bummed

so this morning I took my van over to the shop

for the last week or so it had sounded like I had a whole flock of birds under the hood cheeping away

at first they thought it was a pulley, a mere $115 repair

uh, not so much

they're replacing the alternator --- the total bill will be almost $400

I'm bummed

I did finish this afghan square while the replaced the pulley only to discover that wasn't the problem

now I'm at home so I can do other things -- they'll call me later and someone will pick me up to go get it

rats

more finished work

I just finished this bracelet last night

originally I had planned to use this larger carved piece as the center piece of the bracelet, but it is just too big to work comfortably as part of a bracelet

which means that now that carved piece will be the center medallion in a necklace -- which I now need to figure out the rest of -- figures!

I do really like the bracelet though -- it's the first piece I've done that could possibly be called "steam punk", which is a hot thing right now -- we'll see if it gets any attention in my Etsy store

finished another of the 12 hatz

I think I should call this one "lemon aide"

this is number 8



progress on the Hoffman challenge piece is being made -- I have half of the flowers stitched down!


this book is going to the top of my "WANT" list

the whole "painterly" look is the direction that I want my art quilts to take, and I especially like impressionist work, so I think this would be a good addition to my reference library





time to get moving --- need to run some errands before I can get back to projects

hatz link II

I know, you've seen this headline before

well, that's just where I am right now


this is the first of the "adult" size hatz -- I really love the way each of these is so individual even when I use the same yarn

I started another one last night that is yarn that is hand dyed with Koolaid -- nice colors




another link for the bracelet is finished

I hope to get the two smallest links finished today which will mean I can start putting on the backings and stringing the piece together



I spent some time yesterday working on a sewing project that is for Christmas, so all I can say about that is I'll show you those pictures after Dec 25th!


time to get busy

off the sticks!

I've been working on this project for almost three months, and last night bound off the last of the band around the front ---

it will now take several evenings to weave in all the ends and finish the front -- including making the loops for the buttons and sewing on the buttons

I did slip it on over my pjs, and it fits very nicely

YIPPEE!!

the completion of this project means I'll be doing swatch knitting for a Christmas project soon


this is "off the sticks" too

link number 4 for the current bracelet project

these smaller links go pretty quickly and are pretty much a "happening" -- I just start picking up beads and stitching them down in patterns until the space is filled up then I added some embellishment on top of the beading

I have a few more of these to do, and I'm trying to make each one different



the first flower has been placed in the vase

a couple of years ago I would not have been confident enough of my applique skills to even think about fussy cutting such a complex flower and stitching it down like this

practice makes perfect!

next step is to fill the taller vases

















studio security is taking a nap

with her tongue sticking out just a tiny bit

and one eye partly open

silly --- very silly




time to make a quick grocery run then get to work on projects

still life

after all the picking out and restitching, I'm back where I was a week ago

except I'm a lot happier about how it looks

the only things that didn't get taken off were the pieces that are now the inside of the vases at the top (and probably very little of that will actually be visible after I get the flowers added to this

now begins the fussy cutting of flowers out of the challenge fabric







finished another link for the bracelet

the brass flowers on this were a "freebie" that came with an order of other jewelry supplies, and they worked out really well for this

the next bracelet links will be smaller than these, so they should go quickly ---

once I figure out what I'm doing with them



time to get busy

hatz link?

ok, I admit, sometimes the hardest thing about a blog post is coming up with some catchy, witty headline

here is the latest finished link for the bracelet I'm fiddling with -- this came out much better than I thought it would when I started it

the next link involves covering the background with beading then adding a couple of brass flowers and some crystals -- that link will be a bit smaller than this one is, so it probably will go faster

we'll see



here is latest hat

this one is the last of the black and white yarn, the last of the light blue yarn and the last of the red yarn (these are excellent "stash busters")

I started the first of the bigger one last night -- it will be that mauve/mulberry combo that I did one of this size from



I admit that I have a love/hate relationship with Spring --- I love the longer days, the warmer weather, the flowers, the return of the robins (I saw the first one this morning!) --- the pollen and the yard work? not so much ---- yesterday we did the first watering in the back yard -- it's been a dry winter, and unless we want to entertain the idea of replacing the lawn, watering it is necessary already --- nuts!

a little bit about failure

which could be subtitled "why I don't do piecing"

this is a quilt block that I've been fiddling with for over a week

problem is there's that big gap and this is supposed to be all of the pieces

uh, not working

the daytime guild I belong to did this block in January and sent me the instructions via email -- it's based on a pattern created by Paula Nadelstern -- a few years ago I had borrowed one of her books from the library and decided after a couple of weeks of frustration that I'm too much of a math moron to be able to figure it out

guess I still am

now I'll need to decide what I'm doing about the project that group has decided to work on this year

so after feeling a bit defeated by that exercise, I spent some time with the jelly roll that I got at the guild meeting last week

one of the handouts at that meeting was a pattern that makes these neat little blocks that can all be made from the 2 1/2 inch strips that make up a jelly roll

it takes 16 of these blocks to make a crib size quilt, so I'll be stitching up 14 more, then deciding how to set them all together

work on the big trees piece has resumed

the next thing that needs to be done is adding all the "leaves" on the redwood

after trying several experiments, I figured out that if I used my custom cut rubber stamps to stamp on the "sticky" side of the iron on pelon, I could then iron that to the back of the fabric and use that as the guide to cut out the little fronds

I have about 90 of these stamped and ironed on, so when I'm on the phone for the next week or so I'll be cutting these out and getting them ready to be stitched on to the quilt


still working on this

the big floral link is finished, and I've started on the first of the side links

the piece of brass doesn't have any holes in it, so I used strands of size 15 beads to create a net that will hold it in place

more experimenting to follow


time to go get the laundry done, then back to projects