no finish, but some progress

I am not going to get a project finished for the second month in a row. I have made some progress and should be on track for a couple of finishes next month.

I got the borders on my Jo's Club basket quilt. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. We got a packet of fat quarters with our registration. I used almost every last bit of the outer border fabric. See those bits of selvage on the edge? It's within a 1/4 inch, but just barely.

These socks are ready to knit the cuffs. I should be able to finish them up in an hour or so if I have some dedicated knitting time. These are knit 2 at a time, toe up, on one 40" long circular needle with this free online pattern. Since I tried this method I have used it almost exclusively. I just love finishing both socks at the same time. It's also nice to have the option of just making the leg shorter if you find you are running low on yarn instead of finding out halfway through the second sock. JudyL is planning a November knit along for socks. There are a lot of people who are anxious to try sock knitting. I would recommend this method. It is a little fiddly getting them started, but after you get going I think it's much easier and faster.

who is your tv crush?

We do have random conversations at work. Yesterday, during lunch, someone was talking about the last episode of House. One of the guys proceeded to tell us that he has a huge crush on Cuddy. Others joined in and pretty soon as people would walk into the kitchen for lunch they would be asked who their tv/celebrity crush was. It is funny what you can learn about people by who they are attracted to. Our resident intern, who is somewhat of an admitted geek likes 7 of 9 from Star Trek. This gave everyone a really good chuckle about him being attracted to someone who is part robot. By the end of today I think pretty much everyone has weighed in on their crushes. One of the very quiet QA guys likes Meredith Baxter and Valerie Bertinelli. My friend, who is a very strong personality, has a thing for L.L. Cool J and Vin Diesel.

I think the only thing the guys I am attracted to have in common is a little bit of mischief in their eyes. Shemar Moore, Sam Elliot and John Bon Jovi.

So who is your tv/celebrity crush? Lets see what we think it says about you.

meeting days

Planning days at work can be my favorite days. With our agile method of working we work heads down, really hard in 2 week "sprints". Then we have 2 days of planning to define the work for the next sprint. The planning meetings tend to be long and drawn out. Luckily no one expects us to just sit. You can see Patrick crocheting on the right, Ed with his squishy bat and all the toys on the table. I spent my time doing some knitting on a pair of socks. I think I got about 2 inches done on Friday and am hoping to get up to the cuff tomorrow. I actually find it easier to concentrate when I'm bored if I have something like knitting to occupy some part of my brain.
I made a little progress on my process this weekend. Yesterday my LQS had an open house and sale (gotta love a sale). I had been looking for something to use for sashing and I thought this Jo Morton was nice. I had the cornerstone fabric in my stash. I am thinking of adding a narrow accent border and then a wider one.
This month's Jo's challenge is October Road. Not my favorite so I'm not sure I'm going to do it. I've been thinking and I might cut the blocks down and only do 6. I might like it better smaller. :-D

look what i did

I am going to be prepared for my Jo's Little Women Club 2 months in a row. :-D
Now I just need to decide how I am going to quilt it. Those are half inch strips. There are TONS of seams as I'm sure you can imagine. I'm not sure I could hand quilt without using really big stitches.

friday fun

Friday was our annual summer outing at work. Usually we are taken to some nice resort type place, offered a choice or chicken or lobster and then allowed to partake of the activities offered until time to leave. Not so this year. A couple of the managers got it into their heads it would be fun to have a surprise outing. The time outline was given to us, but with the activities left out. We were to meet for lunch in the office, do our activity then all meet at 4 for cocktail hour at a local restaurant and prizes at the end of the day.
Everyone met at our gathering area in the office for lunch and were divided up into teams. While everyone was eating the activity was revealed and time for strategy given. Our leaders had been very busy. They had set 14 geocaches spread out around the city, given points by difficulty. We had 3 hours to find enough to add up to 12 points and then call in to get coordinates to a final "big kahuna" cache. We ran from one end of the city to the other and ended with all but one team frantically searching the parking lot of the restaurant for the final cache. It took more than an hour, but the final cache was finally found by the team that had arrived first so I guess it was fitting. It wasn't my team though. :'( We got there second. I have to tell you I ended the day completely exhausted and had to come home and take a nap. I am way out of shape from my sedentary job and I think I will have to do something about that. It was fun though and I wish I had known about geocaching when my children were younger. It would have been a great family activity.

blogging the process

I am still in the Jo's Little Women club at my local quilt shop. We finished the scheduled (or rather some of us - not me- finished) patterns for this year. Our group wanted to continue so the second half of the year we are doing projects from Jo's latest book. Our first class we worked on the little needle book I posted previously and we then had the next month to finish these 4 basket blocks. I finished the blocks before the month was out. Everyone was duly impressed.

The second month we did hand piecing. I made this tumbling blocks block. Not sure what I am going to do with it, but I love hand piecing and had a really good time doing it. I cut my blocks down from what everyone else was doing, I can't ever seem to follow along, but really wish I had made them even smaller. I am contemplating doing an entire hand pieced miniature from tumbling blocks. 3 dimensional blocks are so fun.

We now have until next meeting to make this tiny rail fence quilt top. Each block is only 3 inches finished. There will be 24 blocks so I am more than half way there. I think 2 months in a row I might finish my assignment. A huge improvement for me. ;-)

one foot in front of the other

It has been a really long time since I blogged last. I didn't intend to be gone so long, but things have been, shall we say, difficult in the Bearypatch.
I was going along pretty well at my job when my company decided that I was needed on a different team. A team where I had no idea about how to do what I was being asked to do. I have spent the last few months running as fast as I can just trying to keep up. I am finally starting to figure things out, but I still feel far from proficient.
My father is all safe and snug in his assisted living facility, but he is bored. He is used to being a relatively active person. He liked to putter around his yard and house. I have tried to come up with ideas of things he can do in his more physically restricted state, but everything I come up with he dismisses. His only answer is for my sister and/or I to entertain him when we aren't working. With my new job learning curve I have been putting in over 60 hours a week and most of the rest of my time is spent trying to keep my household running and his bills paid and errands done.
Last week I got a message saying I have been deactivated from the Stash Quilts ring. I've been on it since almost the start and this made me realize that I am working myself into the ground and haven't been doing anything for myself. I am going to start timeboxing and work blocks of time on tasks and make sure to set aside blocks for the things I enjoy. And I do enjoy blogging. :-)