Wordless Wednesday-perfect

feeling a bit creative, we'll see how it plays out!

inspired.

while looking for a block pattern to make holly a chair/lap quilt, i came across these 2 projects (along with a few others) in a magazine. a table runner and a lap quilt with a very cool owl. both are beginner levels, so i'm thinking i can do this-hopefully i'll be adding this to a complete projects list by the end of the year-what are you inspired to create?

giving myself an A+. .

i've made some progress since this post.  i'm quite please with what i've accomplished, and for meeting my deadline within a day or two.
my sewing table now looks like this.

i made 2 bags-a box pouch bag and a tote bag. in my quest to de-stash i made some cocktail napkins/coasters with the left over fabric.  i also put in a zipper in one sweater which i'm sorta okay with-it closes much better, it may become one of those "around the house" sweaters.  i also added snaps and buttons to another sweater, and i'm pretty pleased with the way that turned out.  i put one quilt top together, and have all the pieces for the border sewn and pressed.  i also decided that it was better to have the dry cleaners hem 2 pairs of sweats that i bought since a lot of fabric had to be cut off, and i really stink at hemming.  i went back and forth about whether it was worth paying someone, and i concluded my time was better spent on other projects. so all the mending projects are completed-yea!

 

 on the knitting front, i just finished all the knitting on my graham cracker cardigan, will weave in the ends and block this week, i'm in no hurry for buttons cause it'll be a LONG time before it's cold enough to wear it.  i'm quite please with this sweater.  i also re-dyed and blocked my NY cardigan, this turned out to be an "okay" project,  this was a project that i was determined to finish regardless of whether or not i truly LOVED the results-sometimes the "joy" is in the completion.  aside from running out of yarn for my spring forward socks, 

i'm pretty pleased with where my knitting is at right now.  i have swatched for my next 2 sweaters, and am making plans for 2 more sweaters from stash yarn.  i did splurge on some madeline tosh dk for my gnarled oak cardigan. you'll have to go to my projects page for details. i do need to add photo though.

i completed my OLW for June and went with a blue, grey and white palette. my thinking was that blue has a calming effect, and in order to really focus on what i need to, there needs to be a sense of calm or peace.  also when trying to focus for clarity, some things get a bit grey before they become clearer.  i added the words focus on the small and big, in my own handwriting, which i think makes it more personal.  i'm pretty excited about july's focus on music. i love how songs "speak" to you, so it'll be interesting to see what i can come up with for prompt.

i finally finished a book i got back in may, elizabeth george believing the lie, i dropped it off at the library this morning, so no telling what my late fine is going to be!  it was a good book, and i'm glad i kept it til i was finished. based on the ending there is definitely another one coming.

my goals for july will be to complete my OLW prompt before the end of the month, continue with the sewing projects on my table, and i'd like to finish my summer top before the ravellenic games start on 7/27. would LOVE to have the 4 sweaters cast on/planned completed before September 1-we'll see-now i just need to figure out what to take on the plane for my trip to anapolis next week.  something for the plane and meeting and for in the hotel-hmmmmm. how are YOU doing on your project(s)?

on being a girl

this week has reinforced for me that it really is fun being a girl. it was great having the monday off while everyone was at work/school. i got lots done. then knit night and the "after party" so much laughter-very good for the soul. i'm expecting more fun and laughs with jillian tomorrow for dinner, my quilt club on friday, then SAFF with Mom on saturday. yesterday i was able to mark more things off my "to do" list-woohoo!. such as dusting and cleaning stuff in the cabinets in the dining room-ugh, not my favorite thing, but it had to be done, and it felt really good putting all the sparkling things back in place- i finished citron, cast on my kai-mei socks, did one 1/2 sleeves for coraline, and completed a quilt top, and finished a book-i love my hobbies :-). i spent a lot of time in the kitchen too-turkey stock for thanksgiving-the picture doesn't do the smell justice!
a very girly dinner-steve and andrew were out bowling so mom and i had a frittata with prosciutto, asparagus, spinach, portabellas, and sundried tomatoes and a cucumber tomato salad-yum. i also made ina's pumpkin roulade with ginger cream for sunday's dinner-here's the cooked pumpkin i got in this week's market basket that i used-this was totally crazy to cook, but provided the perfect amount for the roulade with only just a little left over-maybe pumpkin muffins?
i snapped this photo earlier this week-don't you agree- a wonderful use for your car's ashtray-stitch markers at the ready.
of course, there was laundry, clearing out the 162 emails i'd gotten since monday, and other domestic "stuff". i also watched juno-i'd seen it before with jillian, and i cried again towards the end-not sure if it was the heart-wrenching fact that she was 16, pregnant and putting her baby up for adoption, or the angst of vanessa on wanting a baby of her own and not being able to have one~it reminded me while it's not easy being a girl, surrounding yourself with incredible women sure can make it a wonderful thing.

you won.

finally the words i've been wanting to hear. i'm always leaving comments on blogs hoping i'll be the lucky winner and on this blog i was. here is the post about block i named. yea, can't wait to see what the fat quarters look like. you know it really is the little things!

moving right along

the last week of summer vacation is now over, where did the summer go? went to orientation with pj and andrew (hard to believe andrew's in the 9th grade). wish i had taken a few photos. added this book to my craft library (can actually see myself doing some of this stuff, and with a 40% off coupon-who can resist?!) friday was quilt club, and we agreed on our official meeting day (3rd friday night of each month), and finalized plans for hilton head-we are so excited about this trip. my photos from quilt night didn't come out 'cause for some reason, the memory card was not all the way into the camera, so the cute photo of me in my london t-shirt and janey in her union jack didn't come out :-(. i finally got the buttons sewed onto the two baby sweaters, and made some progress on the miniature square from sunday's class. it's going much faster now since i'm not stopping for instruction. i'm really liking the paper piecing concept (supposed to be one of the easiest ways to get crisp points, it think the difficulty lies in the size of the pieces) , but don't anticipate doing anything this small again unless i have granddaughters or grand nieces, and they need a quilt for their doll bed! looking forward to checking out the marietta farmers market this morning (mary and sara have inspired me to make the treck down, hope i find good stuff), and this afternoon's birthday gathering will be loads of fun. what a great way to end summer vacation.

i've laid out the pieces as they'll be in the square, kind of hard to really tell what the finished square will look like, maybe by sunday i'll have it done.

sweater details on ravelry.

ratatouille and quilting.

hmmm. what do those things have in common, and i thought this blog was "life and yarn". okay well hopefully there will be more of that this week. saturday morning after the "31" event (i'm having one in september), headed off to do a couple errands, then home for a quick lunch, sliced tomatoes w/feta cheese, and fruit salad-so simple and sooooo good.

ratatouille- lots of chopping, but very very good, looking forward to leftovers.
today's quilt class was a lot of fun, didn't realize the quilt square was going to be a miniature, tons of tiny pieces, but am glad to learn the paper piecing concept, and look forward to using it on other projects. this is the teacher's sample, i used the nickel to give you an idea of scale.

here are my bits, my block includes a variety of pinks, and butterflies, hopefully by the end of the week i will have a photo worthy wip for this block. got a couple nifty tools also, one kathy and i have joint custody of!
kathy is doing her paper cutting, she's such a good girl-she helped me out on more than one occasion during class. you can just see the hot pink i'm using which will be where the black squares are at on the teacher's blocks- oh yea, we did go to harry's before hand and get biscotti, bread and a few other "yummies" before class.
this is the next class we want to take, it's called "scrambled eggs" it is done with 15 fat quarters, using a 10" block, supposed to be super super easy. we'll see.
a great day, now that i've done the hoa financials for july, cleaned up the kitchen, gotten my lunch together for next week, i think i'll take my shower, do some knitting and get ready to see the next food network star, then again, not until i' refill wine glass-i need it after all those little pieces!

new additions + discounts=happy face

there's nothing better than making additions to your crafty bits or library AND getting a discount in the process. quilt fabric stash enhancement- 33% off at red hen on saturday
who knew there were fabrics inspired by rowan and anne geddes. will be looking out for more in the future. am thinking about a log cabin [block style] quilt with the rowan fabric-and incorporating white or cream with the print as the center fabric. karen's suggestion of a purple and blue quilt inspires the fabric for the makings of a quilt for jillian.
joann's had knitting and quilting books 40% off-they were cleaned out by the time i stumbled upon this deal probably a good thing! extra discount at barnes and noble, and i added this cupcake cookbook- probably did need it, but who can resist those coupons!



other happy face moments- extra yummy receipes from gourmet that were tried over the weekend, and finishing the february lady sweater last night- photos and review of both to come!

friday fun

with a day like this . . . glad we had indoor plans









after the usual exercise regime, i enjoyed fresh-pressed coffee-i'm really addicted now-a slice of fresh banana bread that PJ made thursday night, yes my boy's been in the kitchen,









the quilting plans changed a bit, glad they did with the weather- nixed the quilt show idea as we'd already gotten our bargains last week--we started in the fellowship hall to spread out- we both had quilt tops that were finished, and needed to move onto the next phase. then met back at my house for lunch and more quilting









big girl pizza for lunch- proscuitto, mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach, basil, red onion, and fresh mozzarella- does it get any better than that?! one of the things i love about kathy is her willingness to shuffle plans around, we were going to do lunch out, and decided that our time and money was better spent having something at home-also more sewing time









halloween petit fours for dessert- yum









made the scampi fra diavolo for dinner it was a hit, i added the tomato wedges and the gemelli, the boys suggested angel hair pasta next time. not so great photo









finally- the froot loops are done- finished them on thursday, and will block them today


these 3 day work weeks and 3 day weekends, could be addictive!

thanks mr. c.

mr. c as in christopher columbus, thanks to him i had the day off- yea,so here's how the day went:

hit the bike at 4:30, a whole hour to devote today- then floor exercises:









6:29 am: homemade biscuits for the boys- they were small, but very tasty









7:15 am drop andrew off at school for snow boarding lessons, andrew's photo not so good as it was still dark-then pj at 7:30- then drop off dry cleaning- home by 7:45 am











8:00 am head downstairs to tackle the mini book project- thermos of coffee and i-pod with speakers ready to go ---









boxes of photos that have had a preliminary sorting: goal is to cut paper, sort photos again, some throwing out, and cut covers to make mini albums (books), doing this in stages









madam guillotine from work- does a great job with multiple sheets of paper and chip board









10:00 am take a break and check the patio- geraniums still look pretty good- had already pulled out the summer plants that were "spent"









a quick photo session- i did a little shopping at the quilt store on saturday- great bargains 25, 30 and 70% off!









and i won a door prize! a book by this author i knew the name was familar- a modern day william morris-i'm in love! my first quilt top "morris garden" is based on his designs.










2:25 pm coffee break and finished up project. the remaining photos are my albums for NY, Boston and Vegas, also the bottom box are "professional" photos of family members that are either 5x7 or 8x10, and i haven't quit decided what to do with them yet, but i did meet my goal for the day-









end of phase 1 of the mini books -good results- really did little thinking in terms of paper-wanted to use up stuff i had on hand and wanted this to be a quick deal-









3:15 a visit outside- say hello to the hairy toad lillies- bought these at an eclectic nursery several years ago, and brought them to our new house, i♥them. they love the shade or dappled sun, so if anyone wants some-they really spread. . .






3:45 pm i met a new friend-he was a big'un









landscape phase 1 finished, planted burgundy mums and some pansies. will tackle the containers in a couple weeks, transplanted a few items that were in containers over the summer,and tidied this bed, there is still a bit of summer color, also did a bit of transplanting around the birdbath- don't know if the stuff will come back, but wanted to give it a try rather than throwing the ferns and caladiums in the trash- we'll see . .









whew- i'm a bit tired from all that, but glad i stuck with it:: want to have the mini albums totally done by thanksgiving- did manage to enjoy a nice steak dinner and a glass of wine- looking forward to a day of quilting with kathy- must remember to do photos

happy monday ya'll

curiosity

based on mary's comment on the last post, and this posting, here's a run down on where i get my fabric, now i have to pause and say that one of the things i enjoy about mary is that she really appreciates hand crafts~she understands the time and passion that goes into creating, and she definitely has her own gift for crafty things-now i don't think she's going to run out and buy a goat to make her own goat cheese, or start making her own soap- but if she comes across those things while she's out and about she'll definitely support the artist- sooooo when mary spent time looking at fabric in portland, i could almost see the little gears moving, so maybe she's getting the urge, or maybe not- but anyway~~~

red hen fabrics- marietta- love this place-it's big- roomy you can really see what they got, everything is arranged by color, so if you need blue all shades are there. the ladies there are super nice- they are having a grand re-opening (they recently relocated) on october 11, lots of prizes and goodies-i'll be there!



little quilts- also in marietta- i've only been here once-not as big, but carries the prints of traditional early american and civil war styles- if you want to do something using reproduction fabrics this would be the place to go- now they do carry other "fun" fabrics, but not as much as the red hen


tiny stitches-you guessed it, marietta-again, only been here once, they lots of whimsical and "fun" fabrics. a wonderful beatrix potter collection, Georgia Tech!!!!, and holiday prints.


kathy and i are hoping to take a class while i'm off from work after christmas, and we've already pickup some bits and ideas for gifts, so we'll see!


and a final wrap up on the curiosity about quilts, here is a photo of the quilts we made over the weekend at church- 22 quilts that will go to those in need, we hope to do more again, it was a very productive and fun day.

bits and bobs

here are some photos i promised a while back. decided on a mosaic-it's sometimes easier to work with.

first row: kecia's birthday quilt- the brown and blue are the back with a glimpse of the top, i made a mini quilt of the same fabrics i used, i'll be happy to play show'n'tell sometime. our one and only time this summer where we dined outside. love the new table, seats 6 much more comfortably. hopefully with cooler weather in the future we'll have some more alfresco dinners. pj and jessica along with kecia and andrew (you can't see them) playing a card game during our visit.

2nd row: kecia's birthday cake: chocolate with chocolate icing: toffee bits and walnuts-yum! completed albums (always a yea!) and some of my newest fabric purchased. the "snowmen" are actually smores made to look like snowmen, can't wait to start that quilt. the green and pink fabric are for something i haven't decided yet, but looooved the print

3rd row: bolts of new fabric that arrived~~spotted on mine and kathy's last visit here- what is it about these fabric patterns that are sooo addictive? may get a few yards on the next trip~~~baby boy blanket, just finished my THIRD in this colorway, a nice break from the baby blue, but i'd really love to knit a girly one sometime! a look at some of the fabrics at the quilt store, this place is huge and it is organized by color, i love them all, and who knew there would be so much to choose from~~~i do get the same feeling when i go to a yarn shop.

other knitting updates: the moss sleeves these are ted-i-ous!!!, maybe with soccer starting i'll make some serious progress before it gets really cold. haven't touched a sock in almost 3 weeks, but I am getting a bit done on the secret sister gift. i want to pick out a fall sweater or vest to make with some of the wool I bought at why knot knit, so hopefully and soon i can peruse patterns and do a swatch. my plan this fall is to only work on small projects between now and christmas, hats, fingerless gloves, socks etc, then get going good guns while i off at christmas- best laid plans and all that!

TTFN

make mine a double . .

a double whoo hooo, double arm pump, yea baby, whatever. i've got two things i'm very proud of- somewhat disjointed, but that seems to be the norm these days . . .

the photo shows things i'm very proud of right now. . . yes that's the william morris quilt top- finished!!!!


and ahead of schedule, i'll be getting the batting, and the back piece this weekend, and hopefully there will be only one seam to make the back big enough to accommodate the quilt top, plans are to do the hand quilting at Dillard--this will give me something to work on while hanging with the family . .

the other thing is the print in the background- you can't read the writing, but it says" so much to be proud of . . so much to look forward to". mary gave this to me when i graduated with my teaching degree, and until now it never really had it's own special spot. now it's on my desk where i can see it everyday. it reminds me of how proud i am for earning both of my college degrees, and how supportive my family was during that time.

there is also one of my favorite photos of the boys i took on the campus of ksu about 6 years ago. so i guess that makes 3 or 4 things?! and if you didn't figure it out the clock features a william morris design that is also in the quilt.

progress report

42 days left if you're keeping track, and i feel pretty good about what i've gotten done so far, especially in the crafting arena. the moss sweater groweth, thanks to about 6 hours last wednesday (sitting pool side and in my room).

completed clues 5&6 of sotsii, hope to start on 7 this weekend, but it's not looking good for the crafting team. this is how it will look when it's worn, the little "bump" at the bottom was an odd addition.

have completed what i can of the wm quilt top. on the 27th kathy and i will get our april square materials, and have a big girl lunch! and i will get what i need for the wm quilt top, the photo isn't the best, but essentially what i have to do now is get enough material to fill the "carpet spots" that you see, any suggestions on a different placement? not sure if the way i have it is the way i'll go with it. plan to leave it on the carpet and have a look at it between now and the 27th. it's not perfectly aligned as my squares are not the exact same size, i'll be relying on kathy to help with this.

isabelle has her socks

-and then i started this pair so i'd have some plane knitting, love the colorway and it's a simple 1x1 ribbing --this yarn was bought in cleveland at Fine Points

have done some other "non-crafting" bits that are on the "to do" list, so i haven't started stressing, yet! the new maisie dobbs book is good!