Graduation

Just a quick note to put up some photos from Brooke's Graduation last night. A beautiful, meaningful commencement and a beautiful graduate:
 the happy family

 Happy grandparents and graduate

Today we start our journey in ernest. We are embarking on the train trip that will take us from Dar es Salam, down through Tanzania and into Zambia. It takes 46 hours plus delays so will be interesting. If you want to follow our travels in Africa, please go to:  Where are we today?

The only things that I brought with me for while I travel besides my camera, are:
~ Knitting - my silk scarf.   I will get this finished sometime for sure.

~ Crocheting - my granny square coat squares. Now that I have all the wool, I can go to town on them. I forgot, however, a needle to sew them together so will end up with a bunch of finished squares with loose tags of yarn. 
~ Needlework - 2 Christmas Crackers. These are the ones that I gave Mom for Christmas. They are just not for her in her current state. So I promised to complete them for her and then make them up into crackers. I believe that she wants to give them to my sister Lauri for Christmas, so I had better get going on them!  

Africa here we come, graduation month is a must

The month of May is a busy one for us and I can tell you it won't be in the needlework or quilting arena. Our granddaughter has many an activity and event this month in honor of her graduating high school. The high school graduation is a memorable time in a young woman's life and we are blessed to be able to share in it.
Prom:

Senior

Junior

How wonderful is it to see these events as grandparents? And graduation comes this coming Friday.

Throughout these events/celebrations, I was able to finish another mugrug, this one for April, themed Fruit 

 Apple Blossoms in April lead to a basket of apples in the fall.

I was able to finish, well almost finish the flimsy for BTF#2. I miscut so had to order the last border. And so it sits waiting for me to pick up the mail, return from our next fabulous journey, and get Miss Betsy out of deep storage.

Throughout this period of time we are planning our next epic journey, this time to Africa with friends from Europe. With this in mind, Miss Betsy is put into deep storage as she is a minor irritant sitting there waiting for me to come to her and use her many talents. 

I managed to make a sandwich for my flying geese UFO. I had already sandwiched them but it was way to flimsy for even a summer quilt. So Mr. Rippit came to visit and we ripped everything out and started again. It is now at the point where I can quilt it on Miss Betsy. Do I dare get her out and try? We leave in less than a week and still have some things left to do in getting ready? hmmmmm

And so the question remains, will I get it done to qualify for this quarters Stashbuster's UFO Challenge or will I have to pay a penalty?

I tried to be productive ...

So I tried to be more productive in April, at least that was the plan. And as all planning goes sometimes, mine went awry. An unplanned, quick trip to Panama found me taking my needlework with me - no quilting.

The last couple of days I managed to complete a little bit more of Zach's quilt squares, until I ran out of the main blue. How could I have miscalculated? I had one more complete round of blue to do. to do.

 now the fun will be to try and match it up as the fabric is at least 1.5 years old.

I found inspiration for a way to present all my molls in the oddest place - a bathroom in a quilting/knitting shop.

 so of course while in Panamá, I had to buy more molas.

 This is the one that I will make into a cover for the printer which will definitely add some color to the house.

As soon as we returned, out came Miss Betsy and I was able to do some random sewing at random times in between our random ramblings. 

Christmas Cracker completed in Panama but the embellishment added once back stateside.

 First up was finishing up Rainbow Jane's Spanish Moss.

 Next was to finish March's mugrug - Luck in all Shapes ...

As well as adding to my stash at a wonderful store found near Lake Somerville State Park. This will make a flimsy for BTF #2.

I continued to work haphazardly on the Santa Stamp cross stitch. I am motivated to get it finished as I want to start a pattern that I bought while in Edmonton. It is a big project so will no doubt last a few years just like this one has. :)

Somehow life always seems to get in the way so I really haven't done much more than this. Sometimes I feel like I have done nothing yet when I start to list it all out, I have actually done a little something. I should just stop berating myself and go with the flow ...