I thought these blocks would take a lot longer to complete, but I knocked them out in just a few days.

Yellow:

Orange:

Pink:

Green:

Blue:

Purple:

I've cut the sashing for them, and I'll start putting it together tonight. I need to go buy the backing and the batting for it since I'll probably be quilting it by the end of the week. I'm loving how the colors are bright and happy. This will be perfect for Sarah's room! The only change that I'm going to make is that I'm not going to put the extra blocks into the back of the quilt; I think I'll use them as artwork in her room. I'll have them matted and framed, and I'll hang them above her bed.  I'll also have to make her curtains and a pillow or two, but that's why I bought double the fabric. I'm thinking string blocks for the two pillows. 

On top of that, I have been knitting:

That is a feather and fan scarf made with some of the SAFF yarn that I picked up last year. It had two random knots and a large section of unspun yarn which I cut out and had to spit splice together. On one hand, yeeeech, and on the other hand, it totally worked. The yarn is very thick/thin so I didn't want to use it for socks. Still, it was calling to me, and I think this shows off the yarn to the best advantage. wouldn't that be a great color for a cardigan? I need to investigate getting a bunch of this in DK for a sweater….

We moved. We left our first house and crammed the contents into one storage unit and one apartment; surprisingly, the smaller space in the apartment doesn't feel as small as I thought it would. The kids are sharing a bedroom, which they find utterly hilarious because HEY! We can SEE EACH OTHER from our BEDS, holy crap this is AWESOME until 10:30 at night when mommy is considering resorting to baby Benedryl because she has put us back into bed for the seventybillionth time and is about to cry. It took Bryan a month to figure out that he could get out of his toddler bed when we transitioned him; it took Sarah about seven minutes to figure that same thing out.

The move itself went well, aside from the giant bruise that came from only God knows where:

I discovered that little baby when I went to take a shower after Day 1 of THE BIG MOVE. I honestly have no clue what caused that kind of damage to my leg; you think I'd remember getting hit hard enough to leave that kind of a bruise.

Since I also managed to finish my class load (A in English, B in Accounting II) AND we moved, I treated myself to some fabric for the stash.

These were both eBay purchases. I am your typical stasher; I buy this stuff in a frenzy, when I'm all caught up in how pretty it is, but I don't ever have a specific project in mind for it. I do the same thing with yarn. I rarely go into buying craft supplies with any specific use in mind, which is why I'm about to be buried under a mound of wool. I'm determined to use these fabrics up before the summer is up, though. I think this is going to quickly become the Summer of the Quilt.

Take one woman, work her to death and then let her stumble across a great online quilt along. Said woman will then obsess over the great quilts that are in the Flickr! group associated with the quilt along, and start plotting the quilt that she wants to make. She might even steal some inspiration from one of the quilts included in the quilt-along, and shamelessly copy the color scheme.

I never claimed to be original. Just crafty.

I ventured out with my two year old in tow today to the local Joann's to scope out fabric choices. This is the equivalent of stabbing yourself in the face repeatedly with a spoon while trying to retile your floors; the two things just don't go well together. The liberal application of a sheet of stickers calmed her down enough so that we could get down to business. We are moving Sarah into her toddler bed next week when we move into the apartment, and while she will be able to use the bedding she already has, we are going to need something new for the house. This quilt along looks to be the perfect excuse to throw together something bright and girly for Little Miss Thing. So after a few minutes of sticker-induced bliss, we had already snagged some SUPER BRIGHT SOLIDS.

Exhibit A:

HI! I DON'T KNOW IF YOU CAN STILL HEAR ME OVER HOW LOUD THESE COLORS ARE.

Solids chosen, the real fun began: picking out the coordinating patterns. I wanted something still very bright and happy, but I wanted tone on tone fabrics. I like what I have chosen, but I do reserve the right to change any of them at any time based on my whims.

And then again, all together:

I will return later and get sashing and all of that, and I bought twice the amount of fabric required for the project because I will need to make curtains and pillows to coordinate; overall, I'm very happy with what I've got. I'll probably use white sashing and get more of the pink for backing/binding. That is all way in the future, though, because I still have to work my way through an Accounting test and moving into our apartment before I can even start on this thing. 

SO. EXCITED. TO. QUILT.

MUST. ABSTAIN.

So, how's that shawl coming along?

It's good! I mean, I know it was getting a little long, but I really want to use all of the yarn. See? Here's a picture.

Whoa! What the…don't you think it's long enough? I mean, at some point, you have to stop! Put down the yarn! BACK AWAY!

Yeah, maybe you're right. 

Maybe?

All right! I'm finishing this repeat and I'll kitchner in the other end. I didn't think there would be any harm…

You're scared of kitchnering that many stitches. 

Not scared, exactly…

Chicken. 

What?

You heard me. 

Uh, okay. Didn't realize this was going to turn all third grade. 

How many times did you knock over that cup of beads while you were knitting?

Twice. 

*crickets*

Okay! Eight times! EIGHT TIMES! Is that better? 

Anyway, how are the kids?

Doing great! I mean, don't you see the joy on their faces?

Not really.

Seriously. They are doing great. That is just ONE picture, I've got tons more where they are totally jazzed.

I see. Let's move on…are you going to be doing anything crafty anytime soon, or are you just going to continue to bore us with pictures of your kids and blahblahblah house junk?

I've been busy! School, work, house - 

Yeah, we know. I wasn't asking for justification, Captain Defensive. Just if you were going to, oh, I don't know, get more INTERESTING any time soon.

Yeah, I'm going to start a quilt for my daughter's room. I'm just dithering over the color scheme. I'm going to start it when we get into the apartment and school is over, so give me two weeks. 

We'll see. You'll update? With pictures?

I promise!

That remains to be seen.

This site would have been updated waaay before now.

The past month has been full of activity: new job, new house on contract, picking out crap for the new house, getting sick, working out details on selling old house, finding apartment, getting insurance in case we burn down new apartment (seriously, we are required to have renters' insurance; it's a good idea anyway, but I've never been required to have it before), yada yada yada. My stress levels are UP TO HERE :gestures to neck region: and I haven't had time to knit. Well, I've had some time to knit, but not enough time.

The design options we chose for the house are AWESOME, if I do say so myself.

The lot is being scraped and leveled today, and there are rumors that our foundation will be poured next week. And in two weeks, we move out of our tiny little house and into a tinier apartment for four months while we wait for the house to be built. School will be over for the year, as I am not taking any more classes until the spring semester, so the summer will be spent constantly checking on the progress of our new home. And driving the builder crazy. Here's hoping that we don't drive him to peeing in our foundation before the concrete hardens (not that, you know, we're that bad. Ahem.).