Design Shirt

This week was more of a knitting week and somewhat of a recovery from too much exertion.  Therefore I chose to work on something that allowed me to sit and yet find a sense of accomplishment.  This is a shirt that I have had for a couple years, wanting to put owls on it but not finding what was just right.  Then Artistic Thread Works came out with this set of owls and I knew they were perfect.  I don't like overdoing embroidery designs on one shirt so I like the front as is, just three and spread out.  The back, however, I am not sure is finished.  My original idea was to have 6 owls on the back but I stopped at 3.  The shirt is quite long and I feel that it is looking quite blank.  I would be interested in anyone's ideas about whether or not to fill in some of the space.

 

This afternoon we had a visitor.  I was in the studio starting a new pair of socks when I heard the dogs barking like crazy.  This happens pretty regularly but when they didn't stop I had to go out to see if someone was there and this is who I saw.  I watched him for quite some time and he only moved his head: looked toward us, away, and back again.  I think he thought he couldn't be seen if he stood still.








But then he decided that no one was coming for him and he just wandered away.  And as a parting gesture he crisscrossed at the end of the driveway driving the dogs to bark in a frenzy.  It was really funny and was the laugh of the day.



DH is on Spring Break this week and I have already scheduled a week of Spring Cleaning.  I started today in the studio and tomorrow we are going to be working toward rearranging the bedroom.  We brought home two large boxes to put possible giveaway things.  And, of course, there will be a lot of throw away stuff.  We have to do this because we ordered a new massage chair and it should be delivered the following week.  But rest assured I will also be spending quality time in the studio, stitching on my BOMs and prepping the new ones.

As usual I will be listing with Patchwork Times and then it is off to work I go.  Have a great week.  Gari

New Socks Started

Last weekend my daughter called and asked me if I would drive her to the doctor.  She has developed a sharp pain in her back and needed to find out what it was and what could be done to relieve her.  Knowing how long a wait I could anticipate I quickly grabbed some sock yarn, wound it into two balls and did my Judy's Magic Cast-on to get two at a time toe up socks started.  Later that evening I checked my many sock patterns for one I had been seeing on the Facebook page Addicted to Sock Knitting.  The one I came up with was Monkey Socks that I had been seeing online.  I have never followed a pattern well, difficulty following directions has always been a problem with me, but everyone said this was an easy and fun pattern so I printed it out and got ready to start.  On these socks I have completed one 11 row round and despite several problems, always on the first sock, they seem to be coming out all right.  I can't remember what the yarn is but will try to find the band before the next showing, but it feels like cotton (not) and is soft to the touch. 

The funny thing was watching people watch me knit.  They commented on the "tiny" needles and asked what those two little nubs (beginning toes) were going to be.  Then they just stared at me as I knit.  Nothing like being on display while you are knitting.  However I was the only person in the waiting room that brought something to occupy myself while I waited.  Interesting.

Then I thought I would share one more time my bright green, etc., socks and how they look on my feet.  This was taken while I was waiting for DH to finish his antiquing last weekend.  And I am wearing them again today as here in the Deep South it is cool and my feet were getting cold.  I figure I will be packing up my socks pretty soon but the weather is encouraging me to keep them out a while longer.  No problem.

I hope everyone has a fun weekend.  DH is on Spring  Break for the next week so we will be moving furniture and doing a little spring cleaning. Since I have become somewhat disabled he is doing more and more of the heavy cleaning but I plan to be in there doing what I can.  And when we work together it is work and fun with lots of laughs along the way.  Gari

I am linking with Patchwork Times' On the Needles post for this week.

Off the Wall Finishes

For the last couple of weeks I have been working on this little wall hanging to give to DH for his 74th birthday - today.  The design was created by Denise of Jusquiltin.  This picture was taken when I had pinned the sandwich together, ready for quilting with my DSM.

 I enlarged the above photo of the finished/quilted piece hoping that the quilting would show better (will take another picture this week when the sun is out).  Anyway I used the built in stitches on my machine to finish this piece: wavy lines going up from the tub to show the steam from the hot water, waves on the tub, a feather stitch on the duck, etc. 

I wanted the lip of the tub to look like stenciling, something I have never tried.

And here are the waves on the tub itself.  I made this wall hanging to hang on the door of DH's bathroom as he is a tub person and can spend hours reading in the tub.

My next project was this mug rug.  I received it in an exchange but even though it is well made it had not been quilted. If I were going to hang it on a wall it probably wouldn't have been a problem but I use mug rugs all of the time.  Thus I had to quilt it.  I stippled the bug background and then stitched around each of the dots on the bug's back.  Wavy lines and feather stitches were used on the stripes.  I also put a black dot in each of the hand appliqued dots, just to be sure that when this is washed everything stays together.  And now it is sitting beside my chair, waiting for my next cup of coffee.

 As I said, today is DH's birthday.  I took him out to eat and then we did some antiquing.  The only thing I saw that I wanted was this hand made horse that I thought would look great on our deck.  He is about 6' long and carries a real full sized saddle.  However DH didn't think I needed a $600 6' rocking horse so I had to leave it there

Here is DH showing off one of his other gifts, a Jeep t-shirt.  He loves his Jeep (it is the third one he has bought over the years).  And the logo is 1941 when Jeep started for WW II and when DH was born.  Cool that Jeep honors his birth year, right?  Anyway I got him the shirt, a Jeep folding chair, and a Jeep decal to put on his Jeep.  Doesn't he look like a happy man?

 

My other finish this week was this pair of socks.  I have really enjoyed knitting them as the colors are bright and so very random.  I wore them today because it was a little cooler than it has been but I doubt they will get a lot of use until next winter.

And this picture is for Wanda of Exuberant Color.  She has been an inspiration to me in the Christmas cactus department as I have never been able to keep one alive until recently.  But this is my 3 year old cactus, blooming like mad.  The 2 year old is healthy but no blooms are there.  And the 1 year old, in the kitchen, also is healthy but no blooms.  All my hanging plants went back out on the deck this week and these three will be going out tomorrow. I am really happy that Spring is finally here.  We are having warm weather and Spring rains, just what we need to keep everything green and alive.

 

I will be linking with Patchwork Times on Monday and Esther Aliu's blog on Wednesday.  Have a great week everybody.  Gari

 

Completed Socks

 
 

 This week I have concentrated on two activities: these socks and a gift.  I took this picture as I finished the smooth tomato heels on these socks.  I am really impressed with how easy they are to do and how the 3 wedges show up.

This is the top of my socks.  I like a deep toe and then I added a k2, sl1 to give the top some pizzazz.  I really like how this turned out.

 
 
 

Here they are together, top and bottom.  I love the colors and want to have them to wear just in case it turns cool again (unlikely here in the deep south).

And here are my completed socks.  They have not been blocked but I think I am going to keep these in the car to take into restaurants that are so cold.  I have a sweater in both of our cars just for that purpose. This way I will be able to use the socks prior to winter coming back upon us.

 

I will be linking with Patchwork Times and then it is back to my secret project.  Sunday is DH's birthday (74) and I need to get his gift finished.  It has been really hard to stay on it since he keeps coming into the studio with either coffee or ideas of how to spend money.  I fear I succumbed to both.  ;-)  Have a great weekend.

BOMs Progressing

Progress is being made on Gingerbread Man #3. All I have left to stitch down are his eyes and the white frosting on his arms and legs.

Here I am, in my sewing corner, after picking up the white thread for the frosting.  The shelves behind me are almost bare as I recently moved fabric from them and have not yet decided how to use them. The one with the thread will be used for "current usage" thread but the rest will probably be storage for machine extras.




And then I began working on the Deco Gardens #3.  After I had the fusible on the fabric I all of a sudden noticed that I hadn't "windowed" several of the pieces.  It probably doesn't matter but I like the softness of the windowed pieces.  Also, I don't know if you can see it, but she added little accent slits on four pieces. Not an easy thing to accomplish with fused pieces.

 

 

But with much effort I got everything cut out right and laid out on the pressing cloth.  Now, please note that none of the pieces touch each other.  This meant that I couldn't fuse the full layout together and then move it to the background.

Each piece had to be moved separately and then I had to fuss with it to get it looking like it was supposed to look.  Sometimes I think that these designers work very hard to make this hobby difficult.  ;-)

Anyway, this block is fused down and ready for some blanket stitching. 

 

I got a new phone this week so some of my pictures are still on the old phone which is in the studio.  Next week I will be showing some of the new fabric that I added to my stash, just in case all of the close fabric stores close.  I should be set for at least another 10 years: think I can refrain from buying more?

 

Monday I am supposed to be doing laundry and doing some house cleaning so I can get my cart moved.  But by Tuesday, if I am not worn out, I plan to be in the studio stitching away.

 

I will be linking with Patchwork Times and What a Hoot.  Then it is housework for me: you go on and have a good time reading the other blogs.  :-(

Design Machine Bed

My design wall today is the bed of my sewing machine where I am working on my "secret" project.  I spent part of the weekend finding matching threads.  It is really funny how many shades of blue I have.  And the same went for most of the other colors.  I was really glad that the machine has natural light cuz that helped me find the best threads.

 

 

And today being March 1st meant that I could download my BOM blocks for this month.  I quickly printed, copied, and cut the pieces of the Gingerbread man and look forward to fabric hunting tomorrow.

 

I was very disappointed  that the Morning Glory pattern was not up today but at least I have one to work on while I wait.

 

As I said in my last post, my little pillows are done and almost ready to send to my mother so she can pin them on the "family" pillow I made for her several years ago.  I thought I was done with this project but this morning I realized we have another baby (great grand for us) due in May.  Maybe I need to have a talk with our family members about a cease and desist order. ;-)

 

But for now it is time to link with Patchwork Times and What a Hoot.  And then get busy making this a productive week.  Gari