SO, NOT JUST A CRAZY CACTUS . . .

I know, I know, a lot of people put their tree up right after, or even before Thanksgiving.  But this is the first year I've chosen to do just that.  Reason being: I thought it would be great to keep the children occupied on Wednesday before the holiday.  And it did!  Even with the four year old and "Let's get to the next thing NOW" 7 year old, it went pretty well.  Fastest I've ever gotten a tree decorated.

And, hopefully, great memories for the children!

Oh, they loved their PJs, by the way.

CRAZY CACTUS

As usual, my Christmas cactus is off schedule!  But at least it waited until almost Thanksgiving to be in full bloom this year instead of being its usual Halloween cactus!

This year I decided to make the best of it.  My son and his family from New York will be arriving tonight for a couple days to spend the holiday with us.  I had planned to give them their Christmas presents while they are here instead of mailing them next month.  So I decided:  go with the flow of the cactus and have Christmas at Thanksgiving.  They can decide if they want to open them while they are here or take them home unopened. 

To help keep the children occupied tomorrow, I might even get out the Christmas tree and have them help me decorate it.  (Quite early for me, I usually don't do it until St. Nicolas day (December 6).

One of the gifts under the cactus includes these neat little coasters that I made the other day.  I fussy cut the poinsettia fabric so the bloom would be centered on the back of some and the quarter of the fronts of others.
Criss-Cross Coasters are the quarter squares.  The triangle ones are made the same way except you fold the top four pieces on the diagonal and place the triangle points in the corners of the backing.
Fun and easy to do!

And these are the PJs for the 4 New York grandchildren.  All the fabric just happened to be from my quilting stash.  Imagine that!

Oops, I guess it's time to leave the computer and start making my pies!

CHALLENGES

Hmmmm, challenges:  I guess one for me lately has been getting here to keep my friends up to date on my handiwork.

So here goes:  My current knitting project has been rather slow going as it has an intricate "feather and fan" stitch.  Wow, I "tinked" (took out stitch by stitch) and "frogged" (rip it, rip it) countless times before I was finally able to "see" how my current row stitches were supposed to be placed in case I lost count.  I finally have all the pattern stitches done and am now working on the sleeves that will shortly be placed on the sweater and knitted in stockinette stitch along with the yoke.

I must say that, even though it has been a challenge, it's also been quite rewarding.  

On the quilting front, a challenge was to use a donated panel of "heavy equipment" prints that were placed in a way that they could not be cut out in rectangles without cutting in to a nearby pattern.  So I cut out rather wonky pieces of fabric and then had to figure out how to sew them in to easily useable blocks for a quilt.  With a few "y" (well, not quite "y") seams, I was able to do the trick.  Luckily I had leftover pajama fabric from previous years that worked out quite well for sashing and backing for a pre-teen or teen boy.  This quilt, along with a couple others, will be taken to my Project Linus drop off site tomorrow.

In the meantime, my husband has been having a challenge of his own:  catching the critters that are digging up our yard, including moving the neighbors landscape border's river rock in to our grass.  When it was warmer and he was still mowing, he had to move the rocks one by one out of the grass so he could mow.
This one is a "GOTCHA":

Finally after some smart critter was able to remove the bait from the trap without "tripping" the door, we caught one of the culprits.  He is seen here in his cage in the trunk of the car right before his trip down the road a couple miles to be released.

There's at least one more that's been busy digging again.  Not sure if it's this guy who has found his way back to us or if it's one of his friends.  I just went out to check the trap -- and it's empty yet AGAIN!  Phooey.  Maybe tonight we'll have more luck.

In the meantime, I'll keep plugging away with my knitting and quilting.

CLICKING NEEDLES

Yes, the knitting needles have been clicking away.  This first sweater for a granddaughter's January birthday went really fast as it is a very loose knit.  Not a really easy project.  The sleeves were in the round and I used the magic loop method.  As you can see, I didn't get them very even and I'll have to seam the bottom portion of the right sleeve for them to be the same.  That should be an easy fix, though.  However, no way to change the buttonholes, so they'll just have to stay a bit uneven.  I'm not real pleased with my work here, but my daughter thinks that young Eleni will love it.  Hope so!

I'm quite a bit more pleased with this sweater for her big brother whose 15th birthday is just 2 days later.

And since there is still another sibling, almost 21 yo Juliana, with a birthday 5 days after that (You see why I'm working on these ahead of time!), I've started on this next one.  The yarn is baby alpaca and it is wonderful!

It may be a while before I'm back to show you this finished project as it's knit on #5 needles (and #2 & 3).  The waist line shaping is done by using smaller needles.  Neat idea.

But with those tiny needles, It's going to take a while!

For the COUSINS

Ah, it's been nice the past week getting back to some quilt planning, cutting, and then on to the sewing machine to get these two special quilts made.  I believe that the recipients do not follow my blog, but just in case I wanted to wait until they received them before I posted the photos.  I believe their mother was going to be delivering them today.

The first is for my goddaughter who is expecting her second child, a boy.  When the new little guy's big sister was in the nursery, there was a tree painted on the wall.  I'm hoping that's the room he will be using also, since I found this really nice tree fabric for the focus blocks and backing.  One of the prints in the pinwheels is from the nursery (genderless) linen she used for the little girl.  I'm hoping she's using the same nursery and linen, but if not, I think she'll still be pleased with the quilt.

And, as fate would have it, my goddaughter's sister is also expecting -- but in her case it will be new little girl joining a big brother in their family.  I really like the pink and brown.  The backing is a Robert Kaufman flannel that should be nice and toasty this winter.  (The babies are due in October.)

 And so as not to feel left out, I made myself a little goody too using scraps of drapery fabric and faux suede that was left overs from daughter Eleni's interiors business samples.  I'm finally joining the group of a little more advanced techies.  We're getting a lap top and this will be it's home when not in use.

Now, I'm pretty much concentrating on knitting, so I'll show you some of that next time.

WRAPPED IN LOVE

Admittedly it's been quite a while since I have checked in here.  Much longer than I care to admit.

My life has once again taken some turns, but I must say that part of what keeps me sane through it all (in addition to the prayers and love of dear friends and family) is my hand work.  And you all know that consists mostly of my knitting and quilting.  

I have finally finished the University of Tennessee quilt that is made of fabric from a dear friend who passed away last year.  I will not be able to bundle up with this during this fall's ball games without thinking of dear Jan.  I will feel her loving arms around me.

Many of you know that I was diagnosed with non Hodgkins lymphoma a few years back.  Well, I have had yet another relapse.  I have spent the better part of the last few weeks in Nashville as my medical care has been transferred to Vanderbilt University Hospital.  Luckily our daughter lives in Nashville so I have been able to stay with her while I undergo radiation treatments.
The second week that I was in Nashville, my sister and niece came to visit me there.  It was a wonderful visit.  She brought some old photographs that we poured over with much delight.
Amazingly she also brought this sweater for me that my mom had knit for herself. My sister told me whenever I need a hug, I can just wrap up in it and feel our mother's arms around me.  What a precious gift!

I'm sure I will do just that many times this fall as I await the next step in my treatment plan -- whatever that may be.

I do not intend for this blog to be a format for my medical issues -- just wanted to explain why I had been away for a while.  AND share the photo of that awesome sweater!  You can follow my lymphoma journey at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/marylynndemacopoulos if you want.

Here you will be following my knitting and quilting.  And yes, I have my grandson's sweater almost finished and have purchased the fabrics for my goddaughter's new baby's quilt.  So there's much more to come.  Oh, and I just received yarn in the mail yesterday for another January birthday sweater.  I guess I'd better get busy!

I'll keep you posted on the progress.

OFF (and ON) the NEEDLES . . .

Been a while since I've checked in, I guess.  

I've not been doing much quilting, but I have been moving right along with my knitting needles.

I finished this cowl for myself a couple weeks ago and finally got it blocked today.

I've made these wash cloths while in waiting rooms.  (Seems I've been doing a lot of that lately.)

And using the same wash cloth pattern--only with double yarn and many more rows--have finished a baby blanket.

Currently I'm working on this sweater for my grandson's 15th (How can that be?) birthday in January.
I'll continue as soon as I have measurements.  If I keep going before binding off for the armholes, it will be down to his knees!

 

I've also almost finished a sweater for my almost 9 year old granddaughter.  Just need to add the buttons.  And because it's a very loose knit, I'm going to add fabric to the back of the button and buttonhole band.  Should be interesting. . . . I'll let you know how it turns out.