Cut, Paste and Sew On

Drunkard's Path Tutorial

2010-03-08T21:18:00.003-06:00

For my February blocks for A Piece of Work-A and March blocks for Bee Addicted, I sent out these gorgeous fabrics.

Each person was sent a cream print, two different semisolids, and lots of the floral print.

I am asking for Drunkard's Path blocks that are 16.5 inches (16 inches finished).

Here are some hints and helps for making these as I know that some people are not comfortable or familiar with doing curved piecing.

Everyone received two templates. One is a quarter circle. The other is the outer piece of the square. The templates include seam allowances. You will need to cut out 16 of each piece from the fabrics you received. The floral print is the main fabric, so please make sure you use a lot of it.

Because of the curves of these pieces, you will need to trace the templates and then cut them out with scissors instead of a rotary cutter (unless you are really good). I used a pen to trace the templates because some of the fabrics were so dark and I was going to cut on the lines anyway, so decided it didn't matter. Here is how I laid out the pieces, in order to conserve space/fabric. I think it will make it easier to make a balanced layout if you stick with even numbers of each piece per fabric.

Once you get all the pieces cut out, the fun begins! This is when you get to play with different layouts. You can lay the blocks out however you want. There are some traditional layouts, but I want to see what you can come up with. Here are some of the layouts I tried.

Once you have your layout picked out, it is time to start piecing. First you will want to fold each piece into fourths and press it. This makes it easier to match up the pieces evenly.

This is what the outside piece looks like when it is folded in quarters and pressed.

And this is the quarter circle once it has been folded and pressed.

Next you line up the creases and the edges and place a pin at each location. You want the quarter circle on the bottom and the outside piece on top.

Then, place another pin between each of the pins you already have. The top piece should be a little flatter along the seam line now, with only a few small bumps.

Now it is time to sew the two pieces together. Don't try to line up the edge of the fabric to your quarter inch mark ahead of the presser foot. You will be pivoting the fabric the whole time you are sewing. You want it to hit the seam allowance mark just ahead of the needle. Take your time. Sew slowly. Be grateful there are only 16 of these...

Once the pieces are sewn, press both seams toward the outside piece.

Square up each piece to 4.5 inches. The seams should fall 1 inch from the edges of the square.

Now it is time to start piecing the squares together. Here is how I keep track of what goes with what and where while I am piecing.

First lay out your squares again.

Then, I take the second column of squares and match them right sides together with the blocks in the first column. I do this as well with the fourth and third columns. This puts all of the seams on the right hand side of each stack.

Then I stacked each column of squares from bottom to top and sewed them in this order.

Press seams open.

Continue piecing the blocks together to make 4 4-patches. Press seams open. I find for me, that piecing into successively larger squares, instead of rows, helps me match my seams better. Of course, piece however you wish.

Then join the 4-patches into the two halves and join the halves.

Ta da; pretty block.

I am an Aunt!

2009-09-06T13:08:00.003-06:00

On Friday at 5:25 Lily Vienne Lemmons was born making me an aunt for the first time. She was 9lbs. 1 oz. and 20 inches long. She has a full head of hair and really long toes. She is soooo pretty. I got to hold her for over an hour at the hospital yesterday. Here are some pictures that Chris took while we were there.

What I've been working on

2009-08-17T20:26:00.003-06:00

A couple weeks ago I scored 14 yards of brown twill for $6/yard on-line. I bought this fabric to slipcover our two old, mismatched, thrift and gift couches. The couches were seriously due for some new looks. Last night I finished (almost) the first slipcover.

Front

Back
I started with the biggest couch. It has a lot of curves and was pretty complicated, but I am very happy with the outcome. I wanted the slipcover to truly be a SLIP cover, as in it can be taken off. With all of the curves, this was not very easy. It meant that there had to be at least one seam that could open up and close again, preferably with out the aid of a seamripper and needle and thread. I ended up only having one recloseable seam and it is fastened with neodymnium magnets. They work wonderfully.

There was one slight problem though. Right above that seam do you see the serger threads hanging out? That is where I somehow ended up with both sides being too short. There wasn't enough fabric on either side to cover the raw edges and tuck into the crack. I am going to have to sew some of the scraps onto those edges whenever I decide that I have the energy and motivation to take the cover off and put it back on again inside out, pin up all the edges, and hem the whole thing. That is not right now.

Hey, did you notice how crisp and square and firm that cushion looks? And that it is only one cushion? The old cushions were definitely showing their age, even through the slipcover, so I took advangtage of a 40% off sale at Hancocks and bought two new sheets of foam. Both couches are getting new cushions. Ahh, it is soooo much more comfortable.

The next slipcover should be much easier. There isn't a single curve on the other couch at all. And it is significantly smaller in every dimension. Maybe tomorrow night...

August Blocks for Quilt 12 Together

2009-08-04T09:03:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I got the fabric for the first month of the bee that I am hosting called "Quilt 12 Together." All of the ladies are from the Ravelry Quilters Knitting group except my MIL.

August is Dawn's month and she sent out a lot of fabric. She divided her chosen fabrics into blue bundles and gold/brown bundles. I got a brown one.

She told us pretty much anything we did would be great, but that she liked stars, pinwheels, irish chains, nine-patches, and strippy blocks, and even more.

I picked up on the star/pinwheel and irish chain idea and remembered having seen this block on Ravelry for a recent block swap they did. This pattern makes a 9 inch block and Dawn wanted 12 inch blocks so I modified it just a little bit, making the center block an uneven 9 patch and the corner blocks have 4 block instead of 3. This is what I came up with. I threw in a little bit of yellow I had leftover from Emerald's quilt.

I still had a lot of fabric left so I made a strippy block. I think it is fun.

A Piece of Work August

2009-07-27T22:30:00.002-06:00

Today I received the August shipment of fabrics for the quilting bee A Piece of Work - A from Kaylynne.

Aren't they so pretty? Deep red/pink, yellow, green, orange, and brown. So rich.

She asked for wonky log cabin blocks and this is what I came up with. She encouraged us to add fabrics from our stash. I added the brown and tan print, the green in the corner, and the orange swirls. This was a lot of fun!

Orange and Blue, Yellow and Green

2009-07-26T11:23:00.004-06:00

Jonn's quilt has been delivered.

Here are some detail shots of the border.

The KEDT-TV Challenge was a academic decathlon type event held by the local tv station in which the various local school competed. John was on his school's team. You can watch episodes here and here.

NOSB stands for National Oceanic Science Bowl, another academic event John participated in.

I couldn't find a machine embroidery design for National Honor Society, but luckily, John had an extra patch. I fused and satin stitched that to one of the blocks.

On John's quilt I did "vertical" lines in blue and orange through the center. I made no attempt to keep the lines straight or non-intersecting. It was fast, but it could have used some more lines. Maybe, I don't know. I was afraid I was going to mess it up if I did any more.

On the border, I stippled in white including five pointed stars every now and then. This was a fun change from regular stippling.

Julia and Marnie threw a baby shower for Emerald yesterday at Julia's house. It was Abilene friends and the ladies from church.

She got a nice pile of presents, including lots of wipes.

I gave her this quilt. This is the Mod Sampler quilt by Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson. I completed the whole quilt in three days. I will probably make more of these. The blocks are really simple, yet striking.

With this handknit layette inside. This is the Matinee Coat by Debbie Bliss, Feather and Fan Bonnet, and Saartje's Booties. I used Sandes Garn Mandarin Petit for this project. This is a really nice cotton fingering weight yarn. I would definitely use it again.

The quilt is 55x65 so it will make a good playtime quilt and can be used even after the baby gets bigger.

I free-handed vines of flowers and leaves all over the quilt, using Sulky variegated rayon thread. That thread comes on really small spools. I completely used two spools and still had 1/4 of the quilt left to go!

I "wrapped" the present by folding the layette inside the quilt, folding back top layer to show the label and tying with a big yellow ribbon. The label says "Made by Aunt Melissa for her very first niece. July 23rd, 2009.

Doesn't Emerald look so cute?

Those sandwhiches on the croissants are mimicing ones that we buy from Tuscany's. They are sliced turkey, cream cheese, and cranberry sauce with walnuts on a croissant. Very yummy.

John's Quilt

2009-07-24T19:42:00.002-06:00

I finished John's quilt on Monday and have been waiting to post about it until I could go get pictures taken of it. Well, I kept forgetting and then I was going to do it and it started raining and then I was working on the quilt for Eric and Emerald's baby... you get the picture. Today, I bundled up both quits, took them over to ACU to take pictures, get John's quilt all laid out, grab the camera....and the batteries are dead. Go figure. Anyway, currently the batteries are charging and I will go take pictures in the morning. The baby shower is at 1 tomorrow and I am supposed to be there at noon and John is showing up around 3, so tomorrow morning is my last chance to get pictures taken.

Here is what I have so far:

John wanted blue and orange for his quilt. Normally this is not a color combination I would choose, but it was fun to work with and I feel it came out well. I picked up some of these fabrics throughout the last year while I was working on Melody's quilt. Those were the basketball, net, and soccer prints. The blue with gold swirls is leftover from Harmon's quilt. Apparently, I had been planning on making the borders on Harmon's quilt out of that fabric because after making his quilt and a knitting bag for a swap there was still 2 yards left. After using it in John's quilt in the blocks and for the binding it is down to about 1/2 of a yard. It's a good thing I like this fabric.

The pattern I used is called Indian Summer and I found it in the November 2003 issue of Quilter magazine. In the pattern all of the stars are supposed to spin the same direction. After I started piecing the second set of stars I decided to make them spin the opposite direction. This created the cool rectangles of the black and white prints. This is actually the first quilt I have made that had sashing and cornerstones. It adds a bit of work, but it sure does look nice.

I accidentally made this quilt a full size. I had been planning on making it an extra-long twin, with 35 blocks, but for some reason when I started cutting I had it in my head that I needed 48 blocks, so it has an extra row and column of blocks.

On Harmon's quilt I had embroidered sports and graduation designs in the centers of the blocks. On John's I embroidered sports and academic designs around the border. I had hoped to be able to cut long strips and mark where all the embroidery should be, but that ended up being to complicated to pre-plan, so I cut out 6 inch squares to embroider. After the embroidery was done I squared them up to 5.5 inches. The machine embroidery can cause some pulling and shrinkage. Then I played with the layout. I had been planning on putting one design centered next to each of the blocks. However, that didn't work for centering the name patch at the top of the quilt, so I ended up centering the embroideries on the sashings and corners. This worked out really well. I will have more pics of the embroidery along with explanations of their significance.

On the back I used free-pieced letters to spell out Johner Mac. Because the quilt ended up larger than planned I didn't have nearly enough of the great backing fabric I had purchased. I had nightmares trying to get the back big enough. Originally, I made two strips of disappearing nine patch blocks and put the name strip between them, but the back still wasn't long enough, so I put 4 inch strips of white on the bottom and top of the name strip and then used white to fill in the top of the back. This is more how I was planning on it looking anyway. I really like it now. I kept the other strip of disappearing nine patches. I am sure that they will be used sometime. I am thinking it would make for a quick baby blanket for a boy.

Anyway, there should be more pictures tomorrow or Sunday.

My quilt!

2009-07-16T17:00:00.002-06:00

My quilt, originally uploaded by knitterleigh.

I have been working a lot on John's quilt, but I took a bit of time out to play with mine for a while. Here are the first four blocks. The blue is cut from extra pillowcases we bought when we bought new sheets to go on the new mattress. This quilt will be 100" on each side. This pattern is called Spiderweb. I had seen these showing up online on various blogs and I thought this would be the perfect quilt for our room. The walls are a light blue with white trim and we have black furniture with silver accents. I can't wait to get this quilt on the bed in there.

Hi again

2009-07-08T08:12:00.007-06:00

It's been almost a year since I updated this, but it is time for me to be more diligent with posting here.

After finishing Harmon's quilt last year, Melody and I went shopping for fabric for a quilt for her. Since this quilt was to commemorate her graduation from nursing school, she got a king size quilt. She found a beautiful toile remnant at Hancock fabrics and we bought the whole piece. Then we picked some more rose, gold, and green fabrics to go with the toile. We picked a quilt pattern that would allow me to highlight the toile. All of those pieces were fussy cut.

I had this whole thing pieced, sandwiched, and pinned and even some of the quilting done by her graduation in December, but once I had missed that deadline, this got pushed to the end of my priority list. I had a friend's wedding veil that I needed to have finished by her wedding in June and didn't have time to work on both projects. The veil is done, and the wedding is over with a very pleased bride. More info on that later. I finally had time to get back to Melody's quilt. I pulled it out and cleaned up my sewing room with the help of Carolyn and got to work again. Even quilting almost all day every day, it took me a little over a week to finish the quilting and binding. This is one huge quilt! I even changed the border quilting pattern from what I had originally had planned to this beautiful feathered leaf pattern that was in the newest issue of Quiltmaker.

Carolyn and I took it over to the Jacob's Dream garden at ACU to take some pictures. Unfortunately in the course of taking these pictures, I tripped over a rock and dropped the camera to its death. It took a few more pictures that have some blurry spots and then refused to work any more. This was a brand new camera. I really liked it and the great pictures it would take with hardly any effort on my part. Hopefully I will be able to replace it in the near future. Until then I am back to the old camera that I hate.

I took the quilt to Melody on Sunday and she loves it. I don't actually have any pictures of her with it, but here are some of my cat Emma with the quilt. Emma is very sad that this quilt is gone. She had claimed it as hers.

Baby Barcroft

2008-08-12T09:45:00.009-06:00

The first baby in our group of college friends is due next month! Kara, Chris' cousin, and her husband Daniel are having a baby boy.

We girls, Tiffany, Laura S. , Laura B., Ruth, Katey and myself gave Kara a surprise shower on Saturday. Toph, Austin, Tiffany and Laura S. went over to Kara and Daniel's house ostensibly to celebrate Austin's birthday, which is on Tuesday. Then they got Kara out of the house by telling her they were taking her clothes and antiques shopping. Meanwhile the rest of the girls were at the antique mall in the tea room where we had all of the presents.

Laura and Tiffany brought Kara in and she was very surprised to see all of us. We had planned a baby book theme, so everyone had bought baby books for the new baby. Our favorite was the one from Laura:

Kara loved all of the Little Golden, Good Dog Carl, and Pirate books. The baby got a lot of clothes including the outfit that I gave them. For those of you who do not know Kara and Daniel, Daniel is a goofball who loves cartoons and comics and is a cartoonist himself. He always wears Converse sneakers, including at his own wedding. So here is what I made for their baby; Converse booties, Blue jeans, and a baseball tee with Mac from Freshfish (Daniel's webcomic) on it.

Daniel loved the shirt so much that he took it to church the next morning to show off to everyone! It was really great being able to make something that they appreciated so much.

We did finally take Kara shopping so that she could get some new maternity tops and we could all hang out.

That night, Laura B., Katy, Tiffany, and I went Swing dancing at the Sammons center. It was so much fun. I hadn't been dancing in years. I felt five pounds lighter by the end of the night. That is the best way to exercise ever!

I spent the next day with Laura S. knitting on her couch and helping her untangle some beautiful alpaca/silk laceweight yarn that she had tangled when she tried to knit with it straight from the skein. :( Chris hung out with the guys and played the new expansion to Settlers (the best game ever!)

All in all it was a wonderful weekend, though a little long. I can't wait to see the baby when he comes!

Harmon's Quilt Pt. 2

2008-06-19T08:47:00.002-06:00

Well, I went home for Harmon's graduation and birthday a couple of weeks ago and I gave him his quilt and another present. I have been busy and lazy and haven't posted yet.

I didn't take any pictures of Harmon with his quilt because other people there had better cameras than I did. So these pictures were taken by his girlfriend.

First, I gave him a personalized picture frame. (These pics by Melody)

Then, I gave him the quilt.
He loved it.

I am so proud of him. Here he is walking across the stage and getting his diploma. Notice the gold tassel which means that he is in the top 10 percent of his class and the NHS collar.

Graduation Quilt pt 1

2008-05-09T17:17:00.003-06:00

Last Christmas my wonderful, darling husband bought me a new sewing/embroidery machine. I decided that to properly break it in, I should make a graduation quilt for my brother Harmon. Harmon runs Cross Country and the one and two-mile events in Track as well as plays soccer and basketball. In addition he is a very good student. I would love to have students(s) like him! I wanted to honor his activities in a quilt that allowed me to play with my embroidery machine, so I picked a quilt pattern that had large white blocks that I could embroider with motifs about his sports.With this in mind, I picked the Bear Tracks pattern in the Spring/Summer '07 "Quilt Sampler" by Better Homes and Gardens which my mother had given me for Christmas.
I used Harmon's school colors. The fact that the pattern has bear claws is fitting since his school mascot is the wildcat and they have paw prints on everything. (yes, I know that the bear claw has 4 toes and the cat paw print has only 3)
I just finished piecing it to night and have laid out the backing, batting, and quit top sandwich. I will start quilting tomorrow. I am very pleased with how it is turning out so far.

Other News and Knitting

2008-05-03T08:27:00.003-06:00

Two weeks ago, the DH and I went to the D/FW area to hang out with some friends and I took the opportunity to do some yarn shopping at Yarns Ewenique in Fort Worth. I got some great yarn. First I bought some beautiful Classic Elite Miracle in the most gorgeous deep plum color I have ever seen. Alas, I have no pictures, as that yarn was purchased for my Swap on a Budget partner on Ravelry, and it has been sent off. I bought some other yarn for some secret baby knitting. And then I splurged and bought two balls of Jojoland Harmony in rust and green colorway to make my first lace project; the Pretty as a Peacock Shawl by Some Knitting Required. I am hoping to have this done by the middle of June so that I can wear it when I go out to California for my grandparents 50th anniversary.

I have gotten about halfway through the second chart and am really enjoying this knit. The colors are gorgeous and the pattern is really interesting. I love getting far enough into a chart to see what picture this portion creates. I also love the moment when I "get" the pattern and what is going on, how the row I am knitting now relates to the previous row. That is a really great feeling. (I also am less likely to mess up because at this point I understand what I am doing and not just blindly following the steps, trusting that they will get me to the desired end product. I wish that my students could get what we are doing in class the same way. It is the best moment in the world when it does happen. Those are the moments that remind me why I am teaching.)

Anyway, here are some pictures, because that is why you are here, right? You want to SEE what I am making.

Here is where I was on April 27th. At this point, I had completed the first chart.
Here is where I am now. You can see the change of colors that is happening and the change in pattern from the little tiny feathers at the center to the bigger feathers that overlap like scales at the outer edge where it is green. You can also see the yarn I am using. I love it. It is really soft and having the colors change has been a lot of fun to watch.
If you look closely, you can also see the 17 stitch markers that I made so that I can separate each pattern repeat. They don't all match because I made the big pink ones first and used up all of those beads (Yes mom, they are the leftover beads from the bracelet I made you for the wedding). But then I got to the next chart and it repeats 15 times so I had to make 10 more markers and so I used some plastic pearl beads that I have had for ages and ages along with some purple seed beads left over from when I made my sister's prom dress a few years back.

Completed Fifi!

2008-05-03T08:10:00.004-06:00

I have completed Fifi finally! I have been holding off on posting because I have had difficulty obtaining a decent picture. I finally decided I should post and show you the pics I have and then come back and add the gorgeous pictures that Emerald is going to take for me.

First we have a picture of it in its finished glory while blocking. Yes, it really is THAT orange while wet.

This picture was taken on Monday, when I thought that I was going to wear it, but then I turned on the news and it was 37 degrees outside. 37! in Abilene on April 28th. So I changed into something else and then wore Fifi on Tuesday. I wore it again on Friday night. I really, really, really love this pattern/top! It is super comfortable and super cute. Don't you think so?
I want to make another one soon, probably in a plum or dark teal for some variation. The color on this one is really interesting. Thus the varying colors in posts. The color makes me think of a Creamsicle. It is just about that color of a soft orange.

Even though I made mine in the size medium and made it 3-4 inches longer than the cropped length in the pattern I still used only 5 balls of Rowan Calmer instead of the recommended 7. That means that since I bought it as a bag of 10 balls, I have enough left over for another one. I am hoping to be able to either trade or sell what I have left over to obtain yarn for a new one. The only thing that I am not completely sold on with this pattern is the dip in the center front and back. Before I make my next one, I want to experiment with changing the center section so that it doesn't end up so much longer than the rest of the top. I am thinking about continuing the three center cables, keeping the outer ones as staggered cables. This is based on my theory that the diagonal ribbing is what is causing the "V" shape in the center and that the cables won't do that. We'll see.

Multitasking, Progress, and Cats that Get in the Way.

2008-04-06T15:27:00.006-06:00

I mentioned the other day that I had been knitting while watching my embroidery machine and listening to an audio book. Well here is what that looks like...

I have been working steadily on my Fifi and it shows:I only have about 6 inches to go! and then finishing up the sleeves. I am really excited about getting this done.

In other news: it is difficult to knit when the very friendly cat decides that she wants to sit right next to you and lays down on your yarn. You don't have room to move your elbows without disturbing and waking her up (and then she would try to play with the yarn...) and it is harder to pull the yarn with all of that extra tension on it.

Notice that Emma does not care at all that she is being a nuisance.

Ravelry!

2008-04-06T08:54:00.000-06:00

I am now on Ravelry. If you want to find me on there, I am Knitterleigh.

Irises and Other Flowers

2008-03-30T16:14:00.006-06:00

The other day I called my mom to tell her that I had decided that none of the irises in my yard were dark purple or white. I had reached this conclusion because as I drove around town, I had noticed that all of the dark purple and white irises were blooming and mine were not. Mine had not even put up stalks yet!

However this morning, as I walked around the yard and peeked into the very narrow space between the side of our house and the fence I saw this:
and this:
Notice that those are both dark purple and white! OOps!

I don't know what is up with the white flowers though. The stem on that plant is really that curved. It doesn't look as though it has ever been straight. I am wondering if it has anything to do with the snow we had earlier....

While I was writing this post, our neighbors came over and asked if we would like to have some flowers. They had been planting flowers in their front yard and had some left over so, they gave us the rest. Here they are:
We got Marigolds,
Lamb's Ear,
and Ageratum.
Yeah Flowers!!!!

WIP: Fifi

2008-03-30T15:48:00.008-06:00

I have been working steadily on Fifi. I have to say that I love this pattern and the yarn!

I had very smooth knitting for the upper bodice. However, when I switched to the lower bodice section which is mostly a 2x2 rib, my gauge got really off. All of a sudden my stitches were really loose. I could see it all over, but it was most noticeable in the center cable. It had clearly gotten wider when I had moved into the lower section. At first I thought that it would be ok, but as I kept knitting and paid more attention to my knitting and made sure that I wasn't making my stitches to loosely, my gauge got tighter again. Now it really was noticeable that there was a loose section in the middle, so I had to rip it out. We're talking almost 3 8-row repeats! Like 2.5 inches. It hurt a lot. So I took pictures before hand to prove to myself later that I had made the right choice.

Here it is before I frogged it. It's a little hard to see here what I am talking about.

But when you look at this picture you should be able to see what I mean about the size of the cable changing. All of the cables at the top are evenly the same size and the bottom one is the same size as well. However, the two at the bottom before the very last repeat are ( to me ) noticeably bigger. Since this is the portion over my bust and this is a pattern with negative ease, a loose gauge seemed a very bad idea. I had picked this pattern because it could be worn to work without either an undershirt or a jacket. If knitted too loosely however the chemise would be necessary.

After about 4 days of reknitting, I am finally just past where I had been when I frogged the piece. While this is a horrible picture, you should be able to tell that the cable is now even and the shirt does not appear see through.

Since this picture, I have added another cable repeat while watching my embroidery machine and listening to the Librivox recording of "The Scarlet Pimpernel". Now that is what I call multi tasking!

2008-03-18T10:10:00.005-06:00

The knitting bug has bitten!!

When my new interchangeable knitting needles showed up last week I had to play around with the smaller sizes that I had never used before so I made these with some size ten crochet thread that I had around that house. The first one got lost for a while so I haven't woven in it's ends yet. I think it will have fringe at the top. The pattern for this one is free online.

I like this one a little better, though I had to start it multiple times because I kept losing stitches. I modified it from this pattern. I decided that I didn't want it rectangular, so after 12 repeats I started decreasing by keeping the pattern stitches on the sides and keeping stockinette in the center. I actually think that mine is prettier than the one on the pattern page.

Then, last night I started a pair of socks. I keep seeing all of these socks on other knitting blogs, and the people are soooo excited about them. But I don't wear socks unless I have to ( meaning I am working out) and then I can get 12 pairs at wal-mart for $3. But then I saw this pattern , and I thought, I would wear those. Those would make great trouser socks to wear to work and they're pretty enough I could even wear them with a skirt. gasp! So I decided to make complicated socks for the first pair of sock I will ever knit. But I don't like boring knits and I don't see any point in knitting something that I will never wear.
So yesterday, while I was still waiting for my Calmer to arrive so that I can make Fifi, I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some dpns and this DMC linen cotton crochet thread (I don't have a yarn store with in 3 hours of me). I am really happy with how it is coming out. I am a bit worried about how they will fit, since they seem a bit tight. I'm going to give it a few more inches and then we'll see.

My feet are humongous! See how far I have to go still? Any way I am really happy with how they are turning out. And last but most definitely not least. My gorgeous Rowan Calmer in the discontinued shade of Tangerine that will make me a beautiful Fifi. I am already in love with this yarn and I haven't even started knitting with it yet.

Thankfully it is Spring Break so I should be able to get lots of knitting done.

Flowers!!

2008-03-08T12:24:00.004-06:00

Here are pictures of the Daffodils and Hyacinth in my front yard. I love spontaneous flowers. I didn't plant these and didn't even know that they were there until they started coming up. We just bought this house so this is our first spring here.

This is the one bunch of Hyacinth that came up and they are pink. Hyacinth are normally blue or white so this is weird.

The reason my Daffodils are leaning over so much is because it snowed! Abilene didn't get much snow, a little less than an inch, but Cisco (where I work) got over 5 inches. It was crazy. I don't have any pictures of this snow fall but I did just find pictures of when it snowed at Thanksgiving and my family was here. I'll put those pictures up next.

Great Mail Day.

2008-03-02T21:30:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a great mail day for me. My sister finally returned my favorite dress that I had let her borrow for Christmas parties. And I received my French Girl Fifi pattern!! I am really excited to start on this pattern. Now, I just have to wait for my yarn and needles to arrive. Until then I will be busy sewing costumes for our school's One Act production of Blithe Spirit. Then I can knit, knit, knit and have a cute top to wear soon.

Yarn!!!

2008-02-29T21:16:00.002-06:00

I just won an eBay Auction for 10 balls of Tangerine color Rowan Calmer yarn. The total price with shipping came out to under 7 dollars per ball. This is a yarn that retails for 11 to 13 dollars a yard. I am going to make a really cute summer top out of it. All of the knitting blogs that I have been stalking seem to love this yarn, so I am really excited about working with it. This will be my most ambitious knitting project to date, but I think it will be really good. I actually like working cables...I know, I'm weird.

In other news, I have daffodils blooming in my front yard. They make me happy every time I see them. I am hoping to plant some flowers soon. I am just waiting until it quits freezing at night so that I can put out the seeds. I bought delphinium, lupine, phlox, and sweet william. I think it will be really pretty when they are all up and blooming. Our house definitely needs the curb appeal.

New Recording Setup pt. 2

2008-02-22T22:03:00.001-06:00

I think I may have found the magic combination for recording. I turned off Chris's computer and moved the mike closer to my mouth. I also put the mike on a "pillow" of bubble wrap because we have a pier and beam foundation and the mike was picking up vibrations from cars passing our house. This may mean that I will rerecord the first 9 chapters of Agnes Grey because I want them to have a consistent sound quality.

New recording setup

2008-02-20T21:03:00.003-06:00

Today I figured out that I need to change my recording setup and/or my editing method. For the first time ever, I listened to a book for which I had read a chapter. After listening to the other sections, especially the ones by Katie Gibboney, my recording didn't sound too great. It had some background noise still and the sound seemed muffled. I am going to experiment with moving the mike and turning off Chris's computer while I record ( If I can...) I may also post asking for help on how to improve my editing method so that my sound quality is better. I really do want to create quality recordings.

Early out for the Students

2008-02-20T20:51:00.002-06:00

Today we had an early out of sorts. The students all got to leave at 2 pm. (And no we did not make all of the classes shorter so that all of the classes could meet... we just skipped study hall and cut off 7th period in the middle. Which means that once again I have lost my 8th period class.) Notice that I say that the STUDENTS got to leave at 2. The teachers had a massive meeting for TAKS training. The English Language Arts TAKS Test is in two weeks so we had to go over the new procedures for the test administrators. All of the rest of the tests are in April.

In other news, meaning Librivox, I am making progress on my solo project, Agnes Grey. Three orphaned sections opened up in Les Miserables and I claimed them and have them turned in. I also claimed the last chapter of Edison, His Life and Inventions by Thomas Cummerford Martin and Frank Lewis Dyer. This is a very interesting biography of a very interesting person and I wanted to see it finished, so that I can listen to it.

Chris calls me an orphan snatcher, because I watch the orphans thread very closely and snatch them up. I like recording orphans, because I want to see books finished and sometimes those orphans are for projects that I had wanted to work on and couldn't because it was full...and now it's not. The orphans also give me some flexability. I don't sign up for a lot of chapters at one time because my recording time is so limited (Friday nights and early Saturday and Sunday), but if a chapter is still orphaned close to the weekend I will take it and there is not a long commitment.

A Day Off

2008-02-15T21:04:00.003-06:00

I took this last Wednesday off because I really needed a day to myself when I could get some stuff done and relax. The week before had been really stressful and I had had to work the last two Saturdays, so I hadn't even had my weekends. As I hadn't taken a single day off since the beginning of the school year, I don't feel guilty at all. I was able to finally get my massage that I had had to reschedule twice due to a UIL practice meet and a meeting after school. I bought embroidery thread so that I could start working on embroidering the blocks of the graduation quilt that I am making for my little brother. I got some recording for Librivox done; a chapter of Rinkitink in Oz and a chapter of Agnes Grey. They still need to be edited. I also embroidered 4 designs for the quilt. It was a wonderful day! It was so nice having to only go to school for two days at a time!

2008-02-11T21:21:00.000-06:00

These are pictures of Chris and me and Emma Rose that my sister-in-law, Emerald Lemmons, took for us at Christmas. She is amazing. All of the pictures she takes are beautiful.

This one is at the Jacob's Dream at ACU.

This is our Emma Rose. Isn't she adorable?

Here is all three of us together at home.

Can you tell I've been busy?

2008-02-11T20:52:00.000-06:00

I can't believe that it has been over a year since I have posted. I will try to do better about that this year. ... We'll see...

O.K., What has happened in the last year since I posted.

1) I graduated.

2) I got a job teaching Algebra 1 and Math Models and other Math Labs at Cisco High School.

3) We got a cat. Emma Rose makes our lives very interesting.

4) We bought a house. Chris and I and Emma now live in a very nice 4 bedroom, 2 bath house. It is sooo nice having a real house and not having to deal with landlords and loud neighbors fighting every night outside beneath your window. I

5) We bought a new car after Chris's car imploded. As he puts it: his car got in a wreck with itself. The engine block became loose and shook around under the hood while he was driving, thus tearing up everything underneath the hood. I now drive a Toyota Corolla while he drives my old Concorde because the Corolla gets ten more miles to the gallon. That makes a difference when you are putting 500 miles + on your car each week.

6) I found and joined Librivox.org. Librivox is a site run by volunteers that creates free public domain audiobooks by having volunteers read chapters of public domain books. I am totally addicted. I listen to audiobooks frequently due to my long (1 hour both ways) commute. And recording chapters gives me a sense of accomplishment. Something is done! Also, I love the feeling that I am contributing to other people being exposed to literature. As most of my friends know, I love books. If you ask for books for Christmas/Birthdays, you will get books. Chris and I claim that we are single-handedly keeping the Books-A-Million in business.
I am currently working on a number of collaborative projects , where various volunteers read one or two chapters (or more ) chapters each. I am also doing a solo project of Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte. This means that I am the only one recording on this project. I am hoping to have it finished by the end of May.
When I figure out how to do it, I will keep a list here of the projects that I have contributed to.

7) I got a wonderful, brand new, embroidery sewing machine for Christmas! I have been wanting a new machine for years and years now. As the maiden project on the new machine, I made personalized Christmas stockings for Chris and myself and for my brother and sister in-law and their dog. I am currently working on a graduation quilt for my brother, who is graduating from High School in May. I am doing the quilt in this school colors; Red and Blue. To honor all of the sports that he participates in, I am embroidering soccer, basketball, cross-country, and track designs on the quilt along with his name and best times. I am very excited. I have not done a full-size quilt before and this should be a lot of fun. ( I hope so, because I have four more siblings who need graduation quilts after him...)

I think that pretty much gets me caught up.

New Glasses

2007-01-29T18:35:00.000-06:00

Today I went to Eyemasters to get a pair of glasses. After 22 years of not having to wear glasses, I now have a prescription that should help me drive at night, watch TV and movies, and hopefully cut the glare while grading papers. So I went and picked out the cutest pair of glasses they had.

My glasses have layered chocolate and lime green plastic frames. The shape on them is really cute too.

Unfortunately, the store was out of the lenses that I needed, so I have to wait until new lenses come in. When they do come in, I will post a picture so everyone else can see how cute they are.

2007-01-27T08:49:00.000-06:00

This morning I sit down at the computer and on a whim decide that I will try to register for those tests. Who knows, maybe the website will actually work. It took a total of maybe 15 minutes for me to register completely and pay for both tests. Yes, I'm not taking them in Feburary, but I was not particularly attatched to Feburary test times anyway. If I were, I could still test then, but at the late registration price which tacks on an additional $30 to each $82 registration fee. I wish the deadlines had been better explained by my professors and by the TEA website. No where on the website did it say what the deadline was for and what would happen if you registered late. Anyway, I am registered now.

Hopefully my next post will be more fun than ranting about stupid websites that my future career depend on...

I Give Up!

2007-01-26T23:01:00.000-06:00

It's now eleven o'clock and I have been at this for six hours. Then Julia comes in and tells me that this registration deadline is only for the Feburary test date and that I can register in a few days for the April date without battling the traffic on the TEA site.

Four Hours and Counting...

2007-01-26T21:47:00.000-06:00

I have now been sitting at my computer for four hours and counting attempting to register for my stupid content and pedegogy exams on the Texas Education Agency site. This morning while looking at some of my papers for student teaching I realized that the deadline for this registration was TODAY!!!!! As soon as I got home from work, I got online to sign up for the tests.

Apparently, every other student teacher in the state of Texas also put off registration until tonight. The website is running very slowly and keeps kicking me off.

Frustration does not even begin to describe what I am currently feeling. Any of my friends know that (though I am married to a programming geek) I hate computers and would never voluntarily sit in front of one for four plus hours at a time. This blog is completly the fault of the TEA site. Since I had to be at the computer non-stop (in the crazy event that a page would actually load-- it would happen in the two seconds that I ran to my room to fetch my book), I read Emerald's blog and since I was actually caught up on it, I starting reading all the blogs that are linked to her blog. Five blogger ads later, I decided I should have one too. After all, I have plenty to vent about.

Venting--The TEA site is not designed to handle high traffic. And it's stupid to start with. First you have to click the registration button and wait forever as it decides which tests you are eligible to take ( read your professor told them you can take it). Then you have to pick one of those tests from a drop down menu and wait forever agian as it processes that choice. If you are lucky and don't get kicked off of the site due to "High Traffic" or a time out error, you get to choose where (city) you want to take the test. More waiting with bated breath and crossed fingers ensues. If you are extremely fortunate, you now move on to yet another drop down menu with testing locations within that city. Even more waiting. Then you choose from the test dates. More waiting, praying, and fasting (remember that I can't leave out fear that I will be timed off the site...) follows. The highly favored of God get a last option wherein they choose a test time. If all goes well this time, you get to push the "next" button, that supposed moves you to the next screen where supposedly you get to verify your choices for the exam. I say supposedly, because I have not yet made it to this screen. I keep getting kicked off of the system at various waiting periods. I am now on my seventh (or is this the eighth) attempt to register for "a" test, never mind both of the ones I need. Hopefully, the site will decide it likes me before midnight and I will have a chance to teach this coming August....