Going to Pieces

Design Wall Monday, Orca Bay progress

2012-01-16T09:25:00.001-05:00

Obviously not the whole quilt-just the units on the wall to give me an idea of how it will look when it all comes together. When I first placed the pieces, I was dismayed that I couldn’t see the overall pattern, neither could MOTH. I took some pictures, thinking I would be ahead of the game for Design Wall Monday, and shared them with a friend. It wasn’t until I was describing the blocks to my non-quilter friend that I saw a mistake-a really big mistake! I had done the stars with the dark background (aqua) wrong, they weren’t stars at all, the way I sewed them. Spent yesterday frogging and remaking those blocks.

Pay a visit to Patchwork Times to see what others have on their design walls.

A visitor to my sewing room

2012-01-13T12:00:00.001-05:00

I’m still working away at my Orca Bay Mystery quilt. As I was trimming the orange string blocks, I was just dropping the scraps into a pile. It formed an amazing orange pyramid on the cutting board. Somewhere along the line, I noticed a tiny scrap moving across a strip of the aqua…what the ????? A ladybug had decided to visit the sewing room, she blended in beautifully with my orange scraps. I grabbed MOTH’s camera, but neither of us could remember how to use the macro function before she became tired of posing. Can you see her there on the strip?

Design Wall Monday and Orca Bay step 5 update

2011-12-19T14:29:00.001-05:00

I didn’t get as much sewing done as I had hoped, but I did start step 5, worked some more on step 4 and began printing out Inklingo QSTs for step 1. Also played around with some of the Orca Bay pieces that have been made thus far to see how they might fit together.

The picture shows some step 5 units, and then two possible ways to use the pieces we have made. Also shown (faintly) on the right is one of the Inklingo sheets.

I am enjoying using Inklingo method, but I would give one caution to anyone considering using it. One of the advantages is that you can customize the size of ‘paper’ so that you use only the amount of fabric you need, thereby wasting less. All the math and computation is done for you, you know how many pieces you need to make, you pick the template and the layout that will best produce those pieces. For example, to make the unit one hourglass units, in the 2” finished size that I need, I will need to print out 19 sheets like the one shown above. Each of these sheets will make 24. Each of these sheets are 7” x 10.5” so there is very little waste. If you printed out a standard letter size, you would have a lot of partial, useless pieces and fabric waste.

The problem is that not all printers allow you to customize the size of paper you use. I had done the step three HSTs on my older, cheapy printer, on letter size (because they fit well on that), with no problems at all. Inklingo gives you all the info you will need to find and customize the paper size you need to print, even when following the directions in Little Cheapy’s manual, I never was able to customize. The manual said ‘to customize, do x,y and z’, but the caveat was there that not all papers could be customized. I tried every paper type they gave, none would allow customization. We have a second not-quite-as-ancient printer hooked up to my computer so that we can scan, but we seldom print on it because the ink refills are much more expensive. I went into that printer and followed the customization instructions, and BINGO, it worked!

Therefore, my caution to anyone considering Inklingo is that before you buy a set, make sure that your printer can customize paper sizes. You don’t want to be unable to make full use of your purchase. The sets are not terribly expensive, especially since you can use them over and over, just keep printing. You just want to be able to use all the best features.

Check out Patchwork Times for some inspirational design walls and Quiltville for the progress being made by other Orca Bay participants.

LATE BREAKING NEWS / CORRECTION: I just printed out some more of the QSTs and discovered, completely by accident, that when I saved the 7 x 10.5 paper size that I created on the scanner/printer, it now shows up on the size selection menu for either printer, and can be printed out on either printer- I just wasn’t able to create the new size on Little Cheapy. Hooray! Now I can print with the more economical cartridges!!

Design Wall Monday/Orca Bay part 4 progress

2011-12-12T12:31:00.001-05:00

Translation supplied for a dear friend who doesn’t speak Quilt, yet faithfully follows my blog and tries to encourage me onward.

Progress! It’s a good thing. I finished the part 3 HSTs

Nan- that means half square triangle, looks like this

I have made about two thirds of the part 4 triangles from strips-my color for these is orange. Perhaps the rest will be finished today.

See the fuzzies on my design wall? You should see me! I’ve been wearing a sweat suit to be warm and comfy as I stitch away. A purple sweat suit, because one must coordinate with ones project, right? Anyway, with all the trimming and little clips of threads and what not, I currently resemble……well, the Pillsbury Doughboy gone fuzzy. If my sons could see me now, I can hear some of the jokes—what do you get when you cross the Michelin Man with a Wookie? Night of the Living Thread……that sort of thing.

Meanwhile, I’m wondering what Bonnie is up to with these shapes. So many possibilities, and very hard to guess because we don’t know all the shapes and pieces she will eventually use. Here is one possible combination of pieces, of course, Bonnie will have all the bears toes going in the proper direction. (Nan-a square block with some of those HSTs on two sides is called a BearPaw, which is what I was trying to make with the purple and teal but was directionally challenged)

Please check out the progress that others are making on their Orca Bay Mystery Quilts and some of the wonderful work other quilters have on their design walls.

Design Wall/Orca Bay Monday

2011-12-05T12:53:00.001-05:00

On my design wall today are a few of the string blocks (step 2) and a sampling of the HST (step 3) of Bonnie Hunter’s Orca Bay Mystery that I am participating in.

I have all of the step 2 string blocks completed, and I love them. They are so neat and look good-and they are purple.

I am about two-thirds of the way finished with step 3. I took advantage of the Inklingo special sale for Orca Bay participants and have used Inklingo to make these blocks. I have looked into Inklingo before, but never got into it. I have to say that I am really enjoying making the HST this way-and enjoying HSTs is not something I ever expected to do! Since I haven’t even started step 1 yet, (hey, why start at the beginning?) I think I will probably go back to Inklingo and get the collection for quarter square triangles.

Bonnie selected her colors using a photograph from her Alaska trip. I found a few photos I really liked, but the colors were too similar. Then, while still debating if I even would participate, I saw a photo on someone’s computer that blew my mind. Initially, I couldn’t even tell what the photo was, all I saw was the color! It turns out that the photo was of an ant, under extreme magnification. The ant was electrically vibrant shades of oranges and yellows. The background changed from deep purples (in areas that would have been ‘sky’ in a landscape) to dark teal (in what would have been the ground). Such an incredible photo, I don’t think I have the link to it, if I find one I will post. The subject certainly wasn’t ‘pretty’, but it was so vivid and colorful, it had to be my inspiration. Hmm, maybe this quilt won’t be Orca Bay, but Electric Ant for me…… I’m not sure how the quilt will turn out with these colors in it, but that is part of the risk in doing a mystery quilt, and Bonnie’s are always amazing.

All of this was done as I listened to an audio version of one of Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache mysteries. This is the second I have listened to, and I intend to listen to the rest, I enjoy them so much. At first, it seems wordy, but if you listen instead of wish she’d just get on with the story, you will find the descriptions and insights amazing in themselves. These books aren’t action packed, shoot ‘em ups, but more in line with P.D. James thoughtful detective Adam Dalgliesh. Penny’s work reminds me to enjoy the journey to the conclusion, not just the conclusion itself, to savor each morsel instead of gorging and swallowing the whole thing.

Go on over to Judy’s Patchwork Times to check out what other quilters are up to, you will see some great work. While you are at it, go over to Bonnie’s to see the progress other Orca Bay mystery quilters are making, it will be amazing to see how differently these quilts turn out, even though they are all using the same pattern.

Design Wall Monday

2011-11-28T18:49:00.001-05:00

Well, I finally have the top finished for the Buck a Block quilt started years ago. This is the closest I’ve ever come to chucking the whole thing and pretending the project never existed. I still love the fabrics used, but the rest, ick.

We’ve all heard the stories, sometimes attributed to the Amish, sometimes to Middle Eastern cultures, of humility blocks/rugs, whatever. The premise being that one must include a mistake in one’s work so as not to risk offending God, since only God is able to make something perfect. The Amish have laughingly denied this is their thing, rightly pointing out the arrogance of thinking one’s work is so perfect that it is necessary to be purposely imperfect.

I must say I agree. This quilt doesn’t have a humility block, it is a humility QUILT. Not only did I not purposely include an error, I can’t even figure out exactly what went wrong in so many different places to cause the problems. Well, except for one error. As many times as I studied this quilt in person and in photos as I worked, I never spotted this big one. Nope, that problem didn’t reveal itself until just now as I was looking at the photo to include in this post! No way am I ripping back that far now.

So, here it is, my Humble Rose quilt.

Silver lining? I just received the 2 disc DVD by Myrna Ficken “Beginning Longarm Quilting”. I’ve been using my robotic quilter for years, but have recently added features so that I can also do free motion. I was hoping for some instruction in doing free motion designs, but this is much more getting things right from the start=squaring, spotting problems, how to deal with problems. Who’d have thought I’d be able to use all these techniques in one quilt, and so soon!? Best way to learn is to DO what you are shown. Hmmm, maybe that should be my story….made all these mistakes on purpose, in order to try all the fixes Myrna teaches. Yeah…….I like that.

Meanwhile, go over to Patchwork Times to see lots of great quilts that others are working on.

After dinner follow up

2011-11-24T18:43:00.001-05:00

Both turkeys turned out well, very flavorful. The pink one was especially moist, pronounced ‘perfect’ by one of my sons. Here are the finished, deeply colored smoked birds.

And of course, there is the inevitable post-turkey slump – *sigh* I remember when he napped with a stuffed animal…….

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T08:47:00.001-05:00

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday, filled with the many blessings for which we give thanks.

I was up at o-dark-thirty this morning to start dinner. This year we are trying something new. A month or so back, we bought a small electric smoker, so far we have enjoyed everything that we have made in it. Today, we will be smoking the turkeys-yes, two. I usually get a 22-25 lb turkey, but the smoker is too small for a bird that size, so we have two smaller ones instead. That will take less time to cook and allows a little more experimentation.

I am also brining the turkeys, first time doing that as well. One was brined in a buttermilk brine and then an herbed/roasted garlic butter was put under the skin. That is the larger of the two, so it had to go in earlier so they can both be ready about the same time. It was still so dark out that had to get out the flashlight in order to use the controls and load up the smoker.

The second turkey received a cranberry juice brine. It’s PINK!!! Too funny, hope the other birds don’t tease it!

Here it is, loaded and looking pretty. That is quite a contrast-wonder how different it will look when they are finished cooking?

Counting my blessings……

Design Wall Monday for Sept 26

2011-09-26T12:35:00.001-04:00

First, let me start off by dealing with the most important thing today—HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, my darlin’ MOTH! The past 41 years with you have brought me more joy than I could have ever imagined, and I would never made it through the tough times without your strength,wisdom and love. Love you, dar.

Now, for the design wall –

only 5 little blocks. I had to do a few test blocks of the Cheddar Bow Tie challenge (Bonnie Hunter) because….well, I wanted to see how they look and how they go together, I wanted to start something new even though I ‘m not ‘supposed’ to until I finish some more UFOs….basically, I just wanted to. As you can see from the samples,and after seeking MOTH’s sage opinion, I think I will be working with the cheddar/red color families instead of going scrappy for the ties.

I have made a very little progress on the Buck a Block. I have to say, I have begun to really dislike it. I loved the fabrics, still do. It is one of the Thangles promotional patterns, so of course, their purpose it to get you to do lots of HSTs using their product. Since starting this I have learned that I favor repeated/similar blocks over sampler/different blocks in a quilt-don’t know why, just do. This is a sampler type, each block using many HSTs in different combinations and placement. Some blocks are nice, the stars worked well (or maybe I like stars more, dunno) but some blocks…….lets just say that just because you can put HSTs in certain arrangements doesn’t mean that you should, some just are not attractive.

However, I will use self-discipline and finish it.

Meanwhile, check out some fantastic work by truly gifted quilters over at JudyL’s .

Weekend getaway

2011-09-19T16:01:00.001-04:00

We just returned from a weekend of camping with our friend Patricia. Didn’t do anything special, just reveled in superb weather, relaxing with no time constraints or to-do lists, and enjoyed being in the company of friends. I think Mac enjoyed it most of all-lots of walks and plenty of attention from everyone present!

We had a nice pull-through site, very private. The first picture is of MOTH and Mac on our site. Patricia was a few sites away, she had great view overlooking the lake. As you can see, the lakes in our area are down quite a bit. Did I mention incredibly wonderful weather? Perfect temperatures…..no rain, no humidity, no bugs. Terrific!!

Design wall Monday

2011-09-12T18:16:00.001-04:00

The only thing on my wall are some fabrics that I am auditioning for future quilts.

First up, I have been wanting to do something ‘cheddar’, and Bonnie Hunter came up with a cheddar bowtie project. Here are the candidates for that one:

I think that second down is too yellow to be cheddar. I’m thinking the bowties may all be in different shades of red. What do you think, Reds n Cheddars or would a variety of colors (like the one Bonnie shows) be better?

Secondly, my newlywed son came home fretting a while back. They had painted a couple of rooms, and he was ‘dismayed’ that their bedroom was now ‘little girl purple’! Oh, the humanity!! The affront to his machismo! In an effort to gain some sympathy - instead of guffaws - from me, he topped the whole thing with “and now the quilt you made me doesn’t go, we need a new quilt!!”. Weeelllll. Let me see….the adjoining master bathroom was done in a green……so how about good old mom find a rather graphic (and therefore masculine) pattern and do it in a darker value of the purple (also more masculine) and green. Fons & Porter had one in their magazine a few months ago. (oh-according to his bride, he picked out the color,had a choice between two ….and this one was on sale! LOL)

So, here are the first round of contestants for that quilt.

Of these, I think I will discard the second down in each purple row as too ‘pink’. I need to dig out some more purples from my purple heavy stash and see which I am willing to cut into and use.

I’m trying to work my way out of the summer doldrums here. I have a quilt on the frame and did two rows of that today, as well. I’m not sure I’m ever going to be happy with this one. I like the pattern and the fabrics, but I can’t come up with something I really like for the thread. The quilting design looks great on paper, but I’m not sure about it on the quilt. This is the same quilt that I had FINISHED quilting a few months ago and decided it just wasn’t right….so… I ripped every last machine quilted stitch out…..any idea how much ripping that entailed? Not going to happen again, this time will have to be it. I have actually accomplished something this summer, see my previous post about my August finishes. Then click on over to JudyL’s site to see what a lot of other quilters have on their design walls.

August finishes

2011-09-11T12:37:00.001-04:00

I did get a few things finished in August, not as many as I would have liked, but I ran out of steam and haven’t gotten my ‘mojo’ back. End of summer, sick of the 95+ degree heat blahs have struck.

First, this pair of socks

This quilt, which is a JudyL design. These 1930’s fabrics came to me via the guild, someone had precut a bunch of pieces and strips and then decided not to continue with the quilt-I received the fabric,but not the pattern for which the pieces were intended. I further cut the wedge shaped pieces for the nine patches, and then finished off using the strips for the binding. There was only one strip of each fabric, but I like the use-it-up, depression era sensibilities of it.

You may remember this one, the blocks were from a swap.

I love the backing, it makes me smile each time I look at it. Sometimes I tell myself stories about it. Maybe someone spilled some Jolly Ranchers on the playground, and they melted before anyone picked up. But the one I like best (and could have easily happened at my house) is that the Quilter of the family was out one day while the kids and dad had a project to do. Dad saw some black fabric and decided it would make a great drop cloth while they painted. Quilter comes home and sees her precious Kona black splattered with paints. She starts to steam, to cry….and then…..wow! I can make lemonade out of this lemon, those paint drips are colors in one of my UFOs, I can use this in my quilt!! I just love a happy ending *sigh*

Speaking of stories….take a closer look at the bottom of this photo. It reminds me of that scene from The Wizard of Oz, where Toto goes behind the curtain to investigate, and the Wizard’s voice tells Dorothy and company to ‘ignore the man behind the curtain’. (you may have to click on the photo to enlarge it)

Design Wall Monday for August 8

2011-08-08T11:17:00.001-04:00

Another week has rolled around, how time flies! The quilt on my design wall isn’t much further along than the last time I posted. Last time I said I hoped to finish the top (sashings and border). Well, the ‘bad’ news is that I didn’t get that done, I only progressed this far.

However, the GOOD news is that the chip for the quilter came, DS#1 installed it and the machine is now running. So, instead of finishing the Buck a Block top, I quilted two tops, one is bound the other has the binding attached and I am doing the hand work in the evenings in front of the TV. I don’t feel too badly about not getting this top assembled since I finished a quilt and a second will be finished tonight or tomorrow.

Click on over to JudyL’s site to see what other quilters have on their design walls. While you are there, wish Judy well on her harrowing move to Texas.

Another Design Wall Monday

2011-07-25T12:03:00.001-04:00

On my design wall this week is the Buck a Block that I started a few years back. I finished the blocks and this week I hope to complete the cornerstone blocks and sashing. If things go really well, I’d like to get to the border, too. I’m not sure if you can tell, but the outside strips of the sashing are a small check of the wine color, green and gold that is in the blocks.

This is actually on my UFO Challenge list but is not the current or past choice. I’m to the point on my past months challenges that they are all ready to be quilted. The bad news is that it is getting to be about a month since a chip went bad on the robotic quilter and we are still waiting to get a good one to replace it. Until then, no quilting….I did get a row and a third done on my new quilting table/frame and I was loving how well things were working. In the meantime, I figured I’d get a head start on something so I don’t lose any time. Now that the weddings are over and it is way to hot to go camping, I have a good amount of time to sew, and I want to take advantage of it!

Click over to JudyL’s site to see what other quilters are working on, it is inspirational!

Design Wall Monday–Y2K center is together!

2011-07-18T10:01:00.001-04:00

I spent a fair amount of time at the lqs choosing fabric for the sashing and for the side borders, then cutting and getting all the sashings sewn on. Marcella made a comment last Monday that whatever color I used for the sash, that is the color that the quilt would read. I looked at my little sample quilts with all the different color sashes and concluded that she was right. While both Moth and I liked the cheddar, and I have been wanting to work with cheddar, I really don’t want a king size hunk of cheddar on my bed. The room would be so bright we would never get any sleep! You can see what I decided to use.

The center of the quilt is now completed. It is too big for the design wall, it is on the queen sized bed in the guest room, but you still can’t see all of it.This week I will work on the side borders. I’m going to have to quilt this in sections and then assemble them. I want it to hang far enough over the sides that when we are under it, it still keeps us covered and any draft out.

Go over to JudyL’s blog and see what others are doing.

Design Wall Monday

2011-07-11T11:46:00.000-04:00

The design wall still has blocks for the Y2K, and then some additional yardage as I was auditioning colors to use for sashing yesterday. You can see why using a print background to get a feel for a gray (or whatever) sash didn’t work, and why I resorted to Photoshop.

Please take a look at yesterday’s post and give me your opinion on the best sashing color to use.http://goingtopieces-gail.blogspot.com/2011/07/input-needed-please.html

and then check out JudyL’s page to see what many talented quilters have on their design walls.

Input needed, please

2011-07-10T13:14:00.001-04:00

I have been working on my Y2K and have about 60 of the 80 blocks completed, the remainder is in strips ready to be assembled into blocks. Needless to say, they don’t all fit on the design wall.

I had been thinking of using either black

or perhaps a dark red like this:The small white squares are the signature squares.

I asked on online quilter friend in Norway (gotta love the internet) to help me choose. Wouldn’t you know, she had a different idea – gray. I never would have thought of it, but she thought black might be too harsh. I think she could be right. So, this morning I dug through the stash and started pulling different colored fabrics to get an idea of what they would look like as sashing. Hey, if gray might be better, maybe another color might be even better! Changing fabrics on the design wall to try each color became laborious, and since many of my fabrics were prints, I wasn’t getting a good idea of how any given color would work. Enter MOTH (Man of the House) and Photoshop. So much easier to try different colors in Photoshop! Thanks, my dear MOTH.

Here is what a cement gray would look like: (and HG, I do like it, thanks for the suggestion and for getting me thinking outside my box)

Cheddar taupe

hmm, a sick gold, was going to say spicey brown mustard, but I don’t think I’d want to eat mustard that was this color…….

a grayish blue navy

or this ….odd shade of….brown?(do you think anyone except Photoshop actually makes this color?)

Which would you use? Something totally different?

Happy Fourth of July! and Design Wall Monday

2011-07-04T09:33:00.001-04:00

Wishing a safe and wonderful Independence Day to Yanks all over the world. A special thanks to those who serve and may be far from home on this holiday.

Design Wall Monday is here again, and this time I have something to show. June’s UFO challenge was the Y2K quilt that I started….well, in Y2k. It didn’t get very far, and I wasn’t happy with how it was going together. I gave it more thought, came up with a few more ideas and then, after all the wedding was over on the 18th, I began to work. Do any of you remember the great Y2K swap on the internet? The idea was to get 2000 squares of fabric from all over the world. There were several sites online to contact other quilters that wanted to participate. Each quilter would send 25 squares of different fabrics plus a signature square to each person she exchanged with. If you exchanged with 80 other people, you would get your 2000 squares. If you exchanged with someone from each of the 50 US states and the 13 Canadian provinces and territories, you would already have 63 packets or 1575 squares. I exchanged with quilters all over the world, from Japan, Denmark, Mexico, Bahrain and many other places. Watching for the mail each day was exciting.

Anyway, this past month I began piecing each person’s squares into a 25 patch. My hope was to keep each persons contribution together. As I put the blocks together I became fascinated by what the fabrics told me about each quilter. One gal either really liked sunflowers, or had recently made something requiring a selection of sunflower prints and had lots left over.

One person had a lot of tans in her stash,

another a lot of greens, yet another many fun, kid type animal prints, bold colors.

One had many tiny floral prints in soft pastels. Were these fabrics an example of what the quilter loved and had in her stash, or were these the things in her stash that she was ready to get rid of?

Here are some of the first 48 blocks on my newly made (and not quite finished) design wall.

And some of the rows of five, pinned together for more squares.

Meanwhile, I finally mounted a quilt on my new quilt frame, did a little more than one row of quilting and the PCQ went kerflewy. I am now waiting for a chip to arrive and be installed before I can do any more quilting. It was going so well until then….*sigh*

A June Groom….

2011-06-21T17:55:00.001-04:00

Our middle son was married this past weekend. There were some tense moments due to the weather, but everything went off very well. The bride was lovely, as you can see in the pictures. The groom wore the biggest smile you have ever seen, complete with dimple, on his handsome face.

The wedding was held at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. The first picture shows the reception room as it was being set up. Note the rather large guest in the middle of everything.

Then, there he was again, sneaking up behind the father of the groom, wanting to join in the laughter.

The bridal party, and the groom with his brothers.

The happy couple

Partway through the evening, the bride changed into traditional bridal dress.

I can’t tell you how delighted I am with my newest daughter! Just think, I have gotten two daughters in the past four months-and no labor pains!!

Design Wall Monday

2011-05-16T20:23:00.001-04:00

Actually, this came off the design wall today, as the top is now finished. If I get to sew tomorrow, I will be piecing the back. I looked for one of those wide backs, and found one that would work, but then I saw something on sale, and….well, it made me smile, so I bought that instead. I do hate wrangling those big hunks of fabric, but I grin every time I think of this silly, happy fabric, so I’m glad I made this choice. You’ll have to wait to see the backing till after everything is quilted.

I showed the blocks for this one about two weeks ago, trying to decide how to set it. they were from an online swap, so all 12 1/2 “ were not equal. I decided to just sash it with background fabric to disguise any size differences.

See the two spots that look a little empty, bottom center? Someone made her blocks in reverse of everyone else. I’m good with that, it adds a little character and quirkiness instead of being like a bunch of soldiers all in a row. Click on photo to enlarge.

Hop over to JudyL’s blog to see what other quilters have on their design walls today. http://www.patchworktimes.com/2011/05/16/design-wall-monday-may-16-2011

UFO challenge

2011-05-05T10:36:00.001-04:00

I’m way behind in the UFO challenge, but this is the one that I finished in April.

These are the dimensional (origami?) type of bow tie block that were received in a swap. All the blocks were made on treadle or hand crank machines made prior to 1900 using reproduction fabrics representing the pre-1900 goods. All blocks are signed by the quilter and also contain her location and the type and age of the machine that was used. It was quilted using my robotic quilting machine-quite the contrast in technology.

Meanwhile, another UFO is on the quilting machine, I hope to get the quilting finished today. The backing for another UFO is being pre-washed so that it will be ready to put on the quilt machine as soon as the other comes off. I will catch up, I will catch up, I will, I will…..

Take a look at the amazing work other quilters are doing as part of the UFO Challenge here: http://www.patchworktimes.com/2011/05/04/april-ufo-completions

Design Wall Monday

2011-05-02T15:27:00.001-04:00

My design wall is doing double duty today. It is serving as a post for Design Wall Monday (See what Judy and others are up to at http://www.patchworktimes.com/2011/05/02/design-wall-monday-may-2-2011) and it is also the project for this months UFO Challenge.

I participated in a block swap a few years back, and these blocks are the result. Now I have to decide how to put them together. If you have ever tried to assemble a quilt made by a variety of quilters, you know that as much as everyone tries to make the same size block, they are different. With this set, most of them are pretty close, but there are a few ‘individuals’. Looking at this photo, I noticed that one block is different than all the rest-hadn’t noticed until just now that the jars are placed in the reverse of every other block. For this reason, I’d prefer to avoid just putting them all together, the seams will never match.

A gifted designer friend suggested that I offset the blocks slightly, and fill the space with either lime green or turquoise, similar to what is shown in the top two rows of this photo. I’d have to figure out just how much to offset to avoid having some of the jars stack on top of each other. How do you think it would look with sashing between the blocks? Ordinary, weird???

Anyone have any suggestions? I’d appreciate some ideas.

Happy, busy times

2011-04-25T11:20:00.001-04:00

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Our youngest son was married recently to a lovely girl we are crazy about. If you’ve had a wedding in the family recently, you know how busy all the showers, planning, fittings and such keep you. We haven’t had much down time before we started doing it all over again, as our middle son is getting married in about a month and a half. That is his fiance with the bride in the first picture. She is well loved by all of us and a welcome addition to the family. Who would have thought that I would have 2 daughters at my age???

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Design Wall Monday, Tuesday, almost Wednesday…….!

2011-02-22T18:05:00.001-05:00

We’ve been trying to get my computer back up and running since Friday, think we are finally on the right track. Meanwhile, while rummaging through fabrics to use as backing for the bright yellow quilt, I found a little quilt that I started several years ago in a class. I quilted and bound that one, it is on the design wall so that I could photograph it. I have also put together the bow tie top that I showed last week. I have changed the layout, and right now it has borders and is ready to go on the quilting machine. If the dang computer hadn’t required constant attention, I could have had this one done already. February hasn’t been my month for machines. First the quilting machine, then the computer. Come on, March!

Awwwwww

2011-02-17T12:13:00.001-05:00

Nancy and Glo, your wish is our command….

He likes it, he really likes it! (in my best Norma Rae/Sally Field voice)

A finish!

2011-02-15T11:11:00.001-05:00

Only two weeks ‘late’. This is January’s Monochromatic Challenge (Patchwork Times).

The things you discover when you try to pull from stash for a project like this: notice how all the yellows are so similar, no light, pastel, soft colors. All bright yellows, with a few going towards mustard.

Anyway, it is finished, and since I don’t know anyone who loves yellow dearly, this little quilt will go to my tiniest quilting assistant, my silky terrier Mac. He is forever supervising my work, always anchoring the quilt while I am trying to sew on binding. He manages to get himself wrapped up in whatever part of the quilt is on the floor. Each and every time I go to move the quilt to get to the next section, I have to pull and tug. I wonder how it has gotten so heavy, and then I realize he is rolled up somewhere inside. How such a little dog can make a quilt so heavy, I will never know.

Still working on a name, considering both “Yellow Peril” and “Blinded by the Bright”.

Design Wall Monday – Ties that bind

2011-02-14T14:15:00.001-05:00

On my design wall today are some origami/3-D Bow Tie blocks that I made several years ago as part of a swap on Treadle On. For this swap, the blocks had to be made on a sewing machine that was manufactured prior to 1900 and the fabrics used had to be unbleached muslin and a reproduction of a pre-1900 fabric. All of these blocks are labeled with the maker’s name and location, but also the type of antique machine. Each was made on either a treadle or a hand crank machine.

These have been stowed away for years after I just couldn’t decide how best to set them. You will note that in this arrangement, there is one block missing. Apparently I was so intent on getting my blocks made for the swap, I forgot to make one for myself, so I shall have to make one more block before I can put this top together. This is February’s UFO challenge top, and this is as far as I have gotten……what are my chances to get this finished before Feb. 28? I still have to find fabric for the borders!

Quilters are some of the best people…..

2011-01-12T15:36:00.001-05:00

I just have to say thanks and give credit to a quilter and fellow blogger.

I have part of a fat quarter of fabric leftover from a Jo Morton class I took several years ago at Little Quilts. I want more of this old fabric. In the class was another student, we became friendly and have since left greetings and comments on each others blogs. Karen has since become a part time employee of the store as well as a designer of patterns, so I sent her a photo of the fabric, and asked if she remembered it.

I was hoping if she knew which manufacturer and fabric line it was, I might be able to track down some more. She didn’t remember it, but knows of a gal named Becky that has an encyclopedic memory of fabrics. Becky remembered the fabric line, and one of them ( not sure if it was B or K) even found an online place that still has some of this in stock. I have ordered and JEEPERS CREEPERS, I am one happy, totally blown away quilter!

Thanks so much to both Becky and Karen.

Snowy day, snowy memories

2011-01-10T17:15:00.001-05:00

If you’ve been following the news, you will know that the south has been hit by a snow and ice storm that has brought things to a halt. Down here we just aren’t used to dealing with this much snow at one time. We can go a year or two and never have as much as we had over night. Within the first hour, 3-4 inches had fallen on my back deck. The night air was so thick with snow that looking at the street light down the road was like looking through a sheer white curtain. If it had kept up like that all night we would have had many more inches, but things changed to freezing rain and ice. Less ground accumulation, but it sure didn’t help with the roads! I’m just thankful that we don’t need to get out for a few days. We will be one less car getting in the way of the folks that have to travel tomorrow. I’ve been able to get some sewing done (previous post) until my son started to dig us out. Seeing him come in all rosy cheeked like when he was little made me think of some old photos.

Then:

Now:

Thirty-five or so years later he’s still playing in the snow with the dog, still wearing a knitted hat under his hood, but a lot happier. Maybe its because this puppy isn’t big enough to knock him down and steal his mittens!

Thanks for helping the old folks out, love.

Design Wall Monday -

2011-01-10T16:36:00.001-05:00

What is actually on my design wall is this:

Judy’s star block of the month that I never finished. I have actually gotten a little further in the piecing, but not much. This one was number 6 on my UFO Challenge list, so there it sits, waiting for me to continue.

Meanwhile-because no one can have to many UFOs – I’ve started work on Judy’s monochromatic challenge. January’s color is yellow. Probably a good day to work on these bright yellows, the south is in the midst of a snow/ice storm that has stopped everything in its tracks. That bleak winter gray sky and falling rain is much improved by these bright hues. This is not the final arrangement, and it is only about half of those that will go into the final quilt.

UFO Challenge

2010-12-31T15:40:00.001-05:00

Judy L is facilitating an effort to get some UFOs finished in 2011. Here is my list:

Red Gray and Black
Barn Star
Lincoln’s Platform
1930’s fabrics
Lady Anne
JudyL’s Star BOM
Little Quilts Buck a block
Y2K
Jar Swap
Treadle on Swap
Hidden Wells
Hummingbird

Many of these are finished tops that need to be quilted and bound. The Y2K was started at the turn of the century…oh my, has it been that long already?? I have since decided I am not happy with what I have done so far, so I will probably rip everything apart and try again. My intentions are good, I wonder how many I will actually get finished?

Sock it to me….

2010-11-07T13:57:00.001-05:00

I finished up a pair of anklets (KnitPicks yarn and pattern) at the end of October so that I could begin a new pair of socks and participate in JudyL’s sock knit-along this month, check it out at http://www.patchworktimes.com.

I really enjoyed this pattern. It is toes up, which I prefer, but this pattern actually fit my toes the best of any I have done yet. I also liked doing the little lace patter on the top side. Not at all sure about the very different short row heel, I finally made a chart to check off row by row since I would loose track. In future, I may combine this toe with another short row heel that I prefer. This heel was odd, because they wanted it to come unusually high in the back so that it would stay up.

This was the first of seven patterns in a KnitPicks kit that I bought, a different pair for each day of the week. Wonder how long it will take to get the next 6 pairs done, given my track record?

Here is the start of the pair I am doing for the knit-along:

I bought the self striping yarn at a lovely little shop in Asheville called Purls. I’ve done self striping before, but I liked a sample made up in a different colorway of this yarn because some of the stripes had a zig-sag within them (see the pink row above the orange, and the green and white row at the top). I would have bought the other colorway, as I liked it better than this, but this was the only one they had left! I hope that I can get these finished this month, but I have to pace myself, as my hands get cramped and sore holding the small needles.

October escaped ………

2010-11-02T11:32:00.001-04:00

October got a bit hectic around here. Aside from normal doctor visits there was an unexpected trip to the ER that resulted in an overnight stay and then follow up tests. Everything worked out fine, but it took a chunk of time. October just slipped right through my fingers!

Then, we went camping to Bandy Creek campground in NE Tennessee for our camping group's Fall Rally. The first few days were awfully cold, but generally the weather was beautiful. Bandy Creek is part of Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. I think the group will be going back there next year, we liked it that well.

A new toy…

2010-08-30T19:41:00.001-04:00

More accurately, a new tool.

That’s a food dehydrator. Over the weekend, I sliced up some fruit to give it a test run. Pineapple, cherries, grapes, strawberries and bananas on Saturday. Peaches on Sunday. All turned out well except the grapes. The grapes required a type of pretreatment ‘checking’ which I must not have done properly. It involved putting them in boiling water and then immediately into very cold water. I think I was so afraid of cooking them that I didn’t leave them in the boiling water long enough.

Each tastes pretty good in the dehydrated form and would make tasty snacks and would be especially good to bring camping. This morning I reconstituted a few slices of peach and strawberry to have with my yogurt. Yummy!

Now to look for what is in season or on sale…….

A little of this, a little of that

2010-08-08T14:28:00.001-04:00

I haven’t posted in a bit, but we are still around. We were supposed to be camping this week, but with temps in the high 90’s, we decided not to. We did take a day trip up to Tallulah Gorge State Park to check it out. I’d like more time to explore the area, but I’m not sure this campground is “MOTH friendly”. We observed a person having a hard time using his walker, and MOTH was quick to point it out to me. It is an awfully pretty area though, and I’d really like to see more of it.

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I finished those green/purple striped socks a while back, but never posted. I tried working on them while recovering from my knee replacement surgery-but I was still on painkillers. Do not operate knitting needles while using this medication…… In spite of a few ‘design elements’ that I added, they are finished and wearable.

This area is blessed with several nice yarn stores (as well as good quilt stores) and one of the friendliest is Only Ewe and Cotton Too in the next town. You walk into this store and feel right at home. There are always people sitting there, knitting and chatting, and other folks will help you find what you are looking for if the owners are busy with someone else. Last month this shop had a knit-along doing the Annis shawlette. I joined in, learned how to bead and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. The shawl is now finished and blocked, ready to use…well, if it wasn’t in the 90’s.

Boone, NC

2010-07-20T12:23:00.001-04:00

We recently joined some of our camping friends in Boone, NC for a long weekend. We always enjoy their company, the food is good and everyone gets to relax- or not- as they choose. Since Boone is in the mountains, the temperatures were comfortable and there was always a breeze. Our campsite backed up to a brook/stream that babbled and gurgled and generally made its presence known throughout the day and night. It was wonderful to be able to open the windows, listen to the water and drift off to sleep. Some of the group went kayaking on a river. We also went to dinner at a charming local restaurant and visited a mine ‘store’ where you could dig through some buckets from the mine and see if you found any gems. Another morning we visited an old general store and post office, it has been a long time since I have seen penny candy and some of the other things that were on sale there!

Some views of the office and the campground. (click on photo to enlarge)

Did I mention that we just happened to be in Boone the same weekend as the Highland Games? We not only enjoyed some of the sights, but in the evening we heard some of the sounds-music that sounded like fife and perhaps dulcimer.

Here are Doc, Pantless and Nightrider using Pie Irons to make our dessert-blueberry pie!

A picture of my darlin’ MOTH, and then his ‘girlfriend’, that 94 year young woman keeps trying to steal my man!!

Reed Bingham camping trip

2010-06-26T09:31:00.001-04:00

Last weekend we traveled to Reed Bingham State Park to join some friends. We enjoyed our time with our friends, but the trip was one of those ‘good news, bad news’ things.

Good News: CS, Dix, BD made it, Pantless and the Amazing Erma stopped by on Saturday evening to join us for dinner. Bad News: Bama had car trouble and had to cancel.

Good News: Dinner at the Catfish House was fun and delicious. Bad News: Loooong wait time for a table while seated outside on the porch, in the heat, with the bugs.

Good News: The park is nice. It has big camping sites and and lots to do. You can fish, swim, play miniature golf, hike, rent kayaks and boats or bikes . Bad News: It was in the mid 90’s most of the time, with humidity also very high, except when it was storming.

Good News: No mosquitoes Bad News: Every gnat on the planet was in the park this weekend.

Good News: The swimming area was lovely, water temp perfect. Bad News: A gator decided he liked the lovely swimming area with perfect water temperature.

Good News : The storms lowered the temperature and humidity for a little bit. Bad News: The storms knocked out the power for a few hours– and one of the big rigs lost its awning to the storm.(all of us were fine, thankfully)

That gives you an idea of how things went. I’d love to go back to Reed Bingham, but not during June, July, or August. From now on, we head north during the summer months, not south!

Here are some photos of our adventures:

Some of the gang kayaking down a nearby river (and yes, they encountered an alligator along the way)

Gator country

The storm produced some flooding – then we had 4” of water to bail out of that kayak!

We remember

2010-05-31T11:20:00.000-04:00

and we give thanks for your sacrifice. God Bless each of you, and your families.

And now for something I’d never thought I’d do…..

2010-05-22T12:20:00.002-04:00

One thing leads to another. First, I learned to knit, then I learned to spin. When DS1 found me spinning, making my own yarn, he teased me that he expected to come home and find sheep grazing in the back yard, as the next logical step was to raise my own fiber. hmmmmmmm. No, that’s not the next step, but I did take a half step and bought some fleeces. A farmer/sheepherder in Kentucky was willing to sell her fleece by the pound instead of by the complete fleece. So, I bought a pound each of Lincoln and Icelandic wool and a pound of Alpaca! Now this stuff is straight off the animal, vegetable matter and all. The dog loves all those good sheepy smells and tried to get into the box that the fleece came in.
These are the fleeces, just out of the box, center bottom is the Lincoln, top right is Icelandic, top left is the Alpaca. Since the fleece is right off the animal, it has to be ‘scoured’ (fiber speak for washed) to remove the debris and the lanolin. First, you make a hot solution of water and detergent, put the fleece in, careful not to agitate. It looks like this before the bath – tan, long and curly. It looks like the middle picture while it soaks and the dirt and ‘grease’ are lifted to the surface. Look at the color of that water!

Once it has been washed and rinsed several times, it gets laid out to dry. Even after washing, little Mac was trying to get at it! (double click on photo to enlarge)

It took much longer to dry than I expected. Then it was time to comb the locks. Please, don’t ever try to use a wool comb to comb your hair! Wool combs are much more suited to Freddy Kruger or Edward Scissorhands. These are wool combs:
These are wool combs in action :
The result of the combing is this delightful cream-colored puff of fiber that spins into this yarn:

Can you believe that this poofy white cloud came from this dirty mess of curls? Talk about a transformation!!

Meet Elspeth

2010-05-22T11:36:00.001-04:00

My very own spinning wheel! I found an ad on Ravelry for a used wheel and am quite happy to have it in my home, using it. Unfortunately, Elspeth met with an accident shortly after she came to live in our house. Someone who shall remain nameless tripped and fell…right onto Elspeth. She was unhurt except for the rather fragile and (to me) inadequate little piece that holds the skein winder atop the wheel. That little piece broke. Never fear, DS1 came up with a fix that now makes Elspeth into a bionic wheel. I’m petty sure that with her metal replacement parts (something we have in common) she won’t lose her skein winder again.

Some of my first attempts at spinning. The brownish and the turquoise are Blue Face Leicester, the others are Merino. I’m keeping a notebook on the different types of fiber that I spin, trying to keep track of the differences and characteristics of each. I never gave it any thought before, but there must be as many different sheep breeds as there are dog breeds, and each produces its own unique wool. Some wools aren’t desirable for use in garments but might be ok for weaving or for use in rugs. My first fiber purchases were guided by availability and color. I love color. But I have bought some fiber from different sheep as part of a monthly Ravelry study, and these are in their natural colors. The one that I am currently spinning is Black Welsh Mountain, and I am enjoying it immensely. Here is the first bobbin as well as some of the roving which I have predrafted. That ‘hank of hair on the right, after being spun on Elspeth, becomes that yarn. That deep black/brown color is natural. I’m hoping to have enough to make a peasant style shawl.

Day tripping

2010-05-14T15:26:00.002-04:00

MOTH and I took a day trip to Calloway Gardens in Pine Mountain, GA. It was a lovely day, perfect weather, and you can’t ask for a prettier place. I hope you enjoy some of the pictures that we took. Here he is, walking on the Rhododendron Trail and some of the other outdoor plants.

Aside from acres of outdoor gardens, Calloway Gardens has a butterfly house.That large moth-looking butterfly is probably bigger than my fist! and some of the butterflies were actually a beautiful shade of blue, I wish I could have captured one with its wings open, but you can get just a hint of what they looked like here.

There are also indoor gardens of various types.

Getting sidetracked…..

2010-04-25T13:11:00.001-04:00

Haven’t had anything to show as I have been sidetracked, or perhaps hi-jacked. My granddaughter has a social studies project, you know the one- the child has to pick a country, then make a report, prepare a dish and wear a costume of the national dress of that country. Anyway, she has been researching diligently for her report on Honduras , but she asked me for help in making a costume. Fair enough, here it is:

Easter Blessings...

2010-04-04T13:59:00.000-04:00

Wishing everyone a very Happy and Blessed Easter

Adorable lamb and bunny photo courtesy of Barbara Parry of http://www.sheepgal.com

Lady Anne’s first outing of 2010

2010-03-28T16:38:00.001-04:00

We have just returned from our first camping trip of the year. We went to McKinney Campground with a friend and had a very relaxing extended weekend. It was raining off and on the day we arrived, but we were able to set up between rain showers. The first day was dismal, as you can see in the photos. (double click on photos to enlarge)

Saturday was glorious but extremely windy. We did sit out for several hours while sipping hot chocolate, and we took walks. We also were bundled up against the penetrating wind coming off of the lake.

Friday we put up the awning, that night I awoke to sounds that sounded like someone was thumping on our cargo doors. I thought we were being burgled! Turns out it was the wind grabbing the awning, lifting and dropping parts of it. I was able to secure it (probably it hadn’t been properly tightened when we put it up) without any problems or damage. We put the awning down when with the assistance of our friend when it became obvious that the wind was only getting stronger; we needed all three of us to handle it under those circumstances. Last night , even though the awning was down, the winds off the lake rocked the RV so strongly that it woke me up again, I once or twice I was afraid we would tip over…..yeah, it was dark and I’m a chicken!

Do I really need another obsession?

2010-03-15T13:12:00.001-04:00

Of course I don’t. Will that stop me? Hmmmmm……jury is still out on that one. But it isn’t my fault at all. Nope, not at all.

It’s all JudyL’s fault. She started it . I’ve always had a thing for any sort of fiber work. I’ve done embroidery. crewel, needlepoint, garment sewing, quilting, temari and back in college, I knitted my first project, an afghan. A while back Judy posted on her blog that she had knit a pair of socks. Hey, that sounded interesting, I thought I might want to give that a try. I consulted an acquaintance that is a knitter, told her I had knitted once, 30+ years ago, did she think I could learn to make socks? She said that it was too difficult. You KNOW what that means! I promptly bought a instructional dvd/yarn/needle kit for making socks- 2 at a time. I am on my third pair (they take me a long time because they get put down for long periods while I pursue other ~~obsessions~~ interests) and while I can’t claim to be an accomplished sock knitter, I am able to (and do) wear the ones that I have finished. So you see, Judy started it!

I do love reading Judy’s blog, she does so many interesting things and has a way of telling a story that makes even the mundane a hoot. And she tries so many different things. In that respect I think we are kindred spirits, if I lived four lifetimes I couldn’t try all the things that capture my interest and imagination. Judy not only quilts, lectures and writes quilting books, she now raises chickens, makes her own cheese and bakes her own bread from flour she mills herself. So, you see, Judy is to blame.

I have started knitting things other than socks. And, in the spirit of trying new things, from scratch, I took a few lessons how to use this:

Yep, a spinning wheel….to make my own yarn. Under my instructor’s guidance, I spun and plied some roving. It wasn’t too bad for a first effort, but it was rather irregular. It is one of those things that you say you were going for ‘novelty’ yarn and wanted it to have different thicknessess. “I meant it to be this way”.

I purchased more roving, this time pencil roving and on my own spun it up. This was much more regular and uniform-not perfect, but much improved. This morning I finished spinning it and also plied it. The pencil roving was wonderful to work with, and the colors…….ooooooh, how I love intense color. The roving went from an yellowy-orange and deep lavender to a hot pink and dark purple.

Here it is while being spun:

I’m enjoying this. Of course, the sensible part of me (which can be found on the fingernail of my left pinkie finger) is telling me that to justify doing this I would have to knit a whole lot more. Added to that, spinning wheels tend to be expensive. So, along with researching fibers and techniques, I have also been collecting instructions for making your own spinning wheel—you know—so you can really do it from scratch……….

#1DS is now hiding, as he is the one that gets recruited to help me with all the ‘crazy mom projects’. In Momspeak, ‘help’ translates to ‘do’.

So, you see, it is really all Judy’s fault. ………..(psssst, hey Judy, thanks!)

Is it time for design wall Monday again??

2010-03-15T11:38:00.001-04:00

Well, the same thing is on my design wall as the last time I posted – no changes, no progress.

Why?? Well, the last time the grandchildren were here, #1DS came up stairs and asked “Mom, can you fix this?”

You see, on weekends when he is the custodial parent, the kids use some old quilts to sleep with. This one is older than I am, which makes it about the age of Wilma Flintstone’s grandmother. It was made by my grandmother’s sister and given to my mom sometime before I was born. It has served at least 4 generations admirably, bringing warmth and comfort and sweet dreams. I think it is time to retire the old dear, the fabric is just disintegrating with age and wear. It’s nice to know my kids think I can work miracles, fix anything, but it is time to reveal the ugly truth to them. They’re grownups, they can handle it – there are some things even mom can’t fix!

So, what this all means is that I went up to the pile of finished tops, picked one out, stuck in on the machine and got it quilted. Today I hope to get the binding on so that it is ready when they come again on Friday for the weekend. I also picked out another top to do quickly, as the other old quilt being used is also on its last legs. That one we picked up at a yard sale.

Neither of these tops is a favorite, quite the opposite. One was an experiment in technique and the other was a lovely JudyL design that I executed poorly.

What happened was that while I was making the HSTs, I was merrily trimming them to exact size and was interrupted and didn’t get back to the project for a few days. When I was able to resume, I completely forgot about the trimming……you can guess what happened. I couldn’t figure out why I was having such trouble getting things to fit, all of a sudden. I fought all the way through the borders before the light dawned. By then, I figured the heck with it, I’ll use it for picnics or something. So now they will keep the grands warm and snuggly, and it won’t matter if the children make tents out of it, or play tug of war, or spill something.

That is why no progress on the design wall. Well, that and the fact that I have been taking lessons and practicing my latest great obsession………….come back soon to see what that is…………

Design Wall Monday

2010-02-22T17:02:00.001-05:00

My design wall shows a bit of progress on my Star BOM from 2008. Since the Quiltathon, I’ve assembled & joined the top 3 rows, the bottom corner, the 4th row. I need to put the sashing in between the 3 and 4 rows, put them all together and then put the setting triangles at each end of the third row.

I found that I wasn’t happy with some of my piecing. Some problems you can’t fix and have to live with. Some problems fall under the Galloping Horse Rule and can be tolerated. Finally, there are those that you can and do fix, because you know they will drive you bonkers if you don’t. I wound up ripping out some stitching and re-sewing so that I wouldn’t go bonkers.

On the knitting front, I’ve turned the heel and started on the ankle/leg of my socks (toe up, two socks on two needles). I’m trying to do about an inch each evening during television. With all the repeats, it makes concentrating so much easier. I’d like to do more, by my hands start to cramp up in a short amount of time. So I knit a bit, rest the hands a bit, try to knit some more. I want these babies done, so I can wear them…and so I can start on the next pair.

Quiltathon Progress Report..

2010-02-14T17:14:00.004-05:00

After spending the considerable part of two days working on the quilt, I was eager to get back here to show all my progress. *sigh* It just doesn’t look like that much. As I said yesterday, the fabrics that I had originally selected just weren’t working, so I did some thinking, hubby made a suggestion, I did some calculating and decided to use the mottled green, eliminate the light green altogether and replace it with the dark brown used elsewhere. I’m happy with the changes. The light green would have disappeared, the brown stands out and gives definition. After making the decision, I had to get to cutting all the sashing pieces, and assembling them.

What a lot of pieces!!, and then some of the pieces had to be made for left and right sides.

Today I actually began assembling the rows, but had hoped to have most if not all of it together by now.

February Quiltathon….

2010-02-13T10:51:00.001-05:00

Is getting off to a slow start. Yesterday the deep south was hit with a snowstorm, and ironically, the further south, the more snow. We are a bit north of Atlanta, so we didn’t get a whole lot, but before I had my first cup of coffee, I had to try for some snow photos. Then, during my coffee, the sun started to come up and glisten-the stuff winter wonderlands are made of. I’m not a great photographer, but here is a bit of my morning. Before the sun (or coffee): and then as the sun came up

(double click on the photo to enlarge)

Meanwhile, back in the sewing room, I have finally finished the stars for JudyL’s Star BOM.

It is time to do the sashing and setting triangles, but as I am looking at the fabrics I selected so long ago, I don’t like the way they work with the blocks. This was the original choice for setting square:

The bright/light green as the field, the mottled green/coral as some of the detail. I’ve thought of reversing it, like this:

The mottled as the field, the bright as the detail. Somehow, neither is working for me……..I think I’m about to spend time digging through the stash to find a better fit.

Its not like I have finished that last pair of socks yet

2010-01-30T11:13:00.001-05:00

But…….I couldn’t resist this sale that KnitPicks had.

I was a little surprised when the instructions came, as my idea of ‘anklets’ and theirs is different, but that is ok-things will go faster this way!

When I think of anklets, I think of when I was a girl (me and Wilma Flintstone) and you had knee socks or anklets, and the anklets had a neat little fold over cuff on your ankle. I’m not sure I ever heard a name for this type of sock, maybe sport sock, as I always thought of this as what you wore with running shoes, or golf shoes.

Now I have to hurry up and finished those stripped socks so that I can start on one of these! That “Wannadoo” list of knits and quilts just keeps growing!

Starry Design Wall Monday

2010-01-25T12:01:00.001-05:00

I’ve made some progress on the Star BOM - of course that is nothing to get too excited about, the first two blocks were made back in 2008! I hope to get further, faster now. Three more to do then it will be sashing time, and these sashings are more involved than most. I’m looking forward to seeing how it all turns out. As I look at the blocks, I wish my some of my fabrics had a little more contrast, as in some blocks, things tend to blend together. I like the fabrics and the colors, I think they are a good combination for quilt, just that some of them wind up next to a very similar value (see block in 2nd row, 2nd column). Ah, well, that’s part of the learning process!

Quiltathon part Deux

2010-01-17T19:27:00.002-05:00

I did very little actual sewing today, but did quilty things. You may recognize two of these blocks. These are the first two of JudyL’s star block of the month from a while back. I made the first two and put them down to do other things. I have resolved to get this top put together. Today I spent cutting fabric for all the blocks and putting the components for each block in its own bag. If you did this quilt, you may remember that there were lots of pieces that had measurements with eights and sixteenths, add that to 8 different fabrics and that made a lot of cutting. I did get it done, and even had some time before dinner to put a block together .

Lizzie’s Quilt is finished

2010-01-16T19:38:00.001-05:00

I showed the beginnings of this one a week ago on Design Wall Monday. I made it as a gift for a dear friend that recently lost her beloved black lab. You have to have known the friend and the dog to realize what a special relationship this was, and how deeply it affected my friend. I have lots of dog crazy friends who treasure their dogs, but this was a particularly precious relationship. Here is the quilt, which I finished and delivered today. The front:

The backing fabric, and if you click on the photo, you can see the quilting, which was a ball and a bone.

Yes, she really loved it, but I think she was most amazed that anyone would think to do something like this for her. She doesn’t realize how much she is loved by her friends.

Design Wall Monday

2010-01-04T13:18:00.001-05:00

I’m making a quilt as a gift, so the photo you see has paper pinned over some blocks to preserve the element of surprise, should the giftee happen to stop here. I have the blocks pinned onto the background fabric, trying to decide on placement. Also trying to determine if I want to trim back on the black shadows. On the blocks that were my inspiration for these, the shadow was the same width as the colored frame. I’m wondering if that is a bit ‘clunky’ looking. If I trim the black back just 1/4”, then the shadow will be 1/2” narrower than the frame is.Do you think the shadows are too big? Would they look better if they were a bit narrower??

Thanks for stopping by.

Design Wall Monday

2009-12-28T17:29:00.001-05:00

Nothing was accomplished in the sewing room last week between the holiday preparations and having the grandchildren for the week. Today, however, I got down to business. The quilt I showed last time now has the borders on it! I am making it for one of my sons, and since he was half of my quilt hanger for the photo, he asked if he’ll have his quilt soon. Hmmmmm, then he laughed and said, ‘guess not’. I didn’t raise a fool. [NOTE: clicking on photo will enlarge it for better viewing, if you are interested]

After getting that photo taken, I promptly dug out another top that has been languishing for want of borders and knocked that one off too. It is currently in residence on the design wall so I can enjoy its happy colors while I decide what to tackle next. The dark borders are a purple/eggplant and black print, similar in eggplantiness to the dark squares (which I didn’t have enough of for the borders!) Do you recognize it? It is one of JudyL’s from a while ago, I can’t seem to resist her designs!

I do have a number of tops that need to be quilted, so I may get one of them on the frame next. Of course, there are still a few WIPs that need to be finished, and they are calling to me, too. I’m trying to be strong and resist the siren’s call of a couple of new quilts that I want to start. I’m sure they’ll be very pretty, and the fabric is just sitting there, waiting to be cut into….I really should get a few completely finished….shouldn’t I…?

Design Wall Monday

2009-12-14T22:59:00.003-05:00

Not too much to show, all my good intentions after last week went down the tubes. Between car troubles and physical therapy and then some really good news and excitement, I didn’t get much done.

On my wall this week is one of the quilt tops I mentioned last week that needs borders. It is folded in half on the wall so that I could get a measurement for the first set of borders. I did get all the border strips cut and sewn together, now I just need to apply them. What are the odds that I’ll get it done by next week?

Oh....and that really good news and excitement? My second son and his wonderful girlfriend are now engaged! We couldn't be more delighted.

Design wall Monday……

2009-12-07T16:54:00.002-05:00

After a long absence, I’m back. I had my knee replaced in October and have been busy with physical therapy and such. Things are coming along nicely, generally a much better experience than I anticipated.

Now to the important stuff……….I finally got back into the sewing room! I started working on the last few borders of my Bear in the Farmhouse Quilt and was hoping to get the top finished this week. I saw that JudyL has another Bear/Farmhouse on her design wall, and when the backing that I had ordered for this quilt arrived this morning, I took it as an omen to get this puppy finished and posted.

In an effort to get a picture and be able to post before it would have to be Design Wall Tuesday, I grabbed my hubby and eldest son (grumble grumble)to hold the quilt for me. Not the best way to show off a quilt, but now that it is finally off the design wall and ready for quilting, I’m happy. The color is not great, the purples are showing up as blue and the dark borders aren’t black but a dark purple with a lighter purple design on it. Better color can be seen on my March 24 posting. Yes, it has been on the design wall since March! Just waiting on the borders……..

What is it about borders?? Does anyone else have a problem getting the borders done. It is not the process, I can do them, I just put off doing them. Why is that? I have two other quilts sitting next to the machine waiting for their borders, too. I hope to finish at least one of those this week. It needs 3 plain borders. I’d like to get that last one finished too, but that one is just for me, so I think that I may shift my focus to the pile of finished tops and try to get a couple of them quilted.

Speaking of borders, JudyL designed Bear in the Farmhouse with borders that were striped fabric and mitered . I haven’t done any mitered borders in at least 10 years, so I had to dig out a quilting book and refresh my memory. I really enjoyed it, much easier than I remembered. Thanks for the challenge, Judy!

Today is our anniversary!

2009-09-26T17:40:00.001-04:00

To celebrate 39 wonderful years together, we had a late breakfast and drove to Burfordville, Mo to visit Bollinger Mill State Historic Site. The skies were a gorgeous blue with lovely white clouds, the sunshine was almost blinding. We traversed highways and country roads, it really wasn’t very far, but it felt removed, the atmosphere was different. Bollinger Mill is a 19th century water powered mill, four stories high, made of stone and brick. They still grind corn there.

Side view of the mill, what seems to be sticking out on the right is actually a covered bridge that is next to the mill.

Couldn’t fit the whole building in one shot, so here you have the top floors, then the ground floor entry and porch.

A better shot of the bridge mentioned earlier, it is Missouri’s oldest covered bridge.

And what did we find in the back corner? Can you spell splinters?? I surely didn’t need that sign to discourage me from using this facility!

The quilter in me was thrilled to find these feed/seed/flour sacks, although I was disappointed that they didn’t have designs on them. A few steps across the room and I discovered this, an entire showcase dedicated to feed sacks and their use!

As we drove back to our room, I noticed that the sky in the rear view mirror was much darker than the one above and in front of us. As I sat here writing this post, the room became steadily darker; much too dark for this time of day. It is currently pouring down rain, which I hope passes as quickly as it arrived. I’d like to go out for a nice dinner with my special guy. Love you, Dar!

A city of murals

2009-09-25T18:09:00.002-04:00

The folks of Cape Girardeau must really like their murals. There is a long sea wall along the banks of the river, presumably to protect the city when the river floods (anyway, that would be my guess). The city side of the wall is decorated with several murals, each blocks long. One section depicts the city’s heritage, another shows famous folks from Missouri. We haven’t seen all of the murals yet, but we did notice that quite a few buildings also have artwork painted on their walls. Conventional artwork,not graffiti. Here are a few pictures from the section on famous folks, and then a few pictures taken as we drove through farm land, just enjoying the beautiful sunshine.

I haven’t seen these pictures on a full size screen yet, I only have access to a netbook. Can you see all the woodpecker holes in this tree? Its a wonder it is still upright.

Anyone have any idea what this pretty roadside weed is?

The Trail of Tears

2009-09-25T17:54:00.001-04:00

You may have heard of the Trail of Tears, a tragic and sad part of American and Native American history. In the early to mid 1800s,a treaty was signed by some people of the Cherokee Nation agreeing to relocate all the Cherokee people to place far west of their original lands. The original lands would go the the government. Not all Cherokees were in agreement, and when it went through Congress, it only passed by one vote. None the less, the Cherokee were rounded up and journeyed westward. It was winter when the reached the Mississippi River, and the whole group was unable to cross before the weather made crossing impossible. Part of the group wintered on the Illinois side, the others on the Missouri side. It was a bad winter, many died. In Missouri, at the spot of the winter encampment, there is now a state park commemorating those people and that winter. Seeing it in the September sunshine, the leaves just hinting at fall color makes it hard to imagine what a freezing winter would be, the the ravines and mountains would be a challenge with proper hiking gear, even today. We visited the park, and here are a few pictures from the lookout.

That’s Illinois on the other side!

We wonder if this is the same barge that we saw earlier in the day from the city.You’ve heard of The Old Man and the Sea? Well this photo is the Old Man and Old Man River (one of the nicknames for the Mississippi).

Lemonade from Lemons

2009-09-25T17:32:00.001-04:00

Circumstances redesigned our plans for our trip. We never did join our friends at Montauk State Park. One of those ladies has a blog, so I have seen photos of their exploits, and we are disappointed to have missed out. However, we have been spending time in a very nice place that I would otherwise (probably) never have visited. Cape Girardeau, MO. The people here have been wonderful, right across the board, from complete strangers to service personal. The first day we were here, we met a couple that told us they had visited Cape and now that they have retired, they have moved from California to here. That’s how well they liked the area.I can understand that.

We have been sick in our room, nursing bad colds for a few days, but what we have seen of the area is pleasing. We haven’t gotten out as much as we would have liked, but here are some pictures taken on our ‘urban camping trip’. An overlook at one of the city parks, right among some great old houses, perched on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.

Looking back towards the city.

This view from the park overlook shows

the beautiful bridge that connects Illinois and Missouri, spanning the Mississippi River. I don’t like driving over bridges, but this one is gorgeous to look at, it sparkles in the sunlight.

One of the legendary barges of the Mississippi!

The second day of our trip

2009-09-22T21:47:00.001-04:00

and we ran into some difficulty, so we didn’t make it to our destination as planned. We did stumble upon a place to stay, clean and with all the amenities, but not a state park in the great outdoors.

Not off to a good start

2009-09-20T17:08:00.001-04:00

The day started inauspiciously, dark, dreary, rainy. Actually, I’d be more honest to say that it started poorly. We still needed to pack the clothes and the food into the RV, and that isn’t fun in pouring down rain. We did get everything done and left – also in the rain. The first three hours were driven in heavy rain , very low clouds and mist. Not fun.

One of the things that we are finding that we enjoy very much with the RV is being able to pull over at a rest stop and not to have to get drenched to run into a public restroom. We were able to use our own facilities, make and eat lunch, and then stretch out for fifteen minutes before resuming our journey. NEATO!!

About an hour and a half from our destination the sun peeked out, and by the time we arrived at the campground, it was quite beautiful. When we pulled in, the sun was shining through some flowers. I later went back to get a picture after we set up, but by then the sun was fading. The color in the photos isn’t as gold or as intense. As a magnificent consolation, take a look at these clouds!

We sat outside briefly enjoying a gentle breeze before the wind picked up, the clouds darkened and we have more rain.

I swear, my former boss was right when after a camping trip, he exclaimed “don’t you ever camp when it doesn’t rain!?” I’d come into work after a weekend of nasty weather and he’d say “Bet you were camping , weren’t you?”

The Bandit

2009-09-12T13:32:00.001-04:00

Finally finished Springtime Bandit and blocked it. I may have to re block, I don’t have proper blocking equipment so improvised and I don’t think that I got things quite right, but for now, it is finished! I used yarn that I had on hand, and I’m still not thrilled with this yarn in this pattern. I think the color variances hide the lace design, but it was a good learning experience on lace nevertheless. Of course, there were also the inevitable ‘design choices’ that were made and not discovered until WAY to many rows to rip back and do over—at least in my book. I was able to discover most mistakes within a reasonable distance to rip and fix, but not one. Live and learn

Another camping weekend

2009-09-01T11:12:00.001-04:00

MOTH and I spent a long weekend at a campground on Lake Allatoona. We really like the Corps of Engineer campgrounds, they are always well kept. A friend was with us, along with her grandchildren. We were able to get sites that shared a drive, so that we were somewhat adjoined. Each of our sites had steps that led down to the water. We were close enough to share meals and a campfire when we wanted to, but just far enough to have some privacy when we wanted it as well. The campground was almost empty, perhaps because school started around here a few weeks ago. MOTH and I wound up staying an extra day and had the campground almost to ourselves, only3 or 4 other sites were occupied, and none in the section we were in. We had a mix of perfect weather and rain. I can’t complain about the rain, though, we were able to get some reading done and I made some progress on my next pair of socks. Our almost adjoining site.

View from our door to her site:

Our site:

The socks, so far:

I must be easily amused, I get so eager to see what color the next stripe will be, and how wide it will be, I just keep knitting. So far it is more green than I would prefer, I like the purples better. However, now that we are home, it is time to get back to the lace ‘shawlette’ and do some serious concentrating so I can get it finished.

Lake Hartwell State Park, SC

2009-08-26T09:37:00.001-04:00

Last weekend we met three friends up at Lake Hartwell State Park, in South Carolina. They had camped there before, but it was a first visit for us. Our sites were not on the lake, however we were the only ones camping in that section, so we had lots of quiet and privacy surrounded by woods. Friday night we sat around chatting until lightening started. We thought it must be heat lightning as it was silent, but took it as our cue to call it a night. About 1 a.m. the lightning was like a disco strobe, it was so frequent. The rain was intense, but oddly, no thunder. The rest of the weekend the weather was great (ok, it was pretty warm, usually 90+). Saturday afternoon we made ice cream using ziploc bags. All the fixings and equipment were provided by JP. Mostly, we sat around getting to know each other better and ‘girl-talking’. MOTH tolerated the whole thing admirably and with his usual charm and good nature. It didn’t hurt that they all think he’s terrific and spoil him mightily.

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These are finally finished!

2009-08-16T15:03:00.001-04:00

I finished these up between working on a couple of other projects. I am in the process of doing a small lace shawl as part of a Knit A Long on Ravelry, one more repeat on that and I will begin working on the edging. It has been a fun knit in spite of the number of times I have had to tink a row or frog several rows. Thank goodness for lifelines!! For me, especially since I am such a beginner, lace requires lots of concentration and no distractions, so I only get the early ours before everyone else gets up to work on it. These socks, however, when not doing the toes or the heels, were just straight knitting, so I could work on them while watching TV in the evenings. I must say, I like the cast on, the short-row heel and the bind off used. This was Lifestyle Toe Up Sock—more guidelines that can be adapted to any pattern of stitches- than a sock recipe. If you Google it, the article has links for the cast on, short row instructional video and to the Elizabeth Zimmerman bind-off as well. I’m hoping to cast on another pair today, using some different numbers based on what I learned making this pair.

These were made with Blue Moon’s Socks that Rock, Storeytime colorway. It made “sort of” stripes, but was not a self striping yarn.

This is the yarn that I hope to get cast on today. My goal is to keep a pair of socks on the needles for TV watching at all times, with other projects on different sized needles to work on in between. I find that changing needle sizes(projects) keeps my hands from getting too tired and sore.

‘ Been knitting….

2009-07-27T18:07:00.001-04:00

but not on the socks shown previously. I have put them aside for now. For some reason, I wanted to try something new. I think I’m going to try to do some lace. To get an idea of what lace is all about (and at the recommendation of helpful lace-knitting Ravelers) I tried a few small projects. The first was out of some Peaches n Creme cotton that I had on hand. I took the Old Shale scarf pattern and did several rows. I figured that since it was cotton, no matter how wrong I went, we could always use it for a dishcloth. The basic pattern for Old Shale is simple, easily memorized so you don’t have to read every stitch. That’s good, especially for someone that is new to chart reading. I fund that I really enjoyed doing it, although it required a bit of attention. The wavy ridges with shades of pink running through it is the Old Shale.

Then, just to do something quick and easy, something to do while watching TV I did a dishcloth in Sugar and Cream, the pattern is a easily found on the internet, “Grandmothers Favorite Dishcloth” or something like that.

From there, I went back to another lace project. This one in wool (which is so much nicer on my hands, it gives!) that was leftover from my grandson’s hat. I made the Twig Lace Cap that is a free pattern on the Knit Picks site. I really enjoyed doing the first half of the project. As I reached the decreases I had to switch to dpns, and when juggling 4 dpns and cable needles…..well, that wasn’t as much fun. I’m very awkward with cable needles. I’m sure I distorted the last few rows with my too long dpns, too. This needs to be blocked, which I haven’t done yet. I’m told that washing a bit and blocking will make the stitching more even. I can see a few mistakes, but in general, I’m pleased. It was a learning project, after all, not an heirloom. I did my first lifeline, but need to study up on a better method for inserting one. My granddaughter posed so I could get a picture of the cap.

We have just returned from

2009-07-19T19:57:00.001-04:00

A long weekend camping with our friend “Pantless”. (Don’t ask-hilarious story,but not mine to tell) This time none of the other gals were available to camp. MOTH and I wanted to get away and also, to do a little setting up and customizing of The Lady Anne. Pantless had promised her grandkids that she would take them camping, so we booked adjacent sites at one of the local Corps of Engineer parks, on a large lake.

The woman is amazing! Each day she would hop in her car, drive to her daughter’s and exchange children. A different grandchild each night. On Friday, she also made an extra stop to pick up her mother. Amazing must be genetic, because her mom is 93 and usually camps with our group if the weather is warm. This time it she gave it a pass so the great-grandchildren could have a special time, but she does love my MOTH! She came along and we went out to dinner at the Lodge of a state park on the same lake. They have a seafood buffet on Friday nights and we certainly enjoyed ourselves.

Pantless was our official fire maker. I probably wouldn’t have bothered with a fire given our summer temperatures, but when you have grandchildren in attendance, you must have a fire and marshmallows! I am pleased to report that Pantless made some excellent fires. The one the first night was particularly creative. It started out all ablaze,

then morphed into a volcano!

We had pretty good weather. It did rain a bit Friday afternoon, but that was a good opportunity to do some reading. Other than that, we had a very private site. We could only see the neighbors across the road. Pantless was to our left, but we couldn’t see her for the trees, and no one was behind or on the right of us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, UNITED STATES of AMERICA !!!

2009-07-04T10:55:00.001-04:00

And our continuing love and gratitude to those who have served, those who still serve, and those who wait for their return

Plum Nelly

2009-06-27T12:24:00.001-04:00

Man-Of-The-House and I took a couple days for a shakedown and get acquainted trip with the motorhome. We drove to Ellijay, GA and stayed in a private campground. We searched for a campground that had sewer connections on site, because when I had my experience emptying the black water tank, I didn't want any witnessess! Several friends who are more experienced campers than we are have had some truly yucky and embarassing things happen to them. Also, since The Lady Anne is a used motorhome, we wanted to clean out the tanks with some equipment a friend loaned us. All went successfully, but I have to say that I am glad that I listened to that little voice in my head that told me to buy new sewer hoses and connections. A look at the hoses that came revealed some cracks and holes…what a messy time we would have had. Disaster averted! (at least for this time, I don’t want to tempt fate)

We also learned how to operate our awning-with the kind help of another camper who climbed all over the rig without a moments hesitation. It seems I had pretty much remembered what the dealer showed me, but when he put the awning back up, he let the pull down strap roll up inside, which meant we couldn't bring the awning down. The helpful camper and I moved the picnic table next to the camper, he climbed on that and manually unrolled the awning as MOTH and I held down the side supports.

Anyway, we had a quiet couple of days, in the shade of trees and awning while the temps were in the 90s. We always had a pleasant breeze, and when we had enough of the heat, the a/c worked well. We became more acquainted with the motorhome and stored some of our gear, tested the different systems.

The campground is named Plum Nelly, and I think we’ll be back. It was quiet and our spot was rather private. Here’s a view of the mountains from our site:

The road traveled around our site, this is from the road, through the trees to our motorhome.

If you look carefully, you will see MOTH sitting against the camper, contemplating and generally enjoying the breeze in the 90 degree heat. The first night the temperatures were supposed to drop into the 60’s, so we turned off the a/c and opened the windows. By the wee hours of the morning, it had cooled off enough that we were chilled, and I had to put an summer blanket on the bed. HOORAY!

If you’ve ever been in the south, particularly Georgia, you may have been introduced to kudzu. It is an amazing plant and grows unbelievably fast. It was imported years ago from (I think) Japan to be planted on hillsides to prevent erosion. The down side is it covers everything in its path, trees, fences, buildings….anything that will hold still for a few hours. This stuff can grow up to 2 feet in a day. At the campground, it was used to make fencing and as a privacy barrier. Looking away from the back of our site, we wondered what the kudzu was concealing:

Well for goodness sake! That would be one heck of a fall. And I don’t think I’d want to end up in that catch basin, either.

And here’s one last photo, just because I like it.

On the crafty front

2009-06-27T11:47:00.001-04:00

I haven’t been doing much. My quilting is pretty much stalled, no good reason, just no inspiration. I did begin another pair of socks (two at a time, toe up) and am almost ready to turn the heel. The yarn is Blue Moon ‘s Socks That Rock , the color is Storey-time. I’m using the Lifestyle Toe up Sock explained by Charisa Martin Cairn. She gives methods and procedures, you provide the measurements. I don’t have a link, but you can Google it.

Been keeping busy….

2009-06-27T11:26:00.001-04:00

but haven’t been posting. Our last camping trip (back the end of March) to Skidaway Island was revealing for us. While we have loved using our cute little Aliner camper, it became evident that Man-Of-The-House was having more and more difficulty moving about comfortably/safely in the confined space. We began considering what other options would allow us to continue traveling and camping. I’ll spare you the soul searching, research and suspense. We came to a decision, located what we felt will suit our needs. Here it is:

We had to go to Texas to pick her up and then drive back to Georgia. I’ve never been that far west before, so I enjoyed the trip, and it gave me a chance to get used to driving something this big. The hardest part for me was……all the darn bridges!!! I hate bridges, I have always hated bridges, I have had nightmares since childhood about bridges. Yes, they are necessary and can be quite beautiful. They are just fine if I can just look at them, but crossing them???? Not so much.

Now, the low, flat bridges I don’t mind too much.

This one was getting a little bit higher, my knuckles were getting whiter.

The really big ones with all the heavy metal superstructures- we didn’t get a picture of those. The photographer was too busy praying that I wouldn’t completely freak out and drive us over the side.

We made it home in 3 days and met some lovely people along the way.

How could I resist??

2009-04-27T19:45:00.001-04:00

As I finished my first pair of socks, my grandson immediately noticed the small quantity of leftover yarn. He wanted to know what I was going to do with it. My mistake was to pause to think what I would possibly do with such a little bit of yarn. “You could make me a hat,” he said. ?????? He actually wanted me to make him a hat, a homemade-my-grandmother-made-if-for-me-hat? In Spring? In Atlanta? A few hours later he was back, looking around and wanted to know if I had made it yet. Sure, all beginning knitters are speedy! I explained that it would take me a bit to make the hat, so maybe it would be finished the next time he visited. In the meantime, we had some renovations and family visited for the weekend. On Saturday I took my sister-in-law to the local yarn shop. She had brought a needlepoint project with her to work on in the car, but was running out of yarn. That gave us the perfect excuse to run to the knitting and needlepoint shop here in town. While they fixed her up with what she needed, I ran to the knitting section to find some extra yarn for the hat. I knew there wouldn’t be enough with just the sock leftovers. Today the sorry little hat was finished. (The wide green stripe in the center was the extra yarn-doesn’t it match well? I was so pleased, especially since I didn’t think to bring the sock bits with me, it was a total guess) Grandson put the hat on and hasn’t taken it off yet. Have I mentioned that it is warm enough that we had the air conditioning on yesterday? its been in the 80s for the past few days, and he is wearing a wool hat! I’m very pleased that he is so pleased, but look at that face, could you have said no???

Spring Break

2009-04-19T14:36:00.001-04:00

began even before we returned from our camping trip. We had the grandchildren for the duration. Again the weather was mostly nasty, so we didn’t get to do the things I would have liked to do with them. One day it finally stopped raining, was sunny and even reached into the 70’s. We headed out to some local parks to do some walking, then to a playground to burn off some steam. Here are some of the spring blooms we encountered along the way.

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And here we have the socks,

2009-04-17T22:58:00.003-04:00

Finally finished. These are the ones that I made so much progress on while we were camping...in the rain. A while back I ordered a kit that included yarn, two Addi turbo circular needles and two videos on how to knit socks on circular needles. One video was how to knit one at a time and using a gusset heel. The second was two at a time with a dropped row heal. I did the two at a time. I'm thrilled to have finished a pair of socks and to be actually able to wear them. I do have a few issues that I need to get straightened out before I make another pair. There were one or two places in the instructions that were not clear to me. If you are a knitter and looked at the socks, you could probably guess which part of the instructions I mean.{no, I will not show pictures of those parts) I will talk to some more experienced knitters and get this straightened away. Can't wait to start another pair with yarn that I have picked out.

By the way, the twins are fraternal, very fraternal....yes, I know (in theory) about starting at the same place in the yarn. But I didn't know the yarn was self striping. The yarn was center pull, I started each at the beginning and they both started with a blue and white effect, so I thought it was all good. Turns out that one was the reverse order of the other. Well, darn! Anyway, they are done and I am mostly happy with them, and I will wear them.

Skidaway Island camping trip

2009-04-15T19:58:00.002-04:00

We recently spent a week with some camping friends at Skidaway Island State Park, here is our trip:

Going to Skidaway we encountered some of the worse rain I have ever driven in- and we drove for about six hours! We arrived during a lull in the storm, and were able to set up in the dry. We did all the outside setting up, left the inside for later, and drove over to say hello to the rest of the group. Tow of our friends had picked out one of the handicapped sites for us, I think that it must have been the best site in the park, and of course, it was close to the bathrooms. The only down side is that it was so far from the rest of the group, too far for DH to walk. It was a large, large site, a lot of brush before any neighbors, quiet and without mud. The rest of the group was closer to the swamp, had noisy frogs and a lot of mud with all the rain. It certainly was perfect for us.
Anyway, we drove over to visit the group. Jack, a yellow lab, thought DH had brought him the neatest new toy, it was hysterical. He saw the tennis balls on the walker and just wouldn’t leave them alone. He kept digging and pawing at them, determined to get a ball to play with. Oddly, none of the other 13canines were interested. We only had a short visit before the rain started again and everyone headed for their campers. Not much later, the TORNADO siren sounded, and we headed for the restrooms

.DH made his first visit to a ladies room, where we sat on the seat in the shower and waited for the all clear. We were in a different restroom than the rest of the group; we had fewer people-and much fewer dogs. I don't think all of the other campers realized what the siren was about. Spring time sirens in GA-if the weather is bad, you know what it means-tornadoes in the area, take cover. I slept in my clothes that night.
Sunday was one of God's more beautiful days, as was Monday. Sunday a pair of friendsgrilled burgers and franks for us. They picked up salads and such and we all chipped in to cover the costs, the athletes among us got in some practice for Washers, trying to determine who will represent us at the Olympics in London. (Washers is a game similar to horseshoes, the group joke is that we will send a team to the 2012 Olympics we even have uniforms planned)
Monday we ordered pizza and we also had a round of washers. This time the festivities were at our site, complete with laughter around the campfire.
Tuesday was overcast, but DH and I attempted one of the trails. The ground was hard packed, but rocky. It was not easy with the walker, so we didn’t get very far, but we tried!

The weather stayed dry long enough that one friend, DH and I went into Savannah a bit early so that we could walk the riverfront before meeting everyone at Paula Deen's restaurant. The friend did the walking, DH and I mostly sat on the benches watching people and boats and listening to the street musicians. We found that the cobblestones and old, cracked sidewalks were not walker friendly at all. To push the wheelchair would have been impossible. I’m glad we left it in the car.
Wednesday it rained, and rained. We all did our own thing. A small group of us drove out to Tybee Island to have dinner at a place one gal remembered from past visits to the area. If you ever go to Tybee, visit the Crab Shack. Don't be put off by the kitsch and tacky (surely the tackiest place ever seen by human eyes!) the food was great. Yummmmmm.

Thursday it rained some more, with warnings of the possibility of more tornado activity at night. That evening we all went to a restaurant a few miles from the campground. Oh, WOW! Wonderful food with humongous windows overlooking the waterway. Some great lightening moments, too. Back to the campground to spend MORE time in our camper.--you know how the sound of rain on a tin roof evokes images of lazy summer days and quiet moments???

Not so much!

This rain pelted us mightily for days, sort of an amplified Chinese Water torture, when it finally stopped, the silence was almost painful. I slept in my clothes again that night. I stayed up until about 1 pm, waiting out the storm, prepared to drag DH from bed into the shelter if need be. Our nice, ‘high’ campsite became lakefront property- if it had rained much longer it would have been an island! Here’s a shot of our lake it is between our camper and the road.

I must say, the bad weather had an upside; I made progress knitting my socks! Only have the toes to go. Will have to remember in the future that knitting is so much more portable than my quilting. I have toyed with the idea of bringing some along, but this is so much more compact and 'do-able'.

Friday was very nice. DH and I went back to Tybee Island to visit Fort Pulaski and the Tybee Island Lighthouse

We tried stopping back at the Crab Shack for lunch, but the parking lot was full up. One of our friends cooked a pork roast for dinner and everyone brought a side. She also made a key lime pie for dessert and provided a beverage she is quite a cook and entertains frequently.

Evaluation- People, dogs and food were great; rain, mud, bugs were awful ( I look like I have the measles, I'm so bitten up) You can tell the weather was bad when the best part of a camping trip report was the restaurant reviews!

Ready for the next step….

2009-03-24T09:03:00.001-04:00

Here is the latest step of Bears in the Farmhouse, the current Quilt Along by Judy L. That outer border is not black, but a very deep purple with lighter print on top. I love the fabric, just wish it showed up better in the photo. Judy will be sending out the last set of instructions tomorrow. It is so nice to be all ready to go, for once.

We take our research seriously around here

2009-03-18T15:57:00.003-04:00

As you can see by the photos, there isn’t much left of our Butter Pecan ice cream! These are the first round of possibilities. Any opinions on which one to use, or should I keep looking for a better match?

Research

2009-03-12T22:58:00.003-04:00

Ah, the sacrifices we make for our art! Melinda has issued a quilt challenge, and I have joined in. This is an ice cream challenge. Melinda assigns each person a flavor of ice cream and the color of the ice cream is the color you use in your quilt, plus (possibly) two others. My flavor is Butter Pecan. Now, I haven't had Butter Pecan in quite a while, I'm more of a vanilla girl. So I don't remember exactly the shade of Butter Pecan. Wanting to be correct in my color choice, I have to do some research. So here is my research: a newly opened carton of Butter Pecan, see the color. Then, a newly scooped carton, observe the difference the disturbed texture of the surface makes to the color. Aha! the color of a DISH of Butter Pecan.

You know, I think the artifical light of the nighttime kitchen is not giving a true representation. But I will pull some fabrics that are in this range and then, tomorrow, in daylight, ...I'll do more research! I just love a challenge!!

Bear blocks are done!

2009-03-07T13:24:00.002-05:00

Here we are, up to date on the latest step of Bears in the Farmhouse. My guess is that the next step will be the sashing and perhaps a border or two. One is more of those HSTs; they look great but are time consuming to do. I really hate the squaring up process. I may try another HST technique this time.

Quilt Along progress

2009-03-01T17:56:00.002-05:00

JudyL is sharing another of her designs with online quilters. This one is a bit different than others she has done in that there was a sign up with a cut off date. Sign up was to send or post a picture of your fabric choices by the deadline. Once that was done Judy emailed the first step, which also has to be emailed/posted by a deadline in order to receive the instructions for the next step. Here are my fabric choices and the half square triangles for the first step. I'm waiting to see how these look when in position, I may need to add more of some colors to liven things up, or even throw in an additional color to spice things up. The color in the hst photo is a little off the lavendar looks a little grey and the two mottled purples look too blue. If we ever have a sunny day, I may take some of these outside to see if I can get a photo with accurate color.

Hello again

2009-03-01T16:24:00.003-05:00

It has been quite a while since my last post, but I haven't had too much to show. Hopefully I will have more to share and will get back to being regular with my posts.

Yesterday was my grandson's birthday. He and his daddy baked cupcakes so that he could have exactly the cake and frosting he wanted for his birthday.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah

2008-12-25T14:18:00.002-05:00

The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get......

2008-10-28T17:18:00.002-04:00

That old Pennsylvania Dutch saying rings way too true, especially these days. We had the grandchildren for the weekend, which means we didn't get much of our stuff done. Miss Thing and I did work on her quilt blocks, but this time we didn't quite finish, so no pictures of them yet. I still haven't gotten around to putting borders on the two quilts I assembled at retreat. I'm trying to catch up on some chores around here, however, I did get some sewing done. Back in the spring I showed some pictures of Fabric Art Postcards that I am doing as part of a birthday swap. Well, we are down to the final two people, one in November and one in December. I decided while I was making one, I might as well make the second, because this time of year I may just never get the chance again! Here they are.

Retreat part deux

2008-10-24T11:39:00.003-04:00

Thought I forgot to include what we actually sewed, didn't you?? Here are just a few of the projects being worked on, some folks pieced blocks, some assembled blocks into tops, some added borders to tops, and some basted tops for quilting. We all brought more quilting projects than we could possibly work on and precious few clothes! Here are Murrell's lavendar and green blocks, Carols lively pastel blocks, Jane's top, Pegs pieces on her design wall,and Ann's spectacular dahlia, which she intends to hand quilt. I didn't get pictures of everyone's projects, and one picture that I haven't included is Ellen's new design. I didn't include that because she may publish it. I also haven't taken pictures of the two tops I worked on. I finished making the blocks (about 140 of them) and put them into rows and it is now ready for borders. I had brought the border fabric with me, but when I laid it out, the fabrics just didn't seem like the right choice, so I moved on to the next project. That next project was Judy's Winter Break that I started way back when. I'm down to the last of the borders on that one- pictures when I get that far.

Retreat !

2008-10-24T11:26:00.005-04:00

My guild just had its annual retreat, and for the first time I was able to go- color me a happy girl! We met at the FFA camp in Covington. What a nice place that is, I'd love to go back again, soon. There were ten of us for two and a half days of sewing and eating. We sewed from breakfast to bed time in a room below the dining room. That was so convenient, only having to go up the stairs, have our meal ready for us, and return downstairs for more sewing. Here are some photos of the facility, which was well off the beaten track and manned by some of the nicest folks you could ever want to deal with. Our cottage, the dining hall, different angles of our sewing space and an early morning shot of the mist rising from the lake behind our cottage.

* FFA is Future Farmers of America

New Quilt for new baby

2008-10-05T19:21:00.004-04:00

My brother has recently become a grandfather! We just won't say what that makes me......shhh! Anyway, when we were at his home last summer to bury mom, I saw the preparations for the baby shower and absconded with one of the napkins. Since we live so far away, we all knew I wasn't going to the shower, so I guess having a 'souvenier' didn't seem odd to any of them. My newphews wife said that the baby's room was going to be blue and tan and that they were going with a cars and trucks/transportation type theme. The napkin was a train. You quilters know what I am getting at, I made an enlarged version of the napkin into a crib quilt. I did make a few changes, but basically, I think it looks a whole lot like the napkin. I'm about halfway thru the quilting.

Orange Crush

2008-09-11T17:48:00.003-04:00

Hooray! My OC is quilted and awaiting binding. The binding is ready to apply, I'll do that tonight and then the hand sewing will be 'TV watching work' until its done. Also, will need to stitch on a label. So, while it isn't 'done-done' it is much closer to being done than anything else. I couldn't wait to share a picture, so here it is, sans binding. I think that it looks different in the photo than it does to the eye. If you scroll on back to see the earlier posts with OC photos, you may be able to see what I mean. I think the dark borders have a definite influence on the appearance of the blocks, and I like the quilt so much better with the borders on than I did before. Those borders are not solid black, but a black with olive drab fluer de lis, this will be the last of that fabric, and it has been one of my favorites.

There is also a picture of the back, which is pieced with assorted fabrics from my stash, The whole thing is leftovers from previous quilts and small stash pieces. The back may not be beautiful, but it didn't cost anything additional. Since this entire project was a stashbuster, can I consider this quilt a 'freebie'?

Would you believe?

2008-09-06T12:05:00.005-04:00

Because the rawhide bone was a bone of contention between Mac and Nic (German Sherpherd), MOTH decided to put it out of site to be forgotten. I guess the thing has a really unique and appealing aroma, because Mac found it inside a plastic bag, on a table out of his reach (yesterday's post). This time it was put higher, and behind other things. See what MacSmarty is doing? He's got it in his radar and has been relentless. I bet if we leave the room and he is unattended that he may find a way. The amazing climbing Silky! Should have named him Sir Edmund Hillary.

Failing that, he is not above resorting flattery and oh-so-adorable cuddles.

I actually have gotten into the sewing room-really. I put the thin and then pieced borders on my OC. I like it better with these on it, it balances out the lighter colors. I will probably add another unpieced dark border. I have yet to start JudyLs Star BOM 3, but that is on the list for the weekend, too. I want to get the OC onto the frame and would really love to get it quilted so I can take it to my guild meeting on Wednesday, but that would really be pushing it. Pictures when I get progress worth showing.

A new face at our house

2008-09-05T10:36:00.005-04:00

We recently adopted a 5 yr old, 13 lb Silky terrier from the family that could no longer keep him. They called him Max, but we have renamed him Mac, as every third dog we know, including within our family, is named Max. We thought this was not too big a change for him and that he would just think we have a funny accent. LOL He seems to be adjusting well to us, our German Shepherd, our revolving-door sons and grandchildren. He is affectionate, eager to please, energetic and just a little too smart for his own good. ;)

Okay....so I was in the 'powder room' minding my own very important business and I heard the rustling of plastic bags. The rustling went on and on and on. So, being unable to investigate, due to pressing circumstances, I yelled out "is that you, dear?" Of course, the Man Of The House [hereinafter referred to as MOTH-because this is a G-rated blog], without rising from his seat or even looking around, replied that no, it wasn't him. HE was unable to investigate due to the pressing nature of the televison program he was watching. ARRRRGH! When I was finally able to come out, all appeared normal. Until MOTH asked "were did Mac get a rawhide bone?"

Well, that rawhide bone was in a plastic bag that the former owner had given us, and that was on the kitchen table. Little Mac Trouble discovered that one chair wasn't completely pushed in, jumped on it and from there to the table. All the rustling was him finding the opening of the bag and withdrawing the bone. You should see the size of this bone, it is the size I would give to the 90 lb German Shepherd! The end knots are almost as big as his head. Mac Clever got the bone, jumped down to the chair and then to the floor and proceeded to carry it with him all about the house, settling in different spots and happily gnawing away all evening.

Now, any of you that have lived with children, can you tell me when does the Woman of the House ever get to tend to business uninterrupted? The last time that I can remember was pre-motherhood, over 35 years ago. I thought when they were grown and gone...sigh... but now I have part-time live in grandchildren and fur kids, all of whom conspire against me. MOTH even put a phone in the powder room so he wouldn't have to answer it when I was in there. PLEASE- don't anyone tell him there are phones that can be installed in the shower!!

Star BOM block 2

2008-08-21T09:38:00.002-04:00

Finally had a chance to make the second block of JudyL's Star BOM. I find that I like the soft blendy quality, but also that I wish I had more contrast to liven things up. Methinks I need two quilts.......but that won't happen as I have too many other UFOs PIGs and things on my 'to make' list.

Star BOM-first star made

2008-08-05T19:12:00.004-04:00

Since I was busy helping DGD with her log cabin rainbow, I didn't get to work on the JudyL Star BOM until today. In the category of 'do as I say, not as I do', if you are not feeling well, don't sew! I can't tell you how many mistakes I made and how much frog stitching I did for this block. I have one of the worst summer colds that I can remember, big time pressure in the head, congestion, pressure in the ears,...you get the picture. I wanted to work on this so badly that I forged ahead. I should have given myself another day or two and avoided making some really dumb mistakes.

In any case, it is finished. I am still concerned that there isn't enough contrast between my two dark fabrics, but since Vicky has become my hero, I will adopt her motto and boldly declare "It stays where it lays!"

edited to reply to QUILTER POLLY: Polly, I see that you have asked several of us the same question, however your blog is set for 'no reply' so we have no address to send you the answer. I hope that you stop back, in case you do: I'm using Omnigrid, that's what I have. JudyL says she uses Creative Grid. The rulers aren't marked with 16ths, they do have 8ths. Think back to math class (UGH!) if something says 3/16, that is between the 1/8 (which would be 2/16) and the 2/8(which is also 4/16 or 1/4)-so basically you line up your fabric betwen those marks. It takes good eyes and a leap of faith, but it works.

Miss Thang makes progress...I don't

2008-08-03T16:29:00.004-04:00

This is the weekend the grands stay with us, so Miss Thang was eager to get to my machine and stitch some more blocks. This weekend we did the pink and orange blocks. Here is a picture of her with the latest blocks, and also a photo of all the 10 completed blocks arranged pretty much as they will be in the quilt. You can see that the rainbow is being created already. I had put the blocks on the wall so she could see for herself just how things are coming along. Sharp eyed little miss noticed a mistake in the book and was oh-so-quick to point it out to me. LOL. By the way, the book is "Strip Happy - Quilting on a Roll" by Donna Kinsey. There are other neat quilts in the book, and I may well make some. She seems to be enjoying this project, even suggested that next time we sew on both Saturday and Sunday and then we can get 10 blocks finished in a weekend instead of just 5!

Meanwhile, I am waiting until the kids leave (or maybe even tomorrow) to get started on my Star BOM. After seeing what some of the others have made, I'm particularly anxious to start and see how my fabrics work out. I also want to start assembling the OC top now that the blocks and rows are put together. I will then need to do the borders to get it to the 'flimsy' stage and into the pile to be quilted. I have a couple that I really need to get into that pile.

Finally decided on the fabrics I will use

2008-07-31T14:54:00.003-04:00

for JudyL's BOM which starts tomorrow. I've included a second photo to more accurately show the color of the darkest fabric.

I have also made progress on my Orange Crush. All but one row is sewn together and on the design wall. The little yellow sticky is to mark a 4 patch that I sewed in incorrectly and have to go back to correct. Of course I didn't discover the mistake until the row was sewn together! I guess I need to be grateful that the whole top wasn't finished or even quilted before I noticed the mistake. I'm not too crazy about this one (it was done as a mystery, if you haven't heard of it before) and of course, that is the risk you take with a mystery. Someone pointed out that I may like it better when its all together than I do as individual pieces, and seeing it on the design wall, they were right. I do like it better than I did, but in general, its way to busy for me. If I were try this design with what I know now, I would do it much less scrappy, perhaps controlled scrappy, so that the star shows up more.

2008-07-27T11:14:00.004-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted, not much 'quilty' has been going on. I've made the drive up to the northeast to finally bury mom. Had a visit with some old friends, my brother & his family, and then down to the Jersey shore to visit with cousins I hadn't seen in ages. Aside from it being a sad occassion and a lot of driving, it wasa good visit with some great folks.

I haven't done much knitting either. Somehow the knitting aggravated my left hand (I have trouble tensioning, I think) and I have had to stop for a while. I have learned of a method called Portuguese knitting that I am going to try. I'm hoping that the rather different way of tensioning the yarn with this method will enable me to continue knitting--I've started a yarn stash that I MUST use!!

While I have plenty of WIPs and UFOs, I have some more in the thought stages and am still plugging along on the OC(Bonnie Hunter), although in a smaller version. I also have the fabric put aside for JudyL's last HAD that I want to do so I can try her upcoming BOM without feeling even more guilty.

The only quilt related thing that I have done recently is with my DGD. She accompanied me to one of our LQSs a few weeks ago. I pointed out a sample quilt for her, "Do you recognize that?" And she did! It was a log cabin quilt from a jelly roll book (title escapes me at the moment) and is called the RainBow Quilt. We had seen the book last summer while we were visiting another store, and she asked if I would make her the quilt-they didn't have the jelly rolls and I wasn't about to start scouring the store for substitutes. This store didn't have the jelly rolls, but had kitted fabrics in the same colors. Her plea was "Can WE make this, Gram?" - Yes, I knew the quilt sample and the kit was there before I brought her.....I figured if she still liked it, I would make it for her. Since she indicated she would like US to make it, I'm even more pleased. Miss Thang stays with us every other weekend, so we got started and made this block combination. Next time is the pink/orange combination.

Time sure flies by....

2008-07-06T13:18:00.005-04:00

We went camping with our son and two grandchildren. We slept in the little camper, son and children in a tent on our site. Once again we camped at Lake Lanier, which is close to home. If anyone had a problem (little one was a first time camper) or the weather had been tooo inclement, it would have been easy to go home for a spell. It did rain and thunder the first two nights, but we all stayed dry and the days were great. Our area is still suffering from a bad drought. You can see in the photos how the lake has gone down. The water usually goes right up to the trees, and the depth post is usually under water at the end of the swimming area. (first pole photo this year, second post photo last year)

Even just last year, which was bad, the pole was still in the water- you can see where the water should have been. Needless to say, we were blown away to see how much worse things were this year.

"Green" Shopping Bags

2008-06-17T16:13:00.006-04:00

By now most of you have probably seen the green (as in conservation, not the color) bags being sold at many grocery stores. One of the major grocery chains in my area is Publix, and they sell these, as does Wal-Mart. The whole idea being that using and reusing these each time you shop will cut down on the use of paper bags or those plastic ones . I bought a few in the hopes I would manage to remember to put them back in the car after each shopping excursion. The day that I bought mine, the packer immediately used them, and I was surprised just how much they hold. My packer was quite the salesperson and informed me that they are designed to hold the equivalent of 5 plastic bags.

My only objection was that these beauties have the store name emblazoned across them, fore and aft! Now I never bought those designer jeans, ‘back in the day’, because I refused to use my backside as a billboard, and I still don’t want to! Besides, I want to be able to take these into whichever store I need to, and I would feel ‘tacky’ walking around with a competitors name all over. And how would the store know that I had already bought and paid for these on a previous visit??? I worry about stuff like that.. ....

Being the crafty and clever person that I am *choke*I decided to eliminate the advertising while personalizing and beautifying my bags. Being the oblivious dork that I sometimes am……well, take a look!

See bag melt; see iron with bag fused onto it! I thought I would take the quick and easy route and use Heat N Bond, but as you can see, the bag is now ventilated and my poor iron is a mess. Since I had been pressing some OC blocks (gratuitous quilty comment) I thought the iron may have still been too hot….I waited a while and tried again with the iron at the lowest possible setting. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!! All I can say is, bless the guy that invented Teflon and the guy that put it on irons! Without them, I’d be out iron shopping.

Anyway, that put a hold on things for a bit. Last Wednesday my quilt guild took a field trip to 3 LQSs and followed up with lunch. The first store that we visited had some really great food fabrics in FQs. You know that they just called my name! How perfect for my green bags! (You do realize that buying an FQ is like eating potato chips, once you start……)

This time I used a decorative stitch around the rough edges. The FQs were of watermelon, chili peppers, oranges and one with artichokes and rutabagas.

dishcloths

2008-06-08T11:11:00.003-04:00

As stated in previous posts, I have taken some knitting classes recently and have a few things on the needles--just like with quilting, I have several going at once! Bad habits die hard, but knitters have a really good rationalization-keepping projects using different size needles and yarns going simultaneously is a GOOD thing because switching between them gives your hands a 'break' ! Gotta Love it!!

One of the things that I have started doing is a weekly dishcloth (from a yahoo group). This gives me something small, 'quickly' finished, economical (cotton yarn) and useful while I practice and learn new stitches and techniques. The pictures show the first couple of cloths that I have done-a third is on the needles and about half finished.

Okay, so, I couldn't wait

2008-06-08T09:57:00.004-04:00

Even though it defeats the mystery part of a mystery quilt- since I have lagged so far behind, I know what the finished quilt will look like and couldn't wait to see how my fabric choices will work out. So, while waiting for the grandchildren to arrive, I skipped over step 3 long enough to cut out a few pieces of step 4 and 5 to see how they will work up.
For step 4, I was wondering whether to put the darker color as the star, or the lighter color- see pictures of how the finished square will look for each option. I'd really like the star feature to show up and not just blend in.
Then I started wondering about the alternating 'orange' block. I had thought of using up a bunch of my browns for the centers, then started second guessing that choice because I already have a lot of darks in the quilt and that might be too much the same and too autumnal. My second choice was a group of almost neon greens. I had been debating these to liven things up and thought I would have to wait to see the block to make the final choice.
So, here's what they will look like - what do you think?