Oh, The Productive Life

 I have been sewing in the studio!!  Pat Sloan offered this little flower in a pot pattern and I decided it would make a great mug rug for the craft table I have recently set up in the great room.  I drew out all the pieces on my fusible and then spent some time picking out fabrics.  I even ironed them all on the wrong side of the fabric, something that does not always happen even though that is the right thing to do.  Just as I finished with the iron I realized that the six little pieces were not supposed to be leaves but petals.  The original plan was for a yellow flower.  Opps!!  Anyway, I now am calling this an art piece.



I quilted the piece using a quilting stitch on my domestic machine: I think it really looks more like chicken tracks than anything else.

 I used a small blanket stitch for the applique and I think it turned out pretty good.  I did fill in between the petals: I will show that in the next post as I still need to put a binding on it.  Anyway, I now think this is going to be a gift so I am going to start another one for me. 

I made one other thing this week, well really 6 other things.  It was DH's 75th birthday Tuesday.  He has always loved apricot pies, something it is difficult to find.  And he married a woman who is not a pie baker.  But for the last few months I have become obsessed with cooking shows.  I stopped cooking when I got sick and haven't even tried to pick it up again but Tuesday I made apricot turnovers.  Eric had to teach that morning so I pulled out my packaged pie rounds, rolled them out and cut pretty large circles in them.  I cooked the apricots (canned) with artificial sweetener, water, and a little cinnamon.  After I folded the rounds over the apricots and crimped the edges I coated them with some butter (no eggs in the house for an egg wash) an baked them in a 350 oven for 11 minutes.  I'm told they are very good and they must be OK as they are disappearing.  I wanted to make something that was easy to handle and/or even to eat on the way to work.  And they made a real surprise for a man who has really been a rock for me as I attempted to work my way back to a somewhat normal life.

I got an early start to my day today as we had an electrician come to fix the outlets that were not conducting electricity.  We have a modular home and I had suggested that the electric plug between the two modules had come unplugged (this had happened before).  My sweet hubby disagreed with me but he was not here when the electrician came so I sent him under the house to see if that was it.  AND I WAS RIGHT, again.  The electrician was here for only 13 minutes.  I texted sweet hubby to tell him the outcome: he texted back "don't you get tired of always being right?"  Never.    Gari  

Busy But Not Overly Productive

This is how far I have gotten on Gentle Rain.  I have the bottom band (32 rows, a garter stitch band (8 rows) and the beginning of the body of the shell (maybe 2”) of SS knitting.  I will be doing this for about 9” before I get to the beginning of the arm holes.  I am doing  some decreasing to make a fitted waist area (4 rows per decrease).  Anyway, I am on my way up, when I get a chance to work on it.

Monday we took my HQ 16 to be serviced, first time in the 10 years I have had it.  Just prior to my getting sick last Spring it started cutting the thread about every 20 – 30 stitches.  I was 3/4 of the way through a small lap quilt and got pretty frustrated.  About that same time I found that I couldn’t stand for very long so even taking the bobbin out and cleaning the area was difficult.  Then I just found myself spending my days sitting in the living room and eventually in the hospital and bedridden.

Over the past couple of months my strength has begun to come back, I can walk better and I think my standing strength will eventually return.  So I decided I better get that quilting machine up and running as I have some tops that need quilting, some blocks that need putting together and some ideas than need to be showing up in fabric.  And, of course, I have a studio that really needs to be cleaned up, especially the cutting table and ironing board.

Oh, and I forgot that Wednesday I got a call that the HQ was cleaned and oiled and stitching so she was ready to come home.  It is a 180 mile round trip each time but well worth it.  My machine is now back on the rails and all I have to do is plug in the stitch regulator and reattach the bottom of the quilt and I think I will be ready to finish that little quilt.  I do need to thank our son in law who came over both times to help carry the machine from studio to car and then from car to studio.  

In addition to quilting, I hope, I need to find something I can make and finish before the end of the month.  I didn’t finish anything last month and nothing looks like it will be finished this month unless I get to it.  I think I am going to get back to doing some machine embroidery.  I have several shirts that need embellishing, maybe even with applique.  Oh, the ideas that are buzzing around in my head. 

Our weekend will again be graced by our oldest son and his wife.  They have been coming to see us monthly ever since I got sick.  Initially they came to see how I was doing but now I think they come just because they like us.  They arrive on Friday night and leave on Saturday afternoon: they have major responsibilities at their church so they have to be there every Sunday.  And they drive 500+ miles monthly for these visits.  You know that makes us very grateful.  So we will be having a wonderful weekend, how about you?  Gari

Linking with Patchwork Times.

Gentle Rain Shell

 I have started a new project.  It is going to be a shell and I have already knit the first 16 rows.

 This shows the first 32 rows plus a garter stitch band.  I really do have the holes but my knitting is compressed because I am once again doing the front and back at the same time. 









                                                   I will work both until I get to the neckline and then I will have to work each separately.  But I have a while to go before I get to that. 

This is the yarn I bought.  It is so soft.  And it is quite "nubby" with a lot of different thicknesses.  I think this is going to make a very interesting sweater.

I am showing the label because I would like to know what this yarn is made of and I don't read German.  Any help would be appreciated.

This project is going to be a studio project because at least while I am knitting the last 16 rows of this band, where I have to do a lot of counting and I need to not have dogs jumping on my lap.  After this I have the garter rows and then flat stitches until the neck.  There is a little shaping but I am not concerned about that part so it may be brought back to the house and evening knitting.  I guess we will just have to see how it goes.

And now I am off to clean off my craft table so I can learn how to use a new toy.  When I have mastered it, insert laughter here, I will review it here.

Have a great weekend.  We will be visiting with our grandson, his wife, and their terrific son, one of our great grandchildren.  Should be lots of fun!   Gari

Knitting Along

 As of today I am almost done with the sleeves of the Milo sweater.  I will then be ready to block the pieces and put them together.  I think I will have it done in time to not need it until next Fall.  The good thing is that I always need something in the Summer due to the air conditioning in most restaurants. 

I have been working on these socks but only a couple of times a week.  I am really happy with the matching stripes, something I rarely can accomplish.  And since these are the second pair I have been able to get from this yarn they are really another pair of leftover socks.

 I was a little worried that they might be coming out too small but then I stuck my fingers in and they really expanded to just the right size.  Since taking this picture I have knit three stripes more so I am almost ready to start the heels.

 We did have a little excitement here last Monday.  A storm blew over and around 5:30 pm we lost electricity.  About an hour later our daughter and son-in-law arrived saying "your driveway is gone."  It seems that a couple of cedar trees had fallen.  Looks impressive, doesn't it.

 This is what the trees looked like the next morning.  Our neighbor things a small tornado took them out: one of the trees did look twisted off.

This one was pulled right out of the ground. 

We had to drive around the pile of trees on Tuesday but on Wednesday the "tree people" were here for 8 hours cutting and cleaning up the debris.  

I asked them to leave me the trunks as they are very straight.  I am hoping to get them cut into planks that we can do something with: the wood is beautiful.  I also had the men cut me two slabs from one of the stumps and hope to have small tables made from them. (pictures to follow).

Knitting Fun

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  I have finally finished my “leftover” socks.  There is yarn from 5 different earlier pairs of socks and I still have leftover yarn so there will be more leftover socks down the road.

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• And I also finished knitting 8 washcloths, 4 for my sister,

  

  Waunita/Jonni and 4 for my daughter, Lisa.

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I do want to share why it sometimes takes me a lot of time to get things done.  Abby seems to feel she is needed in case I drop a stitch.

But the need to be close to me ends when I offer for her, and the other two, an opportunity to go out to the “play pen.”  We had this fence put in because I am not strong enough to take all three dogs on leashes for a walk.  And they have a lot of fun chasing after the squirrel that likes to gather the little acorns under the tree. 

And now I need to get off this computer and see if I can find all the parts of my cardigan and figure out where I was in the pattern.  I hope everyone has a great weekend and I’ll see you all here next week, I hope.

PS: I am linking to Patchwork Times where you can see some more knitting fun.

                                  Gari

Many Things

 I will start this blog post out with a picture of our really cute great granddaughter, Scarlett, who turned 1 year old today.  She is so much fun to show as she loves the camera as much as the camera loves her.

 I have been knitting.  Here you can see the two front pieces of the cardigan I am currently working on.  And I hope you can see where I have started the increases on both sides of the slip stitch.  These increases will be the beginning of the wide collar.  I have to say I am really impressed with my ability to knit both fronts with the opposing increases.  On the other hand it has been pretty easy and I again will credit having learned to knit two socks at the same time.
                                                                                                               

And speaking of socks, here are my leftover socks.  I have completed one heel and half of the other.  I hope to be done with these this week as I really want to wear these very colorful socks. 

I think I will be making more of these, they are really fun to do. 

I have done a little sewing.  

~

These are some simple blocks

I am making for some easy sewing, trying to get back to it.  I have several applique blocks I need to be working on but I need to get my cutting table cleared off before I can work on them.

The centers of these blocks are these

charm squares that I have had for

quite some time and didn't come up

with an idea for them.  They are being

sewn onto some 2 1/2" strips.  I am

trying to make them as different from

each other as possible.

This is my design wall.  The interesting thing about it is that it hasn't changed since Spring.  Well, that's not quite true.  Some of the blocks that were on it have fallen off and I haven't yet been able to pick them up off the floor and put them back.  However, I am feeling so much better that I am hoping that I will soon be more productive in my quilting again.  I did take the bobbin out of my Handi Quilter and start to  see if I could figure out why the thread is being cut while I was quilting.  And then I will begin to work on the quilts that became UFOs when I became sick.  And then I will have something new on my design wall, I hope.

But for now I will leave you with this terrific picture of Abby, the sweetheart who sleeps under the covers of my bed.  She has to have her nose outside the covers and I think she thinks she can't be seen.  But on this morning she could be seen twice, on the bed and in the mirror.  I had a pretty good laugh before I could get up and start my day.

Please forgive the mess this post appears to have.  Blogger is making it very difficult to write my post and I have been unable to upload a post from Live Writer.  But despite this: have a great week, I plan to.  Gari

                                                            

On My Needles 1/1/16

 I have started a new knitting project.  It is a cardigan sweater.  The pattern is called a Milo Cardigan and it can be found here.  And it is a free pattern which is even better.  This picture is of the back which I finished this week: it is not blocked yet.  I was a little concerned that it will roll at the bottom since there is no ribbing but that is a problem I will deal with later.

And here is the start of the front.  I am doing both fronts at the same time, just like I make socks.

The only problem is than this sweater has an unusual, for me, band, collar and facing, and each side is done in reverse of the other.  I did read the directions over and over several times before I decided I could figure out how to do them at the same time.  The are worked from the bottom up so for 14" all I have to do is repeat the same two rows over and over.  After that I will be working on that inverted cone shape and things may get a little tricky. We'll see how I do, won't we?

 I am still working on my "leftover" socks and I really like how they look.  I got stopped however when I got to the heel as I always have to watch the video to remember how to do the heel I currently like.  I think I will have to print out the pictures so I can keep going.  This is my studio knitting project and I haven't been out there (no central heat) for the last few days and probably won't much this week or until it warms up a little more.

But this is another reason I am working in the house.  I bought these acrylic needles just before Christmas and I really like them.  I got them because they looked pretty and now I find that they work very nicely.  They have a pretty sharp point and are slippery enough that the yarn moves but still have enough tooth to keep it from slipping off.  I see that they come in double points, too, but I don't really like much working with DPNs so probably won't get them.  Interestingly Staci of Very Pink just introduced this set and spoke very highly of them so I must know what I am talking about.  ;-)

I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year's Eve and are well on their way to a Happy New Year.  Our daughter and son-in-law will be coming over this evening and are bringing a traditional southern new years dinner: fried chicken, black eyed peas, and greens.  So we should be having good luck in 2016: not taking any chances.

Happy New Year,   Gari