How does my garden grow?

I couldn't help but take my camera outside this morning after that MASSIVE thunderstorm we had in the middle of the night.  I knew my plants would be happy, and they were.

 Hydrangea; which this year is more purple-pink then in the past

 This is the yellow rose plant my dad gave me for SW month; its really flourishing! Thanks to

Nevena Damjanov for the excellent suggestions on how to keep it healthy!

Massive 'mater plants and a few other containers...

 Roma tomatoes...dripping

Cherry Tomatoes

 MASSIVE butterfly bush

More 'maters...can't WAIT for them to ripen and to cook with them!

I've also got herbs: basil, thyme, dill and lavender.  There are red and yellow peppers that are just beginning to flower.  There are also lots of annuals, petunias, impatients, snap dragons and marigolds.  Finally, the *red* sunflowers are growing EXPONENTIALLY...and so are the weeds...meh.

Piano Keys

Wendy and I, long time knitting pals, are now attacking quilting hardcore.  Armed with our Singer Confidence Quilter sewing machines (thanks to the HSN monthly payment plan!), our rotary cutters and our irons, we decided our first quilt-a-long (QAL) would be "Piano Keys"

http://store.spoolsewing.com/piano-keys-quilt.html

This quilt has been made up in several different fabrics---some all prints, some all solids.  We both decided to do a blend of both solids and prints in ours.  Wendy decided to conquer both the sale fabrics at Spool AND the larger size quilt.  Being my first attempt at quilting in some time, I decided to do the smaller one.

Let me first say, our new machines are amazing.  I LOVE mine.  Now, I liked my Kenmore too, but I guess I didn't realize that its subpar bobbin housing and speed inconsistency was holding me back as a sewer.

Once I got started piecing the top, it took me no time; 1 hour of sewing and about 1 bobbin and a half of thread.

Here is the finished quilt top:

(sorry for the darkness of the second one)

Yesterday I met up with Wendy to purchase fabric for the back and the binding.  I also pieced some of my leftover squares to use as one strip of the back.

Here is a look:

Tomorrow we make a quilt sandwich and make magic happen with the machine!  So exciting!
I've decided this is going to be for Grandma and her new apartment.  I hope it will cheer her!

Concussed

I had a run in...literally...with a shelf in my office yesterday.

I feel wretched. Headache...poor concentration. Deemed by occ med to stay home until Friday...

I can't knit...can read much. But napping I rule at.

Hopefully will be on the mend soon

look what the amazon gods delivered

i just hope my minor head injury doesnt keep me from reading these cover to cover...now

Camping

Our family: not so big into camping.
Actually, my dad, not really a nature kind of guy.  If there is no remote involved, forgetaboutit.

My camping trips were limited to church group outings where I managed to get one of the WORST sunburns of my life on a 2 x 3 patch of the back of my neck that I "missed" with sunscreen AND where I was forced into a death march to Lake Michigan across Sleeping Bear Dunes.  The bugs, the questionable bathrooms...etc...not my fave.  But I did love the camp fires, the singing and the stars.

Anyway, I'm knitting "Camping" right now.  Its a half pi shawl designed in honor of Elizabeth Zimmerman's 100th birthday anniversary (I guess that means its the anniversary of what would have been her 100th birthday?) available for free on ravelry.

I'm doing it in Tosh Merino DK.  Its a great yarn to work with, as is anything from Madelinetosh.  I'm not TOTALLY convinced on the color.  I've been trying to branch out from my usual greens and blues and purples; and everyone always tells me I look good in pink.  So, pink it is (or this will end up being for Robin!)

Here she is in progress:

I know, she really doesn't look like much.  But I'm now about halfway through the 3rd of 4 lace patterns.  There is also a knitted on edging.  I think this photo speaks VOLUMES about the power and necessity of blocking.

But, even cooler, is my total abandonment of printing patterns & my magnet board for holding up my charts and the adoption and affection for the IPAD for managing my knitting patterns.  I can't recommend highly enough downloading the GoodReader app.  It allows you to write on, mark up, highlight, cross out and well, manipulate PDF's.  It works great for chart knitting as you can mark off as you go along:

LOVE LOVE LOVE.  No more magnets slipping all over the place!  No more blowing up charts (the IPAD does that for you!)  It has changed my knitting life!

Last night I had to add another cable on to my fantastic interchangeable knitpicks needles as the shawl continues to expand.  More on the progress of my camping trip to follow

And, we're back...

I stepped away from blogging for a while.

With the dawn of facebook and tweeting (which I don't at all get), I felt that I was connecting with friends and family all over in an easy way.  Plus, I had facebook on my phone, my computer...everywhere.  It was easy to snap a pic and post it immediately to share with the world...

Wait a minute, it isn't the world.  It's actually a small fraction of the world.

I missed the record of the day to day; the mundane and the intriguing; the first and only successful journal I have every kept was my blog, knittydelicious. 

But a lot in my life changed to.  I became a victim of the recession.  I lost my "dream" job and then realized it wasn't my dream job after all.  I got a new job.  I excel in it.  I'm happy.  But is was a rough patch for a long time.  I'm actually glad I don't have blogs of the time when I was laid off...its hard enough to forget it as it is.

I still knit...but now I teach knitting at Loop here in Philadelphia.
I started sewing and discovered a love of patchwork and quilting.  I'm not that good at it, but I'm learning and just got a new sewing machine to boot.
I got an ipad for my birthday and I'm totally obsessed.  It is the greatest tool for knitting...and it isn't even close to a knitting needle.
The beags are still with me: Gus, Maggie and Finnegan.  We joined a local dog park a few years ago and I've taken an active roll in our dog park community.  The beags love the park and their doggie friends.  It has changed our lives.
My cousin Shelley, 15 years my junior, lives with me.  She will begin studying Arts Administration at Drexel U. this fall.  Its been nice getting to know my cous...and we have some raging cooking parties! 

So that is where we will begin...the next volume of my life on blogger...reminding myself of the importance of this journal and having a record of what Teener takes on.