Looking Back

Ten Years Ago...

I'd just finished knitting Fancy Fulness and rediscovered the book Making Things, which I had checked out from the library over and over as a little kid. A few weeks ago, I found my very own copy at the thrift store.

Five Years Ago...

I wrote the tutorials for Carrie and Sid. I was scolding myself for not finishing the quilt with the seals. (Since then, I've finished the top but not quilted it.) I was still making blocks for my Cheddar Bowties quilt, which didn't get finished until a year later.

Looking Back

Five Years Ago...

We still had bees and they were swarming. I was digging through my sock yarn stash, looking for yarn that would do what I wanted for the pooling sock yarn challenge that Judy over at Patchwork Times had dreamed up. I made the quilt and wrote up the tutorial for Sadie. And I used the hourglass units that were originally supposed to become Orca Bay to make a Halloween wall quilt. 

Ten Years Ago...

I knit the Diamonds and Pearls shawl from cotton yarn that I'd unraveled from a forty-nine cent thrift store sweater.  We went to what I'm pretty sure was our last formally organized homeschool field trip, a Civil War reenactment made miserable by high temperatures and public high school students who really, really didn't want to be there. I'd just finished the scrap quilt I'd remake several years later as 30s Barn Raising.

Looking Back

Five Years Ago...

I soaked a quilt in sugar water in an attempt to coax the bees into landing on it. It didn't work. 

I played with Crayolas and made Lobster Sue. 

I'd started a spool pattern that I absolutely loved.... at least until I saw Bonnie Hunter's leaders and enders version. I don't know when I'll get all of those little 3 1/2" spools done, but I'll definitely enjoy the finished quilt more. 

And I made a ton of little Halloween hats for the NICU.

Ten Years Ago...

I was knitting at the river and the boys almost startled a snake. I got lucky and it went under my knitting bag instead of straight inside. Thank goodness! These days I'd be able to deal with it, but back then I might've abandoned the whole thing. 

I joined Ravelry. 

I was still knitting lots of shawls and had room on the sewing room bed to block them. These days, it's buried under a mountain of fabric scraps. 

I paper pieced for the first and last time. I've tried since then, but never with any success. 

Looking Back

Ten Years Ago...

My youngest was constantly scaring the other mommies at the park because he was so tiny for his age and insisted on climbing everything he could reach. I was just glad he was scaling stuff that was actually meant for climbing.

My oldest son was wearing his brand new hand knit sweater while looking for rocks in the muddy creek. I stopped him, but only because I didn't want mud in the new van.

I brought home my first treadle sewing machine, one that Grandma accidentally bought at the auction.

Five Years Ago...

I was  celebrating the fact that I could go up and down the sewing room stairs as many times as I wanted to. I still can, but I take it for granted and I'm not nearly as excited about it these days.

I was cross-stitching pretty bookmarks, which somehow led to the vintage embroidery quilt.

Looking Back

Five Years Ago this Month...

I made a lot of progress towards cleaning out the sewing room.

We got new bees and found out the hard way that the bee place gave us the wrong type of bees. I learned way too much that week about how Carnelian bees are more aggressive than Italian bees and bee stings to the scalp and how the fluid will drain down into your face and make you look like you've got prosthetic alien makeup on.

And I bought my Sizzix die cutter.

Ten Years Ago This Month...

Locomoco and Sponge Bob (neither named by me) were living in the space in front of my sewing room door. So I got to spend time petting my fabric and yarn while the kids admired their new baby geese.

I was knitting a lot of little sweaters, including this one for my daughter and Heath's Weasley Sweater.

The geese and the mean bees are no longer with us, but I'm still knitting and trying to get the sewing room under control. Not much has changed around here.

Looking Back

Ten Years Ago this Month...

I apparently knew how to cable without a cable needle. That would be a handy skill to have right now, but I've lost it.

I was also knitting a lot of lace, things like the Frozen Lake Shawl...

And the Swallowtail Shawl...

Five Years Ago this Month....

Life was full of shiny things. I got the patterns for Hocuspocusville and Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage for my birthday. I also ordered the books for Hobo Quilts (which I haven't finished) and Garden Club Quilts (which I haven't started.)

I was trying to take good pictures of Dashes in the Woods without getting mud on the quilt.

Pattern: Dashes in the Woods

And I was trying some hand-piecing with Do Not Put Your Elbows on the Table (that's the quilt the bees refused to land on.)  

Looking Back...

Five Years Ago This Month....

I wasn't having much fun.  I was recovering from knee surgery and the first round of blood clots. They were telling me that I hadn't followed the doctor's instructions (and I was swearing up and down that I had) and that I didn't have to worry about getting clots again in the future.

Quinn and Leif were arguing about whether or not the Creature from the Black Lagoon is a swamp monster.  Five years later, they still haven't decided.

Ten Years Ago This Month....

I was pregnant with a six-month-old and two bigger kids, packing for the move to this house, and distracting myself from the growing pile of boxes with some late night colorwork and felting. The plan was to use these same horses on a sweater for one of the boys, but they outgrew that idea before I managed to follow through on it.

I was working on a round baby blanket....wonder where that ever got to? 

Looking Back...

10 years ago this month...

We were starting the process of buying this house and I was beyond giddy at the thought of having a huge sewing room all for myself. I was also trying to figure out how I was going to pack and move with an eight year old, a five year old, a six month old, and another one on the way.

I was  finishing up my Clapotis at the park, hoping it didn't start to rain again.

5 years ago this month...

I was working on Strawberry Fields, realizing how much fun tiny pieced blocks could be.


I finally got all of the cat blocks assembled into a top and was intimidated by how huge it is.

And my husband was warning me not to burn down the house with Grandma's old iron. I never did work up the nerve to plug that one in. 

.

Looking Back

Ten Years Ago This Month...

I was knitting a diaper soaker and pair of Lolita Toes and  thinking about casting on a Clapotis.  I was going to redo the bind off of the socks because the cuff is hard to get over my heel. They're still in the sewing room waiting for me to get around to it.

Instead of hitting the ground running every morning like the Fly Lady said to, I was creeping around quietly in the dark, trying to get stuff done before the children heard me and woke up. I still do that!

Five Years Ago This Month....

I was making lots and lots of scrappy little baby quilts -- 2010 was the year that I made 47 of them. For myself, I was putting together my scrappy Courthouse Steps quilt, the one that I redid a couple of years later as Moab or Sedona?


I'd just finished quilting 38, which was my birthday present to myself that year and figured out that the whole quilt cost me around $30 to make, including thread and batting and backing. Hooray for thrift store quilting!



Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 2 1/2 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 36 yards
Net Added for 2015: 33 1/2 yards

Yarn Used this Week:  0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 2400 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 665 yards
Net Used for 2015:  1735 yards