I'm crazy for the new Melody Miller typewriter print! I bought a fat quarter which is going to give me at least seven typewriters to fussy cut. I've pulled several fabrics to go with them and now I'm searching for piecing inspiration.

I'm thinking about something very simple. Patchwork or squares in squares. I want to focus on the colors and prints.

Today was Mr. Starfish's birthday. Sometimes he pops on here to check things out so I want to say "Happy Birthday" and "I love you"! This seems like it was made especially for him:

I made friends with the Nalu mitts and am back on track. Thought I'd post a little progress shot to prove I'm knitting and now remember how to read a chart for knitting in the round:

I went ahead and joined the Swoon-along. I just kept coming back to this pattern so I knew it was time. Resistance was futile. Block #1 is finished:

I really love this block. I love Hope Valley and plan to have all of the prints in this quilt from that line. I do no like the cutting. There is so much cutting. I'm still motivated though. I think the finished product will be worth it.

After a knitting hiatus, I cast on for Nalu Mitts. I was cruising along and thought to myself, "Self, you should take a picture of the cable-y part to show on your blog. Hmmm. That cable-y part doesn't look at all like the picture." Yeah. I was reading the cable chart right to left and then left to right like you do for flat knitting. Except these mitts are knit in the round. Grrr. To the frog pond I went!

So now I'm back at the cuff. I will say that I'm really loving the Madtosh DK and it's nice to have something on the needles.

In stash-building news, I went into my favorite quilt shop (Karen Gray) and picked up this:

Half yard cuts of several prints from Hope Valley. I really love this line. It looks vintage but still fresh. I think I'm going to use a big chunk of this for a Swoon quilt.

I love it when bloggers I follow have a little look back at some projects from the year so I made a quick mosaic of some of mine.

I'm pretty pleased with what I've done this year. I have several other WIPs form the year as well.

Mr. Starfish and I actually have a babysitter tonight so we're going out for the first New Year's Eve since the littles were born! Happy New Year everyone!

If anything can get my knitting mojo going again, it will be these two, right?

Madtosh DK in Charcoal and Malabrigo worsted in Violetas. I'm looking at fingerless mitts patterns for the Madtosh. Not sure yet.

I'm trying my hand at needlepoint too. My local shop was having a major sale on Christmas canvases so I splurged on a cute reindeer with not too many color changes and some silk threads.

I've only done a bit (the red and white stripes on the bottom and some green at the top) but I think it looks nice so far. The back, however, is a hot mess. I'm not tying knots, just slipping the ends of threads under a couple stitches and snipping. Does the back always look messy? Dee?

Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas or something else, there always seems to be yummy food this time of year!

I made a batch of toffee today from a recipe I got from Anna at Cookie Madness. I make this every year and it always gets lots of compliments. Like most candy, the recipe doesn't have a ton of ingredients but it requires precision when it comes to temperature. You can't make this while entertaining the littles, writing a grocery list, or washing dishes. The recipe is HERE. Try it!

I found another fun recipe from Rachel at P.S. I Quilt. It's her Grandmomma's Sausage Cheese Pie.

We had this for dinner tonight with a green salad and everyone (including Kid Starfish) loved it. Yum. This would be a great Christmas morning breakfast food. The recipe is HERE. What's everyone else eating this holiday season?

Gift Collage:Tomato Flat Holiday Photo Cards
Check out our collection of Christmas cards and holiday cards.

I'm really happy with these. It was one of those years where getting a picture of all four of us in November and December was hard and Baby Starfish is still growing and changing too fast to use an older one. Luckily I had lots of great photos from Mandy and some other snapshots to use mosaic-style!

**Sorry if it looks like I'm "plugging" TinyPrints (FYI - I do really like them!) but they are doing something tricky with the image and I can't get it to a manageable size in PhotoShop.

This one was hard to mail off!

I love the colors, the craziness and lots of the individual fabrics. It's bold and graphic.

I even love the backing fabric!

Stats: approx. 40" x 50" with all over stipple quilting.

The holiday countdown is on. I have three more days to teach before two weeks off and we're in Christmas Central!

Kid Starfish loves to turn off the lights, sit on the couch and look at the tree. Every day he opens a new door on his Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar. This thing is great. Gone are the days of me desperate for ideas for the advent calendar. It's done for me, he loves it and we get to build something together every day!

I have some Malabrigo and Madtosh on the way from The Loopy Ewe. I'm in the mood for some fingerless mitts!

I felt a little Debbie Downer-ish after my last post about Constellation so I wanted to post some other tops that I love. (Sidenote: Have you seen the original Debbie Downer sketch from SNL? Hilarious).

Here is an easy top I made for Kid Starfish based on the Road Trip Quilt by Cluck, Cluck, Sew:

Here is a close-up of the Children at Play fabric:

I love those boys and the rocket ships!

The other top I love is Confetti:

A lot of my favorite fabrics are in this one! I did some fussy cutting to highlight them:

This one is a nice lap size at about 60" by 80" or so.

Happy December everyone!