Thursday, February 13, 2025

Snowday

 

The only crafty thing I packed when I headed up to Daughter's on Monday were these socks. With two little ones to keep track of I figured I wouldn't get time for much of anything but I did finish one toe. 



We did a lot of this.





And a lot of that.




A lot of this.





And of course, that.





Back at home The Mister was dealing with this. We got around 2-3 inches where I was up in northern Maryland. Down south we got clobbered again-and I wasn't there to see it. Darn. Now it's all turned to rain but I really don't care. When I get home today I'm not getting off the couch until Monday.






Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Changing Direction

 

In case you've been wondering what ever happened to that scarf I was weaving, the answer is...NOTHING. I don't like anything about it so it's going to get a makeover as soon as I get home. Right now I'm on a babysitting gig at Daughter's. I should be home tomorrow. Right before I left on Monday some new yarn for it showed up. It's still not what I want color wise but it's a start. Why is everything I need ALWAYS out of stock?



The latest towel has been sitting here waiting to be finished and I finally got around to it on Sunday. It got snipped and hemmed and thrown in the wash.





It's going to need a couple more washes to settle down but all things considered it's not too bad. It's big. A few more inches and it could have been a scarf too. 




And....look what I'm missing out on while I'm up at Daughter's. The Mister sent me this photo late last night. We're getting snow up here too but nothing like this. I hope I can get home tomorrow.








Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

My elastic order arrived so Swedish Folk Cushion finally got it's February grime catcher and a bit of the bottom border stitched. 



I usually look forward to stitching borders but I can already tell the border on Christmas Cactus is going to be a real pain. It's got too many color switches. I started it but only got a few inches before my brain cried uncle. 




I've got 11 of the Patchwork of the Crosses appliqued down. The one on the bottom right is still in progress. 




Dear Jane's pieces are all ready to be assembled but it's a bit of a puzzle. This one is called Battlefield and those HSTs are supposed to represent opposing armies so I've got to the color placement right. This may take a while. 





Monday, February 10, 2025

Huh?

 

A giant Amazon truck came down my driveway on Friday to bring me this. It's my Missouri Star order of Kaffe Fassett material to back the Crazy Quilt and a charm pack to start another. Since when does Amazon deliver packages for other sites? I'm trying to break my Amazon habit for many reasons and this did NOT make me happy. Their trucks tear up my yard and their delivery people toss my stuff everywhere but where I can find it. 
I'm over it.




I suppose I should just be happy the fabric got here because I got to spend yesterday wrestling with the darn stuff. 




It didn't go down without a fight. It took me four long hours. As beautiful as that Kaffe Fassett fabric is, it has that new fangled texture that doesn't hold its shape very well. It's got beautiful drape and is light as feather but it was a bear to keep straight as I went along. It's going to take a lot of work to keep it from puckering on the back. I sure miss that old quilting calico that was so stiff it could stand up by itself. I did read that you really should starch your backing but I have no idea how to go about that. I don't even know what starch is. 




Before I got started on that quilting misadventure I threw down a big towel and used the newly cleared table to give Pup that much needed haircut. 




Much better. We could have gone shorter but she was at the point of hysterics so we stopped here. We'll finish the job another day and get those toenails while we're at it. 












Sunday, February 9, 2025

Christmas In February

 

Last month, after watching a tutorial on making Barbie dresses, I ordered a box of sewing stuff, as recommended, from Temu last month. My first order ever and now, I guess, my last.



It was doing icky things outside yesterday so were stuck inside all day and I decided to play with it and some dress patterns I had downloaded. My goal was to figure how to line the dresses because I hate the way the facings look when you just tack them down. The first thing I learned was to NOT use the machine part of the sewing machine but to just hand crank those tiny seams. I could get a nice straight and very close seam that way without the machine eating it up. 



I don't know if I have introduced Vanessa. She's going to be my designated dress form and here she is in my latest creation. She's not an actual Barbie but is Barbie sized. Every time I buy an actual Barbie to play with I love her so much that I end up putting her on display instead. Vanessa hopefully will cure that habit. 





Speaking of Barbies on display, look who showed up in the mail yesterday. She was a gift from Valerie. She had mentioned a while back that she had a holiday Barbie that needed re-homing and of course I volunteered. She's a vintage 1992 Holiday Edition and she's about as sparkly as any Barbie could be. I was gobsmacked when I opened the box. She's now in good company with my other holiday Barbies. I've got quite a gang.




And...she didn't arrive empty handed. The box was crammed full of trims and laces that will keep me busy for ages. Now I just need to master the art of those tiny dresses. Every one so far has turned out to be a bit of a horror but I'm learning so much from each attempt.






Saturday, February 8, 2025

On the Moooove....

 

Someone needs a haircut before....



...she starts mooing. Aren't those mini cows adorable? 






Friday, February 7, 2025

Eggsactly

 

I did the dumbest thing last week. I put a grocery order in for Wednesday thinking that I had put it in for Thursday so when I went all the way across town to pick it up, it wasn't there. They had canceled it and refunded my money the night before. I was mortified thinking of the poor guy who had to put all my things back. It was a BIG order. I'm too embarrassed to re-order right now so The Mister and I have been living out of the pantry this week. I've been sitting here staring at my last two eggs for days trying to figure out a way to honor them as it looks like they will be my last for awhile. You can't even get them here. 



I transported them oh-so-carefully to a pan and gave them a very gentle boil then turned them into egg salad. I had some marble rye bread in the freezer, some lettuce, a handful of celery and a few pickles so that's what we had for dinner last night. I think my bad juju at the grocery store might be wearing off so I might think of putting in another order for next Wednesday. I should mention that if The Mister had looked at his text messages last Wednesday we wouldn't be in this pickle. The store texted him TWICE that morning to remind him of the pick up. 






Thursday, February 6, 2025

Paperwork

 

I spent month re-doing the downstairs craft room and other than making soap in it, I rarely, if ever, get down there. The main reason is Pup. I think she hates the new laminate floors. As a result, I end up sitting upstairs with her all day. I needed to get back down there so after her morning walk and a good lunch, I'm sneaking down for a few minutes to do something. Anything. This week I tried out the new bookmark die set I got months ago. I have a little tub of all the leftover cut outs I've made over the years so it's been fun playing with them. 



I've also started working again on that little paper hexie quilt I started ages ago in my collage journal. 




I've been cutting the pieces out of prints that I've made on the gelli plate but I was running out of different colors so I had to make some more. Finding my stuff is still taking me more time than I'd like but everyday I'm finding something I'd forgotten I even had. 




Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Wednesday WIPs

 

I've turned the heel on the Felici Bonfire twins. I'm trying to put a stripe on each a day so hopefully they will be done soon. I'm ready to move on. 



The first Bon Amie sleeve is almost finished. I had to turn it inside out to knit the seam facing for the drop sleeve construction and was pretty impressed with the amount of weaving in I'm going to have to do. I've almost finished it all on the body so it's really not as scary as it looks. Just put on a good movie and get it done.






Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

Christmas Coffee, which will henceforth be called Christmas Cactus because I don't see any coffee anywhere, has a new dangly section. I finished page 5 of the pattern and am now heading to the bottom border.



I do have a dedicated February project that got dusted off this week. I finished the flower ring around the couple. 




I started it last February but didn't get too far. What I really want to do is make it its own Valentine's Day grime catcher but I'm out of elastic at the moment.





I've got 4 more of the Patchwork of the Crosses blocks appliqued down. 20 to go.





And.....Dear Jane is spending a lot of time under the bean can I use to flatten those seams. I've only got four more of those teeny tiny HST to sew together and then I get to assemble the whole thing. That looks pretty scary right now because there are a LOT of seams. What are the chances they are all going to line up? Slim to none.










Monday, February 3, 2025

Mr. Chill

 

Only recently did I discover that this guy had a name. On the front of the pattern he is called Mr. Chill and as you can see he is almost finished. I just need to do that corner and then put a border around him. 




I usually put him away in February and get out his one but truth be told, I'm not crazy about this one and I really like Mr. Chill. 




He fits in nicely with the theme we've got going on the dining room table. Down at one end The Mister is working on his ski lodge puzzle and on the other it's me and Mr. Chill.  It's been a nice morning routine to make coffee and then putter together with our projects. It's one of the few advantages about growing old, plenty of putter time. For now anyway. The plumber was here on Friday to tell us how to get started on the big bathroom re-do. As soon as we get the thumbs up on the new shower design we picked out it will be time to start ripping stuff out-again.






Sunday, February 2, 2025

Sloppy Seconds

 

I was changing out the blue January linens for the red and pink February linens when I noticed I needed another one of those mug rug things I use to keep my quartz counter tops from clattering when you sit glassware or metal on them. The Mister hates that sound. It is annoying. 



Since I still had the pile of Valentine's Day material sitting out I went ahead and made another one in the short time that it took The Mister to take the trash to the dump and then run by the grocery store to pick up a few items for dinner. I wasn't careful in lining up those blocks. I didn't even iron all those seams out as I went.  I wasn't too precise with my machine quilting either. I just threw it all together in a mad rush only to find....it looks as good as the ones that took me forever to make back in 2023. 






Saturday, February 1, 2025

February

 

One year ago today this quilt was just an idle thought and a pile of scraps. Now it's finished and I can hardly believe it. It's just a small thing but it was a lot of work paper piecing and then hand stitching those blocks. It's destined for the back of the couch to coordinate with all the linen changes I do for this month. 



It crinkled up nicely in the wash and I am very happy to say there are no signs of any dreaded puckers. Thank goodness. 











Friday, January 31, 2025

All's Well That Ends Well

 

The quilting drama wasn't the only crazy thing happening last week. I also had scarf drama going on. By the looks of this, it would seem that everything was going along just fine but it wasn't. It was too narrow. I figured that I needed at least another 2 inches in width to make it useful as a scarf. 



I un-wove what I had done and then warped another couple of inches of yarn. My plan was to try to add on to what I had. I've seen people do this but I never have done it so it was a bit scary. 




I had to wind what I had on there already to the back of the loom so I could add the new yarn.




Then I had to wind it back to the front so I could thread it and tie it on. 



It seems like it worked. I've got 7 inches of width now which seems like a better size for a man's scarf. After I had that sorted out, I would have liked to have been further along but a certain naughty quilt and a leaking kitchen sink took up a great deal of time this week. Quilt's almost finished, sink's still leaking. Sigh.....