Obsessions of the moment

I've been thinking about this aqua quilt for a long time. Inspired by some Fun Quilts ideas (The Mendhi pattern for Free Spirit) here (pdf) and Plain Spoken, especially here and here. And a picture from Bend the Rules Sewing.

I ended up carving the fats into 6" wide strips, then into varying lengths.

First, arranged on the floor.



Then sewn into strips.



I need to iron next. And decide if it's going to have a pink stripe (or some other solid color) in-between the rows (like the Mendhi pattern).


I also made 3 more log cabin squares for the monkey's quilt. It's coming along. That's my belly in the bottom of the picture. The quilt will have yellow sashings around the squares.


And this has been my obsession of the moment. Monkey socks (can you tell?) Inspired by Cara, reminding me how much fun they are, and Ashley's recently done ones and others I've seen around. These are for my friend who moved to Seattle. And coyly said, "I wear a size 9 and my favorite color is purple." So I sent her to Seattle with a couple skeins of Lorna's Laces that were purple and turqoise, a set of 2.5mm needles and that really good Yarn Harlot book that has the sock recipe. When she was down over Christmas we reviewed knitting in the round. If I were a betting girl, I would hazard that she might not be done with them yet. In August she'll have been moved for a year. I've had this purple Trekking (109) marinating for a while. I was inspired by Deb's Blackberry Waffle socks, which, now that I go back and look at the post I can see why my monkey socks are not as richly colored as her Blackberries. It's a different colorway.

5 things for the baby (KNIT!!!)

I know that I've talked about some of these before, but now I actually have something more to show. I have a lot of trouble staying awake when I knit, and other times it hurts my hands.

1. Garter Stitch Baby Blanket. Red and Orange Cascade 220 Superwash. I've got it so that the sides are about 20". I'm looking for about a 36" side. Last time I looked, I had about half as many rows as I needed (which, sadly, does not correspond to half as many stitches because of the triangular shape.)














2. The EZ Surplice Baby Jacket from this summer's Vogue Knitting. In STR heavyweight, color == Lemongrass. The needle is one from my Grandma Mercier's stash. They are wicked sharp. The joins are fab. And I think they only cost $1 new. When I was digging through the circs to find it, I came across a set of 2.25 mm dpns, and now I'm working to resist casting on another pair of socks.













3. The Debbie Bliss baby sweater pattern from the same magazine. In STR heavyweight, in Mustang Sally. I'm so pleased that I finally had the energy to wind these two skeins last night.

4. (On Deck.) Baby Boots from Uniform Studio. I'm sure that I have good stash yarn for these, but haven't figured out what.

5. (Also on deck.) Sweet Baby Cap that's been floating around the blogs, at Hello Yarn and other places.

Faire

This is a copy of the to-do list that I sent myself on Thursday.

Tonight:
Weave in ends for Dulaan. (check!)
Studio 60! (check!)
Iron fabric (aqua quilt, dress, shorts.) (check! Although this might have been Friday.)


Friday:
Pay Bills (Check! um. Saturday. but before the mail went out.)
Grocery List (Check! Saturday.)

This weekend:
Send Dulaan package (check! DH sent it Saturday!)
Haircuts (3) (nope. next weekend.)
work on stuff for Amelia (shorts, dress) (check. check.)
I found this remnant of pink and white striped seersucker and asked La if she wanted some shorts. Sure, she said, but she wanted them to have pockets. "They" (big pattern) don't seem to make little girls' shorts patterns with pockets. But they do make them for little boys. Like girls don't need to carry stuff around???? Hmm? I'm also kind of upset that my maternity jeans don't have pockets. I feel like 5 (or at least 2) pockets are a defining characteristic of blue jeans. But, back to the shorts. They are pretty long, but look comfy. They got worn to school today and were deemed "good".

La picked out the fabric for this. It's in case we're invited to the rehearsal dinner of the wedding where she will be the flower girl this summer(my little cousin Danny and his fiance.) She picked the view in the top left corner with the circle appliques. I think I need to find some fusible webbing for the circles. All those bolts of white stuff are a little intimidating in Joann's. La picked out dragon buttons for the shoulders. So, all that's left on this is a good pressing, buttons & button holes and circle appliques. The dress itself was a pretty straightforward project.

• work on aqua quilt (soon. real soon. The fat quarters are all ironed and waiting. I've been seeing "inspiration quilts" all over the place, but haven't figured out how blocky I want it to be.)
• Work on Josh's quilt (not yet.)
• Work on receiving blankets (not yet.)
• Swim (check! Saturday And Sunday!)
• Knit. Socks, blanket, baby sweaters (check? two rows on the baby blanket.)
• Groceries (check.)
• Laundry (check.)
• planning meeting for the Cub Scout pack (DH. check)

The quilt is bound

bound with red, store-bought bias tape stuff.

bound for a kid who will hopefully like it. Dropped it off at the local collection point for Project Linus this weekend. It's only a few blocks from the go-cart place we went to. That stretch of 17/92 is such a varied neighborhood, I tell you.



Here's our view of the shuttle launch last weekend. The neighbor (a couple houses down, I think) have an oak tree that must have been growing. I don't remember it blocking the view so much in previous launches. We'll have to go down to the lake for the next one. This is not long before the booster rockets dropped off.



On the baby front, I'm starting to feel hunger instead of car-sickness when it's time to eat. I figure this is a major milestone. I sewed my first thing for the baby - a flannel recieving blanket.

Next up for tonight? Rebinding La's Bearcat. I'm just waiting for her to be more asleep before taking him from her bed.

Things to do in Orlando

Not Disney. Not SeaWorld. Not Universal. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but a $60/day per person admission is not sustainable. And that doesn't include parking or food.

My sister, brother in law, and nephews (age 1 and 3) were up this weekend for the shuttle launch and came to see us on Saturday. Here is the list of fun things that DH and I culled, partly from personal experience, partly from the Calendar section of the Orlando Sentinel (the online version of the Calendar did not get high usability marks from the DH.)

These are in no particular order. All are within an hour or so from the center of Orlando.

• Orlando Fire Museum
• Lake Eola Park (the playground was under renovation last time we were there.)
• Gatorland Zoo
• Polasek Sculpture Garden
• Winter Park boat tour
• Fort Christmas
• Wekiwa Springs
• Blue Springs
• Florida Audubon Society Birds of Prey
• "the secret park" (a playground that's part of Showalter Park)
• Phelps Park
• The Movies (Surfs Up)
• go-carts (there's a place in Maitland, but there are also a few places on International Drive)
• Central Florida Railroad Museum (Winter Garden)

Not on the list because we went last time they were here:

• Central Florida Zoo

If the boys were older, I would add to the list:

• bowling
• miniature golf
• Orlando Science Center (with super-giant IMAX)
• Wonderworks
• Kennedy Space Center
• Orange County Reigional History Center
• Fantasy of Flight

I bet you could find a list like this for the city where you live.

We ended up going go-carting. Aside from the older nephew's face plant after exiting his first race, everyone had a blast.

Disclaimer. Even though I've lived here for 18 years (holy Toledo), there's a bunch of these that I haven't been to, and might only look good on paper. It would probably be helpful to have a AAA or other Orlando guide to get a second opinion.

Houston....

We have a heartbeep (as La would call it). Doctor's appointment today. Sounded leisurely compared to La's. Have no idea if that's meaningful at all. Screening appointment at the big, fancy hospital tomorrow.

Things I've learned recently:

1. It's a lot hard to kitchner a toe while reading blogs than knit stockinette. (Dh's first sock is done! Second sock cast on in today's all-hands.)

2. Parking at the YMCH where La is taking swim lessons is a bear at 6pm. And La wasn't expecting to have to take turns with her classmates. However, she is looking forward to her next lesson.

3. Why is it that the language 4 year olds speak is so catchy. We have so many La-coined words, and still have some monkey-coined words in our family vernacular. (The Monkey brings us "hot it up" (in the microwave or toaster oven), La brings us YMCH, heartbeep, GG (TV), and many more.)

Squore Up

So. What's the past tense of "square up"? Is it just southern to think that it could possibly be squore? DH says that in architecture they use the term "rectify" for the same basic activity that quilters would call "squaring up". It seems too easy to describe something as being rectified.

Here's what I've been up to. I swear to you, the longest part is getting the pictures out on the ether (a three phase process.) My photo editing software that came with the computer expired, so I tried using picnik, a free online tool. It seems OK, except that (at least on my machine) I had trouble overwriting the original file. And, if you're uploading some crazy 2000x1500 picture, it's probably better to have a broadband connection vs. dialup.

1. Knitting:
I made Braedyn a new hat. Someone (cough-DH-cough) felted his most recent hat and now it's Barbie-sized. It coordinate's with La's most recent hat/mitten set.



In non-photographed knitting, the first brown sock is nearly done, and the baby blanket is making some progress. We're nearly to the doldrums.

2. Sewing.

a. A curtain bender. Easy. Rectangles.

First: A new curtain for the side light. I couldn't stand the one that came with the house any longer. (it was sheer pink, grungy, and super-gathered.) It used up the last of the seersucker from the feedsack quilt. And, even better, I looove the fabric and I get to look at it all the time! And it actually coordinates with the inside of our house. what could be better?



Second: a curtain for the window in the bathroom. Dh's request. He thinks it'll help keep water off of the window sill. I like that it hides the shampoo bottle clutter, at least at first glance. I also like that it coordinates with the baloons. More baloons might be overpowering. maybe. Blue striped seersucker. Still have kind of a lot left. I'm thinking about a twirly skirt for me. But am going to wait until the belly gets going cause I'm afraid of the potential for hem-droop.



b. The Lego Quilt. It only needs binding, and maybe I'll have time to do that tonight. It got all squore up, added the border, sandwiched, quilted. etc. The blue didn't seem to be quite wide enough, so I added the leftover block strip. It's not too late for it to turn out to be delightfully wonky. The batting is some kind of thickish stuff that I have probably had sitting around for a while. It wouldn't have been my first choice, but it's not bad.



3. Growing a baby. It's hard to give a status report without sounding like I'm complaining. But. A highlight has been my loss of memory. So far, I've lost my YMCA card and the remote for the cable box. I also can't find my binder of good CD's. I socked it away quite a while ago, but now I have no idea what safe place it's in. The binder has all of my old REM, which recently decided would make great summer driving music. I'm hoping that in a week or two I will be much less tired. Cause I need to sew a dress for La for a wedding in July. Next doctor's visit is this Thursday.