all in a busy Saturday's work

this scarf has been completed in record time -- just about a week of working on it and it's on the towels being blocked

I really like the end panels and the center is a wonderful four row repeat that uses up very little yarn for the length you get from it

(and so simple I didn't have to constantly look at a chart to get it done)

yes, I could get to like this whole scarf thing


but in the meantime I have more mittnz to do (I'm working on mitten number 20 right now)

and there's an afghan in progress

and the annual Christmas knitting will be commencing shortly (there's that whole swatching thing that has to happen)

as I mentioned yesterday, the blue and gold beads are complete, but since I can't locate the item I wanted to use as the focal bead (I KNOW it's here -- SOMEWHERE!), I have started on the next project

I made some slight modifications in the pattern -- these are actually a bit shorter than the blue and gold ones

the silver looking beads are pewter -- I picked them up at the gem show we went to the first part of March

and unlike the gold beads, I can do all but the very last row of these without the magnifying glass since the beads have a bit more variation in color so they don't all just blend together
the fish part of this block is finally done -- complete with all of the gold cording around everything except the eye, and I stuffed behind that so it stands up away from the surface

the whole surface looks kind of "brocade-y"

the "sea weed" is just pinned on, I'm trying to decide if I'm going to actually stitch all of it down -- this may be too much

I think I'll start with the small pieces at the bottom first, and that may be the end of it

it's pretty exciting that this is coming together so well -- I should be able to start setting the whole quilt top together this week -- YEAH!

progress is being made on the trees and the sunflower too
and even though it is still cold enough that the furnace keeps coming on at night, it is warm enough to start little peat pots with some seeds

this tray will go out into the sunshine during the day and come inside at night (we think this will be a better plan than what we tried last year)

I used some miscellaneous craft wood to make little labels for each pot -- each one has the name of the plant and a color code (the color is a permanent marker, and it's just in case the lettering fades off before we get these into the garden)

so now I have all these little plants to keep an eye on -- pasilla peppers, zucchini, cucumber, pumpkins, baby blue hubbard and acorn squash -- and we hope that there won't be so much cool weather and so much hail this summer!

Blue and gold beads

ta da!

here we are with all 14 of the blue and gold beads complete

and can we now go on with the rest of the project?

no, we can not

still haven't found those eye cabs

{sigh}

so I'm going to start working on the red and pewter beads and see if that combo actually works since the slice of stone I want to use for the focal bead of that is right there in the bag with the other beads!

onward

Quilt Guild goodies and quilt progress

even though I spent a lot of time yesterday working on some other things and making a trip with the DH to the hardware store, I did finish stitching the last of the 3 dimensional petals for the first sunflower

it took quite a while, but I also got them all pressed so now I'm ready to start actually appliqueing the background petals (shown by the numbered white spots on the map) so I can attach these and do the center

this is definitely one of those times when what I see in my head is actually starting to become reality -- the more I learn about new techniques, the more that actually happens!


last night was my evening quilt guild meeting

as I usually do when I'm going to be anywhere that I can knit without causing a distraction to the program, I took along my knitting

so here we have another finished afghan square for the box -- I'm down to needing about 4 more to have this box ready to ship




guild meetings include a chance to do show and tell (I had some things to show), and door prizes

and last night I won one of the door prizes

here is the haul

5 (!) books, 3 pieces of great fabric (each of them about half a yard and already washed), and 2 bottles of fruit scented body wash (I love the body wash -- it helps keep my skin from drying out in this climate)

so now I will need to put together a door prize for next month's meeting (that's the rule -- you win one, you bring one next time)

so what would you like to get in a door prize?

Birdie in the snow

yup, after several days of being able to run around in a t shirt, this is what I woke up to this morning

the joys of living in the mountains

it's snowing

this robin doesn't look too thrilled with the whole thing

neither am I


back to the projects!

A weekend update

this is the little dog that lives at my daughter's house

she was the ring leader of the "jail break"

we went to our daughter's house on Friday to spend the weekend --

the little dog evidently couldn't wait to see "grandpa" and went out the front door to greet the DH in the driveway

unfortunately that also meant the two big dogs decided they needed to be out the front door too

my dog just followed the little dog and the DH into the house

the other dog -- not so much - I had to go across the street and CARRY her home -- all 50 pounds worth -- I'm glad it wasn't my dog that needed carrying!
this was one of my birthday presents from my daughter

she said her husband was actually the one who found it at the bookstore

there are a number of very cool patterns in it

so there will be some fun knitting in the future

one of my favorites is for a toy owl

very cool!!


these are the "bunny bags"

when my daughter was little, my friend used to create one of these for her -- a sort of basket away from home

this year I did these for my daughter and son in law

it was fun

and they should have candy to last them a while -- I put a full bag of Starburst jelly beans in each one

being in the car to my daughter's means some knitting gets done too

the scarf is about half finished -- I really like this pattern -- it is probably a "keeper" for using when I have yarn that is very limited since you can just knit the center section for the desired length and it uses relatively small amounts

and another afghan square is ready for the box

work got done on mittnz last night too


more sunflower petals are complete

almost half way on the ones that have to be stitched and turned


progress is being made on the Hoffman Challenge fish --- I have about a dozen more scales to do then it's on to the head


and while I was away I got two of the 7 trees stitched down on the trees project


all that and spending most of Sunday at my parents house moving stuff out to the street for the annual trash pick up -- and we pruned down the mock orange bush so my folks will be able to get to their trash cans --- not the usual Easter activity, but their city needed the stuff out by Monday morning for the pick up but they weren't allowed to put anything out before Saturday -- and since my son in law had to work on Saturday, we just had no other options
my daffodils are blooming!

well, at least the two older ones -- the new ones that we planted last fall are coming up, so soon I'll have a whole bunch more

don't you love Spring?

being in the forest

you had to know that once the trees were all pinned in place that I would be spending considerable time stitching them down

uh, yeah -- like about 2 hours and I still haven't got the first little skinny aspen tree complete -- this will take a while


meantime I did about 8 inches more on the scarf I had started -- then forgot to take a picture -- DUH

ok, I'll try to do better today (and I'm going to finish that tree -- I hope)

still working on some patterns for the flowers

I'm not sure I will use this one

I love the picture, but I'm not sure I can carry off the look with fabric

if I use it it will be the last one I do



yesterday I successfully created the full sized "map" and traced out all of the pattern pieces on to tracing paper

I like tracing paper for the patterns because it is a bit sturdier than the usual tissue paper that is used for patterns

here we have the first 5 petals -- all stitched and clipped and turned

of the 36 petals on this, 13 will be the background petals that are appliqued directly to the back, and the others are all 2 sided and will attached only at the base of the petal so they stand out loose

I actually thought these would take a lot longer to do than they did, so I'm pleased with them
started knitting a new scarf last night --- I want to take this to my doctor when I have my final appointment the end of April

this also went much quicker than I thought it would -- all of this being completed in about an hour

the center section is a very simple 4 row repeat, so I should be able to really crank it out

this pattern is from Wrapped in Comfort, by Alison Jeppson Hyde, and the yarn is another of those skeins that I got by sending in Caron yarn labels





one more afghan square done

this one just looks like Easter --- like the bunny just went wild with the colors!


time to get moving

creating the patterns

the Wild About Flowers piece has reached the "its time to make flower patterns" stage

this is one of the photos I've been working with

to create the pattern I printed out the picture as a full 8 1/2 by 11 sheet

then I take a fine point Sharpie marker and draw around the pieces of the picture to create sections that would be big enough to be able to applique but still small enough to give the needed definition


once I have the picture marked up, I trace only those black lines on to a sheet of tracing paper

the tracing paper then goes into the scanner to have "techno-magic" done to it

flip

stretch

shrink

enlarge

all possible with that wonderful scanner/printer combination

then I print it out on a sheet of paper that will get cut up and used as the pattern for the fabric

sometimes that means printing several sheets and taping them together to make a big enough pattern to do what I want to do

all in a day's work creating a new design

Birthday Festivities

there's something fun about occasionally refusing to do what you are "supposed" to do -- like yesterday's small rebellion about the laundry, for instance

I did a lot of more interesting things instead (and yes, the laundry is running as I write this)

there are 10 of the blue and gold beads complete, and still no sign of the glass eye cabs, so I'm guessing I'll be on to the red ones soon

(where DID I put those???!)


A quick trip to the fabric store for some more gold metallic embroidery thread also yielded this lovely stash of fabrics to be used for the sunflowers on the Wild About Flowers project

(and yes, these are in that load of laundry I can hear going "slosh, slosh, slosh")

yesterday's mail included a copy of a magazine that had this most awesome picture of sunflowers in it -- and these are at an angle I couldn't get in the pictures I took in my own yard because of where the fence was --- great timing to add to the designing of the next step of this project






the Hoffman Challenge project is moving right along

here is a close up of the scales I'm working on that form the body of the fish -- and this is why I needed that additional skein of metallic floss!

each and every little scale is surrounded with it -- and it's put down like cording, full thickness which looks really amazing
proof that my daughter knows me REALLY well

the birthday card (hand made by here)

guess I'm not mature yet -- I still need to be told to TURN IT DOWN! -- what can I say, I like my music loud enough to FEEL it


it was warm here yesterday, so for dinner the DH did the first outdoor cooking of the season

nothing better than a little piece of steak and a nice salad for a birthday dinner -- oh yes, and there was chocolate cake!

yummy

about the best birthday I've had in a while

and I did my follow up visit to the dentist so he could check to make sure everything was healing properly

it is

and the dentist saga can be summed up like this:

first exam and x-rays: $32

pulling the bad tooth: $208

surprising the dental assistant with a baby afghan as a thank you for being so great: PRICELESS!

(and thank you to all of you who emailed, texted, called or mailed the birthday greetings!)

mittnz again

these are the ones I've been working on with that strangely pooling yarn

the finished product is pretty neat actually

so this is pair number 9


after the shopping trip yesterday I actually spent some time working on beading and quilts too


I should be washing today, but I decided when the dog woke me at 5:55 that I was not going to spend my birthday doing that

I will be making a trip to the dentist just for him to make sure everything is healing properly (I'm pretty sure it is, I'm able to eat again), and there will be a short stop in the fabric store for another skein of that lovely metallic floss, but in general I want to work on projects today!

so I'm being a bit of a brat -- its my day, I should get to!!!

A tree grows in the studio

actually, one might say there are seven trees growing

after months of being diverted to other projects, I finally got back to this one yesterday

extra tables were brought in for the actual pinning (I'm just not doing that long on these old knees on the floor!!)

a few minor design tweeks were made in the process too -- which is only expected


like moving this rock

the original placement left it almost totally hidden by the tree, so I picked it out and moved it down

so now we are ready for the beginning of the stitching of trees




the sea turtle quilt is now officially complete

the binding got finished off yesterday

WHOOT!!


so I did the first stitching on the Wild About Flowers piece

and more work on the scales of the fish in the Hoffman Challenge piece -- I'm thinking I'm going to need another skein of that lovely metallic thread before that project is done

a bit of knitting done too

another charity afghan block for the box

and those mittnz I've been working on are down to needing one more thumb knit and then to be stitched together

yup, we're rollin' right along

headed off to do some needed shopping this morning then it's back at it

things to do while recovering from a tooth extraction

1. create a useful (if not very artful) quilted case for the safety goggles recently purchased for the DH

2. stitched down half of the binding on the baby quilt

3. make a pot of potato soup -- about half of which will get frozen up to take to my dad

4. help mend a fence that the 50 mile an hour wind is trying to blow down

eh, yeah

that last one is probably not recommended

but sometimes you just do what has to be done

my jaw is still sore, but I'm actually starting to eat real food again, which helps my crabby state of mind a bit

onward

staying alive and saying thanks

yup, I survived it

the tooth is OUT!! (so much better than waiting until Tuesday -- less days to dread it)

this morning my jaw is sore, and I'm really hungry, but I didn't need anything more than an ice pack and some advil to get through the night

I'm happy about that
if you've been reading here a while you might remember that I've been building a little stash of baby gifts to keep on hand for that odd invite to a baby shower

this soft yellow afghan is going with me to the dentist's office on Tuesday when I go to have the socket checked

the assistant that worked with the dentist was a real angel

she knew I was afraid and she patiently talked to me and even held my hand while he wiggled and pulled to get the tooth out

and she's having a baby, so this just seems right

(cool, an excuse to knit up another one for the stash -- wonder what color I might have enough of)


its snowing and blowing again this morning, so I'm glad we went and bought that brand new METAL snow shovel yesterday

time to go try to find something I can eat

and get busy on that quilt binding

turtle quilts and yarn pools and snow shovels

ta da!

the quilting on the turtle quilt is complete and it has been trimmed (and yes, I know, this is NOT a good picture of anything except the trimming)

today I hope to get the binding stitched to the back so I can work on the handwork over the weekend -- then I promise a better picture!

I'm working on a new pair of mittnz

this yarn has the most unusual colorway I've ever seen

for one, I would not have thought of running from pale tan through dark brown through a navy to a teal

and it pools in strange ways too

they are going to be nice mittnz though


another afghan square complete -- and this picture is the evidence that I have my scanner working again!!

for this last little while I've been taking a picture with my camera, but that doesn't give you the same depth of the knitting stitches that the scanner does

I'm happy to have this ability back






now you're probably asking -- what is that?

well, this is all that is left of our snow shovel

while the DH was shoveling the 7 inches of heavy wet spring snow out of the driveway a couple of days ago, the plastic scoop part broke

he put it in the recycle bin

I guess we can't complain too loudly, we bought it back in January of 2002 when we moved into the house, and it has been standing on the front porch through heat of summer and cold of winter ever since, and well, plastic does get brittle

the sad part is that the hardware stores here seem to think that winter is over (I know the CALENDAR says it is), but we're supposed to get slammed with another heavy wet snow again tonight

guess I'll be out searching for a new shovel today

wherein I get to cancel a debit card

Call me a fanatic.

Partly because we live on such a tight budget, I check the balances in my bank accounts and in my PayPal account at least 3 times a week

This morning I was doing that when I discovered 2 charges on my PayPal debit card that I did not recognize

I did some research

Let me tell you, I am not now, nor have I ever been, in Florida, which is where both of these charges originated

Two separate companies, both in Florida, interestingly enough with the same (invalid) phone number listed on their websites

I called PayPal

They cancelled the card which will put an instant stop to any other attempts to run fraudulent charges against it

So now I get to wait for the new card to arrive, and I will have to do the whole dispute on a transaction thing with both of them

Fortunately this card was not connected to my bank account, so the amount they would be able to steal is relatively small potatoes by most accounts, but it really ticks me off anyway

So, now go check on all of YOUR accounts

the better to see them with

here is the progress on the big block for the Hoffman Challenge

you have to use your imagination here

that big open spot is the body of the fish

I have all of the fins and tail complete

now its on to the many rows of scales -- each and every one carefully cut to center a flower from the challenge fabric, then appliqued down

oh yeah, and I'm thinking about doing the gold thread couching around each and every one of those little scales

just call me crazy
step one of the Wild About Flowers piece

I laid out the blue fabric and started ripping and cutting the other fabrics to create what will the background of this piece

all of these have raw edges -- in fact, I tore the wood grain fabric and raveled out the edges to get that whole weathered fence look



after I was happy with the way that looked, I put the layer of dark blue tulle over the top of it and did the pinning with quilting safety pins

the tulle mutes the colors and has a handy way of holding all of the pieces in place (with the pinning of course)

the next step will be to stitch around each piece of grass and of the fence to secure them to the backing

unlike with the fish, however, there is no batting or backing on this yet -- I won't be adding that until I do all of the flowers on top of this background

so far, I really like the look of this
other projects got worked on yesterday too

here is the third strip of the afghan I'm working on

nice color pooling and I really like the open lacy pattern of it too


I have only a little of the quilting left to do on the turtle quilt too -- whoo hooo!!


today it's off to do our monthly Costco run, then hopefully back to some projects

Nothing to see today

I really did work on some projects yesterday, between loads of laundry and doses of big time antibiotics

I just forgot to use the camera

DUH

give me a break, the tooth is still sore (although I'm not having to take Oxycodone just now), eating is a challenge, my brain isn't working well

(that's my story, I'm sticking to it!)

ok, so here's what I worked on:

one more complete and part of another gold and blue bead

quilting on the turtle quilt (I'm on the home stretch -- I see binding in the near future!)

more fins on the Hoffman Challenge fish (this one is taking twice as long to do as the others did because of the metallic thread couching, and I promise to take an "in process" picture soon)

knitting on the afghan Christmas present

knitting on charity mittnz

knitting on charity afghan square

and I started working on the Wild About Flowers design which is the special contest for the State Fair in August -- I'm using the technique I learned doing the fish wall hanging -- sort of -- in process pictures of that one soon too

and after almost two months of "crutching" my computer set up, the desktop computer has been officially deemed "DEAD" and I have succeeded in getting a USB hub set up to my laptop so I can use my printer AND my scanner AND the external hard drive AND the zip drive AND.... well, I'm an extremely happy camper on this point, because I use that printer/scanner combo to aid in a lot of my art projects, and being without it has been a real pain in the butt

we're having a snow day today -- we got about 7 inches of heavy wet spring snow last night and it was still lightly snowing this morning -- we're going no where today --

guess I'll work on projects!

catching up and a big OUCH

on Friday I did two more of these beads

every one gets easier, and I like them more and more

and no, I didn't find the "eyes" yet

so yes, I'll probably more right on into doing the red and pewter ones as soon as I finished all of these

(mumble, mumble)





this is the second hot mat that I did for my daughter

I love the stripes

this and the blue one went home with them this weekend when they were here



having them here over the weekend was a good thing ---

the entire garden got turned up and is ready for planting even though we had snow on Friday

another afghan square completed yesterday through a fog

on Friday night I developed a bad tooth ache -- a new and unfamiliar thing for me

having my daughter here over the weekend, and the carefully spaced taking of pain killers (and "spaced" would be the operative word for how I felt!) got me through to yesterday morning when I could go to the dentist

yesterday morning I went in -- they took an x-ray -- yup, I've got a tooth with a big infection -- so there will be a week of antibiotics then it comes out (oh yipee, I get to spend my birthday having a tooth pulled)

meantime this week I hope to get something done