A Little Knitting

A long time quilt guild friend introduced me to knitted cotton cloths for the kitchen. My hands haven't been up to knitting for a while but they are coming back. These are made on size 8 needles, and I can handle those. Hopefully soon I can get back to size 1s so I can make more socks!

These great little cloths work well in the kitchen, are absorbent, and get clean easily, just throw them in with your whites with hot water.

They are inexpensive to make, I got a skein of cotton yarn at Michael's for $1.29. I made the purple and will have left over yarn. The only draw back is they do stay damp for a while.

There are many free patterns for the plain ones I made as well as much more elaborate patterns. Here is the pattern I used. For more choices just google free knitted wash cloth patterns. You can get very fancy.

The purple one and the one on the needles I made/am making. The smaller bluish one I bought at our guild's quilt show boutique. Its been well used. Great take along project. I do it most often on the train to and from work.

Enjoy

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My Updated List and the New England Quilt Museum Guild Challenge and Teaching Quilt Classes

I did get my decorating done - we still have to buy a tree - I will only have a real tree.  But my creche is up - I made this ceramic set about 25 years ago and use it every year. Little Elfie is on  the dining room chandelier - he reports to Santa and has been around since my kids were little. The stockings (3 hand knit by me) and my husband's made by his mother, are on the mantle. I even got some shopping done. So Christmas preparations are progressing.
I made LOADS of fudge yesterday using my husband's uncle's recipe - it comes out perfectly every time.
I will post the recipe separately.

Quilt Lists and Projects
I, like most of us, struggle with a growing list of UFOs (unfinished objects/projects). I went through the boxes and bags in my studio and made a list of every project I had on index cards - it took 4 - 4X6 inch cards - LOTS of projects. I am determined to make a dent in all of these while I am still unemployed.
So to keep me honest I have posted the list on the blog. As they get done I will preface them with COMPLETED. The list is so long it doesn't all show. I have prioritized the first 6.

My issue is, I keep finding more things I want to work on. I have volunteered to chair the New England Quilt Museum Supporting Guild Quilt Challenge - to be shown at Images in Lowell MA in August 2010. The finished quilts will then be donated to the NEQM and used in a fund raiser at a future date.  The theme of the quilt is "From Lobstahs to the Green Monstah!" . For anyone reading this that is either not from New England or not a baseball fan  the Green Monster (in a Boston accent - Monstah) is the wall in left field at Fenway Park home the Boston Red Sox. I think Lobstah is self explanatory!

Well I had a light bulb moment , went to my EQ6 and came up with a very nice design - I won't post it til it's done - but I was very pleased.  The quilt is small  - only 36 Inches square. Our Guild is small, but I am planning to have the blocks paper pieced and lots of people will pitch in to make a block. So that will need to be added to the list. I will of course incorporate Texture Magic in there somewhere - it really adds to a quilt.

Then - I am doing two LQS block of the months, plus the www.thequiltshow.com block of the months - there are two - I still have to finish this years pieced one. Also, my quilting buddy Carol, and I will make a really cool bag - the easy on the shoulder design - I have a leather one from LLBean and I love it. I got the pattern at the Gathering in Nashua NH in November. She is a teacher so is off between Christmas and New Year and we will get it done then.

Add to that I am learning to long arm quilt at my friends MaryAnn and Dora's long arm studio - Mad About Quilts.  They rent out time on their long arm - it is great - only done the intro class so far, and know it will take a lot of practice, but with all the quilts on the list I will get a lot of practice.

I am also putting together a list of classes I would like to teach. It is something I have wanted to do for a long time. Making all the samples for my Texture Magic business led me to realize I had a lot of techniques and info to offer. I will list the Texture Magic Bags (they make fabulous classes) and I am working on one of the Eleanor Burns quilts (that's not on the list either - so needs to be added!) using charm packs - it will make a great beginner quilt, but it also uses the  scallop ruler to make a scalloped edge - giving a more advanced look to the quilt when done.

My DD is coming home from college tomorrow - YEAH! and DS will be home next Sunday. It will be good to have them both home. I have three dinners this week and will try to get to some quilt stores for my Texture Magic demos. - Oh that reminds me of another project - the Texture Magic Festive Stockings - great new pattern. My friend Carol did one up very quickly - In fact I think I will go do one up tonight.
The Patriots are winning right now (4th quarter - 7 minutes to go) so life is good.
That also means I can leave my house and do errands in about an hour and a half.
The game is at home, and it takes about that long for the traffic to abate after the game is over. You learn to plan around these things when you live in a small town that hosts a NFL team!

I will post the Fudge recipe later this week
Peace
Mary

Boats, Lobsters, Socks and Cork Boards!

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend. Both DS and DD are now back at college. But DD is close by and came home to go diving this weekend. More on that below.

Last year DD's roommate had a cute cork board made of wine corks. We started saving wine corks, got some more from a friend who was just saving them for no real reason (LOL) and proceeded to make a cork board for DD.
Got this inexpensive frame at the Christmas Tree Shop - took out the glass.

Here are all the corks - we like wine but not that much so a good thing my friend Ramie had all the extra corks.

Arranged the corks and used a jewel glue I had in my studio. DD Loved it. We gave it to her today when she came down to the boat to go diving.

My Sock Fest!
The two pair of socks I was working on are done. The maroon ones are for me and the black and white ones are DH slightly delayed anniversary present. Finished them last Monday - our anniversary was Sunday. I ran out of yarn just shy of the toe on the maroon ones. So I used a little yarn from DD(blue) and a little yarn from DS (green) socks to finish. That 's what the teensy tiny white print on the picture says. Sorry didn't know it would come out so small in the blog version!

The maroon pattern is one I got free on the internet. Here is the blog http://whimsicalknittingdesigns.blogspot.com/2008/11/touch-of-whimsy-socks-version-two.html

She has tons of patterns (look on the lower right side of the blog). The only comment is that the pattern is not stretchy. Any my legs are a little chubby - so if you do make them and have "well developed calves" I would suggest adding a little to the diameter of the leg. But the pattern is lovely.!

Labor Day Boating Fun

Well on Labor Day DH finally got to take a break from his work. He is working on a huge project and did not get away from the computer on Saturday or Sunday. So we got to the boat on Monday. DD met us there . It is only about an hour for her from school. The marina is about 45 minutes from our house. We are so fortunate to be this close to the ocean. DS is 3.5 hours away and does not like the ocean. We don't know where he came from (LOL)

It is just a little boat, with no seats, but a lot of room for dive gear.
One of the other "best" parts of the day is that I took the boat out of the slip and out of the marina - driving myself. We just have an outboard motor - so n0 stern thrusters or any fancy maneuvering controls. I can be a real "nervous nelly" and having me drive the boat is one way to get me over this. I was thrilled. I didn't dock it on the way back, we'll keep that for next year.

Our sole purpose when we go out is to go "hunting lobsters"
In Massachusetts you can catch lobster several ways on a non-commercial license. You can dive and take them by hand or you can put out a small number of pots that you put down and then pull up. We just dive. You do have to have a license (DH does) We get in our cold water scuba gear and go down about 50 feet and look for them under rocks!!

Lobsters are basically nocturnal creatures so they hide during daylight hours. In fact if you night dive, you cannot take lobsters after sunset.
The visibility was pretty bad - only about 5 feet - basically you don't see the bottom til you hit it! But the water was fairly warm for south of Boston and we hit a good spot. DD found the first really big lobster - the picture show the biggest legal lobster you can take scuba diving. You have to use a gauge to check that it is not too big or too small, or a female with eggs. We did get three others during our dive- but just regular size (1.25 to 1.5 opounds). Also saw several really large blue fish. The fishermen were having a great day. So these are DD with the lobster (above) and DD and DH with the lobster. Aren't they just the cutest. PS. the lobster was delicious!!