93. Boy is my house small!

In our attempts to get ready for the Chicago International Quilt Festival, we are doing a mock-up of our booth. Because we have a different booth this time than any other time! We have sprung the (many) extra bucks for a corner booth. I am actually going to leave a living room light on overnight. If one of us were to get up during the night, we could kill ourselves around here!

And forget yesterday's post. The quilt in progress? Because I've apparently forgotten how to sew overnight. Everything in your booth needs to be "draped." So in the new booth space, we need another wall. Went to the fabric store earlier to get more fabric to make the wallcovering. Which is really simple - it's basically a very uneven "pillow case" type construction. The front obviously is full length with the back only about 9". It took me four hours to make this. Very sad, but too true. First time - not wide enough. Even though I had measured. Twice. Oh, wait - that was the second time. The first seam I sewed two pieces of fabric together along the wrong side. Several ripped seams (and one I just completely cut off) later, I finally have a very nicely covered wall. If I can manage to find my sewing abilities overnight, I have more work to be done tomorrow to finish getting ready.

And this trip was good for my knitting. I have (finally) sewn in the ends and blocked my Mr. Greenjeans sweater in hopes of wearing it in Chicago. With the new denim skirt that I haven't sewn yet.

92. WIP

Of the quilting kind!



A closeup of one of the tulips:



Believe it or not, all of the tulip petals are from one fabric! And the label on the back:

91. Quilting Day!

I've forgotten how totally satisfying it is to spend the day with my sewing machine. I'm getting a sample done to be displayed in our booth at this season's quilt shows. And while this quilt is made with a technique I'm not overly fond of, the finished result will be lovely (I hope). Pictures coming tomorrow. I'm practically asleep as it is!

I tried to find a cartoon or something fun to quickly add here. It's not working out, so I'm off to bed.

Oh...the typing test the other day? It's an odd (for me) typing test - just a string of random words and once you've typed the words on your screen, you have to hit the enter key to get the next set of words. But the next time I took the test, I was up to 72 wpm. I was tempted to change the blog post, but that seemed a bit ridiculous!

90. Ten on Tuesday - Thursday edition

Since I've been playing blog post catch-up, I got a bit out of control! Unbelievably, I managed to get everything caught up and resorted to a cartoon much less than I thought I would need to. Due to the Wee Tiny swap, I even had blog news and missed the Ten on Tues. And this week's topic is near and dear to my heart (and wallet). Name 10 things you would remodel in your home if money were not an object.

Well, ever since I bought this house, it's been an on-going remodel. And there are still very many things to change.

1. Well, the overall size! And this is hopefully going to happen this summer. My home is only 900 square feet. With the addition going on this summer, it will be almost double that.

2. The kitchen - cupboards are from the 50's, etc. So new cupboards, updated counter tops (granite maybe?), tile floors, and an island with a working sink. I would still keep my main sink though. In fact, when I move, I'm taking it with me. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. I love this sink. It's an old porcelain one with built in drain boards on each side of the double sink.

3. The bathroom just needs finished - final paint, trim, etc.

4. Refinish the hardwood floors.

5. Fix the yard. Just dig it up, put in french drains, and then level the darn thing.

6. A bigger bedroom. Which goes along with the size of the house right now.

7. A studio. I'm a quilter. And for the first time in maybe 25 years, I don't have a sewing room. Now I'm also a knitter. I have a mental picture of my new studio. Lots of natural light. Hardwood floors. At least one wall is floor to ceiling storage - bookcases, drawers, shelves, etc. A small couch/loveseat at one end next to a comfy chair. And room for a spinning wheel. I don't know how to spin. But I'd like to give it a try.

8. A larger garage. I technically have a garage right now. But it's not actually big enough to put a car in.

9. The addition involves siding (and windows). But Bob recently put new siding up on most of the house. Not on anything that will be torn up in the remodel though.

10. Some stained glass windows. Maybe one in the studio.

You know, when you're seriously looking at major construction, everything just kinda gets lumped together!

89. My Wee Tiny

My Wee Tiny swap package arrived from Susan. She has a great post up about sending the package to me. And she was right - no way did/do I have the time to stalk the blogs of everyone participating. I don't even know if there's a blogroll. And I hadn't ever read Susan's blog before - but you can bet I'll be checking back. Which is really the point of the Wee Tiny swap - make a new friend - or two!

Anyway....Susan bought the cutest "box" to send my tiny sock in - it's a flipflop! Perfect for our coming summer. And it's the perfect size for my tiny sock!

First up, my flip-flop box and the cute tag and note Susan included:



And my tiny sock nestled in the box with a wee wooden sheep!


My tiny sock is made from Sundara sock yarn in the "green tea" color. This yarn feels great. I am definately putting this yarn on my must find list. Susan used the "Divided Baskets" stitch pattern from a stitch guide. For a quilter, it looks like half-square triangles!

Thank you Susan! You made a delightful Wee Tiny sock and it was great fun getting my package!

88. Wee Tiny

Would you believe I knit my wee tiny sock, made a wee tiny skein of yarn and then sent it off without taking a picture?? I had that envelope sealed and was on the way to the post office before I thought of it - and it was just too late then.

I used some of my leftover Tofutsies from my Sockapalooza pal. The yarn knit up into great little stripes with 20 stitches. The yarn is 50% superwash wool, 25% soysilk fibers, 22.5% cotton and 2.5% chitin. While wearing very well, I've noticed the socks aren't as warm as my other handknit socks. Obviously the difference in fiber content makes a huge difference! But that doesn't stop me from wearing them, that's for sure!

(On a very big side note - my camera/computer connection is driving me batty! I have no problems plugging my little memory stick into the computer. But the computer has decided it doesn't recognize any of the pictures and insists upon uploading ALL of the pictures. At first, it would only upload the new pictures, but not any more. So I spend a few minutes re-deleting pictures - over and over again!)

And the camera is just a little point and shoot digital - and obviously is not into closeups!