Motorcycles, Stars, and LoMein

This morning R and I got up and went to church, by ourselves. The kids and I work in the nurseries on Sat. night at the 7 PM service and try to go to the 5:30 one for worship, but yesterday I was too tired. I fell asleep talking to Des and slept about 45 minutes, missing time to leave. The church now has the 10AM Sunday service in streaming audio on their website, as well as an archive where you can listen to any of the last 12 weeks sermons. We were going to ride, because it was a beautiful morning... but the 250 wouldn't start. Low battery.

We did lunch at the local KFC buffet, which is one of the only "out" places I can eat without getting food poisoning, since I had that really bad case of it last year on vacation. Probably because this KFC keeps its buffet so hot, you can't even EAT your food for about 10 minutes after you dish it up. But, I do get a headache from the MSG that they say is not in their chicken. LoL.

When we got home, Des and Tony were here with the babies. The guys worked on the bikes. Tony actually got my 450 wired up and started, for the first time in almost 18 months since Allen flipped it. It was like music to me ears. I still need a clutch assembly, the brakes to be bled, and to recover the seat (I have some GORGEOUS deep green metallic leather). Tony took Jeremiah for his first motorcycle ride. DON'T PANIC (first rule of the Universe anyway) that they don't have helmets on, they went about 2 MPH around the yard. Jeremiah is not old enough to ride in this state, have to be 5 years old and able to rest their feet on the guest pegs.

Not to be left out, Beverly also had to have a "ride". Here she is sitting on my 250, having her hair done by big brother Artemas.

Meanwhile I showed Des how to pick up stitches around the edge of her shrug and she got the ribbed edging knitted with the black Merino she spun. I carded 6 oz. of gray corriedale and washed several ounces of llama fur to card some of with the corrie, to swap with a friend.

And, I left off doing the Quilt Block a Day about a month ago, so I could help the kids meet the deadlines for the Weird and Ugly Fabric Challenge. Des says there were only about 24 actual blocks in the past month, many of which were stupid. So today I did 6 little applique'd blocks with a star in the center. I can't show you, because they are top secret. But that puts me only about 20 blocks behind. LOL.

After everyone was in from all the fun they could have in the yard, we gave Jeremiah, Artemas, Josiah, and Tony haircuts. And, we made Lo Mein for dinner (from our own recipe). Plus chicken, which we served to the kids with sweet'n'sour sauce from a jar (oops, lazy, LOL) and to the grown-ups with a General Tso's spicy sauce that I made up myself and I have to admit was as good as any I have had out anywhere. Plus NO MSG, LoL. If anyone wants the recipe I can try to write down what I did. That was some good Lo Mein, yo.

I've Become The Horrible Quilter

Well, I did it. It's official. I have become The Horrible Quilter.

I was in this challenge swap, where each participant had to submit 2 colors they loved and one color they hated... choose a season that is their favorite, and a style of quilt they DISliked most (art, traditional, applique, etc). Then each person in the swap was assigned another (secret) person and notified of their choices above. We were to make a mini quilt (max. 24'"x 24" square) in ONE of their two favorite color choices and with a theme of their favorite season, and within a type of quilt category that wasn't what they didn't like. In other words, if the person I was assigned to loved green and winter and hated applique quilts, I could make a mini quilt in shades of green with a winter theme in any type of quilt besides applique. We had to mail the quilt off to this secret person NOT BEFORE Feb. 22 and not later than March 30.

So I got right busy and made a wonderful quilt in traditional blocks in a Fall theme in the base color Orange (or variations thereof, like brown being the darkest orange and pale yellow-orange being the lightest). I posted pics of the components on my blog before. I made a Tree of Life center, with setting corners of light oranges on top and earthy oranges at the bottom (like sunrise and dirt, LoL) in strip-pieces, and a bunch of Flying Geese to go up the left side and down the right. I finished all these components by about the first of February.

Since it was too early to mail, I put the quilt top away. And lost it.

Des tells me last week that it had to be mailed by Saturday. PANIC. I cleaned house, cleaned out stash drawers, pawed through piles of fabric and boxes of yarn and fiber (just in case). Never found it. So yesterday when everyone was here for Diantha's birthday party, Des helped me cut out squares for a Split 9 Patch. You make 9-patches and cut them in 1/4ths and reassemble them. I put the quilt together last night and quilted it this morning, with variegated thread. From the back, you can actually see the quilting pattern... which is Leaf shapes in the large dark areas, little football shapes in the small dark areas, and kind of wiggly pinwheels where 4 light strips meet. Not so bad!

From the front, it looks like a drunk put this together and quilted it with a treadle machine in the back of a dark alley. Gotta be the worst quilt I have ever made. I mailed it anyway. When I got in the computer to get the lady's address, I noticed that the mail date isn't til March 30. By then I could have found the original quilt top, or made something better. But I mailed it anyway. Now I am The Horrible Quilter. Wish I hadn't been required to sign my name.

On a little happier note, I got a main Treasury last night, actually obscenely early this morning, called Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow... fonder.Or is it more forgetful? which is doing pretty well in the FP race. To your left you will see a screen shot. Since I took this screen shot, I moved a couple alternates in, just for fun.

Mid-morning today, from my other shop, I got a Treasury West in honor of Diantha. It will expire on Wed., which is her 14th birthday. She loves orange and purple and avant-garde type items, and her name means "Flower of God," which is what I named this treasury. Here on the right is a screen-shot of it.

I didn't do a quilt block-a-day today, since sandwiching and quilting badly and binding and washing an entire quilt, even if it was only 24" x 24", was all I could take.

I did start a knitting project today, which I thought was going to be a set of fingerless mitts. As I cast it on, it decided to be something entirely different. I mean WAY off the different scale. Then when I got 4 rows knitted, I decided that it should be made differently than how I was going about it. Since I am not working with a pattern, and since I am already giving in a little to the insouciance of the yarn not wanting to be what I wanted it to be, I can be a Domiknitrix and make this yarn behave. (by the way, that's a great, if offbeat, knitting book. Click on it and you can get it at half.com for 3 bucks!)

Right after I rip out these 4 rows. Here is a sneak peek. And that is all you get (LoL).

Unfortunately and Apparently

I got a main Treasury at Etsy yesterday and it is doing excellently! It is on page 2 of the "hot" list! To the right here is a screen shot of it. Enjoy!


We were a couple days behind on the quilt blocks, and today was a no-block day. So Diantha and I made blocks today. The first block was called Navajo. Here is here (as usual) very drab version. (LOL)


And just below it, you will see my version. I know I have blocks going for Edna Mazur and for Connie Rosolli and for Ranger, but I had to interrupt this program and make this block for Lula. Because you see, the name of the block is Navajo, but I call it "Not a Ho, Anymo!" ROFLOL.

And, in true style, I put it together wrong. The pink should all be around one side of the block and the green around the other. I could SWEAR I laid it out correctly but something got lost in the sewing translation.

~~sigh~~


Ok, two more. Yesterday's block, I don't know what it was called. Diantha stuck to her recent, calming color scheme, as seen on the left. I think she has 3 more blocks to go in these colors. Whew!

And since mine is Edna Mazur, I put the 4-patches in just a little off-kilter. Some of the blocks I have made for this quilt top are straight... cause I figure she has her act together about 47% of the time. LoL.

Des showed me something kind of fun tonight, so I thought I would play the game a little here. If you do a Google search and write "Unfortunately [your name]" or "Apparently [your name]", it comes up with some wacky stuff! I of course used "Nikki" since that is my name. You can use whoever's name you want... but you must use the quotes. Here are some of my Unfortunate results:

Unfortunately Nikki never met her grandfather before he died.

Unfortunately, Nikki's side was the team that failed.

Unfortunately Nikki starts dancing and she goes drunk. Neal leaves his date and takes Nikki to a hotel where he watches T.V. and Nikki falls asleep...

Unfortunately,Nikki,I am all the way across the country but honestly,if I could make arrangements ( pack,book a flight,make phone calls,etc.) ... (yeah, right!)

And here are some of my Apparent results:

Apparently Nikki even predicted on the Toronto radio station The Edge months before Sept. 11, that a plane would hit the World Trade Center.. (not ME!)

I thought all British gals were supposed to be voluptuous and curvy due to all those fish and chips they gulp down over there, but apparently Nikki ...

Apparently Nikki has copyright of every single phrase she used

Friday is apparently Nikki's "Naked Sushi" day.

Gee... I am really looking forward to tomorrow!!

Happy Birthday B

Lots of pics again tonight. First off, today our Bradford Pears decided to bloom. Yesterday there weren't any flowers on them, and today there are. This is Beverly with a sprig of the flowers in her hair. I hate the way the flowers smell, it is something too sweet and slightly like decay... and as of today, our area will be Sinus Hell for a while. But they sure are purty to look at. LoL.

It was a beautiful day. The kids played in the yard. In fact, here is Beverly with her hero and big brother Artemas, who is "sunbathing." Sure.

For about an hour this afternoon I sat in the sun with my feet up and knitted a little something I am working on for my HeartFeltFun Boutique at Etsy. I could tell you what it is, but then I'd have to... oh nevermind. To the left, you will see my afternoon view. Boy I love to go barefoot.

We did quilt blocks today too. We were a day behind, so we both did one for yesterday. The block was called Wagon Wheel. Diantha, being a sensible child, did hers in such calm colors, as seen on the right.

And since my block is going in my Ranger quilt for the Bumbling Bounty Hunters Mini Quilt Challenge, I called it Probably Hot Wheels and did it in very Ranger-y colors, as seen here to the left. LoL.

Then we did today's block, which was called Road to Oklahama. Again, Diantha selected a more conservative palate, as seen here to the right. I just LOVE her choices in layouts. (And the bubbles! Gotta love the bubbles!)

And once again, I called mine something different, since mine is for my Edna (Grandma) Mazur quilt in the above-mentioned challenge. In the Stephanie Plum Novels (Hot Six) Grandma Mazur once decided to get a driver's license. She practiced and practiced, took the test 6 times and passed. And then in ONE week, accumulated enough points in speeding tickets to lose her license for life. So mine is not Road to Oklahoma, it is Road Hazard. As you can see, I tweaked the 4-patches accordingly.

Alrighty, today is (was, oh dear, I am posting SO late again!) Beverly Jeane's Birthday!!! Yippee!! She is TWO years old! So I am giving the world a little tiny peek at the blessing that has been Beverly Jeane "Betsy" Ross for the past 2 years.

Here is little baby Betsy at a week old... doing bilirubin light therapy in her bassinet at home. See the bruises? She was born in only an hour, and she was born face first, then turned. Her entire face from the hairline, across the brow, and down the center of the front was bruised from the fast trip past the pubic bone. By a week the bruises had settled around her eyes, so she only looked like we beat her instead of just run over her with the car. See how peacefully she is sleeping though!

We skip to 8 weeks old, and what do ya know, she is SLEEPING again! Wonder she could do that at all in a small house with 7 other people. But she was a peaceful baby, which is a blessing.

I LOVE this picture, wrapped snugly up in the beautiful quilt made for her by her big sister Desiree. We had refrigerator magnets made from this print, and sent one to my Aunt Bev down in Florida, so she could see her little namesake great niece (and kept one for us, since it was so cute!).

Fast forward to the first birthday. We had to go to Florida to retrieve some dental records on a couple of the kids, and just happened to be there over the baby's birthday. So we went to Venice to visit Aunt Bev. Spent the day wandering the town and going to the beach (little B did NOT like the sand, like her mama). All the kids got wet in the surf, despite grave warnings to the contrary.

I could have taken them all to Walmart or Target to get dry clothes on the way out to dinner, but I told my cousin, if a person is going to get their clothes wet when they know they are going to dinner, they should have to get an outfit from the Goodwill. The Goodwill there has a warehouse on the back where they dump all the donated and unsorted clothing in bins and you pay $1 a pound for them! So we all went and dug, dug, dug through bins until every member of the family had "new" clothes to go out to eat in. My cousin said she had never done anything like this before and it was FUN!! I paid $4.70 for 6 people worth of clothing, and we went to dinner (and on to have cake) in style. LoL! This is a picture of the elder and younger Beverlies and the birthday cake.

One more... I took this one last night. Betsy had a walkie-talkie headset on and was walking around the house "taking orders" like they do at fast food places. She kept saying "Fee Fies" and bring me pretend milkshakes. What fun.

I am so thankful that God has blessed us with this one more child. I am thankful for her cleverness, her brightness, her gentleness, and her humor (because yes, right from the beginning, she has a sense of humor). I am thankful for this, another opportunity to win a soul to the Lord and nurture a person who can make, however small, a difference.

And I thank YOU for letting me share her!

Chives, Sweets, and Trampolines

I wish I knew more things to do with chives. I can put them in soup, put them in dips for chips, in cheeseballs, on baked potatoes, in omelets, and on a cream-cheese bagel. But I am at a loss for more chive-y ideas. And I wish I had more of them. Ideas that is, not chives. Some people actually buy chive seeds and grow them on purpose?!? Chives grow wild here, wherever there is grass. In fact, some people have more chives than grass. If you pass a yard this time of year and the (still-dormant) grass looks very lush and green, those people actually have a Chive Lawn. You can ride past a Weekend Warrior cutting his lawn and smell the chives, if you have your car windows down (or are fortunate enough to be on a motorcycle, LoL). Here are 2 pictures I took today... one is from my lawn (with the pinecones), and one is from under the trampoline next door.

If you are a big fan of chives, let me know. I will mail you some wrapped in paper toweling. If you want them dried, I will dry them first. Just let me cut them before they mow the lawn...

And speaking of trampolines, I went out for my walk today and came home to all the kids next door bouncing on the trampoline. Diantha (my 13 yo) was sitting in the middle with Betsy. Bouncing wildly around them are (from left to right): Amy, the almost-girl-next-door (stays weekends there with her grandma) and NOT MINE. Veronica, my 10yod, and Josiah, my tall 8 yos with no shoes on.

A New That Makes Most Moms Nervous
My 17yos has decided to learn to ride the motorcycle. Because my little old Suzuki has a nubby tire on the back, it can be ridden in the yard. A while back we got a riding mower. I told him, it is not a race car. You have to be cautious with it. You ride it in first gear, around the yard gently. The first pass, I saw him go past the front door and porch very slowly... and back past, farther down the yard, very slowly. Past slowly... back past slowly. Past slowly... back past slowly. Then BLUR!! This streak went past on the mower. Well we just repeated this routine with the motorcycle. To his credit, he is letting out the clutch properly and not doing wheelies and not dropping the bike. And if he stalls it, he kicks it back to life. DON'T WORRY, he isn't riding without a helmet... he just posed on the bike for the picture.

And yes, that really is his hair (he didn't spike his mohawk today). LoL.

No quilt blocks today. One was for yesterday and today, easy-peasy ones we will do tomorrow (maybe). I sat in the sun a while and finished knitting a top-secret project for one of my etsy shops. Maybe tomorrow I will block it and make the lining. Des sent me some more pics from B's birthday party. Tomorrow is her actual birthday; I will post them then. Wow, I had better go to bed. Tomorrow is a busy day already!

Ok, here is a giveaway from SweetLollipopShop through tonight, for a Mystery Box of hard lollipops values at $10.

And, another one from PolpetteClay for a Peapod Magnet.

And, one last, a set of Management Posters from JohnWGolden. Hurry! Go enter!

Busy Day

I got about 6 hours sleep last night. This morning I made 2 sets of my DPNs from pear wood. Packaged up some orders. Went to Home Depot and put Richard's contacts in, to the PO, and grocery shopping, with 4 of the kiddies in tow. Just as we finished shopping, the 2 older boys showed up, in time to help us load groceries. I managed to escape the store without licking my hair.

So I did Petsmart with 5 of the kids (Allen was on his own somewhere), where we got 5 new Neon Tetras and 2 Hatchet fish... Molly and Jack (to replace the prior and dearly-departed Molly and Jack Hatchet of last year). On to Target for sheets for someone who is getting married, and the Dollar Tree, which didn't have what I needed on some oil but did have on some portable baking pans, so there.

Came home and made a pot of Lentil soup, because for once they didn't schedule Richard until 11 PM. I figured if he were going to be home for supper, might as well have something he likes. And he REALLY likes Lentil Soup.

Put away all the groceries... helped Diantha cut out a block to make. She didn't want to make the block for today, so made a Friendship Star instead. Above here is her block from last night, which she made to make up one we missed (not sure of the date). Wow, these are loud.

Then I made a block, this one is from today, and it is not only terrible but loud. Wow again. And I corrected the one from yesterday, with the wonky stripes everywhere. I ripped the corners out mercilessly and replaced them with a dark purple. Same one used in the little squares in today's block, but for some reason I could NOT get the color right on today's. Anyway I am not sure it is an improvement. These blocks are supposed to be Edna Mazur, who is a wild hair and a little crazy, but I think they might be too crazy even for her.

And then as penance for being behind a day on the blocks, and not liking the block that I am behind on, instead I put together my Joe Morelli mini quilt top. The center blocks are Ball and Chain (very apropo for someone in Law Enforcement) and Joseph's Delight. Usually I like sashings between sampler-type quilt blocks, because the conglomeration of all those blocks can become overwhelming up against each other. But I really like this, just as it is. I am thinking of turning it on point to set it before quilting, but just playing with that idea right now.

Tomorrow I have to be up at 6 to make 3 batches of muffins to take to church for a drama tech crew breakfast. My eyes feel like they have sand in them, and I feel like I have walked miles, even though I missed my walk today. So it's off to bed, and hope to sleep!

Lotsa Pics

Not a lot of words. Today we got a bunch of quilt blocks done, though I am still one behind for the week. So here are Diantha's for yesterday, mine for today, and mine for ? the 3rd? LoL. The block for today was called Crazy Anne, but I am doing mine for 2 challenges: the Bumbling Bounty Hunters Mini Quilt Challenge, and the N2quilting Initial Challenge. My colors: Lemon, Lime, Red, Raspberry, Royal Purple, Robin's Egg Blue... and my character right now: Edna Mazur, who is a little crazy. So I guess you could say my block is Crazy Edna! PostScript: WOW, I didn't realize HOW crazy that block looked with all the stripes not matching up! I was just glad to get them all running the same way! I have decided to make another one, with a different fabric as the background. ACK!


I had a terrible headache today. Taking pain reliever didn't help, neither did eating something, drinking water, taking a walk, drinking a Mountain Dew, or just about anything else. But the temp was in the mid-60s today so in early evening I took a motorcycle ride. On the way back home, I realized my headache was completely gone! Thank God!

But my left kidney is really hurting. Shoulda known it was coming. ~~ sigh ~~

I am working on a secret something for my HeartFeltFun Boutique at Etsy. Here are a couple sneak peaks. DON'T PANIC... that really is NOT pubic hair (or chest hair either, though my dh asked...)

Oh and I got TWO Treasuries at Etsy today, one in the Main Treasury, called Stellar Skirmishes... all about Star Wars. One in Treasury West, called Keep On Givin'! AND, if that weren't enough, two other Etsians used items from my HeartFeltFun Boutique in their treasuries too! Calming the Storm and My 8th Rainbow. Be sure to visit the curator's shops for some beautiful, one of a kind items too!

When the Students Surpass the Teacher

A friend of mine says you can always tell when a teacher has done a good job, when the student begins to surpass the teacher. That has happened to me already with my oldest daughter, with her writing, quilting, knitting, spinning. Now it is happening to me all over again with Diantha.

Diantha is only 13, but already she is a great quilter, with a terrific eye for color and what seems to be few restrictions on how she combines. It is amazing to see really. She made these two quilt blocks for our block-a-day calendar, and for her Initial challenge on my N2Quilting Group at Yahoo. I love her freedom in the fabrics she chooses and her nonchalance for how she puts them together. We are playing catchup (after the all-day bullet fiasco on Monday) but here are hers for yesterday and today.

She has been doing some spinning also. I bought some roving balls from Claydancer on Etsy who said she has become allergic to wool. One of the rovings was called Mardi Gras - deep red but has small streaks of a golden color, green, and purple in it. I was wanting to spin it up, and then knit it into a semi-permanent felted Easter basket for Betsy. So Diantha says, mom, you have stuff to do... let me spin some of that roving for you. Here is the end result. The roving ball was 4 oz. of Merino, and Diantha ended up with 108 yards of this luscious, even, heavy-worsted yarn. Wonderful!

I walked and ran some errands today, taught the kids, held B (a lot!), made some copies and a Post office run, and another run out to drop Diantha at church for youth group, and for eggs at the store. And, I actually got a quilt block done, for a change, though it is Monday's block, so I am still a couple days behind. Oh well! This one is going to go in my Connie Rosolli mini quilt in the Bumbling Bounty Hunters Mini Quilt Challenge 2009. And it also qualifies for the Black and White Quilt Challenge Project.

Don't Take Hubby to Buy Bullets

I started out today making pancakes and mentally planning: take shower, take walk, card alpaca, card corriedale, dye some merino, take pics of the rest of the handspuns, put B down for a nap, list handspuns on Etsy, make dinner, make quilt block. Richard was off for the day.

I said to him, why not call Frontier Firearms and see if they have .380 bullets? We have been looking all over for them and they are very scarce. So while I cooked, he called them and told me they had them.

Now I am going to go get bullets. He says, why not take me with you? I said, when I am done I am going walking... I would have to drop you off back here. He says, oh no, I will just go with you. Why don't we bring the kids? It will be FUN!

Oh dear, I should have known. After we bought bullets (this man complains about what groceries cost), he says, hey why don't you walk the Walmart in ____ instead? There are pawn shops nearby I could go look in. Why? 'Cause this wasn't Run Around Stupid Places Day? Because I hate the Walmart in _____... it gives me hives just to go in that store? Because I have a whole day planned and it doesn't include pawn shops?

We ended up going to the town my daughter lives in, and walking the HUGE Walmart there, while hubby and the youngest 2 kids hung out and Betsy fussed about not wanting to be there. Then visited daughter, since she was nearby. She has some of her art in a local shop. She says, let's you and Diantha and I go see the shop! (It is a 1/2 mile drive and the shop is 1000 sq. ft... how long can that take?) So dh says, I will go to Big Lots and Hammers and oh by the way, where are the local pawn shops?

Two hours later, he wasn't back. Des was going to make dinner... Italian sausage hoagies. So I called him and asked him to bring another package of sausages and buns from the grocery... we would just make dinner here! An HOUR later he shows up with sausages.


We got home at after 8 PM. I got the alpaca and 2 oz. of the Corriedale carded and the shower taken. So much for MY day. Moral of the story: Don't Take Hubby to Buy Bullets.


By the way, that Corriedale is AMAZING. It washed up from a deep tea-dyed color to white with tiny little bits of pale yellow. I carded only 2 oz. of this fleece, and LOOK at how HUGE it is! I took this off the carder, and it poufed out. I stuck a ruler down in it for reference... it is 3" thick. This batt is about 10" wide (the carder is 8" wide so you can see it really fluffed) and about 22" long. This is one really squooshy batt. Can't wait to spin with some of this stuff!



And speaking of can't wait to spin, Veronica (who is 10) decided a few days ago that she must try her hand at spinning also. I gave her a roving ball, showed her how to park and draft and let her have at it. Here is a pic of her 1stspun, which is about half the 4-oz. ball. And the 2nd pic is the 1stspun, the roving, and what she has spun of it on the 2nd go. Bravo, Veronica!!

Some Stuff I Got!

I got a package Saturday from my VERY secret Secret Pal! She is SO secret, she even mailed my package to my daughter's house so I wouldn't see where it came from! Anyway I didn't get a chance to get a pic of the contents til today, so here it is!

I got a quilting magazine (that I had not read yet), a book on Bargello quilts, which I love, a Dark Hershey Bar (yes this is just the wrapper but I really have not eaten all the candy yet... just stashed it to fool my kids), a 4.5" square ruler that I really needed, and 3 beautiful Fat Quarters... one in very handy and bold black and white, one in a gorgeous rainbow batik, and one in my favorite, purple. Hiding somewhere in the pile is also a package of sewing machine needles, which I needed badly... seems I am on my LAST one! Oh, and a beautiful quilt notecard with a little note in it. So if you are reading this, STEPHANIE, Thank you! Thank you!

Also I am a day or two behind on the block of the day, because I have been doing yarn and knitting and making stuff for my etsy shops. But today I did a Teacup Full of Flowers applique for Connie Rosolli. Right now the block is the same as on the left... I can't decide whether to leave it that way, or to add buttons... black like in the middle, or yellow-gold like on the left. Any opinions?

Plates in the Air

Ever feel like one of those performers with all those spinning plates in the air? Call me old... they used to feature acts like that on the Ed Sullivan show. Of course I was a TINY baby at the time. (You X generation people, go look him up on YouTube, LoL). The performer would flit from stick to stick, rubbing them furiously between his hands to keep the balanced plate on top of the stick from slowing down and falling. That is what I felt like yesterday.

I went from task to task, and at 5PM I said to Diantha, I wanted to get yarn and blocks and my room done today, and still haven't gotten any of those 3 things done. ~~sigh~~ It went kind of like this:

Make a batch of muffins, While the muffins are baking, make another batch of muffins. While they bake, go get dressed. While the kids eat breakfast, go take my walk. Put in a load of diapers to wash. while the diapers are washing, process the alpaca fiber that Marion sent me. While the fiber is soaking the 2nd time, go get lye and put down the tub drain so the muck off the fur the first time will drain. While the Alpaca fiber is draining, go sit on the couch and help Artemas and Diantha with school. (Yes people, we homeschoolers sometimes even do school on SUNDAY! Especially if people weren't HOME for a couple days during the week!) While I am helping them with school, direct Veronica to clean up the living room floor.

Go put diapers in dryer. Go check on Alpaca fur. Separate some of the mulberry silk and dye it. This proved to be about a 45 minute task, as that mulberry silk is STRONG! In order to separate it at staple lengths, I had to separate fiber bundles down to almost individual fibers. While I am separating silk to dye, direct Josiah to load the dishwasher and clean the sinks. While the mulberry silk is soaking, unravel a sweater and skein the yarn. This one is a vegan cotton/acrylic/metallic blend called Mordor, from the Lord of the Rings series, and is now available in my my7kids shop at Etsy. Drain the silk. Put the alpaca in the dye. Put the silk outside on the railing (where it froze, LoL). Hang the bags of alpaca over the kitchen sink. Take pics of silk, fur, and yarn.

Get everybody dressed. Because I am a brave woman, I took all 6 kids still at home out to dinner without my dh. We met Des and Tony and their babies and went to (oh dear, shall I say it?) Hooters for some buffalo chicken. We got home at 9 o'clock.

I still hadn't made my last 2 Morelli blocks! So I sat down and sewed, and Diantha squared up pieces for me. So here we have Joseph's Dream (left) and Ball and Chain. The Ball and Chain block should have been done to finish 9" square, that way all the little sub-components would have finished to 3" square and each little individual piece would have been 1". But NO! I needed a 12" finished square block. Glutton for punishment that I am, that means that each piece of the block had to be cut to 1 1/3" plus a 1/2" seam allowance... HSTs cut 1 1/3" plus an inch. Do you have a ruler with 1/3" measurements? I don't! So each piece had to be cut 1 7/8" plus a hair, and so on. It's a wonder this block fit together at all. It won't win any prizes, but it isn't BAD.

While I sewed, I made the kids get ready for bed and have a nighttime snack. How in the WORLD can they want a night-time snack when we just got home from eating? By the time I was done with the blocks and took the pics and nursed B to sleep, I was too dang tired to write my blog. I never did get around to cleaning my room, which is starting to resemble a very disorganized Thrift Shop.

But I am told that today we must go out of town, adventuring. So the room will be scary another day. Gotta go, I see a plate starting to wobble...