Hi y'all! The last time I posted, I was playing in snow - we ended up getting six inches, and lost power for two days. woot. it was actually sort of fun at first - we dragged our mattress out to the den and sat by the fire and played Scrabble by candlelight. It became not as fun when we woke up the next morning and it was COLD in our house.

But, I shall not complain, because today, a week later, it is 75 degrees. It's beautiful outside! It's also Spring Break at UGA, so I might take a couple of days off this week for the heck of it. We'll see how busy work is.

I've been really busy crafting lately, both knitting AND sewing. I finally finished my second quilt - a baby quilt for my dear friends Drew and Joanna, also know at the Teamies.

Stacked Coins.

I used the Stacked Coins pattern from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, which is a seriously lovely and awesome book. There are great directions in the back for basting your quilt, quilting, and also two different ways to do the binding. I love this book. And I think would be an excellent first quilt for anyone - it's very forgiving if you aren't so good at cutting straight (like me, for instance). I think the real challenge with this quilt is picking awesome colors.

So, finishing that quilt has made me want to make MORE quilts. and sew. A LOT. My Flickr contacts can attest to my, um, crazed sewing frenzy lately.

yay sewing time!

For the box bags, I've been using this fantastic tutorial by drago[knit]fly, with the modifications found here. It took me a few tries to understand what I was doing, but now I am comfortable doing it without checking the tutorial every five seconds.

Also, the zipper wasn't as scary as I thought it would be! The hardest thing for me is cutting STRAIGHT. I am so bad at it, and yes I have a rotary cutter and cutting mat and rulers and still I suck at it. that's why I need to make all of these bags! to practice!

For the zipper pouches, I used Caro's sew a zippered wristlet tutorial - super clear and she has a great Flickr set with detailed photos to go along with it. The zipper on top is harder for me - I haven't quite figured it out yet. but I'm getting there. The last little purse is this free pattern called the Buttercup Bag at Made by Rae.

Ack, I have the sewing bug, y'all. Next up, after eleventy million bags, is a quilty wall hanging for our den. I've chosen a dark brown background and some variations on teal and aqua as my color palette (because that's what is already in our den):

fabric pile.

I'm still nailing down exactly what I want to do, but I think I've got a plan. A loose plan.

I haven't totally abandoned knitting though! I'm still plugging away on both my Tapestry Cowl and my Francis Revisited:

I'm getting really close!

As you can see, I opted for short sleeves - it's already getting hot here again, and I want to be able to wear this year-round. well, maybe not in August, but you know what I mean. I can't wait for this sweater to be finished!

That's about it for now. Work is good, and I'm still BODYPUMPing (although this week is Spring Break so it's canceled. I guess I could get out and run or walk since it's so nice out. maybe.) I know some of you are still having wintry weather - I hope spring heads your way soon!

Posted by Carrieoke at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)

We totally got our mulligan for the Spelling Bee, y'all! I think we deserved TWO mulligans, because we raised more money than any other team by $700! With your totally awesome help, the Triplets raised $1200 for the Athens-Clarke Literacy Council. We were so proud handing our donation envelope to the Bee organizers! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. We beat last year's total by $500, which is really amazing.

The Triplets on stage, waiting for their turn.

We didn't win the bee - we made it through 9 rounds, though, and were the fourth runner-up team. The word that got us was "Kinshasa" - it's the capital of the Republic of Congo, and we spelled "Kinchasa", but I will also say that the pronouncer totally pronounced it with a "ch" instead of an "sh" and I think we would've spelled it right if he'd said it right. not that I'm bitter. ;) But we had lots of fun, and we got several rounds of hard words correct, including "quoin" (an architecture term which means the corner stones of brick or stone walls) and "philately" (stamp collecting).

Spelling something correctly before we got booted.

I bet you wanna hear about the prize winners though, right?!?! I've got your prize winners right here! We had a total of 167 entries for the contest. All the entries were entered into a spreadsheet, and the winners were selected using a random number generator.

Prize #1: A pair of socks for YOU, handknit by me: WINNER: Stephanie Hansen

Prize #2: From the lovely Wry Punster Elspeth: a cowl, knit for YOU, in Briar Rose Fiber WINNER: Mary McCain

Prize #3: One skein of superwash merino sock yarn, dyed in a custom colorway (you pick the colors!!) by the fabulous Melanie of Lotus Yarns WINNER: Laura Stark

Prize #4: 11 balls Rowan Yorkshire Tweed DK WINNER: Mai N.

Prize #5: A Baby Surprise Jacket Kit from Schoolhouse Press in Orange and White, including buttons! WINNER: Bertha Crowley

Prize #6: A Baby Surprise Jacket Kit from Schoolhouse Press in Red and White, including buttons! WINNER: Nancy Cardona

Prize #7: A pair of hand knit socks, customized for YOU, knit by the fabulous Mai. WINNER: Carla P. Kipen

I've emailed all the winners - Congratulations to all of you! and thank you so much to everyone who donated - it's for a really great cause, and the Athens-Clarke Literacy Council was extremely excited and grateful for the money we raised.

Now, I'm off to play in the snow!

Snow? in Georgia! srsly!

Posted by Carrieoke at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)