Eye Spy... Makes Me Laugh

I'm a bit late for this week's date, as this week I've been a bit busy. Drobtinice set us the theme of 'Something that makes me laugh', and it has got to be my family.

People who meet my parents say that all my eccentricities suddenly make sense. Yesterday my dad called me, almost crying tears of laughter to tell me about an incident at his work resulting in the destruction of a modelling straw tower with a bit of lighting equipment. It's impossible not to laugh when my dad is!

From my mum's endlessly optimistic belief that she needn't do a gauge swatch when knitting hats:





To my dad having the sense of fun to still let us put his hair into bunches and ponytails, even when his girls are in their twenties:


Yes, some of those are held up with freezer clips

And my sister and I being on the same wacky wavelength:



I know whenever I feel a bit blue my family will cheer me up.

Eye Spy... Something that makes me Happy

I'm playing along with Eye Spy Sunday hosted by Cindy of Bug and Pop, and this week's theme, courtesy of Iris and Lily is 'Something that Makes Me Happy'

I spent part of this morning folding my tiny quilting fat quarter collection using Kootoyoo's instructions, and the little happy pile looked so beautiful:



I've got some colour family groups, with possible quilts/projects in mind for these:



1. Amy Butler Midwest Modern (IIRC) - all these are long quarter yards so I'll probably pick up a few more co-ordinating prints and do something like the stacked coins with them.

2. Moon & coordinating prints - no idea what I want to do with these, I think I need a few more coordinating blues first.

3. Pink & Greens - I want to pick up some more co-ordinating small scale prints with these and do a star block or two with them. The one at the back is a long quarter, the other 3 are FQs.

4. Kaffe Fasset Floral - Got this one free on my last Cotton Patch shopping spree, no plan as yet!

5. Liberty print - I was given this print in a Craftster swap about 4 years ago, and I've been hoarding it until I can learn to sew clothes to fit my figure and then I'm going to sew it into a blouse. I've got a metre of it, so I think I'm going to have to find a lightweight black cotton to pair it with to make up the yardage. Kootoyoo's folding method also works with lightweight fabric (lighter than quilters cotton) up to a metre, and with quilters cotton up to half a metre.

6. Lovely flowery pink FQ - my sister bought this FQ about 4 years ago, wanting to make something for her (now eldest) daughter Chloë. She realised that she was unlikely to be able to, and gave it to me, so I am waiting until I find the perfect project for her to use it.

I love the pure, happy potential of a stack of beautiful fabric, and I've really enjoyed neatly folding it all. I've also been using the folding round a quilters ruler method for the yardage that I bought.

Does anyone have any suggestions of good ways to fold the long quarters?

Another thing making me happy this week is the mittens I finished knitting:



They are knitted from the beautifully soft and warm Mirasol Miski, baby llama fibre. They have a gap across the palm for sticking your fingers out of to get out your train pass or press the Pelican crossing buttons. The end of the thumb is open to help with that, but you can tuck it into the palm if it gets cold. I've called them 'Treat' because they were such a happy, easy knit - more pics here.

They're knit on 2 4mm circs, and are a quick easy knit. A friend will be testing the pattern for me, and then I'll have it available for download.

I'm off to have some home made lemon and ginger ice cream.