Summertime, Summertime, sum, sum, SUMMERTIME!

I hope that all of you with children are kind enough to let them play in the rain! (Unless it includes lightening, of course!)
It was a favorite activity for me and my brothers when we were growing up! This picture of 2 of my little ones was taken just a few minutes ago.

We've been plagued with rain here on the East coast recently. Last week we had a flood in our basement, which sent us all into a flurry of activity. I was busy trying to keep it sequestered in the three rooms that had flooded, while hubby went to Home Depot for a sump pump, then installed it. (I didn't consider the rain to be quite so fun or friendly on that day.)

Since this is primarily a craft blog, here's what I've been crafting during the last couple of months....


Remember the cool class that I mentioned taking? Well, this was it! I've always wanted to learn English Crewelwork, and as I was walking (to my LYS), I passed by the needlepoint shop, which had a crewelwork display in the window. The acclaimed Philippa Turnball was going to be coming to America, and teaching a class practically across the street! The class was the week after Mother's Day, and it was great fun. If this is one of your interests, I couldn't recommend her class and kits highly enough! By the way, she was even commissioned to create a crewelwork bedspread for the late Queen Mother!


Here's the itsy bitsy start of my Katherine of Aragon sweater. I'm loving the fair isle, but I'm really, really slow. I changed the bottom border to match the neckline, because I like it better. What I feared was true, much of my knitting time is accomplished while I do other things, like schoolwork with the kids, or listening to hubby read aloud. I can't seem to follow charts and do anything else at the same time, so my time on Katherine has been limited. I need to start some kind of mindless knitting to do during my multitasking knitting time.

Last but not least (despite the poor picture):

I'm one of the leaders of a "Keepers at Home" group for girls. This year, I taught a beginning quilting class for some of the girls. Here they display their completed quilts at our end of year banquet. I was SO proud! Several of these girls are extraordinarily talented, and FAR surpassed my first attempts at quilting!

I'm still here!

Been desperately busy painting the house, gardening, and raising kids! I never knew that summer could be so busy! I've barely had time to read blogs more than once a week, much less post on mine.
I've got a couple of measley inches knit on my Katherine of Aragon sweater. I'll show pics when it's more picture worthy.
I also took a really run class that I'll tell all about soon.
Here's a fun meme than I picked up from the Zen lady:

Please leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me — it can only be one word long. Then copy and paste this into your blog so that I may leave a word about you.