I’m happy to report that the floors are finally done!  I moved out of the den and into a real bedroom.  The kids are no longer sleeping on recliners in the living room and are now on real beds in their room.  My “office” has moved from the living room into the den and I am still loving my desk.  My phone is working, the hubby’s computer arrived from the tech guy and he’s enjoying playing his games on a faster, cleaner computer.  K and J love it because now they can play on the laptop and only have to contend with each other instead of their dad.  I’m back working a lot which means my quilting and crafting is back to limited time only.  Even so I was able to attend another class at the big box craft store.  As much as I want to support small crafty businesses I can’t afford to every time I want to learn something new.  So I took a crochet class.  I used to crochet as a child with my grandma but never got more than a few rows done on a scarf or blanket.  Those projects took way too long for me – I do not have the patience for it.  The class I took was for a simple project that would allow me to finish it within the timeframe of the class (about 3 hours) and I enjoyed it.  We made a salmon pink beanie with a flower on it.  At the class, we ran out of time to learn how to do the flower so I had to figure it out.  I didn’t do it right as you can see – but I’ll try it again since Kayla now wants me to make her one.  Unfortunately the pattern only gives direction for 6-12 month olds and 12-24 month olds.  And that is way too small for my almost 12 year old.  I’m giving the one pictured below to my niece, Ammabelle. It is perfect for her  at 8 months.  I’m making the 12-24 month old one now to see if I can figure out how to make it bigger and I’ll just keep making it and increasing the stitch count until I get one that fits Kayla.  I guess I’ll keep Ammabelle supplied until then. 🙂

Ammabelle’s beanie

On Sunday’s post I mentioned that I couldn’t find my hand project that I wanted to work on on Tuesday.  I was so upset that day as I wanted to get it ready and I couldn’t find it with everything stashed away in boxes and bins.  Well I found it on Monday on the front passenger seat of my car.  :0  I remember now not wanting to lose it so I put it there.  I figured that it was away from the boxes and bins and it wouldn’t get lost.    This project is the start of the next block of Raining Cat’s and Dogs  from Ann Sutton of Bunny Hills Designs.  I started this project in November, 2011 as a BOM with my LA Quilt Shop, Quilt Emporium.  At the time I started the project, my applique skills were not very good.  Up until then, my only applique experience was with my first hand quilting class in 2006 and I didn’t enjoy it much.  I guess my brain was processing how to do everything else that I couldn’t get the applique part of it.  It was always something I wanted to touch up on and get more experience with so when the quilt shop offered this BOM I quickly signed up for it.  It was much harder than I thought but my applique has definitely improved.  I just have to remind myself that I do not need to finish this quickly and to relish in the process of learning rather than rush the project.  I’ve finished about 4 or 5 blocks so far.  I only have pictures of these two because the others are packed up somewhere.

Raining Cats & Dogs made from Ann Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs pattern

A block from Raining Cats & Dogs made from Ann Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs pattern

So I was able to do a little bit on Tuesday while I took Kayla to Cheer practice.

~Happy Quilting!

Melanie