Paris

I'm here... ou, je suis ici, en Paris!

Finished! (and the WIP continue)

One of my favorite friends moved into her new condo a few weeks ago, and she had a housewarming Saturday night. I made a pillow (cover, really, but I put a pillow in it) and coasters to match. The coasters were fun, because I did a little free-form quilting and tried out all the fancy stitches on my machine. And since I finished those a full hour before we left for the party, I started putting together the knitting needle holders. That was when I bent the bobbin holder. It made me very sad, because our knitting group birthday (here) was yesterday evening and I could only show a nearly-finished example of what was coming next...

And if you look closely you can see the other yummy fabrics in the pipeline! :) My ironing board has been transformed into a fabric center. Some people have a craftroom, but that's really almost cheating- I like taking over the kitchen better. And since I got rid of the loveseat, I have lots more room in my living room for projects now, too. Like the two bikes that are 3/4 assembled sitting in the living room. And their two fully-assembled friends. More on them later

WIP (or about-to-be-WIP)

The baby quilt material is an ebay find- I'm so excited. I bought three yards of the blue "hey diddle diddle" material in Montreal in the 90s, made baby quilts with all of it, and have wanted to find more since. And in the same auction, the goofy bears print (both Laura Ashley retired prints). How wonderful!

Now I need some people to have babies... I'd love a new niece or nephew...

And the other fabric is a secret birthday present for the May birthdays in my knitting group. Secret, you hear me A? :) But feel free to guess away! heehee

Alaska...remember when

It was 80F today in Chicago. Thought this would be a good time to post some pictures of Alaska (March) since I didn't get around to it before... The first picture is taken in Seward. We were supposed to go out on a boat tour but the winds and waves were too much and they cancelled. In the five minutes it took to take this picture, I was literally chilled so badly (through long underwear, heavy jeans, thermal shirt, fleece overshirt, and ski jacket) I fled to the car. It was beautiful in Seward. The woman we met who worked in the coffeeshop (from the east coast!) told us that in the summer, traffic is backed up for miles and the coastline becomes a mass of tents and campers. That took a lot of edge off my desire to move there. I could just move back to Maine for that!

The other picture is the ski resort we stayed at the last few days- Alyeska. I played in the snow at the base, while the other in the party skied. Fun times were had by all (they have a bookstore in town- how sweet is that!).