Where does the time go?

I can't believe it's been 3 wks. since I posted last! I wish the clock would slow down a little so I could enjoy things longer. We celebrated our family's February birthdays yesterday. I sure enjoy having everyone here. There were 11 of us this time. Matt couldn't make it here from Chicago.

Jenny modeling her Steelers Rah Rah Sox!

The socks turned out great and the Steelers won the Super Bowl....what more could Jenny want? I ended up liking the class "Knitting Socks 2 At A Time". Next up - a pair I've started for Mark using the same method.

Close-up of the quilting on the Michigan Baby Quilt

I get attached to baby quilts when I make them and even though I'm not a Michigan fan (after all we do live in Buckeye Country) I loved this quilt too. The machine quilting I did is simply straight stitching, but it looks great on this quilt pattern. I also ended up liking the fact that there were only borders on the top and bottom, none on the sides. It's different. I used wool batting so this should keep the little Wolverine plenty warm while he watches games with his dad and mom next season. Go Blue...errrr, I mean Go Bucks!!

Logan Alan Self's Michigan Baby Quilt

Did I mention that Stef and Joel are having a boy?? I suppose I shouldn't put this embarrassing photo of my grandson out there, but it's pretty cute! Nice of the technician to label it for us. The nursery furniture is purchased and the room is painted already. The shower is being planned as we speak....that always makes it seem more real to see all of the tiny baby clothes.

We've had a visitor for 6 wks. now!

This male, intact cat has been begging at our door. He's friendly which makes me sure he's not a feral cat. No collar so I don't have info on him. He loves being petted but loves being fed more. I've been giving him dry food and water and sometimes warm milk to get him through this cold spell. Is anyone interested in giving him a home? I'm close to taking him to the vet for a cut he got about a week ago on his back leg. He's been limping a little. He's been sleeping in the heated cat box we have near our front door every night. I guess he picked the right house when he was searching for a place to hang out. Since we have the 2 dogs and 2 cats of our own, I'm not going to let him come in. Not that he's afraid of the dogs...he rubs up on them too. We've temporarily named him Snowball.

Super Bowl Sunday...

We're going to a Super Bowl Party to watch the game. Woohoo! My daughter, Jenny, is a huge Steelers fan and that's why I'm knitting her these soxs....too bad they won't be finished for her to wear them. My son is a huge Steelers fan too...I guess I should be wanting the Steelers to win then...but wait, my alma mater's mascot is a Cardinal and my brother and cousin live in Arizona and are Cardinal fans, so maybe I should want them to win! Oh, I'm torn! One thing I know for sure is that I'll enjoy the food and refreshments (read as 'wine') at the party and MAY THE BEST TEAM WIN!!! The photo below shows how pretty the snow is in our back yard area. Mark's been diligently feeding the birds and you can see the squirrel on the back of the arbor bench seat enjoying the bird seeds too. The cardinals have been especially beautiful showing off their red against the snow. I love snow and have really been enjoying our winter wonderland these last few weeks. We had so much snow that my daughter Stefany's OB appointment to have her ultrasound to find out the sex of her baby was cancelled. That was a really long sentence!! We were disappointed, but will now find out on Feb. 3rd. You can bet I'll be posting the news as soon as we know! This quilt below that I'm making for the little Michigan fan since he was born on Nov. 19th, is finally all pieced. Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays got in the way of my progress. I like how it turned out and now it's time to machine quilt it. It's 47" x 64" and does not have side borders. I saw a quilt in one of my magazines and thought it was kind of neat that way. The back will be flannel so it will be soft against him when he covers up with it. I love using flannel on the backs of the baby quilts I make. I used minkee fabric once and that was great too!

Below is Clifford the Red Dog. I knitted him for my niece, Magi, who is having a boy in about 8 wks. Are any of you on Ravelry?? It's a really cool website community where knitters and crocheters can go to post photos and patterns. I am addicted to it! I found this pattern there. It was called Floppy Dog and is a pattern from Zoe Moeller's Knitted Toys book. In the book he's done in colors like the dog on Blue's Clue's but I had this yarn left over from a previous project and it was perfect for this little guy. I gave her three Clifford books to go with him. I also made these Buckeye Booties for Magi's little baby because she's an OSU grad and huge Buckeye fan. I found this free pattern on Ravelry as well. This pattern is called Saartje's Bootees for anyone who wants to go looking for it. They are really small and I'm afraid he'll only get to wear them once, but they're so cute!

A video to entertain you ...

If you click the URL below you can watch the video of Mark Skiing Wii style. The lady on the couch laughing is our neighbor, Diana. If Mark skied like this when he lived in Chardon, I imagine he fell down alot! Be sure to watch the arm action which is the part that makes me laugh the most. Let me know if the link doesn't work for you and I'll send it directly to your email address. By the way, this Wii was my Christmas gift...not! Mark really bought it for himself and I got to open it up. I truly knew it was for him when I opened the Fighter Pilot game! If it was for me I would have been opening some dance/exercise game or knitting/quilting game...he did buy 'me' the Wii Fit too.

http://good-times.webshots.com/video/3000930300039466500BpjHls

Mark's computer crashed and my computer was older than his, so we each got a new computer and it has new programs that I have to get used to. I hope this blog turns out ok. Below are photos of my current knitting projects. I would include a photo of the baby Michigan quilt, but it's all off the wall and the rows are getting sewn together. I'll send another photo when I have it ready to quilt. This photo below, believe it or not, is showing the start of the class I took lastnight called 2 Socks At The Same Time. They are done on a 47" circular needle using the Magic Loop method. My daughter, Jenny, has requested a pair of socks and they will be her Pittsburgh Steelers Rah Rah Sox. I know it's hard to tell from the skeins of yarn in the handy dandy plastic container, but the yarn is a self striping yellow and black. If you use your imagination the result so far looks like eyeglasses from a distance...or is that just my imagination? This may end up being a really cool technique for getting the pair done at the same time, but this long circular needle is getting quite twisted during the process! Awww...this photo below shows the body complete with eyes and collar plus two legs of a baby gift I'm making for one of our many pregnant nieces. I'm seaming the arms, ears and tail next and attaching them. He should look pretty cute when I'm all finished. I'm sending the book to go with it. Clever idea one of my friends had when I told her I wanted to make a red dog.

This photo below shows the body of a baby sweater I'm making for Baby Kahn due the end of February. I'm thinking it's a boy, but this sweater could suit a girl too. I have both sleeves going at the same time on a long circular needle (not shown) so they'll both be finished at the same time and the hood will be last. A little hoodie! That's it today....keep warm!

It's time to ring in the New Year....Happy 2009!!!

My last post ended with us leaving for Michigan to see the Hicks Family entertain us at karate with their glow in the dark nunchuk performance and their sparring techniques. We really enjoyed both days we went to see the show. The glow in the dark performance was fabulous and the kids especially enjoyed that. Here's grandson, Austin, looking pretty spiffy in his Star Wars type outfit complete with helmet, gloves and foot protection. The helmet, gloves and foot gear look hard, but they are soft materials covered with a shiny black coating which makes it look hard. Austin is 9 1/2 and his strongest attack is the backwards spin around kick...I'm sure that's not the correct terminology in karate language, but it looks like that to me.

Here's my grandkitty, Minnie, playing with a toy, but looking like she wants to give all of you a hug. She is such a sweet kitty who is 1 yr. old. Here's Minnie's sister, Belle, who has the biggest eyes I've ever seen on a kitty. She's playing Santa here and I know you can't tell how big her eyes really are because she's squinting a bit while she's thinking about her next attack on Santa's hat.

The story here with Ivy is that Mark was wrapping gifts for me and placing tiny little sticky notes on the outside of the packages with the receiver's name written on them. I was stacking the wrapped gifts on the floor until I had time to get the ribbons, bows and tags on them. Ivy always likes to hang out with us and was laying on the floor next to me. After a while I looked down at her and realized she was eating something. If any of you know Ivy, you guessed it! She was eating the sticky notes off the packages I had stacked up! So, she had to be bannished to her leash around the leg of the end table until we were finished. She still got to watch us, but couldn't reach any more of the sticky notes. Of course, we had to unwrap a few to figure out who the receiver was and then rewrap them. One of my friends calls Ivy...White Paw, Bad Dog...I guess that fits, doesn't it? Here are four of the felted birdhouse ornaments I made this year. They're about 2 1/2" high and 1" across. I went into the woods to find the tiny little perch sticks and I needle felted the hole.

Here's our sweet granddaughter, Maya, icing my Christmas cookies. Her mom french braided her hair for her and she has on the Christmas dress she got for her Dec. 20th birthday. That was the other reason we went to Michigan....for her birthday. I don't mind cutting out the cookies and baking them, but I hate the icing part so I always try to rope someone into doing that part. I still have about 3 doz. in the freezer so I guess we'll be eating those in a few months when I thaw them and Mark ices them.

I gave this quilt to Little Jenny for a combination housewarming/Christmas gift. Little Jenny is Mark's daughter who bought her first home in November. The quilt is called Pin Dots. It's a mystery quilt pattern created by Rita Fishel. Jenny also became engaged to B.J. Swaggard on December 14th! We are all so happy for her. B.J. did the traditional request of permission from Mark. He's a great guy and already fits right in to our teasing family.

I made these handwarmers for my hairdresser for Christmas. The pattern is called Fetching and the way the cables twist on them, I would say they are fetching. For any of you knitters out there, the pattern is free at the Knitty.com website. Just search for Fetching. Isn't Maya a great hand model?

Well, that's all I have for today. I wish all of you a happy, healthy new year!

Go Bucks in the Fiesta Bowl!!

Off we went to Millersburg....

We went to Millersburg to pick up the Bears Paw quilt I started to handquilt about 10 yrs. ago. I had the center blocks finished and put it away because it's such a large quilt and I lost interest. My friend Paula Meiler talked to an Amish woman there who said she and her friends could finish quilting it for me and they would try to match my stitches. Her price was reasonable so I was willing to put the quilt in their hands. I dropped it off in October while I was in Berlin at a quilt retreat with my old quilt buddies. It turned out pretty good, not quite like my stitches, but close enough and now I can say that it is finished. It only took them 2 months to finish it! I'm telling you that it sat in a huge rubbermaid container for at least 8 yrs. when it could have been finished and on a bed. What was I thinking waiting that long?? Once it gets washed and shrinks up a bit, I think all the stitches will look pretty similar and no one will be able to tell. At least that's what Paula claims. I think she's right. Tara, my calico kitty has blessed the quilt. If you look really hard you can see her on the quilt there. Cats are funny the way they lay on my fabric in my sewing room. One of my two cats always lays on a quilt after I make it as if to bless it (gee, I hope you recipients aren't allergic to cats!!). You can tell from the photo that I didn't get the whole quilt in the photo, it is larger than I remembered when I first put it in the container years ago.

Mark did the driving while I feverishly knitted on a Christmas gift for my hairdresser until we got into the hills and curves of Amish country. I'm a tough cookie but even I got a little nauseous on those roads. It doesn't help that Mark used to be a road rally driver and still thinks the best way to take curves is fast. After we picked up the quilt, we met Paula at the Inn at Honey Run for lunch. Here' some photos from this quaint inn that serves great lunches!

They had a poinsetta tree in the lobby.

Here's a photo of their tree on the outside deck that was loaded with bird friendly ornaments....I think some squirrels liked it too. This is a close up of the bird tree.

Here's a felt stocking that was hanging on the mantel inside over the wood burning fireplace.

This isn't what I was knitting in the car, but it is another Christmas gift I knitted with wool and then felted. It's a birdhouse ornament....can you see the little stick for the perch?

We're leaving today to drive to Michigan to see Jen, Tim and the grandkids and all their decorations. We'll stay overnight and watch their karate class before we head home on Saturday. Wish us luck with the 6-10" of snow that is predicted to hit there today.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

I wanted to show you a great photo of Mark and his mother and stepfather. His parents flew into Ohio from Washington state for their first great grandson's 1st birthday party in November.

This is a photo of our live Christmas tree. Mark loves buying huge trees for us. I told Mark this year that I really, really meant it when I said I didn't want another 17 ft. tree in our house that hogged up our whole great room. One that required a phone call to all the neighbors to see who might be home to help Mark carry it into the house. Last year's tree took two neighbors and Mark to get it in the house and up in the tree stand. When he cut the twine it was one of those Griswald moments where we thought the branches would bust out the windows and a squirrel might jump out!! When it was time to take it down, Mark had to cut each branch off and throw it out the window onto our patio because there was no way he could get that tree out of the house any other way. So you can see why I was adamant about the size of our tree this year.

Well, here's what it looks like when I'm not laying under it to get that shot to make it look like it's another giant. This year our live tree is a reasonable 11 1/2 ft. tall which Mark was able to carry in by himself. We were discussing whether the neighbors were using their caller ID right after Thanksgiving so they could screen their calls from the Kelly household knowing they didn't want to help carry a monster tree into our house a fourth year. Mark has come to his senses and even admitted that this was a much easier tree to decorate after setting it up.

Perhaps he also wants to remain married to me.

On to photos of a Bon Voyage

combination Christmas Party I was invited to lastnight.

Jill, our friend who is moving to Lexington, KY is on the left and the hostess of the party, Debbie, is on the right. Jill is a really great gal who shares in one of my favorite pasttimes ....quilting. We are really going to miss her!!

We played Guesstures after we ate some really great food and drank adult beverages. Have you ever played that game? It's similar to charades..... you pick 4 cards that have a word on them that you want your teammates to say and you place those cards in a timed plastic gizmo. If you don't get your teammates to say the word you are mimicking in the alloted time, your card falls into the machine and you don't get points for that one. Needless to say we laughed so much at the shenanigans of some of the newbies at the game!

Here's Gail who brought the game and was the most experienced at playing it. She did get her teammates to guess that her word here was BRACES.

Judy was a first time player and seems to be a little frustrated here with her teammates not guessing what she is sure is the most clever of signs to get them to guess what the card says. Kind of looks like she wants to strangle them. Santa was trying to guess what Judy was doing as well! Jill swore she wasn't going to play, but gave in to trying and got the giggles instead. Needless to say, her teammates could not guess what she was acting out. Debbie's word was POISON....need I say more??? and by the way, her team guessed her word. Good acting, Debbie!!!

and finally, the funniest acting job we saw all night by our first time player, Marilyn!

Her word was MERMAID....and her teammates guessed it from her excellent swimming technique shown here facedown on the rug!! I want her on my team next time we play!!

It's December!!!

I have a few photos from our Thanksgiving Feast. It lasted three wonderful days for me. Most of our kids came to stay overnight on Wednesday to get the festivities started. Mark and Patrick picked Matt up at the airport on Thanksgiving morning (he flew in from Chicago). Then everyone was here for the big meal. Mark bought a 27 lb. fresh turkey that could have fed twice as many as we had at our meal. He always does things up big! This first photo is the expecting parents....Joel and Stef.

This next photo is Little Jenny (she's 27 and not so little anymore, but we still call her that) and her boyfriend, B.J. Yes, we have two B.J.'s in our family too! This is Big Jenny and her two lovelies, Austin and Maya. Can you tell they love their Mom?

This photo (below left) is Ivy wanting back inside after

eating snow.

The photo on the right is the Noble Cowl all finished!

I've been down with a cold....but, still keeping busy.

Yes, I had a flu shot, but they don't guarantee you won't pick up something. This felt like the flu when it first started with the achy body. Now it's just a cold. I've been staying home so I don't infect all of my friends.

So, while I've been at home I've been a little busy with my projects and I thought I'd show you some photos. I've made some progress on the little Ballerina Wrap sweater I showed you earlier. I now have the sleeves done besides the back and one of the fronts is almost finished.

I also finished the purple sweater I was working on.

This photo was taken before I was stricken with the cold!

To cheer me up while I'm down, I was able to pick up my new Janome Platinum 760 - 12 lb. machine for use in classes. I had it in layaway at Red Rooster Quilt Shop since August. I've been playing with all the stitches it has this morning. Quite a fun little machine!

My son Patrick's other best friend just had her baby boy, Logan, on the 19th so I've been working on his baby quilt. I can't believe that I (a Buckeye fan) am making a Michigan quilt for this little guy, but I am. This photo shows the pieces on my design wall and you can see the Michigan fabric I'm using as a border at the top. The design wall fabric is the grid looking spaces and those need filled with more 9 patch blocks. Use your imagination or squint and maybe you'll be able to tell what I'm up to. The 2nd photo is the paper project I printed out of EQ4 for my design and little squares that will become 9 patch blocks. The last two photos here are of neckwarmers that I have on my needles. The one on the left is called A Noble Cowl and has an intricate shield pattern done in a teal yarn. The one on the right is a neckwarmer made with Caron Spa yarn that is incredibly soft. The Spa neckwarmer will have either one or two buttons to keep it wrapped around the neck....you'll see later!

That's it for today. I'll see you again after Thanksgiving with family photos.

Have a Happy Turkey Day!!!

The happy parents to be....

Happy Veteran's Day to all of you who served to protect our freedom! I appreciate living in this great country that you proudly served.

I'm posting this photo of Stef and Joel so you can see how happy they are. The three of us went to her OB/GYN appt. last Thursday to verify that she's pregnant and saw the little one on the ultrasound. We also saw it's little heart beating and that made us smile. Joel was sure he saw little feet flapping too. I had never seen an ultrasound in person before so I was thrilled and to see my new grandbaby swimming around was the ultimate! The baby is due June 9th. I'll be knitting sweaters and making a quilt as soon as we know if it's a boy or a girl. Stef likes to plan so in January we hope to find out the sex of the baby so she can get busy and plan it's room. I can't wait to hold a baby again...it's been 7 long years.