Procrasticleaning

 So... I should be working right now.  However, it's a beautiful day here and I want to be doing other things.  After this, I will get to work.  Really.  I promise.

Smallest finished the quilt.  It is not perfect, but the washing made a lot of errors less noticeable.  She chose an aqua colored binding, which I think looks great.

She may be back home with us for the summer, which would be lovely.  

I have made a little progress on the cowl, I think?  And today in church I worked on Jeff's sock.  I got past the gusset decreases, so now it's a straight shot to the end of the foot.  I just have to maintain the stitch pattern and all will be well.  

I still need to do the neck of the sweater for Smallest.  I'll have to sneak that in somewhere.

Work is super busy right now (thus the working on a Sunday, which I usually do not like to do), so there hasn't been much goofing off and with the visitors, there hasn't been much free time.  I did officially quit the Stewardship committee this week (yay!) and so I have very few church obligations right now.

I have a top that I started a couple of years ago (even before your sweater!) and I'm almost done with it, so perhaps after I finish the three things above, I can focus on your sweater and this other top.  Things to think about...

There is other exciting news, but you should contact Smallest about it, I don't want to steal her thunder.  We should also be hearing about Middle's significant other's grad school applications soon also.  Lots to know!

Margie

Multicraftual!

Smallest is here for a week to deal with some medical stuff, so she decided that it would be the perfect time to make a small quilt for work friends who are having a baby.

She bought a "jelly roll" of strips with stars, sewed them together in groups of three, I cut them into squares, she pieced the strips and then put the strips together and voila! the top was done!  She pieced the strips on Friday, put the top together on Saturday, and then yesterday (Sunday) we made the sandwich and she quilted it with a simple rectangle pattern.  Is it perfect?  No.  It is cute?  Absolutely!  She's going to put the binding on today while I"m at work (probably).  We got some bias tape binding over the weekend to make it easier.  She didn't want to deal with a border, so that makes things easier also.

The backing fabric is fairy tale characters, which is very cute also.  Here is the progress:

The squares before piecing.

The squares after piecing.

The quilt sandwich after quilting.

So that's been the fun with Smallest.  She leaves on Wednesday, so there is time to finish it up.  It was very satisfying when, after trimming the edges for the binding, the corners all matched when I folded the quilt.

So... what have I done since my last post...

Administrator-land is getting easier, maybe?  I've made several mistakes and I am learning many things!  I am hoping that it will go more smoothly as we go forward.  We have an NSF Site Visit in May which is a Big Deal, so that needs to go smoothly.  We have a proposal to submit to the NSF before April 11 which is also a big deal.  

The water leak has been repaired, but the street has not been repaired.  I am annoyed.

I finished the first sock for Jeff and have turned the heel on the second sock.  I thought I had a picture of that, but alas, I do not!

I disassembled a cardigan that I made last year, I think? I didn't really like the fit.  The magic of yarn.  I will find a better pattern for it.  I actually bought the yarn to go with a specific pattern, so maybe I should try that one.

The yarn for the cowl did indeed arrive at last and I've been working on it for a bit.  It's over three inches long, probably?  It will be around 10-12 inches total.  I like the colors and the ribbing pattern.  It looks green on one side and grey on the other, but if you stretch it a little, you'll see the contrasting color between the ribs.

Other excitement - our neighbor decided it was time to take down some trees that were in the fence between our yards.  Jeff and I repaired the hole from the front tree the first weekend in March.  Here's our handiwork!

We had Sarah, Javi, and Lauren in this past weekend.  They came to go to the rodeo.  It was lots of fun, we ate too much, and they went to the rodeo with Jeff while I stayed home with Smallest.  A good time was had by all.

It does occur to me that I need to finish her sweater before she leaves.  Maybe I should do that tonight...

Have a great time on your trip!  ICTP is pretty neat.

Margie