Hello quilters!

If there are any store owners out there who are attending the International Quilt Market in Portland this week, here's a list of author activities, so you can find out more about these great books.

Schoolhouses

Room B117
3:00-3:30- Darlene Zimmerman (Quilts from Lavender Hill Farm)

Room B110-111
11:05-11:35- Mandy Shaw (Quilt Yourself Gorgeous!)
11:40-12:10- Chris Malone (Sew Easy as Pie)
12:15-12:45- Nancy Zieman (Quilt with Confidence)
3:00-3:30- Karen Snyder (Quilts from my Garden)
3:35-4:05- Marie Zinno & Eileen Roche (Machine Embroidery for Babies & Tots/ Contemporary Machine-Embroidered Accessories)
4:10-4:40- Kim Deneault (Raggedy Reverse Appliqué)
4:45-5:15- Allyce King, et al (My Style, My Place)
5:20-5:50- Kathy Bowers (Stitch, Spritz & Sew)

Demos (Krause Publications, booth 2711)

Friday

10:00 Karen Snyder (Quilts from my Garden)
11:00 Mandy Shaw (Quilt Yourself Gorgeous)
12:00 Pam Lintott (Jelly Roll Quilts)  
1:00 Marie Zinno (Machine Embroidery for Babies & Tots)
2:00 Chris Malone (Sew Easy as Pie)
3:00 Kathy  Bowers (Stitch, Spritz & Sew)
4:00 Darlene Zimmerman (Quilts from Lavender Hill Farm) 

Saturday

10:00 Marguerita McManus & Sarah Raffuse (Crazy Shortcut Quilts)
11:00 Barb Chauncey (Denim by Design)
12:00 Allyce  King (My Style, My Place)
1:00 Barbara Campbell (Holiday Quilts)
2:00 Kim Deneault (Raggedy Reverse Appliqué) 
3:00 Terrie Kralik (90-Minute Fabric Fun)
4:00 Nancy Zieman (Quilt with Confidence)

I have discovered that perfectionism is inherited. I was visiting my grandparents a couple weekends ago, and my great grandma Meta (who is 97 years old) showed me a baby blanket she was crocheting. I told her I liked it, and then she proceeded to show me a couple places where she made mistakes, I told here I couldn't tell, and she still concluded, "I think I'm going to tear it apart." Ha! I laughed so hard. Now I don't feel so bad about being so particular, because it's in my genes.

I started knitting last week's free knitting project yesterday-- the Drop-Stitch Lace Tank from Fitted Knits. It certainly has been an interesting experience. I never would have thought that I would find myself dropping stitches on purpose some day. I took some photos of my progress. I finished the first round of the lace pattern and completed 3 rows of k2, p2 ribbing. I can tell I'm getting faster, because this amount of knitting should have taken me a week, but I think it did this in about 4 hours. I'm impressed. :)

I'm using the leftover yarn from my sister's wedding shawl. I over bought in a huge way because I didn't know ANYTHING about knitting at the time, and had decided that running out of yarn was the biggest tragedy I could envision... turns out running out of time was the tragedy. I have made a few pairs of baby booties and a handful of baby hats with the leftovers as well.

By the way, this is my first attempt at knitting a garment that isn't a baby bootie or a baby hat! I hope it fits! (I am feeling a bit shy about the holes from the dropped stitches too!) I guess I'll have to wait until I'm done to see how I really feel about it.

Update: I'm a perfectionist. I made a mistake... my husband wound while I raveled... I'll repost when I get back to that same point. I can't tell you how many "scarves" have never come to be, simply because I made a mistake and tore the whole thing apart. Anyone want to teach me how to fix mistakes without starting over?

It's bugging me that I don't have anything in my blog yet, and since I don't have much to say, this will be a commentary about my photos.

My profile photo is me passing the time between my hairdo/makeup and getting my dress on for my wedding. I decided the card basket was dull and there was ribbon and flower bits left from my sister-in-law making the flower arrangements, so I slapped something together. Finished product is another photo, but has been knocked around in storage for seven months. Trust me, it looked a lot better that day.

One photo is my first knitting project (seriously-- my grandmas thought I was nuts, but I was determined!). A shawl that I made for my sister's wedding that didn't turn out quite as long as I imagined it would, but I ran out of time to make it longer. I had the pattern for one heart and got out the graphing paper to figure out how to link them. I didn't know at the time if there was such a thing as knit 3 together, but I did it, and it turned out! Three years later, I have been working on smaller projects-- baby hats and booties. Much less stress there.

The other photo is a diaper cake that I made for my sister's baby shower. There is a cylinder in the center and the baby's knit hats and booties are inside, which I didn't take pictures of. When I gave her the cake, the ribbons were centered-- this photo was a rush.