I am DONEEEEEEE

Yes, I have finished my first lace weight project, Secret of the Stole 3. I tried the first 2 and didn't finish them, but here it is, in all it's glory. I LOVE IT!!!

I am very excited and I have fallen in love with laceweight!

Some local color...

Here are the boys at the hockey game on Friday. :-)

We lost both nights, but it was fun. :-)

And this morning my neighbor showed up in my backyard. In his pj's and driving his golf cart. You have to love our neighborhood.

Diva Club Day!

We made bags today and it was great fun.

Mine is on the left, Judy's is on the right. They both came out really nice. :-)
And her is one of Jan's, she was on her way to making a 2nd when I left for the day:

Lynn's bag in progress:

Paige spent the day working on her Lone Star quilt, and it's coming out really nice.

It was a good day. And now it's time for bed, because tomorrow we are going here:

http://www.villagefabricsandcrafts.com/

It's still in the same county, but it's about an hour from here. I'm excited, I guess they have a wall of sock yarn!

Ready for Friday (And Saturday!)

So I'm ready for the weekend, and I'm ready for the next clue for the secret stole. Here it is through clue 7, with help from my Packers moose and Gorby:It doesn't look like much in the picture, but believe me, it's looking wonderful and Gorby was inspecting the bead placement. :-)
I also have Diva club this weekend. We were given (2) 6" squares of material that is being sold to help raise money for ovarian cancer research. We were to combine with fabric from our stash to make a 12" block. So here it is:


The charity fabrics are the one with teals. And of course we start our charm square swap this weekend. This month the color was bright pink.

My sewing machine is packed, I just have to get something ready for the potluck portion of Diva club. :-)

Command central...and Survivor knitting!

Survivor starts tonight. It's on right now. And here I go. My goal is to work on UFO's during Survivor. Here is the pile I put together. I'm sure there are more lurking though.

There is a scarf, a prayer shawl, another scarf, a pair of socks for my husband (both at least to the heel flap part), one shortie sock for me finished, just need the 2nd one...and a pair of socks I am knitting for my mom. So I have plenty to knit on while I watch. And I would like to clear out my knitting basket for the new year. It's coming, and coming fast. I'm also working on the Secret Stole but that isn't an UFO, since I work on it every week and I am all caught up and ready for clue 7 that will be out tomorrow.

Here is a picture I took last Sunday.

You will notice all 3 cats on the couch, with my husband at his desk in the background there. On the right side of the couch is a fleece pillow, and that is command central. That is where I spend my time, knitting and watching tv and cuddling with the cats. Now all I need is that big screen tv and I'll be ready for winter and the blizzards that I feel are in our future.

Clue 5 Done!!

I finished clue 5, and here it is:

Hard to really see it on the beige carpet, here's a closer pic:
I am really enjoying this, and tomorrow is another clue! :-)

Fall is in the air...

I'm starting to get things in order for winter. We spent alot of time on our deck this summer, and this coming spring we are going to get a new set of furniture for out there. But for now, I am cleaning up and straightening and getting ready to spend the next 5 months or so indoors for the most part. We still have lots of good weather left, but I really need to de-clutter this house because it will drive me crazy looking at it all winter! And I am busy working on quilts for Christmas, and I am working on the secret stole and I just ordered beads to make the mystery stole that started a couple weeks ago. Whew! I just ordered the beads though, I am using yarn I already had. Need to use up some of the yarn I have before I order more. I always say that, but then break down when I see the gorgeous handpaints online. :-)
Now I am off to finish clue 5 of the secret stole. I'm about halfway done with that clue.

Clue 3 done!!!

I'm so excited that I am keeping up with Secret of the Stole 3! I finished the 3rd clue, but I am having a hard time getting a good picture of it. Lace doesn't look good till it's properly blocked.

The next clue will be out on Friday, and I can't wait to start on it Friday night!

Caterpillars and my Peace Quilt

Well, earlier today I saw a wooly caterpillar for the first time in ages. I took his picture (her?) and then scooted "it" off to the side of the garage to find a home for the winter.

Now, on to quilting. I have (35) 7" squares for my peace quilt. I am collecting batiks to use in this quilt:

It is based on the story about the thousand paper cranes. I need (160) 7" squares, so I am about 1/4 of the way there. I plan on starting this quilt on New Year's Eve, since I have the time off from work.

The bottom 2 groups of batiks were sent to me from people on the Quilt Talk list on Yahoo. And they are much appreciated!

Hint #1 finished

I finished the first hint for the knit along!!!! Here it is:I have never kept up before, never finished even the first clue/hint! Now here I go...tomorrow is the next one will be released, so tomorrow after work I can come home and knit all I want.

Quilts at work Part 2

Previously I had shown pictures on my blog of quilts that a co-worker had inherited. Today I bring you this:Teri made this. Teri is obviously very talented, she is also a great and caring nurse practitioner that I have the privilege of working with. This quilt pattern is called Snapshot, and it is going to the Girls on the Run program for them to do with as they wish, and hopefully they are able to use it to raise gobs of money!

Jim is coming home today!

Jim is coming home today. He has been gone just over a week, and the girls and I spent the week trying to stay out of trouble. I think we managed, but this might be a problem:

That would be Shadow this morning, all comfy on Jim's side of the bed. I guess if you are gone that long you forfeit your rights to the bed. We'll see what happens tonight when they battle over who is sleeping where.

A beautiful day today!

It was a gorgeous day today, and I got all the pop cans and bottles returned (Michigan has a 10 cent deposit, so we have to save all our cans and bottles and take them back to the store. The other recycling goes to the recycling center about every 2 weeks or so). I finished a quilt top today, another one for Christmas. 2 down, 2 to go. And I worked on a mini quilt, I absolutely love paper piecing. It's just fun to sew on the line and then rip that paper away!

I met Sasha tonight, she belongs to the neighbor's brother. She's a lover,

How can you not love her? And I had dinner tonight with Bill & Cathy, great neighbors. Cathy and I like to read the same type of books, so we'll be swapping books back and forth this winter when it's nasty out. Bill showed me a Christmas tree his mom made. It's really neat:

I don't have my digital camera at the moment so I had to make do with my camera phone. This "tree" is a collage of old pieces of costume jewelry that belonged to various family members. Bill's dad drilled holes through, and there are lights too. This Christmas I will have to get a better picture. It's a very nice Christmas decoration, because it's all about family. (And dinner was wonderful by the way! :-)

Paper piecing

I lost some of my pictures that I took Saturday at the Moose. I have no idea how or why. Here is what is left. I am still learning how to use my new camera remember. :-)

That would be Shasta's work area. She loves scraps remember, and she makes really great quilts with them too!
And here is my mother-in-law's first quilting experience at the Moose. She pieced a few quilt blocks back in the 70's, but hasn't done any quilting since. She is already talking about a new machine. :-)
And this is my first paper piecing. I am hooked. I already about a book. :-)
I plan on doing some paper piecing this weekend.

My new camera

My new camera doesn't seem to be playing well with my computer, so I shall work on that tonight. I was trying to put up pics from the weekend but every time I tried to download from the camera it would shut down my computer. It's a Kodak Easy Share, so any suggestions would be appreciated!
I will be doing some paper piecing this coming weekend. I learned how to do it last weekend at the quilted moose, and I love it. It's so precise! My in laws were also here, and my MIL is now excited about learning to quilt. I'm such a bad influence!

Where I live Part 1

I bought a new camera last night, and now I have zoom capabilities. :-) I have decided to post pictures of where I live. Today is Part 1, Sugar Island. Sugar Island facts are here: http://hunts-upguide.com/sault_ste__marie__michigan_sugar_island.html And here are pictures that I took about an hour or so ago.

Cool quilts at the Moose

Tuesday at the moose there were some nice quilts to google over:

and

And Shasta sorted her scraps. We throw all our scraps in her bins, and she turns them into really nice quilts.

I got a new digital camera last night, so this morning I am working at clearing out the old camera so I can pass it along.

Goals for this weekend

I find it best to set goals for the weekend. Otherwise I get lazy and get nothing done. So this weekend I have a few goals. Tonight I want to ply the last of my purple/green singles, so I can wash the yarn tomorrow morning and hang it out to dry. I want to finish my SIL's quilt top for this coming Christmas. I want to finish handsewing the binding on the quilt for our bed. And I want to help my husband put a flower bed in the front of our house, complete with a new mailbox. We'll see how well listing my goals on my blog helps motivate me! Not sure what the weather is supposed to do, so maybe Mother Nature will prevent us from putting in the flower bed. We'll see. :-)

Cynthia's Yarn Shop

We did make a stop on the way home Sunday, http://www.cynthiasyarn.citymax.com/page/page/4076765.htm. This is such a cute shop, and I got some nice yarn.

And of course, I took pictures of the shop. It's just too cute!

We did swing by the fort on the way out (http://www.mackinacparks.com/parks/colonial-michilimackinac_7/), and I noticed this sign for the first time.

Mackinaw City is a very pretty place. I really recommend visiting if you get the chance!

I cheated on the Moose

I admit it, I strayed this weekend. I went down to visit my mom and made a special visit to the Pig Patch. http://www.pigpatchfarm.com/. It was a nice shop, and the owner was charming. Of course I took pictures:

(This is just one of the rooms!)

I love this quilt, she had the kit but I restrained myself. I think it's called Seeing Stars, and it is more stunning in person. And of course, a nice spot outside for husbands to patiently wait:

I got quite a few patterns, she had quite a few different patterns that I had not seen before,

We had a nice visit with my mom. On Saturday afternoon we went to Waterfront Park and checked out the fishing derby action.

This cooler held 6 fish that weighed in at 96 pounds!
Saturday evening we went to watch the carferry go out. The Badger goes from Ludington, MI to Wisconsin.

It was very nice weather wise on Saturday, and it was a nice drive down to visit.

Thursday night and all is well

It's Thursday and all is well. Tomorrow is that magical day called Friday and then it's sleep in time and sausage breakfast burrito from McDonald's time. I love those on my days off, but I love going out for a big breakfast even better. I love a good breakfast on Sunday morning, followed by a nap.

I have my quilted jacket done, it came out a little larger than I wanted so I washed it in hot water and now it's in the dryer on high heat. Why is it when I want to shrink something I can't do it? I did re-wash the yarn I dyed a couple weeks ago, so now that is almost dry so I can do something with it. Once I get some more stuff taken care of around here!