GLACIAL,BITTER,FROSTY....COLD

this past week has been beyond cold! we have seen temps with that minus sign in front of double digits. we have been colder than chicago!

now i love it! it's the weather that knitters dream of.....to layer all that wonderful, lovingly knitted wear on layer by layer.

sorry kids that i didn't finish your sweaters yet but know i have been thinking about those sweaters and you...hehe.

i finished gramps and this adorable quilt for a "grand-nephew" by the name of jack.

the quilt pattern is something i made up as i sewed along and am very happy with the end results.

love my juki...this baby quilted up in a snap!

the sweater looks like a gramps sweater and i think that new borns, though beautiful, kinda look like old men in that infant stage. i need to put on the leather buttons then both items are off to chicago where it is cold but not as frigid as the rockies are right this minute.;0

OMG

I was one of the blogs chosen for Week End Reading by 

down to earth

This is one of my top 3 favorite blogs.

Rhonda's writing is a grounding factor in my life.

My daughter was featured on this blog's series

The Kitchen Sink

when she was living in China.

Thanks Rhonda!

WEEKENDERS

as i have written before, i have been working full time since past july. one can imagine the crimp this has on finishing projects! my quilting had been laid aside for projects { knitting} that i could carry with me and work a row or two while on my lunch break. 

then my sweet friend julie loaned me her machine , a fantastic quilting machine and i have been completely smitten with this machine. 

i can't stop finishing quilts.

this morning i finished piecing this adorable baby boy quilt { triangles} and hope to have it on the machine this afternoon.

the low volume quilt is done and ready to ship to new york.

sunday's are such a wonderful day for me. 

a day to reflect

a day to get ready for the new week

a day to read

a day to knit

a day to sew

a day to watch a great movie
a day to cook a great sunday dinner

a day that i knit and spend time with a friend

while having coffee and burritos

at me oh my pies

yes, sunday is the best day of the week!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

the other day i was driving up centre ave and this huge flock of birds were flying directly overhead darkening the sky.

at first i thought they were those big fat black crows that are around here but as i crested the hill i realized they were ducks. 

and apparently their was a meeting of the duck minds on the field. their was hundreds of ducks in the air and on the ground. i quickly pulled over for a few pics. 

once out of my car realizing that i had hundred of ducks overhead i thought " this is a bad idea! i am going to get duck poop bombed"

thus making the fast decision to NOT take pics of the ducks flying above me.....only of the ones out in the distance..uh um!

i took pics faster than fast and " ducked" back into my car without one bomb landing on me, my car not so lucky.

it was an amazing site, one of the wonders of nature.

another amazing site is the season that my daughter lives and dreams pies.

actually she is working 16-18 hour days getting all her pie orders out on time for the special thanksgiving meal.

i would be stressing but her shoulders drop and she gets into her zen lovingly making pies.

a true talent!

Happy Thanksgiving

have a save peaceful day.

FINISH, ACCOMPLISH, ACHIEVED ....

i have accomplished something, no a lot yesterday. 

a quilt, this quilt, my low volume quilt for my nephew and his new wife. well that is his wife of 2 or 3 years. honestly i am not even sure how long ago they married.

good news, i didn't forget that they got married or that i wanted to make them a quilt for a wedding present.

i know sad! but true. 

i finished machine quilting the " low volume" quilt way past my bedtime....uhm 1945. or 7:30pm.

yes i go to bed early but i am up at 0430 even on the weekend.

i need my beauty rest and i have been sleeping through the night again.

i am never sure when i will revert back into an insomniac so when i'm sleeping i am such a cheerful, gleeful  almost giddy women.

today i will put the binding on and a label, { so the newly weds will know why this quilt landed on their door step}.

i am dropping off the quilt i finished last weekend at susie q's house so she and quilt can get on a plane to boston. sue will be hand delivering said quilt. it too is a wedding gift.

sue is taking a turkey, yes the thanks-giving turkey in her suitcase. the wedding quilt will be wrapped around the bird. why not? i bet it will be a good story when sue gets back to denver.

oh, and the squirrel pics are here because i have no children or grandchildren or best of all babies to take pictures of, only this fat squirrel that loves to eat the bird seed. heaven help him if we move or forget to refill the feeder , this fat boy would starve! 

though i do find myself staring out the window watching his every move. he will let me on the porch with him and get to with in 5 steps from him before he scampers away, or is it really waddles away.

notice the temp here

I LOVE IT

would love to hear what you have been working on.

OH NO

are we going to let retail hijack our holiday?

not me!

BATTENING DOWN THE EAR FLAPS

oh my the wind is blowing out side between 30-60 miles an hour.

the house is shaking, trees bending with the wind and the mice are running in the basement drop ceiling.

yup, you read that right! 'every couple of years we have a family of mice that sets up house and hearth in our drop ceiling.

now, in children's books i find mice soo very cute but not live ones in my house!

these little creatures are not quiet either.

they run A LOT up there and how big can their feet be?

they sound like a herd of elephants pounding { not scampering like cute little mice should sound like} but pounding feet running up through the rafters.

it is most distracting listening to this when i'm trying to catch a serene moment with a good cup of coffee and a new cast on project.

gramps

i have a new grandnephew.

and since i love to knit baby clothes - a perfect opportunity and reason to buy a new pattern and yarn.

i have also cut out a quilt for this new little guy

nothing complicated but sure to have loads of darling points!

i finished a quilt!

it's a wedding quilt for our dear dear friend- ryan and alisa

i machined quilted this on my bernina, just straight lines my new fav.

i'm seeing the value in plain straight lines

it allows the patchwork to POP !

i love beautiful quilted feathers but i have noticed that frequently it takes center stage over the beautiful piecing.

i believe their should be a balance found here where neither the piecing nor the quilting over powers each other. 

balance, is it not what all of life is about?

easy to say i want everything in my life to be balance-

but very difficult to acquire and maintain.

my dear friend julie just bought a juki sewing machine for quilting and she loaned it to me to finish some much needed quilts.

i love my berninas but these quilts are just simple too BIG for my machines. but that juki is just the ticket.

now julie had not even taken her juki for a run yet, so i find this a HUGE privilege that i am given the opportunity to test drive this machine.

so far i am smitten with this machine.

more to come about juki ....

do i buy one or not?

hope your weekend was peaceful yet productive as mine has been.

until next time.....

{ we caught a mouse already}

THE LAST OF RHINEBECK

maple creek vancouver

60% superwash merino

30% nylon

450 yarsds

lobster bay

maple creek farm

hoover

85% bluefaced leicester super wash

15% donegal nep

438 yards

organic wool

fringtree lot 101 

240 yards

blue bell

lot100

peruvian alpalca

silver

334 yards

" a very special 2 ply yarn"

miss babs

katahdin

1750yards

miss babs

yowza 

blackwatch

560 yards

{ i bought 2 skeins }

miss babs

tarte

500 yards sock yarn

roses in bloom

500yards

sock yarn

that is the extent of what i came home with in the yarn department.

i could of bought and bought, but then i knew it would sit too long in the basement and i would forget what i was going to knit with these beauties. yes i'm aware it is a women's prerogative to change her mind whenever and often!

miss babs is the hottest yarn i think on the market right now.

we stood in line for about an hour just to pay!

her colors i just want to bathe in and i love, love her yardage!

finally a dyer has skeins with yardage. 

i have never understood why yarn companies when promoting yarns and say sweater pattern only skein up 110 yards per skein...

what ! that is a lot of work for the knitter to weave all those ends in, 

not too mention it makes the project hard to carry around when trying to grab 10-15 minutes to knit.

i'm always running out of yarn or i'm anxious i will run out.

kinda keeps me out of that zen space knitting is suppose to induce.

ok i promise i am done with RHINEBECK posts.

i kinda dragged it out because i didn't want the trip too be totally over for me.

but i'm done now till my next RHINEBECK excursion.

happy thursday

the weekend will be upon me soon and it is time to finish binding the quilt.

ALMOST DONE WITH RHINEBECK

Roosevelt's Presidential Library

what an amazing library; takes one through his early life, polio, the depression, new deal,and then WWII.

we spent some time in here and i would definitely return for another go through.

hay field that franklin played in as a boy.

heart of their home the "sitting or front parlor".

this is a big room with a little of every sort of entertainment one would need prior to that home/family wrecker the "tv".

yes, parcheesi. i had not seen that board game since i was a teenager.

and no i do not remember how it is played.

the famous wheelchair that Roosevelt ran the country and brought the USA through the second world war from.

eleanor sleep here in this "bare bones" room nursing franklin when polio took him down.

franklin's room that adjoined eleanor's room.

a view of the hudson river valley from the roosevelt's back porch.

mary and julie looking over yarn purchases at rhinebeck fiber fair.

yes those are all mary's bags. we let her out of our site for a couple of hours and she comes back loaded down with fiber goodness.

remember mary we are flying home....hehe.

the only post left from rhinebeck is the yarns that i bought..

coming soon.

oh and i finished quilting a quilt......a big quilt on my machine. all that is needed is a label and binding.