is really not user friendly, and I just don't have patience to try and figure out where the shopping cart went (that was actually the problem - after I selected the amount of fabric I needed I could not get back to my shopping cart!). Then I decided to call them and see if I can order over the phone - I was amazed at how nice the lady I talked to was!. I usually don't like to buy stuff blindly, but she was so helpful that I asked her to suggest muslin that would go with this fabric, considering color and fabric thickness. And she did a great job! The fabrics matched almost perfectly. I know I will but from them again, but over the phone, not through their website.

I always try to find things to do with Luka in and around LA, so here I will try to write about places we have been to and those we would like to go to in the future.
As a first entry - a place I heard about on local news the other day. A huge treehouse in Torrance, in Charles Wilson Park (2200 Crenshaw Blvd. between Sepulveda Blvd. and Carson St.). It is the last of eight treehouses build by Forever Young Trehouses organization, which plans to build one of these treehouses in each state by 2008. The idea is to create treehouses available ans accessible to anyone and averyone including persons with disabilities. This particular treehouse in Torrance, has over 2500 sqft! It looks amazing and promises to be lot of fun. And... on Saturdays, this is where the Torrance Farmers Market is held. If we plan it right we might have some fun and eat some good food at the same time. We plan to check it out this weekend! Pictures to come...

Luka is only 18 months old, but living in LA you learn you have to think about school very early. The situation is scary, with public schools in a bad shape, especially in some areas (like ours). We support public schools, but I cannot send Luka to just any school. So I started looking... We know we will probably have to move in a few years to be close to a school we like, even for a charter school, because I do not want to spend hours commuting (I spend too much time in traffic as is).
As I find info about some schools, I will post it here. For today, here is a link to High Tech High, a number of charter schools in San Diego which have a very interesting and novel approach to schooling - no sit down lectures, all learning is through projects and hands on work. And no books, for all reference materials they have - computers (of course). That is exactly a type of school I would like Luka to go to. Maybe in a few years they will have one of those in LA?