This has been a very busy week (3 days).
For those who didn’t read my Sunday post, this door (full, heavy industrial glass) fell into my hands that afternoon. So Monday I called the young man who put the roof on the deck last summer. He and two helpers came on Tuesday, they took the door off, repaired the rotten casing, rehung the door and then put that little “rooflet” above it to insure no water finds it’s way into the wood again. I can’t tell you how happy I was to be able to again enter my studio.
How is Sherlock doing, I hear people asking. Well, he is doing GREAT. Of course I’m not sure he felt that way yesterday when he got to visit the vet again for that required surgery that comes with being a rescue dog but by today he was again in fine fettle.
Can you see him with the other doxies? He doesn’t do as much barking but he is on high alert when they do.
This is my little group, all watching the wild cat that eats at our house. They just make me smile.
I did finish my 3rd pair of socks: they really are the same size. Look at how the tops start out the same. I thought I was so smart, pulling out enough yarn to start with the same colors. However, you can see that a little over half way down the yarn threw me a curve. But I am really happy with how they turned out and how much I am learning about knitting socks.
When I was at a yarn shop in MD I found this keychain. With this by my side, look what a beautiful toe. This is the best one I have done and yes, I am very proud of my work here.
And I made the binding for Weave. I really like this fabric which will give this quilt a scrappy look all the way.
And lastly, this is for Wanda. Look at my Christmas cactus. Wanda of Exuberant Color has given me great advice on how to care for this plant: let it live outside all summer, take it into a dark place, see the flower buds. These are only a couple but there are over 20 buds that are growing and plumping up. Soon this will be the most flowering I have ever had and it will be on a plant that I have had for over a year (also a first).
This has been a busy week with way too much going on for someone who has grown accustomed to days on end with no excitement. Now it is time to settle down to some routine days. 
This is about as close as I can get this week. Let me tell you why…..
Friday we decided it would be a good day to drive to Pensacola. I had been “needing” some light bamboo #2 DPN needles and hadn’t been able to find them locally.
Look at what all I found. And, yes, I also found the needles I was wanting/needing. Not only that but they came with this note:
Can you see what it says? One extra needle and the opportunity to get two more if they brake. Who ever heard of something like that? I really appreciate that kind of customer service.
I also visited my favorite fabric store. I shopped for browns so I can get busy making more owls and then I ran into the striped fabric (I see binding for Weave) and the creamy orange that I have no idea what I will use it for.
It was a fun and long day so we went to bed early in preparation for Saturday.
Then on Saturday we attended a local Quilt Show (sorry, no pictures) and then went to our grandson’s wedding.
The ceremony was held at a small lake, on the pier/pavilion. What a perfect setting. The men wore cream shirts, brown vests, jeans and cowboy boots. The bridesmaids wore really nice brown dresses and cowboy boots. Everybody had a great time.
Now, why no Design Wall? Well, first there is this:
This is Sherlock, a rescue Dapple Daschund who came to live with us on Sunday afternoon. We adopted him 3 weeks ago but his health was bad and wasn’t ready to come home with us until Sunday.
He has already made friends with Sadie, who is just about the same size, only fatter. It seems it will take a little longer for Abby to warm up to him.
The second reason why there is no Design Wall is that just before we went to get Sherlock, the door fell off of my Studio. Yes, FELL OFF. I went to open it and it fell to the left, still attached at the bottom. This door is very heavy and it took two of us to hold it up and at least get it relocked. But I really can’t get into the studio, where all my new stuff is, until I figure out how to get a new door (door and casing).
Well, that’s my story. My plan is to get everything and everybody working in sync again so that next week I can have something new and fun on my Design Wall.
Have a great week, Gari
My favorite quilt is usually my last quilt but at this time it is my interpretation of Sindy Rodenmayer’s Funky Chickens.
This was a BOM for 2012 and as soon as I saw the first one I was hooked. My mother has collected chickens for as long as I can remember so the first one was also made into a pillow for her. After that I was on the lookout for as many colors of batiks as I could find so my chickens would be beautiful in their chicken yard.
Then I wanted the chickens to be in a farm setting much like the ones of my grandparents and my aunt and uncle. So the backing has barns (with quilt block sides) and fields with chicken wire fencing.
If you like my entry, please go to Amy’s Creative Side and vote for my Funky Chickens. Edit: voting starts November 1.
Thanks for visiting and comments are always welcome.
gari
This is our Halloween table runner. I am going to square it up and put it on the table, then I will bind if after Halloween.
It just came off the frame just this morning. I really enjoyed this McTavishing practice and, by the time it was done, felt a little better about my attempts.
Also off the frame is my Weave quilt.
And now it, too, is ready for binding. I plan to bind it with brown and it will be a charity/comfort quilt.
I quilted it with a large meander so it didn’t take too long. But it didn’t get off the frame until the table runner was done.
I also appliqued another owl. I am amazed at how long it takes to do one of these: in, out, stop, start, and all that over and over again.
And here is the real problem: he is only the first of three in this block. I have made 6 of the 18 blocks, with only 1 1/3rd appliqued. I think I better get a move on if I want to see this completed. I love owls and really want this quilt to reside on my bed.
I have been doing some knitting, too. Here is slipper #2 and the heel is done: gusset coming up. I also have done the heel and gusset of a second sock, first can be seen here, and I am well on my way through the foot.
These were my knitting buddies to begin with, and
then there was a switch. Please note that the cat is still in place. Although we are having cool mornings the afternoons have been very pleasant and perfect for swinging and knitting on the deck.
This coming weekend our grandson is getting married. The wedding is about 50 miles from here in a somewhat remote area so I spent about 40 min. looking at maps trying to figure out how to get there. And then a wonderful idea came to me. There is a quilt show about 30 miles south of the wedding site. If we go to the quilt show in the morning it will be really easy to get to the late afternoon wedding from there. How about that!! It looks like Saturday is going to be a really great day!
Hope you have fun, too. gari
Isn’t he cute? It took a while but I finally found a white fabric that doesn’t shadow the black wings. He is all stuck together but is currently resting on wax paper, waiting for me to decide on a background fabric.
Somehow I seem to have let my owl BOM blocks (Fat Cat Patterns) fall by the wayside. So this weekend I pulled out all the put together blocks, I am at least 2 months behind, and got this one appliqued. I hope, by the beginning of November, to be ready to start putting the newer blocks together as well as appliqueing the ones I already have ready. This will be a beautiful quilt, someday. 
I did do some quilting on my Halloween tablerunner. I am using this as a learning tool for McTavishing but sometimes it is a little hard to see where I am going when I am quilting purple thread on purple fabric. I am having some thread breakage problems but I think it is the thread and not the machine……I hope.
And I knitted. This is the first slipper: it is made using alpaca wool, oh, so, very soft. I already knew that reading and following a pattern would be difficult for me, I have never been able to do it in quilting. So I think I pulled this apart at least 10 times before I could finish the heel/gusset. This is very chunky yarn and some of the slip stitches became holes but they have been grafted shut and this slipper is done.
And the second one is started. After reading how so many knitters complete one sock and then have difficulty getting the second one done, I decided that I must begin the second sock immediately on completion of the first. So far this has been working. 
Several times this week I have had knitting buddies. Here we are all three sitting on the deck swing where I have spent several happy mornings knitting.
While out on the deck I decided to update Fred so he could cheer for Auburn’s football game on Saturday.
And it worked!! With Saturday’s win they/we are ranked #11, pretty good from being completely out of the rankings.
So, now that all the excitement is over I will retreat back to my little studio and see if I can get a little more done this week. DH came home from his weekend away and all last week dropped in so many times it seemed that I had installed a revolving door. But I am so very lucky, he really likes being with me. 
I will be linking up with Patchwork Times and What a Hoot.
Have a great week, Gari
I have a finish: Grim Ripper. She is going to hang in my sewing room, right near where I keep my sewing tools. I see her handing me the ripper, even before I need it. The funny thing is that I don’t use a seam ripper but a small pair of scissors, but I have the same “grim” feeling when I need to rip out a seam. I should say that the quilting you can see is done using a couple of the fancy stitches on my sewing machine.
I also finished the first sock of my third pair. I have started the second sock but forgot to take a picture. I have been spending mornings knitting on the deck and some evenings when I am not on the computer.
I even got into the quilting room and began quilting this top which has been on the frame for 3 weeks. I am quilting this with a large meander and it went so fast that I got it done today. Of course part of that is because my stitch regulator has gone whacky. Right now it is not regulating but acting like a manual stitch but I cannot slow it down so we are “off to the races” when I turn it on. Yes, I will be calling Handi Quilter tomorrow (first time in 7 years).
I did have to piece the batting but with quilting I cannot even feel where the piecing is.
I did make sure that the side grippers were used over the lap of the two pieces so there would be no movement while I was quilting.
But when I was done I realized that I still had about 18” of extra backing. So on went this black batting piece, and
And on went this great Halloween fabric. I am going to quilt it with a bit smaller meander for placemats. There will be some leftover and I will use that for a table runner but I won’t quilt it until I get the stitch regulator fixed.
Oh, and I started a new BOM. This is the first block from Fat Cat Patterns. But the difficulty is that I believe she is giving us 2 blocks a month. When I started pulling fabric for this I realized that none of my white fabric is thick enough to not shadow the black wings. I have looked at almost all the white I have but this may mean I get have to go fabric shopping. Tough job but somebody has to do it. Anyway, these pieces are not put together because he is having to wait for me to come up with the white fabric.
Now one might ask how I came by so much energy to do all this. Well, DH has been gone for 3 days and, except for taking care of the dogs, birds, and cats, I have had all my time to myself. It’s amazing what one can do when there are no interruptions. 
Sorry Sweetie!
I did take a little time out to redress Fred. He is now “Harvest Fred,” wearing the hat we found on our trip. And frequently I am finding Stubby, the cat, sleeping in his lap. Unfortunately she jumps down before I can get a picture so you will have to just imagine our black and white cat curled up there. Really cute, huh?
Monday I need to do laundry and dishes but that won’t stop the sewing, quilting, and knitting, I’ll just have to work around them. 
If you have read this far, be sure to take a break to get ready for a really GREAT week.
Gari
For those who didn’t read my Sunday post, this door (full, heavy industrial glass) fell into my hands that afternoon. So Monday I called the young man who put the roof on the deck last summer. He and two helpers came on Tuesday, they took the door off, repaired the rotten casing, rehung the door and then put that little “rooflet” above it to insure no water finds it’s way into the wood again. I can’t tell you how happy I was to be able to again enter my studio.
How is Sherlock doing, I hear people asking. Well, he is doing GREAT. Of course I’m not sure he felt that way yesterday when he got to visit the vet again for that required surgery that comes with being a rescue dog but by today he was again in fine fettle. 
Can you see him with the other doxies? He doesn’t do as much barking but he is on high alert when they do.
This is my little group, all watching the wild cat that eats at our house. They just make me smile.
I did finish my 3rd pair of socks: they really are the same size. Look at how the tops start out the same. I thought I was so smart, pulling out enough yarn to start with the same colors. However, you can see that a little over half way down the yarn threw me a curve. But I am really happy with how they turned out and how much I am learning about knitting socks.
When I was at a yarn shop in MD I found this keychain. With this by my side, look what a beautiful toe. This is the best one I have done and yes, I am very proud of my work here.
And I made the binding for Weave. I really like this fabric which will give this quilt a scrappy look all the way.
And lastly, this is for Wanda. Look at my Christmas cactus. Wanda of Exuberant Color has given me great advice on how to care for this plant: let it live outside all summer, take it into a dark place, see the flower buds. These are only a couple but there are over 20 buds that are growing and plumping up. Soon this will be the most flowering I have ever had and it will be on a plant that I have had for over a year (also a first). 
