No knitting related content today. I have a couple of projects I'm working on, the main one being the Monkey socks by Cookie A. from Knitty. Jude, if you're reading this, I really am working on your mitts, I'm just being a perfectionist about it. The yarn is not behaving and needs a few more stern talkings to.

So, here are a few pictures of the boys on Christmas day opening their presents. I hope we didn't go too overboard. I think if the stack of presents is higher than the kid then that's too much.

Here's the first thing we opened. We decided Mal got to open the first thing, and that's the Little Mermaid dvd my mother in law sent. Mal needed a little help getting started, but once he got the hang of it he started ripping paper like a pro.

Normally, I don't buy the BX brand toys because they're very obviously cheaply made but this was too adorable to pass up, especially for 4.99. I love how they have just about everything you need for a sushi platter, complete with a dab of wasabi paste and some pickled ginger.

We saw these at the local German toy store, and figured we'd better buy each of the boys one now before we got back to the States and couldn't find them. They are genuine metal capguns, with working parts that can be oiled,and a holster. Jason had these growing up and can attest that they last forever. You can't really find cap guns like this at Toys R Us anymore. I wasn't so sure about getting them because I don't want to encourage violence, but then they always seem to find creative ways to smack each other with their nonviolent toys, so I gave Jason the go ahead. I think he had more fun playing with them than the boys did.

The rest of the day we just lazed about, noshing on the sausage basket my mother in law sent, and watching movies. I saw Christmas Story for the first time and it was so great. That one is definitely going to become a tradition in our house.

I hope everyone else's holiday was as nice, and have a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

Normally, I get really stressed out over the holidays. I seem to pick up on everyone's nervous energy, and it also distresses me to see how badly some people get the "Gimmes". Presents are nice, but even if you're not religious, there should be more to Christmas than who got the biggest box.

However, this year I'm looking forward to it. Wyatt seems to really get things this year, and has been reall yexcited about the Christmas preparations. We put up a tree and lights, and have been present shopping. He got a real kick out of visiting Santa once he realized he was the one who delivered presents.

I have everything wrapped and sitting in my closet waiting for bows and ribbon. Growing up, my parents waited to put presents under the tree until Christmas Eve, so it was a lot of fun waking up and seeing presents there. I'm not doing stockings because I ran out of time to knit some but I am going to leave some candy in their shoes and tell them it's from Santa.

We aren't doing anything terribly fancy on Christmas, since all our friends have moved away. We're just planning on lying about, watching movies, and eating Mexican food. I have lots of new sock yarn to play with :) .

Today, I'm taking Wyatt to the local indoor pool since admission is free from 10 am to 3 pm. Jason's not keen on swimming and there's no way I could watch both of them by myself so he's keeping Mal. It'll be nice to have some alone time with Wyatt. I try to make sure I have time with him each day but it's hard to fit it in sometimes because Mal gets so jealous. I think I'm doing ok at sharing my time with the kids considering I grew up as an only child. I suppose it's a learning process.

Well, I'm off to do some straightening up, Merry Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate. :)

Drink, Feck, Arse

Right after I finished the last post, I realized "Crap, I have a knitting deadline". I agreed to knit a little pair of socks for another crafter's little girl (I'll post the link to her Etsy shop at the end, I don't know how to change the hyperlink to say her name instead of the whole address). I thought I had a lot more time, so didn't start the socks until the last minute. I managed to finish a pair with no problems a day and a half before I wanted to deliver them.

I'm a perfectionist, and even though we were trading, I treated this like it was a job someone was paying me for. Katie isn't a knitter, so I'm sure she wouldn't have spotted tiny mistakes, but I wanted these socks to be perfect.

I looked them over, and saw some little holes by the heels where I picked up stitches after I did the short row heel. I thought it wouldn't be a problem, that I could just tighten them up, but I didn't want the socks to look patchy inside so I decided I'd thread in a lifeline, and cut the heel out and carefully unravel it and do an afterthought heel instead. I was a little nervous about this but I took a deep breath after I put in the lifeline and snipped. Here's what it looked like pre-snip:

What a dumb thing for me to do! I must have snipped it in a wrong place beause I was having a lot of problems picking out the yarn without yanking stitches I wanted to stay intact, despite the lifeline. Not having a lot of time left, I accepted defeat and just started a new pair of socks outright because I didn't write anything down for the other socks so couldn't remember how many stitches I'd cast on, or where I made my increases and decreases.

Here's where I work in the post title: I arsed up the heel, so I said "Feck!" and felt like drinking. Instead, I busted ass and knit both the socks at the same time. I'm not clever enough to do both socks on two circulars, so I did them each on one circular doing the magic loop method. I'd work a few rows on one sock, then a few on the other. This of course made it feel like the sock would never end, but it ensured they would look the same and I wouldn't have to cast on for another sock and possibly not finish it. I did these with an afterthought heel.


Here they are knit up, toe grafted, and with the waste yarn cut with the live stitches waiting to be placed on the needles. To do this I worked the cuffs as long as I wanted them, then knit across half the stitches with the waste yarn, turned my work to purl back over them, then picked up my working yarn and kept knitting the sock down to the toe. I grafted the stitches together after I decreased to the number I wanted. Some hate grafting toes closed and will do anything to avoid it, but I actually look forward to it because it means I'm at or very close to the end point of the sock.

Katie loved the socks, and her reaction was worth scrapping the bad socks and starting over. I really enjoy making things for people who value hand made gifts. And, I got two lovely customized sweatshirts for the boys out of it, which I totally forgot to take pictures of them wearing.

Here's some yarny goodness drying on my radiator. The colors are courtesy of lemonade and orange flavored kool-aid, the yarn is white Regia 4 ply.

I'm off to knit more socks. Happy Holidays everyone! :)

An update

While I was knitting the other day, I started thinking about this blog. When I opened my account again, I was so surprised it'd been a full 4 months since I'd written! Ever since I had Mal, it seems like time goes by so much quicker than it should.

While I've dabbled in other crafts, knitting has always been in the background. I have scads of yard because I absolutely can't resist the yarn fumes. As mentioned in the comment by the blog title, I will hunt out yarn no matter where I am. I took a lovely trip to Edinburgh recently, and despite not knowing where I was, and being terrified of getting lost, I started asking around about where I could find yarn since I hadn't been able to find a dedicated yarn shop near the hostel I stayed at. As soon as I walked into the yarn department at Jenners, I felt at home. When I visited Sweden in 2004, I found a yarn shop by accident. I saw the display and couldn't resist going in. And, of course, within a week or two of moving here I knew where both the local yarn shop and the yarn department at Hela were located.

So, since I haven't quilted in a while, and won't for the forseeable future ( I'll be away from my machine for a couple of months when they pack the household goods) , I've decided to turn this into primarily a knitting blog, with my other craftiness and personal opinions thrown in.

I have a monster cold courtesy of Jason, so I'm off to reward myself with the sweet bliss of a Nyquil induced stupor. Cheers !

Long time, no blog

I haven't been doing so much quilting lately, and may not do any more for a while. I started sewing together some circles for the denim quilt today, and now my machine doesn't want to pick up the bobbin thread. I can't figure out how to fix this because this machine is different in that it has a drop in bobbin. Grrrr.





I have, however, been getting back into knitting. It's always been something I enjoyed, and I found it to be a little more portable than quilting while I was chasing around the boys when Jason was in Mississippi. I knew how to knit before I knew how to quilt, so I don't have to concentrate quite as hard on it.





I'm making a scarf out of Gedifra Chandra yarn. I can't remember the color number, but I saw the ball out on display and had to buy it right then. It's very soft, the label says it's a wool,polyamide and acrylic blend.





I had a hard time deciding how best to play up the colors in it, so I stuck to a simple design. I hate it when only one side of a scarf is pretty, so I decided to knit it as a tube, and I have one side plain stockinette, and a simple cable running the length of it on the other side. I wanted it to be easy enough I could find my place again in case the boys took my attention, but not so boring as to be mind numbing.






This was my progress after a couple of hours working on it. The colors are a bit washed out because of the flash, and I don't think a camera could do them justice anyhow. I went back to the shop and there was a whole bag of this yarn, so I bought two more balls just to be sure I'd have enough to make the scarf nice and long.






I've been trying to figure out how to knit socks. You can get high quality sock yarn anywhere here, including the toom (a super K Mart type store) and Hela ( think of a Home depot, PetSmart, Michaels, and Wal-Mart all in one store). I think I'll stock up before we move from here so even if we're on a tight budget when Jason gets out, I'll still have some crafty things to play with. So far, I haven't had much luck, but I think I just need to keep at it and eventually I'll get the hang of it. I need to teach some people around here to knit so I have someone to commiserate with in person! When the boys are old enough, I plan on handing them some needles and yarn since they're always wanting to get into my stash anyhow. They may not think it's cool, but I think at least having knowledge of knitting, crochet, sewing, and cooking will fall under the "Can't hurt to know it" category.

This one's for you Miss Kitty

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a rant

I'm listening to a news report now about why not to leave a child in the car on a hot day, and I find it highly distressing that it's only illegal in twelve states. TWELVE! Why is this not illegal everywhere? I understand what a pain it can be to take a child into the store, especially if it's only for a few things. However, I think that falls under the "It sucks to be a parent sometimes, but oh well. What can you do?" Children getting severely injured or dying because of being left in a hot car is such a preventable tragedy.

Another disturbing part of the report mentioned that in most cases of a child dying in a hot car, a person just plain forgot them.Excuse me? How can a person, whether they are a caregiver or the parent, forget a child ? I've done weird things like forget my wallet at home or leave my purchases at the check out counter when I'm distracted by the kids, but I've never once forgotten one of my kids. Also, if it's a caregiver and they are so easily distracted that they forget a child in the car, they shouldn't be minding the child.

Phew. I need to go have some carbs and calm down, this report has me seething, and I need to keep it together for my little chitlins.

only 13 more days left

Jason left for 7 level school yesterday morning at oh-dark-thirty. It's been a day, I miss him already, and I'm not just saying that because I've had to deal with the boys all by myself. :) Wyatt did ok, I'm not sure how much he understands Daddy being gone. He's more concerned with the Iron Man action figure that's going to be his special present from Jason. The last time Jason was gone for any length of time Wyatt wasn't even a year old yet.

I didn't finish quilting the skull quilt in time, so I made something for Jason to take with him. It's a pinup girl on a tiny little pillow. I was embroidering furiously to get it done in time since I was determined Jason would have a memento from home to take with him. I think she turned out really well, and I'd be interested in doing a wall hanging or quilt of a whole bunch of pinup girls. It was fun looking for pictures of vintage posters and tracing different ones. I had to be careful doing the google search because I found a couple of links that lead to really trashy stuff. Yuck!

I don't have a picture of the pillow all put together. I was in mid construction when I took this photo. I wanted to show my friend Monica how it was going (that's her in the chat window to my left). I embroidered on a plain broadcloth square, used a piece of leftover batting and batiste for the back, then quilted around. Then, I used some leftover red batik for the outer backing and a ruffle. Oo-la-la! The red batik is leftovers from the skull quilt, and I thought the deep red color kept it from being too frilly for a man.

Here's another picture I did before I decided to go with the lovely lady in red. I will probably finish her and make another little pillow. I'm taking a break from embroidery for a few days though. It was difficult to keep the purple in my hair from rubbing off onto the picture (because I often reach up and scratch my head), and also to keep sticky little fingers and the furry childrens' hair off of it.

I suppose I could put off some of the crafting I do but it would make me crazy to not have an outlet. I've (willingly, I might add) sacrificed so much of myself to have kids that I'm not going to put off the artistic part of me just because it can be a real pain to keep them away from my things. I just choose crafts that are appropriate for being around the kiddos. I read somewhere once that in order to teach kids to love books, you need books all around the house and children need to see them being read. I see my crafting the same way.

Dollhouse

Wyatt did something that was incredibly cute the other day. We were out on a walk to the store and he found some pinecones, and carried them around the rest of the day. He had two little ones which he told me were the babies, and a big one that was the mama. He said "Where's the daddy pinecone? He's at work!"

So, I've decided to make Wyatt a dollhouse. I don't want to build a big heavy one since we're due to move in a few months and I worry about something tipping over. I'd rather build one than get something premade, because most of those are plastic, they wouldn't ship such a large package here, and they usually look like the Pepto Bismol fairy threw up all over them. Also, this will give me a chance to use bits of things I find to make some furniture. For the main parts, I'm using these wooden crates and painting them. The bigger crates run about 12 bucks a piece, and the small ones are about 7. I thought of attaching them but I'll leave them be so Wyatt can arrange them how he likes and I can use them later as storage boxes.

We had some leftover paint from Wyatt's room, so I got to painting the box straight away. It was really relaxing just slapping the paint on. It's a lovely shade of blue and I'm glad I get to use it again as it's not enough to do another room, but an awful lot to chuck out.

Here's what it looks like so far. During the week I'll probably round up some cardboard, fabric scraps, and the like and make a bed, table, and chairs. What I really need is to find some popsicle sticks. Then I would get to play with paint again . :)

I'll leave you with another picture. You can tell these two have life so hard, right?

Skull quilting progress

I've taken out the skull quilt again. Jason's departure date for 7 level school is approaching fast, and if I want the quilt done for him to take along, I have to haul bum.

I was afraid to do it by machine, but I realized this was the only way I'd finish it on time. I don't have a walking foot, and it's a pretty cheap machine, so I was worried. I made a couple of practice quilt sandwiches and the results weren't too bad so I gave it a go.

The samples showed me that now is not the time to try to learn free motion quilting. :) I need a better foot for that anyhow. So, I decided to just to evenly spaced straight lines. They aren't all across the top in long lines or a grid. I treated the shapes as their own sections. I'm terrible at explaining, but it'll be easier when the whole thing is finished.

I only have one itty-bitty section of straight line quilting left, then I'm going to echo quilt around the outside of the large design. My back, shoulders and left hand are throbbing. It's just your average sewing machine, so I'm having to shove the bulk of the quilt through the miniscule throat space. Also, not having a walking foot, I'm having to use my hands to keep it feeding evenly. I think the only reason it's working at all is it's a thin cotton batting I'm using. Were if high loft batt, I'd be toast. I'd love for the qulting fairy to drop a longarm machine and table on my doorstep, but I don't see that happening anytime soon ( I can see her saying "Ooops, sorry, we don't ship outside the contiguous 48 States").I'm seriously considering getting one of the Flynn multi-system frames.

Anyhoo, here are pictures.

Here is the back.









And here is the front. I must say, I'm really happy with the way it's turning out and I don't often say that since I'm such a perfectionist. Sure, it won't win any shows, but no one will be looking that close at the stitching anyhow. I think reactions will be "Whoa! Skulls! Freakin' awesome!" Or at least hopefully "Whoa! Skulls!
They're ok. "

Long time no post

Goodness, I just realized it's been a long time since I've posted. Not that anyone misses me in the blogworld! But that's ok, I have a great life in the real world so my ego isn't too damaged by not many people commenting. I sure am glad that my whole life doesn't center around the internet and the computer. I talk to people online (most are my friends that have mobved away), but I don't think I'll ever be the type to use the digital world as a substitute.

I've been busy string piecing, something I don't think I'd have the patience to do by hand. I think things are turning out really well, I'm just worried that all my combinations are starting to look the same since I don't have a huge collection of scraps.

Since I'm going for a really scrappy look, I want to make sure I'm not using the same fabrics in the same places. I've been wanting to make some Ohio Star blocks, so I did some scrappy ones with some string piece blocks in between. I think I'm going to throw a few solid color stars in too since I'm starting to run out of long strings.

I'm so happy with the way this is turning out. They're 12 inch blocks so the quilt is growing nicely, and I love the scrappy stars. The best part is I'm making something out of stuff that I probably would have thrown out before. I'm not sure how big I'm going to make it, but I'll post pictures of my progress.

Jason and I went to the big annual summer happening, a.k.a the BASH, last weekend. I thought Wyatt would enjoy some of the rides since they have a few for little kids, but he screamed on every single one! Mal loved them though. I took him on one that was made to look like a hot air balloon , and I held him in my lap. Every time we'd go in the air, Mal would smile and clap his hands. We played a couple of games and won some crappy toys for the boys, ate caramel covered apples, frito pies, and steak sandwiches. It was a great day.

I got a very cute wallet at the bazaar there, made out of the Alexander Henry tattoo flash fabric I've been coveting. I really need to get on E Bay and buy some of this fabric. I think I want to make pillowcases out of it, or a quilt with really big squares to show off the print.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=62814 This is the etsy shop of one of the people I bought it from, it's called Sinner VIP. I also like the things Katie makes and finds at fatpatch. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=109655.

I love buying handmade things from people. I'm a crafter so I can appreciate the effort it takes to make things, and I really love having something that can't be bought at a chain store. Don't get me wrong, I loves me some Wal Mart, but it seems like handwork isn't appreciated now that things can be easily obtained at the store. Sure, I could have bought a wallet for cheaper than I bought the one above, but it would have been the same as everyone else's and I wouldn't have gotten to appreciate the crafter's work.

Well, I'm off to catch some zzzzzs, so I'll leave you with this

Made in Germany from American parts :)

He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty Wyatt!

http://thesurrealist.co.uk/movie.php?word=Wyatt

This brought me unexpected giggles today. It's a random movie quote generator where a name can be substituted. My post title is the most recent one I did.

I am disappointed my machine crapped out. I really wanted to do some string piecing with the huge scrap collection I'm acquiring. I know it could be done by hand but with some of the bits I'm using, I think a machine will be better because the stitches will be sturdier. I would love to have a nice Bernina, Janome, or Husqvarna, but that just isn't in the budget right now and would be difficult to obtain before we move back to the States in a few months. I'd have to order it and wouldn't get to test it in person, and have my mother in law send it here since authorized dealers don't send machines outside of their area. All those companies have overseas locations, but I'm pretty sure those will be 220 voltage.

So, since there are no repair shops in the area that I'm aware of and we're moving soon and I need a machine now, I put a cheap (94 US Dollars) Brother machine on layaway at the BX. I paid half today and will pay the rest of it when Jason gets paid again, or perhaps sooner if we have extra before then.

I found an adorable outfit today while I was looking at the machines. It looks like a minidress but I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a top. I don't think I'll do the minidress thing now that I'm not a size 4 anynmore. Plus,when I'm chasing the boys at the playground, I think the other parents can live fulfilling lives without knowing the exact brand and color of underwear I'm wearing. Anyhow, here it is.

I wasn't so sure about the yellow but Jason gave it the ok, and he has pretty good taste in clothes for a computer geeky guy. :) I want to get some wool roving and make felt flowers so I can pin them in my hair. I think yellow and orange will stand out great against my still purple hair. I think the empire style is really cute. I might have to try my hand at replicating this look when I get my machine.

I have explored some hand piecing ideas the past few days to keep my hands busy. Here is a star I made. It was a pain to trace all the shapes individually and not rotary cut them but it was very easy to hand sew having a line to follow, and I was also able to use some small scraps.

The points don't match up very well in the middle, but I'm ok with that since the star lies flat, and I managed to sew three quarters of it together while I was sitting by the tub while the boys were playing in their bath. Huzzah for multi-tasking!

a bit of strong language ahead

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3269485&page=1

What an asshat. Wait, that's an insult to people who are asshats.

quilting progress and yummy dinner

That little dot is there because I couldn't figure out how to unpost a picture I didn't want there.:)

I realized the other day I haven't really done any piecing in a long time. Save for a couple of small side projects, I've been putting all my creative energy into Jason's quilt. I'm not as frustrated as when I was basting it,though, because I feel now that I'm quilting, I'm actually making progress.

I'm still not sure if I'll have it done in time, but I will try my best. The main reason I'm not on it right now is my left middle finger is sore from feeling the tip of the needle from the backside to make sure it's gone all the way through. I think I've even managed to sew my finger to the quilt a couple of times. Oh well, at least if I bleed on it, it won't show since the material is red and black. :)

Here's what I've done so far. I took pictures of the front but it doesn't really show well with the basting stitches. I'm using black thread in the black spaces,and red in the red. The lines in the square are nice and straight thanks to scotch tape. Boy, it was a pain stitching around it, but now that I see how nice the lines are I'm glad I did it. I had a hard time deciding what to do in the red parts, but I'm just going to free hand some nice little arches. I don't have a decent marking pencil, and I think with the mottled texture it looks fine it things aren't perfectly straight. If I were doing it by machine, I'd probably do a meander stitch there.

We had the best dinner tonight. For some reason, I was having a strong craving for black eyed peas (the food, not the band). So,I cooked two slices of bacon and saved the drippings and sauteed some chopped celery and onions in half of it, the dumped in the tins of the peas and let that simmer. Then, I made some cornbread from scratch, no sugar, with a drained can of fiesta corn dumped in. I used the remaining bacon grease to oil the pie plate so when I took it out of the oven the bread was light and fluffy with a fine brown crust on the outside. I plopped some beans on the plate, added a nice hunk of cornbread, and some thick slices of tomato on the side.Oh, and the sweet tea. It was all so good, it was almost better than chocolate. I'm definitely going to have it for dinner again tomorrow night.

No injured toe projects yet

My toe is completely better, thank goodness. I didn't take any pictures of that project I started because I stopped working on it after that day. I think I have a case of crafter's ADD. I will start up a lot of little projects and not find one that catches my fancy.

That is, until yesterday. I finished basting the skull quilt!!! Yaayyyy!!! I got started quilting on it tonight. I'm so excited, I finally feel like I'm making headway. I just hope I can finish it in time for Jason to take it with him.

Since I don't have any craft pictures today, I'll post a couple of my critters. Adelaide,who is Addy for short, is our border collie mix that we got at the Denver Dumb Friends League right after we moved to Denver in 2001. Korshka is our little evil kitty darling who joined us in February 2002.

I apologize for the quality. Jason has rearranged stuff on the computer and I can't find some of our pictures. These were taken back on 2003, when we still lived in Denver. I'm kind of ashamed to say I haven't take many pictures of the animals recently, since I've been snapping ones of the kids. I'll just chalk it up to the camera not being able to stand all the cuteness at once . :)

Only I could do this....

We were on our way out to the store yesterday when I tripped over my own feet and bruised the heck out of my left big toe, right on the knuckle. My toes folded right under and my full weight (quite ample lately thanks to ice cream) came right down on it.

It is kind of purple now, so I'm parking my butt on the couch and also in the boys' room and embroidering. Today would have been a lovely day for the park, but I think I'll need to rest my foot some. Just doing basic daily straightening up this morning was awful.

I'll post pictures of my toe injury project soon :)

Pretty Kitty

I've been dabbling in embroidery. I was never into it before, but on a whim, I picked up Jenny Hart's Stitch it Kit, and have been hooked ever since. A lot of traditional patterns seemed a bit too stuffy for my taste, and looked too difficult for me to even want to try.

Her designs only require mastery of a couple of different stitches, and are totally awesome. How do skulls, pinup ladies, and sushi sound? I'm currently embroidering a cat on a handkerchief for a friend. I'm not sure what to call it (Is it a dresser scarf? A wall-hanging? A doily?) but I think it is turning out very cute. I plan on adding some more details but wanted to post a picture to prove that,yes, I am working on craft related stuff. :)

Those shadowy stars are from one of the patterns, I just haven't embroidered those yet. I made them very light on purpose, because I like the patterns so much I want to get lots of use out of them.

This is what I've been up to with the skull quilt. I found a great book called Take Away Applique, by Suzanne Marshall (she's in my quilting links). In it, one of the things she explains is how she quilts with no hoop or frame, so she's able to move from room to room with her project. One of the ways she makes the method work is she bastes the heck out of a quilt. This way, she doesn't have to worry about it coming apart, she just fills in with the quilting stitches.

This woman's work is fantastic. She does it all by hand and it's so beautiful, it defies description. You have to see the pictures on the site. Besides, it's outrageous to ship something like a quilting frame or even just the hardware here, and then I'd have to keep the kids from getting their fingers caught in it. At any moment I may have to literally drop my work to chase after the boys. The excessive basting is a very good idea in my case.

Even thought I've never tried applique, I want to try one of the bug quilts you can see on her site or in the book. Don't Bug Me is the quilt on the cover, and Wyatt immediately started pointing out all the different bugs to me. I love traditional applique designs, but never saw anything that made me say "I have to make this now!" until I saw that quilt.

Not crafty, but fun anyhow

I don't do a lot of memes, but I found this at http://crankyprof.blogspot.com.

1. Go to Wikipedia and put in your birthday, without the year, in the search bar.

2. List on your blog 3 events, 2 births, 1 death and 1 holiday that happens(ed) on your birthday.

3. Then tag 5 more friends to do it!

I knew some of the things that had happened on my birthday, but others were a surprise. Like the cranky prof, I'm not tagging anyone, but if you do it, leave me a note in the comments so I can see yours. Enjoy!


3 events
1891- A New immigration depot is opened on Ellis Island, New York
1904-The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square
1923- The chines of Big Ben are broadcast in radio for the first time by the BBC

2 births
1908 Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Holocaust survivor, (d. 2005)
1937 Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor

one death
1997-Michael Kennedy
one holiday
New Year's Eve on the Gregorian calendar

Some might say I have issues....

I have been feeling outspoken and surly lately.The main reason is because I have one of those colds that isn't bad enough to completely incapacitate me, but saps my will to live a little more each day. It started Thursday and by Friday afternoon I was a zombie. I feel better now than I did the other day but I think it's the calm before the storm, since I feel the scratchiness and ick moving into my throat. What a lovely mother's day present.





Thank goodness I am crafty, and can channel my agressiveness. It was nice the other day to concentrate on those teeny, tiny quilt blocks. Today, I made cake. I want to make cake for Malcolm's first birthday and I am the type that needs remedial cake decorating classes. I think they'd probably kick me out of the regular ones. So, I picked up some cake mix, chocolate frosting, and the icing that comes precolored in a tube to which different tips can be affixed. I didn't have room for "Happy Birthday" since I just made one 6 inch layer, so I came up with something else on the spur of the moment:

I feel like I didn't do too bad of a job. The flowers almost look like they're not random blobs of blue.I remembered to put the little pieces of wax paper under the edges when I was icing it, so I made a nice little border around the bottom. My top border was off because the layer was sloping a bit, but I didn't care since it was practice.

Eeek, the words are running together so I'm off to slumber in Nyquil induced coma. Happy Mother's day!

Itty Bitty block

I love tiny doll quilts. I only wish I had girls so I had an excuse to make more! I've made one for my friend's daughter (no pictures of it) , and it was great fun. I have a lot of scraps floating around so I decided to start one today. I've made one block so far and it turned out really well.

I was aiming for it to be three inches, but somehow it turned out to 2 and a half. That's ok. Once I trim the edges, it will still look fine. I got the idea from the block here: http://www.quiltville.com/chunkychurndash.shtml

I drew a three inch square on notebook paper and drew all the lines in the appropriate places, then added seam allowances to all of the pieces so I could figure out what size strips and squares I needed. I haven't done the hourglass blocks yet, my brain just isn't up for any more math. I couldn't find the calculator and hate the one on the computer so I used paper and pen for the multiplication and long division. Thankfully, I still know how to do it. I'm always surprised how so many people make it through school without learning it.

Well, I'm off to catch some zzzzs. Have a happy early Mother's day--and that goes to people with non human babies as well (cats, dogs, chickens, etc). :)

All the pretty colors

My son Wyatt is three, and is still in diapers. I wish he were potty trained,but I just don't think it's the right time to push the issue. There are some positives to him still being in diapers at three, the biggest being he can tell me when he's gone in his diaper and needs a change.

A few minutes ago, he walked in the room and said "I need new diaper. I pooped myself. " I told him to wait a minute so I could finish what I was doing. He obliged, and kept telling me about his poop. "I make big poop mama. I make red poop". This alarmed me. I looked at him and saw red smears on his leg and in the diaper area. I yelped and made him lie down so I could have a look. I thought "Oh my god, he hurt himself, how did he do that?"

It clicked then, however, that he had consumed a half bag of cheetos. I don't normally let him have so much junk food at once, but today was one of those days where he was driving me so nuts, I let him eat whatever he wanted so long as he wasn't destroying the house, chasing the animals, or picking on his brother. He kept a running narrative while I was cleaning the lovely mess. "I make red poop, I make yeddow poop, I make blue poop!" Oh well, at least he has a good grasp on his colors.

Proof I need more of my medication

I am going to attempt a lonestar quilt with these colors. It's taking me days to even make the strip sets for it because I'm being very slow and careful.I need 6 sets of strips, and I'm on my third. Wish me luck!

Isn't this the best picture? Jason took this at the Cologne Zoo on Saturday. This poor little mama meerkat is so big she looks ready to pop. She can't even put her arms at her sides, she has to rest them on her belly (I've been there! I even used to sit my dinner plate on my tummy and watch the baby kick it). And the other one is sunning himself! I think a few minutes later he gets tackled by a big group of the other meerkats.

Well, I'm off to cut some more strips for the lone star!

Skull big block quilt

Here is the quilt top with the skulls! It doesn't lie as flat as I would like, but I'm hoping I'll be able to quilt it out satisfactorily. I had the little ones at my feet all weekend as I was putting it together, and I used a different method than my usual one for putting the half square triangles together so I think that's what caused it. Other than that, I'm thrilled with the color scheme. Now, I just have to baste it together for quilting. I decided to use the flaming skulls for the back since they will look best when they're not hacked into little pieces.

On a side note, have you ever wondered what an RC car looks like when a kid puts it into the oven? Well now you don't have to. :)

Is that a 4 patch or are you just happy to see me?

I've been going through all my scraps, cutting them into 2 1/2 inch squares, and making them into 4 patches. I settled on 4 patches because I originally wanted to do a double 4 patch block. However, as I laid some of the 4 patches out, I realized that particular pattern wasn't going to look as I wanted it to. "Well crap!" I thought. I already had about 30 4 patches made, enough that I didn't want to start over with something different.



I couldn't think of what to do. I knew I didn't like the double four patch layout, and wanted to do something a little more challenging than a checkerboard pattern. I started sketching, and came to the conclusion that I'd set the 4 patches on point, alternating with unbleached muslin. The muslin was neutral enough that it blended well with all the different colors, and left some nice open space so the 4 patches really popped. I may go through more of my scraps later and see if I can applique some tiny flowers or leaves or something on the squares.




Here's a picture of what I've done so far, piecing wise. All the 4 patches are made, but I still have to cut out more setting squares and triangles (I ran out of muslin and had to go get more).

I'm really pleased with the way it's turning out. I was nervous about doing anything on point since the mini quilt was such a nightmare,but so far so good.

p.s. There are 89 4 patch blocks. That counts what's already pieced and the ones waiting. 89 X 4 = 356! Yikes, that's a lot of scraps.

Can't wait!!!

I'm not feeling inspired to work on anything right now. I just started a new medication and it's making me really tired. Fatigue+rotary cutter= no more fingertips!

However, we got the tax return so among other things I went ahead and ordered the fabric for Jason's skull quilt. These are the main fabrics I'll be using :

I'm pairing the red flame skulls with a mottled black, and the white and black skull print with a red batik.


I just joined the bigblockquilts community at livejournal.com, and I'm going to be using this month's block to make both sides. Jason liked both prints but the Irish chain quilt taught me to be more careful pairing such showy prints together, so I am just going to make one side with one print, and the other side with the other. I'm hoping to have it all done before Jason goes to 7 level school in Mississippi so he can take it with him. I told him that no one will bother his stuff with this quilt on his bed, tee hee. :)

Happy quilting!!

Easy?!

Remember how I said I looked forward to the Irish Chain? I think I'm changing my mind.

I thought there colors would be a more crisp contrast between the two colors,but I didn't realize how much the prints would compete with each other. It wouldn't have looked so bad if one were a solid and the other a big print. Then, I realized I made another mistake.

I meant for the lighter print to be the one forming the chains, but once I put them together I realized I'd cut out the the wrong color of background squares. Grrrrrr. Grrrrrr.

Even though the prints compete with each other,I went ahead and cut out lighter background squares. I'll finish the pattern since I cut out all the pieces and it is easy to put together. I think I will make an interesting backing to the quilt. I was trying some different things with my scraps, and I made a star block with half square triangles. I love the look of stars but am terrified of diamonds with all those bias edges. I'll do them one day, but now's not the time for me.

I used my 2 1/2" squares for this one. I'm not picky about the size (it ended up a bit over 6 inches) since I am trying to use up scraps. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I haven't decided how I want to set the squares yet. I'm thinking either plain squares in a light print or muslin, or sashings and cornerstones. I think I'm going to get more fabric this weekend even though I'm trying to use up my stash because I want to have a big variety and am running out of different ways to put things together. I feel like that's ok because now I know lots of ways to use scraps, and they won't be wasted.

Happy Quilting!

Arrghhh

I decided I wanted a quick hand piecing project, so I cut out all these cute little squares. Then, I thought "Well hey,I've never done on point settings before". So I tried that out. All was well until I sewed the rows of assembled squares together. I don't know if I marked the squares wrong, or made the triangles the wrong size, but that quilt isn't even almost square. I don't think everything has to necessarily perfect, but this little bugger was just wrong.

So, I'm going to piece a single Irish Chain pattern that I stared a while back but put aside. I'm doing it on the machine, andthe squares and 9 patches are simple but after the mini quilt fiasco, I need simple. Plus, I love the fabric I chose for it so I always feel in a better mood after looking at it.

On the upside, I am recovering from the horrible cold I've had the past week. Yay!!

My current project

I don't have a walking foot for my machine, so I am learning to quilt by hand. Who knew a simple running stitch could be so difficult?! I am telling the voice in my head that says "give up, get a walking foot, you'll never get this " to shut up for now. No one I know in person quilts so I am relying on pictures, helpful suggestions, and dogged determination to do it. I know deep down that the only way I'll get better at quilting is to just do it.

I made a table runner out of some 2 1/2 inch strips to practice on. I was meaning to make another small quilt but ran out of the fabric I wanted. Of course, there isn't any more at the store, but I am also trying to use what I have instead of buying new fabric all the time. I think it's good, it's forcing me to be creative.

The top picture is of the back. I made pioneer braids of 2 1/2 inch by 6 inch strips following the directions at http://www.quiltville.com/pioneerbraidborder.shtml . It was lots fun, I'm definitely going to use braids on future quilts.

The bottom picture is of the front. I wondered how to do the tapered ends since I wanted to continue with the patchy pattern but didn't have any of the gold print left. So, I strip pieced two 9 patch squares of the red and blue. Then I started to wonder what would happen if I cut the squares across the diagonal. I did, rotated them so the short sides were touching an voila! I had tapered ends the perfect size for the main body.

I'm not near finished quilting it. I figured after struggling with some designs I'd doodled on I just needed to do long, straight (well, almost straight) lines. No pictures yet, but so far it's going well and I'm finding my hand quilting rhythm. It's nice to do something by hand rather than be tethered to the machine. If I can push aside my impatient side I'll do some hand piecing.