The Boys of Summer

 

Yesterday was Le Grand Depart of the 2024 Tour and I've got some words for the Tour organizers. Stage One was a nightmare of climbs in almost 100 degree heat. Watching the riders struggle with heat related issues was painful. I know the Tour is supposed to be grueling but can we have at least one day where we can get to know the teams without all the drama? We usually get that but not this year. It seemed unusually cruel. Even the commentators agreed that this was the most difficult start they had ever seen.

Maybe I was being super sensitive because I was also struggling. I got up early to watch the start but was too itchy from my stings to want to deal with my wool. It sat on my wheel and there it stayed. 

I did get some of my cotton spun. I may have to stick with the cotton for a while until these nasty bumps go away. They are making me very cranky.

I did enjoy getting my little Spindolyn cleaned up and ready for a new project. This dyed cotton sliver from HipStrings is always such a pleasure to work with. The color is beautiful and it spins like a dream. I'm kicking myself for not buying more of it when I had the chance at the MDSW. It's always sold out in their online shop. 

A Star is Born

The local DC news channel sent a crew down yesterday to spend the morning on the beach hanging out with residents and letting the business show themselves off. It was a lot of fun to watch....from home. For me at least. That's The Mister at the top of the photo in a green shirt and hat. I knew he'd figure out a way to be on camera so I was ready to snap a photo of him when he did. By all accounts he had a really good time. 

I was home doing this but don't feel sorry for me. It's what I wanted to do. Standing out in the hot sun never sounds fun to me especially the morning after I got stung 3 times by a wasp that went down my shirt. In my kitchen. While I was cooking dinner. I'm a sore, itchy mess but at least I can still paint. Somebody's got to get it done. That's me standing on the wood stove getting the molding painted around it. The Mister thought he was funny taking that photo. I confess....I did crop out my big behind...lol.

So how did that wasp get down my shirt you may ask? I went up to the mailbox to get a package that Amazon dropped off and it must have hitched a ride in my hair. I felt it walk down my neck and I couldn't get it before it went down my shirt. In my total freak out of ripping off my clothes, it stung me twice on the chest and once on my arm. Dam stupid wasp.

 

I've Got a Notion

 

Before I jump into today's tales of woe let me show you a photo I took yesterday morning. I was trying to take a photo of the crab boat and my screen was too dark to see anything but I went ahead and snapped one anyway. It just goes to show you that the camera knows better than I do. I couldn't have taken a photo like this on purpose if I tried.

Anyway...yesterday was one of those day when I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. What set me off first was this. That middle strip is what I've been using for the sashing on Dear Jane but I ran out of what I had cut. For some reason I thought it was white. You can see it was not. It was ivory. Could I find the rest of the ivory? No. Would have I been so stupid to start an epic project like Dear Jane without enough material to finish the job? Yes or so I thought. I spent all day painting the downstairs and mentally kicking myself for doing something so dumb but....then my brain kept telling me that I plenty of it but where? On a lunch break I went online and ordered some ivory fabric I hope would somehow match but when we were finished painting for the day I tore the house up again looking for it and......

.....there it was packed up with the February Quilt.  Why? How? I have no idea. 

Then the mail came. This new Barbie outfit arrived from China. I have no recollection of buying it. It doesn't even look like something I would buy. That shaggy vest? Umm....nope. I was surprised to find that eBay says I ordered it months ago. I must have been sleep shopping again I suppose. 

But....along with that crazy outfit this was in the mail. It's all the little notions you need to make Barbie clothes. I couldn't believe my eyes. One of you lovely people sent it to me. To say I was tickled is an understatement. I had just had my sewing box out the night before and was going over the patterns to see what I needed to get started with my doll clothes sewing adventure.  Thanks Michelle! It is MUCH appreciated. 

WIPs and an FO

 

The gray blobs are still blobbing along. This week I have to learn to do a German short row for the light gray one. It has a shawl collar. That should be interesting. The dark gray one is still getting its last sleeve worked on. It's getting close.

And....those horrible handspun socks are FINALLY FINISHED. I haven't hated working on a project as much as I hated this one. Never again. They are tucked away for cold weather and by then I hope the bad juju has worn off or I might never be able to wear them.

But....not much of anything else is actually getting done this week because we're back to work. We've got a big family room to paint before all the flooring gets delivered and The Mister is being kind of frantic about it. 

Going Viral

 

It's no secret that I'm a Swiftie. I get the hype over her music. What I didn't expect was the explosion she caused among us woolly folks when she went out in this dress in London Sunday night.

It's crocheted and it's only $119 if you want to buy it-if you can get it. I'm sure it's sold out by now. 

Of course that's not what the crafty folk want to do. They want to make it. There's already a pattern on Ravelry and a tutorial on YouTube. The crochet chatter among the young'uns has been crazy. It warms my heart to see the interest. Granny squares aren't just for grannies anymore. Thank you, Taylor. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

I turned the corner on both ends of the Village Quaker this week. If I do one little house a day, I can be done in 16 days. Won't that be nice.

The summer seasonal Patchwork has the right border panel finished. I have to put the lacy edging on this week. I did figure out how to finish the left hand boxes on the fall Patchwork without a pattern. It took a few tries to get that little mushroom right but I think I've got it now.

I'm outlining that big fish the girl is riding on. See all that yellow floss? That's how much came with the kit. That's how big that fish is. It's going to take a while but after outlining the thing it will be just mindless stitching. 

And.....two more finishes for Dear Jane. Well, one complete finish and one that is now all together but still needs its borders. The green one is the first block of row D. Woo hoo...I'm starting to get somewhere. 

Radio Days

 

I had promised myself a weekend off. I was going to NOT pick up a project and just SIT on the couch and watch junk TV all day. I NEVER do that. The thing is that Comcast had a huge outage here. NO TV. NO INTERNET-no nothing. All darn weekend. All that quiet was nerve wracking I finally got out my little radio and surfed the channels like I was 13 again. It was interesting. There's some weird stuff on the airwaves these days. My favorite was finding a Spanish language station that was having an Eric Clapton night and listening to the DJ trying to explain the Clapton/Harrison/Boyd love triangle after playing Layla.

I used to love my little transistor radio. I also had a big radio that could get shortwave stations. I used to love listening to French language Canada. Note it on my dresser with a coat hanger antenna. Classy, huh? If my sister is reading this post, that is the butterfly quilt I was talking about. My great grandmother made it for my mother and I adopted it and used it to tatters as you can see. Just looking at that room now makes me cringe. I've never been very good at that interior decorating thing and I suppose it started early. 

I'm happy to say all our tech stuff was restored by late Sunday afternoon so I did get some of my weekend off with junk TV...along with a lot of cooking and cleaning and laundry....sigh.

Made in the Shade

 

I said I wasn't getting off the couch this weekend but look where I ended up. I had just given Pup a haircut and a bath and we were hiding out in the shade while The Mister walked over to the farmer's market at 8 am.

We were at the little park across from the bay and there are plenty of benches in the shade at that time of day. 

There was even a nice breeze coming off the water. The humidity hasn't been too crazy-yet.

Since he was itching to go to the farmer's market, I told him to pick up something for dinner. I'm thinking frittata. 

Back home I spent the day working on quilting things and making Pup a supply of pumpkin muffins. I also cleaned all the fruit out of our wonky fridge and made a little cake out of them. It's a kind of summer fruit cake with peaches, apples and pears and it was awfully good. I could have eaten the whole darn thing-but I didn't. At least not yet. I'll nibble away at it all weekend thinking that eating it that way changes the calorie count in some way. Wouldn't it be nice if it did? 

Upstairs, Downstairs

 

If you think slopping that joint compound on the ceiling is bad, you should see what comes next. 

After it's dry we have to take sponges, mops and buckets of water and wipe it all down over and over. I want subtle texture, think old Tuscan villa-not Luray Caverns. I actually had the idea 30 years ago to do this to those awful popcorn ceilings while I was sitting in a Olive Garden. They had vintage plaster looking walls and I liked them. 

That was the downstairs mess, upstairs we had another mess to deal with. Our new refrigerator has been making an awful noise. We called Samsung and they told us to......unplug it for 24 hours. It seems that every 18 months the fan will freeze up and you have to manual defrost it? We couldn't believe it but after doing some Googling it is indeed a common problem with this brand. That's just crazy. We pulled it out and gave it a good cleaning. We unplugged it for 2 hours and it did make the noise a bit less noisy but 24 hours? With all my food inside? No way. It's still under warranty so Monday we'll see what they have to say. 

Between the heat, the work and the mess I was out of sorts for the rest of the day. I hid in my sewing room and pulled out a few things I've been neglecting like the table runner I've been hand quilting and....

....poor Spiral Chicken. I cut up her new strips and sat still long enough to get a few on them on but that was it for me for the day. Tired is an understatement. I'm not getting off this couch until Monday.

 

The Icing on the Cake

 

I spent 5 hours on a ladder yesterday slopping joint compound onto the ceiling. It's like icing a 21x21' cake. I had to send The Mister to the hardware store to get me the big bucket of the stuff after I went through 2 of these. 

I had gone over the spot where the leak was the night before hoping that the colors would match so I wouldn't have to do the whole ceiling. They didn't.

The rest of the new flooring is going to be delivered in the next few weeks so we're trying to get all the messy stuff done before it gets here. The Mister is going to be painting and doing some tiling in the laundry area while I continue on with my ceiling work. I've got days of it ahead of me which is fine. It's too darn hot to go anywhere anyway.

Hot Stuff

 

Summer is officially here. They are putting up the jellyfish nets on the beach. I haven't seen one yet but this heatwave will certainly encourage them to stop on by. 

Now that school is out, we'll be getting a big crowd every day. They closed our water park this year for renovations so this little beach is all we have to beat the heat.

Every day they update the beach conditions and I had to laugh at yesterday's air temperature. I wish it had been 46 degrees. That's my kind of weather. Maybe they meant Celsius? That I might have believed. 

Wednesday WIPs

 

Nothing is very interesting knit wise this week but I do have a new project box started in the sewing room. I'm going to try to build a purple cupcake dress. 

This one to be exact. 

Taylor Barbie needs to get out of her Grammy gown and I found this Barbie pattern book on Amazon. 

I also found someone on Etsy that sells vintage doll patterns. Poor Skipper needs some clothes that fit and are age appropriate. She's wearing Barbie's old hand me downs and looks rather sad in them. 

I've also been obsessed with finding those teeny tiny Barbie buttons. These are not quite them but I'm getting closer. 

I decided, against my better judgement, to try my hand at making doll clothes after this debacle. I was doing so well getting some quality things from Ebay and then not once but twice I was sent the wrong dress. This was supposed to be a small party dress for Skipper and twice I got the same big Barbie dress from the same vendor. I give up. I'll make my own.

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

I don't have much to show for this week stitching wise. Floors, quilts, sisters, life....you know. Too much going on.

I meant to round the corners on the Village Quaker but I only got two corner flowers and one blue thingy done. 
 

I said I was going to flip flop the Patchwork seasons and I did. Autumn had the most work left to do so it was its turn this week. It was going pretty well until I discovered that I have inexplicably lost the bottom half of the pattern. I've been using the photo to figure out the bottom two boxes on the left hand side. The last thing is supposed to be a mushroom but my eyes gave out so I'll have to try again with some daylight. The border boxes won't be a problem because all four sides are the same. 

I did get the lattice on the last of the row B blocks of Dear Jane and I was pretty close to finishing the first block of Row D.  Hopefully I'll have more time this week.

And... the top of sister's scrappy little lap quilt is done and Pup approved. The backing and batting are ordered and when it gets here, hopefully, I'll have Charmed Stars finished so I can get started on it. I'm close.