January 11, 2009 - Phoebe

Here is Phoebe. She is very sweet, but needs to learn her manners. I heard rattling in the kitchen and she had her front paws on the table and had polished off half a stick of butter. She also likes to nose around in the waste paper cans. But we like her anyway!

January 11, 2009 - Another diversion

My sister has started knitting tiny caps for preemie babies. When she and her family were here for Christmas she gave me the pattern and I was hooked!

Usually when I travel I take a book to read. This past week my daughter and I had a vacation to our magical place and instead of a book, I took my knitting (packed in my checked bag).

Late afternoons and evenings I worked on the caps and came home with 3 of them. Aren't they adorable?

January 11, 2009 - We're excited!

Today we are picking up a four year old female golden retriever. We'll have her with us for a week, to see if she would be a good addition to our family. Her breeder wants her to have a litter of pups this spring, and if all goes well, she will join our family this summer! Her name is Phoebe. I'm sure I will be posting some photos : )

January 4, 2009 - Star Student progress

This is going together pretty quickly, although sewing through the points of the flying geese is a bit tricky. There are at least 6 layers of fabric at the point, so the machine needs some encouragement to get through the thickness.

2 borders remain, the outer border is a piano key border with 104 pieces. Stay tuned. Get it?

Karen

January 1, 2009 - Happy New Year!

Today I made Crock Pot Taco Soup. It is fabulous! I got the recipe from a blog that had a new Crock Pot recipe every day for a year. Here is the link

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/02/original-taco-soup-crockpot-recipe.html

Be sure to use a super size crock pot, it makes enough for a small army. I will probably cut the recipe in half next time, it made so much!

Today I also made 10 bean bags for my friend's school, and I am starting on the flying geese for the Star Student quilt! Photos when I get farther along in the process.

Karen

December 29, 2008 - Star Student Quilt Kit

I am so excited to finally get started on my Star Student quilt. Fat Quarter Shop had a kit with Recess charm packs and Miss Rosie's Quilt Company Schnibbles Pattern, Plan C. (top row, third pattern)

I am a fabric pre-washer, yes, I admit it. Big mistake when it comes to charm packs. The fabric does shrink. Not a good thing when you need 5" strips and the charm squares now measure 4-3/4 inches.

So I ordered a layer cake to be sure I had enough fabric. I got it all washed and ironed yesterday, and today I started cutting! I can't wait to get this quilt together. It will hang in the big empty space above my dresser in our bedroom.

Happy New Year to all of you.

Karen

December 18, 2008 - Never enough bags

My local quilt shop had kits made up for small, medium and large shopping bags. It includes the pattern, 2 pieces of fabric, 5/8 yard of each, and 3 yards of webbing for the handles for the medium size.

As if I don't already have enough shopping bags, I took the bait and bought a kit. It went together in less than 90 minutes. I'm thinking it will make a nice bag to take to the beach. A nice thing to think about with over a foot of snow on the ground and 7 degrees this morning...