Instead of blogging...

I haven't had much to say this week. I have been busy..... along with all the normal school and Mom related things required of me, I have been busy making blankets. A few weeks ago my Dad and Brother came to stay with us one night so that they could get to the airport early the next morning. We were scrambling to find blankets for our guests. We have piled them onto our own beds and didn't have many left for any visitors that may come by. A state I felt we needed to remedy. So I hit a good sale on yarn and started a large crocheted afghan.Ian picked the color and he choose a very nice raspberry red color. It looks very nice with the pattern I decided to do. I have made a number of baby blankets in this stitch but never a full sized, big blanket. But it looks very nice. I am on my last ball of yarn and should be done soon. I have been keeping my hands busy while the kids watch a movie or listen to audio books each afternoon and then again and night when I need something to keep me awake while trying to finish a movie with my husband. Usually I fall asleep 15 minutes into any movie we start unless I have my crochet hook going.

I cleaned out my closet a few weeks ago. I took out all the clothes that I wear regularly but were already starting to feel tight and put them in a box to make room for my maternity clothes which I will be needing shortly. In the process I also made a stack of all the pants, shirts and skirts that I haven't worn in over a year. They are the ones that are either out of style, don't fit or that have some flaw like a zipper that doesn't stay up. I hated to see all those jeans and pants go to goodwill so I came up with a different plan. Since we have a need for more blankets I thought I would use those pants to make a quilt top. I finally got around to cutting them up into squares last week and then this week I have been busy sewing them together.

Since some of the squares still have the pockets on them, it was decided that this quilt would be Ian's. He loves pockets and complains when I lay out a pair of pants for him that don't have pockets. When this happens he feels the need to wear a little pouch from the dress up box to hold his treasures in. So the pocket quilt was for Ian. I took the kids to the fabric store to pick out a fabric for the back. We went to the flannels that were on sale and Ian picked one with neon pink, yellow and orange dolphins on it. It is his quilt and you can't beat 50% off so we bought it and it became the underside of his quilt. I have spent the last few days quilting this blanket. I finally finished the edges today. It is all machine quilted so didn't take too long. Although, I now know why they have denim needles for the sewing machine. I broke about 4 needles while trying to quilt this before finally deciding to head back to the fabric store to buy denim needles for my machine. It went much more smoothly after that!

Here is the finished product. Ian is very happy with it and loves the pockets.
He is thrilled to sleep under his new blanket tonight. I am happy to have that project done. I am not a quilter. I have only made one other quilt on my own. And don't look too close because the square's corners don't all line up and the quilting lines are a bit wavy. It certainly isn't going to win any awards but we now have another blanket.

While at the fabric store, one of the many times we went the last few days, Henry picked out some Halloween fabric that was 75% off. Henry has a thing for skeletons and the color orange. We ended up bringing it home, so I guess I will be making him a quilt next. But I think I will take a break for a little bit and just read a book or something.