So This Happened

 

I got the Dresden out to sandwich yesterday and didn't get very far. For some reason I thought this quilt was bigger than it was. It's so small I don't even have to seam the backing. There's plenty hanging over every side.

It seems that I didn't add a brown edging on that schoolhouse border I worked so hard on. I think I must have put this top away before it was actually finished. It's from way back in my Daddio days to it's possible. We jumped from project to project to keep him interested and busy.

I went digging through the stash to see what I had and I came up with plenty but none of the brown I used for the sashing so I had to order some. 

I found so much of this one collection that I had leftover from another project that I felt bad about packing it back away. I have yardage, charm packs and even 10 inch squares. I've got a plan for it. It'll make a great fall project-but as usual I'm waiting for a delivery to get something started. It's a race now to see if Connecting Threads or Missouri Star will be the first to get what I need here. 

Loosey Goosey

 

The new weaving project is not going well. I spent yesterday morning tying and untying the warp ends because I couldn't get the sides to settle down and play nice. I'm also not wild about the pattern that's emerging.  I used the right sized cotton. I used the right sized reed but it all seems so loosey goosey. I've still got a long way to go before I even get into the pattern so I hope it's going to shape up.

I wish I had waited before I ordered the dark gray that I needed for the fall version of this same towel. Now I'm not so sure I want to go through all this again for something I'm not going to like. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

Between bedroom painting, Ophelia and now Pup's hurt leg I didn't get any fancy stitching done this week but I did get all the binding sewn down on the Big Ugly late Sunday evening. 

Now I get to see if The Mister actually uses it. He's hated every quilt I've made so far. 

As for Pup, we're going to be having a quiet couple of days giving her hip a chance to recover by keeping her off her feet as much as possible. She's putting weight on her back leg again but she doesn't look very steady on it which is worrisome. The last thing we need is a broken dog when we are only a few weeks out now from The Mister's knee replacement surgery. 

It's always something.

High Tide

 

It was the sound of blowers and not generators that greeted the dawn yesterday. Thank goodness. The place is a mess. Leaves everywhere. The roof looks like it was thatched but at least we have power. I gave up trying to sweep it all up. Mother Nature's going to have to help me out here and dry it up a bit first. 

Down by the water is was a different story. The Sea Gate townhouses really look like the gate to the sea. What a mess.

The big community pier has a lot of damage on the lower levels. The water is never this high usually. Far from it. You can walk from the shore out here and never get your shirt wet. The water is all still pushing in from the south and mad as hell about it.

There's a lot of debris on the beach. Someone's going to be looking for their crab pots. Sad thing is that there are crabs in them. Poor things. Wrong place, wrong time. 

It was a little hard to get around town. You needed a canoe.

The main street looked like a big swimming pool. 

While The Mister went and got coffee Pup and I watched people trying to drive through that mess while I tried to do some knitting. Then Pup fell off the bench when she saw The Mister with a bag of muffins. She hurt her bad leg so we had to go home and ice it.......

...but not before we checked out the marina. Those yellow posts are where the boat ramps are. You don't even have to leave the parking lot to put your boat in-if you're crazy enough to put your boat in that angry bay. We were watching a crab boat rocking and rolling out there and it was making me sick from the shore. I took all these photos at about 11:00 and it was still only low tide. High Tide wasn't until 3:30. I bet that was interesting. 

Ophelia

 

 

That tropical storm sure has made a mess. It's been raining buckets and the winds have been scary. We slept in the downstairs for the last two nights but so far only some limbs have come down. I listened to podcasts and knit all day. The Mister watched college football. I made a pasta salad, some coleslaw and an apple cake during a mid morning lull in the storm for a cold dinner in case the lights went out. They haven't. We have no idea what the flooding at the beach looks like. We may venture out today to take a look if the winds die down.

Too Much Drama

 

The house is an uholy mess so all I wanted to do yesterday was to get the trim painted in the bedroom so we could move everything back in. I got one coat finished and then The Mister decided to change out the electrical outlets. Hours later we ended up calling a friend who does this for a living for help because we couldn't get the light switch to work. Instead of painting I got to play assistant which meant I did nothing really but sit there and commiserate. 

I did get to knit while I sat. I started a new pair. It's Regia and it's called Spring Fling. I don't see anything springy about it. I had taken them out for our walk down by the water with Pup but it was too windy. Ophelia is not even here yet but it's already pretty scary out there. Since tomorrow looks like a wash I'll have to finish that painting on Sunday-if the house is still here that is. The neighbors are all in a tizzy worrying about trees and flooding and.....that one of their houses was broken into the night before. Back here in the dark woods someone tried to smash out their lower level sliding glass door with a rock in the middle of the night. They didn't get in but gosh-that's scary.  

Storm Warning

 

We're still painting but every afternoon we try to get Pup out for a walk and clear our lungs of paint fumes. We ended up in the posh end of town yesterday because The Mister needed a jolt of coffee and his little local shop was closed. 

The boats at the fancy marina in that harbor make the boats in the one by our house look like something you'd play with in a bathtub. They are huge.

There are docks and docks of sailboats. On any given day, including the weekends, we hardly ever see a boat out in the bay. Like the boats in our marina they just sit in the water. How sad. 

Ta da....I put the last stitch on the toe of my stripey sock on this walk. 

Every stitch in both socks-minus the cast on row was knit while walking the dog. I only picked them up as I went out the door. I was trying to prove something to The Mister. He thinks it's silly that I take knitting along thinking I don't get much done that way. I cast these on August 29th which means they were finished in less than a month. That's a record for me-so I guess I proved him wrong. 

And.....while I was writing this post my phone and Echo blew up telling me about a tropical storm heading up the bay some time tonight. I don't think I can ever recall a tropical storm warning before. I'm not sure what to make of it. I guess I'm going to find out when it gets here. 

Distant Gray

 

I've got my painting Crocs on so we're knee deep into yet another home improvement project. 

That's probably our 10th or 11th can of Distant Gray paint. Room by room they are all getting the same color treatment. It's easier that way. We've got no place to store leftover touch up paint so having only one can of flat and one can of semi-gloss to deal with makes sense. It also makes touch ups easier. Whenever we paint I go through the whole house looking for spots that need fixing and there are always plenty.

Distant Gray really isn't very gray. It's just a dull white. We got one coat on yesterday and will tackle the second coat today and hopefully the trim tomorrow. Painting at 70 is very different than painting in our younger years. The Mister and I would have knocked out that bedroom in one day in our prime. We were lucky to get one coat on. That was a lot of wall and as for ceilings....neither one of us could do more than a little at a time. It was no fun at all.

Into the Woods

 

On the south side of town there's a little beach that we haven't been to for a while. It was a nice day even though I had a monster of a headache so we took a walk.

You have to go through the wetlands to get to it. I was getting major Dateline vibes. I need to cut back on my viewing...lol.

The last time we were there it was fall and it was interesting to see how the landscape has changed since then. While the beach was very different, the cliffs were not. I can't believe those trees up there on top are still hanging on. There are signs saying that you can't walk past that driftwood. They don't want to find you under them when they do come down.

Pup's not a jump in the water kind of dog but she was wet enough to need a bath when she got home. 

Someone's in trouble. We found these cute little shoes in the parking lot when we left. 

Back at home all I wanted to do was take a nap and sleep off my headache but The Mister had other ideas. He wanted to get out his new miter saw and tackle the trim on the closet door. Mercifully, it didn't take long. 

I hope my headache is gone by today. This is what's in store if the weather is halfway decent. We've got big rain heading our way for the weekend so a couple of days where we can open the windows and have some decent humidity would be nice to get this painting done. The sooner we can get the place ready for surgery #2 the better. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

I spent most of my stitching time this week on this. I even got her a new needle minder. It's a lotus. 

I thought I had the frame issue on this one figured out but I didn't. As you can see, the frame I found didn't work. It wouldn't hold the fabric tight enough even after I put felt under the stretchers. 

That frame was not a Q Snap. It was a Fons and Porter frame for hand quilting so it just wasn't made to hold anything tightly. Loose fabric drives me crazy so I bought the extensions for my 11 inch Q Snap to turn it into a 14 inch one. Since it just now showed up in the mail, I haven't tried it yet. 

I got the tiniest bit done on the bottom of the Village Quaker but......

....every time I walk in the room where it is, this is sitting there waiting for some attention too.

Then of course there's the Big Ugly. It looks more like the Big Clown Quilt from this side. I've gotten two sides of the binding sewn down so far. I am still amazed at how easy it is to work on when it's all laid out on the big table instead of fighting with it over the ironing board. I've been dreading finished that other big quilt top I've had laying around for 12 years but now I'm actually looking forward to it. 

 

A Lap Full of Wool

 

All it took was one chilly morning to make me want to pick up something big to work on. Bon Amie has been waiting all summer for some attention so it was the first thing I dusted off and started to work on again. 

I bought this pattern from Arne and Carlos last week and my plan is to use the construction of Sondre to finish Bon Amie. I want to steek the armholes and the neck but I need Arne and Carlos to hold my hand while I do it. I've steeked before but this time I'm playing fast and loose with the pattern and it's scaring me to death. Thankfully, they've got video support to go along with the written instructions.

Bon Amie is actually just the appetizer. Chestnut is the main course. What I'm trying to do is turn cardigans into pullovers and Bon Amie is the test case. If it works I'll finish Chestnut. If not, I'll have a really pretty Fair Isle pillow.

Speaking of Arne and Carlos, Advent sweater number 23 looks like this. I haven't worked on it all summer. I would like to start number 24, the last one, over Thanksgiving weekend so there is no rush. I had been working on this one while watching Sit and Knit for a Bit each week but since they've been on a break, I thought I'd take a break too. 

And.....in this flurry of sweater making, Riddari is also back in production. I've finished the body but now I have the sleeves to do. I also have The Big Gray Blob that gets worked on every night before bed. Four sweaters at a time. I must be crazy. 

 

The Difference a Week Makes

 

This time last week I was having a miserable time trying to get the batting to stick to the top and backing of the Big Ugly by putting in about a zillion pins. Yesterday I finished machine quilting the last of it and had to take all those pins out. I usually unpin while I am quilting but I didn't want to disturb the thing so I played dodge the pins while I quilted which was actually quite amusing and kept me from meandering too tightly.

I also got the binding all tacked down on the front. I am amazed at how fast and easy these things are to do when you've got the room to do them in. The Big Ugly is by far the biggest quilt I've ever made and it was a breeze doing all this on my big dining room table. I am NEVER going back to doing any of it in that tiny sewing room again. 

Roadwork

 

Yesterday we had to go down to the courthouse to pay our property tax bill. It was a bit of a celebration because it was the first time we've had to do this since we paid off the house. On the way there we saw SIX, count'em SIX of those giant skellys looming over people's yards. I tried to get a photo of them but the side roads were closed due to roadwork. We could have taken a detour to get there but The Mister wasn't having it. 

There were the regular giant skellys but most of them looked like this. Giant pumpkin headed skellys. The Mister and I were saying that in our day these things wouldn't have stood a chance. We'd have pulled all kinds of pranks with them but I guess when everyone has those camera doorbells they are safe enough. At $379.00 a piece they better be. Would homeowner's insurance cover their disappearance or maiming? I wonder. I also have to wonder about folks that would pay that much for something like this and wonder even more why they are already on display.