Quilting Day

Daddy's Christmas socks are done! Mine are on the needles, with the colors switched, and hopefully there will be enough yarn leftover to make the toddler pair. My goal is to take our family picture wearing coordinating socks...that gives me about a month to finish the other two pairs.

Baby K went to daycare today so I had time to work on the Hawaiian Star quilt. Here are detail pictures.


That scallop fill literally made my eyes water as I concentrated on the small design!

I love this little fleur-de-lis in the flying geese. I will go back and add some loops in the blue background. I quilt one color at a time, so I am working on all the purple areas at the moment.
Here you can see some other meandering around the green spikes.

I told my students yesterday...only 24 school days until finals. I hope they start studying and doing their homework soon, LOL.

On second thought...

OK, you get the happy toddler first! She is in a phase where she comes home from daycare and has to change her own clothes. Lots of backwards, inside out shirts in the afternoon, LOL. Our minor drama the last few weeks was a missing purple shirt. It got wet on the playground one day and never made it back into her cubby. The whole staff at daycare was on the lookout for this thing! ($3 special at the checkout stand before Halloween, NOT a big deal.) After two weeks of looking, the director apologized and gave me a small credit on the weekly fee. Of course, the very next day they find it somehow shoved between the shelving units. Hooray! Don't you love a happy ending?

Here is my finished piece for the longarm challenge "Shades of Black and White." I decided not to enter it for judging, since I can see such glaring errors. For instance, the messy spirals. On the smaller swirls that you can see part of to the right, I did not backtrack very well, and the designs in the corners do not match. As my husband says, it's all a learning process.


And a full view, laid out in the rocky backyard. (We believe in desert landscaping. Besides, who wants to mow a big lawn in 100+ temperatures?!?) I used the Blooming Nine Patch pattern, which I'd love to try again with a different color palette. This version is 38 inches square.

Swingin'

Grandma bought Baby K a swing! Now we don't have to walk a mile to the park, we can spend hours pushing her in our own yard. The first swing time lasted 30 minutes, followed by a 20 minute tantrum because Mommy made her get down.

Then after dinner, she decided to give each of her stuffed animals a turn. Here she is, making sure Raffi is properly strapped in for the ride.

She giggles and grins the whole time. Definitely improves our mood when she is so happy!

Rising to the challenge

Phew...I finished my entry for the annual longarm group challenge:

That's the back! I'm not going to share the front until after the judging. My initial thoughts are that a) I should have used trapunto in that center floral motif, b) the background fill does nothing to enhance the design because c) I should have used a different transition fabric on the top! Oh, and there are spots where my freehand curves are decidedly flat. So, if the judges are harsh, it won't be unexpected.

On to fun stuff. This was a weekend of Fall Festivities. Last night there was a carnival/party at baby K's daycare. She really enjoyed wearing her costume and getting treats. No photos because the camera was charging for today's fun - Boo at the Zoo:

After visiting all the animals, we had our picnic lunch and K. visited the pumpkin patch. The final treat, which she talked about ALL DAY (before AND after the trip), was a ride on the carousel.

Gee, do you think she enjoyed it?!?

Back in action

I remember a friend coming over to watch a basketball game on Sept 15th, and I was sick. It is now October 15th, and I am still sick. UGH. I did finally drag myself to the doctor - on my birthday - and got confirmation that I have been walking around with bronchitis. I sped over to the pharmacy to get antibiotics and today I am feeling slightly better. Maybe by this weekend I will have energy to do something...anything besides blowing my nose would be progress at this point!

I was reading Breaking Dawn last night and said "Jacob!" when I meant to remprimand my cat Casey for scratching at the door. I might be getting a little bit sucked into that fictional world...

My "Martha Stewart" project...making coordinating Christmas socks for a family holiday photo. I started with Daddy's pair and I'm almost to the heel of sock #1.


I started a new quilt...Judy has such fun designs. The goal is to quilt for an hour a day. Grab some fat quarters and play along! I'm a week behind already, but some sewing time is better than none, especially with some longarm deadlines breathing down my neck. Luckily Friday is a half day of school so the afternoon is already blocked off for quilting!

Funny faces

Baby K loves Elmo!
Having a snack at Grandma's.
New skill...scissors!
New trick - Daddy can swing me!

Thursday Thirteen

Reasons why I haven't been blogging:

13. Harry Potter (all 7 books...again!)

12. I met Edward

11. Hubby doesn't get home from work until 6:30pm

10. At least 2 hours of Sesame Street and nursery rhyme videos every afternoon

9. Nasty cold = couch potato

8. I discovered Facebook!

7. I am addicted to PuzzleBee online jigsaw puzzles.

6. This Hawaiian Star was pieced by my mother and I'm trying to do it justice!

5. My guild's presidential challenge deadline is October. How can it be September already?!?

4. I am trying to finish handknit socks for a birthday surprise.

3. Lots of after school meetings

2. A new season of TV is starting...did you happen to see FRINGE on Fox?

1. Did I mention I have a 2 year old running me ragged?!? See you soon, I hope!

Toddlers are exhausting

But awfully cute :-) Baby K got a sit-n-spin for her birthday. I was amazed at how quickly she caught on to how it works, although she doesn't always sit straight on it and slips off as soon as it starts to turn.

She likes to wear "pretties" in her hair (aka pig tails) but Mommy has to work on getting them even. Here she is modelling a new dress that Grandma Mary made her:
In honor of t he Olympics, she made a torch at daycare. The "out-take" photos from this were hilarious. She would not stand back and smile for the camera...I'd say gt set, and she'd run at me, so I have a bunch of blurry shots of half her face.
I have been coming home from school to enjoy a few minutes of quiet before picking her up in the afternoon. I've been reading...the Twilight saga by Stephanie Meyer caught my attention. Occasionally I pick up some knitting. The purple socks are done and I just turned the heel on the second of the blue ones.
I have a bunch of quilting to do also, but I never have a block of time to get in the groove...maybe over this holiday weekend. It's tough because Baby K is in a severe cling-to-Mommy phase. She even screams bloody murder if Daddy takes her to bed! The good news is that she is almost to the age where she can play by herself in the bedroom while I sew.

All of this to say that I really don't have much to blog about! I spend most of my online time on Ravelry, and a friend introduced me to Facebook, which is almost as addictive. I have touched base with high school and college friends that I haven't seen in 15 - 20 years, pretty cool.

She's got the cutest

little baby face! But now our baby is TWO YEARS OLD!

I tried to get a birthdaypicture with the bunny,

But she preferred to cuddle with a different bear

Here we are getting ready for the party:

And enjoying birthday cake with special friends:

(from left, Grandma Mary, family friends Michelle and Elizabeth, and the Birthday Girl!

End of Summer

School starts Monday. How did all that time go by and I feel like I didn't get much done???

I'm working on a black and white challenge:And I started an I Spy quilt. I've been exchanging fabric with friends online:
Baby K was playing with blocks yesterday. First, she put one under each barstool, then arranged them all on the shelf:
then carefully moved them all to the bottom shelf!
She is good at amusing herself!

Summer Recap

It's been a lazy summer.

Lots of laying around...and kicking back...
Baby K has a few quirks. Notice how carefully she colors each corner of the paper:
I've been knitting some. Blue socks:
And a multi-color sweater, knit sideways from one sleeve across the body to the other.
As my last treat of the summer before school starts (meetings this week, students on Monday), I am going to see "Swing Vote." Should be a good laugh before I begin teaching my US Government class.

To Do's - DONE!

I had a wonderful time on a quilting retreat with my mom and 10 other fun ladies.
I finished the Christmas throw using the Turning Twenty Again pattern:

The big accomplishment was finishing a queen size quilt. This is "3 P's in a Pod, a Mystery by Jackie Robinson."
I started this in a class at the 2005 Quilt Camp in the Pines. My Ps are Pink, Purple and Polka Dots. Now it needs to rest a bit before I put it on the longarm to quilt it!

Colors

We have been doing alot of coloring. K has a coloring book and this is her adorable pose on the floor:She is very precise coloring the stars:
Of course, with cats and kids, you have to take alot of pictures to get one good one!
We have a special song for clean up. She is diligent about getting all the crayons back in the box.
Yay Baby K! What a fun time.

Ouch!

This is not good:We call those "eyelashes" or "railroad tracks" and it means that the tension is off on my quilting machine. Of course, I didn't realize that until I had quilted four rows of a pantograph and took the quilt off the frame. UGH. Where is that seam ripper?!?

On Friday, I somehow managed to kick the edge of the bed, and possibly broke my toe:
No, not the big one. That's a bruise from a few weeks ago when Baby K dropped a high heeled shoe on my foot. The broken one is the fourth toe on my left foot (this little piggy had none). The swollen one that kind of leans too far left. I haven't been to the doctor, because I've heard there is nothing really to do for toes. It's feeling better finally - I can walk without limping, but stairs make it throb.

On a happier note, Baby K continues to enjoy the cheap thrills.
She entertained herself for a long time over the weekend with Post It notes.
And I have quilt top #3 to take on my retreat next weekend...
I got these blocks from "Quilting Knitters" on Ravelry. We all made a bunch of one block, sent them to the organizer, and got 15 different ones back. Everyone did a great job. I am thrilled, and inspired :-)

The girls

This is my favorite current picture of my darling daughter...One of her favorite games is making Mommy and Daddy lay on the floor to go "night night" as she puts a blanket over us. We get tucked in with kisses and stuffed animals. Then, when she wants us to get up, we have to "chase" her as she does laps around the couch. Quite the little director - I imagine in a few years we will have all the neighbor children at OUR house as she runs the show!
Here's Casey, the downstairs kitty. The cat stand is one of her napping spots , used primarily in the morning since the tile floor is much nicer during the heat of the day!And the "big sister" kitty, Gidget. Since she is the boss, she gets to sleep upstairs. It's funny to wake up, check on the baby and see Gidget sleeping at the top of the stairs so that other kitty doesn't invade her space!