March Already

It's March already. I set a goal to blog at least twice a month and I failed as early as February. I also set a goal to obedience train certain of my dogs for 5 minutes a day and I haven't come close to reaching that goal either.

My work life's been a bit of a hassle lately. The company I worked for was acquired by another company and I suddenly find myself a day one employee with no vacation working for a company I can't imagine I would have ever wanted to work for. Oh well, in this economy and at my age, a job is a job.

Knitting and Sewing

I finished my first quilt. It's not just my first quilt, I also taught myself to sew by doing this quilt. Despite all the mistakes, I'm very happy with it. The pattern is from Easy Quilts, Fall 2009.

Next I tackled another basic project, a "Peppers" table runner to match the new rugs in my kitchen. This was really fun and came together quickly. My flying geese are not very "pointy" but I'm cutting myself some slack. I'm still learning. Here the material is from my local Wal-Mart.

I started yet another basic quilt in pink and green, one of my favorite color combinations. Here it is laid out on the floor. A simple pattern of squares to see if I can make the seams match. The fabric is Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey. I have it partially pieced together now while I wait for more batting to arrive. I am going to try quilting this in pieces using directions from Marti Michell's Machine Quilting In Sections.

I'm knitting this hat from Lace Style. It's the second time I've made this hat, this time out of Risata from Knit Picks. I'm a bit further along than the picture shows. I had high hopes of finishing it this afternoon until my day was rudely interrupted by a stray, somewhat vicious dog who refused to leave...a long story.

Dogs

Shame on me! I have no recent pictures of the dogs to share. My training time today was taken up dealing with the stray dog who managed to get his foot caught in my fence. In the end, the sheriff had to be called. The dog will be at the humane society tomorrow. I wonder if his owners are looking for him? Or even know he is gone?

So I'll leave you today with a picture of the grapefruit sandwich cookies I made from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I love making sandwich cookies and I'm a big Martha fan. These are very good.