a new direction

we've been cleaning things out, packing boxes, filling up the recycle bin and the trash can -- all in preparation for putting our house on the market

one of the things I found in this clean up was a tub full of mohair birds from another artistic lifetime --- still very cute stuff, just not what I do anymore

I've started putting these out on my Etsy store at very reduced prices in hope that some of them at least will "fly away" to new homes

if you're interested, you can use the link to my Etsy store there at the top right side of the blog

even though we're deep into those house projects, I have managed to get some other things done too

this hat for instance, which will be a Christmas present

last night I finished the sleeves on another Christmas knitting project

and I'm very close to finishing the quilt top I've been doing the applique work on

yesterday I spent time waiting for my van to get new tires -- I haven't put tires on it for a long time, and we decided that we wanted to go into winter not worrying about the tires, so I used the money I recently earned doing an organizational project to take care of it

while I sat there I finished another one of these afghan squares

today, when I go out to run some other errands, a box of those afghan squares will be going off to be made into afghans by Close Knit Hugs

and the box that has these hats and mittens in it will go off to the Cheyenne River Reservation

feels good to have these ready to go!

time to get to all those other projects

two steps forward, one step back

progress is being made on this project

I have three more pieces to encircle, then it will be on to figuring out the next step

it's been fun creating all of these -- each little beaded surround with little "handles" at each end like casserole dishes so they can be strung together with other pieces (think paper chains from your childhood -- that's the basic idea I have in mind for the making up)

it's time for the great pack up

I have afghan squares for Close Knit Hugs and mittnz and hatz for the Cheyenne River Reservation that are ready to be packed into boxes and shipped off

I hope to get the packing up done today so these can head off to their destinations on Monday

the season of Christmas sewing is fast approaching

my daughter picked up this flannel -- I will be making it into a pair of PJ pants for Mr Cute

there's just one little problem with beginning on the Christmas sewing

you may recall my talking about this little Rube Goldberg contraption that I did so I could finish a prior sewing project

yesterday afternoon I took the machine to the local Viking sewing center because I could not get the replacement light bulb to work

she tried -- same result -- which means for sure it has to go in and be officially serviced -- meaning it will cost at least $75, and will be away from me for a while

not happening right now -- sorry

so this morning I ordered this from Amazon

because my machine's casing is plastic and because it has a little mini-computer inside, I can not use anything magnetic around it

this little LED light is free standing and runs on a single AAA battery (a size that I have rechargeables for)

I'm hoping this will get me through the Christmas sewing season, then the machine can go in to the shop in January and get a good going over


time to get busy -- lots to do

Catching up -- and it's time to vote

the contest that this piece is entered on is being voted on right now you can go to this LINK and vote for your favorite piece in the competition

over the weekend I was in northern Colorado, staying at my daughter's house and running a charity auction -- we raised a chunk of money to help Loveland Opera Theatre do productions of The Mikado

while we were there, we had Mr Cute try on his Halloween costume

this is one happy dinosaur!

one of the things that we helped with at our daughter's was the stripping of the garden before the first frost of the season

Mr Cute stood on a stool and "helped" his mom with the washing of the tomatoes as his dad did the scalding and the tomatoes got skinned and cooked and put up in jars

what fun!

one of my favorite quilt stores in my daughter's area is closing it's doors, so I went and did some shopping -- picked out some fabric to use for some future quilts

I'll miss being able to visit this store -- they had such a great little shop

apparently I'm not done with this whole pumpkin theme

I did this drawing on a note pad Saturday while I was waiting for other things to happen with the auction

the plan is to make this and have another go at trying to put a piece on stretcher bars

and more pieces for this project are coming together

3 crystals and a piece of really pretty druisie quartz

time to get busy -- lots of things to do!

chili days

when we visited with our daughter a few weeks ago, they did a big picking in their garden

their pepper plants did very well this year, and we came home with a bag full of various sorts

this is a string of jalapeno peppers -- all of them were a shiny dark green

the DH strung them together and we hung them up

it's been fun to watch them change color -- we're going to let them totally dry then grind them into powder for using in cooking

food for the tummy later, food for the eye now

I've started working on a new piece of jewelry

this one is all based around specific color, and right now I'm just working on creating parts

not sure exactly where this is going, but so far I'm pleased with how the pieces look

meantime, I'm nearing the end of the applique work on the landscape quilt I've been making -- I hope to be ready to start the quilting in the next couple of weeks

time to get to it

Dino Pox?

one of the things that I've gotten to do for three years now is to create a Halloween costume for my grandson

this year he wants to be a dinosaur -- so his mama bought him a grey hooded sweat suit and gramma turned it into a spotted dino

I was actually working on this while I was taking care of him earlier in the week, and he was quite fascinated by the process

I hope he likes the finished product!

this piece is finally finished --- listed it in my Etsy shop --- voting for the challenge will be next month

time to get on with things

Cranking it up

having returned from taking care of my grandson, I've been playing "catch up" to finish projects, both artistic and otherwise

these earrings are now complete and have been listed in my Etsy store this morning (see link at the top right of my blog)

 

the big pumpkin piece is done! 

there were some things about this piece that I was not happy with as I started the quilting process, but in the end, I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out

I'm pretty sure I'm not finished with this subject matter as a theme for quilting

I have at least one other drawing that I want to work on a bit more, and then there is this

a photo I took in the grocery store with my cell phone after the DH did some artful arranging in the produce bin

I think these will be part of my "slice of life" series

and there are these two pictures too -- I love the colors in the picture of the fruit -- it has lots of potential for some thread painting

finished another afghan square

I learned this week that a number of the afghan squares like this that I have knit and sent off to Close Knit Hugs have returned to Colorado in afghans that were sent to the Boulder area for flood victims

I'm glad to have provided -- but sad they are needed


coming up on the deadline for the charity auction I'm chairing, so I'm up to my neck in paperwork for that --- time to get to it

projects interrupted

we got the phone call -- "mom, can you help out?"

even though Mr Cute has gotten his vaccinations right on schedule, he was that one in five that ended up catching chicken pox anyway

which meant he could not go back to day care until all dozen or so spots were crusted over, and since his mom and dad had already missed several days of work with the flooding in their area the week before, taking more time was just not a good thing for them to have to do

gramma to the rescue

these are some pictures I took of some of his art projects that we did together while I was there

and this line up just makes me smile

these are "little people" animals from his play sets lined up to watch TV --- this began the last time we visited and it was just the horse watching TV, but the giraffe joined the horse while we were there then

yesterday morning before we left I put the zebra up there --- I need to ask his mom if he noticed last night

these pictures are from the garage workshop

the DH is working on fixing up the dining room chairs -- which are over a hundred years old

the leather seat covers that were on them had started falling apart and a couple of them had some minor water damage, so he is working on them in pairs -- he has stripped off the seat covers (which we were amazed to discover included these cane bottoms that were the original seats) has done some repairing of wood splits and then has applied a fresh coat of dark oak stain over one of them (the other one will be following soon)

he will put on a couple of coats of  sealer over this then we will put on new seats and they will look as good as the table does again -- yeah!

got to love having family hand me downs for furniture!!

back to working on projects

this is the progress on creating a pair of earrings that I'm calling "Triangular Citrus" -- I hope to get these finished in the next couple of days

 

yesterday I finished the quilting on this piece

having overcome my first impulse to toss it in the "never to be finished" pile when I first started on the quilting because I did not like the frayed edges, I have managed to stitch it into submission

next step is to press it, trim it and get a binding (or a facing) on it

as I look at the photograph I see some things that I would do different if I were to consider this design again, but those have to do with color choices

I'm hoping my daughter will be pleased with it

then there is this

we have established this tradition of Mr Cute wearing Halloween costumes custom designed and made by gramma

in past years the decision about what that costume would be was made by his mom and dad -- this year he has expressed his own opinion

he wants to be a dinosaur

my daughter picked up a gray sweat suit as the basis for this costume, and I will be adding spots and spikes and a tail to it

tomorrow I will wash the sweat suit and the bright green fleece that I picked up at the fabric store so this project can get underway

meantime, we're into the crunch time of preparing for the charity auction that I am chairing --- this is the basket I put together this week for the auction --- made up of items donated by my daughter and I --- I hope it will help raise some money for the cause

time to get moving

playing catch up

we had big plans for last weekend --- shopping for fabrics to make a Halloween costume, maybe a trip up the foothills from my daughter's either to Estes Park or Lyons

instead it rained -- and rained -- and flooded all around us

my daughter's house is safe -- they live in a place that didn't have a creek near enough to put them in the line of fire (so to speak)

but those two places we planned to go -- not so much

it will be hard to get to Estes Park for a long time as the Big Thompson Creek that ran along the highway to there tore up much of the road

and the folks in Lyons right now can not drink the water as the water purification plant has been damaged by the flooding and they are asking even residents to just stay away

my daughter and son in law have how returned to work, but length of their trips to work every day have been doubled -- or worse -- it's going to be a long winter

since we had to stay inside, I spent some time with Mr Cute

we played with PlayDoh  --  the little boy that lives next door to them now came over for a while and the boys painted at the kitchen table while their mom's made a trip to the grocery store during a lull in the downpours

Mr Cute even got to watch some TV -- to his parent's credit, he doesn't do a lot of that, but they do have a "stash" of recorded TV programs for this kind of occasion

I love the picture of him and the little dog that lives at their house hanging out on the couch

all that time indoors away from my house along with the trip up and back meant more than the usual number of afghan squares got knit up

as I was taking the picture and then putting them in the box to ship off to Close Knit Hugs, the DH asked me if some of them would be returned to Colorado as afghans for the flooded area -- my guess is they might

since we returned home, I have been working on projects 

this one, for instance --- I finished this bracelet yesterday --- and now I'm working on a pair of earrings to go with it

this was fun to make -- I learned a lot about making three dimensional shapes with Delica beads that might be useful for some future projects

and I finished this knitting project last night -- it was fun working with two strands of yarn and the beads -- I have dubbed this one the Eggplant Hat because it is made of purple and green yarn and beads

and then there is this little Rube Goldberg arrangement

when I sat down at the sewing machine Tuesday afternoon, the light bulb burned out

I made a trip to the nearest store and got a replacement bulb, but it did not work -- there may be something more serious wrong with the machine than a burned out light bulb, but for now I need to be able to get some things done

the best idea I could come up with was the little LED light on an elastic band that I have used like a Miner's light to knit or work on projects in the car

yesterday I was able to spend over an hour working on some stitching using this arrangement

eventually I'll have to deal with this issue on a more serious level, but for now I'm at least getting things done

and it's time now for me to get to that!

play time

for the past couple of weeks I've been pretty stressed out -- wanting to make sure the quilt show we just hung was properly displayed giving everyone involved the best possible "exposure" for their art and dealing with some health issues of my own

this weekend I've been pretty much just goofing off

I have most of the background for this piece stitched together -- cool!

today I hope to do some work on the camper itself

rollin' down the road!

tomorrow I'll have to go back to working on things, but it's been good not to think about them for a few days

new beginning

it's been a while since I've done something "just for fun" 

this weekend we had plans for a lot of different activities, but with a lot of rain and a lot of closed roads, most of those plans have gone by the wayside

so this afternoon I started working on the background of this piece that I did the original sketch for back in May

it doesn't look like much right now, but I'm please with the way it's going

it was kind of nice to feel no pressure, just to enjoy the process -- I plan to do thread painting on this one, but unlike the pumpkins that have given me such trouble, there will be no raggedy edges here as I'm doing needle turned applique to put this one together

it's all about finding a technique that works for what I like the look of

a step in the right direction!!

more on the pointy things and smashed pumpkins

I know -- it's been a while since a post here, but last week I spent a lot of time hanging an art show -- now that is done I'm trying to get back to working on things

this for instance

once I get the next two squares done (one at each end) I'm probably going to have to start thinking seriously about what kind of a clasp I want to put on it

and then there is this

this is a close up of part of the pumpkins on that big pumpkin piece

problem is, now that I'm doing the machine quilting on this, I'm getting fraying around the edges of the fused pieces that I'm not happy with

still thinking about ways to fix it -- we'll see

smashing pumpkins and pointy things

it's been a crazy week so far 

medical appointments, working on assorted household projects, getting ready to hang a quilt show in Denver and now only a month away from the charity auction I'm chairing  --- I feel like I haven't had much time to relax and just create

I did manage to get all of the pumpkins fused on this piece

and I've even started working on the stitching --- of course this means I'm impatient and want to see more progress on it instantly, but more its a case of wanting to have more time to work on it too so I can actually enjoy the process

 

this is coming along too -- there is actually a yellow square at each end of it right now, but I neglected to take a picture of it yesterday when I finished that second one -- oops!

the piece is now about 4 3/4 inches long, so it is slowly getting toward that length that it needs to be to become a bracelet!

I've been knitting right along on a Christmas project and hit a major milestone on it a couple of days ago -- yippee!!  and that big landscape quilt I'm making is coming along too, so some things are getting done, just not fast enough to suit me!

today's work includes signs for the quilt show, review of items received for the auction and probably a trip to the store  --  time to get to it