Feeling the Heat - A Work in Progress

One of the gifts I'm trying to finish for Christmas is Micah's growth chart. I finished Patrick and Daniel's growth charts earlier this year. I'll share them with you on Friday.

The original push for these was the realization that my boys will probably end up 6 feet plus and I couldn't find a growth chart that I (and they) would like that was tall enough. So, of course, there's nothing to do, but make them myself, right?

Originally, I had designed very kid-friendly growth charts with bold shapes and bright colours. I wanted to hang them in the downstairs hallway, all three together. The more I thought about the fact that we will have these growth charts hanging in a common area for at least twenty years, the more I thought that they should be designs that will (hopefully) appeal to the kids when they are older, rather than younger. Cutesy is great when they are six, but not so cool when they are 16 or 26.

I thought going a little more artsy would work better (I'd certainly like it more). I decided to go with the elements of nature: Daniel is earth (grass), Patrick is water and Micah is fire. Both Daniel and Patrick's charts came together pretty quickly and easily and they've been up for some time.

Micah's, however, was another story. I had the biggest mental block on depicting fire. I knew it was going to be the most challenging so I kept putting it off. There's nothing like a deadline though, even self-imposed, to push through those blocks. I'm very happy to say that I finished the top for Micah's chart today. I'm absolutely thrilled with it so far. Here's hoping I don't screw it up with the quilting.

With any luck, I'll have this done by Friday. Fingers crossed!

I'm linking in to WIP Wednesday at The Needle and Thread Network. Let's go check out the fun stuff going on over there. If you are a Canadian blogger, come and link up your progress. It's a fun way to meet other Canadian quilt bloggers.

P.S. Have you seen Quilt Dad's Ryan Gosling's Hey Girl Quilting meme? Hilarious! Also, spotted some more on Patchwork Duck Designs. Love it! Also got a good chuckle from Feminist Ryan Gosling!