apple orchard

We went out today to an apple orchard with my brother and his family. It was a beautiful October day. The blog has been quiet lately, but I've still been doing a lot of projects behind the scenes.

I just finished a baby blanket for my husband's cousin and made a cute pouch for my wallet and cell phone. I got the pattern for the pouch from the book Beyond Cotton.

It's cooling down around here so we've been pulling out the wool sweaters. I wore my Bloomsbury sweater for the first time today - and baby wore his Sunnyside cardigan. I'm making another Linnie sweater for my friend's first baby.

I hope you are all having a good fall.

:) :) Jill

nap time

During his nap time I hurry to pick up whatever project is utmost on my mind. This morning it was my bloomsbury sweater and I finished a sleeve. Then after he woke up I took him upstairs and he played in his suitcase while I sewed together the four large blocks that make up my single girl quilt top.

We zipped around town after lunch, from Minneapolis to St. Paul to look at potential rental houses for my brother and his family when they move back to Minnesota this September. Fingers crossed that I might have found something in one of the historic neighborhoods of Minneapolis with a wood burning fireplace and a park across the street for their little one. Hope that all pans out. (And we find the gold nugget.) Is that where the phrase "pans out" comes from?

Let's go with that :) :)

It's nap time again, that's why I'm blogging. When he wakes up my arms and heart will be full with one energetic nine month old.

Hope you have a great weekend.

xo Jill

evening at the falls

All done!

As soon as I started sewing on the binding for this quilt it practically finished itself. I know I've said it before, but I love sewing on bindings. The quilt top is complete, basically all the loose ends are sewn in, but you get to spend the time finishing by hand this lovely collection of fabric that you've been machine sewing for months. I bet that machine sewing on bindings is pretty slick and quick, but I would miss those final moments that I get with my blankets before they are given away as gifts.

You can follow my project progress here, here and here :) :) :)

I think this project turned out a lot like I had planned, but with some pleasant surprises along the way. Now I will be returning to my single girl quilt top. It's time to get to work on that again.

Last night we went to a park next to our house - Minnehaha Falls. There were lots of people out and about. The weather was perfect, the falls were spectacular. Logan loved riding around and people watching. He's really teething right now, so as you can see - everything is a chew toy.

:) :) Jill

the gentle art of baby corralling

So many projects, so little time.

My little one is perfecting his crawling technique. He's gone from that comical back foot in the air downward thrust to gain forward momentum to a very practical army crawl that gets him just about everywhere he wants to go.

He's currently on strike from all of his "toys." He'd rather chew on the very durable (and dirty) rubber mat in front of the door, any cord protruding from an electronic device. No teeth yet, but he's sucking on his gums like a little old man with loose dentures.

Yesterday afternoon I wanted to get some quilting done, so I stuck him in a rolling suitcase near the bed as I completed the final spiral quilting segments on my scrappy trip around the world quilt. He loved it. He was playing with all of the zipper and tags.

(As I write this he's scooting towards the very hairy dog bed.)

Time to sign off folks. More to come!

:) :) Jill

blueberry boy

The little guy and I spent Saturday night up at my parent's farm. We squeezed a lot into a twenty four hour period. The best part was the blueberries. My dad took us to a neighbor's blueberry patch where we could pick as many blueberries as we wanted for free.

I filled up two three gallon buckets.

It was a wonderful morning. It had rained the night before, but when we arrived the sun was shining and the raindrops were drying on the berries. I have never seen so many blueberries before - some of the bushes were just blue. They were pretty easy to pick. I got six gallons in about two and a half hours. We cleaned and froze most of them, but I put together a blueberry crisp last night and ate a whole row of it with a fork while it was still cooling in the pan.

What do you think of Logan's crawling technique? He swings the one foot up in the air like a counter pendulum and then digs in the toes on his opposite foot to gain forward momentum. I've got it on video. Super sweet. 

My Bloomsbury sweater is knitting up fast. I hope I can keep up this pace. I've almost got the body complete and then I'll start on the sleeves.

Hope you all have a great week.

:) Jill

bloomsbury sweater

It has been a very busy and full week.

Last Sunday night Logan had a fever - probably because he's teething - but that meant that my husband and I had to keep him out of daycare for twenty-four hours past the time that the fever broke. We both ended up taking time off. My schedule got hit the hardest and to make up for it I had to go into the office today and work a full day.

I'm home now - yay!

Part of the time that I was home with the baby I was knitting on this Bloomsbury sweater that I just started. I have been admiring this sweater for a long long time and I finally cast on. It's been an addicting knit so far. The pattern is well written and the lace and cable repeats are easy to understand - even intuitive. I've been trying this on as I go, really crafting it to fit my body. So, I'm super excited to get it complete and wear it this fall when the weather cools down. This knit is a part of the 2016 sweater challenge that I'm doing with my cousin, Ashley. Basically, we challenged each other to knit one sweater for ourselves this year on top of everything else that we have going on in our lives. We got together for a weekend this spring and dyed the yarn for our prospective projects together. 

Hopefully, we can each add one more hand-knit sweater to our wardrobes.

(Inspiration for my Bloomsbury sweater comes from Froebelina and GreenCamijo on Ravelry.)

:) :) Jill

stripes + stars

events of July 2016 (so far)

Baby's teething - lots of drool

splashing in the lake

stars and stripes everywhere

sock yarn slipping off the knitting needles

crisscrossing the state in our car

trips to the farm to see grandma and grandpa - and the sheep!

a wild patch of raspberries

visits to the north woods to stay in a cabin

sitting around the campfire

looking at the stars

knitting before bed in the warm glow of a single lamp

making jar after jar of raspberry jam

(gallons of berries in the freezer)

weeding the garden and watching the zinnia blossoms grow

chasing the barking dog

piles of paperwork and forms

completing homestudy #3

laughing with baby at his goofy dad

drinking cider and grilling in the backyard

thankful for all of our blessings

:) Jill

P.S. Joining Nicole at Frontier Dreams!