After that discovery and my second or third (doh!) moment of the week I decided to focus on sending out requests for donations for Sticks N Stitches. Keep your fingers crossed that I am not the only one going into work tom’w! Hopefully we’ll hear back soon.

I had debated going home and dog proofing the house first, since of course I didn’t think of doing this earlier in the week, but I decided against it. Of course as soon as we walked in the door with her I could see everything in our house that was in just the right spot for her to get into. So we set about putting things out of her reach and doing some general picking up. While picking up I made some great headway in adding more clothes to the pile to donate. My sister came over and relieved me of many of the camisoles that are too short for me anymore.

Then I set about putting away a box of crafts that has been sitting around unpacked since our move. While going through the box I found something that I had been requesting as a Christmas gift – a walking foot for my sewing machine. Turns out I no longer need one because umm I’ve had one for 5 yrs. It seemed odd to me that that my “quilting sewing machine” didn’t come with one but came with all the other optional accessories. I attributed it to being a cheaper model or something. I’ve reached a point in my sewing where I thought it might be useful to have one so I located the part online and noted the location for the boy requesting it for Christmas.  It was in my room the whole time. Silly me.

For whatever reason, trying to get into quilting is making me completely devoid of all confidence. It’s a rather odd reaction for me. Especially when it comes to sewing. I generally barrel through things figuring I can do it. I think it’s the precise nature of quilting, that and people showing me that I have been doing it wrong when it comes to cutting fabric. Now I am afraid to cut for fear of not being square. (hahaha, does that crack any of you up as much as me?)

At any rate, Saturday I had to do some quick mending for a Halloween costume and just sitting there barreling through the sewing on this dress so that I could wear it that night got me excited to make sewn items again. So Sunday afternoon while the boy was attending his weekly Mario Kart gathering, I sewed quilt backings together. Then after some yard work I basted the smaller quilt using up all my quilting safety pins and googling furiously to try and figure out what I was going to do with the extra fabric. Apparently the extra fabric is there in case you need it and when you are done and before you put on the binding, you just cut it off. (Now why couldn’t my book just tell me that?) Then I went to another room and laid out the quilt sandwich for my OU quilt. It’ll probably sit there for a short while since I don’t have any pins to secure it right now. I also need to learn how to do this whole quilting bit so I can get the pins out of the smaller quilt. But enough rambling, you want to see photo evidence, don’t you?

OU Quilt laid out as a Quilt Sandwich

Six of One, A Half Dozen of the Other Quilt all basted

I will say that I did a pre-test of the small quilt and laid under it. It felt warm to me. I really do dig the colors too!

After hanging with his cousins we drove closer in to DC to visit my friend who is working up there on a TDY from her TDY. Ahh government jobs, they always keep ya on your toes. We had a good visit and she took us out to eat to celebrate our engagement. The boy spent a lot of time playing with her cat by getting the cat to chase a laser around the hotel room. It was rather fun to watch. Sunday we moseyed into town and I finally got to go see the wonder that is G Street Fabrics. For those of you local to the c-bus, it’s a fabric shop that is probably bigger than the old Lazarus basement. I was a bit stunned at all the selection. I wish we had such a shop closer to home. Alas, the only project I knew the exact quantities of fabric I needed, they did not have the fabric I needed so I left without buying anything. But I did take a picture.

G Street Fabrics - View down 2/3 of the store

Then we headed into Alexandria where I went to Knit Happens and snatched up some Yarn Love – Charlotte Bronte Worsted. I have been wanting to try their yarns for awhile and I finally had a chance to see them in person before buying. I also snatched up a lovely little shawl pin to use with the shawl I was working on during the road trip. (More on the shawl later) All in all it was a good visit and I was happy to make it home and fold myself into bed.

Once back home the boy and I decided to go for a walk. We walked to the park but alas there were children on the swings so no swinging for us. As we were walking I suddenly realized a ton of our neighbors own Hondas. I counted 20 Hondas during our walk. Also many of the homes with Hondas had two, go figure. The walk was nice and I would really like for us to try and do that more often.

Upon returning home it was definitely time for ice cream. I took my ice cream upstairs to finish the sewing and the boy headed to the basement. I am pleased to say that about 22:30 I had completed all three blankets that I wanted to get done for this weekend. Now the question is, is it odd to give someone three identical baby blankets? Hmm. I shall ponder this as I drift off to slumber land.

1. Finish Vivian.
2. Cast on one of the tops with the Shelridge W4. It looks like the Fern Fitted Shell may pull out as the winner there. Unless Green Gable makes a last minute effort to come through.
3. Knit at least 2 more inches on that lace scarf that’s been dawdling.
4. Make a decision about the Belgian socks, to rip or not to rip? Will they fit a normal man’s foot? Are they really that big? Who knows?
5. Pick out the next pair of socks to be knit and cast them on if everything else is progressing alright.
6. Spend at least half a Saturday in the sewing room – clean up and oil the machines and pick out projects for the fabric laying around.
7. Get the indoor vegetables planted.
8. Spend at least 2 hours on the drop spindle to see if I can reclaim that spark.
9. Begin the clean out of the backroom for our guests that are coming this summer.
10. If there’s another free Saturday start piecing together my t-shirt quilt.

Oh and just for something pretty to break up the monotony of the text – one of my recent yarn purchases:

Pretty!

Full shot of the bag

Description: Christmas Bag #1
Pattern: Simple Bag by Joelle Hoverson from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts
Fabric used: So I am new to the updating of sewn projects. I bought all the fabric for this from Quilt Beginnings in Bexley. It took about a 1/2 yd of each pattern shown.
Care Instructions: Machine wash cool
Modifications: No mods
Finished Size: 15″ x 12″
Date Started: 12/26/2008
Date Completed: 1/25/2009
Notes: This makes a nice lightweight bag. If you want it to be sturdier for carrying heavier items it may be worthwhile to implement some type of interfacing.

Close up of the handles and top fabric

From another angle

Shot of the inside of the bag. I love this fabric

Quilt top all sewn up.

Quilt top all sewn up 2.

This most recent weekend produced a bunny body, head and one ear as well as a bust for Francis. More details to come later.