Finishing Up 2009 Projects

It's hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone already. We had a great day, but I didn't get many pictures taken. Here's one of Wayne preparing the turkey for our meal... We were able to share parts of the day with some special friends. Bob was a real trooper and showed up at 6 a.m. to help get the chores done so we could enjoy our traditional cinnamon rolls, Bible reading of the birth of Jesus, and then the opening of gifts without the little boys going crazy waiting for the animals to be taken care of. Tami came to our rescue with chocolate cupcakes when the traditional chocolate truffle I made turned out tasting like soap!

Matthew gave the family a new digital camera so I'm trying to learn how to use it and hope to post lots of pics in the coming year. Matthew has now regained sole possession of his digital camera which we have used more than he has!
Ian has had fun spelling words with Katelyn's new game "Bananagrams". Here he's reading spelling lists to get ideas for new words to spell.

This week I've decided to tackle projects that I really wanted to accomplish earlier in the year but didn't have time to complete between school, work, and doctor appointments.

I started the tradition of making each child a quilt every 5 years. Last June was Katelyn's 10th birthday so she was due to receive her second quilt. Somehow I only got the quilt cut out by June and it's been pushed to the side several times as I tackled other projects that were not as time consuming or more portable. I started sewing on it the week before Christmas in hopes to have it done by the 25th. I had the blocks done, but the quilt didn't get completed until today. Happy birthday, Kate, 6 months and 4 days late!!
A portable project I've been working on is a sweater vest pattern I found in a library book. I had some very nice yarn I found in a yard sale a year or so ago and thought it would be great for this project. The patterns are all inspired by Maine scenery, but I decided to switch their pattern a bit to look more like my NY scenery...
Their sheep became my alpaca (minus 1)
Wayne's getting a major project accomplished this week thanks to our oldest sons and our friend Bob. They are putting up sheet rock in the hallway. The ceiling was done today (pictures to come).

I have a couple more things on my 'to do' list this week...spinning up some dog hair yarn for a customer and rebinding 2 of Matthew's quilts...then there's the alpaca yarn my sister ordered and the alpaca socks that a local woman wants made. Oh yeah, I have THREE birthday quilts to do this year (Ian, Rachael, Nathanial) . I don't think I'll have to worry about lack of projects in 2010.