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!