Pictures

I wasn't sure if Blogger was going to let me upload my pictures today or not. It does not like Photobucket for whatever reason. Or maybe PB just doesn't like Blogger. I know I don't like PB, but my phone won't let me upload them to Flickr, which I would prefer.

Anyway, here are a few photos of current projects. At retreat last weekend, I worked on my Ocean Waves quilt. I decided to do it as a "quilt as you go" project. I have the first 2 rows quilted and sewn together. Here's the front side of the 2 rows. (FYI, it's more neon than what the photo shows)

Here's a picture of the back side. You can see the seem where I sewed the 2 rows together. The loose blue fabric will get hand stitched down over the seem to hide it.

The quilting is pretty simple, but close enough to work.

And here is the progress I've made knitting my Slinky Rib Tee. I just finished the ribbing on the body and am knitting straight stockinette now. It's going so much faster.

This weekend is going to be so packed. Tomorrow morning, I'm walking my 5K. I had wanted to run it. And I just HATE admitting that my dad was right when he said my ankle couldn't take it. I have a 22 year old injury that limits its mobility. And it just ached all the time when I was running. You know, I don't know about you, but I really don't like it when someone tells me I can't do something. I need to figure that out for myself. Who knows, I just might be able to do it.

After the 5K, I'm heading to Vicki's house for a Fiber Frolic. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's several hours dedicated to fun, fiber (yarn, wool, roving) and food. I'm taking a spinach salad.

And if that's not enough, after the Fiber Frolic I'm head to Lily's house for more fun and food. Doubt there will be any fiber there. At least not the kind that I can knit. :o) She's talking about dinner and possibly a bonfire if the weather holds. Which it looks like it will.

Thank God I don't have to be to work on Sunday until noon!

Retreat Fun!

Retreat was really fun. Visiting with friends who share the same hobby is always nice. You get to see everyone's projects and new gizmos.

Helen had this really cool purple air cushion. When you sit on it, you have to stabilize your body and it made me sit up a bit straighter. I always find that I'm slouching when I sit at my sewing machine. I found them at Amazon.com. Think I want to get one of them and try it out. Who know's it might work for work also.

I've been wanting to do some machine quilting, but don't feel comfortable with doing something big or with free motion. Straight lines I feel comfortable with. I finished the blocks for my Ocean Waves quilt a year ago. I even sewed them into rows.

I had the idea that I wanted to try a "quilt as you go" type project. That's where you quilt each block (or in my case row) individually and then sew them together. That way it's more manageable. Here is a quick demonstration by Paula, The Quilter. I figured if it didn't work, I would have 5 long table runners for Christmas gifts. Well it worked, so I'll have to figure out something else for Christmas Gifts. I started with Row 5 so if my quilting was kind of crappy, it would be at the foot of the quilt. I got rows 5, 4, and 2 quilted. And I was able to sew rows 4 and 5 together. All I have to do is a little bit of hand sewing on the back to hide the seem. Can't wait to get the other 2 rows quilted. I did get them basted, so at least they are all ready to be quilted.

Will post pictures soon. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures. I did had my camera with me, but just never dug it out to take photos. That's a real shame too as there were lots of wonderful projects being made.

We had a little bit of auto excitement over the weekend also. On Thursday night, JoAn was having transmission trouble with her car and when we went to leave on Sunday, my battery was completely dead. I had been planning on getting a new one before winter, but obviously that was a little to ambiguous a date for my car. However I know I got off the cheaper. Hope JoAn gets her car back soon.

Knitting Retreat and Fair Isle Knitting

On Saturday, I attended the Frog Pond Fiber Arts Knitting Retreat. Oh it was so relaxing and enjoyable. A good time was had ball all. Special thanks to Chris, Vicki, Sarah, Karen, Deb, Elizabeth and Janet K. for all their hard work and/or donations.

Elizabeth gave a Fair Isle class. We all got to pick our own projects and she would help us with tips and techniques that she has learned while doing her own projects. I picked the Linen Jeans Purse from the book "Norwegian Sweater Techniques for Today's Knitter" by Therese Chynoweth. I used a Berrocco Cotton Twist yarn in a Chocolate Brown and Blue.

I have did a Faux Fair Isle project not too long ago, so I knew a bit of what to expect, but I did learn a few new things. One is that the yarn that you want to show up in the foreground (the blue) needs to always be the top yarn and the background yarn (the brown) will be the bottom yarn. I tried to do 2-handed knitting, but my left hand is just too stupid to figure it out. I did better with the "throwing" method. That's how I normally knit anyway. In order to keep my 2 yarns in the correct top/bottom position, I figured out if I put the top yarn over the back of my hand I always knew where it was and could grab it and keep it in the top position.


Here is a picture of what I had gotten done by Sunday night. This was knit in the round and my tension was pretty good, except for the areas where I switched from one needle to the next. See my lovely floats. :o)


I finished the rest of the knitting on Monday night and then got a chance to practice my next new technique; Steeking.

Elizabeth didn't show us how this was done at the retreat, but she did explain it and she had showed some of us previously how it was done. For those of you who are non-knitters, steeking is cutting your yarn in order to either add a sleeve, neckline, or edging. It's very terrifying! I have this fear that as soon as you cut one thread the whole knitting project will just fall apart. Since my yarn is cotton/rayon, I had to run two rows of machine sewing on either side of the line that I was to cut on. If you look closely, you can just see them. Thank god Nicki had the idea of using white thread. I had planned to use black. Would never have been able to see them!


And then, you take several deep breaths, pick up your scissors and while holding your breath CUT!!


I was so relieved when nothing unraveled. Even with the lines of machine stitching I thought it would all fall apart. I picked up my flap stitches last night and was able to knit 4 rows on that before I headed for bed.

Playing Catch-Up

It seems I'm always playing catch up lately. Something will happen for which I will think, "This would make a great blog entry." But do I follow through on it, NO. So here I am again giving you a really long entry to read in order to catch up what has been happening lately.

Quilt Retreat - I went to quilt retreat about a month ago. I had a really good time. I got done everything that I had planned, plus a few extra things.

1) I finished the borders on my Temple Guardians quilt. It turned out wonderfully. I can't wait to get it quilted. I'm hoping to get that done soon. I have to call Deloa and set up a appointment to bring it in. I would like to get it done in time for our Quilt Guild quilt show in August, but that depends on her schedule; so we will see. I have another quilt show in September that I can shoot for just in case. If not, there's always next year.

2) For my Oceans quilt, where I mentioned here, I got my rows put together. I'm not sure if I mentioned in previous entries, but I would like to quilt this using the "quilt as you go" technique. I will quilt each row individually, then sew the rows together, add an outside white border and quilt that. I'm hoping it goes alright. If not, I might end up with 5 table runners instead of a full sized quilt. Who knows, but my friend Helen has done several quilts using this method and they seem to work for her, so I thought why not give it a try. I'll keep you posted on how it's going.

3) Last year, during my spring quilt retreat, several of us made a trip to Lolly's Fabric Store in Shipshewanna. I fell in love with an oriental jelly roll in teals, brown, greens, and creams. I loved it so much that I had to buy the jelly roll, coordinating fabric for borders and the book that the quilt store's sample was made from. I started that project. Sorry, no pictures as all I was doing was sewing all my strips together. However, yesterday, I got all my blocks cut out of the strips. I just have to press them and then they are ready to lay out.

Vacation - The day after I got back from retreat, I re-packed and headed to Kentucky with my Mom, my Cousin Tracy and her daughter Erica. We went down to visit Aunt Corinne and Aunt Hattie (Marie). We were supposed to leave on Tuesday morning, but after getting 3 calls from Aunt Corinne asking when we were leaving, Tracy decided there was no reason we shouldn't leave on Monday night. That was fine by me, I was packed and ready to go. It was a LONG drive. It took us 8.5 hours to drive it. We would have made more stops to relax, but it was dark and rest areas are down right spooky in the dark. Tracy was very proud of the fact that she drove 'through' Chicago. She did very well other than the death grip she had on the steering wheel. We arrived around 2 am and boy was I tired. Tracy did most of the driving, but I was still recovering from lack of sleep from retreat. I never sleep well on their small twin beds.

Our plans were pretty loose for our visit. Other than visiting the AQS Quilt Show in Paducah, we just planned to hang out. The first day, we made a trip into Murray to do some shopping. We went to an antique/re-sell shop called Trends and Treasures, I think. It was very nice. I got a new book (Vanished by Karen Robards), a set of measuring spoons and 2 silicon spatulas. Then we went to a consignment store. I hit the mother lode here. I found a pair of dark lime green Capri's, and 3 shirts. It turned out that I had a shirt in my suitcase, that went with the Capri's so well you would have thought I bought them together.

On Wednesday, we went to the quilt show. Well, Mom, the aunts and I went. Tracy and Erica stayed back to visit with Uncle Johnny. Tracy's not really into quilting. My Aunts and Mom all sew, but they don't "Quilt" like I do. I love to quilt, they not so much. I appear to be the only one who inherited a love/passion for quilting from Grandma Bonnie (their Mother).

The AQS quilt show was held in the Expo center, but they also had this huge inflatable dome next door with a lot of vendors in it. Because of where we parked, we entered the dome area first. It was funny, because Mom, and the Aunts thought that WAS the quilt show. Once they were done visiting all of the booths, they were ready to leave. I had to laugh at their expressions when I explained that while yes, there were quilts hanging up to be admired, this area was vendor booths only, not the quilt show. They ended up leaving me there to go get something to eat while I visited the rest of the show and vendors. I wasn't that hungry and besides, I hadn't come ALL the way to Paducah just to visit the vendors. I wanted to see the quilts too. I did take pictures, but it seems they frown on people displaying them on their blogs/on-line. I guess copy right infringement and all that. Anyway, you can go the AQS Website to see the winners.

I didn't buy a lot, but I really like what I bought. I got some teal/brown fabric to go with my project from retreat, a Bali-pop with 2 yards of coordinating green batik, a 3 yard piece of blue/tan batik, and 3 coordinating fat quarters (mauve, orange and green). I also got 2 lumbar supports; 1 for me and 1 for Mom. If she doesn't like it I plan on using it in my sewing room.

I realized after I came home, that I didn't get any pictures of all of us together. Actually the only pictures I took were of the flowers, Aunt Hattie's Pond and the quilt show.

So here are some beautiful Azalea's blooming at Aunt Corinne's.

And this is the Tulip tree that is blooming in Aunt Hattie's back yard. Someday when my Tulip tree grows up, it will bloom just like this one.

The Dogwood Festival was happening in Paducah also, but this picture is the only part of it that I saw.

We came home on Friday and the car was SO packed, that we decided to take our time and to make extra stops so we stretch our legs. It took us 11.5 hours back, because of this and detours for construction. Just so you know the reason that the car was so packed was not because I bought up a lot of stuff at the quilt show, it was because the Aunts decided to clean out their closets and give it to us. Most of it went to Erica, but the rest of us did not come home with some stuff too. Tracy had to do 15 loads of laundry when she got home to get all of Erica's stuff washed. OMG 15 loads of laundry!!!

Fiber Frolic - This last weekend a bunch of my knitting friends got together at Vicki's house for a fun-filled day of fiber, food and friendship. We got to ooh and aah over Vicki's new 3 Season room. I loved it and would so like to have one off the back of my house. The breeze coming in the windows was just awesome. I'd spend most of my time out there if I had one. To eat, we had Sloppy Toms (made with turkey, hence the name), Spinach salad, taco dip, veggies, hummus, deviled eggs, orange cupcakes, blueberry muffins, cookies. Everything was so good. Oh and Elizabeth brought some awesome strawberries. They were so good I had to drag Deb to Sam's Club on the way home because I don't have a membership card and pick up some of my own.

Of course it was until almost everyone had left that I realized that although I brought my camera, I forgot to take photos. No one else did either though so there! But I did take a picture of the progress I made on the sleeves for my Hoodie. I'm trying to do the 2 sleeves at one time thing. I wasn't sure if I would like it or not, since I didn't like doing the 2 socks at one time on circular needles. But so far it's going pretty well. I can't wait to get them done. I still have 12 rows to do on the body of the sweater, but I had put that aside since it was so boring. I measured it as is, and it measures 22". My row guage must be off a little, because it's only supposed to be 22 1/4" after the 12 rows that I have left to do. I just finished a pattern repeat though, so I'm thinking I will stop there and add the sleeves on when I get them done.

I know I'm forgetting things, but what the hey, someday I made need to play catch-up again.

See ya!

Knitting Retreat

Ok, I mentioned earlier that I would be updating everyone on the knitting retreat that I attended on Halloween. The South Bend Knitworks (Rav Group) held our first retreat. It was so much fun, I hope it isn't our last one. Thanks to Faith and Madalyn for organzing the whole thing. And thanks to Rachel for decorating the gift bags, Kelly for the neat stitch markers (SSK & K2tog), and to Carly for the cool name tags. They had small wound hanks of yarn. And thanks to all who brought snacks, Yum!

I had such a great time. Kallie tought us how to do Entrelac. I wasn't going to do it, because I thought "Why learn something else to become addicted to!", but actually it was quite interesting. Here's my sample:

Kallie went around the group giving everyone a little bit of extra help, for which I was glad. I learn better if someone is showing me what to do, instead of just plain reading/interpreting it on my own. Every time she got to me though, I would confuse her because on the purl rows I was knitting backwards instead of flipping it and purling. I think Entrelac would be a huge pain to do if you don't know how to knit backwards. All that flipping to the back side to purl 2, 3, 4, etc stitches would suck.

We also got in some great knitting time too.

Liz, Kallie and Shelley.

Shelley (again), KellyLynn, Megan, Christine, Carly and Madalyn.

Rachel, Susan and Jonel.

Kelly, Faith and Rachel (again).

It was kind of hard not to overlap photos, since there were not a lot of us. Personally I like the smaller sized group, because it was easier to talk to everyone and get to know some of the different Ravelry members. I just realized that I didn't get a picture of Danielle, because she had to leave early.

We all trickled through Ewe-Knique Knit Shop around lunch time. I got 2 skeins of Mini Mochi, that I just love. That's the yarn I'm using for the fingerless mitts from the previous post. Very soft!

Oh, lest I forget, Faith was responsible for getting us some great door prizes, none of which I won though. :o( But Jonel won a Sweater Kit from Berroco, KellyLynn won a kit from Spud and Chloe, Liz won a goodie bag from Lion Brand Yarn, Carly won Purple sock yarn donated by Red Purl. Sorry there were more winners, but I don't remember who won what.

Other donated prizes came from: Erica's Sewing & Craft center - a purple bag and books for our goodie bags and another kit from Spud & Chloe.

Update

Just wanted to let you know that Aunt Margaret is doing really well. However, they have rescheduled her feeding tube surgery until Monday or Tuesday. They want her infection to have a few more days healing time. Also, her bronchitis is trying to form into pneumonia. She's still in the ICU, but they are hoping to move her out this weekend, depending on her progress.

It's a small bit of border line good/bad news, but I'll take anything I can get.

PS. I'm off to the last quilt retreat of the year. I leave directly after work tonight. It's only about 30 minutes away. I had a whole list of things I wanted to get done. But I'm pretty tired after this week, so I cut back on the projects and am just going to take it easy.

PSS. I signed up for a knitting class last night at the Red Purl. It is for the Pooling Watercolor Scarf (Raverly Link). The basis of the class is to take a multi colored yarn (a.k.a. Lorna's Laces) and figure out the length of the colors and knit them so they all line up and for vertical strips. The class is being held next week. I'll let you know how it goes.

I Was So Productive

I really can't believe how much I got done at retreat. I had 1 item on my list that HAD to get done, but the rest was in the 'want to get as much done as possible' list.

The one that I HAD to get done was Dawson's Colts quilt. Yes, Teresa if you are reading this it is done. So I need to know when you guys are come up next and if it is not anytime soon, I will mail it. Anyway, here it is.
Then I worked on my Temple Guardians Quilt. This is the Siamese Cat appliques that I have been working on for the last 2 years.
It has one more border that needs to be put on. The design on the fabric runs salvage to salvage , so I will have to do some fussy cutting as the the length is over 60" and the S to S dimensions are only about 42. Just in case you are curious, here is the fabric I will be using:

It is called Luminosity by Paula Nadelstern and printed by Benartex. I just fell in love with it when I bought it several years ago. I didn't know what I would do with it when I bought it, but I new I would find the perfect project for it and I think it will be great at the final border on my Temple Guardians quilt.

Then I worked on my Lillibet's Garden BOM. I didn't realize until I started working on it this weekend, but it was started in 2006. It was the retreat project that year and Kathy J. and I were the only two who attempted it. I had the blocks and sashing already done, but I had to finish the applique flowers in the center and then assemble all the blocks. This was one of the "want to get as much done as possible" projects, but I actually got it all done. It was close, but I finished it up around 11 am yesterday. We had to start packing up around noon, so we could be out by 1:30.
I was talking to my Mom one day and she said she would like to look for a new quilt for their bed. I told her I had a quilt top that I was working on that I would give her. It wasn't quite done, as I still had some applique to do, but if she wanted it, she could have it. Well 2 days later, she called to let me know that she had already bought the batting for it. So I thought it would be prudent to take it to retreat with me and get to work finishing it. She hasn't seen this, but I think she will be happy with it.

Here are a couple of other projects of note:
1. Marie's Dear Jane blocks. She was laughing, because she only got 7 of them done, but damn, I think they take 2-3 times as much time to make as regular sized quilt block. They are 6 1/2" squares. Click here to see what the finished quilt is supposed to look like.
2. Helen's Soduko Baby Quilt - There will be 6 puzzles on this quilt. The Baby's Mom is a Math major. I love the colors, but I want to make one with fussy cut pictures like 9 cats, 9 dogs, 9 oreos, etc. I think that would be a great I Spy project.


3. Deanna's Christmas Ball - This ornament is just beautiful. I have ideas for this. Deanna was my 'table mate' at this retreat and it was really fun talking to her.
4. Steve's Tribute to Oz quilt. I honestly don't know what he is going to call this quilt, but I thought that title sounded great for my blog. Anyway, last retreat we did a project called 'Mexican Tiles' (Here's mine). Steve decided to use Wizard of Oz fabric. I love the way he created Tornado's from the blue & black sky fabric. He got more of this done, before we left, but I didn't get an updated photo of it. I think it is just fabulous and I so can't wait to see the finished item.

5. Sharon's quilt for her granddaughter. I love the clean lines. It's great.

Of course there were plenty more great projects going, but I can't post them all. And I got too little sleep, because I was working so hard. I had wanted to take a walk, but the weather was too cold and wet for me. Luckily I wasn't driving, because I took a small nap in the van on the way back and then took a 2 hour nap when I got home last night. I'm still tired though. That's what staying up until 2 am every night and getting up for 8 am breakfast will do to you. Gonna go to bed early tonight though. Right after I watch Heros!

OMG!

Oh my god, it's been over a month since I last posted. Things have been happening, just forgot to blog about it.

Here's a small recap sans pictures as I haven't any.

I went to Stitches Midwest in Schaumberg, IL at the beginning of September. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a HUGE Knitting/crochet/fiber convention. Lots and Lots of vendors and demos. They have classes too, but I didn't take any. This was my first trip to Stitches. I had only gone to the Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan, MI before. Which seems like small potatoes compared to Stitches MW. Wow, there were 8 rows of vendors! I forgot my camera, but was told that's OK, since they don't allow photos to be taken at the show anyway. One less thing to cart around. I went with a plan. I thought that would be smart, since I didn't want to overspend by buying everything that I saw that I LOVED. Well.... my plan wasn't defined enough apparently. I thought I would get 1 or 2 skeins of sock yarn and then the yarn to knit a sweater. I had 2 different sweater patterns with me that I wanted to make. I wasn't sure what to expect from Stitches, so I thought whichever one I found the yarn for first would be the one I would start knitting the next week. As I said earlier Well...... I did find my 2 skeins of sock yarn. One in a yummy fall orange color, which is not normally my color but was just fabulous. And the other is variegated fall colors. Then I found the yarn for my Mirage Sweater (here's a link to someone's version), but Miss Babs didn't have enough of the yarn in the color I wanted (Kiwi), so I order it. Well, that I think might have been when I made my mistake. Oh, not buying the yarn, I'm anxious to receive it. But the thought that I wouldn't have anything really good to show for my trip. You know!?! Well, except for the 2 skeins of sock yarn. Whoopie! More sock yarn. Not to mention that I wouldn't be able to start my sweater any time soon, like I planned. I didn't realize it at the time that these thoughts were bouncing around in my head when I stumbled across the "WEBS" booth. I found this awesome blue yarn by Sheep Shop Yarn that would be perfect for my Susie Hoodie Sweater Jacket. So I splurged and got it. I started the sweater that week too.

I've got about 6-8 inches of the bottom done. I had to rip it out and start over once. I was supposed to start the bottom edging with a size smaller needles then what I used to knit the rest of the jacket. My cables were not showing very well either, and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I commented to a couple of people about it and they said give it time, cables kind of have to develop a little in order for you to see them well. I was getting very frustrated and agonizing over what I was doing wrong. I tried drawing out what the row would look like and still couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong, because it matched what I had on the needle. That's when I realized that I was having a major "blond moment". Because the even numbers for the cables was printed on the left side of the chart, I was reading them from left to right instead of right to left. DUH!! (FYI, You are always suppose to read the charts from right to left) I've decided not to rip them out though, as that would mean I'd have to start over again. The messed up part lines up with the garter stitch edging, so it just looks like part of the bottom edging. Once I started doing the cables correctly they really popped out. I'm about 4 rows from the 1st waist decrease. I'm not planning on actually decreasing though, just knitting that row normally. The waist needs to be a little bigger for me as I don't have much of a waist.

Then, last week I went on a quilting Shop Hop with my friend Patsy and 2 of her friends Judy and Joyce. For the shop hop, you bought a 'passport' at the first shop and then got it stamped at all of the quilting shops that were participating in the S-H. You turned the passport in to the last shop and your name is entered into a drawing for a really great prize. I found a nice pattern from Benartex for $1 and then at the next store I found the fabric to go with the pattern. I'm planning to work on it this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend. Tomorrow is the start of the River Bend Quilt Guild's Fall Retreat. I can't wait to get there. Although packing up all my sewing to stuff to get there will be a pain. But it's always worth it. I'm planning to work on Dawson's quilt (MUST GET DONE!), My Mom's quilt (which is another must get done) and then the new quilt for myself. I'm taking a few other small things in case I get bored with the new quilt. Like my Temple Guardians Quilt. I finished the last applique cat a couple weeks ago and can now start putting it together. I didn't realize it, but it took me 2 years to applique 9 cat blocks. Well, I wasn't working on them the whole time. I worked a little, then set them aside, then picked them back up; repeat. I'm not really into applique, but I really like these blocks. But I can't start on it until I get Dawson's quilt done! Which just needs to be quilted and the binding put on. I should be able to get that done on Thursday night.

Oh, and lest I forget, I got the news this week that I am back to full time. I have been working only 30 hours per week since January, because business has been slow. Either things are picking up a bit or it's the 'end of year must spend budgeted money before we lose it' rush. Either way, I'm good with it.

I'd like you to meet....

Sheldon. I finished knitting him at the ND retreat this weekend. He's a gift for Dawson. I liked him so much though that I'm going to make myself one.


and the Daylily Scarf.

Thanks Marci for the idea on the name.

PS. We had an awesome time at the ND retreat this last weekend. Thanks to Janet for all her work on gather such awesome goody bags and door prizes. And to Chris, Vicki and Elizabeth for organizing and planning the classes.

Sheldon's Going to Retreat

I finished knitting all of Sheldon's parts last night and started the assembly process. I stopped just short of doing the icord edging to attach the shell to the shell breastplate last night before heading to bed. I also realized, as I was assembling, that I knitted the breastplate out of the wrong yarn, but I figure Baby Dawson won't know the difference, so whatever.

I'm planning to have him done this week. I had planned to finish him last Sunday while at work, but as I was taking a steak out of the oven for my Sunday dinner, I hit the back of my hand against the oven door and burned it. Of course it was the right one and I'm right handed, so every time I curled my hand it throbbed. No knitting for me. :o( I have a mark on the back of my ring finger from the big knuckle down to the fist knuckle about 1/2 inch wide. Luckily I work right down the hall from the urgent care facility. One of the nurses kindly gave me a bit of silvadeen (sp?) burn cream. I applied that for 2 days and then it was fine. The area where it blistered still hurts just a little if I bump it, but otherwise, it feels fine. And more importantly, I can knit again.

This weekend my Frog Pond Knitting Group is having another Day Retreat. You may remember, that we had one back in January. Treking across the Notre Dame campus in the snow and cold was not fun, but we had a great time once we were inside and the layers were all pealed off. Elizabeth S. is going to be teaching a top down sweater. She has put so much time into designing the sweater. Since there were so many semi-newbie knitters interested, she decided not to do a raglan sleaves. I want to make one (baby sized) but I have so many other projects on the needles right now that I think I will just take notes and work on that later. For when Dawson is just a bit bigger and isn't growing out of things every couple of weeks.

Vicki may be doing a Ravelry demo. She emailed the group to find out if there was any interest, but no one replied back, so she was planning to nix it. I'm one of the guilty ones who didn't reply. However I honestly missed the email. I emailed her this morning and told her that a couple of people were still planning on bringing their laptops just in case. I hope we can still have it.

And of course we get to have that yummy Notre Dame Dining Hall food. I'm not being sarcastic when I say that either. Their food is so good and there is so many varieties that if you come away hungry, there is something seriously wrong with you.

Highs and Lows

I don't know about anyone else, but I had an awesome weekend. It was that time of year again: Spring Quilt Retreat. And the weather was the best it has been so far this year: in the low 70's! Mind blowing right.

The plan was for several of us quilters to meet up at Camp Freidenswald around 11 am and then carpool to Shipshewanna (a.k.a. quilt shop nirvana). So, I got up early Friday morning, finished gathering my supplies, cloths, bedding, packed the car and left town around 8:30 am. Camp Freidenswald is only 1/2 hour from my house near Union, MI however, I decided I would take a slight detour to Calico Point in Wakarusa, IN first. I was looking for several fabrics for 2 different projects and her prices are right up my alley; usually between $4.50-$6.99 for quality name brand fabrics like Northcott, Hoffman, Clothworks, Batiks. While I like the fabric stores in Shipshewanna (Lolly's and Yoders) and they have a lot better selection because they are bigger, I would rather spend less for my fabric. I ended up getting 6 different fabrics totalling 8 yards for $50. That's at least $20 cheaper than what I would have spent in Shipshe. Then I headed back north to meet up with everyone at the Camp.

After dropping off our food and several items to make room in Lu's van for everyone (Elaine, Ruth, Sarah and myself), we were on our way. It was so much fun. Our first stop was at Lolly's Fabric Store. Talk about fabric overload! I hit the basement first, where they have the discounted fabrics. I found a pink flowered fabric to go along with one of my projects. Then it was back upstairs to the regular show room to browse. I couldn't believe how busy the store was, but then I thought 'look how awesome the weather was, of course people would be out and about'. That of course was one reason, however there was also a quilt retreat going on in Shipshe, another quilt guild was meeting up there, plus several people had stopped by on their way to the Chicago International Quilt Show. Of course they were from Wisconsin, so I'm not too sure how Shipshewanna, IN was on their way to Chicago, IL? But hey it's their story and they can justify it any way they want right!?! I also spoke to several women from Toronto, who were in town for the Retreat. Actually, they were oohing and aahing over a sample quilt that was hanging up near the fabric table. I made the mistake of stopping to see what had caught their attention and fell in love!! It was a braided quilt made from one of those jelly roll things. I have been wanting to purchase one, but never quite found one that just jumped up and shouted 'BUY ME!' Well that one did. It was an oriental jelly roll in blues, greens and browns. But not just any blue, kind of a mix between teal and aqua. Oh it was lovely. Of course then I had to have coordinating fabric to go with it, because it was just such an odd fabric color that it would be hard to match at a later date. You know I'm right!?! Also, the jelly roll wasn't marked, so I wasn't sure who the manufacturer was. When I asked, I found out that Lolly's employs a women full time to make their own jelly rolls and other fabric kits. The pattern they used was the Friendship Braid. It was in a book they had for sale next to the sample. The patterns in the book were all geared towards using jelly rolls (sorry can't remember the name). Since I liked quite a few of the patterns, I decided to buy it also. Not mentioning any numbers, but lets just say I did my part to stimulate the economy this weekend.

Midway through our trek around Lolly's, Kathy showed up. She moved to Oottlewah, Tennessee last year, but came back up to visit for retreat. I've driven to Lafayette, IN for a retreat, which is 2 hours away, but she drove 10 hours to get to ours. Well she spent several days in Indy visiting her nephew Baby Jack before she came up to retreat, but still that's 3 hours away. Anyway, it was really nice to see her.

From Lolly's, we headed to the Blue Gate Restaurant to meet up with Cheryl and have lunch. I had never been there, but was warned to leave room for PIE. The Blue Gate is Amish run and has excellent food and AWESOME pies. I had a half chicken salad sandwich, potato soup and strawberry rhubarb pie. One of my favorites! Was a little on the sweet side, I like mine tart, but was still very good. Oh and lest I forget, the waitress brought out a loaf of bread and on the table was a container of home-made apple butter (Yum) and home-made peanut butter. I had never had the peanut butter, but I was urged to try it because it was supposedly very good. Personally I was looking forward to the apple butter, because I hadn't had it in so long. Little did I know that the home-made peanut butter would taste like... like... like... Jeez, I can't even think of a word to describe it, other than to say it was VERY Good. And that doesn't seem adequate. Smooth. Creamy. YUM. Oh man was it good. They had some for sale in their bakery, so I purchased a small container to bring home. And I'm not sharing! It's all MINE.

After lunch, we headed for Yoders Department Store for more fabric shopping. After the damage I did at Lolly's I feeling a little more picky. I actually didn't find a thing to buy. Who hoo the wallet was a bit exhausted anyway. From there, we decided to make our way back to Camp via Middlebury. I wanted to stop at the cheese factory from some fresh cheese curds. To my disappointment, they no longer sold the cheese curds. Boo! I loved the way the fresh curds would squeak against your teeth when you chewed them. Elaine asked Lu to stop at Gohn's Deparment store in downtown Middlebury, where they sell...you guessed it more fabric plus Amish cloths. They actually make the clothes upstairs and sometimes you can hear the machines going. A couple of bolts of fabric fell off the shelf as I walked by and I had no choice but to pick them up and take them along with me. :o) I just hate it when fabric gets a mind of its own and does that. Don't you?

I was so exhausted by all the shopping that I didn't actually do any sewing on Friday night. I just visited with friends and checked out their projects. Really, I just wasn't in the mood to work on the baby quilt project that I had planned to work on. On Saturday, I started cutting out my Oceans quilt. It was a free pattern sent out by McCalls Quilting Magazine when they were trying to get you to buy their magazine. I have a white-on-white background, 8 different Batik Type fabrics in lime, blue, fuchsia, orange, aqua, peach, purple, yellow/green and a dark lime Sea Turtle Batik that gets fussy cut and appliqued between the blocks. I purchased the Batik Type fabric from Hobby Lobby, but the funny thing is that they are 100% cotton handkerchiefs and they were on sale for 99 cents each, oh about 5 years ago. They are 20" squares, which calculates out to roughly the size of a fat quarter. At first I was going to use Thangles to make all the triangles, but after careful consideration, I thought I would just cut them out using my Easy Angle Triangular Ruler. More precise with less wastage. I wanted to make sure I had enough. I did, but just barely. Not a lot of room for error, so I'm glad I was careful cutting. The only downside to this method is that I need 728 colored 2.5" triangles, just as many white one and 104 6.5" white triangles and 13 from each of the 8 colors. That's a lot of cutting. I didn't get them all cut out, but at least half. I also got 4 blocks finished. Only 140 more to go!

OK, those were the highs for the weekend. Now comes the lows.

I had to work on Sunday, so I had to leave retreat early in order to get there on time. I did a little sewing and piecing, then packed up and headed out. I did not get too far, before I realized there was something wrong with my car. The transmission would not shift gears. Freak out time! I was a mile or so down the road. So I stopped, put the car in reverse and backup down the road back to the camp. I didn't really want to wait on the side of the road. I called my Dad, then called work to let them know I would be late. Once we figured out what to do about my car, my Mom was going to let me borrow her car so I could get to work. Dad gets to the camp (thank god they only lived 30 minutes away!) drives my car down the road and back. The @#$@ was shifting fine he said, only there was a blinking indicator light on the dash. OK that hadn't been on when I drove it. I got out the book and looked up the light. It was for 'Transaxle Error" and read "Car may be experiencing trouble shifting gears (Duh). Please see a service tech immediately." I turn off the car, so we can all go inside the camp facilities to wash our hands and use the bathroom. (Why is it that after standing in the cold you always have to pee?) Anyway, then we all get in our respective cars Me, Mom, then Dad bringing up the rear and drive back to my house. Once again, the car would not shift gears and to top it of the speedometer wasn't working either. The indicator light had gone off also. What is it about our Dad's or men in general that make the car work for them when it won't work for us??? I'm really curious, does anyone know this? I pull over, discuss the situation with Dad and decide to drive home in first gear going what 15 mph the whole way. Crap! But about 5-10 miles down the road, the Transaxle Indicator light pops on and Wow the car actually starts shifting again. Yeah I actually got to accelerate. Of course since the speedometer wasn't working I wasn't sure how fast I was going, but hey I know it was faster than 15 mph and less than 60 mph. I got to work just shy of 2 hours late and was pretty much bummed the rest of the day.

I took my car into the shop on Monday morning and they are looking it over. I got a call this morning that some critter had made a nest in my engine and chewed the hell out of one of the wiring harnesses. Bob the Tech was a little embarrassed when I told I loved him after he told me it looked like my transmission was OK. They'll know for sure one the wiring harness is repaired and they can clear the computer codes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The Exercise Place Got Lost!

I drove out to the west side of town last night (slightly scary) to try out a new workout place that a friend told me about. It's called The Fit Club. Well anyway I couldn't find it. Of course I printed out the class schedule from their website, but didn't have it with me. I drove back and forth on S.R. 2 from Krogers out past the bypass and couldn't find it. So when I came to work this I checked out their website again. It's located on the west side of the bypass, but I turned back too soon. If I had driven another 1/2 mile, I would have seen it on the right side of the road. The next boot camp class is on Wednesday, so I'll head back out there before knit and try it out.

To be truthful, I really needed the workout last night too. I had a bad weekend. I went to the Quilting Day Camp at Barb's. I was doing OK staying away from the snacks (I brought some of my own) UNTIL.... Until I stumbled across the Rice Krispie Treats. Oonly they weren't made with rice krispies they were made with Fruity Pebbles cereal. OMG they were so good and so bad for me I know. So I majorly crashed and burned that day. But I did much better on Saturday. I brought a salad with me and ate it when I got there around. So I wasn't hungry for snacks. I got back on track food wise yesterday.

I am planning on changing my weigh in days to Monday instead of Thursday. It's hard to remember to do it in the middle of the week. So I won't be weighing in again until 3/9. Bonus is I get a couple extra days to make of for those RC Treats.

Speaking of the Quilting Day Camp, I finished a small wallhanging while there. I had one of those Moda 5" Charm square Packs that has been vegatating at my house for a couple of years. I never could figure out what I wanted to do with it. My friend Patsy found a pattern from Marcus Brothers. It used the Aunt Gracie Charm pack, but I like the layout so I used that one. My charm pack had lots of bright colors in it, like pink, purple, yellow, orange, blue and LIME. I haven't taken a picture of it yet, but I will.

My Quilt Guild is doing a Challenge for our March Meeting. It is called the Paint Chip Challenge. What you do is take your initials and find 3 paint chip colors that start with the first letter of your initial. Then use those colors plus a background color if you want to make a quilted project. It can be any size or shape. It's supposed to be completely done and quilted by the March meeting which is on 3/12. I almost had mine done on Saturday, but ran into a snafu. I didn't have enough fabric to finish the pieced border that I had planned. I was using up some Michael Miller Zephyr scraps I got from my friend Patsy. Another quilter Helen and I played around with it and think we have a plausible solution. Not sure how it will look. If I had not waited until the last minute, I could have ordered more fabric from Hancocks of Paducah, but since I'm a great procrastinator, I just have to deal with it. I think someone said Stitch in Time has a lot of Fairy Frost fabric, so I might go see if I can get a bit more of that to add to what I have. I am hoping to get it finished on Saturday and work on the binding on Sunday at work.

On the knitting front, I got the neck ribbing finished on my Tomato Sweater. I have to finish the arms, but I'm taking a week off to rest the elbow. Stupid Tennis Elbow! I don't even know how to play tennis. :oP I not sure yet if I want to make long sleeves or 3/4 sleeves. I'm waffeling, but it will probably be 3/4's.

Knitting Retreat

On Saturday, one of my knitting groups (Frog Pond Fiber Arts) sponsored a Day Retreat. It was held in the South Dining Hall on the Notre Dame Campus. Although it was cold and snowy, it was definitely warmer than it had been all week. It was held from 10 am to 5pm and included lunch in the Dining Hall.

I had a blast. It was so much fun, that I didn't want it to be over. We had 2 vendors come to sell there wares. I bought 2 skeins of merino/silk fingering weight yarn. The first will be for socks, but the other I think will be for a shawl.

We held 3 classes throughout the day. The first was Knitting Backwards; done so you don't have to keep turning your work. I have really been interested in doing this and had actually been able to do the knit stitch on my own; once. Jessica also taught us how to do Purl backwards also. Here is the dishcloth I made.

I even bound off going backwards!

The other 2 classes were held after lunch, which I just have to describe. It was unbelievable! Our admission price included lunch in the Notre Dame Dining Hall, which I must say has got to have the largest buffet I have ever seen. They had everything imaginable: 15+ different dry cereals, bagels, muffins, pancakes, omelet station, belgum waffles, bacon, sausage, pizza, 5 different pastas with your choice of sauces, roasted chicken, ribs, fish, 2 or 3 salad bars with every topping imaginable, hummus, corn casserole, cooked vegies, fresh fruit, yogurts, danishes, donuts, ice cream, frozen yogurt and probably 30 fountain pop machines. That's probably only a drop in the bucket of what they had, but I was so overwhelmed, I know I missed some stuff.

After lunch Vicki taught lace class (which I took) and Janet taught a woven triangular shawl. Here is the shawl I began, but I as SOOO NOT liking the colors that I am going to rip it and redo it. I'll probably use the blue/purple yarn (pictured above) that I got from one of the vendors, but I may look for something a little heavier maybe DK weight.

Here are a Carol and Jessica learning how to weave on Janet's looms.

Aubrey and I worked on our Thrummed Mittens. We were hoping to get our mitten #2's done so we could wear them for the walk back across campus to our cars. Didn't happen though. We BOTH made mistakes, which resulted in frogging. Aubrey wanted to do kitchener grafting on hers like I did and to make hers longer. She had already ripped it back before she got there. So she knit it back up and was ready to cut her yarn to start the kitchener, when she discovered that she hadn't made it long enough; I think it was one thrum row shorter then her other one. So she had to rip back again. On mine, I didn't read the instructions thinking I knew what I was doing since I had already finished mitten #1. Well, I was just about to cut my yarn to do the kitchener grafting when I realized I had 2 righthand mittens. I put the thumb hole in the wrong spot! Luckily all I had to do was frog back the mitten top shaping (about 13 rows) and move the decreases to another location. I think Aubrey finished hers on Saturday night, but I finished mine on Sunday afternoon.

I have more photos on Flickr and I will be uploading them to our Frog Pond Group Page.

Always playing Catch-up

Why does it always seem that I am playing catch-up these days. Things have been happening in my life, honestly. I just haven't felt wordy you know.

My last blog was just before Christmas, so I hope everyone had a great one. I stayed the night on Christmas Eve at my parents house. My Aunt Margaret and cousins Emily and Becky were there too. They had stayed all week. I got a food processor from my parents. The normal sized one. I have a itty-bitty one at home, but I wanted a 'real' one. And I got a beautiful pink shawl/wrap from my Aunt. It is rayon-ish and I wasn't expecting it to be as warm as it is, but I've been wearing it everyday since I got it.

The day after Christmas, we had a huge ice storm and I determined that I really didn't need to go shopping like I normally would. The news was reporting all kinds of slide off and accidents, that I thought it just wasn't work the risk; so you know it was bad. Around noon, I heard spinning wheels out side and figured someone had slid into a snow bank and got stuck. When I looked out the window, it looked as if a Jeep Cherokee and a Semi had a accident. The front bumper on the semi was right up against the back of the Jeep. Then the semi started backing up and I realized that the Jeep had gotten stuck on the ice in the middle of the intersection and couldn't go anywhere. So they hooked up a tow rope to the back of it and the Semi slowly towed it back until it could get on snow and have some traction. When it started going forward again, it was kind of funny, because it looked like the Jeep was towing the semi. They went down the road that way. Although someone should have told the guy in the Jeep that you don't spin your wheels on ice; you just creep.

Then I got sick just as it was time to go back to work. I had an ear infection, bronchitis, and a throat infection. Although it wasn't Strep, it was something similar. I went to work on Monday, but came home at lunch, stayed home on Tuesday, and worked most of the day Wednesday. I only went in on Wednesday, because it was the day before a Holiday and I had to at least work 6 hours or I wouldn't get my holiday pay. But let me tell you, I was miserable! I went to the urgent care office on my way into work and the Dr told me that I needed antibiotics. She said she could give them to me 2 different ways: (1) 10 days worth of pills or (2) a shot there at the office and then 10 days of pills. When I asked what the difference was, she said with the pills alone, I would feel better in about 3 days. If I took the shot and the pills, I would start feeling better in 1 day. Well Geez that was a no-brainer!! I'm pretty sure I rolled my eyes at her and said just give me the shot! I had already felt like crap warmed over for 3 days, I couldn't take much more.

Last weekend was my Winter Quilt Retreat. Due to illnesses, there was only 13 of us there. We couldn't cancel either, or we would have lost like 90% of our deposit, which would have been like $900+. People who had put down deposits and then couldn't come, had to forfit their money in order to cover the cost. But I am so glad that we didn't have to cancel it was so fun. I always have a good time when we are there. I finished my Mexican Tiles quilt from my October quilt retreat. Here is a photo:


Ain't it bright? I wasn't sure how the bright fabrics would look, but it turned out quite nice if I do say so myself.

Back in the beginning of December, my friend Nicki gave me a free Lazy Girl Design Pattern for a small bag called Noriko Handbag. It was very pretty and I thought it would make the perfect little sock bag. Anyway, I made it up out of cottons. It would have been better, if I had used lighter weight fabrics. It just didn't drape right. So I decided I would re-design it. Instead of 2 handles, I thought 1 that you could hang from your wrist would be better. And instead of a button, maybe just a loop. So here it what I came up with:

This is actually one I made for Ann at Quilt Retreat this last weekend from some left over border material she had with her. I never did get around to taking a photo of mine. When I first designed it, I made 3. One for myself (brights of course), a brown one for my Frog Pond Christmas party gift, and an extra blue one in case person who got the gift didn't like brown. Christine really liked hers and several other were interested too. So they suggested I make up some to sell at our Knitting Retreat that we will be having this coming weekend. So I took my template and fabric to the Quilt Retreat last weekend and made some up. I ended up selling 3 of them there and Cheryl wants me to make 5 more for her for gifts to her Scrapbook group friends. I need to write up a pattern for it too. I have been carrying mine around with my Pomatomus socks in it.

Also, I just realized that I never mentioned that at the beginning of December I joined a KAL to knit Thrummed Mittens. I have the first one completely done and about 1/3 of the second one done. I really could use them right now as it has been so cold here next to Lake Michigan. Brrr!

This picture was taken before I got the thumb done. I finished it last Thursday, but I just haven't taken a new photo.

Mini Retreat Happiness

Well today is another day and I'm in a better mood. TGIF!

I decided to let my 2 knitting projects cogitate for a bit and started something new last night. It is a pair of the fingerless mitts. (A Little Twist Wristwarmers) They are a Christmas present for my friend Clara who has been hinting about wanting a pair. They are knitting up really fast. I started while watching CSI last night, worked on them at lunch today and have the first one almost 1/2 done. They are a blue denim color. Want to make a pair for myself too.

Tonight, I have to head home and do a little straightening to the house. My friend Kathy is coming over tomorrow and we are going to have a mini-Quilt Retreat at my house in my NEW sewing room. Yeah!! I am planning on setting up the crockpot. We will have Cranberry Pork Roast, mashed potatoes, and corn. I might even make a Peach Dump Cake for dessert. I've been wanting to make one, just didn't want to end up eating the whole thing by myself. I even have vanilla ice cream if we want it ale mode.

I have a few little projects that I would like to sew up for Christmas presents and I would like to get my Mexican Tiles Top finished. All the blocks are done, I just have to assemble it. It is twin sized, so it shouldn't take too long.

Well, you all have a nice weekend. I plan to.

Playing Catch-up

I can't believe I've been so quiet. Things have been happening, I just haven't felt very wordy this last month.

With my mom's help, I got everything moved downstairs to the new sewing room. God I have too much stuff! Especially fabric! I always "knew" I had a lot, but it wasn't all in one place like it is in the basement. So now I can SEE how much there is. I have decided that for any new projects I start, I need to start using at least 80-90% of the fabric from my stash. It would be much better if I could do 100%, but sometimes you just need a little something that either you don't have or you don't have enough of. I still have a lot of organizing to do, but I actually did some sewing. Luckily I didn't have to cut anything, because the cutting table is piled high with stuff that has to be sorted. But it's a start.

I went to 2 quilting retreats this month. The first was at the Tecumseh YMCA Camp in Brookston, IN. (North of Lafayette) It started on Thursday and finished on Sunday. I checked out a new quilt store in Rossville, called Rossville Quilts. In November they will be having their first anniversary. It was a very nice shop. I was impressed with the wide variety of fabric that she stocked. Most shops you go into, lean towards one type of fabric usually based on the owners preference; whether it's brights or it's thimbleberry/civil war type prints. This shop had a nice variety of both. It was really great because everyone was able to find something that they liked.

I worked on 2 quilts while I was at Tecumseh. Didn't get either of them done, but I made progress on both. The first was my Lillibet's Garden quilt. I was working on the machine appliqued flowers in the center of the quilt. I decided to make it smaller, because it's a king sized quilt and I only need a queen. That means I get to leave off the outer boarder strips with it's many flowers and vines. Yeah! less applique to do. I got all the flowers sewn (12) and I got the flowers and vines appliqued on one section of the center areas, before I got tired of it and switched to my other project.

The other project was a "guild" project. There were at least 8 if not more of us there doing the same quilt. And none of them even looked remotely alike. It is called Mexican Tiles and was designed by Kay the QuiltDiva. Mine of course is kind of on the bright side; go figure. The main fabric is yellow with pink flowers. The center of the flower is kind of turquoise and there are some green leaves in the background. So my supporting fabrics are turquoise, bright pink, light pink, lime green, dark lime green, bright yellow and white for the background. Sorry no pictures yet. It is made up of basically 4 blocks. There is 1 star in the center, surounded by Snail Tails blocks, 80 flying geese and then a 4-patch in a 4-patch block. I got the center star and the 4-patches done while at Tecumseh and finished up the Snail Tail's blocks at my second retreat. I have about 20 flying geese which need the second wing and then I am done with all the little piecing and can start laying it out to piece the whole thing.

I had thought to give it to my BFF McKelle for her daughter Brenna, but Brenna's grandma beat me to the punch. So it will either go into the "top box" or I will finish it for my retreat quilt since it is only a twin size and I don't have any twin beds at my house.

My second quilt retreat was at Camp Fredenswald. It is a menonite camp up near Cassopolis, MI. My Tuesday night quilt group has been going there for at least 10 years now. It is a really nice camp. The beds are extremely hard though. I saw another quilter bringing a 'eggcrate' looking mattress pad, which I am determined to bring next time. As mentioned above, I worked on my Mexican Tiles quilt, but I also worked on a Mexican Stars wallhanging. Carol of Carol's Quilt Cottage was conducting a class on the 3-Dimensional techniques that Annette Ornelas using on her quilts. There were 4 of us doing the Mexican Stars pattern and 1 doing the Victorian Tablerunner and 1 doing the Tulip Bells Tablerunner. We all got the projects pieced, but only 1 of person got the 3 dimensional applique done. And it wasn't me either.

I finally figured out what to do with my toe-up socks that I started when I was camping this summer in Ludington. I have both feet done, but I just couldn't find a cuff pattern that I liked. I tried 4 different ones, including a mock cable that I had been wanting to try, but nothing looked good. I decided last week to just to a simple K3,P1 ribbing. And I love it! I think the variation of the color was just masking all the patterns. The ribbing is so simple, yet it looks great. I had about 1 1/2 inches done on one cuff, when I switched it over to a circular needs so I could try it on. I wanted footie type socks. But it still isn't long enough. I figure it needs to be at least 3 inches if not 4 inches long. When I switched it to the circular needs, I had to switch sock #2 to the straights, because it had been 'waiting' on the circular. So instead of switching #1 back to the straights I just went ahead and started knitting on sock #2. I have about 1 inch done. When it gets done, I'll go back and finish #1.

And last but not least, I decided I needed a change. So I got my hair cut and colored last night. I am no longer blond. I am now a brunette with carmel highlights. I really like it. I stopped by Liz's place on my way home to get a second opinion. She liked it too. It is SHORT too.

This was taken last night when I got home.And this is my 1st attempt at copying what the stylist did. OK, she was better, but I still love it.

Just Things

I wanted to let everyone know that my brother, mother and I installed the drop ceiling in the sewing room on Saturday. Yeah! Pictures will be forthcoming.

I got up at 7ish and remembered that I needed to put the drywall 'repair patch' above the closet door before we could start on the ceiling. So I started working at 7:30 am. Yawn! I got the closet taken care of, then started on the baseboard trim. I didn't get it completely finished, as the door trim will go down to the floor and the baseboard trim will butt up against it. Since I don't have the trim either picked out or bought yet, I wasn't sure it how wide it would be, so I didn't get it quite finished. I can still start moving things down, as long as I don't set things near those spots.

Then I started cleaning up so that we wouldn't be tripping over things. I even moved 'stuff' from in front of the mattress that is for the spare bedroom. The plan was to move the kitchen table downstairs (it will become my cutting table) and [temporarily] put the mattress set in the kitchen. That way once the spare bedroom is cleared out, I can move the mattress set in there by myself to set up the bed. I do have another smaller kitchen table that I bought from my late Aunts estate. It currently resides in my parents garage, but I will need to get it soon, so they can park in there when the snow comes.

Anyway, after 1 false start and a trip to Lowes, the ceiling went up pretty quickly. Although trying to get back home from Lowes was a bit of the challenge. This weekend was the Apple Festival. We left just as the parade was starting and so got out OK, but trying to get back was a bit of a nightmare.

By the time we got done and my brother left, it was 8:30. God was I so tired! 13 hours of work!!! And my bum ankle was killing me. I actually had to break out the crutches and the big pain pill in order to get to sleep. Although I don't really think it lessened the pain, it just knocked me out. I was hobbling around most of Sunday at work. But I made sure to wear my ankle brace (applied bengay) and took tylenol every 4 hours. By Monday it was better. I still get a twinge every now in then, but it's manageable now.

I had planned to go to knit night tonight, but I'm going away this weekend and need to start packing. I also thought I could get a head start on carrying some stuff down to the basement. Not too many trips though, because I want to be able to enjoy walking around this weekend. Although since it is a quilt retreat, I will be sitting at the sewing machine for most of it.

Retreat ReCap

Nothing super exciting has been happening this week. I just haven't felt in too chatty a mood.

I had a great time at Quilt Retreat this last weekend. For once I actually got everything worked on that I had planned. I have this Buck-a-Block Block of the Month project from Big Island Quilt Shop where you use Thangles to make really quick, accurate half square triangles. I had 5 or 6 blocks to finish. I got them all done except on the last one, I wasn't paying attention and I forgot to use a 1/4" seam allowance, so it was too small. I have enough leftovers from the previous blocks, that I plan to make another block instead of ripping this one. Marti and I took a side trip over to the Big Island Quilt shop in Schoolcraft to get our border fabrics for the buck-a-block project. Oh Marti's doing it too. While we were looking around, we found out that they are going to do another Buck-a-Block quilt for 2008. I had fun with the last one, so I said what the heck, it's only $1 a month. And if I don't want to lay it out like the pattern shows (which is a queen size) I don't have too. So we both signed up. I found out later that Marti had been looking forward to the end of the Buck-a-Block quilt and here I sucked her into another one. Oh well! The next project I worked on, I can't describe until next week. It is a gift that is being sent out this week, so you'll have to wait. But it was super easy and I got lots of compliments and lots of requests for the pattern. It is a free download from the web, so I will post that also next week. And finally I worked on my Temple Guardian quilt. I got all of the background fabric cut for the blocks and I pasted up 5 more of the blocks. I would have had all 9 pasted up, but I realized I still had 2 blocks worth of cat parts to glue stick. Just a quick note on this for those who are reading this and don't quilt, I use freezer paper templates and a glue stick to do my appliqué projects.

And of course the food at retreat was delicious as always. And of course I really really tried to be good, but it was just so good! There was homemade beef stew on Friday with a store bought bread that tasted just like homemade when the warmed it in the oven. For Saturday brunch, my meal crew made an upside down pancake, muffin frittatas (recipe by Giada), and a tropical fruit pudding. It was all yummy, but the Frittatas were to die for. For Saturday dinner, we had 3 types of lasagna; traditional, spinach and a chicken. All were yummy, of course I only sampled 2 for dinner and I took a piece of the 3rd to work on Sunday for lunch. I would love the recipe for the spinach and chicken ones. Sunday breakfast was much simpler, but I think it was great, because after all the other things I had stuffed myself with over the weekend. We had scrambled eggs, cheesy potato casserole and danishes.

I had such a good time, visiting and seeing everyone's projects. I even got a little knitting done on the Never Ending RPM Socks. Don't get me wrong, it is a nice pattern, but I just don't seem to get far on the 2nd sock. They are taking forever to get finished. But I will get them done, I promise.