Oops, it's October!

So I horded about an hour and a half. That would make my total 11.5 hours.

I've also become a little over-committed to soccer, Odyssey of the Mind and our church's annual giving campaign. I love it all, but not a lot of time for those lonely projects.
I've also been reading a lot more. True that some of it is junky brain candy, but some of the books have been quite good.

Hopefully the OM stuff will settle down shortly, and the annual giving should settle down a lot at the end of the month. Soccer...well that never ends, but it's manageable. And the kids are getting better about not letting their school papers lay around all over the house. Their socks however...

So, Catherine, where did you finish up?

Margie

Knitting and Stuffie clothes

Well, on Tuesday I took Smallest with me to a sewing group that I infrequently attend, but now that it's summer I have a little more time for. I brought the cream baby sweater and she brought felt for making stuffie clothes.

When we were in Canada, we picked up the habit of calling stuffed animals "stuffies" because that's what they called them there. It's a cute word.

Smallest was much admired by our host's 4 year old daughter, and she had lots of fun with that. It's not every day that Smallest is the coolest girl around!

I knit for about an hour, I am at the point on the sleeves now where I will really have to pay attention to what I'm doing, so I will require some uninterrupted time for that.

Here's a link to one of the Pullip lady's posts on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRj2znjc7rM

They really are most amusing, especially the pictures at the end.

1 hour for me, 10 hours total.

Margie

Picture Fest

As promised, here is Smallest in her dance get-up. She's with her teacher.

Well, it's just been Middle and me here for a couple of days. Smallest is chillin' with my parents for a week, The Boy is at summer school camp and Darling has gone off on a business trip. So, to fill the time, Middle has been watching videos on YouTube of this woman making clothes for her Pullip Doll.

I think Pullip Lady needs to get a life, but she does sew well.

Anyhow, the result is that we've been making many clothes for a Liv Doll that Middle obtained from a friend when we were visiting Calgary.

And we've been making clothes for a rag doll that Middle is giving Smallest for her birthday. Shhh! Don't tell! It's a surprise!

So...we started on Friday and have put in many hours. About 5 on Friday, Saturday we made a nightgown for the doll that I failed to photograph, and I tried to crochet a little animal but was using the wrong hook size, so that's another 2 hours or so there. Today we just spent about 2 hours making two more tops for the doll. And I have a plane trip to go pick up Smallest coming up... maybe salsa will be mine this time!

Catherine - the blanket is most impressive! If your friend is not appreciative enough, I'll take it!

9 hours for me, 9 hours total.

Margie

Slow and steady!

A funny story, unrelated to sewing: I was sitting on the subway this morning, and this woman standing up in front of me sneezed all over me. I spent about 3 seconds contemplating what to do, then realized I had some kleenex in my bag. I got one out, and was busy wiping myself up. Then I looked up and the woman next to me was doing the exact same thing. We both started laughing so hard, we couldn't get it together until the next stop.

Tonight I cut out pieces for ~5 squares and sewed one up, working for 50 minutes total. It's not my favorite square ever - a bit too much dark green - but it'll do.

3 hours, 35 minutes so far.

Catherine

Blanketrageous!

Ta da!! The blanket is done. Evil Twin and I decided today was the opportune time to wrap this project up. I did three more rows, then he did two rows and cast off (which took a couple of attempts, as he was trying to match the other edge, and succeeded quite well). I sewed in the loose ends, and then we both laid it out and sprayed it to block it out, mostly to make the top and bottom edges even. Googles had told us that mohair doesn't like to be wet, which is why we didn't soak the whole thing. All told, I worked for 1 hour and 45 minutes. And it looks really great. See? The spray bottle is there for comparison. It's about 3' x 5'.

Once it dries, we'll ship it off to England, as the wedding is only 5 weeks away. Yow!

2.75 hours for me!

Catherine

Three strikes and I'm done

Well, I started this competition with a tiny bit of hoarding - I cut up two squares yesterday, which took 20 minutes. Today I was going to sew up two squares, but the square I was working on was determined to frustrate me - several bent pins, and I had to redo three seams - two got some extra thread caught up while I was sewing and I ran out of thread on the bobbin during the very last seam. Boo! Anyway, that took 40 minutes, so I'm off to a good start!

1 hour.

Catherine

Two by two

I spent 45 minutes sewing up two of the three squares that were all cut up (well, 43 sewing and 2 ironing and getting out the pins and scissors and such). I'm up to 81 finished squares! I was hoping to do more this week, and even get to >15 or 20 hours, but this will do, I think, to count as a win? I hope so, as I have been dreaming of Roberto's in the last few days.

I was also thinking that I could (indeed, should) get in the habit of doing 2 squares a night. It's such a short amount of time, and then I would be able to knock the rest of the squares out in the next month. Maybe there's some end in sight to this silly quilt.

13.5 hours for me!

Catherine