CONGRATULATIONS SAILOR!

Our family is celebrating the promotion of my son’s military advancement.

Any details that I am about to share here are not confidential, they have been publicly posted by the Navy on Facebook…so it must be safe, right?

Our Fire Controlman (he doesn’t put out fires, he launches missiles!), was promoted to 2^nd class.

He is aboard the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG-62).  Chancellorsville is on patrol in the U.S. 7^th Fleet area of operation in support of security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific.

We are so proud of him for making the decision to join the Navy and for working so hard to earn this promotion.

This was too good not to share…so I am linking up at Sarah’s Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?  Hop over and see what has others doing the whoop whoop.

Thank you for indulging this Proud Navy Mom!

Fair Winds and Following Seas!

Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge 2016 Link Up

This is my second year participating in the Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge coordinated by Sarah who blogs at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

There are a record number of quilters signed up for this year’s challenge so I am sure Sarah will receive a record number of quilts.  Many quilters donate more than one or two so I am excited to see the final number.

Please visit Sarah to read more about the challenge and see the link ups for some quilty inspiration.

My contribution this year is a simple child’s quilt that will go to Happy Chemo.

These are the fabrics I selected.

The fun giraffes and yellow fabric came from Stephanie’s stash.  Stephanie Dunphy is writing some wonderful tote and quilt patterns which you can find  at ConnectingThreads.

The green is a Gail Kessler for Andover fabric and the Little Elephants fabric is from Michael Miller.

The easy strip pattern is one I found many years ago.  It was on Mary Johnson’s website.  This is a perfect pattern for a child size quilt.

I would like to thank Sarah for the opportunity to participate.  She is a very special person with a huge heart.  I look forward to next year.

Hugs,

Lost in Fibre Space

Where have I been?  

Well, I traveled to Old Town Alexandria last week for work.  Not sure if I mentioned it before but I will go there occasionally. 

When I wasn’t busy working, I searched for quilt shops and yarn stores.  No luck locating a quilt shop close by but I did find an amazing yarn shop that was within walking distance.

Fibre Space is my new favorite gourmet yarn store.

Three large rooms filled with high quality and unique yarns as well as a classroom area and lounge.  They were shooting a commercial the day I was there and NO, I resisted the photo bomb.

Happy mannequins, even the yarn adorned deer.

 So much yarn (swoon)

Meet Arthella (shop manager) and Sarah  (most helpful)

You can read more about these ladies and all of the Fibre Space staff by clicking here.

Nemo

Under the watchful eye of Nemo - the shop's mascot, Sarah helped me find a couple of nice projects.

To expand my knitting skills, I purchased Michelle Hunter's Building Blocks.  You knit 12 individual squares, learning new techniques with each one.  When the squares are complete, she shows you how to join them to make an afghan.

I selected Ella Rae's Superwash Wool in Heather Blue for that project.

The shop had a sample of a beautiful ombre' scarf, I forgot to get a close up photo of it.  Sarah helped me find the pattern on Ravelry for Cynthia Parker's Ombre Infinity.  My yarns for this project are Blue Sky Alpacas (50% baby alpaca 50% raw silk...yum!) in Gold Dust, Flint and Cinnabar.  This pattern involves the Kitchner Graft which is a technique I have only used once before, so...fingers crossed.

That is where I have been.  I highly recommend a visit if you are ever in Old Town.  But if you can't wait until then, you can find them online here.

I will be back to share my progress on these fun projects as well as something quilty J