Saturday, October 31, 2009

"If anything is going to happen in this apartment I want it to happen to me first."

I'm working on the usual, found another Christmas gift I forgot I was going to make (shows checklists are still only as effective as the person writing them), and the other child who wasn't sick last week is now sick. The one who was sick is running around like a top. The sick one wants to be, and I really hate it for her because she's only going to be able to do a little trick-or-treating to a few of the neighbors and then stay home with me while Daddy goes to watch his game and brother goes to a little family Halloween party. However, she got to go to a sleepover last Saturday when brother was sick and had to miss so there was a little discussion on how these things just happen.

Last night, Hubby and I went to the local movie Friday Night Freak Out which showed "Ghostbusters." I had forgotten how funny that movie was, especially Billy Murray. I'm a big fan of his, which I'm sure everyone knows. But anyway, we were watching with a very enthusiastic but polite crowd (almost sold out!) and I noticed the interesting knitted clothes worn by several of the characters. Bill Murray wears a knitted vest that makes me think of some of the Noro yarn in patterns I've seen and Sigourney Weaver wears quite a layered group of knitted things (including skirts) that again made me think of how they would look worn individually and with updated accessories. The knitted things the secretary wears only screams 80s to me so I wasn't too intrigued by it (only reminded me of the fashions I didn't like even then) but it made me think of how styles come and go and repeat.

Take a look at the movie. It's interesting.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Holiday howl

Halloween candy is evil. It must be dealt with accordingly. That must be the reason why I have already opened both of the jumbo assorted candy bags and sneak a piece every few hours, right? Just trying to justify this insane behavior when I really don't care for it in the first place. It's in the house so I must eat it all so there won't be any more in the house?

My cure for this crazy-ness is to knit and knit some more. Oh yeah, I also have my regular machine back so now I can sew and sew some more to get those mending articles back to their rightful owner. I also have to track down SuperGirl (she's at a friend's house) to hem her ballet skirt but that one can wait. It only has to be done for tomorrow.

There have been sick kids the past 5 days so things have been a little crazy. I did finish another Christmas gift for a friend's daughter that I have to post. It is the cutest thing. The other things I'm working on I can't post because I'm never quite sure who's reading this or not. It might be you, it might not!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Everything is beautiful in it's own way

I love it when projects suddenly are finished a day early. I love it when that allows other projects that have been hanging around like stinky cheese monkeys to be suddenly finished. I love it when all the projects suddenly make the house more organized and clean, whether that is by providing a spot for things to go or by finding a way to my car to be taken to their true homes. I just love it. That stack of books overwhelming the poor little book shelf holding them to the right in the previous picture? Gone. The books are now organized in a large, oak bookshelf, stained by yours truly and Hunky Hubby. It is finished and standing tall and lovely. There is an even taller one in the front room for all the socially acceptable books and hardbacks but it needs to finish fully drying for another 24 hours. The kids' books are organized and separated in their rooms. They now have the smaller particle board bookshelves, i.e. shelves I'm not going to have a heart attack about when I found them markered and covered in stickers.

The separating of all the kids' books was interesting. I didn't realize how much I collected through the years and found lots of the old favorites from when I was a kids. (Note to siblings: if there is a book you want from when we were growing up, I probably have it. Let me know if you want it.) Most of the books had not been moved from the crates they were squatting in and I found lots of dust bunnies and a missing puzzle piece in the process of cleaning them out. Now everything looks like it belongs and it's BEAUTIFUL!

Just like the quilt, beautiful. Even Little Guy comments on the quilt every time he comes in our bedroom; he pats it and says, "Hm! Mommy's quilt!"

Now for Christmas presents to start on and finish. And a few baby presents. Oh, and another lap quilt. Oh yeah, I need to get my modern sewing machine back from the shop so I can fill bobbins for the antique sewing machine and use it. And that would enable me to finish the mending for that friend of mine...

Yep, still have more to do. But no more stinky cheese monkeys. These projects are sweet, cuddly monkeys I like having for company.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Beautimus


It is done. It took all day Monday to do it and my sewing machine is now having professional maintenance work but it is done. It is so lovely.

I probably don't need to tell you how frustrating it was when what I thought was a 3-4 hour project turned into a 10 hour one. I probably don't need to tell you about how 2 year olds can sense blood, sweat, and tears because that's when they decide to come "help." Or at least demand milk, water, and whatever else they feel like they need at that instant. It was at supper when I was sitting there, staring at my hastily prepared supper and the quilt with binding half done, half not, when SuperGirl asked me "Mommy, are you tired?" I said "Yes honey, and I'm ready for that quilt to be done." "Me too, Mommy," she answered.

It took 40 minutes to wash, 3 hours to dry (cotton batting is great for absorption and resisting dryer heat), and I finally tucked it around Hubby (who was asleep) at 1 a.m. It was beautiful. the crowning achievement was the next day when I had the bed made and he came home. He looked at it and said, "It looks really good!"

It's actually a little too long but it's still fabulous because we don't have to worry about the ends riding up while sleeping. The cotton batting is not too heavy (I was worried about that and almost changed it but something told me not to) and feels wonderful. It feels so good to have it done and on my bed. I can look at it and say "I did that. I did all of that. I didn't just finish it, I did it ALL." And the flipping thing is king size. [patting self on back for not shying away from what "experts" would say isn't a "good idea"] I did, however, make an emergency call to LMSS while sewing the binding telling her about wanting to throw the thing out the window while my sewing machine tried blow up. She talked me down off the ledge and said "Whatever you need to do to get it done, do it." Thanks, LMSS.

The other thing I feel good about with this quilt is it's totally us, one of a kind, well-made, and will stay on our bed for ages. It's not trendy or synthetic. It's our colors and our feel. When I was looking for bedspreads years ago I couldn't find any in the stores that were big enough and/or the colors/patterns we wanted and we were living with a cheap substitute bedspread. I say cheap because the fabric and sewing work was cheap; it in itself was not cheap, although was for a king-size bedspread. I've been patching holes on it from the day we got it, which means 2 years, and I'm happy to fold it up in the closet and have a bedspread that I have constructed from the ground up. If anything happens to it I can fix it.

I celebrated all this by doing all the laundry and housework that has been left undone for the past 2 weeks. We also are staining and finishing bookshelves for the house which means all the books will finally be organized and in the right place, i.e. kids' books in kids' rooms, adult books, photo albums, and nice books in front room, paperbacks in our bedroom. I'm so excited but of course that means cleaning more stuff out and moving things. It's going to be great once done. And we are actually enjoying the staining and polyurethane coating procedure so it hasn't been too bad. Of course it helps the weather has been gorgeous.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Keep your eye on the ball

I have to remember that things do not happen overnight. This means quilts. This means big, heavy quilts that are 7/8ths of the way done and still need time and attention for a few more days. No rushing.

I have to remember that the Little Things (like children) do seem to happen overnight and I need to drop everything and pay attention to them at every opportunity because I'll blink my eyes and they will suddenly be gone. This includes not grumbling about volunteering to chaperone Kindergarten field trips. She will only be in Kindergarten once, this will mean a lot to her and the teacher even though the 2 year old comes along, and I should not even think about the quilting time that is being lost. There will be plenty of quilting time later on when I should be sleeping.

I have to remember that I do still have work to do, even though it's not official work, and I do still have working projects to finish doing. These need to be done and out of the way because they are taking up room at Mom's house and even though they do not involve knitting needles and/or a sewing machine, DO IT ANYWAY WITHOUT THE KNITTING EVERY 5 MINUTES.

And the one thing I don't like about playing cards or any other game: it's hard to knit or sew during, but is possible. Even if it annoys the others. That's why I try to only play games with other knitters or quilters. They understand and are knitting under the table too.

Monday, October 12, 2009

I thunk a thought...

This is from the Yarn Harlot's Page-a-Day calendar, 9-27-09:

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not.... Genius will not.... Education will not.... Persistence and determination are omnipotent."
- Calvin Coolidge

Of course in all things this doesn't ring true but right now it's a nice thought to me while not feeling too hot, kids are sick, it's raining, brain isn't working, and I still have things to get done.

Right now I'm going through my bi-yearly clean out phase where I go through all our clothes, linens, cookingware, etc. I have my little donation piles and they are starting to overwhelm Little Guy's room so I know I need to do a quick haul sometime soon.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Weekend separation

The quilt is being quilted at the moment. I've decided October is my month to finish it and starting in Novemeber it will be Christmas presents only. Well, not exactly be quilted on at the moment. It's been put up for a rest over the weekend because we had company last night and I realized that in the fervor of getting things knitted/sewed for Christmas, etc. I had totally neglected housework and other responsibilities and things were not acceptable for a friend to come show us our new boyfriend over dinner. So I put the quilt up and cleaned.

It actually worked out for the best because the quilt and I were starting to have issues. It's totally me, I admit. I had finished quilting the middle part with all the blocks and got really excited because that means I'm almost finished, right? Um, WRONG. I spread the quilt out on the table, stenciled in the lovely little pattern for the yellow stripe, pondered over what to do for the red, and totally knew what I was going to do for the blue. Imagine me humming a clever little tune, thinking how nice it will be to have it on my bed within the week, binding cut and sewn on, lovely. Then I put it back on the quilt rack and realized that it wasn't oh, the 12 inches wide my brain was thinking. It was about 20-22''. It takes up most of the space on my rack and that means at least 2 hours each square. Bummer.

I got a little aggravated but started stitching, thinking I could work through it, trying to ignore a sock project calling to me from it's bag saying "Hey, I'M almost finished! You can work on me and to heck with that quilt! Your husband is hot natured anyway and I'm not for him! One more gift to cross off on your list!" But I still stitched away, getting more and more aggravated that this project wasn't going to be over as quickly as I thought. Finally, it was too late to grumble anymore, I had tons of things to do the next day that required me to have a full nights rest ( like, CLEAN), so I put it up and away, hoping that the weekend break would work to get me revved up to work on it next week and not 6 months from now. Or even 2 years from now. It's happened before.

I'm glad to say that it's only Saturday night and I'm starting to get excited about working on it again and totally understand that it's going to take 2 more weeks. I'm going to cherish the experience and do everything right, or at least remind myself that that's what I'm doing because things that are rushed aren't done correctly. I'm also glad to say that I'm leaving the quilt alone until Monday so I WILL finish that sock and there will be one more gift crossed off the list. I'm down to the last 3-4 inches on the mate. I owe it to it. It's been so patient through car pools and doctor appointments.

By the way, finally saw a cardiologist. Nothing is wrong. Everything is working fine. More great, fantabulous news.