Modern Farmer's Wife Quilt Along

I've been trying to get back to crafting. For the past few years, I've made lots of excuses. I don't have the time. I don't have the space. My stash is so disorganized.

You've likely made the same excuses.

In the meantime, I've been knitting. Trying to whittle down my yarn stash. And browsing lots of websites. Can you say "Pinterest Addict"? And I found Craftsy. 

Sigh.

Online video craft classes. And supplies... oh, they sell supplies, too. And they know how to market to people like me. Every time I see something on Facebook with a new kit available, I feel like I MUST have it.

But the other thing Craftsy does is sell patterns from independent designers.

And that's where I found the Modern Farmer's Wife Quilt lessons.

If you're not familiar with the Farmer's Wife Quilt, you can take a look at it here. I have to admit, I always loved the idea of doing a sampler quilt. But when I bought the book, I was really disappointed to see that it was old school. As in, cutting-out-hundreds-of-templates-old-school. Who has time for that? The Farmer's Wife may have been busy, but she did not commute 50 miles a day in Washington, DC traffic, work 9 hours at a desk job, then come home, make dinner, do the laundry, clean the house, take the dog out, and have to fit in a work out.

That's where Craftsy came along. I found Karen Walker from Laugh Yourself Into Stitches and her Modern Farmer's Wife patterns. Karen took the patterns from the book and simplified the cutting. Then I got an email about a Quilt Along. I've always wanted to do a bee, but just don't have the guts to do it. There's those excuses popping up again.

So I told myself no more excuses. This one I'm going to do. That's when things got interesting. Pottery Barn had a sale and I found a craft/project table on sale. Finally! A project table that is the right height for cutting and large enough to leave my cutting mat on one side and still have usable space. But getting the table meant cleaning out my craft room and getting rid of the armoire I used to store my fabric stash. So I'm still organizing my fabric. And I've decided that every Sunday during football season is going to be my craft time. That doesn't mean that will be the ONLY time I can have in there, but that's the plan so far. Stick something in the slow cooker at noon and sew until it's done!

knitted things

Haraseiram's baby blanket

I am totally in love with different colored stripes right now. This caught my eye Haraseiram's baby blanket.

Tent Blanket

I've also been knitting this Tent Blanket as a gift for my father in law this Christmas. And if you were to look in my Ravelry library, you would see all sorts of stripey goodness.

Why do I get myself into these things?

Yes, it has been a while since I've sat down to write. But, you know, I started out on Facebook and then wasted a month on Pinterest, so I've been busy.

So it's the the middle of July. This can only mean one thing. It's family birthday time. My mother-in-law, sister-in-law and father-in-law all have birthdays within the same two weeks. I'm not sure how this works out, but that's just the way it is in our family. July is no March. Now March is a bitch since we've got SIX family birthdays that month. ONETWOTHREEFOURFIVE... SIX. July only has three.  But since my father-in-law is in town, I volunteered to have the birthday party.

Sigh.

This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that DH has been gimping around the house for two weeks. He dropped a box on his foot and after a trip to the satellite ER and an x-ray and pair of crutches later, he has a bone bruise. A severe bone bruise. Meaning he can't put much weight on it, and has to sit with his foot raised up. Poor guy.

Yup. Poor guy. Poor me. I'm sure some of you know what it is like to take care of someone who finds it difficult to do the littlest thing. And yet, they aren't actually sick. And it was an accident, so you feel bad about complaining because after all, the poor guy can't help it. And he's in pain but after a couple of weeks you're so ready for it to be all healed up by now. The thing is, I've just realized how much DH actually does around the house. From lugging the laundry baskets up and down stairs, to letting the dog out and a lot more.

So it's the middle of July and it's birthday season and we're having the whole family over for swimming and dinner. And DH is laid up and I'm asking myself why do I get myself into these things?

Too early

Why, oh why does the dog have to get me up so frakking early?

Welcome

Welcome to Wild Dachshund! Just getting this thing started but I wanted to share a picture of my inspiration for this.  It seems like there a bunch of mommy blogs out there, but I don't have kids. This is Sadie. She's like my kid.

Well, she looks sweet, but back when she was a puppy, she was wild! Eating stairs, wild mushrooms (yes, there's a story there) and anything she could get her hands on. Now, she mostly just sleeps.

So, I don't plan on this being a true doggy-blog. I'm not one of those people who eat, sleep and breathe dog. I love my doggy like she is a kid, but I also realize that she isn't actually a kid. Actually, she's more like an old person now.