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 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
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
I finished the cowl and love it. And I will say that I will love it even more this winter. I take our dogs out early every morning and I HATE to get out of a warm bed and then have my neck get cold. So this is going to get a real workout.
And this is my next knitting project. Doesn’t look like a sock, does it? The first thing I am having to learn is how to handle 4 double pointed needles all at the same time. Believe me this is a talent I do not have so I am having to learn it as a “skill.” Also these are very small needles and a very small yarn. There will not be a sock any time soon. 
I did get most of the Weave quilt top done. I sewed the rows 2 at a time and have all but two to sew onto the rest and it will be ready for quilting.
Speaking of quilting, this is the part of my HQ that I think is the offending tension regulator. So today, in a last ditch effort to fix it myself, I took it all apart. I found some sticky stuff between two parts so I cleaned it off, shined up everything, and then put it back together. But I couldn’t test it because a storm came up with thunder and lightening: I will try tomorrow.
And I just have to share this. This is DH in his lawn mowing costume. We live on 5 acres with lots of trees and bushes. DH has mown out several trails through the woods and this outfit keeps bugs away from him. I, however, just laugh when I seen him. And see, even he is laughing.
And that’s what it’s like around here, just a laugh a minute.
I went out to get the mail Saturday evening and was greeted by this. Isn’t that beautiful? God’s promise all over the sky!
And this is the reason for a reminder of that promise. We had 2.5” of rain this weekend, added to the 4” we got last weekend and the 1.5” we got during the week. We get a little bit of sunshine and everyone is out mowing their yards because the grass is growing like crazy.
Now, my plan for this weekend was to get a lot of quilting done but I am still having thread breakage problems and didn’t get anything done on that front. I did get 6 rows sewn on the weave quilt.
And have started on the 7th. I really want to get this done this week so I can move on to other things.
But I have been bitten by the knitting bug. These are the first things I tried and had some success. They are not beautiful but at least you can see they are slippers.
Next I decided to learn how to do circular knitting. This is my first hat. I couldn’t find a really simple pattern so I used parts of three and wound up with a “hat” Cool, huh?
So I have started on a third project. This is going to be a cowl with cables. As you can see, this knitting thing has taken up a great deal of my time.
I did take a little time to work on my new green thumb. The planter is a “plant shop” and I have had it for years but never did anything with it. Now it is on the deck with these very healthy plants growing wildly and happily.
And then, in my spare time, I have been reading. I love murder mysteries and DH is really good at supplying them for me. The funny thing is that this time I would stop reading to do some knitting. I am really afraid that this knitting thing may take over my crafting time.
So, what will I be doing this week? Well, I will be sewing, cleaning, and KNITTING. Who would have thunk it?
Have a 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). 
