Inktober 2019

Last year was the first time I had participated in Inktober and I remember I really liked it. That's where you have to put ink to paper everyday of the month following the published prompt.

Last year I drew first and then painted it with watercolor.

This year I am using the same little block of paper but I'm doing it in reverse.

 I'm slopping down some watercolor first and then adding some scribbly ink when it's dry.

 I've also tried some new to me watercolor techniques like masking.

You can see I had a lot of fun with prompt number 4 freeze but I never did get that masking thing right. My paper kept tearing.

 I also picked up some new ink pens. These skinny Copics in gray and sepia look much better with my wispy watercolor washes than the harsh black ink I had been using.

Yay for Inktober-it's fast, it's fun and it's a great way to kill a few minutes in the quiet of the early morning when what I should be doing is cleaning out kitty boxes.

Sunday Soap

The Weather Channel says it's finally cool enough to start mailing out soap.

I had 23 participants in the fall giveaway and all of the packages will be packed and mailed out over the next week.

I've also finally got 23 cards made and ready to go. It was a fun one.

I am so ready for all this soap to go to a new home. When I show off the soap I always get comments that say "Your house must smell great!" and it does for a while. One bar of soap by itself smells nice but when you mix all the scents together it can just get weird and at the moment I'm over it.

I've also got some new winter scents waiting to be made. I'm not making Christmas soap.  I'm aiming for a late January/winter giveaway. Last Christmas was such a heart breaker that I'm planning on trying to ignore the whole thing. Winter I can do-all that holly jolly stuff, not so much. Not this year anyway.

Sweet Relief

 Ahhhhh.....

We've finally got some seasonal weather. It's not chilly. It's pleasant. Not exactly cool but not blast furnace hot either. I could have a cup of hot tea instead of iced tea so it's a win in my book.

I've gotten all fired up about my fall projects again. I started a fall Almost Lost dishcloth.

I finished putting the fall towel on the loom and tied it on. Tomorrow I'll start weaving it.

 I've sewn all the blocks onto the fall batik quilt. I am adding a white border. I've got one done.

I thought I had the fall table runner done. I machine quilted the last of it-the border but when I turned it over the bobbin thread had never caught so I did all that sewing for nothing. Oh, well. You can't win'em all. As nice as it was yesterday, nothing could have ruffled my feathers.

Friday Felines

 Since The Mister and I have been playing pass the Pup for the last few days I've nothing to post about. Poor Pup is still limping badly. I've been spending my time sitting on the floor keeping her calm and still. Thank goodness I bought that doogie stroller ages ago. She's a solid 15 pounds and no fun to cart around.

 I do have some cute Emi photos that Daughter sent. Here she is in her meerkat pose. She goes on high alert when there are things happening in the kitchen.

 She loves gluten free noodles......

 ....and a good scritchin'.

It looks to me like she's finally adjusted to her new surroundings. Daughter says she's become a holy terror which is always a good sign.

Too Hot to Handle

 Look what's on my door. It's supposed to be fall. Sweater weather.  It's not supposed to be this hot. When you open that door it's like an oven out there. It was in the mid 90's. Ugh.

There are little or no signs of fall. I'm pretty sure the trees are confused. I know I am. Yesterday was a miserable day. Hot. Humid. Horrible.

 Making it even worse, poor Pup fell down the stairs and re-injured her torn ACL leg.

She can't put any weight on it at all. We had just got the last injury healed. She was finally able to take walks again and now this. We are back to carrying her around and holding her up all day. Poor little thing.

There was only one cure for a day like that. According to the weather people today is supposed to be better. If it's not, I'm not getting out of bed.

Big Needle Wednesday: Old Stuff, New Stuff

 The old stuff is coming along nicely thanks to the heat wave. I've had lots of indoor knitting time. The hats, including the new Icelandic hat project, are all at their crown decreases. Yippee. I'm not a hat knitting fan.

 The Bosc Pear shawl has enough yarn to maybe do one more pattern repeat. Maybe. It's starting to eat up a lot of yarn now.

My one lone sock is past the heel. The Mister was hemming and hawing about a new pair of socks so I'm thinking as soon as this one is done another pair of man socks is in the future. Sigh.

I've also got some new stuff cast on.

That's the start of the Where the Wind Blows vesty thing which is a Knit Picks kit.

All this new yarn showed up last week because.......

.....I saw these and had to have them. Even though it's been ages since Halloween has been cold enough for wool socks I want to make them. They are wild and crazy and I'm going to use lots of colors to make mine even wilder and crazier. The pattern is Kepposett by Heiniki Designs. 

It may be too warm to wear them but I can always hang them by the chimney for the Great Pumpkin to fill, right?

Tiny Needle Tuesday: October!

 The October block of the Sheep Virtues looks like fun. I've got a baby sheepie and a pile of pumpkins to stitch.

 I only got this far with the Button Eyed Cat. I'm using teeny tiny aida which means teeny tiny stitches. I have to wait for a sunbeam to hit my work table so I can see what I'm doing-and that's with using the magnifier.

 Having said all that, it's still a fun project. I like it so much I made it its own Halloween grime guard from the fabric stash.

I've got one more block of Dear Jane done and one in the works.

I also lost my mind the other night and decided to start ANOTHER paper piecing project. It's called Star Rose. That's what hanging out on Pinterest after midnight does to your brain. I put those little pieces from Dear Jane in at the bottom of the photo so you can see the difference in size. Star Rose is made of BIG pieces which makes for an easy stitch.

This is what the finished quilt looks like.

I also have a head start because Daddio left me a huge bin of already covered 2 inch hexies which is what you use for the center. I think I'll raid his fat quarter stash for the rest of the block. I don't think there is a color he doesn't have.