Speaking Of Quilts...

I'm getting ready to delete my quilting blog and just keep everything "crafting" on this one blog. I was going through the pictures and it is like a trip down memory lane! :o) I took my first class at Quilter's Corner the fall of 2004 when my girls were about 18 months old. It's hard to imagine them that small. They are 2 in this picture, A on left and J on right, playing with my first Mary Ellen Hopkins method quilt, which I made in my It's Okay If You Sit On My Quilt class, which was a lot of fun. I don't know where the finished picture is, but it turned out really nice with an orangey striped binding that looked just like a ginger calico's fur, to match the kitties in the fabric.


Of course Abbie is my official fiber arts tester. She has to check out everything to make sure it will be the appropriate comfort level for the recipient. This quilt went to my Aunt Grace in Seattle and I am told that her Norwegian Forest Cat, Sweetie Pie, loves to sleep on it.

This quilt is actually on my list to finish this year. This is just the placement of the blocks for a patchy, rainbow, Trip Around The World baby blanket. If you were a baby, wouldn't you be happy under a quilt like this?

And this is me, November 2004 with the finished top (or half that you can see) of my first quilt. It is pinned and I started machine quilting but it is just way too big for me to machine quilt (almost King size). I love the fabrics and colors which are a blend of old and new fabrics, some date back to my high school bedroom curtains and bedspread. I have been thinking lately about the possibility of hand quilting this. It's a crazy idea, but I can't really afford to send it out. It has some errors, the kind you hope will "quilt out", but I can't help but love it because it was my first.

This quilt class was taught by my favorite teachers, Barb and Pam, from the book Quilts! Quilts! Quilts!. The timing of the class was serendipitous because it was in this class that I met Amy who introduced me to blogging and talked to me about her knitting, which caused me to pick my knitting back up (having 3 babies in 17.5 months tends to cause you to put aside some things). She doesn't live too far away but we're both busy homeschooling Moms and haven't had as many opportunities to get together as we would like, but Amy wants to finish her quilt from the class this year too. So, when are we going to start Amy?! :o) (I know, I know, in our copious amounts of spare time! LOL) Hey! I just noticed Amy's quilt is the yellow one behind me on the wall.

Memories

As part of our cleaning and organizing this weekend, we made the decision to bring in some of my childhood toys. My Grandpa and Grandma Johnson had the little white (or formerly white!) cabinet made for me and it was given to me for Christmas 1969. Somewhere I have the picture of it...me in my little miniskirt and sweater! LOL (I never dressed like that again!) Hey, it was groovy at the time. The doll's high chair was a gift from Grandma Hopkins when I was in Kindergarten, about 1971. In the corner is a little plastic sink on got on sale a few years ago at Big Lots! and we just haven't gotten it out yet. Later I'll have to post pics of the dollbeds that were from my Grandma Hopkins' kindergarten room and one that my Grandpa Hopkins made for my Mom in the late 1940s. I'll have to get busy and make dolly blankies and clothes now! In my free time of course!

Abbie says that Lucy over at Wendy's gets more exposure than she does and it's about time I change that! LOL So here's Abbie taking a bath and watching over my shoulder as I blog.

It's Just Not My Week

Abbie
MS 3 Disaster

I have been working really hard, cooking, cleaning, organizing and trying to get ready for our upcoming trip to Yosemite National Park. This morning I am dragging a little and feel that old familiar onset of fatigue, the kind that stops you in your tracks, and the right side of my face going numb, which generally means another migraine is coming on. So, I decided to take it slower. I thought I would work on some of my sit-down work and got on the computer to work on the prayer list for our Christian Artisans list (link at right). I turned on D's favorite show, Handy Manny, and the girls were busy picking up the beads that I ended up not using for my stole (which they had earlier spilled!), so I thought it would be safe to let them be for a little bit.

Yes, that was a big mistake! A HUGE MISTAKE! D came and said, "Mommy, sister's are in your things!" Boy, were they! I had two knitting projects out at my table, both lace. Both were wadded up into tight balls with their respective yarns and needles coiled around them, in and out. The needle points had been carefully woven in and out of the knitting. Not my cheap KPs Options needles which I hate mind you, but two pair of my new Addi Turbo Lace needles!!!!!!

I am here now because I am still angry even after spending an hour vacuuming and scrubbing the wall next to where the kids eat. You know the kind of cleaning, the equivalent of a man going out and splitting a cord of wood! LOL These little balls that J made look like when they look at animal feces that are packed with bones and fur etc...only mine had the needles, the stitchmarkers, the once beautiful lace, the yarn all in a compact ball a little larger than a golf ball! Did I mention I was on row 87 of 100 on the MS 3 first clue? I was so looking forward to sitting down at noon and finishing it!

With a migraine coming on I am not sure I will be able to sort it out. On the one side it has several rows missing. I know I could probably sort it out with a crochet hook but given the nature of the lace yarn, I think I might end up with something that would always remind me and make me angry. I'm too exhausted even to cry about it. But it is helping writing it out here to release my frustration.

I have not had to put my knitting up since they were toddlers. The last 2 years I've knit almost nothing but lace and they have NEVER touched it! Why today? I'm not sure. At least my other knitting, a Scotch Thistle Stole, is safe. My needles may never be the same, but no stitches were lost!

So, when I came down to our computer I got kitty snuggles from our Abbie! :o) I rarely put pictures of her up and she is a huge part of our lives, so I took one and am sharing it with you now.

Sigh...now to decide what to do...

He Is Risen Indeed!

Today was a special day. We are all tired. The kids are all sick and miserable. Our house is a mess with the aftermath of home improvement. But today we commemorate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And today we had a special time together as a family, having family church with the kids, some sitting on laps, some nearby and listening. We read children's stories about Christ's death and resurrection. We talked about what being "risen" means and we prayed together. It's not quite how we thought we might celebrate the day, but it was special none the less.

This is a strange virus the kids have with a high fever at the onset and lasting a couple days and then lots of eye goop. I might have to take A in tomorrow. I'm worried about peri-orbital cellulitis which would need antibiotics. First J was so miserable and now it's A. D has it too but not so bad. Hopefully it's passing hubby and I by and will soon leave the kids alone. You know it's bad when my kids are *asking* to go to bed!!!

And I am much too tired to even be writing, but I wanted to put up a couple pictures of some of the results of our hard labor this week. We totally emptied our bedroom which is really a multipurpose room. There was a lot in here. We put down Ikea laminate flooring, painted, put together an Ikea desk and two bookcases and did a lot of cleaning. Here are some preliminary pictures showing the bed, a close up of the new bedspread, Abbie (our kitty) hiding behind the pillow sham (she was so relieved to have the bed back in the room and not out in the living room!) and the top of one of the bookcases (I cut out all the boxes and junk waiting to be sorted...there's still lots to do).

Hopefully soon I will actually have some knitting/fibery content to post. Just not enough hours in my day!

Catitude!

Nuff Said! LOL This is Abbie while I was packaging the Ashford to go to its new home. Nothing can be done without Cat Approval.

Lazy Days...Musings From The Infirmary!

We have had a couple lazy days. All five of us have been sick in varying degrees. Earlier in the week J had severe croup and that always scares us. Having had a dear brother die in his sleep it is always a fear of mine that I will walk in and she won't be breathing. Immediately when it started I brought her to the recliner and held her upright while she breathed in the humidifier steam. I wanted to take her outside as it was the perfect kind of night air to help croup. But outside search helicopters were circling. Not a good idea. Three times this week. One night you could hear the cops speaking over a mic system telling the fleeing person what to do. On nights like those I snuggle under the covers, hold on to hubby and pray. God has always protected us but it is hard not to be scared when you know someone desperate and likely on drugs/irrational is running around crazy in your neighborhood. Anyway, after the first night she is breathing much better. This morning she vomited after two bites of pancake though.

We all stayed home from church so that we wouldn't share this fun bug. I hate missing the fellowship and the music and the teaching, but I do enjoy our times together. Hubby read from The One Year Book of Devotions for Toddlers which Grandma and Grandpa got us for Christmas last year. I highly recommend it. They are short, have one scripture and a one or two sentence prayer. They teach about God and about manners and learning to deal with all of life's little things. There are questions written in the devotion itself which stimulate conversation. We start out our schooling mornings using this and we are going through it again. Afterall we only get about half of it most of the time because that is the nature of toddlers. D is 5 and really not a toddler anymore and really enjoys it. After the devotional D wanted to know if he could get his Bible "because I want to learn more about God and Sundays are for learning more about God!" LOL He talks like a little old man some times and it always cracks me up. I don't know where he gets it. He is so matter of fact. He brought back his Bible and actually read the first half of John chapter one fairly well. We asked him questions and he did actually understand what he was reading except for words like "testimony" and "witness" which children don't usually know. So D read to us and we sang some worship songs from one of their kids CDs and then we all prayed together. All three children pray. The girls usually keep it short and sweet but they are understanding and do pray for other people at times. D prays this almost every time, "Father God, please be with Laura (in Heaven), Mommy and Daddy and Me and Sisters and Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Dick (also in Heaven), amen!" When someone is sick or he knows something is happening he will pray for that too. He has prayed faithfully for Laura every day for almost a year now and maybe he has the perspective the rest of us have...that Heaven is not death, it's a continuation of life and he prays for her there. Is it just me or is it not so precious to hear your children praying in faith, with tender hearts? He could have just beaned his sister over the head minutes before, but then melt your heart with his precious, caring and thoughtful prayers! :o)

I hope we all get better because we want to go to our Bible studies this week. Wednesday I am beginning a study on a book called Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado at our church. It promises to be good. I am continuing on my Precept study on Romans at Sun River Church on Thursdays. We can't go if the kids are sick/contagious and I don't bend the rule on that as I hate when others do it to me!

The blurry photo above is my kitty Abbie. I didn't want to use the flash, so it is blurry. Hopefully in a couple weeks I will have my new camera and no more blurry photos! :o) Hubby put the clothes, warm from the dryer on our bed and Abbie staked claim! LOL

The last couple days I have been too exhausted to even knit and have been fighting a migraine for almost three weeks. This morning before I even opened my eyes I was seeing migraine auras that were better than any fireworks show! So I have been sitting in the chair or hiding out in the bedroom (since hubby is home). While sitting in the chair I have been watching the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. This year it has been really cool. They are in Spokane, the city we want to move to, and the arena is packed. They set a record in attendance (even beating out L.A.) and I hope this means that more skating will go to Spokane. The skaters all talked about how neat it was to have so many cheering them on.

This year it was so fun to watch! It seemed like a real competition, not just a "last man standing wins" contest! There was some awesome skating and I always love watching the nationals because you get to see everyone. In big events they only televise the people who do best. But there are a lot of really good skaters out there who never get the air play. One variant this year was that some of the big names like Michelle Kwan, Sasha Cohen, Michael Weiss etc were not competing. This gave opportunity for a lot of good skaters coming up through the ranks to show their stuff. I was sorry to see that Matt Savoie didn't skate this year and I didn't hear why. It's difficult to find something to criticize about bouncy Kimmie Meissner who the added ladies nation championship, to her world gold medal, but I most enjoyed Alissa Czisny, who went home with silver in spite of having won the long skate (because Kimmie had higher points in the short). Alissa kind of slipped under the radar for awhile, seemingly confidence issues (??) but was back and is an incredible spinner and just gorgeous to watch on the ice. I sure hope to be seeing more of her. And I love Emily Hughes. She is a hardworking, beautiful skater, not exactly delicate but graceful and classy. Unfortunately she seems to be plagued by the same symptoms as Michael Weiss...being an excellent skater, but always having something happen (a fall in the long program!) that keeps her from moving up the podium. I sure hope she can break that.

The men's skating is my favorite to watch. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was growing up with Scott Hamilton, Brian Boitano, Kurt Browning and Elvis Stojko and others of that era. I have always liked Evan Lysacek and I cheered like any football fan at the Super Bowl during his mesmerizing and incredible long skate! (Anyone who does not thing ice skating is a sport, has not skated or checked out how buff the skaters are. I be the women skaters are in better condition than most football players or basketball players!) Johnny Weir is an excellent skater and has some beautiful programs but for me his immature personality gets in the way of his own good. He stood and watched Evan's program and lost his nerve. The crowd was WILD with crazy excitement for Evan Lysacek and it was a deafening roar...who wouldn't have lost some nerve? It also opened the door for Ryan Bradley to join the men on the podium. I'm really glad because he has been a hardworking skater for some time. Overall I thought it was a good and fair competition.

In ice dancing I have always loved Belbin and Agosto and was so thankful they changed their free skate. The program they had for the rest of the season was just kind of odd and wasn't bad in itself but really didn't fit them. The new program was skated well even though it was the first time skating it in competition (sometimes this weakens a performance) and I think it will help put them in serious competition at worlds. It is only in this new judging/scoring system that there has been some fairness and opportunity for ALL ice dancers to medal and I think they stand a good chance with this new free dance and certainly deserved the gold they received at nationals. Ooh! I was surprised to hear last night that Tanith Belbin is dating Evan Lysacek...sounds like skating soap opera. I imagine the skaters date and marry other skaters because they spend so much time at the rink but also because only another skater could truly understand everything they go through and sacrifice.

I enjoyed the other ice dancers and also the pairs. And it was fun to see the top two junior ladies, Mirai Nagasu and Caroline Zhang. Watch out ladies...these thirteen year olds, inspired by Michelle Kwan, are moving on up!

I'm sure I am mostly posting all this for my own benefit...if you made it this far, congratulations! :o) I had to accomplish something this weekend, so I created a post! Actually I did get the taxes done and e-filed...of course I'm highly motivated for that tax return! LOL

Fun Hats

Well, I thought I would post some actual knitting content. This is what I have been doing while I have been praying for Uncle Dick, who now has made it through 2 consecutive nights in spite of being given the prognosis that he would not! We are hoping for a miracle and that is what it is going to take. The chemo has knocked out all his white blood cells, which is complicating everything. So I pray and I knit and I wait.

Susan posted about making fun fur hats on her I'm Knitting As Fast As I Can blog. These hats are going to go for kids in the oncology wards at Children's Hospital in Boston. Another blogger, Kate, at Minestrone Soup is coordinating this and she has information on her January 3rd blog post. It brought a smile to my face to think about the kids on the ward walking around with red and purple and blue fun fur hair! :o) These hats will go to Kate by the mid to end of February and then on to the hospital.

The first hat is pictured with our kitty Abbie and also my daughter J. It is turquoise Lion brand Fun Fur yarn and I ran an aqua fringe yarn with it, that is the light spots that you can see. In person it looks fluffier and you see the fringe yarn better. The fringe yarn was from Target in their dollar section! It took about 1.25 balls of fun fur and one ball of the fringe yarn for a large hat. I am now working on a small hat and have enough to probably make two mediums.

I have to admit that fun fur is not my favorite to knit with, but it's not too bad when it's for such a good cause...and it was in my stash and I am getting a lot out of my stash doing this! This is also a good thing!