Tuesday, September 22, 2009

I quilted today!

Yay for me! I had a doctor's appointment this morning, so I burned a whole sick day and enjoyed some quiet time in my sewing room. Judy has started another Quilt for an Hour project. I was able to finish the first two steps...instructions are only posted on weekdays so I will definitely us the weekend for catching up!Does it count as stash-busting if you use someone else's stash??? I raided my mom's fabric collection for green and browns. I'm thinking masculine colors for a potential Quilt of Valor donation. I'd better get busy at the longarm so all the QOVs I've done this summer can be put to good use!! FYI - visit qovf.org for details about a Vermont effort to collect 200+ quilts for service members.

Of course, since I did NOT buy season tickets this year, the Phoenix Mercury have advanced to the second round of the WNBA playoffs! I keep meaning to go to a game, but when it comes right down to it, I'm usually too tired, don't want to drive downtown and pay for parking, food, etc. I've been able to watch most of the games through a live feed on my computer. Some of the playoff games are on ESPN2, which makes for good knitting time.
I'm almost done with my mitered square blanket!I need to block the blue-yellow-green squares, then the blue-pink-purple will be my last color combination, for a total of 81 individual blocks. I've seamed about a third of them, so I need to finish that and then knit the border. Maybe it will be done by Christmas?!?

Of course, I need a few days for this...
I got an email coupon from Barnes&Noble, so I stopped by after my appointment today. I didn't realize it was new on the shelf today! This is #7 in the Outlander series, so you really need to start from the beginning to get the full effect of Claire traveling through time via stone circles and falling in love with Highlander Janie Fraser. I've heard rumors of a movie version, but this is definitely a case where no mere human actor will be able to live up to the millions of reader fantasies!

Monday, September 07, 2009

Labors

Work is kicking my butt this year. My afternoon classes are remedial algebra...let's just say it's a tough crowd. I come home exhausted every day. I am going to try more structure than I usually impose in my classroom and hopefully the students will calm down and we can all have a little bit of fun. Enough of that! Here's some happy stuff -

I joined the I-Spy fabric swap hosted by Wendy and Meredith. I took 80 of the 200 squares and put them together as four-patches.Then I added some green sashing, next will be a blue border and then it will make some child very happy!

You'll have to click on this next photo to see my quilting. My guild's challenge this fall was "Anything Geometric" so I tried some new meandering patterns with right angles (in orange) and triangles (green).
Cool effects in my photo-editing program...
A park nearby has a small water play area. Kendra is getting brave - standing under the spouts all by herself!