{ Christmas Cookies }

For the first time in a zillion years I made rolled sugar cookies for Christmas gift giving. My Mom reminded me that I used to make such pretty cookies when I was a kid but they really didn't taste very good. (Thanks for telling me 35 years later Mom) I looked around the internet for cookie decorating blogs and came across Sweetopia.  There were recipes, decorating tips and videos to aid me in my beautiful and tasty cookie quest.

I picked up all the required ingredients and decorating tools, baked one day and decorated the next. I'm happy with the results, both the look and the taste. These babies took a long time to decorate. First they had to be outlined, then flooded with royal icing. Some needed secondary decorating so I had to wait for the first layer to dry a bit before starting the next layer. Oh, and mixing royal icing for 10 minutes with a hand mixer was hell. I'm hoping to find a stand mixer under the tree from Santa this year.

I have to bag them and pack them up for gift giving. A few I'll be keeping for myself, just to look at.

{ Island Waters }

The last pair of knit socks designated a Christmas gift is finished!

The pattern is Duckies by Samantha Hayes. The yarn is Knit Picks Stroll Sport. The pattern was very easy to follow for a relative beginner like me. I already finished a pair using fingering weight yarn. You can see that post HERE. 

Now I have to start making hats. Three of them before Christmas Eve. Ready, set, go!

{ Walk in the Woods }

I managed to finish up another pair of socks this weekend. I love the color, Forest Heather from Knit Picks, and the pattern, Simple Skyp. I'm definitely goingto be making another pair using this pattern.

{ Beach Plums }

Another pair of Christmas socks is complete. I'm finding it can take me anywhere from one week to one month to finish one sock. I still have at least one and a half pairs to complete. I was hoping for some shorty socks to be finished too, but that may be too ambitious.

I really wish work didn't conflict with crafting time. Between kniting socks and finishing my daughter's quilt I have to squeeze in cookie baking for Thanksgiving. I'm trying out the cut sugar cookie-royal icing cookies for the first time. All my supplies arrived today and Thursday they and I have a date.

{ Blogger's Quilt Festival: Fall 2013 }

Yay! I actually have a completed quilt to enter into the Blogger's Quilt Festival this time around. I'm entering it in the { Quilt Photographer } category.A big thank you to Amy at Amy's Creative Side for hosting this wonderful online quilt festival.

I called this my Friendship Quilt. I had been hoping to make a quilt for some special friends who live in West Virginia. They are our Colorado hiking/snowshoeing buddies. Whenever we drive to TN to visit my girl in Vet School, they kindly open their house to us on the way down. It's nice to break up the drive and get to visit with them.

The fabric choice was Odds & Ends by Cosmo Cricket for Moda since the colors matched perfectly with their decor. I used the pattern Avalon Scrappy Summer from the Moda Bake Shop which worked up very quickly. I hadn't purchased any yardage but did have some stashed backing fabric that worked well {I have no idea of the name} For the binding I dipped into my treasured stash of Strawberry Fields fabric. The green gingham was perfect.

I sent the finished quilt top, backing and batting to Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting to work her long arm magic. She does such nice work and her turnaround time is usually about a week. I had it bound and washed in two days and could not wait to take her photo. All the outdoor photos were taken in Mattituck, Long Island.

I hope you all enjoyed peeking as much as I liked showing. Please leave me a comment. I'd love to hear what you think.

CLICK HERE to view all the beautiful entries.

{ Can I Get a Hell Yeah? }

I love when I've finished sock #2 of a pair, kitchenered the toe closed and weaved in the tails.  It took me just over a month to finish these socks. I love the yarn color. Woo hoo for self striping yarn. It makes non-knitters think I'm doing something very special.

I may not be able to wait until Christmas to give these to Steph.

{Granny's Granny Square Quilt}

I have a special friend who had a birthday last month. She and her husband always open their home to us when we go out to Colorado. This year I wanted to give her a special gift so I made her a granny square quilt with Birch Bark Lodge.

One of the things we love about September in Colorado are the changing aspen leaves. The colors are beautiful. I was looking for a way to incorporate the aspen into her quilt, somehow.  I was able to locate an aspen leaf quilting pattern and Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting worked her magic.

My friend loved her quilt.

{ It's A New Look}

Today I said goodbye to the blog template I was using from the beginning. It seems the company providing the images for the blog design would be pulling those images on the 19th of October. Too costly to keep them going for free. So, I'm playing around with new options. I think I like this look, or maybe not. I'll fiddle around a bit and decide.

{ There's Been Some Quilting Going on Around Here}

This Saturday the hubbie and I are heading out to California for the first time to visit Yosemite National Park. Then we'll be stopping in Colorado to visit with some friends before heading back home. This quilt will by flying out with us and finding a new home with friends out there. I hope they like her.

The fabric is Odds & Ends by Julie Comstock for Moda and the pattern is Avalon Scrappy Summer from Moda Bake Shop. Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting in Utah professionally quilted her. She did a wonderful job again.

{ It's Never Too Early to Start Preparing for Christmas}

I have officially started getting ready for Christmas. I have one gift down...these socks for Breann. No risk of her seeing them as noone knows about this blog. I tried very hard to make the stripes match. I got close, kind of.

All the girls and boys will be getting hand knit socks this year. I've been stashing sock yarn for past few months with the plan to knit them all up for gifts. There are one or two, well, maybe a few more than that, that I will be knitting into socks for me.  Who else would appreciate socks made from this yarn called 'Zombie BBQ' ?

{ Can you say...socks?}

Pair number 6 was finished this morning! I started this pair May 3rd and finished up two months later. I feel really slow. There was a diversion a few weeks back when I tried to make a pair of ankle socks for Steph but ran into a glitch after the first one and went back to these. Having a full time job really cuts into the crafting time. I wish there was something I could do about that.

How do you like my tomato? This is my first attempt at doing the urban garden thing. This baby is the just starting to ripen. I may have him bronzed.

And, there is some quilting on the horizon. I have the fabric and pattern chosen and I'm just waiting for some down time to get started. I've been missing it!

{ Hopping on the Knitting Wagon}

I've finished pair #4. These are for Steph and were made from Margaret Testa's pattern Cable Socks. 

I'm loving sock knitting! I get to buy pretty yarn, in small amounts, and start and finish a project quickly. They are an easy carry along project and I get to see progress much quicker than I would say, with a sweater or shawl project. Don't get me wrong, I have several sweater projects queued on Ravelry but they involve a large investment in yarn and time. Maybe some day I'll attempt a larger project, but for now I will welcome the packages of pretty sock yarn that come in the mail and keep trying out new patterns.

{Rolling Right Along}

On St Patrick's Day I completed knitted sock pair #2. The pattern is Vanilla Latte which I grabbed off Ravelry and the yarn is Felici by Knit Picks.

The timing was perfect! I was able to wear them to our St. Paddy's Day celebration.

{So, I Lied}

Well, you know what they say about good intentions. I had plenty, really I did. This blog won't be neglected any more,blah, blah, blah. Life always gets in the way of the fun stuff. 

I know, I have to post the remaining P365+1 week. I'll get to it eventually. I have to post photos of the three additional Mystery BOM blocks I've squeezed out and do a little updating on my knitting escapades. I need more time!

I've been waiting to do this.....I present my first completed pair of knit socks!

They're a little too big (Well, actually they are a lot too big. My size 10.5 son tried them on and they fit) I have to learn to size a bit more accurately next time. Overall, I'm satisfied with my first sock project. And, shhh, I think I'm addicted.