Moving in process.....

Sorry, no pictures. We are 2 days into a 3 day car trip to the new house. Hope to be there tomorrow. I will respond to comments this week from my new house... as I am unpacking boxes and keeping track of the kids. So far, the 2 toddlers and 2 cats are doing great.
Happy sewing!

Crumblies.... part 1

Jo over at Jo's country junction is having a crumb along. This is week 2 but the first real week of instructions.
I made 2 of the blocks she described and 4 flying geese that will become a star in the border section....... and then I was having so much fun putting the pieces together I also made 2 regular blocks. Oops.... I seem to have ventured ahead on my own and made some of my own blocks. I think I will be adding more of the white and the solid colors in the blocks as I go along. It is a learning process and I'm sure will be a cute quilt when it is done. It will be unique, that is for sure!

Go check out her website and see what everyone else has come up with.

Crumb along...

Yup, I need this like I need another hole in my head! Oh well, I've been cutting up my 30's prints for my tulip log cabin quilt and have lots of little bits left over. What's a girl to do? Join Jo over at Jo's country junction and do the crumb along. Head on over and check it out..... maybe you'll want to join in too!

Happy Monday!

Yesterday I was able to visit Lisa over at Mad River Quilting in Waitsfield. It was a deja vu drive as my hubby and I lived there for a bit about 5 years ago and driving through Waterbury and up over the mountain was very pretty if a little bit sad. Downtown Waterbury and parts of Waitsfield were hit by flooding last week with Irene and they are still digging out. There were big dumpsters about every other house full of people's possessions and wood and insulation that has been pulled out of basements and the first floor of the houses. Some houses and businesses were not effected and it was nice to see that Arvads in Waterbury was open for business. That was where G and I had our first date almost 6 years ago.

Back to shopping.... Lisa had a cute little shop (a little sad to see the covered bridge the road over was closed due to damage from the storm last week... we used to go that way to pick up our chinese take out) and I had fun browsing around trying to figure out how to spend my $100 gift certificate. I did manage to spend it and a little bit more and got this bag of goodies to play with in the future. Thanks again to Jeb and the VTMUG group for gifting me that as a going away present.




As I had no projects in mind, I decided to get some bundles of FQ and a couple of buns. I just loved this peach bun and right before checking out I saw the bun of creams... you can never have enough neutrals, right? I also picked up a cream aurofil thread to use for quilting Crystals quilt later today. The others were the FQs - a 17 pack of Stonehenge - cool stone, a 6 pack of Mother Earth and a lovely Hoffman Bali Handpaints called Ceylon. Some beautiful greens and blues that fits the pools store we are opening next year. I am thinking something with circles - maybe a drunkards path wall hanging? We'll have to wait and see what I come up with. The Mother Earth FQ's has a nice pretty brown that I can see as a tree in the winter, maybe with a sap bucket on it.... another wall hanging idea I have to remind me of 'home'.

I have been making progress on the knitting and will show that in another post. I was a little off and don't seem to knit on the weekends..... but I did extra rows during the week so I am still on track.
Have a great holiday.

Knitting....

I decided it was time for a new project. I confess, I have restarted this one at least 8 times (probably closer to 10 or 12) in the last year. I kept having issues with one stitch and kept doing it wrong. The other issue is 2 little ones getting into my sewing room and 'playing' with it..... isn't it fun to take the knitting needles out of the yarn Mommy? I finally figured the stitch out... and then let the project sit until this summer. Of course, I got to that point while sitting at JFK in June and completely forgot how to do the stitch. Tried something and had to take the whole thing out again. At least the stitch is only 20 rows in.. but still, at 162 stitches in a row it is a bit of work.
Yesterday I decided to try it again. I cast on my 162 stitches while the kids were out playing in the rain (before the wind started!) and then did 2 rows while they were napping. My goal is to do 2 rows a day, and maybe I'll get this done in time for her to still be able to wear it! I am doing a size 4T... she is currently 2 and starting to get too tall for the 2T pants and shirts.

The pattern is from the April/May 2010 issue of Country Woman Magazine. The yarn is from Joann's Fabrics - the Spa line and a wonderful feeling bamboo yarn in light purple.

I confess, I have never made a sweater before. I have done a few afghans in the ripple stitch (Mom has 3 and I think I have one) and countless dish cloths, a few scrubbers and one lonely sock half. I have also crocheted bunches of the kitchen towel tops (Mom got sick of buying them back in the 90's and asked me to figure out how to make them... which I did!) and a few crochet baby afghans and one large navy blue one called Michi using this free pattern. I am a self taught crocheter and Mom taught me to knit, pearl, and K2 together when I was a little girl. Anything else, I have learned through reading. I am sure I will be stuck as I go further along, but hopefully I can find a yarn shop down in Florida where I can pop in and ask for help when I get stuck.
Wish me luck

Star Struck top DONE!

Here it is! After the morning I had with the kids - very whiney boy, no fever but he said he 'aches' and is tired? Growing pains? Tired I can understand... he was up twice last night (so was the other one... at different times of course) and didn't settle down until well after 9PM (we put them to bed at 8!)... and was awake around 6AM. A broken lamp bulb... that I didn't see until I was putting them up for naps and then... checking on them 10 minutes later ... it seems that Daddy left the new DVD player for the car trip to Florida in our bedroom that we are currently sharing with Em...... I think I found them before any serious damage was done.

Mop the floors (which really need it).... or sew?

Guess you can tell from the picture at the top of the post what I decided to do! I did vacuum and dust, swept the floors and did 2 loads of laundry... that counts right?

The binding is all set to go for this one too. Just need to piece the back and buy some batting and pins for quilting..... I didn't plan on doing this quilt when I packed and didn't save off the pins or some batting. Oops... well, you can never have too many quilting pins right?

Just needs outer most border...and a Midget Block!

Progress has been made. Just need to put on the outermost border and piece the backing. It is coming together pretty nicely. I do wish I had done this a little more controlled with just blues I think. That would have made a really pretty combo with this quilt pattern. Maybe next time.... I do still have a huge bin of blue scraps waiting for me somewhere in my house in Florida =). I hope to get the borders on tonight, pinned sometime later this week and quilted during naps on Sunday. Well... it's good to have a 'plan' right?


Yesterday I took the kids to our family's camp on the lake to visit with Grammy and Grandpa. The plan was to stay overnight... but they would not take naps and were not listening so I took them home after dinner. They were not happy, but I think they will nap the next time we go out for a visit. Getting the 3YO to bed at night is a 1+ hour chore lately and the 2YO has been getting up before 6AM..... not a time of the morning my parents tend to be up for.

I got inspired by Angela over at Superscrappy and decided to open the Midget box and did #12 Indian Puzzle. I gave myself permission to continue going a bit out of order so I could get them started again. I need to do #5, #9, #10 and #11 still. Maybe I'll tackle one or two of them the next time I open the box.


What have you been working on?