Raising a Child Takes A Village - Raising a Child with Social Media Involved Takes An Army.

If you've been around these parts for a while, you will know that I am partial to putting on my ranty pants.  I get my knickers in a knot about all kinds of interesting bullshit - but mostly about teenagers and the way things are today.

Enter today's post.

I think I'm doing an OK job as a parent.  I think that my eldest son's Dad and I, together with my husband and his Dad's partner, are banding together in some kind of strange unity to get him through these revolting teenage years.  If someone had of told me ten years ago that we would be working together, I would have laughed hysterically.  But a couple of months ago, when our son decided it was time to "up the ante" and test the proverbial waters, we all joined forces to SHUT THAT SHIT DOWN.

And it's worked.  So far.

What I AM struggling with, is being aware of everyone else's children.  Being aware of what they're up to, the shit they're getting in to.  And their parents being oblivious to it.  Hey, I'm not saying I'm perfect - clearly not.  It took almost six months for us to find out that our son had been feeding us bullshit sandwiches!  But in relation to social media - I'm on it.  I'm on his back - always have been, always will be.  We have explained to him what is and what is not acceptable when on social media applications.  That "liking" photos of scantly clad women with derogatory memes or FB pages called "Straya C*nt" not only offends me at times, it also shows up on all his other friends news feeds - including his grandmothers........ and that is NOT acceptable.  We have explained to him that just because a 15 year old girl has the username "Infinity_whore" (yes, you read that correctly), does not mean that it is OK.  It in fact means that she is not only degrading herself, she is allowing others to think it's OK to use such derogatory terms.  NOT OK.

I could go on.  And on.  And on.  I have so many tales to tell about instances we have had to pull him up and educate him on how we expect him to be using social media.  And how it doesn't matter whether other parents let their children use it - or in a lot of cases - don't give a shit about how their children use it.  What matters is how HE uses it.

I digress.  The reason I chose to write AGAIN about this, today, is because I have found myself in yet another quandary in regards to knowing about a child's behaviour and trying to decide whether or not to let said child's parents know?  I know the parents, from many years ago, but we are not friends as such.  I have stewed on the information for a couple of weeks now, debating how I would divulge the information?  Would I want to know if it were my young teenage daughter?  Would I want to hear it from someone else?  I put it out there late last night to my FB friends, and the resounding answer was YES.

So this morning I have been stewing further, going over several different drafts in my head, and have put it down in a FB message to before-mentioned Mother.  I am still yet to send it.

Earlier this year, I wrote this status on my personal FB page, after reading THIS post on MamaMia:

"Some of you already know this, but to everyone else - I will contact you if I see your kids posting inappropriately on social media, or if they're younger, just letting you know that their settings are public when perhaps you would like them to be private. I'm hoping you'd all do the same! Social media can be used so wonderfully - to engage with people in a wonderful way - it's such a shame that it gets used so shitfully at times. xx"

And a whole lot of friends agreed to do the same.  In the past couple of years, I've messaged, phoned and emailed parents when I've come across something I feel is either inappropriate or potentially dangerous with regard to their children.  It is always received gratefully, and in some instances, the parents have had absolutely no idea what Facebook or Instagram even are.

My best piece of advice?  Become an expert.  An expert on social media.  Learn how to use all forms of it.  And check in on your children.  See what they are "following", "liking" and laughing at.  Because without your direction and knowledge, they are trying to learn for themselves what is right and wrong.  They are learning from other kids, who possibly don't know what they're doing either.  Social media is a whole new world in terms of parenting.  I was trying to work out what to compare it to - but I've come up with nothing.  Nothing compares to the murky waters that social media has presented to us as parents.  And I hate to think that anything ever will.

Are you navigating the murky waters of teenagers and social media?  How's it working for you?

A 9 Patch Mash Up!

Yesterday after work, I got cracking on a cushion cover that is being gifted to a good friend of mine.  She's a shabby chic kind of gal, and has ordered quite a few dresses for her nieces from me, so I knew that she loved the Flora range of fabrics.  I whipped out the range and chose nine prints.  I had planned to make a disappearing nine patch, (You can see my first attempts at these HERE) but not long in to sewing, felt the need to change it up.  So this is how I put together a "9 Patch Mash Up"!

 

I went about the usual directions for a 9 patch - in this case, I used 6.5" squares, joined them together to make the 9 patch, and cut them through the middle to make the disappearing 9 patch....

 

After playing around with the layout for too long, I started wondering if I could change it up.

 

Having no idea what I was doing, I lined up my ruler on the diagonal and sliced straight through.

 

And then had a slight panic attack, wondering if I'd stuffed it up?!  Either way, I continued to slice and dice.

 

Until I was left with all of these lovely big triangles of patchwork.

 

And so began working out the layout I liked.  I really love that there are so many different shapes in the blocks now.  The layout above is like a big old arrow.

 

Another layout.

 

And the layout I eventually went with.  From here, I literally just joined the triangles together diagonally, which gave me four square blocks.  I did bring my seam allowance in a couple of notches, so just under 1/4".  Join the four blocks together and Voila!  I had me a cushion cover!

 

I was tempted to continue slicing and dicing, but I was on a deadline. You can see in the photo above, that if you just kept splitting the blocks, you would end up with an even more patchy look.

 

The end result.  A gorgeous 18" quilted cushion cover.  I had fun free motion quilting the front of it, using a range of little designs.  I followed the pattern on the pale green print with the circles, did some rainbow arches on the yellow and lots of squiggles everywhere else.

 

I love that it's a little "organic" in its layout and quilting!

And a nice simple enclosed zipper back, with a rusty lattice binding.  I am hoping the recipient loves it!

I'm linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday - You can too!

Sunday Stash #19 - More. Seriously.

It would be fair to say that I've had a reasonable week in terms of fabric love.  About ten days ago, I saw somewhere, not sure if it was IG, Facebook or where, but I saw that Sprightly Fabrics were having a 4th of July sale - with 30% off everything (and they have 20% off until the end of 14/7 their time!).  I had some money in my paypal account, so it was a done deal.  I was more than impressed with the quick delivery and the very well cut and packaged purchases!  And no, I'm not being paid to say this - I just like good service, and like to share my purchasing experiences!

I finally bowed to temptation about got me some JP Circa.  These are the prints that stood out to me - I'm not really a flowy/florally kind of chick, but I like these ones.

I also got the other half of the Bijoux range.  I won a bundle from the lovely Bari J, and I have a wall hanging in my head - so this was required needed wanted.

Another range I have always lusted over - Art Gallery Floressence.  Absolutely divine.

And something I literally have never purchased - Christmas fabric!  I pinned a gorgeous Christmas tree wall hanging a few weeks ago, and these prints are the kind of Christmas colours that appeal to me - they are Hip Holiday.  Cute huh?

Then just when I thought I couldn't want for any more fabric, everyone, everywhere has been showing off their $1 flat fat purchases from Spotlight this week!  I was doing SOOOOO well and repeating my mantra of "I don't NEED any", until I found myself with one whole hour of spare time this afternoon, grabbed the keys and went on auto pilot.......

And came home with this pretty little bunch.  I don't have a huge amount of novelty prints in my stash, but loved the Bella & Boo ranges.  So got me some.  And some other random prints.  My eldest daughter LOVES Peace symbols, so she was chuffed with that choice.

Sooooo, more fabric to fit in to my shoe box.  I'm seriously pushing my luck.

I'm linking up with Sunday Stash over at Finding Fifth - You can too!

I don't like Porridge - Fact!

Just another useless piece of information about me.  It's true, I'd make a terrible Goldilocks......

I feel so lucky to be a part of a wonderful paper piecing bee, and this month's Queen is Gina over at Party of Eight.  Gina requested Fairytale themed blocks, and the lovely Kristy made up this divine pattern for The Three Bears.

I hadn't had much time since receiving the pattern days ago, due to a number of reasons including school holidays and having my two nieces as well as my four!  Busy busy!  But this afternoon I had a spare couple of hours and got cracking.  I am SUPER happy with the outcome, although I should have probably chosen something without stripes for the wallpaper!  I also had trouble finding a suitable "porridge" fabric.  I utilised some felt instead.  But my favourite part of all?  The lovely view out the windows.  Another good reason why you should NEVER throw away scraps!  It took me lots of brain power to work out how to get the clouds, trees and kite the right way up, but it worked.  Phew.

I'm linking up with Kristy's Paper Piecing Party, over at Quiet Play - You can too!

My Latest Obsession

My habit of not letting a project sit around long is continuing.  I embarked on my Swoon quilt a week ago, and as of this afternoon, I have six finished blocks and four half finished blocks - which essentially means I am almost 3/4 of the way done!  Hoorah!

My body is not shouting Hoorah however.  This chain piecing and assembling really does take it out on your body.  Oh and not to mention the hours spent at the iron, pressing HST's and geese!  But oh well, I'm pretty damn impressed with my progress......

I've managed to fussy cut quite a few of the centre blocks, but I am using fat quarters, and it gets a bit tricky trying to get all the pieces required cut, and managing to leave a 6.5" block of perfection!

Now, given that this will be the first queen size quilt I have made, I am wondering how I am going to quilt it, or if I will even be able to manage it?  I have a beautiful Bernina, however, I already wrestle with single bed quilts, so thinking my muscles may not be up for the challenge.  I've discussed it a little with the lovely quilters in QCA, and have been told to look up Quilt as You go.  Which I still haven't!  The other option is sending the quilt off when it's finished to be quilts by a long arm.  Still a little bit of time to decide, but I am open to suggestions - so fire away!

I'm apologising warning you now - you will see many a blog post from here onwards until this quilt is finished!

I'm linking up with W.I.P. Wednesday - You can too!

W.I.P. Wednesday - A New Project to Swoon Over

Many months ago I bought my much loved FQ bundle of Notting Hill.  It has sat ever so patiently on my shelf, just waiting for me to decide what to do with it and how.  It was bought specifically to make a queen size quilt for mine and my husband's bed.  But I couldn't find a pattern or design I liked enough to cut in to it.  Until last week, when it occurred to me just how much I love the Swoon quilts I'd seen.  So yesterday, when I ran the idea past some quilty friends and they said "HELL YES" I bit the bullet and bought the pattern - and half an hour later I was cutting fabric.  By the end of the day, I had these two beautiful blocks as a start......

Please excuse the HORRIFIC photos - I've just got home from a date night with my husband and only had these IG photos to pull off the computer!

I'm glad I only cut two blocks out to start, as it's been great to learn how the fabrics are going to make or break the blocks.  The one on the left is perfect in my eyes - colour wise.  But the one on the right, well it's a little too green, I wanted the red to be the stand out.  So it will leave me thinking harder about the remaining 10 blocks!  Yep, I'm making 12 to bring the quilt up to the size I want.

I haven't been this excited about a project for a while, and I think it's going to be great for me to do during the school holidays, because I can't really start much without having to stop for one or four of the kids wanting me for something!

Anyway, that's my quick little WIP!  Stay tuned - I'm sure you'll see these blocks featured in many more posts!

I'm linking up with W.I.P. Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced - You can too!

A Fresh Sewing Day Debut

After weeks of procrastination, I pulled out some fabric on Saturday to start on a gift for a very close friend of mine.  And then I changed my mind - a million times over.  So I cleaned the house.  And then when I was ready to think about starting again, the teenager called to say he'd stacked his BMX and had cut himself open!  I relinquished the thought of getting anything done for the rest of the weekend as I sat watching him get stitches whilst he played on his phone.  Yep, times have changed.

Anyway, today I pulled out the wonky star pieces I had managed to cut out, scrapped the other bits I'd started putting together, and used the KISS method (keep it simple stupid).  

Because I'm hoping this cushion will give some comfort to the recipients, I made it European size - approximately 23" square. So it's a big mumma!  The best part about that is there was LOTS of room for creativity on the free motion front.  And this is how it turned out.....

I decided on swirls, and added four small stars to represent family members.  I really enjoy this kind of pattern, it's quite cathartic, and for me - very unplanned and fluid.

I love the way the silver/grey Aurifil thread shines off the navy blue fabric.  Yes, it does show up any "imperfections" in the quilting, but the shine makes up for that!

My next dilemma came with the backing fabric choice.  I had originally chosen a navy and white chevron, but then found this Michael Miller that's been sitting on the shelf for a year or so.  I put it out to my IG friends, and the lovely Alyce voted for this - so that it was!  I'm soooo glad I went with it!  It's also bound in the same print.

I've never been nervous as such about gifting my handiwork, but this is a really special gift, for a really special person (which for obvious reasons I can't go in to now, in case they're reading this post!).  And I really am just hoping it's okay.

So this is day one of the school holidays - and I managed to get this done.  Hooray for play dates and quiet children.

Today I'm linking up with Lily's Quilts - Fresh Sewing Day - for the first time!  If you're new to my blog, have a look around and feel free to leave me some feedback!