I’m still here……… :-)

Wow….it's been a while since I have visited here.  Even my husband was starting to comment on my lack of blogging, so I figured it was time for a post. 🙂

I have been busy on a number of different things, including finding ways to streamline my time a little bit more at The Woolen Rabbit.  Thankfully I have the most wonderful customers that stuck by me during my recovery from back surgery and the shop is back in full swing again, so I have been looking at finding ways to do things smarter and more time effective.

One of the reasons for trying to free up a little time is so that I can get out of the house and spend time with friends and family or even doing things at home that I love to do.  One of the hardest parts about working at home is you can go days and weeks actually without much people contact, which is hard for me being the social person that I am…… so what I did do was to join a few quilting classes to meet new people and learn new skills.  I have never really done much machine applique, so I took a block of the month class at my local quilting shop to learn how to do it correctly. We are making Across the Wide Missouri which has an interesting story to go along with the quilt.

Most of the class is doing a typical scrappy quilt, but I fell in love with this line of fabric and wanted to use them in my quilt giving it a softer, more contemporary feel to it.  I will admit that it took me almost 1/2 of this block to finally get comfortable with pivoting that darn blanket stitch correctly and those chicken feet….ey yi yi!

the next BOM I am doing is this house quilt using beautiful neutral Japanese fabrics. It's not really a formal class, but Terry and I are doing this together, so we get a chance to visit our favorite quilt shop once a month and chat about the frustrations of points while machine quilting.  I was pretty happy with this block other than the wonky seam on the right side.  If I didn't take a little dip I would have chopped off a point, so I can live with the wonky seam that will pretty much disappear after it's been quilted.  It's not perfect, but…… 🙂

There's been some knitting around here as well.  I will admit that I took a break after all of my Christmas knitting while couch bound after surgery.  It was so nice to pick up the needles and finally start Leaving.  I am so happy with how the yarn is knitting up and the pattern as all of Anne's are, is very well written and easy to work with.

I have also been working on this nice chunky mobius called Deephaven.  Ashley fell in love with this yarn while helping me at SPA and asked if I might make her a mobius to wrap around her neck. I will tell you a little more about the pattern and why I chose it when I blog the finished scarf……I may actually finish it up tonight. :-)  It's been a wonderful mindless but fun knit.

So…..that's whats been happening in my corner of the world this winter.  What fun things have you been doing?