More girls knitting

Posted on March 20, 2009 by Suzanne

Three of the Girl Scouts came back this afternoon, after school, to work on their projects some more. It was much more subdued than yesterday’s chaos. They got started and seemed like they were OK, so I went back out front to continue the endless bookkeeping that I’m so far behind on, it’s not even funny.

But then someone needed me, so I went back in to the classroom and decided, to heck with the bookkeeping, I’m going to sit and knit. These three were actually getting it, and made some good progress. They were even starting to be able to figure out what was wrong if they were having trouble.

It was funny, though, they were concentrating pretty hard, so it was quiet, but I didn’t want them to think I was totally lame and I tried to ask them some stuff.

I’m pretty sure they thought I was lame.

Afterwards, though, I realized that when I was 12, I had trouble relating to other 12 year old girls, so perhaps it’s no wonder that I still have trouble relating to 12 year old girls.

The Girls

Posted on March 20, 2009 by Suzanne

Yesterday afternoon, Knots & Bolts was invaded by some 6th grade Girl Scouts. (These girls are all…about 12 years old, I guess.)

They are working on a fashion badge, and part of what they’ll be doing to earn the badge is learning to knit.

Not surprisingly, some of them took to it more quickly than others. The young lady 2nd from the left in the above picture? She was the one that was MOST resistant to this whole learning-to-knit-thing.

She ended up being the one that caught on the quickest, and enjoyed it the most. Lesson there, I think.

They’ll be back again in 2 weeks as as group. I hope some of them will come back sooner for some one-on-one.

The girls and I learned a few things:

11 girls at once is a lot.

If you think you’ve got it, and get relax too soon and start chattering, you’ll probably get in trouble and end up with a tangled mess.

It’ll be a miracle if any of the dishcloths are square. Or flat. Or finished.

Suzanne is glad she is raising boys.

Time just flies

Posted on March 18, 2009 by Suzanne

It seems to do so, whether you are having fun or not.

I thought I was a week behind with processing and uploading my daily photos.

I was actually TWO weeks behind.

And, as it turns out, I apparently missed two days: the 8th and the 11th. I can’t even be sure those two days even happened. That’s my story, anyway.

If you’re just dying to see what I’ve been taking pictures of, you can go view them all here:

Project 365

This is probably the funniest one:

march 17 Time just flies

Gotta love a man who will fold the laundry.

Who am I kidding? He’s the one that DOES the laundry.

I’m sure the boys will be thrilled to know that all of you have now seen their underwear.

Mental Health Day

Posted on March 17, 2009 by Suzanne

I took yesterday off. Actually, I’m taking all Mondays off. Well, from the shop, anyway. After nearly 8 months, it was time to reevaluate shop hours, and I came to the conclusion that having a day at home by myself was important for my sanity, as well as the well-being of my home.

Of course, on my first day off, I didn’t actually get to BE home alone.

This guy was complaining of a sore throat and coughing in the morning. Since strep throat is making the rounds (again), I decided to play it safe, keep him home, and make a quick trip to the doctor. (It didn’t appear to be strep, more like drainage from a possible sinus infection.)

I did get a BUNCH of paperwork done yesterday (and have a BUNCH more to do), but you know that I couldn’t be home and not sew. And sew I did, until late in the evening when my whacko log cabin quilt top was finished. (Whacko refers to ME, not the style of the quilt).

I love the heft of a quilt that has a LOT of pieces — and a LOT of seam allowance. I need to see if I can give you an estimate on the number of pieces. I did not cut and sew those pieces that small, this was all strip pieced, and there was LOTS and LOTS of strip piecing. And trimming — you should see my EXTREMELY colorful trash. Bits and bobs too small to save. OK, some of you might save some of it, but my insanity has to end somewhere.

No one commented on my “it’ll quilt out” joke yesterday. or maybe you didn’t get that it was a joke. Longarm quilter humor is pretty obscure, I know.

How’d it turn out?

Posted on March 15, 2009 by Suzanne

Having told you what I PLANNED to do, I figured I ought to come back and show you the fruits of my labor.

The frogging didn’t take long, and a goodly amount of quilting happened on the quilt that had the pleats in the back:

As far as the 4 patch posy quilts goes: the outer borders are on, and as a bonus, the backing is sewn together:

No idea how I’m going to quilt it. I’ll let you know later this week….

And those log cabins with the ridiculous sashing:

I misspoke (mistyped?) yesterday. I said the tiny pieces in the sashing finished at 1 in. by 3/4in. I was wrong. It’s crazier than that: they finish at 1/2 in. by 3/4 in.

And they are done:

I was contemplating that print as a border option, but I think I’m going to go with a dark purple border, as a resting place before the insanity that will be the outer piano key border.