Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Hope you are all enjoying a wonderful day with family and friends.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Another Visit to Alabama

I flew to Huntsville, Alabama, last Friday to help my daughter pack her apartment. She is moving to Lafayette, Indiana, to attend Purdue University to get her masters degree in Statistics. We drove back here to Indianapolis yesterday and brought a car full of her things including Squeaky, her cat. This is the huge tree in Indianapolis International Airport. While we were in Alabama, we took a break from packing to make a last walk through Bridge Street and enjoy the Christmas decorations there. It was warm enough on Monday evening that we sat on one of the benches next to the tree and ate ice cream.
Here is the sunset over the lake our last evening in Huntsville.
In the evenings we spent time knitting and I finished the pair of Malibrigo worsted weight socks. I got this yarn from a friend for my birthday in April so this wasn't a speedy finish - but a finish nonetheless.
Hope you are finding some time this holiday season to do some stitching.


Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Christmas Decorating

I'm still getting out the Christmas decorations. This is an afghan that my Mom made for us many years ago. She passed away in 1996, and we enjoy using it every year. This is my Dear Jane Christmas swap quilt. I made the center feathered star to use in a round robin but changed my mind and didn't use it. So it made the center of the quilt surrounded by my swap blocks.Since my knee replacement, I was able to get up in the attic....a place I hadn't been able to get to in years. I found this breadboard in a box. I had forgotten I had it and don't know how old it is. I haven't done any cross stitch in several years.

Here is a close up of the house.


This is a crocheted ripple afghan that I made several years ago.

I hope that you are all finding some time to do some Christmas sewing, knitting or crocheting and enjoying the holidays.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Thanksgiving Revisited and Christmas Decorating

I am going to try and update my blog more often in the New Year, so I'm trying to get a good start now. I found this photo of the dinner rolls from our Thanksgiving Dinner in my camera. This cross stitched breadcloth was made by my friend Sharon from Michigan, and I use this breadcloth every year. Sharon and I used to be avid cross stitchers, and we have exchanged a lot of cross stitched things over the years. Sharon and I have been friends since we were in grade school, and still keep in touch. I have a breadcloth from her for every holiday where we have a big dinner, and I always think of Sharon on the holidays.


This is the Christmas pillow that Sharon made me several years back. I checked and there is no date, but I've had it for a lot of years.



I haven't done any sewing since the Dear Jane retreat, but I went to knitting down at Mass Ave Knits the other night and worked on my Mitered Square Sock Blanket. I've traded a lot of sock yarn with others that are making this blanket, and I have a great assortment.

Also, November was National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO), and I finished my 50,000+ word novel on November 30. That is always a fun diversion from the other projects that I do.


Hope you have some time for stitching today.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Hope all of you are having a Happy Thanksgiving and are having plenty to eat. My daughter, Kim is here this week and is helping in the kitchen which I think is just great!!!
I spent most of last week up in Shipshewana at the Dear Jane retreat. Here is the fat quarter boat at Lollys. This is one of the sample quilts hanging in Lollys store located in the Davis Mercantile building in Shipshewana. The quilt is called Eldon, and the pattern is by Edyta Sitar.
Shipshewana is like a wonderland after night. Most of the buildings are decorated.
This is Rebecca Haarer's store on Morton Street.
These are just some of the quilts for sale at Rebecca's.
I think this is my favorite show and tell quilt. This was made by Prue and the blocks are from the book When The Cold Wind Blows. She used by fabrics by Kaffe Fassett, and it was striking.
These are the 3 inch blocks that I made for our swap at the retreat.
The rest of my retreat photos are posted on my webshots page at
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Hope we all can find some time to stitch this weekend.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Retreating Again

Tomorrow morning bright and early I leave with a quilt friend for another quilt retreat. This one is up in Shipshewana, Indiana. I have been fortunate to have been able to attend so many retreats this past year. Tomorrow evening I will be having dinner here at the Blue Gate with old friends. I can't wait.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Visiting Alabama

I'm visiting my daughter in Huntsville, Alabama. I flew down last week, and we have been seeing the sights and are having a good time. These are mountains off in the distance.This is the rocket at the space center here in Huntsville. Lots of school groups come here to attend space camp.Here is the view from my daughter's apartment.
We made a trip to Yarn Expressions, and I bought some of this Mochi Plus yarn to make fingerless gloves while my daughter is at work.I hope you are all finding some time to stitch or knit today.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Each time I think I'm going to update my blog more often, I seem to write less. I have been busy doing some sewing but mostly prepping blocks for hand piecing and applique. Here are some hexagons that I have done using the English Paper Piecing method.
I have been working on blocks for a 3 inch block swap I'm in at a retreat next month. I will show photos of those blocks after we exchange.

I also went to the Imax showing of the Wizard of Oz on the big screen on September 23. It was in high def and had been digitally remastered. I saw things in that movie that evening that I had never seen watching it on television or DVD. It was a real treat. Hope you are finding some time to stitch.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Mitered Square Blanket Group

Last night was the monthly get together of the Mitered Square Knitting Group at Mass Ave Knit Shop. This is the third meeting, so you can see how much some of the gals there have done. Most of us are using a variety of sock yarns. The idea of this blanket is supposed to be to use your scraps of yarn left over after knitting a pair of socks.


The first two photos are my blanket. OK I haven't knit this many pair of socks.

This one is coming along nicely. And so is this one.

This one has a lot of bright, cheery colors.

This one has two rows of black as the base of each square so that it gives an overall stained glass look. Very nice!!
This one is using all Mini Mochi yarns in various colors. The blending of colors in this yarn gives a soft look.
Lots of people left before I started taking photos. After this group winds up, we are going to do a knit log cabin blanket.

Being a quilter as well as knitting and crocheting, I love these knit projects that look like quilts.

I have rewritten the pattern for the mitered square blanket. I will try and put a link to it on my blog. Or if you would like a copy of the pattern, just email me.

Hope you are finding some time to stitch some today.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Project Linus Blankets

Some of my handwork lately has been crocheting these edges around fleece to donate to Project Linus. Yesterday our local coordinator e-mailed that one of our local hospital needs children's blankets, so I'll drop these off this morning.
This one will go to Project Linus also. I made this from a bundle of Minkie that I bought a few years back at a quilt show. If you are a quilter you know about those things you see at quilt shows that are screaming "pick me up and buy me". This blanket has been around, too. I pieced the top and donated it and the backing a year ago at the Make A Blanket Day where we all get together and sew Project Linus labels on the backs of donation quilts. One of our other coordinators took this top home to finish. At the next get together she brought it back unfinished. So I brought it back home and kept it another 6 months before I finished it.

I hope you take some time to do some stitching today!!!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Visiting Alabama

I'm in Huntsville, Alabama, for the Labor Day weekend visiting my daughter. We have been having a good time, visiting, eating good food and doing a bit of sightseeing.


My daughter's apartment is on Lady Anne Lake. We walked around the lake yesterday and saw this bird outside of the apartment. We think it's a stork.
We visited Providence, a fairly new part of town.


There are fountains everywhere.

We had lunch at the Mellow Mushroom. They specialize in Italian cuisine. We had a couple different types of pizza, and I tried humus for the first time. They served it with warm pita bread, and it was interesting.



Today we visited a new mall called Bridge Street.

It is built around a man made lake.
The landscaping is just gorgeous.


These pink, ruffly trees are everywhere. We aren't sure what they are.

There are fountains of all kinds.....

You can have lunch on the water......




Take a ride on the carousel.......Or take a goldola ride......Sunset over the lake. Tomorrow afternoon we head back home.

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