insanity or super-talented?

let's knit, shall we?

both i think. i came across this photo during work...i know...i shouldn't be surfing, but i'm waiting on some responses to one of my flickr groups.

i feel this way sometimes when i'm knitting. especially right now since i'm knitting on relatively small needles for the first time in a long time and making a baby sweater. cramped up fingers and hands. i can only imagine how cramped her hands must be.

does she wear an optivisor to knit? how!? i have so many questions for this lady.

look at what the postman brought yesterday

june "plain jane" from abxkris
Originally uploaded by greeneyedsilversmith

my first mini quilt from the flickr group "6-12 inch mini quilt." it's fantastic!

both my partner and i made minis from blue and brown batiks. i need to get a picture of the back of this one-the blue batik is phenomenal and the light blue glows through the dark blue. my partner used a golden brown top thread and a perfectly matched blue bobbin thread so you don't see the stitching on the back at all.

i'm in love with my mini quilt.

is it friday yet?

tidal pool

i've joined a couple flickr quilting groups recently. one for the QOVs and two mini quilts - 6-12" mini quilts and mini quilt in a bag swap. the photo above is of tidal pool and my first ever mini quilt. my partner has gotten it, so i can post pictures now.

detail of fish quilting

i have to say this: i enjoyed making it immensely!! despite the fact that i was severely restricted in sizes...it was fun. a nice and quick break from the big and tedious quilts i've been doing. plus, i embellished it. another first. the inspiration hit and i made it in a single day - how fantastic is that?

a peek....

here's a peek at my next mini quilt done for fanny in round 4 of the mini quilt in a bag swap. she sent me a fat stack of asian charms that she cut so i had multiples of each fabric. i LOVE the red ginkgo fabric. it's bright and stands out beautiful. and it's red. i'll mail it off this weekend, maybe monday. this quilt has another first for me - machine quilting. need more practice, but it's not too bad.

so now....i'm going to work on a quilt for me. shocking! yes...i still have to quilt boo's cat-in-the-hat quilt. the poor boy has been waiting for me to do it and i've had baby quilts and QOVs and then i pieced the dia de los muertos one (which i now have fabrics to make up the backing). in some ways, i'm holding off on the stitching until next month when i can take it with me to hospital waiting rooms for my dad. not that my mom will let me do a whole lot and i should be on the laptop doing work...but that's good distraction for both her and i.

so here's the stack:

what do you think? like it? i love aqua/turquoise fabrics. i'm a huge fan of red and my last duvet as a single girl was a deep cranberry and wine print. my hubby is more earthy, but my love of color is rubbing off on him. our sofa is still red, same with the curtains, chairs and most of my kitchen ware. currently, we have a white and various blues duvet cover from crate & barrel that was a wedding present. i love it, but i the bug bit to make us a coin quilt. at first it was just going to be a big lap quilt to snuggle under. now it's for our bed.

note to self

don't iron while sitting on the floor with a tabletop ironing board.

super giveaway found!

holy cow! i've found the mother of giveaways!!! it's a design-your-own fat quarter bundle giveaway at the fabric shopper. and it's going to 2 winners! hmm....what lovely bundle can i pull together? oh...just let me look a little while... i'm sure i'll find 12 fabrics i can fall in love with and need to make a quilt with.

but first, i must attend a conference call for work. blah. in t-minus 30 seconds.

weekend activities

this weekend was pretty productive for me. i took friday off to do a navy family picnic thing when all the guys had to do their PRT and i took my bike to the park. i haven't ridden in 2 years... bad me.... unfortunately, my trusty updated classic was having some mechanical issues on the updated part. a long-time friend decided 2 years ago that i could not keep riding with downtube shifters and installed his old set of STI. i was having issues with the STI - they would only shift to a bigger gear and not a smaller one and with this houston heat, i didn't feel like pushing myself that way. so i got 5 miles in. wow. just a warmup.

saturday was full of chores and running errands, including running into my parents at ikea. we got our new sofa cover and entry way table, lunch, mosquito spray for the yard (not at ikea) and made it back home in time for one of the most incredible hockey games of our time. red wings kicked some serious penguin butt!!! whew! but during it all, i worked on and finished my june swap blocks for the facebook group. this month - baskets. i'm not sure i'm a fan of baskets and especially those on pointe.

yesterday, lots of laundry...yardwork...spraying for the miserable mosquitoes in which they bit us while we sprayed. oh - and worked on my computer several times and went to buy a new power supply and fans. the idiot who decided my last computer was "retarded" and that his computer was better was surely wrong. i've had minor issues periodically, but in the fall when it died and my teriffic hubby opened it up to find 2 inches of dust inside it opened a can of worms. the old "friend" had installed several fans in backwards so it sucked in dust and didn't cool the power supply,etc. too bad we didn't check all the fans in the fall. power supply #2 replaced along with the burnt out fan yesterday.

BUT - i had a fantastic time working on my first every mini quilt!! i joined a few flickr groups, including the 6-12" mini quilt group. originally, the task seemed daunting. do an itty bitty quilt with no direction. (ok - so my other mini quilt is going to be more of a challenge once i get the charms) but i enjoyed every moment of it! so much so, that it's bound and labeled already. i'm thinking of adding a little more embellishment before i ship it out super early. i'd post a picture, but in case my swap partner reads my blog....so i'll do that later.

now - back to the daily grind of the small business.

and the winner is....

my may giveaway day winner is: fish in training, who commented "So cute! Currently working on a blue quilt!" congratulations fish in training!! i'll be sending you an email shortly to get your information and tonight i'll pull some extra goodies from my stash to share with you.

thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway - i had fun! 106 of you entered and i got about 900 blog views. i think that's pretty impressive, especially considering i'm not full of tutorials and fun stuff like amandajean or tia. and i more than doubled my followers (thanks to you as well - i hope i keep you interested in the future).