What a cute kid!

Baby K is learning to blow kisses!

We stayed home this morning since the daycare center called me yesterday afternoon - she was running a fever and had become quite a snot factory. A few doses of baby Tylenol and a good night's sleep and all is well. I want her to be fresh and cheerful for her birthday party tomorrow, so we'll have another nap this morning then she'll go to Grandma's house for a bit while I go to school and make a few more copies of first day activities. One of my fellow teacher/moms reminded me to have a well-stocked emergency folder for future sick calls!

Baby K likes to climb. Here she is INSIDE her toy box.

TGIF and Happy back-to-school season!

Sticking to the schedule

Here is Baby K in her "big girl" forward-facing car seat. We hung the rings and a stuffed pig from the handle above the window and she obviously entertains herself.

I went ahead and took her to daycare today and came right back home to quilt. I wanted to get this charity quilt done for my guild meeting tonight:

The fabric is a toile-type print. I think my blue thread was too dark, but that's the lightest shade I had. And I didn't want to spend alot of time ripping out the squares I had done to see what cream would look like! More second guessing...maybe a more traditional pattern, such as a formal feather wreath, would have been better. Oh well, it's done now!

Here's a detail picture of my spiral flower:

Tomorrow the whole family has to get up and out of the house by 7am. Yikes! Luckily the diaper bag doesn't have to be quite as full when you're going to daycare...they supply diapers and food, so I just pack her teddy bear and a change of clothes.

B. is discovering the wonderful world of teaching...it's his first year, they want a complete syllabus, pre-test and lesson plans, and they've kept him busy with five straight days of meetings, plus a Saturday open house/BBQ at school. I've been very lucky with my school, the department is cohesive and I rarely have to make things up from scratch. For instance, I mentioned the changes to my curriculum...I'll get together with the other teachers for that course and we will "divide and conquer" to make the necessary changes to the unit plans and worksheets that we all use.

BTW, we get alot of comments that it is really early to go back to school. My response - I'd rather use the school's air conditioning than my own! Plus, we're done before Memorial Day in May, so it works out the same.

First Day Jitters

for Mommy, not Baby K! She enjoyed daycare as much as we thought she would, given her extroverted personality. What a little charmer.

She was tired when she got home, since she didn't take at nap. Too busy playing!

And in knitting news, I got bored with my socks and returned to plain garter stitch...

This is the last panel for my striped vest. I am about 30 rows from the end, then I can get busy seaming. I knit the ends in as I went along, so that is one less obstacle to a finished object :-)

Last Friday of Freedom

The Phoenix Mercury are #1 in the Western Conference! Woo-Hoo! It's been about 7 years since we've been in the playoffs and I'm looking forward to basketball in September. Way to go ladies!! This photo shows our starting line up, (from left) Diana Turasi, Penny Taylor and Cappie Pondexter. Here is Baby K with an early birthday present. We're trying to encourage the musical abilities, but so far she mainly uses the mallet as a chew toy!

I have a quilting dilemma. My local guild does a round robin for charity, and the quilt they gave me to work on has simple framed squares. I started to do a freehand Baptist fan type design (which I have done before) but the first two squares came out really wobbly. I hate to spend the time ripping out, but it's a pretty bad example of my work! I sketched out a spiral flower that I will use instead. Not really a dilemma since I have a solution I suppose!

Monday I am going to school to get my keys and start setting up my classroom. I got a message this week that the District Office has revamped my curriculum, so I'll have to spend some time comparing what I did last year with the new plan. Minor headache...I really wanted to be able to go in and make copies of the worksheets so I'm ready for the whole first unit, but it looks like another year of only being a day ahead of the kids!

Baby K Update

My mom was complaining that the blog didn't have enough pictures of the baby. Here you go, Mom!

Baby K has really started to cuddle with her stuffed animals. Her pink bear becomes a pillow at nap time... Baby K is really fussy about her clothes. We had to take this outfit off right after we took this picture because the spaghetti straps were annoying and she threw a hissy fit! Just another reason why I prefer a simple cotton onesie...

Recent efforts

I don't take pictures of customer quilts...too hard to get good shots of my quilting efforts! So that's why there have been no photos on the blog - I'm busy at the longarm! One of the recent quilts was the popular "Paperweights" pattern. I use six colors of thread:New Info: Paperweights is a pattern by Aardvark Quilts. That's the same designer as the bright orange wuilt I made in May...great stuff!

I finished the little bit of handwork on my 3-D "tucked and tweaked" sunflower. There are beads in the center. I could have added a few more, but I need room to add quilted details too.

This is the fat quarter of fabric for the 2008 IMQA challenge. I have some ideas for it, but right now it's just decoration on my design wall!

Memory Lane

Deb over at Red Shoe Ramblings posted these questions, which sent me back in time...

1. Did you ever join, or consider joining a sorority or fraternity?
If I had gone to a regular college, I probably would have tried. As it turns out, the Air Force is one big fraternity and whenever Academy grads get together you start comparing stories!

2. When you were ten years old, what was your favourite thing to spend money on?
At that age, I loved to ride my bike up to 7-Eleven, but it was across a major intersection, so we didn't make the trip very often. Slurpees and surgary candy - yum!

3. How many pairs of shoes, is too many pairs of shoes?
More than 10...I rotate among three or four pairs usually.

4. What food combination do you enjoy, that others might find somewhat odd?
Well, my favorite recipe is lasagna with spinach, and my husband detests cooked spinach, so I guess that qualifies. I think I'm fairly ordinary about food!

5. When is the last time you looked at a photograph of that special person in your life?
We just had professional portraits of Baby K done, and I have them laid out in the family room.

6. Think about your best friend in high school: how long has it been since you’ve seen him/her?
About five years...she invited me to her baby shower, and since then it's only been Christmas card photos!

7. Think of the last time you saw more than one of your high school classmates together at the same time: how did you happen to run into each other?
I flew to Texas for my friend's wedding, and I thought I recognized another classmate on the plane. I found him after we landed and he was visiting another friend in the same town. We had a few drinks and then went our separate ways.

8. How many of your teachers do you think you would love to visit in person after all the years since you graduated, just to talk about having them as a teacher and catch up: one or two, three to five, five to ten, or more than ten?
Only one...my sophomore English teacher! We would have this group activity where someone would come up with outlandish questions ("If you could go back in time, what period would you visit?") and we'd take turns answering. The walls were covered with quotes that the students picked out from our reading...lots of Thoreau! I loved that class...and now I'm a math teacher. Go figure!

9. What was the best lunch food your high school served?
I usually brought my lunch except for the one day per week when they set up a taco salad bar.

10. Did you participate in any extra-curricular activities in high school, like sports, band, etc? If so, how many?
Yep. I played flute and piccolo in band and I was a Varsity swimmer all four years.

Quilt Camp recap

At my first Quilt Camp in the Pines, I was fortunately paired with Jeanne as a roommate. She is a quick wit, has a punny sense of humor, and is a fantastic quilter. We got along as if we had been friends for years, and I have roomed with her every year. Since I was only going to stay for three days instead of six, I wanted to maximize our time together and we signed up for the same classes.

Day One - Jennie Rayment's "Twitch, Twiddle and Tuck"

(note: I am not going to link to their websites...use google if you want more info or to see their books.)

This is the teacher's sample:

I actually got my flower finished in class! It's great when you don't bring home major UFOs. I just need to add some hand-stitching to complete the 3-D effect, and some beads in the center, then it's ready to quilt.

Day Two: Martha Nordstrand, hand embroidery

I don't do much hand work at the moment, but wouldn't it be wonderful to embellish quilts like Martha does?!? Look closely, the feathers on the birds are all hand stitched! It's an incredible quilt in person.

Day three - Karla Alexander, "Aurora Aura" from her book "New Cuts for New Quilts"

Karla is a fantastic teacher! Very friendly and patient, and what a fun technique. She designed this pattern to look like the Aurora Borealis over the waters of Alaska. You basically stack rectangles of fabric, make some freehand cuts, then shuffle and sew. This is my progress so far...the light fabric gives it an icy feel, which is a nice fantasy in the desert summer heat!

Then I came home. Camp continues through Saturday, but I missed Baby K too much to be away any longer! I'm planning to have some midnight sewing sessions to finish up my UFOs, but it may be a couple months. School starts in three weeks, and teachers go back the week before students, so it really feels like summer vacation is winding down.

Away again

I am leaving this afternoon for Quilt Camp in the Pines, my last hurrah before school starts. Here are some more pictures from the quilt show in June to tide you over until I return on Thursday. Happy stitching!

I have always been attracted to color-gradient quilts. I bought a rainbow pack of hand-dyed fabric to use when inspiration strikes.
This was a beautiful two-color quilt. I love the piecing, and the fabulous quilting in the alternate blocks.A local group submitted their black and white challenge quilts:

Finished Objects

I'm done with the April selection from Rockin Sock Club! The yarn is called "Walking on the Wild Tide' and it was a silk/merino blend. So luscious!!!

The first picture shows the shifting colors:


The second picture is a little better in showing the leg pattern, which I found in The Sock Calendar by Catherine Wingate and Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer.

On the quilting side, I pieced the back for the Row Quilt from some fat quarters in my stash. I made a big label with details about the photos that are on the front. It's important to document your quilts, and there is extra security in sewing them into the backing.

Here is some detail of the quilting. These are two of my favorite freehand designs. An all-over scroll and a "flame flower." I used the flame flower on the bright orange and yellow quilt earlier this week. The scroll is an easier background fill for me to do than meandering.

Babies grow up so fast...

This has been my primary project this summer - Baby K!

We toured a daycare facility yesterday, so Daddy thought we should try wearing shoes.


And here is bunny picture number ELEVEN. Hard to believe she is almost a year old! (for new readers, I have taken a picture of her with this same stuffed animal every month. It's a fun way to watch her grow.)
Yes, I have been managing to squeeze in some sewing time. This is the Baby K family tree row quilt. The blank space is for the other grandparents' photo. I was using up scraps, but started to repeat fabrics and then it ended up red and green. I am going to put horizontal sashing rows in and a small border in black.
This is a customer quilt that I took off the longarm this week. The top is the front of the quilt, and you can see my freehand squiggle designs on the solid backing. It was fun to work on this bright design!

AAACK! Summer's halfway gone!

As one of my teacher-friends commented today...we have to go back to school in one month! This is causing some minor panic and mental distress, since I have not accomplished much of what was on my summer to-do list. Oh, forget it...when do I *ever* do anything that I plan to do on school vacations?!? I just wish there was a way to profit from procrastination ;-)

Sock update... TA-DA:
B's first pair of handknit socks. Pattern: Basic socks from Cat Bhordi's "Socks Soar on Circular Needles." Yarn: Socks that Rock (lightweight) in Obsidian. Do not adjust your monitor...the left toe is squared off due to knitter error. B said he could live with it!

No photo of the Wild Tide April Rockin Sock Club progress...I am working on the gusset of the second sock and the foot will be all stockinette, so they should be done soon.

Baby K has been fussy all day. We're attributing it to teething...but any time she's cried over the last two months that's been our excuse, and there are no new teeth yet! Since school starts next month, I have to get serious about lining up daycare. Send your best thoughts for that search and for B as his job interviews start! He's looking for a position teaching high school history.

Baby K's new toy is a string of Hawaiian beads that I made on a cruise years ago. She can take them on and off herself and they make great noises on the tile floor.

Home again, Home again, jiggety jog!

Phew...vacation is nice, but it's always good to sleep in your own bed again. Thankfully, Baby K is an easy-going traveller. Just a few minutes of screaming during the plane's descent. I know it was her ears popping, but we couldn't interest her in drinking anything. She also didn't really like the portable crib, so she slept between me and Daddy most of the time. What luxury!

Here are the highlights of our trip:

1) a visit to the Minnesota Zoo. It's undergoing some construction, but the exhibits that are open are great. Most of the animals were sleeping during the afternoon we were there, but I don't think Baby K noticed!2) a baseball game...the Saint Paul Saints versus the Pensacola Pelicans. It was so much fun! Think "Bull Durham" - the between-inning games were hilarious. The Saints won, too.

3) a trek up to the North Woods - Clear Lake, outside of Virginia, about 65 miles northwest of Duluth. The three days we were there it was rainy and cold, which actually was a pleasant respite from the 110+ desert heat at home. We stayed inside and curled up on the couch with a book.

4) a delightful surprise was the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary, where they have an observation deck and feed black bears every night. We saw 4 babies in a tree, and about 6 adults at the various feeding troughs. 5) Of course, I did feed my fiber habit too. I added some Christmas fabric and batiks to my collection from the Quilter's Courtyard, and the yarn is Yarni, handpainted in St. Paul, purchased at the Yarnery. Both stores were charming.

6) Uncle Ty and Aunt Jean gathered some entertainment for the baby. Their next-door neighbor had this train toy for her grandchildren. Baby K loved it, and it has really enhanced her walking skills.
Sock update tomorrow!

On Vacation

We're leaving bright and early for Minnesota! I promise lots of cute baby pictures when we get back, since the trip includes an airplane ride and a few days at a lakeside cabin. I have my sock knitting and five novels, which I may finish unless Baby K decides this is the perfect time to start walking!

I'll be back on July 6th...until then Happy Stitching!

More Socks that rock

The June kit... Colorway - Firebird. Luscious as always!

Pattern - "The Solstice Slip." The slipped stitches lean left, then right and look like little flames. I'm hoping to start these next week on vacation...as soon as I finish the one and a third that are currently on the needles. B's second sock is about halfway to the toe, then I will finish the second sock from the April "Wild Tide" yarn, and then I can enjoy the summer selection!

A new quilt

I had the urge to piece rather than work at the longarm the last couple days. I sketched out a row quilt that incorporates some pictures of Baby K, and then I used EQ5 to come up with measurements. I decided on 5 rows: log cabins, friendship stars, paper pieced hearts, pinwheels and sawtooth stars. The pictures include grandparents and aunts and uncles, so it will be a fun family-album type wall-hanging.

Here is the heart block, and the kaleidoscope block that is now an orphan...the center has too many points coming together and it doesn't lay flat so I substituted the log cabins!

My parents just got back from a tour of China, and they brought lots of souvenirs for Baby K. Here she is getting to know a panda bear. I think she likes it!

We couldn't let her play with it very long, because it is holding a silk bamboo shoot, which Baby K bit and started to shred. She does this with all her stuffed animals...takes a big bite and pulls off a mouthful of fuzz. I hope this phase ends soon! She is also chewing the bindings off most of her books :-(

Happy mail!!! My June Rockin Sock kit arrived today, but I haven't opened it yet...it's late, and I think I'd rather see it in the daylight. Plus, I have two other socks on the needles, so

it will be a few weeks before I can cast on a new pattern. I guess I'm just a weirdo who likes to anticipate things! The only hint I've heard about this month's yarn is a keyword "fire" - red yarn with a lacy flame type pattern??? Come back tomorrow and it will be revealed!

Thursday 13

13 ways Baby K tries to avoid a nap...





1. Scream


2. Cry


3. Shriek (at a higher pitch than a scream)


4. Thrash around


5. Suck on her toes


6. Babble at the cat


7. Wave at the ceiling fan


8. Eat


9. Rub eyes


10. Rub nose


11. Kick


12. Chew on stuffed animals


13. Chew on fingers

It was a 40 minute process this morning...

First Feathers

I came home from my class at MQS inspired to try feathers. This is a shop sample for Cotton Fields, and it had perfect spaces for free-hand feathers.

In this shot of the backing, you can see my feather border:

Here you can see the "fuzzy" fabric, which was a challenge to quilt around so I kept it simple. In the pinwheel blocks, I used a continuous curve in the smaller triangles and you can barely see the small feathers in the pink triangles.

If you are intimidated by quilting feathers, there are many books that you can look at. Then practice on paper! There are some tricks to getting the flow and where to backtrack, that's why I suggest a book or class. Kim Brunner and Cindy Roth were the instructors in the classes I took, and they both recommended the book "Infinite Feathers" by Anita Shackleford.

Sock Progress

On the bottom is the first sock made with the April Rockin Sock Club yarn. I found another pattern since I didn't really care for the lace in the club pattern. But, I promised to finish B.'s pair...they are Simple Socks on 2 Circulars from Cat Bhordi's book. I'm almost to the heel on sock #2, and I'm *really* tired of K2P2 ribbing!



B. worked long and hard to finish the ripping-out project...That is the pile of thread left once all the layers were separated. Now it's time to quilt it again! I found a golf pantograph that should make it a quick finish - if you call over 2 years quick!


Happy Father's Day from baby K:

A day for Bunnies

Baby K is 10 months old! At this point, she won't sit still for pictures, so I positioned the bunny as best I could and snapped away.