Stitches in Play

first day of summer vacation

Today was abigail's first day of summer vacation.

So we spread an old blanket under our river birch tree and watched the leaves shimmer in the sunlight.

I wished I could read and knit at the same time because last night I stayed up way too late reading this amazing book that I highly recommend. But I so wanted to work on my cavern cardi.

When abigail became bored of listening to me talking about my reading and knitting we brought out the piggies, ella and lucy.

We fed them lettuce leaves left over from lunch.

Remy thought we were fattening them up so that he could have lunch.

Then one piggie went exploring...

And remy assured us that he would keep an eye on her!

After their walk, the two little piggies went home for a snack.

Abigail had her snack too.

Yum.

I received a question regarding how to quickly tell which way the blocks need to be rotated and which side to piece next.

Answer:  always sew onto the edge that has 3 fabrics exposed.  For example, in the above photo all the blocks need to be placed on the next strip so that it is sewn to the BOTTOM  ( where there are 3 fabrics exposed)

Here they are, placed correctly, onto the next strip.

Hope you're savoring these first days of summer.

how to piece perfect points - every time.

Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day.  My day was great until a certain middle child caught the stomach bug.  He got to stay home with mom today and is finally feeling a bit better.

Several of you commented on how precisely the points matched in these blocks.  So I'm going to show you how simple it is to have perfectly matched points...

First, piece squares to make triangles like so.

Then cut the squares in half on the diagonal.

Choose two triangle units to piece together.

MOST IMPORTANT STEPS: 

Iron the seams in opposite directions.
Place the triangles right sides together.
Align the center seams.
Abut the two seams against one another - use your fingers to do this.
Do not concern yourself with aligning the corners or edges of the triangles. 
The fabrics will "hinge" together.  There is no need to pin, but you can if you like.
Sew.

Open.  Press.  It's that simple.  And it works every time!

I went outside - in the rain - to clean up and assess the length of our grass/weeds and spotted this...

May you find beauty in the mundane this Monday!

Call me girl friday

I had a dozen errands that 'absolutely needed' to be accomplished today.  (well not really, but I like to check things off the list on Fridays so I feel I had a productive week).

Up at 6:00 :  brush teeth, get dressed, walk dogs.  Check.

6:30 - 7:30 :   serve breakfast, pack lunches, and drive three kiddos to two schools.  Check.

8:15 - 9:00 :  fill car up with gas, stop by bank, drop tax docs off at accountant's.  Check.

9:00 - 10:30 :  go to gym, work out, shower in not-so-clean locker room, dress again.  Check.

10:30 - 11:30 :  drop overdue books off at library, pay late fine, stop by grocery store for milk and dog food.  Check.

11:30 - 12:30:  unload groceries (yes, I brought a few extra items), feed dogs, make salad by dumping anything that looked good enough to eat into large bowl, eat.  Check.

12:30 - 1:00:  remember that I joined the red shoes club flicker group so I spend nearly thirty minutes looking for, finding, and photographing red shoes.  I spend the remainder of the minutes asking myself if this is normal behavior for a thirty-eight-year-old mother of three.

And just as I decide that taking photos of ones feet in red shoes is completely normal, fun even, and that more people should try it, the kitty looks at me as if I have lost my mind.

I spend the next few minutes with a big smile on my face because I am so glad that I started this blog.

 

Then I remember yet another great benefit that comes along with blogging - blog friends!  Like the very kind and thoughtful Lisa of Stitching Under Oaks who sent me this beautifully crafted mole skin that I am keeping right by my computer because it makes me smile every time I look at it.  Life is good.

1:00 - 2:00 :  Pick up first kiddo from school, feed her lunch, set her up with paper and scissors for cutting snowflakes.  Check. 

2:00 :  Try to finish up the three pillow covers I cut out yesterday only to find that the serger has somehow become unthreaded and now looks like this... ouch. 

Remember how I promised a 'how-I-sew-on binding by machine' tutorial and go cut and iron fabric for binding....

for this quilt, which I quilted last night while watching bad tv shows on this channel (it took a little over two hours).  Check.

But my daughter needs me to play 'magnet dolls' with her.  I am the ballerina to her fairy princess.  Check.

I think about this sweater that I have been working on for way too long because I am not sure I love it.  I decide to finish it before I cast again.

3:30 : Other two kiddos are home from school and I am done with errands and crafting for the day.  It is now time to cook dinner and spend time with my kiddos because the days go by so fast.  And I do not want to miss one single moment.  Check.

while the boys were in school...

we tended to the much neglected by the humans-of-the-family but not by the dogs-who-love-to-dig outdoors...

we finished Wisp from knitty 2007, wove in the ends, sewed on the buttons, and took photos...

i love this large scarf/ small wrap Wisp thingy...

you can wear it so many different ways....

the pattern recommends mohair but I wanted it heavier so i used  a merino wool/silk blend from the stash.

Pattern:  Wisp from Knitty 2007
Yarn: 1 1/2 balls Queensland Kathmandu DK color 400
Needle: size US 8
Mods: omitted the eyelets down the length because i wanted a 'sturdier' scarf but if I knit this again I will put them in

 

then we went to the grocery store and saw these and abigail suggested that we buy them "for each other" for Valentine's day.  Of course, my hard working kiddo - who am I to say no...

these 5 acres

It was freezing cold, but the sun shone bright.  Snow flurries came and went throughout the day but none stuck. We bundled up and went outside.

Some of us skipped down the road...
 

and then skipped back up again...

some of us played fetch with a stick...

some whittled away on a stick...

me - I took photos of the shed (and my shadow) for no reason whatsoever...

some of us played chase with others of us...

some times I truly love the country....even though my LYS isn't local at all.

for 10 years we have lived on these 5 acres...

in a warm home full of love.

my son is not a swift OR this is how we store our legos

Several weeks back one of my three children refused to go outside with his dad and siblings because he wanted to watch something on TV.  After repeated requests that he go play and inhale fresh air, I decided I would punish him by making him hold skeins of yarn while I wound them into balls.  He would watch the show with his arms held out and I would get some of my stash wound - a perfectly symbiotic relationship, no?  In case you are wondering, I do have one of these but I was too lazy to get it out. 

The problem is that I neglected to mark all of the balls after they were wound.  So tonight, as I sit here knitting this sweater while my children slumber peacefully in their beds, I realize that while I thought I was using this blue alpaca - of which I have 700 yards - I had actually grabbed some malabrigo chunky - of which I only have 200 yards.  Oops.

Not to worry - WEBS has more in this color and will be sending some my way soon.

Lesson learned: take pity upon your children and allow them to watch television in peace, for winding yarn in haste results in sweater accidentally knit in malabrigo.  Or something like that.

On a different note, there have been several interesting posts in blog world regarding legos and their storage.  So I thought I'd share how we organize legos around here.  The bookcase-like cubicles are from here.  And the rubbermaid containers are from where else.

Each container houses similar pieces allowing for quick retrieval

while dismembered body pieces are stored thusly.

And yes, the kiddos do put these away themselves after play - with only a little nudging from mom.

When mom gets distracted

The nine year old boy who sleeps in this room desperately needs a duvet cover for this bright orange blanket.  At first, I wasn't in a hurry to cover it because he likes the color and frankly, I think the jolt of orange is kinda nice in his overly blue room.  Except that in a house full of kids, dogs, guinea pigs and now a new kitten this blanket is quickly becoming not-so-clean.  So with exactly 90 minutes to spare before I pick up Abigail at 11:30am I head for my sewing room and ...

become very distracted by the fabric that arrived just the other day.  Half yards of Amy Butler's Daisy Chain.

And on a whim and without a plan I cut these into 6.5 inch squares - because that is the size of my smallest square ruler - and begin piecing them on the diagonal.

I then arrange them in a classic log cabin pattern (I am aware that these are not log cabin blocks but these are much faster to make).  Here they are on my design wall - aka foam board covered with batting.  They are not yet sewn together and I am going to have to make lots more - this is only about 3 x 3 feet.  So far, I think I like how it's turning out. 

 

But no more time to sew or quilt today because Montessori preschool is ending and Abigail and I have lunch to eat, books to read, and castles to build.  So the boy who sleeps under the bright orange blanket will have to do so for a little bit longer while mom chooses his fabrics and sews a duvet.  More to come on Ezra's duvet and on progress of above quilt.

Lunch framed

This is my boy playing in the woods behind our home.  He is yelling that he is hungry and needs food "Right Now!"

This is the grilled cheese and tomato soup that mom made - which also happens to be boy's favorite lunch.

This is what I found when I went to clear the table - I kid you not. 

A warm start

 A new year.  A new blog.
 

And hot chocolate for my kiddos after a long afternoon of play.




I can already tell this is going to be a year full of possibilities.