quilting weekend

Last weekend I went up north for a quilting weekend with my sister. My mom watched our kids so that we could spend the day together with no interruptions - just a hot iron, beautiful fabric and some taco chips.

I'm working on a quilt that will be a gift for my sister-in-laws wedding this September. It's made from Anna Maria Horner's fabric - my first time working with her designs. I ordered the entire quilt kit from Craftsy - it's called Mod Corsage.

It's Monday tomorrow - Happy work week!

xo Jill

ginger, jalepeno + bay leaf

It started as a sniffle and cascaded into a flurry of sneezes: I have a head cold. I caught it from the baby. He's been happily sneezing in my face all week. (But his sniffles are so cute!) Now I know how the little guy has been feeling.

I've got a pot of chicken noodle soup simmering on the stove. I put a small mountain of fresh ginger and some jalapenos into the broth. I find that's the perfect combination for healing whenever I start to feel sick. Hope it does the trick this time.

Lots of knits in process right now. I'm sewing in all of the loose ends on my mittens. They don't match, but I'm okay with that. I have another skein of this yarn that I'm eyeing up for another project. I knit the baby sweater this past summer. It's been hard to find an occasion for him to wear it. We keep the house so warm that I end up peeling him out of all the layers I've got him dressed in just moments after I have him dressed up. Oh well!

I used some black fingering weight sock yarn for the body of the sweater and some of our own hand-painted sock yarn for the accents. My husband had his doubts if it would work for a little boy, but I think he looks great. (He can't complain at this age anyway.)

I've been knitting on the little baby blanket for about a month. The yarn is Lion Brand Heartland Tweed. It's the first time I've knit with this, but this is going to be a gift for my friend's first child so I want it to be machine washable. I hope it washes up nice. We shall have to see.

Happy weekend everyone! Hope you are avoiding the sniffles!

Jill

sleepy time

Ahh . . . I was so happy for the weekend when it came around. Garrett and I had a busy week last week. We volunteered to watch our cousin's little girl while they went off on an all inclusive trip to Cabo. Four days. One three year old. Sub-zero weather and daycare drop-offs and pick-ups. Meal time, bath time, story time and that blissful time when the dear little one is sleeping (hopefully) and you get to fall onto the sofa next to your husband and just relax.

I'm sick again, though - a head cold sinus thing that just makes me feel and look rather gross. I've gone through two boxes of tissues and almost one roll of toilet paper over the course of the weekend. Sorry for over-sharing, but that box of "Sleepytime" tea has become my best friend. Garrett brought me home the jumbo box and I like to steep my tea with honey, lots of honey. I want to become the "Sleepytime" bear. I want the crackling fire, the comfy chair and the night cap. I want to be snug in my little bear den as the winter winds howl outside, healing from the inside out.

But tomorrow is Monday and my PTO is dwindling, so I'll have to do the best I can to heal up and then brave the work week along with everyone else. This has been a long winter. My dad was saying something along the lines of we've had 40 mornings below zero here in Minnesota. That sounds about right to me. I really dislike walking to my office in this cold.

We rearranged the living room. We finished off the family room in the basement, and put the tv down there. That created space for another bookshelf. I feel so happy with all of my books and pictures around me. I finished a great book this weekend. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. It was wonderful . . . think Romeo and Juliet set against an 80's soundtrack. Funny and heartwarming. I made Garrett listen as I explained the entire plot to him and why I loved it so much. ha. I read it for my April book club.

That's a pot of my restorative chicken noodle soup on the stove. I begged my mother to bring me one of her farm-grown chickens so that I could use it to make this soup. We've got to get healthy around here.

I hope all of you bears are cozy on this chilly February night. Snuggle in and sleep tight.

XOXO
Jillian

winter garden

I went for a walk and found a stand of Queen Anne's Lace and the flowers looked like they could be accessories for a fairy queen - lacy scepters holding crystals of ice. I was completely enchanted and I took at least a dozen photos. The one at the top of this post is my favorite.

I like to imagine how it was formed: the snow fell and filled the lacy cup of the dried flower head, then the wind blew and spun it into a icy sphere. And there is was - waiting for me - on my next walk through the neighborhood. I wanted to pick it and take it home, but it would have melted if I had brought it inside.

I'm working on a lace baby sweater - a pattern that I've knit a dozen times, but this is the first time that I've used my mother's wool and kid mohair yarn. It's going to be super soft and warm.

Happy Friday, everyone!

XOXO
Jillian

cabin fever

It's been a long winter here in Minnesota. My husband and I went for our first walk of the season a few days ago and there were the strangest sights to be seen. I was inspired.

I hope you are too - as we all emerge from our winter dens into the soft spring sunshine.

weaving project # 2

I finished weaving project # 2 with the help of my mother.

To achieve the gray stripes we used a combination of two of our gray yarns. They're slightly different shades, which adds a nice depth to the project. The colored stripes came from my Valentine's yarn. (Keep spreading the love, I guess!!) It's all gone now, though. You can find the other yarns here and here.

This turned out to be a special project, because I set up the loom and then brought it to my mother - who finished it. We plan on starting another as soon as I can get up North and teach her how to set up the loom herself. It's nice to be able to share something with someone that I just learned myself.

Hope you all are surviving this most recent spell of winter weather that seems to be effecting the Midwest and Northeast. Today is supposed to be the last day of Winter.

Do you hear that, Mother Nature? The last day.

mash two bananas

Weekend baking: Banana Pancakes. For some reason my husband is always getting worried about the amount of bananas I have piling up in the freezer. Their quantity reaches a certain level and he starts telling me that I shouldn't buy any more bananas until I deal with the ones I have. (As if I could ever do that on a physical or a psychological level.) But I do try baking with them sometimes. This recipe is lovely. I found it here.

What's become of the hollyhocks . . .

Outside, inside. Testing out my new socks this weekend. (I wore them both days.)

Set up the loom again. This time I'm using multiple yarns in the warp. The gray is yarn from our farm, and you've all seen the multi-colored double ply before. I used it my previous project, but as I hope you can see I'm getting entirely different results now. This is what I was hoping weaving would provide for me. A way to experiment with fiber and color. I intend to weave with a darker gray yarn and anticipate that I'm going to get some nice stripes - but we'll have to see how it goes.

Watercolor color study.

These aren't new books, but they're good books. They'll be keeping me company through these snowy February days.

cold and bright

Today's highs were in the negatives here in Minnesota, like many of our past dangerously cold days the sky was clear and the sun was bright and it was just plain cold, cold, cold. I counted myself lucky to be behind the glass walls of my office and able to observe it all without having to participate . . . in the frostbite! (My husband dropped me off at work today, so I didn't have to walk from the train station to the office in the cold.)

My winter woolens have come in very handy this season, they're getting a bit fuzzy though. They need to have all of the nubbins picked off of them and then a nice soak in a tub of cold soapy water.

Dinner on Sunday night was really good. I made my sister's baked salmon recipe.

       

1/4 cup butter and 3/4 cup cream cheese (or sour cream) mixed together

2 cloves of minced garlic

three green onions minced (green tops included)

1/2 cup shredded parmesan

crushed seasoned salad croutons

Then you mix the parmesan, garlic and the green onions with the butter/cream cheese (or sour cream) mixture, spread it over the salmon, sprinkle the salad croutons on top and pinch the tinfoil over the top and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes (depending on how thick the fillet is) the salmon should flake when pressed - it's done. Very good. Works well on the grill too, when it's not forty below.  

Here's another project I started this weekend. (Another goodie for my sister's baby which is due in the beginning of March.) This is from some handspun that I made about four years ago.

I've been meaning to use it for something like this, but I always got distracted by the other yarn in my yarn basket. I love the garter stitches and the way the color switches with each row (almost as if I dyed and spun the yarn with that in mind) but I didn't - it's an accident. A happy one. Can you guess what this is going to be?

Something cute, that's for sure.