Distractions!

To distract you from the sheer lack of ambition on my part, I have to show you an amazing project brought to you by The Genius.

Yes, my college kid knit Mike Wazowski.  For the few of you that don’t know about Mike, he’s a character from the Pixar movie, Monsters, Inc.

I was blown away by her execution of Mike.  She was working on him last fall.  Lots of ideas went back and forth between us over the phone or via email.  I found a pattern for an eyeball because it was Halloween.  She wasn’t sure how to do his hands and feet, and then remembered a scene in the movie where Mike was in the Himalayas and was so cold, he had mittens on his hands, feet, and horns.  That took care of that problem.  I sent her a bunch of sock yarn, and she knit six mismatched mittens.

Here’s a bigger shot.

He even has teeth and a tongue.  The whole family wanted to claim Mike, even the dog.

And my lack of ambition…lets just say that I hate cleaning.  So, to avoid it, I’ve read all your blogs!!!  That means that beause of my avoidance tactics, there’s not a lot of knitting and quilting going on.  But I have a plan.  I’m going to run around like crazy today and get boxes ready to mail, empty the laundry room (at least it’s all clean and folded!) and do other necessary things.  Oh, and I have to make cookies today.  It was Dreamboy’s birthday yesterday, and he decided after the fact that he wants to bring chocolate chip cookies to school tomorrow.  I can facilitate that!

I’ll be back soon with some quilting and my knitting plan for May.  Oh, and I got a birthday gift from a blog reader.  I’ll have to show you what I got!

Next post, you’ll see everything I accomplished, but first I have to get off the couch.  Ready!  Set!  Go!

This and That

I’ve been knitting socks this week.  They’re portable.  And I needed portable, because I attended 2 baseball games and three concerts this week.  Oh, and I sat in the emergency room for 3 hours one night too.  I’ll start with the ER.

Dreamboy is playing baseball this year.  (That explains the baseball games, huh?)  He got hit with a baseball.  It took us three hours of sitting around in the ER to see if his nose was broken.  I could start a rant about all the people that go to the ER instead of making appointments and going during the day like the rest of us, but I don’t have that much breath to waste.

Anyway, where was I?  Oh, yeah.  In the ER.  When we finally got a room, they gave Dreamboy a remote control so he could watch tv.  He was lounging on one of their nice beds.  I had my feet up on his bed.   I got a Dr. Pepper for him, and a Diet Coke for me.  I pulled out the bag of chocolates I grabbed on the way out the door and the mother-son bonding time began.  It’s actually starting to sound not so bad!!!  I even finished a sock.

This is the first of what will hopefully be two Loksins!  The yarn is Hazel Knits Beach Glass, purchased from the always amazing Woolgirl.

After eating chocolate, knitting, watching tv, and drinking sodas, we found out that Dreamboy does indeed have a broken nose.  Next week, after the swelling goes down, he’ll have it set, since his nose is now crooked.  Superblonde informed us that the crooked nose is working for Patrick Dempsey, but I’m not buying it.

Just think how much better looking he’d be if his nose was straight!

I also finished a pair of Groovy Socks.  I used Socks that Rock Dragon Dance.  I don’t know that they’re my favorite, but they’re ok.

Just for the record, the only thing green on our yard is the grass.  The trees are just barely starting to bud.

And also just for the record, I suck at short row heels.  The one you can see is the first one I did and it’s ok.  The other one is much worse.  What’s up with that?

So, what am I doing with my Saturday?  I had a board meeting this morning.  (There’s a donate button, if you’re so inclined.  No pressure!)  This afternoon, I’m going to finish up the laundry and work on a quilt.  Oh, and my sidekick wants to take a nap with me.  We do a 20 minute power nap several days a week.  How else do I stay up til 2:00 AM?

And next week?  Hopefully some progress on my Aeolian Shawl and the house quilt.

Celebrations!

There were flowers.

There were balloons and streamers.

And more streamers.  (Thanks, Superblonde and Ms In Charge for your mad decorating skills!!!)

And chocolate cake.  Man, who are those old geezers???

The cake was made by Ms In Charge and a fabulous neighbor.  We have the best neighbors.  The husband is a little strange, but the wife and kids are awesome!

I did get some quilting time in today.  My Hero has a new, old office.  It was built in 1914 and was a Mental Institution.  Feel free to leave comments!!!  It was a huge mess last summer, but we renovated it.  The oak woodwork was amazing!  We went with yucky green, brown, golden tans, and rusty orange for colors.  There’s one large room where (what do I call them???  I can’t call them secretaries.  Let’s just say they’re the women that do all the work) the ladies have their desks.  There is one huge wall and it’s painted a warm gold.  It needs something.  Art work wouldn’t begin to cover it.  So here’s the start of a very large quilt that’s going on the wall.

These are two of four blocks, one for each season.  The one on the left is spring and the other is summer.  I’m pretty close to being finished with the other two as well.  The house blocks are from a Fig Tree Quilts book.  However, I couldn’t find it anywhere on her site, but all the quilts in it have house blocks in them.

These four blocks will be the center of the quilt.  From there, I’m not sure where I’m going.  The fabric is an older Moda line called Sonnet by April Cornell.

Oh, I forgot to tell you what I got for my birthday.  My Hero got me two new chairs for my sewing room.  Remember these chairs?  I put fancy wheels on them so they wouldn’t scratch the floor.  Well, I got what I paid for.  They were cheap chairs and the parts that held the wheels were plastic.  So now I have ugly black expensive chairs in my sewing room.  They’re exactly what I wanted though.  Thanks, honey!

I bought myself a present too.  I’m not sure I love it because it doesn’t seem to get very hot.  The verdict is out on whether it will stay or go back.

Thanks to everyone left a comment wishing me a happy birthday.  It was fun to see them throughout the day!

And now, I’m going to bed.

Productive

That was my weekend!  On Friday, I finished my Rebel Roses quilt.

The pattern is from Quilting for Joy.  I’m too lazy to get up and get the book, so I can’t tell you the name of the pattern.  I do love this book though.  It’s by sisters Barbara Brandeberg and Teri Christopherson.  I’ve loved their work for years and have made lots of their quilts.

I also started a knitting project last week.  I showed you this photo.

I started the Aeolian Shawl on Knitty.  The yarn is Schaefer Andrea.  I feel like I’m knitting with pearl cotton!

I’d love to have this done for Mother’s Day.

On Saturday I finally finished a quilt that I started a year ago.  All I had left was the borders.

I made the outside border nice and wide so I can scallop it.  There’s one block in this quilt that bugged me a year ago and it still bugs me.

The pattern was from Let The Good Times Roll, by Heather Peterson of Anka’s Treasures.  The pattern uses a Jelly Roll of fabric and I needed all 40 strips, so I had to use that piece.  It’s a little better now that the border is on.    It will be a cute little girl quilt with the scallops.

I also pieced backings for the two quilts pictured here and this quilt.  This is the quilt that ended up 126 inches square.  It took me a while to piece this backing.  I also got the bindings ready for all three quilts.

Yesterday, I started a new quilt.  I’m going to work on it all day today, so I’ll have more to show you soon.  I’m being a bum and taking a day to quilt because it’s my birthday.  My family has something planned for later today, but I don’t know what.  I’m sure it will include white cake with whipped lard frosting.  Yum!  And there’s a baseball game tonight.  So I’d better get busy and go sew!