On the Needles

I didn't think I would make enough progress on these socks to post anything today but I finished the first heel turn!!!!! and it was easy!!!!! Need to do some work in the garden while it is still cool this morning then my reward will be to do the other heel this afternoon when it gets hot out. But first a quick peek at what everyone is knitting at Patchwork Times.  ~~Ann~~

August Color Challenge

August Color Challenge is finished!! Ready to send to the new baby boy! Had it not been for Vicki's August color palette I probably wouldn't have put the dark brown in the quilt. I do like it. The red feather fabric is completely gone. Yippeeeee! And my cow dogs are gone too. Boohoo. I free motion quilted it with stars and loops and a red, white and blue thread.  --Ann--  just linking up to Judy at Patchwork Times

Color challenge finish

This quilt was inspired by the  May Color palette challenge by Vicki. My fabrics are muted compared to Vicki's inspiration. I think mine looks like a summer salad with tomatoes and lettuce and carrots. It is just tri rec stars with nine patches and a double nine patch in the alternating blocks. I free motion quilted it using a varigated  thread. I mostly swung an arc from point to point with some loops. I used a bamboo quilt bat, it quilted really nice, its heavier than the cotton batting I usually use. It was cozy to sit under while I sewed the binding by hand. 95 outside but Hubby had the ac blasting. Ready for cooler days.  --Ann--

Design Wall Monday

Design wall photo op. I sold this quilt on etsy and just wanted to be sure I had photos of it since all were lost when my hard drive crashed last spring. The block is called northwind but it is also called corn and beans, because I chose cool blues I call the quilt Northwind. I used 6" x 18" strips of fabrics from bales that I purchased at quilt guild several years ago, it was a fundraiser through a company called Merryvale, they would buy a complete line of fabrics and quilt guilds could order packages of 6 inch squares or 6" x 18" bales of the collections, there was a new collection each month and the guild got a portion of the cost. I sorted out the blues, purples, greens, pinks and a few greens and yellows from my many bales. I paired them then cut the large triangles and smaller triangles, each pair made 2 blocks with a few HST leftover for the borders, I did have to cut a couple strips just for the borders. To make order out of the chaos I grouped the colors together which created a very pleasing movement of light and dark across the quilt. So I say good bye to this quilt as I ship it to its new home. --Ann--  Check and see what everyone else is doing at Patchwork Times.

on the needles toe up socks

 I'm trying toe up socks. They are both from skeins of yarn with the same dye lot even though they don't look it. One I am pulling from the inside the other I couldn't find the inside end so I'm unwinding from the outside of that ball.  My gradation of color will be opposite.  Good thing they aren't for Mr. Monk he would have a hard time with socks that are not symmetrical. Ready to turn the heel and watching lots of  u tube videos. Any advice on the heel would be welcome and greatly appreciated. ~~Ann~~ P.S.  One year ago today I started my blog. Happy Blog Day to  me! See what else is on the needles at Patchwork Times.

Savoring August

Isn't August just the best month to eat!?! There are so many fresh and locally grown fruits and vegetables. I'm still picking peas from my garden and beets and summer squash and zucchini, and the new potatoes are ready. Then there are the melons. I hardly ever buy a watermelon before August, an August melon is worth the wait. And peaches in August the yellow kind that are sweet and juicy, not the pretty red peaches of July that look nice in a still life. Growing up the kettle was heating on the stove as we brought sweet corn in from the field and we didn't waste a minute. Savoring the sweetness of August. --Ann--

Morning Glories

Monday Morning Glories!!  -Ann-

on the needles

Olympic knitting. What if knitting were an Olympic event..........hmmm.............
Commentators: "there has been a lot of controversy over needles and number of needles an Olympian can use single points or double points,  2, 4 or 5  needles  or  circular cable needles or the  magic loop. I really don't think they should be allowed to use magic."
Expert:  It really depends on what a person is knitting. The magic loop is just a long cable.
C:  Then there is English style and Continental style knitting some think they should be 2 separate events.
E: If you are knitting for technique both styles are pretty equal but in speed knitting the continental style knitters are faster.
C: Why the big difference?
E: With the English Style the knitter is throwing the yarn over the right needle with her right hand or finger. Continental knitters carry the yarn over their left forefinger and pick it up with the right needle, there is very little movement of the needles in the continental method. Some refer to the English Style as throwers and the continental as pickers. Now lets go down to the easy chairs to see how things are going. 
C: An event in easy chairs maybe I'll take up knitting, not only that they are watching tv! watching us on tv, watching themselves!
E: "Nitta is using the upside down V cast on, Pearl is using the backward loop and Ann of course I made it into the Medal round its my fantasy is doing a backward loop with a twist and a flip, she seems to be getting the same results." Nitta has a real flare for casting on the way she drops the yarns between each stitch and straightens the yarn and lines up each stitch in a perfect row, very dramatic. Pearl has a nice rhythm going very uniform.  Ann is just about to the end of her tail.
C: Now they are ready to knit. Nitta has the yarn over her left finger she must be a picker. Pearl is having a bit of a time getting her needle into her first stitch. Ann had the yarn in her right hand wait a minute she is switching to her left Is that legal? 
E: I understand Ann learned to knit when she was 8 or 9 years old and has gone decades without knitting a stitch.  She seems to know what she is doing but she keeps switching the yarn from her right to her left. Nitta's stitches are very relaxed the needle just fell out of her knitting! 
C: can you believe that she calmly picked it up and slid it back in and didn't drop a single stitch. The pressure of competition is getting to Pearl, her stitches are too tight to knit. Ann just switched to her left hand again, she's picking up the remote with her right and changing channels.........
These Olympics were long, too long I did another pair of mittens.  Don't you just hate it when someone takes a perfectly good recreation and takes all the fun out of it by turning it into a serious competition?!? I hate when that happens.

 I need to add the tassel and brush and felt them to really be Lovikka Mittens.
Expert opinions are purely my own through minutes of research. 
  Here is a link to Judy to see what everyone is knitting. --Ann--

accent borders and auditions

Accent borders are like a mat with a beveled edge or a double mat on a framed piece of art, just a little inset of color between the blocks and the border to draw your eye into the quilt.

Its hard to sew a very narrow border to a quilt. Which way do you press the seams? The slightest change in seam width or fabric grain makes it look crooked.

Cut  1 inch  wide strips of fabric for the accent strip to go around the quilt, sew with a diagonal seam for less bulk.

trim seams and press open and press in half so it is 1/2 inch wide.

Stitch to quilt with a seam less than 1/4 inch wide. I moved my needle to the right so I can still use the edge of the presser foot as a guide.
I cut a 2 inch strip for the brown border.  Sew all four sides and press.

 I auditioned possible border fabrics again because it does look different with a larger view. As much as I like the stars I eliminated them because the stars are white white and the light fabrics in the quilt are all cream or tan. The stars were too white.

Stitch border on top of accent strip with 1/4 inch seam, which will cover up the short 1/4 inch seam that was used to sew the accent strip to the first border.  Press borders and finish the quilt.  On some quilts I have free motion quilted over the accent border on others I have pulled it back and stitched under it.  This little inset looks even and straight, more so than a narrow border that has been seamed on both sides.

Ready to layer, baste and machine quilt.  Happy quilting, Ann

Yellow flowers and yellow dog

A perfect summer evening, cooler temps, light breeze and a walk with son's dog. She waited so patiently while I snapped a few photos of yellow flowers. She didn't tell me to hurry, she didn't tell me I had taken enough., she didn't ask me why or what for, she was the perfect walking companion on a perfect summer evening. --Ann--

If God took time to create beauty, how can we be too busy to appreciate it.   Randall B. Corbin

Design Wall Monday

Border decisions and lots of possibilities please share your opinion and why

I'm torn between the dark brown and the tiny medium blue stars for the inner border, then the red accent border, I like the boot fabric for the border but that's a lot of boots. I also really like the stars, cowboys have always been a patriotic bunch.  I would looove to hear your ideas. --Ann--
link to Patchworktimes DWM

old buildings and roots Ireland

My great grand parents came to America in the late 1800's. They had 5 or 6  children in America then went back to Ireland and had a few more.  My grandfather was born in the US so he returned in the 1920's and worked as a farm hand then his father came over and helped him buy a farm. Grandfather and a brother farmed together, the brother never married so he made several trips to the old country and told stories of family on both sides of the ocean. He encouraged my dad and his siblings to write to cousins in Ireland There were 12 cousins in 4 families who got acquainted through letters and still keep in touch. My great uncle encouraged me to write to my second cousins. And now the next generation is facebooking. By the end of our trip daughter could name most of my grandfather's siblings 11 total and knew who belonged to who in the next generations.
Painting of Grange where my grandfather grew up, the gate  was too grown over with weeds to see the front. The back side of Grange over 200 years old.
Fanad, 300 year old farm owned by my 5th great grandfather  and was in the family until the mid 1900's.  The view those generations saw.

standing beside a fuchsia hedge.  end of vacations pics.--Ann--