Lots of Knitting: a Little Quilting

Hard to believe that I have now knit two pair of socks.  These are the ones that came from my sock class and before I could finish the second one I had to go back and ask for a review of the toe decreases. 

I had a fun email from DS#3 today.  We are going to be visiting him, DIL#3, and DGD#2 next week and they live north of us where the temps have been about 10-15 degrees colder than here.  As an inducement to stay a little longer he told me that they have wool socks I can wear.  Do you think he has been reading my blog lately?  Me neither. 





I did get all the fabric cut for the last of the blocks for Deck-Ade The Halls from The Fat Quarter Shop.  All of the very little pieces are labeled and ready to go but I haven’t gotten any of it sewn together.  I’m not in much of a hurry because I am planning to set them somewhat differently from the original and do not yet have everything I want to use.

When we get back from our short vacation I do have two new quilts I plan to start and, of course, the Weave quilt is still waiting on the HQ.  I think that now that I have 2 pair of socks under my belt, it will be easier to share my knitting and quilting time.  Now I just have to re-find some reading time. 




 I have mentioned the chickens who populate our yard almost every day (they live next door, I think).  As we were leaving for lunch yesterday we were greeted by this one.  She didn’t seem afraid of us but that could be because I do occasionally feed them with bread crusts and/or fruit.  I wonder if they will ever be tame enough to touch.




And lastly, we were one of those areas that had rain on Saturday.  This was what I saw on WeatherBug when I got up. 












 I dressed quickly and got the dogs ready to go out.  Opened the door to this.  Needless to say we all waited until that first bit passed, ran outside for what was needed to be done, and quickly got back in.  It was suggested that it looked like a good knitting day and that is how I got my green socks done.  We had a great weekend.




I will be linking up with Patchwork Times: please go there and see all the quilting creativity going on.

Gari

I Love Winter Cold

Well, as everyone who knows me knows, that’s a lie.  However this morning, while taking the dogs out, it was 24F with no wind, the sun was shining low in the Eastern sky, and it was beautiful.  Everything had the frost twinkle on it and it looked like the landscape had been sprinkled with diamonds.  Of course I didn’t have my camera with me and with two dachshunds on leads, I didn’t have any hands for a camera anyway.

 

 

As beautiful as the outside was, I was really ready to come in when the dogs were.  And this is what I was ready for: hot oatmeal, a banana, and hot coffee (a 4 point breakfast for WW’s).  Now I am ready for whatever the day brings.

 

 

 

 

And I am happy to share where I am in the Color Pallet Challenge.  This little quilt is a fused “art” piece.  It is 8 1/2 x 11”.  I only have it fused in place and hope to begin some form of quilting this week.  I used my Go to cut the shapes and played with the design last weekend.  One lesson I learned, from Laura while watching a segment of Sewing with Nancy, was that I need to fuse take the paper off of the fused fabric prior to cutting the shapes.  It is not always easy to get the paper off of small shapes and the whole piece of paper is usable  whereas the smaller pieces just get thrown away. 

One other rambling thought.  I am Facebook friends with a 20 year old  who has a 3 year old child.  Almost every day she writes that she “has” to go to work and how much she hates having to leave her child or how much she hates her job.  I want, so much, to tell her that she doesn’t “have” to go to work.  She can stay home.  Of course she will have no money for the house she wants, for her son’s clothes, food, or the fun she wants to have.  And I want to tell her that there are lots of people who really want work and would be happy to take her place at her work. 

I thought of all of this yesterday as I was leaving at 7 am to begin my once a week 13 hour day traveling and leading WW meetings.  My first thought was that I would much rather be in the studio (I am retired, you know).  Then I remembered my Facebook friend and realized how lucky I am that I can share my success with others, that I have the health that allows me to hit the road and travel around, and that I then can come back home to be greeted by a loving husband and some really great puppies.  I do thank my God that I am so blessed.

I guess the South decided it didn’t want to be left out in the Winter Storms of the Century so this is what we are looking at.

Our DD called and asked if I would like to go to the store with her and it was just like I remember from a 32” snowstorm we had in Chicago: lots and lots of people buying groceries like they would not be able to get to a store for at least a week. It was really funny. We are told we may get up to 4” which will close down most everything since we are not prepared either to clear the streets or to drive on them.

The sane part of my day was spent putting together the DNP blocks I finished earlier in the week.

I also put a 1” inner border on: the blue stripe came from stash. Next I plan a 4-5” gray border and it will then be ready for quilting.

Earlier this week I also got my last block done for the Eleanor Burns BOM. This picture was taken prior to piecing the pieces.

This was fun: I made it a paper pieced block. I enjoyed making this one and may have to use it more in a quilt of it’s own. I also found templates for 3” drunkard’s path blocks I want to use for this quilt so I will start cutting fabric for them.

So, as I post this the weatherman is almost hyperventilating as he shows the snow coming. All schools and government offices are going to be closed. This is a really big deal here: 4".

Have a happy Valentine's Day and be sure to hug someone, it feels good.

Super Bowl Weekend

I got a call from DS#3 Saturday morning. He lives in MD (metro DC) and was buried in snow.

He offered for me to come up to visit (not likely) and sent a picture of his car.

He did say that the dog, granddog Ponce, was loving it, but they were not as happy since the power went off during the night. When we got off the phone I went online to see the radar and it looked like not only were they in for a lot more storm but that the storm was not moving very fast, if at all.

This morning, however, he wrote on Facebook that the temp in the house was down to 45F and without power they were going to miss the Super Bowl so they were off to the in-laws. See, I didn’t raise a complete dummy!

Design Wall:

While we were not enjoying snow here in the South I was sewing on my DNP blocks for my comfort quilt. These were my trial blocks. Notice anything wrong?

Well, it seems that 5.5” squares can’t be cut in half at 3”. Did I ever mention that I never took geometry? Anyway, I cut both of the trial blocks the same way so I seem to be a slow learner.

But I did learn and am cutting the real blocks right. I have 6 of the 12 blocks cut so I should have this top done sometime this week.

Check out Judy’s blog for other design wall projects.

Sunday I was going to work on two BOMs but instead I decided to visit a quilt shop that was having a Super Bowl sale. I walked through the store twice, going in the opposite direction each time, and look what I found on my second trip through.

Aren’t these luscious? I could almost see a quilt just looking at the yardage. And I do see polka dots in my future: no gift quilt here!

A Little Of Nothing

All day we have been expecting rain.

There is a big rain storm coming up from New Orleans and I expected it to dump on us but it has circled around us, so far. This is a good thing since our ground is still soaked from the storms we have had the last few weeks. Anyway, it has been a good day to sit and sew.

There are weeks when one works a lot but there is little to show for it and this has been one of those weeks. In order to get this baby quilt on the frame I had to sew fabrics together to make a backing and then sew pieces of batting together in order to have a full piece. Then I learned to do something I have never done. I learned how to set my serger up to do a chain stitch and stitched the backing onto the leaders. Even counting the time it took me to figure out how to change from overlock to chain on the serger, it still was quicker than pinning. I am so proud of myself.

I also decided what fabrics I would use for my next comfort quilt. It will more subdued in the middle and geared more to boys. I am doing another DNP but I can’t decide which way to make the blocks .

I will be cutting them down the center so should I cut plain squares or the stripes? I think if I cut the stripes I will turn them sidewise.

Ready, set.....

Well, I am this close to beginning the work on the New Year's Day Longarm University class, the Not Quite Traditional Quilt with Cindy Roth. For this class we were given the directions to make the quilt you see to the right. Then the class was/is instruction on several non-traditional ways to freehand quilt it. Well, prior to leaving town I chose my fabric and cut it but didn't have time to sew the top and, of course, I was at THE football game on New Year's Day.

When I got back I crashed for a day and then began sewing on this, along with laundry and other mundane things that needed to get done. And, I was slowed by the fact that when I try to do something fast, I make mistakes, like sewing the bears paws to the sashing backwards. I kept looking at it saying "that doesn't look right." Anyway, I finished it on Monday and yesterday I got the backing together and everything on the frame, ready to quilt. Today I have other responsibilities so I plan for Thursday and Friday to be quilting days.

Meanwhile, while I am working so hard, this is what my little family is doing.


No wonder they are so happy when Daddy is home. Most of the time when I come in from the studio (or the laundry room, or from cleaning the kitchen, etc.) this is where I find all four of them.

And snuggling is a really good idea around here right now. We have been having below freezing temps, teens at night and low 40s during the day. They are even forcasting for a low of around 11 for the weekend. Now I want to tell you that I didn't move to the South for this kind of weather and I want it to GO AWAY!!!

I am so excited, I have finished the quilt top that I can’t show yet. And not showing it is killing me. But so this isn’t a wasted post, let me tell you about our weather in SO AL. This is what I woke up to this morning:



This was the third day in a row that I woke up to the emergency siren and the weather man telling me that we were under a severe thunderstorm and tornado warning. And, over the last three days we have had over 6” of rain.

When I was out taking these pictures of the water not going down into the ground, my husband asked what I was doing. I told him I was taking pictures of our swamp. And what was really funny was that after today’s rain the sky completely cleared and the temp went up to 82F, and was very muggy from all the water on the ground. Tomorrow it is supposed to only get up to 65F: do you think we are having variable weather?

Tomorrow DH and I are going on a road trip to check out some hiking spots and Monday we will be making a trip to Goodwill to give away some large clothes and, hopefully, get some smaller shorts just in case the 80 degree weather comes back again. LOL