Standing on the edge

In review, here are the first sentences from the 2009 entries of this blog:

Jan = We visited the new aquarium at the Wildlife World Zoo on New Year’s Day.

Feb = I'm keeping track as Baby K grows by taking pictures with a stuffed bunny.

Mar = Phew...I finished the hanging sleeve on my show entries last night at 9:30pm.

April = Hey Blogger, why is uploading photos hit-or-miss these days?!?

May = Here is my progress on the QOV Mystery (#7 from Persimmon Quilts).

June = I spent most of Monday at my longarm.

July = It officially HOT here in the Valley of the Sun...105 and above every day for the next two weeks at least.

Aug = It's time to start on the vintage quilt.

Sep = Work is kicking my butt this year.

Oct = I finished knitting the last of the mitered squares - Hallelujah!

Nov = ...no writing!

Dec = We bought a new Christmas tree, and I'm looking forward to decorating it tonight.

I did a lot of quilting, which was fun, most of the time. (We shall not speak of the purple beast, LOL) My knitting focus was, and continues to be, my mitered square afghan. Although I vowed not to cast on any socks until it was done, I faltered on Christmas Day at my mom's house. Santa brought sock yarn, what's a girl to do???

We've looked back over the year, and it is also the close of a decade. What were the highlights of the last ten years for you? I have to say I much preferred the 00s to the 90s...thanks to my wonderful family! After a lifetime in the Air Force, as a brat and a service member, it is amazing to think I have been in the same city this whole decade, and seven years in the same house.

HAPPY NEW YEAR -- MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!

New Quilt Designs

I finished Judy's "Freeze Frame" pattern...I'll post a full picture after I get the binding on. Here is the design I used in the big squares. I'm calling it "Shark Tooth." Just a few spiky arches in one direction then switch towards the other corner of the block.Here's how it looks on fabric:
I used green, gold and brown fabrics, hoping for a manly look since I will send this off to a soldier as part of the Quilts of Valor project. I wanted a simple, quick quilting design to complement the blocks. I really like how it turned out!

In the smaller squares, I used a design I learned from Linda Matteoti. She was having us practice with rulers, stitching from the midpoint to the corner of a square. I thought it made a cool star:So, I call this the half corner star, since you travel from the halfway point to the corner :-)
Here's a diagram to help you visualize the stitching line.Five days left of vacation...it always goes by much too fast. I did NOT get enough quilting time!! I have lots of things mentally lined up to work on in the New Year, but I have a project with a deadline that must take priority. It's a gift, so no pictures. If you need inspiration, visit Leah and her free motion design project.

Tis the Season

For Christmas pageants, where at least we *look* like an angel...
Baking cookies with Grandma...Santa came through with a pink Barbie bike and pink Barbie helmet...
And Grandma's driveway is the perfect place to play!All the fun sure tires a girl out!
Enjoy your holidays!

New Project!

We bought a new Christmas tree, and I'm looking forward to decorating it tonight. Bentley says we'll have some popcorn, too, and I always watch "The Sound of Music" when I put up my tree. Not really a classic Christmas tale, but it was always on TV during the holidays when I was little, so there's the "tradition."

I cast on for a sweater vest. It uses two colors of Noro variegated yarn. I love watching the new colors emerge! This is a testament to my increasing skill as a knitter...it is working up very quickly.
The mitered blanket is about halfway done. Yes, I *have* been working on it for years! I finished the individual blocks a few months ago, and I started the seaming process. Note my two different techniques. The right side is done with crochet, and the left is mattress stitch. I'm kicking myself because I tried to figure out mattress stitch from a book, decided it didn't look good, and went with crochet. The crochet doesn't look very good either, but it was faster than my interpretation of mattress stitch! Over Thanksgiving, my mom taught me the right way to do mattress stitch, which doesn't take very long, and makes an invisible seam. You guessed it, I will be taking out all the crochet seams. This project has taken so long that it is worth doing the best I can.

The purple beast left my house a couple weeks ago, hooray! I am taking a break from quilting for other people so I can work on a few of my own projects. I dove right into this beauty.

Paper pieced, 40 pieces per block, and I need 42 blocks. Oh, and to make things exciting, it needs to be done (pieced, quilted and bound) by mid-June. (No, I can't quit my day job)
1680 pieces to sew, plus picking off all the paper...I'll play Scarlett O'Hara and think about that tomorrow!