Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

Things are still crazy here with the downstairs redo. Yesterday we put up another new ceiling fan and then went out and hauled all of the old deck furniture to the metal bin at the dump. I did manage to get more of my little houses finished this week. I keep telling myself if I only did one a day I could knock them out. Now that all the appliqueing is done for the paper pieced quilts, that just might happen.

I do have a finish. Sheep Heap is done. I plopped down on the couch on Sunday and just kept on going until it was finished. 

My woolly friends now join the rest of the critters in the series. Only the turkeys have yet to be finished. I'll do that in the fall.

Next up, for my summer project, are my piggy friends. I didn't have all the colors I needed to get them started so I'll have to wait until they get here. In the meantime I have plenty of little houses to keep me busy when I can spare a minute. We are going to pick up the flooring today so a new phase of the adventure will soon begin. 

Questions and Answers

 

I never know what to do when you guys ask me questions in the comments. If I answer in the comments I wonder if anyone ever goes back and looks so I thought I'd just do a catch up post with some questions that have come up lately. First, it's about the weaving on the loom. Yep, that's the sock yarn for the scarf that is getting threaded.

Even though I showed off the new pattern and the new cotton for it, I have yet to begin winding it on the warping board.

This is why. I have an 18 inch loom and almost all patterns are written for at least a 22 inch loom so I have to do a lot of figuring to get it to fit. It's not as simple as just cutting off some of it. If I want it to look like the original I have to cut things back all across the whole thing. It hurts my head but I think I've finally got it so I should be able to begin the new warp this week.

That giant towel went through a wash and dry and now it's only 36 inches long. It's also not nearly as wide. I imagine it will shrink even more with each washing for a while so it turned out to be a perfect size to hang on my stove door handle. 

As for that chalkboard experiment, that paint worked really well. I only needed one coat. Chalk wipes right off. 

I bought this stencil kit so I could put some fancy lettering on it-when I figure out what I want to say. 

Layouts

 

This is when I really miss Dad's big design wall. I don't have a place big enough to lay out the pieces of a top when I am assembling them. Yesterday, in The Mister's extended absence, I worked on figuring out the sashing with the February quilt and it would have really helped to have either a big table or a design wall. I didn't realize how big this thing is going to be when it's all put together. It's only nine blocks.

Ditto with the quilt I am helping my sister put together out of Dad's scraps. You need to back away to see if the colors are working right but in this tiny space that's not happening.

I also found time to get another section machine of Charming Stars quilted. I need to get a move on finishing this because it looks like soon I'll have a backlog of sandwiches waiting.

And....I got the final coat on the doors and the trim yesterday.

It rained again all day (!) but this guy helped keep that room dry enough to paint in. I love my dehumidifiers. They work so hard. When you live near the water you almost need one in every room. 

Home Alone

 

Yesterday The Mister helped me get that 10 ft warp wound. That was an adventure. I had to get out the Christmas wrapping paper because I ran out of my usual winding paper.  Today he's off with his family for an all day birthday party far, far away and I couldn't be happier. I need a day.

I've already pulled the cotton for my next towel but I've got a lot of math to do to figure out the warp. Having a quiet house so I can think is important so I'm going to take advantage of the absence of Mr. Ants in the Pants. 

This is the pattern I'm using. It's the Gift Exchange Towel by Pat Bullen from the May/June 2021 issue of Handwoven. It's going to be a perfect summer project. You can buy it as a kit from Cotton Clouds but I just happened to have leftovers in the colors I need. How lucky was that?

TGIF

 

First we did this.

And then we did this yesterday. It was the second coat. Today we do the first coat on the trim. 

I still had a little time for some of this. I have 26 blocks finished so far. 

This is the last of the February blocks so as soon as I get that middle hexie sewn together and appliqued down I can start assembling the top. I can't believe I've gotten this far tbh. Just doing the least amount possible everyday really does add up.

 

Enough is Enough

 

I didn't quite run out of warp but this towel is way bigger than a towel should be so I cut it off yesterday. As much as I enjoyed working on it, it was time. 

It was 43 inches long before hemming.

I'm happy to say I remembered to zig zag before I starting trimming it. I forgot with the last towel and it wasn't fun. 

I wish my hemming skills were better. Hemming is like herding cats. It's hard to get it to stay straight in the machine. The fabric likes to undulate and go where it wants to go with any pressure. 

Here's all 40 inches of it, hemmed and semi-trimmed ready for its wet blocking. That's a lot of towel..lol. 

And....my Willy Nilly sock yarn scarf is finally on the loom getting all its fiddly bits done. When I took it off the warping board I measured it and it was 10 feet (!) long. No wonder I was running out of yarn all the time. 

Wednesday WIPs: Milestones

 

Worsted Weight Gray Blob almost has a second sleeve. 

Fingering weight Gray Blob bottom ribbing is finished and now it's getting its first sleeve. 

Riddari had its second decrease row. The third is not too far away. Thank goodness.

I'm about 10 rows in now with the new yarn on the handspun sock and I think it's going to work. It's not a perfect match but it'll do. 

And....someone asked me for my baked ziti recipe. It's nothing fancy. 

Here goes:

1 box of ziti pasta

1 container of small curd cottage cheese

1 8 oz package of shredded mozzarella

1 egg

2 cups microwave thawed frozen spinach

1 24 oz jar pasta sauce

I just mix the cheeses, spinach and egg together and layer with cooked noodles and the sauce like you would do lasagna ending with some of the mozzarella I've held back for the topping. Bake at 350 for about an hour. Served with a salad and bread, that's three nights worth of dinners for The Mister and me.

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

Since the floor won't be here until next week, we decided to clear out another downstairs room and get it ready for painting yesterday. This is the room we use for storage. It used to be quite a jumble. It will be getting shelving. 

In spite of the fact that my sitting down at the table to stitch makes all heck break loose around here, I managed to get the snail and more of my little villages done.

I curled up on the couch with my sheep and got the last one finished. Now I have a lot of berries to do. Dare I say that this just might be done next week?

And.....I have to thank Karen for sending me this Dolphin project. You guys are almost making me look forward to those dog days of summer when I'll be stuck in the house for months. That's when puzzles and projects like this are life savers.  I've got a lot to keep me busy this year. Thanks Karen!

Rainy Days and Mondays

 

Yesterday looked like it was going to be another beautiful day but minutes into our daily Pup walk we got drenched and then hailed on. By the time we got home we are all freezing so a hot cup of tea was in order while I sorted out the rest of my day hoping it would be uneventful enough that I could get some sewing done. 

It was nobody's fault but my own that what I did end up doing for the afternoon was some hand sewing while I watched a live stream of the Eras Tour in Paris that starts around 2ish here. That may sound ridiculous but it gets worse. I've watched every night so far. Yep-all four now. There's just something about that huge crowd of happy people all singing along off key that I just love.  

The one thing I said I was going to do and I actually did do yesterday was make that big pot of baked ziti. At least I won't have to cook for a few days. 

Dammit

 

It rained all day Friday but silly me still sat up all night trying to get a glimpse of the aurora. I had the weather and the NOAA aurora forecasters on speed dial going back and forth to see if a window would open up in the clouds and about midnight it did. Someone said that you may not be able to see anything with your eyes this far south but your phone might pick it up so I took a few photos. I'm going to pretend that this one shows a bit of the pink in the upper right hand corner to make myself feel better. I get way too excited about stuff like this and then terribly disappointed. I've been aurora chasing for years without a bit of luck. 

Yesterday we were supposed to have more showers and thunderstorms. We even had a coastal flooding advisory but as you can see it was a beautiful day. There were some clouds but it was mostly clear-so clear you could see across the bay pretty easily. You could even see the nuclear power plant which is usually not visible. It would have been prefect conditions for more aurora viewing but noooo....that old sun decided she'd had enough and withdrew her splendor in spite of some predictions saying otherwise. Darn.

So...at our sadly ordinary sunset I poured myself a glass of wine, went outside and made myself a fire and once again rued my misfortune. Next time. 

Oh....and happy Mother's Day everyone! I'm making myself a pot of baked ziti and then locking myself in the sewing room for the day. Good times. 

A Run for the Roses

 

Yesterday was Put Up the New Fan Day and I'm happy to say it worked and we didn't burn the house down.

While The Mister fiddled with the fan I got a coat on the sliding doors that I am turning into a chalkboard. 

After that we took a road trip out to where The Mister's mom was laid to rest. He has a thing about being the first in the family to leave her flowers on Mother's Day. It looks like he won the race again this year. 

All that flower arranging must have worked up an appetite because on the way home he wanted to stop for food. He never wants to stop for food. He came out with the GIANT sized subs. He must have really been hungry. 

If that wasn't bad enough, he wanted a dessert so he ran into the grocery next door and this is what he came out with. There goes the diet I just put myself back on last week. 

And....in the mailbox was a cute Mother's Day card from Daughter and a drawing from her Baby Grand. Mother's Day sure hits differently once your mom is gone. Going out to the cemetery always gives me the feels especially since it's located in the area that I grew up in. There are so many ghosts on those old city streets. Happily, only a few of them followed me home.