Easy Street Finish!

It's finished!  Easy Street has the binding stitched down and the weather cleared up enough this afternoon to hang it over the quilt branch of the sycamore tree.  See those daffodils peeking around from behind the trunk?

I started it way back in November thinking about using up my lime greens, aqua blues and reds.  I started worrying a little that it was too Christmassy, so when I finished the blocks I made sure to use the blue for the outer border.  I even quilted it with blue thread.  I am sending out bright, cheery, spring-like vibes with this quilt.  I mean, it definitely will work for Christmas, but I don't think it's Christmas-only.  It was my first quilt where I consciously tried for a "modern" color scheme.

Easy Street is still up at Bonnie K. Hunter's website, but will be pulled in June to go into her next book.  I've seen a number of stunning different colorways around the web.

It will be a wedding gift for Eliyah and Nathaniel tomorrow.  Eliyah was our babysitter way back when and it is so great to be able to give her a quilt I made.  It is quite heavy, with all the dense piecing in it.  She's probably far too busy to be surfing the web today but just to make sure, I won't link this up to Facebook. 

Wednesday in Fabric and Yarn

Habemus socks!  They were an epic swath of stockinette on two size-zero circulars with a Zauberball lightweight fingering yarn.  They were finished last night, during Tertia's choir concert.  Steve will want to wear them tomorrow.  There was quite a bit of hanging out in the Room of Tears after the first pair of socks I made for Steve this year felted; I am hoping for a longer life-span for these.  I am posing them alongside The Colossus Rises, by Peter Lerangis, which is what you probably want to read after Percy Jackson.  It features middle-school misfits with dysfunctional lives and strange superpowers, but the characters are slightly less hilariously endearing.  I'm only a little way into it though, and it's certainly a page-turner.  In honor of the new pope I should probably also mention Henle Latin I and II, which are my textbooks for teaching Latin at a Protestant Christian school -- but which have indeed impressed me with the intellect of those Jesuits.  After thirteen years teaching Latin, I could understand the announcements before the reporters, which was a nice feeling!

My other knitting project has turned into a crochet project... I'm still working on the border of that bathmat rug.  I get to pick out the next knitting project/s soon!

The quilting of Easy Street continues.  I had a day off from school today because my students were all taking the National Latin Exam.  I really needed it, with allergy season starting and feeling run-down in a low-grade kind of way.  It's almost 75% done now and the final border is in sight on the rollers.  I can't really quilt for extended periods of time, it's just too draining, but I did it in short bursts in between watching pope coverage and running errands.

Now that my Crumbs quilt top is finished, it's at school awaiting signatures from all students and staff.  It's always so fun collecting signatures, K-12. 

Since finishing the Crumbs top I have been working on organizing my existing scraps.  I stayed up way too late Monday night doing this.  My scraps are not noticeably less than they were before, but I'm excited about how organized they are becoming!  In the foreground, left to right, I have my "crumbs" bin for small bits; in the bag are triangles, precut polygons orphaned from other projects, and orphan block fragments waiting to be given new life; in the large bin are my "tinies", scraps bigger than crumbs but still not usually longer than 8" in any direction.  In the background although you can't see too well, there are bins for strips: 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3.5".

I have a bin for "foldables", which probably need to be subcut into strips at a later time.  All of these fabrics are mainly remnants from other sewing projects or reclaimed from other clothing or household textiles in the time-honored, thrifty way.  You would think after making a Farmer's Wife quilt and two crumbs quilts from them they would have gone down a bit, but no.  I'm not even showing you my color-organized bins of fabric that I bought specifically for quilting.  They still need to be organized. And there are all those shirts that I bought last week that need to be cut up.
I'm linking up today to WIP Wednesday and the Yarn-Along.

Quilting designs and Stash Report

The design wall is in stasis right now, but here's what's developing on the Megaquilter frame, where Easy Street is in progress:

I'm using an allover squiggle-loop-flower design, with two different kinds of flowers inspired by flowers I saw in Machine Quilting Solutions.  Here's the "chicory flower", with Muffball in the background window.  I'm approaching the halfway point -- I love the squiggle-loop pattern because I can do it fast.  Backing fabric is all greens and reds, but I'm really trying for a non-Christmas vibe, hence the blue thread.

And in this one from a slightly different angle you can see the "double daisy".  And oh look!  Muffball is giving me her "We are not amused" glare!  We are so privileged to have a cat of her stature with us, and she doesn't want us to forget it!

Linking up with Patchwork Times so you can see what others are working on.

Stash report has not changed since last week for either quilting or knitting.  I should have at least one knitting finish soon though.

Quilting fabric:

Fabric used this week: 0 yards

Fabric used year to date: 16 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date: 3 yards
Net used for 2013: 13 yards

Knitting yarn:

Yarn used this week: 0 yards
Yarn used year to date: 880 yards
Yarn added this week: 0 yards
Yarn added year to date: 910 yards
Net used for 2013: -30 yards in the hole and working hard to finish more

Yarn-Along: Zero to Fifteen; and WIP Wednesday

Welcome to all my new followers!  Since the Liebster Award came along, I have noticed the number of followers has more than doubled (from 4 to 11, that would be almost tripled!) and I really appreciate each one of you.  Thank you for your patience with my ramblings and woolgatherings!

The big quilting news since last week, of course, is finishing the Easy Street top.  I am hoping to piece a backing and get that on the frame soon. 

Once again I am venturing into crumb-land.  This will be the signature quilt for the 2013 Cedar Tree auction, and I was so happy with how last year's turned out that I'm using basically the same formula.  You can find basic instructions for the crumbs technique at Jo's Country Junction, but it's pretty much just free-form patchwork with very little advance planning and no strict rules about fabric matching.  I'm trying to make as many tree blocks as possible -- some are double height, but most blocks will be 6" finished, with plenty of dark green to tie the whole thing together.  But in addition I have lots of leftover scraps, orphan blocks and dead-end blocks that will find their home in the top.  And if one of the tree trunks has a bit of a lean, and some of the fabric is from old sheets or curtains, or there is the bottom half of an orange T-Rex wandering through the forest, that suits my aesthetic just fine.  Most of these blocks were made in the last few days... I have acres of scraps to sort through and about 90 more blocks to make before I quit.  It will be messy in my sewing area for awhile yet.

For the Yarn-Along, I give you Zero to Fifteen.  Last year was the year of shawls; this year I'm working on knitting up some socks.  I'm chugging along on Steve's Zauberball socks on size 0's.  I am increasing for the gussets -- I decided to use Wendy Knit's basic instructions for toe-up gusset socks, which I've used in the past with good results.  But for a break from the teeny tiny stitches (and also to clean the sewing room just a bit) I dragged out this bathmat rug that's been hibernating for awhile, on size 15 needles.  I'm stranding 6-7 strands of reclaimed cotton yarn from thrift store sweaters.  The socks are about 9 stitches per inch; the rug is about 2 stitches per inch.  I get a bit of vertigo switching back and forth.  And the book is my recent purchase, Scraps and Shirttails II.  Lots of dream quilts in there!

Easy Street Top - Finished!

So I put the final seams in my Easy Street quilt top as the light was fading Saturday...

Closeup of the border, some plain red and Connecting Threads turquoise I picked up at that warehouse sale...

This is a big quilt... about 97" square because I added a smidge on the borders.  It could probably pass as a skimpy King size and definitely a generous Queen.  I was glad to get some nice light Sunday morning, but it was almost too big for the fence:

I am sticking by my opinion that it's not Christmassy.  Not at all.  Just cheerful, bright and modern.  Feel free to tell me that it's not too Christmassy...

We quilters have our moments of doubt.  There were a lot of little pieces in this puppy, and they didn't always match perfectly at the corners, and by the time I was seaming the 3rd row I didn't care anymore.  I do like the way the two blocks create secondary patterns.  I have seen so many pretty examples of this quilt around the internet; it really does work with many different color interpretations.

The groundhog was right... spring is coming!  With crocuses,

primroses,

and violets, all on the way from the fence to the back door.
And because this quilt used so much fabric, I have a stash report to update:

Quilting fabric:

Fabric used this week: (the whole) 9.5 yards according to my estimate

Fabric used year to date: 9.5 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date: 3 yards
Net used for 2013: 6.5 yards

Knitting yarn:

Yarn used this week: 0 yards
Yarn used year to date: 880 yards
Yarn added this week: 460 yards (Knit Picks replaced the yarn that felted!)
Yarn added year to date: 910 yards
Net used for 2013: -30 yards in the hole and working hard to finish more

Well, that felt good!  Now to git 'er quilted!  Then I can count even more fabric used for the backing. 

Today I'm puttering in my sewing area, cleaning and organizing a little bit and working on crumbs blocks for the Cedar Tree auction quilt.

Design Wall Monday and Stash Report

Draped over my quilting frame because the design wall isn't big enough for Easy Street.  I'm not quite half done with the seaming together, but it will happen.  It feels good to be getting a tiny bit of sewing done!  Check out what is on other design walls over at Patchwork Times.

I think this is only my second stash report of the year:

Quilting fabric:

Fabric used this week: 0 yards

Fabric used year to date: 0 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date: 3 yards
Net used for 2013: -3 yards

Knitting yarn:

Yarn used this week: 420 yards for Daniel's socks (to be blogged soon)
Yarn used year to date: 880 yards
Yarn added this week: 0 yards
Yarn added year to date: 450 yards
Net used for 2013: 430 yards

Randomday in advance, with homophones

Steve and I will be gallivanting this weekend, so I'm doing a Randomday post in advance.  I can do that, right?  I keep thinking of good blog post topics but not feeling energetic enough to do them, but I am saving up for some book reviews at least.

This one is for my 7th and 8th graders:

The Consul, after taking counsel with the council, stepped to the radio console and gave a speech to console the public after the tragedy.

All of these homophones or near-homophones have a Latin equivalent that is plaguing us, except for the radio console (they didn't have radio or gaming consoles in Latin, and if they did they might call it an "instrumentum," but that's just a guess).

• consul, consulis - 3rd declension noun, masculine by natural gender rule.  Two consuls at a time served as heads of state for the Roman Republic, and they were elected annually.
• consilium, i - 2nd declension neuter noun, and please use the synonym "plan" or "advice" unless you can spell "counsel".
• concilium, i - 2nd declension neuter noun.  Open the doors and "C" all the people on the town council.
• consolor, consolari, consolatus - 1st conjugation deponent verb.  It means "comfort" and appears in the Isaiah 40 translation 8th grade is working on.

Okay, that's all the Latin for now.  No, wait... there's more.  I'm currently doing the Latinstudy groups for Caesar's Gallic Wars and Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English, have been for years now... and there is a brand new group starting up dedicated to Lucretius' De Rerum Natura, which I'm interested in joining even if it's a bit of a stretch for my ability level.  So the first assignment is due this Saturday, and I did it yesterday.  Addressing the goddess Venus as a kind of earth-mother life-force thing.  Anyway, all very interesting and we'll see how long I last.

I just today finished packing up all the Christmas decorations, but they haven't been schlepped down to the basement yet.

I declared today "Second Thanksgiving."  You know how Hobbits have second breakfast?  Since Daniel wasn't with us for Thanksgiving, and since I had an extra turkey in the freezer, I cooked it today and we invited Grandma over for supper too.  It wasn't as fancy a meal as real Thanksgiving, but we had mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, salad and mixed veggies, and now the kids will have leftovers while Steve and I are gallivanting.  Someone pointed out that it's technically "First Thanksgiving" if you go by the calendar year, which would make real Thanksgiving "Second Thanksgiving," but we won't go there.

Some people are not only finished with Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery quilt top, but they've even got it quilted and bound.  I'm astonished.  This week, with school in full swing again and low energy levels, I thought I was doing well if I had time to sew at all.  There were two days that I sewed, and I got a total of four more blocks finished from the time I took this picture:

 

I'm also only making very slow progress on the socks I'm knitting for Steve.  I would really like to have them done.  But they're not.

Design Wall Monday with Easy Street Progress

On my design wall this Monday is Easy Street, Bonnie Hunter's most recent mystery quilt.  Dozens of overachievers probably already have the whole top finished, but I'm not an overachiever.  I have the border triangles done and 4 of block A (I'll need 16 total).  I even made one block B (I'll need 9 total) to see how it looks, but you can get an idea by putting two border triangles together.  I like it, but it's a lot of lime green jumping out at me!  I'm trying to figure out if it wants to be a Christmas-only quilt or if it could go all year round.  It's definitely a more "modern" feel than most of my previous quilts.

I have no stash reports this week because I haven't finished anything yet in this new year!

January Goals, 2013 Goals

Happy New Year!  For those of us doing Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery quilt, it's time to put the pieces together.  Do you like my little organizer tray? I salvaged it from the veggie tray I used for the teenage boys' party a few weeks ago.

After staying up a little later than I should have last night I have most of the border and corner triangles done.  I'm very excited to get more time to sew, but unfortunately I've invited the whole school over for Friday night's Last Noel party, and I have to cook.  Oh well.  If you like what you see it's not too late to get the pattern for the mystery at the above link; it will be taken down after a few months and will appear in her next book.  It has been a lot of fun making the little units without knowing what the final quilt will look like.

I'm working on some "Crumbs" 6" blocks for this year's Cedar Tree auction signature quilt.  It's rather depressing how many scraps are all over the floor in my sewing nook... this may put some of them to good use.

Here's a recycled picture of the socks I'm working on from two weeks ago.  I'm turning the heels now, so a little further along than this but I forgot to take a new pic.  Reading: I just finished The Hunger Games and am going to have to get the next volume out of the library; even though I don't like it that much, I have to read the rest.
A few days ago I listed some tentative sewing and quilting goals for this year:

1. 1996 Piecemaker's Calendar quilt - hand applique, add embellishments, and finish top
2. Classical-themed tote bag
3. Bowling-style knitting bag
4. Three-quarters bag (kit from Connecting Threads)
5. Felted wool blanket
6. Orca Bay quilting and binding
7. Farmer's Wife quilting and binding
8. Easy Street mystery quilt top
9. Easy Street quilting and binding
10. Crumbs auction quilt
11. Hooked Rug in Mariner's Compass design
12. heirloom linen blouse
13. wool stuffed toy cat
14. boxers in 3 different fabrics (at least)
15. Frugal Patch quilt
16. Civil War repro/ pine needles quilt
17. Flannel baby quilts
18. Set up an Etsy shop to help finance college educations
19. the ultimate ongoing project: clean and organize sewing area!
20. and have fun, or everything else is pointless.

Judy L. is having us list four goals we want to finish each month.  I decided to continue the random selection for one of the goals on the list, to keep the element of surprise that I enjoyed last year.  I'm mixing up knitting and sewing goals  And the random number generator came up with lucky #13 for the first month of 2013, so I guess my first goal is going to be the cat.  Now I have to dig out that pattern from somewhere...

January goals:

1. wool stuffed toy cat
2. finish Steve's socks
3. make Daniel some socks
4. hand applique one block of Piecemaker's calendar quilt

That would be good.  We'll see if it happens!

Christmas Eve Updates

Jack's Chain is finished!  I injured my finger sewing that binding on, but it will be wrapped and go under the tree for Tertia.

I just wrote on the back, which is a vintage sheet, instead of making a special label.

Barney the Purple Dinosaur is finished and the binding is machine stitched on.  Now I have to hand-stitch it to the back before giving it to Quarta.  "Make it work!" time.

Easy Street, step 5 is in progress but not very far along.  It is Christmas Eve, after all, and I have pies to bake and wrapping and binding to do.  I just came back from a run to Target and Kohls.  Yikes, lots to do!

I was playing with my units and came up with this.  Not bad, but it doesn't use all the parts.
Linking up to Easy Street linky party and Design Wall Monday.  And Merry Christmas!

Stash Report:

Fabric used this week: .5 yards for purple quilt binding
Fabric used year to date: 94.5 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date: 28 yards
Net used for 2012: 66.5 yards

Yarn used this week: 0 yards
Yarn used year to date: 7786 yards
Yarn added this week: 0 yards
Yarn added year to date: 3503 yards (all handspun, not purchased)
Net used for 2012: 4283 yards

Easy Street Part 4

Step 4 of Easy Street, Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, is complete.  I'm enjoying this one, especially the reds and aqua blues.  Of course we also cut some green this step and I couldn't resist playing with all the units a little:

Makes it a little Christmassy, but not too much.  Especially with the skulls and Hawaiian prints and polka-dots.  Who knows what the next step will bring, but I'm liking my colors.

In other quilt news, I bound Jack's Chain.  It was Friday night and Bonnie had the quilt cam on, so I took my laptop over and sewed that sucker on while enjoying the moral support of other quilters in cyberspace.  I needed the moral support: Jack's Chain has a lot of scallops and turns to bind.  I'm only about 1/3 done with sewing the binding down by hand; it's vintage sheets for both the backing and binding, high thread count, so takes a bit more effort than regular binding jobs.  Still I think I can get this done for Tertia's Christmas.

I pieced the backing for my purple Anita's Arrowheads top out of purples and blues I had used in it.  I'm glad to use up some of these fabrics.  Here's the picture of the top, finished about 2 weeks ago:

This needs to get loaded onto the Megaquilter and quilted and bound before Christmas, for Quarta.  Yeah, I'll be busy.  Fortunately, school's out for me for 2 weeks.  Yay!

Stash Report:

Fabric used this week: 5 yards for binding Jack and purple quilt backing
Fabric used year to date: 94 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date: 28 yards
Net used for 2012: 66 yards

Yarn used this week: 0 yards
Yarn used year to date: 7786 yards
Yarn added this week: 0 yards
Yarn added year to date: 3503 yards (all handspun, not purchased)
Net used for 2012: 4283 yards

WIP Wednesday: holiday denial version

Is it okay to admit that I'm not that big a fan of Christmas anymore?  I used to like it a lot.  But that was before I had to ... you know ... produce it.  I have loved ones who don't celebrate Christmas for religious reasons, but that's not it at all for me.  I'm just too lazy to put on a big Christmas anymore, although I sure enjoyed it when I was younger. 

I am looking forward to having Daniel home again soon.  His first final is tomorrow.  It has been a stressful week for everyone in our extended circle of friends and particularly in our church.  Now, the Clackamas Town Center shooting.  I know kids who were there.  So many needs to pray for.

So I'm keeping busy and not really doing anything specific about Christmas.  Here's what's going on in the craft department:

I finished my 12th shawl in 2012!  This is Wingspan, knit from my Navajo-plied handspun from the Tour de Fleece, Targhee in the "Ladyfern" colorway from Sweet Grass Wool.  I used about 285 yards for this shawl.  So I suppose it's appropriate to share my 12th shawl in 2012 on 12-12-12!  I like how the chartreuse green sections spaced themselves out nicely without my planning that way.  I had about 5 yards of yarn left over.  I would like to spin Targhee again; it was lovely to work with.

Jack's Chain is on the Megaquilter.  I'm almost done!  I've had to raise the take-up rail twice this quilt, it's so long!  But I'm hoping to get it finished for Tertia for Christmas.  I really like the snowflake feather pattern I'm using:

 

 

Step 3 of Easy Street is complete.  

I'm enjoying the pace of Easy Street this year.  Definitely easier than Orca Bay last year, but that was fun too!  Let's face it, when it comes to a choice between grading, cleaning house, Christmas preparation and shopping, or quilting, I will choose quilting every. single. time.  Sorry to my family for my lackluster housekeeping these last ... 13 years or so.  You're old enough now to do something about it if you want it cleaner, I figure.

Not the best picture, but I started a new pair of socks.  These will be for Steve.  I'm using the simple Skyp pattern but the MUMTU formula for toe-up socks, as I think I've done before.  I'm reading Lynne Truss' Talk to the Hand, which is an interesting combination of snark and lamentation over the state of modern manners.

Easy Street, Step 3

Easy Street is Bonnie K. Hunter's mystery quilt this year.  I have been keeping up, so far.  Here is my photo of a sampling of the first 3 clues.  I changed the colors up from the model: I'm using red instead of purple, my backgrounds are all white or very light ivory, I'm using various mostly light grays instead of one constant gray, and the aquas are a little lighter in an attempt to have an overall fresh, "modern" feel.  I think it will work, and be quite different from the model.  The only color not yet used is the lime green.  I eliminated some of my aquas that I felt were too dark or muddy during this step, but it's still going to be scrappy with a range of fabric values and prints.  I don't think I can do non-scrappy quilts anymore.  Yes, those are skull-and-crossbones over on the left!

I'm happy to report that I'm more than 2/3 finished quilting Jack's Chain.  Earlier this year I finished the top and posted a tutorial about it.  I'm excited about this little whirling feather snowflake design I'm using in the white hexagons: freeform feathers are actually fun to do now, and not as intimidating as I once thought!  I conquered my fear of them in the feathered star I recently quilted.  It also helped that I bought replacement tracks for my Megaquilter frame so the "ride" is  much smoother than it was last summer.  I'm using a point-to-point arc in the triangles and nine-patches, and a vintage sheet for backing.  Hoping to get this bound in time to be a Christmas gift for Tertia.  Then the purple quilt can be for Quarta.  If I get it quilted and bound before Christmas.  I don't suppose I'll be able to knit socks for any of the guys before Christmas?  Probably not.

Saturday was a little too random for me to do a Randomday blog post.  But here's a sampling of the random to start your Monday off: I had to drive 7th graders from school to the church where our Christmas program was to be on Thursday: it just so happened I had a car full of 7th grade boys.  These are all wonderful kids, mind you.  But I'm glad I don't have to do that every day.  It was educational though.  I got them talking about interesting emergency room visits they had had and that distracted them from playing contact sports in the backseat.

Saturday we watched a double-feature: Hugo followed by The Artist.  Both an homage to the art of film.  I'd seen The Artist before, but Hugo was very good.  Ben Kingsley is an amazing actor - he just is absorbed totally into every role he plays.  I wonder if I'd even notice him if I passed him on the street... and I think that's a compliment.  Hugo was one of those films where I kept pestering Steve to check out IMDB on his smart phone.  The actress who played the kindly "Mama Jeanne" was familiar somehow... turns out she also played the much less amiable Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter films.

I finished my 12th shawl of 2012 but still need to weave in the ends.  Tomorrow is an inservice day and I must start a pair of socks so I don't die of idle-handed boredom during it.

I just found a flea.  I'm having a hard time chasing down Muffball to give her her treatment.

I'm lobbying Steve just to chop down the ugly shrub by the grape vines and NOT to use it for a Christmas tree this year.  For those who don't know, we've been harvesting our Christmas trees in our own yard for the last 4 or 5 years, and getting some overgrown shrubbery out of the way at the same time.  But the kids are really tired of non-perfect Christmas trees.

Stash Report:

Fabric used this week: 7 yards (purple arrowhead quilt)
Fabric used year to date: 89 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date: 28 yards
Net used for 2012: 61 yards

Yarn used this week: 285 yards (Targhee homespun for wingspan)
Yarn used year to date: 7786 yards
Yarn added this week: 0 yards
Yarn added year to date: 3503 yards (all handspun, not purchased)
Net used for 2012: 4283 yards

WIP Wednesday and Yarn-Along

Ooh boy, is there a lot going on in the craft-blogging world!  Not to mention Christmas, grading, worrying about the fiscal cliff, and general end-of-year craziness.  Sew Mama Sew is hosting giveaways this week, which will easily take all your time if you let it.  I'm trying to visit all the fellow Easy Street quilt blogs too.

In quilting, I finished my purple Anita's Arrowheads top yesterday.  I'm calling it "Barney" for now.  It's 68"x85" and I was thinking about donating it to the Cedar Tree auction in the spring, but Quarta wants it for her own bed.  That's quite a bit of purple cleared out of my stash.  Funny thing about purple, all four of my kids went through a stage where it was their favorite color.  The boys quickly grew out of it once they became school age though.  The girls are still big purple fans.  I'm really not, although I can't explain why.  I like it, I just don't like it enough to work with it a lot, I guess.

These are for Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery quilt.  I'm really enjoying the colors I've chosen and look forward to the next step coming out Friday.  I could stick with red, gray and white and be perfectly happy, but there will be aqua and lime green added to the mix soon.

I had some extra white triangles so I cut some greens to make another batch of geese, for transformation into trees.  I'm planning to make another signature quilt for the Cedar Tree auction next spring.

I've been digging into the scrap bin and making some crumbs blocks.  If you've been following, it was a crumbs quilt I donated for last spring's auction, and I really enjoyed the whole process of working on it.  In the blocks above you see remnants of the last several quilts I've pieced.  I just need to make enough tree blocks and wonky star blocks to pull it all together, and they make great leaders/enders projects as I'm working on other piecing.  I'm still putting off machine-quilting Jack's Chain.

In knitting, Wingspan is getting closer to finished, and lookit what fun book I found at the library: His Good Opinion by Nancy Kelley.  This is Pride and Prejudice told from Darcy's point of view.  I'm really enjoying it so far.
Finally, in honor of Sinter Klaas day, here's a story from Holland:  a flash mob in honor of an elderly knitter, Loes Veenstra, who has made over 500 sweaters in her knitting career.  Rotterdam parties in her honor: