A New Quilt for the House

If you have been following along with me the past year, you would have seen the college quilt I made for my son. I finished it about a month ago and I've missed working on it.

I have two years before my next son goes to college so I though I would make a new quilt just for the house. In girly colors! The college quilt was designed by Then Came June and I really enjoyed making it so I went back to her for a new pattern.

I decided on the Meadowlands Quilt. I saw it on instagram in many color combinations and I found one I really liked! I have some left over fabric from my sewing days, but not a lot. So I reached out to my friend, Seashore Sharon. She is a big quilter and her house is like a mini-store! I asked if she had any scraps in the colors of the quilt I liked and she said she would look. Well, a half hour later, she texted me that not only did she have fabric, she had the ENTIRE kit of that quilt top at her house! She bought it and never made it. I bought it from her and got right to work. Cutting pieces and making a glorious mess of color in my house. I started on Friday afternoon (work ended at 2:00 for Memorial Day). By Saturday morning I had a few blocks together. By the end of Sunday night, I had the entire top pieced. That was a benefit of a cloudy cool Memorial Day weekend. Now it's time to arrange the blocks, sew them together and order the batting and backing fabric. I hand quilt my quilts. It's my favorite part.

You start with 20 fabrics. Then you cut them into multiple sizes and mix and match. I used most of the fabric from Sharon but some were just too bright for me, so I added to it from my stash of fabric.

I had a nice little set up. I moved my computer over and put the machine up on my desk. I played some Netflix while I sewed. I watched all of Sweet Magnolia on Netflix.

First batch of squares done.

And there are the rest! It's a nice big throw size.

And there ya have it....another quilt in the works.

Week 10 of Quarantine

Here we go into week 10 of quarantine. We've all settled into this new life pretty well. The longer I've been working at home is going to make it a little harder to go back to the 40 hour out of the house work week! I have enjoyed the slower pace in the morning and at night. Days are jam packed with work, school work, household things, walking the dog, etc. So the daytime flies by usually.

There are zoom calls for work and school, conference calls for me, high school kids work, and last week were AP Exams online for my oldest. 

Just thought it would be fun to share some photos from our weekend. 

I made gyros on Friday night. The kit is found in the frozen section of Aldi. It comes with the meat, pitas and sauce. You have to thaw it overnight and then I added lettuce, tomatoes and red onions. They were quick  and delicious. The house smelled like Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival!

We are enjoying the fire pit Dalton made for Mother's Day. We all joined around for the whole night, making s'mores and hanging out.

Liz and I filmed a quick podcast. We have all stayed distant from each other and only going to the grocery store when needed. Restrictions lifted a bit around here on Friday so we got together. We put a few feet between us as you can see. It was nice to be side by side again!

After a nice weather day, I joined a Zoom with podcaster, Chevy Rell. It was a beautiful sunset.

I casted on a cute little bonnet to sell in the coop. 

This is the bonnet. I finished it in the morning drinking my coffee.

Here is a link to the pattern page.

I made another batch of sourdough soft pretzels. These are soooo good! Half were cinnamon and sugar and the others were salt. Here is the link to the recipe. I was able to get some yeast at the store so I can get back to baking things that require yeast! Who knew this would be an issue in 2020???

My girl, Miss Claire is broody once again. Every spring. This girl wants to be a mama!

I need to keep an eye on her and make sure she gets up to eat and drink. 

I casted on another Anker's Bonnet Sunday night. I love knitting this hat!

I'm going to make the baby version of the sweater that I made a few weeks ago.

I'm enjoying mindless knits lately. 

Here we go into week 10....hope you're all healthy and safe.

Knitting Keeps Me Sane

I don't know what I would do without knitting. There's nothing like it.

I have been busier than ever in the morning and at night. Knitting away.

Thought I would share a few pictures of my latest projects.

I finished my Leaves of Grass blanket. Knitted with Sweitzers Fiber Mill yarn in a dk merino base.

This was the second time I've knit this pattern. The first had an unfortunate ending with a washing machine and dryer. This one will NOT go into the dryer!!!!!!

My sister, Liz gave me this yarn for my birthday. She dyed it herself. It's alpaca, merino, nylon blend and it is so nice and squishy! I am making basic vanilla socks with it.

I am knitting another Granny's Favourite sweater to sell in the coop. I also started a new book. I had picked this book up at the library sale ages ago. It takes place right by Rhinebeck so it's fun to imagine the scenery. It's a ghost story and so far it's good.

This is the one that I finished. The color doesn't show up well. It's actually a very sweet sage green. I love the buttons I added. They were in my stash. I think I bought them last fall at the NJ Sheep & Wool Festival.

My buddy, all snuggled up in the morning while I knit and have my coffee.

Dalton made a small fire pit for me in the front of the house for my Mother's Day present. We had our first fire in it last night. Wine, knitting, pjs and a fire. Not a bad way to spend an evening! Then we headed in the house to watch the Survivor finale. What a season! My favorite didn't win but it was one of the best seasons we have ever watched.

Muffins!

OMG. Do I have the most delicious muffins to share with you!

I saw a woman mentioned on Instagram. She has a blog, Little Spoon Farm. She writes about sourdough baking and I saw the recipe here. Since working from home, I have found more time in the morning and at night to do things like this. Normally I would be getting ready for work and getting kids off to school. This has been a nice gift to have these days.

I followed the recipe exactly expect I used mixed frozen berries because that's all I had.

And I didn't have cornstarch so I left that out.

SOOOOOO YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!! My kids all give a thumbs up (except Chase. Weirdo doesn't like berries in muffins) I also gave one each to my mom and Liz during farm chores. They loved them too.

Ok....now I really need to start exercising!

Celebrating!

I celebrated a birthday on Saturday. We are still in quarantine but it really wasn't much different than a normal birthday. The thing that was different was the temperature!!!!!!! IT was FREEZING! We woke up to 36 degree temps in the morning. North Jersey saw snow flakes. Crazy!!! I usually spend my birthday (if it's on a weekend) outside planting flowers and soaking in the sun.

I started with wine on Friday night and made bread :)

My oldest son bought me a Pitt Panther sticker for my car.

Isn't he innocent looking when he's sleeping?

Birthday morning coffee and knitting. The best way to start any day!

Lizzie dropped off these goodies for my bday! She dyed the sock yarn and I LOVE it!

It's alpaca, merino, nylon. So soft and squishy. I already casted on for socks.

She also got me a food scale. I have been borrowing hers for my bread. I guess she wants hers back!

And the cute little stitch markers with Rhinebeck or Bust on them! So cute.

I sure do hope we get to go to Rhinebeck this year.

My mom posted this picture of my on Facebook. That's me swinging from my apple tree. I spent hours in that tree as a little kid. I used to love to make my ponytail hit the ground! I could probably still do that but I would need stronger ropes!

I got some gifts from my mom and dad. Thought this was hysterical. A true quarantine bday gift!

My friend Amy had her bday last Saturday. I made her a sign and dropped it off with some gifts last week. She returned the favor and repurposed the sign for me! Hysterical. She is not a crafty person but she sure is clever!!!! We had a social distant visit on my porch with a glass of wine and it was exactly what I needed. I miss my people so much!

Rick and the boys got me my favorite pizza. It's from Massutos. We usually go there for my birthday so I am thankful they are still open for takeout. It was sooooo good.

Dalton made me a chocolate cake. They sang to me and then I hopped on a Zoom call with some of my cousins, both sisters and my oldest friend, Kevin. We played a few rounds of Scattergories. It was really fun. We had some good laughs. That's been a fun part of this whole time. We have connected more than we usually do. Even if it's over the computer, it's better than nothing!

Today is Mother's Day. I woke up to toast made by Chase and my older boys went out to get me coffee. I have been a complete lazy bum today. Haven't done much of anything. It's still chilly and windy outside so most of my time has been in the house. Rick took me out this morning and bought me some hanging flower baskets. We also got one for my mom. It's nice to have flowers outside again. Dalton built me a little fire pit in the front of the house. I have been wanting one by the porch so he took it upon himself to make me one. Very thoughtful. Garrett wrote me one of his famous letters. He does this for every holiday. Chase made me a card and did some cute things through "school". Very sweet.

One of the baskets is hanging by the chicken coop. My favorite color :)

I hope you all had a nice weekend and Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

Happily Knitting

My knitting has shifted a bit. I used to knit a lot of things to sell in the coop in the past. It always helped me with Christmas shopping money. Over the past few years of working full-time, I found less time to spend knitting for the store. Well....times have changed and I am finding more moments in my day for a row here, a row there. 

I love sweater knitting the most (duh) so I thought it would be fun to knit up some baby sweaters that I could sell in the Coop this fall and winter.

Here is the first. It's much cuter in person! It was hard to photograph.

It is a free pattern called, French Macaroon

Very easy knit. Took a bit of seaming to put it together, but I don't mind seaming.

My friend reached out to me yesterday to see if I had any baby knits. Her friend had a baby boy that morning and I suggested this sweater. It's perfect for her and she's picking it up today :)

I had this cute little sailboat button in my stash. I think it's perfect.

I miss my Tuesday night band nights. A LOT. Lucky for me, this past Tuesday night was beautiful and we all hung outside on the porch. I started another little sweater. I've made these before.

To be honest, the pattern is not written well. It's all over the place and if you are not an advanced knitter, it's very easy to get confused. Which is a shame because it's not a hard knit at all. But it's so easy to get confused when reading the pattern.

Anyway, it's called Granny's Favourite. It knits up so cute.

Took a walk to the mailbox today and the sky reminded me of Andy's wallpaper in Toy Story.

Pretty day today.

What are you knitting? Do you have a favorite baby knit?

Just Keep Swimming

It's official. As of yesterday at noon, our schools are closed for the remainder of the school year. I knew it was coming. How could it not? I was out walking the dog, taking a much needed break from homeschooling my little guy and working from home when I saw the message. Governor Murphy declares school will remained closed for the year. Like I said, I knew it was coming. But it stung. I cried. I cried because I knew my oldest son would never walk back into his high school to finish out his senior year. He wouldn't have those days of hanging out with his buddies, complaining about "how they couldn't wait to get out", laugh at stupid jokes, bond with his class and enjoy those last weeks of being a senior. My sophomore would rather be in school. He misses his friends, his girlfriend and most of all, working out in the weight room every day with his football team. My youngest is , 3rd grade. Not a huge fan of school. So he's not too upset. But what I do know, is he misses his cousin Shea so much. He was really down last weekend. I was worried. He didn't want to play outside. Didn't want to fish. Didn't want to help Grandpop. Freaked me out.

I offered to make bread for my friend, Paige. We took it over on Sunday and Dalton and Chase took a ride with me. Paige gave Chase one of her hammocks to borrow. Little did I know that this hammock would change Chase's mood! He has been in it every minute he can since it's been hung. He has done his school work there. I have had to put chair next to him to help him through his poetry lessons. As I sit at my desk working, I look out the window and there he is. My little guy, happy as can be, hanging between the trees.

I had my cry. A good ugly cry. But I'm better. It is what it is. We are healthy. We hope for the best. I trust the school to do everything they can to honor our seniors. I am thankful for our jobs. To work from home. To have more time to make nice dinners. To not be running to baseball fields, feeling like a crazy person barely keeping things together. Thankful for my lunchtime walks. Gathering chicken eggs, picking flowers. Making lunch for everyone. Seeing my kids find things to do. More time for knitting and reading. More time for watching tv together. Less stress about getting everything done over a lunch hour. I miss my friends. I miss hanging out with my sisters and parents. I miss my friend Amy's house. I miss seeing my coworkers. I miss going to Massutos for pizza, wine and guitar music. But we keep swimming. We are all doing what we need to do. I pray that people behave as things start to open up. Please follow the rules. I want nothing more than my son to have a freshman year of college on campus. If we all follow the guidelines, this may be possible. My gut says he will be online for the first semester. My gut is usually right....but I don't want to think about that today. Today I want to be happy. To be hopeful. We're all in this together. Just keep swimming.