Progress!

I am excited to report that I have made some great progress on my Noro Log Cabin blanket!!! I have completed 16 of the 20 squares, and even connected a few of them to each other (its sashing, if you will). Unfortunately, in laying them all out together and extrapolating to reflect the other four blocks I need to finish, I have concluded that it will be too small for what I want--a blanket to curl up in front of the TV with that will cover me from toes to nose. I am now on the hunt for a few more (different) colors of this yarn in order to keep the momentum going and complete this blanket SOON!

Owls Everywhere...

One of the fun things about cruising around to different blogs is that you can start to piece together some current trends. Unfortunately for me, I usually come to trends a bit late. (hello...Capris? For the first 2 years they were being sold, I thought they were the dumbest things ever...then I fell in love.) Right now, I am seeing a lot of stuff out there with Owls. Owl fabric, owl jewelry, owl embroidery, owl patterns, etc. So here is further proof that I am not impervious to the influence of trends (albeit late).

Remember when you were a kid and got these little things where you put together the pattern and then iron it to melt the pieces together? They still have them!! Tyler and I were at Joann's the other day and found them so I let Tyler choose one. The one he chose was the one that had an owl, a mushroom, a bear, and one other thing we didn't make. The only problem? He doesn't want to melt them so we worked hard to piece all of these together...and then tore them apart. It was painful...

I also found the cutest tutorial for a stuffed owl on the Toad's Treasures blog. After making one for Tyler according to the directions, I thought it would be fun to size it down and give this as part of Tyler's Teacher Appreciation gift to his Kindergarten teacher. He turned out so cute! I love the fact that I was able to use all scraps and that it's flannel so it is infinitely snuggly.

Here's Tyler in the parking lot on the morning of his last day of Kindergarten getting ready to take this to his teacher:Why is he wearing a knit dino hat on a warm day in June, you ask? Well...that is NOT a dinosaur hat, it is in fact (according to Tyler) a "Mohawk Hat" since I won't cut him a mohawk hair style and he's inventive.

Big Time First Grader

On Thursday 9 June 2011 my 'baby' became a Big Time First Grader. He graduated from The Learning Tree's private kindergarten and is now spending his days going to parks, arcades, movies, touring restaurants and playing miniature golf.

One of the coolest parts about the Kindergarten Graduation ceremony was that all of the kids got to read a passage or a book that was at their level. Tyler read "Armour of God" and was also chosen to read a series of jokes. Tyler's Favorite? "What's Black and White and Black and White and Black and White?"....... "A whale rolling down a hill..." hahahah...

Battle against the calendar

This is the book for my next book club meeting, newly acquired:

The book club meeting is this coming Friday and I just got the book so I'm a little nervous about finishing by then. So far I'm on chapter 4 and I'm really enjoying it! Wish me luck as I make a home for myself at Starbucks and speed through this book.

Sew Crafty...

I've been doing a little crafting lately. I'm currently intrigued by the whole concept of a mug rug. The idea that you can put your snack and your drink all on the same oversized coaster is interesting...but more interesting is the whole Mug Rug craze. There are mug rug swaps, vast amounts of mug rug tutorials and Flikr pics galore. Well, who am I to buck the trend? At first I thought these folks were clearly crazy, but after a very informal survey amongst my friends about if people still even use coasters, I decided to give it a go and see what it was all about. Using this tutorial, and my handy dandy Dresden Plate cutting thingy I crafted this one here:I am completely and utterly charmed! I can see how this could become addicting because you can make it in just a wee bit of time and it's a great way to try out patterns and color/fabric combinations without the investment of a whole quilt. This particular one went to live with a teacher friend who I imagine using it after all her bouncing students go home for the day while she's enjoying some hot tea and fresh scones. Shh...It's my imagination...let's not ruin it with trivial things like reality.

I also made this cute little pleated pouch using this tutorial. I learned a lot from this project. It's been a really long time since in put in a zipper, and never before in a zippered lined pouch. I love the way it turned out and although this one is not mine to keep, I feel that I MUST make one to keep for my very own.

Oh the Possibilities!

A while back I saw this amazing blanket and forward the information to my mom thinking that she would love it and it might inspire her to start knitting. Well, I talked so convincingly that I talked myself right into it. So far, I have about 14 of the blocks knit and although I don't have a full picture, I took a picture of the few blocks I've already started to join. I love the riot of color and the fact that these blocks are log cabin blocks, which means I am able to combine my love of quilting with my knitting project.
The other thing I love about this project is that it is a constant reminder that the Possibilities are endless. Not just in knitting, quilting, crafting, etc., but also in life. Just this one little start of a block:
could be anything. You just never know what is going to come out of the ball of yarn next.

Must be summer...

Since Tyler started his first official swim lesson today, it must be summer. See the super white back there in the pool? Yeah, he gets that from his dad...

Quilting in the 30's

Long, long ago we did a 1930's Friendship Quilt. In case this is a new concept, it's where a bunch of people get together and agree to make a bunch of the same block using certain unifying parameters and then you all trade your blocks around until everyone has one of each person's blocks. In this exchange, we had 12 ladies and were all making blocks out of 1930's reproduction fabric using the Chips and Dip block pattern. Well...FINALLY, and only with the urging and inspiration from seeing my cousins, Jessica and Valerie, handquilting their exchange quilts (picture of one on Jessica's blog here)and my mom piecing together the top that will be donated to Mennonite Central Committee's annual quilt auction. During our Monday Night Quilting, Jessica sketched out a few possible settings for my 12 blocks. I picked the one I liked the best (after seeing it a declaring it the BEST EVER!) and then the whole group worked splendidly to put it together. Here it is in all it's glory!!

And here's the team of magicians that made it all happen:

Ringing in Summer...

With a snowy drive to Big Creek. I never would have thought that we would have a fresh fall of snow over the Memorial Day weekend. But I have photographic evidence so it must be true! Look:This was our destination. If you haven't been to the Big Creek General Store, you MUST go. Milan, the proprietess, and her daughter, Regan, put on a fine meal. I really enjoyed the new menu item of Tri Tip on Garlic rolls...Delicious!!!! And of course, the other reason we went:

Milan makes the BEST cobblers and homemade ice cream I've ever tasted. Worth every minute of the drive up to Big Creek.

Then, since we were already there, and have been meaning to do a snow trip, we headed around the lake to Tamarack Ridge. Luckily Kim anticipated snow and packed enough warm weather wear for all of us...including Tyler's fabulous ninja mask.Of course, no trip to the snow would be complete without a snowball fight. It was great fun and then shortly after this picture was taken, Tyler absolutely fell apart. He has this thing about bundling up. He won't. So he wore sweat pants. Yeah, didn't last long. On our way home, we stopped to marvel at this majestic waterfall:

The thing that is so amazing to me is that this is how huge it is before all the snow starts melting...there's still a TON of snow up there to fill this waterfall. Wow.

A Very Merry unQuilt Camp For ME!!

Usually when referring to Quilt Camp, I would be talking about the Quilt Camp we do up at Huntington Lake at Camp Keola. But just as in Alice in Wonderland they celebrated unBirthdays, I am dubbing this one the unQuilt Camp. In March of this year, Mom and I were invited to join a group of other quilters who were renting a cabin at Shaver Lake to spend a wonderful weekend filled with fabric, food, jokes and the like. It was a marvelous time! I finished my first ever quilt top (above) and also my third ever quilt top(below)

Somewhere in between all that finishing up of lingering projects, I made the backing of my second ever quilt and worked on another quilt that I started at last Quilt Camp (the real one!).

Nothing says romance like...

a trip to Target....With Matching Handicaps...

UNLESS!!! It's matching wheelie carts going around the store.
Mom and Dad had a wee spot of foot trouble this winter...in the form of a broken foot and three foot surgeries among the pair of them. The whole medical saga is rather boring, BUT when we all went to the store together and I looked back at my trailing parentals, I couldn't help but giggle uncontrollably at these two sights...constantly. No really...I was a source of endless mirth for me that day.

Look what the postman brought!

I ordered some yarn from Indigodragonfly and it came in today! I can hardly sit still I am so excited!

The lovely blue is their "Tardis" colorway, which I found while perusing projects on Ravelry and only later found out it was a Doctor Who yarn. In case you weren't aware of my recent obsession with Doctor Who...it's pretty serious...

The purpley color is their Mugget Genome (Count) colorway. I love the vividness of these colors and the pleasing look of the pops of turquoise mixed in with the purple and berry colors. I haven't decided for sure, but I think it's destined to be a Daybreak Shawl.

Real Men Wear Aprons

Tyler and I took advantage of a rare Saturday morning with no committments to bake some Cherry Chip muffins (muffins have no frosting even if they're made out of cake mix wink wink). Usually Tyler is content to just stir the mix a bit and then take care of the clean up--Surely I'm not the only mother who lets her kid lick the beaters, right? However, on this day, he wanted to take care of it all on his own from the cracking to the measuring to the mixing and finally putting the batter into the cupcake papers. He took his job very seriously and assured me that he would be able to cook much better in an apron. So we found one that would work for his needs and he set off! And he took great pride in a job well done. I think he even ate 1/2 of one muffin before remembering that he's not a huge fan of cakes.