I'm still here

Just popping in quickly to let everyone know that I'm still here.
And to everyone who left concerned comments: don't worry - the second mitten is almost halfway done.
I'm "cleaning up Christmas" today which is kind of sad although I'll be ecstatic to have my house back.
I've also started work on a friend for my cross stitch Santa, but it's slow going and I think I need a magnifier to see the little pattern squares.

I'll post updates as I make progress.
School starts again on Thursday when, hopefully, the crafting will recommence.

It's a mitten!

Now...do I knit another one or pretend that I'm Michael Jackson?
I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday.
Following the resolution of millions around this time of year (so boring!), we're attempting to shed a couple of pounds around here. The sad state I'm in became VERY apparent yesterday when I could only do 11 (girlie) push-ups! It can only get better from here...

Merry Christmas!

I wish all of you a very peaceful Holiday with your families.

First Mitten (I hope)

Conversation between Jennifer (the Socksgiving Angel) and I after yesterday's post:
Jennifer: "How could you knit mittens and not be able to knit socks?"
Me: "I don't know that I can knit mittens. I thought I'd give it a whizz."
Jennifer: "Ahhh, the truth, I was wondering about you and that thumb gusset."
Me (silently): "Uh-oh..."

And why would I pick the most complicated pattern I could find for my first mitten? Because I'm a nut case like to challenge myself.
(Did I mention that I've never tried stranded knitting before either?)

It's Laundry Day

...at Santa's house.

Yesterday I had a blah day. Just sat on the couch and watched "The Real Housewives" (don't tell anyone, it's a secret) on Tivo. I then had a little flurry of energy and decided that knitting some mittens would be in order but didn't have the correct needles. So, back to the couch I went.

At least all the shopping is done and all the gifts wrapped...

An early start

Finish Quilt-a-long Block 6 by 8am: check!

My quilt group (now officially renamed a fiber arts group which allows us to be knitters, crochet'ers, or whatever else has to do with fiber) had our Christmas meeting last night. At the gift exchange I ended up with this:

How much more perfect can you get for an obsessive compulsive Type A person? A quilt block a day! Woohoo!
Gotta go play in the traffic quickly this morning to finish the last of the Christmas shopping.

I'm a sock knitter!

The Socksgiving sock is done! Please excuse the picture quality. It's 3:30 and dark. (But do notice how someone of my advanced age can still put her foot on the kitchen counter while balancing on the other one and take a photo with a shutter speed of 1/25!)

I was so impressed with myself that I found another sock pattern and set about knitting a PAIR of socks!

I miscounted somewhere and one sock is a teenie bit bigger than the other so I probably have to practice the pair thing a little more...
But Woohoo!
Thanks Jennifer!

What's on our tree

As I've mentioned before, we don't have a "designer" tree. Maybe one day we'll have a tree all color-coordinated and pretty, but for now it's about ornaments with memories and, even though these have no rhyme or reason, we love the memories they bring.

Josh loves penguins. We're actually contemplating having a separate "penguin tree" next year.


The Queen of Everything (that would be me)


Ice cream in winter - yum!

My pride and joy

On a very rare occasion I make something that takes even my breath away. This is one of those things. While I can't take credit for the pattern (which is really the source of all this beauty), I did spend countless hours working on this project and it always brings a smile to my face.
I'm so happy to have people to share it with this year. Please click on the pictures to see more details. Cross stitch is notoriously difficult to take photos of, especially when it's behind glass.
Someone asked: it's 12"x14"

And what is this?...

...you ask. Do you ever feel like all you do is laundry? I was wondering how many loads I do per week, so I strung my little row counter up in the laundry room. The count is not as high as I expected, but the week is young...

On a different note, the block for week 5 of the quilt-a-long.

I really like this one.

Charmed, I'm sure

The Christmas cards are made and we got the tree up yesterday, but that's about it Christmas-wise. I'm hoping to hit the loft today and see what's up there that I still want to put in my house. Am I the only one who sorts through the Christmas decorations each year and goes "What was I thinking?"? At least this is an excuse for new stuff...

In August I posted about the Holly Jolly charm squares I fell in love with and just had to have. I'd never bought charm squares before and now know why. What on earth do you do with 37 different 5" squares? While I was still pondering a solution 3 months later, the amazing Monica came up with one.
And here it is...

the Jingle Jolly runner.
It matches the family room curtains just perfectly!

Socksgiving - step 4

I decided that I won't bore you with my repetitive lists today.
My Socksgiving sock is starting to look like....a sock!

(You have no idea how hard it is to take a photo of a sock on your foot while trying to avoid grossing everyone out with the vision of your un-pedicured foot!)

The history of Socksgiving:
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3

GOWI 3

I really was planning on posting less after NaBloPoMo, but I seem to have something to share every day...
Quilt-a-long Week 4:

I bought Josh's birthday gift today. One more thing checked off the list.

Today:
1. make Christmas runner
2. take some decorations down from the loft
3. address Christmas card envelopes
4. write family Christmas letter

Notice the repetitive trend here?

GOWI 2

i.e. "Getting On With It" 2
Thanks to all your wonderful suggestions regarding my wreath problem, I walked into JoAnn's with a plan yesterday. Of course they didn't have what I needed to execute the plan, but other inspiration soon came. I'm quite happy with the outcome. I have to be. It's time to move on to other things.

I updated yesterday's post to reflect what I actually got done.

Today:
1. make Christmas cards
2. print family photos
3. finish the black, white, and orange quilt top
4. make Christmas runner
5. take some decorations down from the loft
6. make quilt-a-long block
7. mail some packages, even if they're not "perfect"

What's on your list for today?

Getting on with it

Today I'm pulling myself out of my slump and getting on with things. Time waits for no-one.

It never got light yesterday. I didn't want to vacuum in the dark, so I waited for it to get light. It never did. I vacuumed in the dark this morning because it may not get light today either. I love winter in Seattle so I don't know why I'm so bummed out by this. At least we have power. 80,000 people don't.

On today's list:
1. finish the black, white, and orange quilt top
2. make a Christmas runner
3. figure out a Christmas card design - quickly!!!
4. do some boring paperwork (someone has to pay the bills)
5. get a haircut
6. go get fun things for the front door wreaths
7. mail some way overdue packages
8. make the quilt-a-long block

OK, I may not get to all of this, but at least I have a list.
And because I believe no post is complete without a photo...

I love this boy.

So what did you do this weekend?

I bet it wasn't as much fun as this!

Thanks girls, that was fun!

Here's a tribute to you, my lovely blog friends...

(straight from my Costco trip: Cuties & little Hotties - all of you!)
Thanks for all the wreath suggestions! I now have a multitude of ideas to take over the to craft store.
After the NaBloPoMo overkill, I'm taking the weekend off (I think). Enjoy!

Phew, that was close!

I'm clearly NaBloPoMo'd out.

Any suggestions on how to prettify these wreaths without going overboard?

WIP Wednesday

At the beginning of October a bunch of us went on the Fall Stash Dash. This was a great little shop hop, since they handed out a fat quarter of fabric at every shop, along with one step of instructions for the "Stash Dash Quilt". The quilt is officially called "What's Black & White & Red All Over?", but since I'm in an orange phase...

In the Spirit of Quilt-a-long

Since we all seem to be fully in the Christmas Spirit at the moment, I was inspired to pick an almost Christmas-sy fabric for this week's block.

Check out blocks made by fellow quilt-a-long'ers here.

I realized this morning that, after doing absolutely no quilting for months, I am now working on three quilts. Strange how that happens, especially when I should really be getting ready for Christmas...

Spice Market

The quilt top is finally done! Woohoo!

Only the oldest readers of this blog will remember this, so I will share with you some photos depicting the history of this project. If you'd like to read the whole saga (longer than a Harry Potter book), just click on the dates.
March 11, 2007

April 9, 2007

April 16, 2007

April 24, 2007

April 30, 2007

May 9, 2007

June 12, 2007

July - November 2007
Nothing whatsoever!

Loveliness

Who can even think about leaving the blogging world when you have wonderful friends like Nicolette? Dutch fabric (in the colors of the Dutch(and American) flag), a lovely pincushion for my collection, candy, and chocolate!!! I'll eat the candy and chocolate, and use the pincushion, but I don't know if I can bring myself to cut into those cute little hens.
Thank you Nicolette! You made my day.

Thanks to everyone who left concerned comments on yesterday's post. I'm truly not thinking of completely quitting blogging, just cutting back a little. I'd be lonely without all the kindred souls out there.

Quilt-a-long and Contemplation

My second block for the quilt-a-long.
You can see other beautiful blocks made by "quilt-a-long-ers" over here.

Now for the contemplation...
Ever since I started this blog I've posted just about every day. That's why I thought that posting EVERY everyday during the month of November would be a breeze. All it has lead to, however, was a feeling that I was being forced to do something, which lead to me not wanting to do it at all. Kind of like a teenager (or a man). I'm now questioning whether I blog because I create things or whether I am at the point where I'm making things because I blog. Hmmmm...

Socksgiving - step 3

It's been a while since I've posted an update on "Socksgiving".

If you look closely, you'll see that there's a teeny little heel down there. Woohoo! I turned the heel! I'm getting ready to continue to step 4, which could be another challenge.
If you're wondering about step 1 and step 2, you can find details here and here.
(Did you notice that I'm still managing to keep up this NaBloPoMo thing?)

Happy Turkey (and pie) Day!

My contribution to Thanksgiving dinner. Pies, pies, pies.
From top to bottom: pumpkin, cherry-blueberry, and apple

I definitely have a leaf thing going...

Of course, when I agreed to make the dessert, I kind of forgot that I am not the world's best pie baker. I'm just hoping for the best.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I've gone and done it!

I like to make things.
I like to try out new ideas.
I have way too many things, so...
...I've decided to open a little Etsy Shop. I'm quite excited to be joining the Etsy world!
Right now I have some of these...

...and some of these over there.

I will stock things in the store when I can part with them (or go into a making frenzy and whip up 20 of the same thing before I can stop myself).

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

A real post

NaBloPoMo has been kind of hard, but today I have "real" stuff to post about. Yay!!!

I made my first block for the quilt-along over at Crazy Mom Quilts. It took all of 30 minutes and I'm going to do some serious stash-busting in the process.
I do have a question for all the experienced quilters out there though. How on earth do you get all your seams to be exactly 1/4"? I have a 1/4" foot and try really hard, but somehow, by the time I get to the outside of the block, the seams don't line up because all the small inaccuracies add up to a big one at the end.

Christine over at Sew Christine is having a lovely giveaway. Go check it out.

Oh, and Josh's soccer team won their division of the President's Cup, which is the big Cup for rec soccer in Washington State, last night in a shoot-out. It was nail-biting. They are now going on to the State semi-finals. Fingers crossed...

Rubblework

Remember the Rubblework Scarf?
Well, guess who's now the proud owner of a Pink Chalk Studio Original...

Wow, thank you Kathy!!!

If you'd like to make your own, you can find the pattern here.

(Please excuse the lovely laundry room background in the photo. It is pouring in my outdoor studio.)

And to all the people waiting patiently (I hope) for things from me: I haven't forgotten you. Next week, I promise!

Thread

I finally got one of these not too long ago. Now I just have to go on a thread shopping spree.