Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Of Love and Memories
A few months ago, Scott's grandmother gave me some of her quilting fabric. She told me that she wouldn't be able to use it all before she passed. Unfortunately she was right. She passed a little over a month ago and while we miss her, we know that she lived a wonderful life and got to really, truly enjoy her great-grandchild as they lived across the street from her.
I promised Scott's grandmother that I would make quilts for her great-grandchildren out of the fabric she gave me. I decided to make two coin quilts; one in blue and one in pink.
I started work on the quilts and while I tried, I did not finish them in time to show them to Scott's grandma but I know that she would have liked them.
When we last went down to visit Scott's family, I brought the quilts. Tyler loved his quilt so much and kept telling Scott about the different fabrics. Hailey was excited and loved all the pink coloring.
More quilt photos can be found here
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Sock Summit
My sock at the beginning of the trip
This past Friday, I packed up the car, picked up Scott and headed to Portland for the Sock Summit. Traffic was horrible so the drive took a lot longer than usual but we finally arrived at Scott's families house by 8 p.m. I gave the kids their quilts but more on that later. The exciting part of the trip started on Saturday morning.
I woke up early on Saturday and gathered my knitting supplies. I was sock summiting and I couldn't wait. I didn't sign up for any classes but I still knew that I was going to have fun. I headed back up to Portland and got a little lost as usual driving in that city. I finally found the Convention Center and headed in.
The Marketplace wasn't busy yet so I was able to amble around a bit. I quickly headed over to Splityarn's booth. I was so excited to see all the goodies in person and finally have the opportunity to meet Caro in person.
Then I began to roam the Marketplace while waiting for Erin to return from breakfast with her friends. Around 11 a.m. I sent her a text message saying, "I need you here! I need someone to stop me from shopping!"
Erin showed up shortly after that but sadly did not stop me from shopping. She said she didn't believe in hindering me or something like that. We had a great time wondering the floor and Erin even shared her sandwich with me. It was so delicious!
After awhile, we collapsed at the "sea of tables" to fondle our purchases. I think I bought enough yarn to make socks for all the children of the world. It was wonderful. Erin fell into her yarn with a look of bliss on her face.
We decided to sit and knit for awhile while waiting for Jeanne and Jessica to return from their classes. They raved about their classes and said that they had learned a lot. We then checked out the Marketplace again. Along the way, Jessica introduced us to Meg Swansen . I thought for sure Erin was going to die with a happy little grin on her face.
We decided to head out for dinner before the Ravelry Party and ended up at an African restaurant when the Tapas restaurant had much too long of a wait. It was tasty!
The Ravelry party was super fun and I got to meet Mary Heather who is just as chipper as they all say and even more awesome than I imagined.
I also got to meet up with Christy (NotHip) wearing her fabulous hand-knit red dress. It is seriously gorgeous. Heads were turning and people were running up to her to compliment her work.
After a long and fun-filled day, I took the ladies back to their hotel, got lost again and returned to my hotel to meet up with Scott. Scott had spent the day with his family and his niece and nephew. I think they wore him out. It was good practice for him.
On Sunday, we had breakfast with his family before returning home. Unfortunately as you can see, not a lot of sock knitting happened over the weekend but a lot of yarn buying did!
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Where the Fun Ends
I've been working steadily along on quilts for Scott's niece and nephew. His grandmother gave me some of her fabric stash and I promised to make quilts for her great-grandchildren. She's now no longer with us and her great-grandchildren miss her dearly.
I showed the children the unfinished quilts this weekend and the excitement in their eyes has spurred me on to finish these blankets. But I'm at the point where another friend (Jocelyn) recently told me, "the fun ends".
I'm not sure why but the binding is so hard and so not fun! I did pin the binding on today and machine sewed one side on both the quilts. I then watched two episodes of "Six Feet Under" (Scott got the entire series and we are watching it from start to finish- what fun!) while hand-sewing the binding.
Sadly I am slow and only got one side of one quilt done. I'll need to work harder this week to get these quilts done by Friday for the promised delivery date.