A day full of CUTE

We started the day with some coloring:

Baby K's favorite color seems to be purple. Daddy brought some scrap paper home from work and we are scribbling on that. She prefers to color over the words rather than draw on the blank side of the paper...early rebel tendencies?!?

We moved on to ribbons...and the new cat K.C. enjoys this activity too!

My favorite art from school this week, a baby octopus:

We decided a baby pool on the patio would be perfect for warm summer afternoons. Grandma and Grandpa have a full size swimming pool, so we'll have fun play dates there too.

Eclectic

I went to the library this morning:

Some fantasy, some murder mysteries, and some Christian fiction. What can I say...I have wide-ranging tastes!

When I got up this morning, I had hair down to my shoulders. By noon it looked like this:

Great for the long hot summer!

Last night I turned the heel on my second Jaywalker (from STR January One):
And this morning I put sashing on some kaleidoscope blocks:
I'll finish the borders on that tomorrow before my movie date with hubby. Tonight I am going to work on some mitered squares at Stitch-n-Bitch. It's the first time I've been able to go in months and I'm really looking forward to it. The best part is dinner - we meet at Wildflower Bread Company and the menu is full of awesome salads and sandwiches. What a great start to my summer vacation!

Thank you!

In the United States, today is Memorial Day, a time to remember those soldiers who died to preserve our freedom. Katherine Lee Bates wrote "America the Beautiful" and I think the 2nd and 3rd verses are even more meaningful than the first:

O beautiful, for heroes proved in liberating strife

Who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life!

America, America, God mend thine every flaw,

confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for patriot dream, that sees beyond the years,

Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears.

America, America, God shed His grace on thee,

and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea!

Longer than...

I haven't posted in Longer Than three weeks...oops! The last few weeks of school were pretty hectic. A fellow teacher and I decided to do a painting project in our rooms after finals, so we scrambled around with primer and paint before doing our end-of-year checkout. Crazy, but it's much nicer looking at dark "Chinese Porcelain" blue cabinets rather than 70's formica orange.

The minute I was done at school, I came home to quilt and knit! My 100-inch stole is now as long as my six foot couch...two inches per day and it might be done on time.
I gifted a work-in-progress Graduation quilt (no photos yet). I felt bad wrapping the top up and then taking it back 30 seconds after the recipient opened it, but there was no way I could get it quilted this weekend. So, that's the first project on the longarm next week.

In the meantime, I have been making pinwheels for a block swap. I decided to do some stash-busting for this project - 16 blocks. Imagine my surprise when a fat quarter only made two 12.5 inch blocks! So, I dug around in the stash some more and found several blues to use. The colors in the top right are the majority of the blocks.

A little something

A quick personality quiz...pretty accurate, I'd say!

You are turquoise #40E0D0
Your dominant hues are green and blue. You're smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people's conflicts well.
Your saturation level is higher than average - You know what you want, but sometimes know not to tell everyone. You value accomplishments and know you can get the job done, so don't be afraid to run out and make things happen.
Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.
the spacefem.com html color quiz

Enjoying the Weather

Baby K is a morning person; up at 6am, to bed at 7pm. (plus or minus a half hour!) This works well for early morning playtime before the sun is high and it's too hot to be outside. Today, she enjoyed splashing in the mud while we watered the trees. Gidget, our shy cat, likes to make a quick pass around the yard and then she darts back inside.
K.C. likes the water around the trees too!
My "artsy" shot...our peachy-pink roses in bloom.
I put Baby K's hair in pigtails yesterday. Too cute for words!
Craft update - I am quilting a t-shirt quilt on the longarm. The customer did NOT use any kind of interfacing or cotton sashing, so I had a bit of puckering and stretching on the sides. I wouldn't recommend that technique. T-shirts in general are hard to deal with. This is the second one this spring that I've quilted and I'm ready to get back to regular quilter's cotton!

Still mitering. This week's colors are light blue and chocolate brown. I'm enjoying this project so much! With about 20% of the squares done, I'm thinking I should start sewing some of the blocks together - just the like colors though, since I want to lay it all out and play with color placement when I have all 144 squares done. So, I need to find some instructions for mattress stitch and go to town.

Spring has Sprung

I'm one of those "Women Who Do Much." I've gotten better since Baby K was born and quit a bunch of committees, but Ravlery is a dangerous place...I am hosting several Mini Sock Swaps. This month the theme is Spring Flowers. I used some self-striping yarn with pink, green and blue sections. I was hoping that the amounts of pink and blue would be reversed, but I didn't want to destroy a brand new ball of yarn trying to start at just the right place in the colors. Last weekend I had some quilting time and quilted a pantograph on this shop sample that my mom pieced:
Here's the back where you can see the panto, called "Java." Sorry, don't have the designer's name handy!
Baby K used her potty not once but TWICE tonight! Can I get a cheer for early potty training?!?
Here she is playing with some blocks. It is so adorable when she concentrates on her play so intently. This was a 20 minute project of trying to get the blocks to snap together (some were Legos, some weren't).
Play time continued...