after being the social butterfly

wow, I got a good reminder yesterday of why I want to stay in both of the quilt groups I'm a member of -- we had a great time at the luncheon, good food, great conversation and by the end of the gathering we had decided on a theme for next year's projects, selected a new group "president", changed our meeting day (to one I might actually get to go to a lot more often) and figured out who is "teaching" or "sharing a technique" in 6 of the 12 months -- now THAT is a great meeting

we also did show and tell (many things in photos because the actual items had already been gifted to someone) and talked about finding a local charity to donate pieces to

even being gone for 5 hours didn't deter me from finishing one of the super secret Christmas projects that's been being worked on! Yippee!!

and I put something new on the sticks after that -- I really love this yarn -- it's a sock yarn that has a great caramel/cinnamon/coffee colorway and will be quite appropriate for the project I'm knitting it into

after finishing the last project, where I was knitting on size 1 needles, these size 4s feel positively gigantic! it didn't take long to get this much done on this, however

today I hope to get that dinosaur stitched up so I can finish it and get on to the blanket sleeper and the cutting of the "mat" for the trees project

caution - graphic content

as in a photo of "the cut" -- or more appropriately, the "slice"

the blade literally sliced a layer off

because the wound is not actually on the end of my finger I was able to actually do some things yesterday after it was re-bandaged

I discovered that I can hold a needle and do some sewing on the feather embellishment but I haven't tried to fiddle with the beads yet

and I was able to do two rows on the afghan and three rows on the knitting project

I was really surprised and pleased

maybe today I'll be able to do even more

too soon?

here we thought it was spring --

hmmm

woke up this morning and this was what it looked like -- not to mention that it is very foggy

wow ---








picked up this cute fabric yesterday on the sale table

I want to make my grandson a bucket hat, and my original plan was to cut a rubber stamp and create some original fabric for it

except right now I'm a little hampered by having already been way too close to a sharp object, so cutting a rubber stamp (which would need really good hand control) and doing the stamping (which would require using some pressure) are just not in the picture right now

I think I can handle scissors and the sewing machine however -- need to pre-wash it first though

meantime, yesterday was a very looooonnnng day - I don't do well just sitting still, and since I am very right handed, having my index finger in a bandage is not conducive to my being able to do much of anything

I hope when I unwrap it this morning I'll be able to downsize the bandage and maybe figure out something I can actually do

(and I'm trying not to think about the idea that it might have needed stitches -- having no insurance makes me walk on the edge of panic every time I'm in a situation that I might get hurt)

positive thoughts here folks

oddities

yesterday morning as I was preparing breakfast, I was hulling a box of strawberries

these two berries were in the box

Siamese twins!

or cat berries, as it looks like a pair of kitty ears

I've seen this before from time to time, but two in one box is kind of odd

wonder what was in the water

and further strangeness from yesterday

these 3 pieces of fabric appeared on the floor in the kitchen

I have no idea where they came from

I haven't used anything this color for months

and I haven't done any project that would call for anything this shape in forever

puzzling

I finished a project yesterday

this is a Christmas banner I did for my daughter and her husband the year they got married

as a quilted piece, it's kind of "primitive", but they like it, so I'm happy to make the required adjustments

when I first made it, it had 2 snow people, a dog and a bird

the next year I had to add another dog

this year I added another little snow person (close up shows that part pretty well)

with this pair of striped mittens I have met the goal of 11 pair for this year

last year it took me until mid April to do 10 pair

I don't know if it is the new (and in my opinion, much better) pattern that I picked for this year or if I've just knit faster

either way, I'm feeling pretty good about having these 11 pair complete

charity knitting time will be afghan squares for a while

fusing and freezing

yesterday afternoon I finished doing the fusing part of this project

now that all of that is done, it is a lot easier to see that this is supposed to be a structure

that odd shaped white space on the left hand side is where something else goes that is a couple of layers up from this

so today I'll begin doing the stitching around each and every one of those little fused shapes with the appropriate color of thread (black, white or gray)

somehow this project has morphed into a multi-staged production -- this is Act I

as I said yesterday, it is very cold here (-21 degrees last night with a wind chill much colder than that)

this is a picture of the bottom edge of my kitchen window

the window frame is metal, and has been completely covered with frost

and all of the metal frames on the north side of the house look like this (in fact some of them look even worse)

and the furnace has been running non-stop (and we have it set only at a "balmy" 65 degrees)

our one concession has been to leave our little electric space heater in the family room running 24/7 since Monday afternoon

the big black dog that lives here would prefer to be somewhere warm sleeping

when she went out into the yard last night she came back limping after only about 3 minutes

because she is a Labrador, she is built for swimming -- there are webs between her toes that collect ice and snow in this weather -- so I used a warm towel to massage her foot

she thinks it should be a "2 people night", but for now she's just sharing the little family room love seat with me --

she's sleeping, I'm blogging

today I'm going to work on projects a bit more and just try to stay warm!

tracks in the snow

its not a real clear picture -- the light was not great and the snow is that soft stuff that skiers love, so the tracks are a little fuzzy

but they are definitely bunny tracks -- a sure sign that the little cotton tail that I've seen around has been across the yard

cool!


actually this morning the word is COLD

we had snow all day yesterday, and its very cold this morning

good day to stay inside and work on projects!

Art in Public Places

the DH had his pre-surgery appointment with his doctor yesterday afternoon

every time we've been in there (after the first visit) I've intended to take along my camera to get pictures of some of the art work on the walls of the larger public areas in the building

yesterday I finally remembered to take the camera

these three pieces are ceramics

and these two (along with one additional similar one) are metal

when I initially saw these the first impression was that they were fiber

which they are not, but the impression still lingers

after all the running around that we had to do yesterday, I didn't get a lot of work done in the studio

I did manage to get all of the previous day's ironed fabric folded and sorted and ready to go into the bins -- and I'm now wondering if they will even fit

and there are these

all hand beaded leaves that I wanted to have available should someone at the trunk show want to buy one for use on one of their own projects

the beading had been done for a long time, but I still hadn't done the touch up of the edge threads that I do on them so the mechanics of their building dissolves into the background when you look at them

finally got that done yesterday

and got some work done on the patterns for the trunk show, so we're moving right along with that project

even worked on the color map for the Hawaii piece

so today we get to go and pick up a friend who is coming in from California

partly to see us (and I hope to get in some art projects!)

and partly to see our new grandson

heh, like who wouldn't travel half way across the country to see such a cute kid!

so of course, while in the car, there will be knitting, and I've decided it's time to start on the 2011 mittnz blitz now -- after all, there are 22 mittnz to be knit!

I did what?

that's my thought this morning as I sat down to post here

I checked the camera (my usual starting point) -- nope, no pictures there, not even a cute snap of a bird in the tree or the dog doing something silly

I know I was awake yesterday, and I didn't just sit and watch TV, honest!

there's just not much to take pictures of when

1. you sign and fold and stuff and seal 45 Christmas letters into the cards (which I had already addressed over the Thanksgiving weekend)

2. you successfully find a box in the house to pack up the packages that need to get shipped to California -- including re-wrapping one present in a different shaped box so they would all fit

3. you complete the most difficult step in the stealth Christmas sewing project

4. you work on the directions that go in the pattern that you need to have finished and ready to go for the trunk show that's happening in January

5. you work on the actual piece that the pattern is based on because you need to have it finished to show at said trunk show

6. you knit a new flower to be felted for the hat

7. you knit on the sleeve of the new sweater in process

8. you quilt 10 more aspen leaves

ok, maybe those last 4 items really could have had pictures taken somewhere along the line -- I'll try to do better with that

meantime, I feel sort of like I'm rattling around -- too many projects already completed and we're in "drop it all and go" mode because my daughter's baby could come any day (the due date is Dec 18, so she's already closer than I ever got since she came 3 weeks before her due date)

I've even already wrapped all of the Christmas presents (except the sock ones), and they are sitting in a pile on the floor of the living room waiting for bows

time to go start a new project or two

and the race is on

and I'm beginning to wonder -- in my sleep deprived screwy brain -- which of these two fences will be finished first

the saga of the outdoor fence continues -- it was a week ago yesterday that it came down and we begin this morning with new posts set and part of the cross pieces (to which the fence boards will be attached) installed

which means we've had over a week of the dog not getting her usual free range of the yard

which also means she has started waking me at odd times (translate "EARLY!" times) asking to go out

like at 5:10 this morning -- and again (just as I was drifting off to sleep) at 5:45

so, okay, I'm up already

the other fence actually is progressing nicely

yesterday I got the label and the sleeve stitched on the back and started last night on the beaded center of the big sunflower

but seriously -- I'm still not sure which one of these fences will be done first!!

time to go mow the lawn

a lean mean fence wrecking machine

this picture taken this morning of the lack of fence!

my neighbor and I are replacing our shared side fence ---

after years of neglect, snow drifts and wind storms it was pretty beat up

so yesterday afternoon she and I and the DH went out and went to work --

Crowbars up!

we finished up just as the rain started around 3 pm -- there are still 3 posts standing and we have decided to let her work crew (her family -- all of them involved in the building industry somehow) will be here tomorrow morning to start putting in the new fence --

I expected to be really sore this morning as it's been a while since I did the whole "tear it down" thing, but aside from across my shoulders and the puffy knee, I'm ok -- so it shouldn't get in the way of my work in the studio (in fact I can always claim I need to ice the knee so I can sit a while!) {grin}
this arrived in my mail box yesterday afternoon

oooooohhhh!

talk about getting to see red!!!

my sister sent this along for me to us for the lining of the sashiko embroidery piece I'm working on (she bought a WHOLE BOLT(!) of this loveliness a while back, and as usual is more than willing to share the bounty)

thanks sis!!

let the cutting and stitching commence! there's no reason I can't go ahead and put the lining all together so it will make the finishing quicker when the embroidery is done
after we mailed off eBay packages and picked up prescriptions at the store yesterday we made a stop at an Estate Sale here in our neighborhood

I went because I wanted to see if there was any fabric or yarn worth picking up to be used for charity work

there wasn't any of those items, but I did pick up a brand new set of soup mugs -- still in their original 1994 box

we really needed these items -- the ones we have are 20+ years old -- 2 of them having lived in assorted desk drawers as the DH and I moved from job to job -- and they are chipped around the edge

I'm really happy to give these babies a new home!
Estate Sales are strange

you wander through the rooms of the house picking up bits and pieces of someone's life -- and I always wonder about the people that called this home

what did they like? did they have family? were they happy? -- weird perhaps, but it's how my mind works

it's different than your every weekend garage sale because the person that's taking the money can't answer those questions -- she's just helping out the family who are dealing with the emotional issues of the "estate"

the one sewing related item I picked up was this plastic shoe box full of flat lace, bias tape, braid and rick rack

these two packages especially caught my eye -- I have seen trim like these since I was a child -- in the 1950s

the red one has a price sticker on it that says "F. W. Woolworth's" it sold for 15 cents

talk about a trip right back to my grandmother's sewing room!!

and all we got is ONE picture?

lawn mowed? --- check

two outdoor sheds cleaned out? --- check

work on flower quilt, tree quilt and new quilt projects? --- check

work on charity auction? --- check

selection of new items to put on eBay? --- check

knitting on Christmas sweater? --- check (63.171%)

knitting of Christmas afghan? --- check (91.667%) --- oh good, at least one picture!!

today's to do list: front lawn mowing, laundry, groceries then finally into the studio --- much as I like warmer weather, I'm not wild about the extra work!

It's a small, small world

Have I now got that song stuck in your head?

It never fails to surprise me just how small a world it can be.

On Friday, my daughter, the DH and I made our way to Denver to attend the Denver National Quilt Festival V

I had never been to one of these before, and I was totally impressed -- sure it's pricey to attend, but if you live close enough you can go four days on one admission price, which would make it really reasonable

There are a lot of workshops if you have the time and money to attend those too

Let me tell you, the quilts were AMAZING!!

They had 2009 Hoffman quilts on display, which was a really great thing for me to see since I'm working on a piece for the 2010 competition -- in some of them you really had to know what the challenge fabric looked like to find it in the designs -- encouraging since I've also cut the stuff up into little pieces for my design

As we were viewing the last of the displays, before getting into the vendor area, I stopped and had a long chat with one of the Colorado,Wyoming & Utah representatives of the Studio Art Quilt Association.

I'd been looking at the quilts made by their members and saying "I need to be part of that"

They don't make it all that difficult to be a member -- they don't make you jump through hoops and be "approved" by the rest of the membership (unlike some other art groups) -- they want new members and they want to help them grow and share

At first I was going to just take their brochure and think about joining "another day" -- after all, it does cost $60 a year

But I know myself -- if I take the brochure and carry it home I will think about it and yearn to do it and it will never happen because something else will need to be paid for and "another day" will become "another year" which will become never

I filled in the form at the show and used some of the money I just raised selling things on eBay that I was going to try to not touch until there was some "special occasion" (which is my grandmother speaking in my head -- she, who left behind drawers and drawers full of brand new slips and linens -- including pillow cases that had been a gift to her at her wedding and were never used in over 50 years!)

Ok, so now that I've actually spent the money, I will "guilt" myself in other ways if I don't do something about using what I've paid for -- and now I can't wait to get my "welcome packet" which will include the password to the "members only" section of the website (which is here if you want to go see it for yourself). In that area there is the "University" which includes a lot of the association's accumulated knowledge.

And I find that there are other groups in the Denver/Loveland/Longmont area -- in fact the woman that I talked to lives in Berthoud -- also close to that area -- and I've been invited to visit their meetings.

So, as if all that weren't enough excitement for the day, as we're walking through the vendor area, we went into a little booth that was selling quilt batts. The vendor was from Ogden, UT, which is one of the many places I've lived.

We stopped to chat with the vendors (you can check out their website here) and noticed that their last name was the same as one of the DH's cousins. So we chatted some more and in short order I found myself on the vendor's cell phone talking to the DH's cousin -- the vendor is married to the brother of the DH's cousin's husband (got all that?)!

heh, yeah -- like I said -- it's a small world after all

fruit of the unknown tree

we got our monthly "Shares" box yesterday

and this is the first time there has been something in the box that looks familiar but I don't know what it is

I think it's some kind of tropical fruit, but it's not something I've ever purchased or have any idea what to do with

I'm hoping my daughter will

it might end up being fruit for the parrot

meantime, however, I just love the color of this thing -- shading from green through yellow to a soft pink-ish peachy color -- what a great colorway that would be for either yarn or fabric (hmmm, and how would one create that ---)

lots of time spent yesterday on the phone (before I was bright enough to get out my headset -- DUH!) meant I didn't get as much work done as I could of, but that's ok sometimes

I'm working on the hand work on the edges of the apron before I attach the waist band/ties. My "secret sources" (thanks, Sis!) tell me that the pattern is from 1953 -- wow, my "mid 1900s" guess was pretty accurate
finished the last afghan square for the box I've been filling -- cool

that means when we get paid on Wednesday I can take it and mail it (not much of anything happens with money between now and then! -- unless I win the lottery)

the Christmas Sweater is 12.683% complete




a few weeks ago I saw a sweater pattern that I thought was the coolest thing ever --

this is part of a book titled "Color by Kristen", written by Kristen Nichols (you can read her musings about sheep and other things by using this link to her blog)

I'd like to knit something like this for ME!

I think it would be fun to learn this multi-color patterned print technique

guess I'm adding this book to my "wish list"!

time to get some breakfast!!

things to do while recovering from a tooth extraction

1. create a useful (if not very artful) quilted case for the safety goggles recently purchased for the DH

2. stitched down half of the binding on the baby quilt

3. make a pot of potato soup -- about half of which will get frozen up to take to my dad

4. help mend a fence that the 50 mile an hour wind is trying to blow down

eh, yeah

that last one is probably not recommended

but sometimes you just do what has to be done

my jaw is still sore, but I'm actually starting to eat real food again, which helps my crabby state of mind a bit

onward

showing off

when you walk into a new group and want them to see what it is you do it is handy to have a little "brag book" of photos

I was using a much thinner book, but with the explosion of pieces I've done in the last two years (and we're just talking quilts here), I outgrew the book I was using

enter one of the things I actually like about Walmart

I picked up this photo album for $3

it has space inside for 100 4x6 inch items -- either photos or cards

so now I've got pictures of my quilts and a brief explanation for each one in the book with lots of room to add (which is good -- I've got about 5 more in process right now)

meantime, the DH has expressed an interest in having the book I outgrew as a place to show off his silver work

a good idea!

I'll be printing pictures of his stuff and getting him set up too

tax stuff

most people know about this kind of tax stuff

I'm working on it right now -- sorting out all the business receipts (which for last year are few) and the medical receipts (which for last year are many)

I also get to do sales tax reports in four states at this time of year and I'm happy to say that all of those are DONE! (also with mixed feelings about having nothing to pay on any of them)

ah well


we have finished taking down all of the Christmas trees --- we decided yesterday that we should sort through all of the boxes (three of them!) that are labeled "outside lights" and get rid of the ones that we realistically will not use again, so we still have that to do -- oh, and I still need to pack the box of candles --- but basically, we're done!

yesterday afternoon I stitched the last of the rocks on the Trees project --- I took a picture, but I've yet to develop the NEW routine of downloading to the laptop then to the click disc then to the desktop so I could actually show it to you --- go figure --- I'll try to do better

meantime, I've settled on which of the shawls from the new book I'm going to knit and for whom --- after payday I'll be able to order the yarn

time to get back to the taxes!

a guest blogger

Elphie here

mom walked away from the 'puter and left it on, so I'm writing on her blog

I think I'm still mad at mom --- she took me today to the Evil Vet

there was much prodding and poking

but I did get lots of doggie cookies and a new jingle for my collar (mom says it's my new rabies tag)

the vet says they can find out if the funny spot on my leg should come off by doing a needle biopsy (mom says that is a good thing because that is just an office visit thing)

guess mom will keep you updated

WOLF!

hi ho off to the fair

and here they are in their glory all ready to go!

tomorrow I get to make my first trip farther than the grocery store

we're taking our entries down to the State Fair -- about 50 miles away

I'm being allowed to do this only under the condition that we stop about half way each direction so I can get out of the car and walk around

it will be good to get to do this as a break from being restricted to just around the house activities

the receiving date for the jewelry and the birdhouse and the bunny is actually tomorrow, the other things aren't actually due until next week, but the Fair coordinator has told me I can bring all of them tomorrow and they will put the other items in a safe place

one MORE complete

another afghan square all finished for the box to Close Knit Hugs

there is still quite a bit of this varigated yarn, so today I'll be making some smaller balls out of some one pound skeins of paler colors that I want to use with it next

since I'll actually be traveling a little way tomorrow, I want to have yarn all ready for working on squares in the car


I've been working on a sweater too, and it is moving right along --- the back and sleeves are done, and I'm getting really close to having the front done too --- then I get to figure out a hood --- this particular pattern didn't originally have a hood (in fact, it wasn't even originally a cardigan!)

this project, however has now been ripped back to a ball of yarn

somewhere along the way (a few rows back from where I actually discovered it) I dropped a stitch in the lace work

this project is a repeat of 10 rows, each right side row being a different combination of yarn overs and knitting 2 or 3 stitches together

after studying the problem carefully I decided that there was no way even if I could actually rip back only to the place that the dropped stitch had "raveled" to, that I'd be able to figure out what row to start with

so, I ripped it

I'm going to finish the aforementioned sweater before I start this again --- right now having 2 projects going that require close attention to which row is which is more than I can deal with


right now there is a large retirement complex being built in what was a big vacant field behind our house

this morning, as I was looking out my kitchen window, I spotted this pile of sand that is at the base of the retaining wall they have built over there

my best guess is that this form has been created through a combination of whatever they have removed with their shovels, the wind that whips around the building and the hail and rain we've had in the past few evenings

to me it looks like the head of a lion -- the ears, the mane, the eyes and cheeks --- in fact until I got to where I could see the bottom of the pile, I thought it was a concrete statue

weird (is this the building materials version of seeing animals in the clouds?)

shopping trip

yesterday we needed to do a bit of shopping, and since I was feeling stronger we went into the fabric store first

the Christmas project I'm working on needed a new spool of quilting thread --- did you know that the colors of quilting thread that they made 10 years ago are not available any more?

ok, I guess that's my "DUH" for the week --- I was able to get a spool that is a slightly darker color than the one I was using, and because of the way I'm doing the quilting I'll be able to make it look like I did that on purpose --- oh look, a "design opportunity"! (guess when I start the next quilting on a big project I'll check this out in advance!)

while I was in there I also got a pattern for another Christmas project and a brand new bottle of Fabritac glue (which I use a lot for my multi media fiber pieces to attach wood to fabric, etc). I actually went in with the idea of getting the glue and then found that it was on sale --- YeAh!

anyway, along with the spool of thread and the glue and the pattern

I bought a treat for me

along with Quilting Arts this magazine is always full of amazing things and loaded with inspiration

this particular issue's cover is an amazing quilt that the artist designed based on an Italian Renaissance ceiling -- it's about 86 inches square and weighs 12 pounds --- and that's all applique work --- AWESOME!

one of the other cool things about the magazine is that it gives profiles and contact information about the contributors to the magazine --- and this one was no exception

I've already found another "must read" blog (or two) in this issue


in our area the stores are already starting the big "back to school" sales

pens, pencils, notebooks

I love it, it is the time of year when I take advantage of the sales and pick up some things that I use all year long

for a while now (about 4 years!) I've been using up spiral notebooks that my daughter gave me when she graduated from college

this year I actually bought 2 spirals ---- only 15 cents each!

and then there are these

I like doodling, and a lot of the drawings I do that way end up getting used to create other things --- like note cards and rubber stamps, etc., etc.

these are ball point pens and the inks are the colors of the pens --- green, orange, pink, blue and purple --- this set greatly increases my color palette from just black, blue and red --- and this set was part of the school sales too --- only $2.00 for the set ---

along with the shopping I did work on beading and quilting and the zebras yesterday (picture of the zebras soon), but I have also done something that has made my left arm throb like a toothache --- in fact, I ended up using my post surgery music set up to get to sleep (finally!) at about 12:30 last night --- so today I will take it easy, try to rest that arm, maybe play with the new pens

Something else to share

Somehow in all the commotion since we returned from California, I have neglected to post this treasure I got while I was on vacation.

This is a ball of 100% silk yarn --- 1100 yards! --- of hand painted soft fine wonderfulness

And such a lovely colorway --- soft aquas to almost white ---- mmmmmmmmm!

And so, you're thinking, "what are you doing with that?"

Well, after my experiment with knitting lace on a bigger scale, I'm planning to do lace more in the weight that lace is meant to be with this loveliness.

Yesterday I finished the beading of the frame liner for the Carried Away project -- hurrah!!

So today I'm doing last minute things --- laundry, cleaning and moving my printer upstairs to hook up to my laptop for using the next couple of weeks while my stair mobility is limited (surgery is one thing, but don't ask me to do without my computer for that long!!!)

I'll be back soon!