CQ Piecing Practice

Another Heart
Lest you think I've been only doing knitting, I have tried my hand at printing off an image as well as have been practicing piecing. Some turned out better than others, but this one is my favorite. Now to embellish the whole lot, but first I have to finish weaving in the ends on David's sweater as we are going to Chicago soon!

Yikes, I'm It!

I just discovered that I've been tagged by Wendy with a game that seems to be making the rounds of cyberspace.

How it works: Scattergories: It's harder than it looks! Erase my answers, enter yours, tag 10 people, post it on your blog, then notify them, including the person who tagged you.

"Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things.....nothing made up!

Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same first initial.

You cannot use your name for the boy/girl name question"

Ok, let's begin:

What is your name: Judy
Four letter word: jump
Vehicle: Jeep
TV Show: Jericho (Thanks .....Gerry!)
City: Jersey City
Boy's Name: John
Girl's Name: Jill (my older daughter's given name)
Occupation: jester
Something You Wear: jumper
Food: jelly beans (very nutritious!)
Something Found in a Bathroom: jewelry
Reason for Being Late: just dawdling
Something You Shout: Jumping Jehosaphat! (not really, but my mom did)

OK, Who to tag?
Debbie
Susan
Jane
Kathy
Judy
Barbara C.
Linda
Gail
Charlene
Lesa

At 10 names per "round," I wonder what the odds are of being tagged more than once? Sounds like a math problem to me

More Booties and Hats and a Wee Visitor

My friend Tanya left last weekend for 6 months to a year in China with her husband, who works for Microsoft, and their little son. Since she is expecting a baby girl this summer, I wanted to give her a little something before she left. Our plans to connect that last week didn't work out, so I popped them into the mail. Hopefully they arrived in time!
For Baby Girl Su
When we got back from Cannon Beach, in amongst our mail was a birth announcement from Jill's friend, Darla, so back to work on another set, this time for a little boy. And then there's David's sweater, which is almost done except for weaving in the ends and sewing the side seams. I have got to learn a better way to weave in ends or else refrain from make anything with multiple stripes!
Guess who came a-calling!
Look what appeared on our patio step again the other day, this time in broad daylight! For a few minutes Ginger and our visitor were nose to nose on their respective sides of the glass. When the raccoon left, Ginger tore off to the den, which is on that side of the house, but was too lazy to jump on the window ledge for another view.

Time Off at Cannon Beach, Oregon

April in Oregon
My sister and her husband have just returned home to MN after spending a week here with us. They left wonderfully warm temperatures in Cambridge only to experience a week of the coolest April weather we've had here the whole time we've lived in Washington! It even snowed at our house last Sunday, and as you can see here at Cannon Beach, which is one of our favorite spots on the OR coast, snow is on the foothills, something we've never seem any time we've been there.
Haystack Rock
One of the things we love to do in Cannon Beach is walk to Haystack Rock, and when the tide is right, explore the tide pools. We were lucky this time because there was a minus tide, and we could walk right to the foot of the rock and watch sculpins, sea urchins, and a lot of colorful starfish.Starfish on Haystack Rock
Normally, when the tide is in, you can't even get close to the rock, so we really welcome low tide and the chance to explore. Here is what the area usually looks like:
Surf's Up!
We saw lots of birds on the rock and couldn't decide whether some of them were puffins. Puffins nest on Haystack from April to July when they leave with their babies to spend the rest of the year at sea. At first we thought these birds might be puffins, but in comparing the photos in our bird book we decided they were harlequin ducks. Later we saw a couple of birders at Ecola State Park who comfirmed that harlequin ducks had been seen swimming near Haystack.
Harlequin Ducks
In addition to enjoying the natural beauty, lots of folks come to Cannon Beach to shop at the little boutiques and the trendy restaurants. We, however, prefer to eat at Mo's or cook in, and I love to stop at Center Diamond, a great quilt shop, and Coastal Yarns, another of my favorite places. Yesterday, on the way home, we dropped Jane and Ted off at the airport, and wouldn't you know it, the sun came out!?

Block Party Quilters' Show

This is the weekend of the Block Party Quilter's Show, so Dick and I went on Friday because we figured it would be less crowded. Yesterday, however, the weather was gorgeous for the first time in ages, and I'm wondering whether that impacted attendance. Of course, there were lots of beautiful quilts, way too many to photograph, but I did find several CQ items which I'll post here. The rest of the photos that Dick took for me are on my Flickr site, including a quilt that our FMS group made for the Ronald MacDonald house, which is BPQ's charity project.
Beyond the Secret Garden by Lynn Majidimehr
I took a free motion quilting class from Lynn Majidimehr ; she is extremely talented and has her own design business. As you can see, she's very creative! I just found out today (5/2) that she won a third place ribbon for this one and 2 firsts for two others that you can see on her blog!

I also found two other crazy quilts: The flowers are machine embroidered.
Crazy Quilt by Barbara Reed

And the blocks on this one were created by the ladies in Diane Axworthy's small group. She assembled the quilt. The Ladies by Diane Axworthy
Be sure to check out the rest of the quilts on Flickr and remember to double click on the photos to see the details.

March Roared Out Like a Lion

April Fool's!
Dick finally downloaded some photos he took of our last snowstorm. We later heard on the radio that this was the coldest March here since 1967!
Yarn Tulips
Meanwhile, I finished Sophia's tulip cardigan. (If you can't get 'em to bloom in your yard, try knitting 'em, right?) Jill just called to say it fits. Hurrah! Just a few more rows and David's will be done also, and I can get back to my other projects.

Bootie Experiment

Sock Booties
A former workfriend, who now is attending grad school in Berkeley, CA, just had her first baby in January, very close to David's third birthday, and coincidentally named her daughter, Sophie. What could I knit for a California babe? Well, I tried an experiment, making booties from sock yarn leftover from Linda's socks. It was a bit of a challenge getting them to match, but I think they turned out OK, and my friend pronounced them "very stylish." All these babies...no wonder I'm behind on David's sweater...and then there's the quilt lineup. Yikes!

Look at Those Eyes!

Michael sent this photo of Sophia last night. Doesn't she look cute in her purple hat? And those blue eyes....wow!

It will be fun to see how the "Peapod Hat" looks. (The pattern is part of a set by Kate Gilbert, and the yarn is Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo. Yarn from bamboo, isn't that amazing?) I'm just about done with the first sleeve of David's sweater and realizing how much longer it takes now that he's a "big" boy!