Design Wall

Today is Leap Day! I hadn't thought about it much until I got a newsy email from a cousin. Its like getting a free day.  Maybe I should treat it like a snow day.   The way the wind is blowing it would be a snow day if we had any snow left. I didn't come up with much of a plan for the day so I will knit a little, sew a little, and read a little that almost sounds like the song from the Music Man.  I'll reminisce about the beautiful sunny day we enjoyed on Saturday.  Hubby went fishing and brought home 4 beautiful walleye.  I sat outside in shirt sleeves then took off my wool socks and changed into short sleeves and capris so I could soaked up some real vitamin D.  It felt so good to sit in the sun and enjoy the day without bugs and little wind.   I listened to the geese fly over,   I could hear them long before I could spot them.  I wondered how many miles the lead goose flies before they changed positions. Does the one on the right move ahead and the leader fall back on the left or does he go all the way to the  end of the V? Do the geese decide the order of the lead geese before taking off?  Do they argue about it? Does one of them keep track and make sure every goose gets a turn at breaking the wind?  Do they all know the way?  Then I saw my tulips are coming up.  Such foolish little plants don't they know we could still get lots of snow and cold on the prairie before it is time to bloom.
I'll try to come up with something memorable for Leap Day and hope you do too.

The fun blocks are done now for the red eye blocks.

Linking to Judy's DWM.  --Ann--

On The Needles

I love the way this yarn is striping with irregular stripes.  They make me think of the Munchkins from the Wizard of Oz.  I'm just doing a 3X3 basket weave with a knit row in between the 3 rows of  k3, p3  and  p3, k3 rows.  It seems I always pull the basket weave socks out of the drawer first to wear because they have more stretch than some of the other stitch patterns.  The sun is shining bright today maybe the one last stubborn pile of snow will disappear today.  Linking to Judy's OTN. --Ann--

Saint Pats Quilt

This quilt is just like the pink and green quilt and has been waiting patiently to go under the needle.  I don't want to quilt it exactly the same but I might.  I tried some quilting designs by drawing on wax paper with a stylus.  I could quilt lengthwise lines in the pieced curves but I think that looks like cells dividing.  I like the crosswise lines better.  I might quilt linked hearts in the center and free motion instead of using the templets.  I might start another quilt and think about this a while longer.  --Ann--

Another TaDaDone

I have been quilting  on this since November but it didn't have a deadline so it was my quilting while I'm thinking of another quilt project.  Now it is finished and I think all that fussy quilting with templates really enhances the piecing.  It looks like I have some fussy cutting to do a stray patch hitched a ride on the back.  Ta Da Done!! --Ann--

TaDaDone

 Ta da done quilted, bound, signed and labeled!  I finished Sunny Day with two weeks to spare so I get to enjoy the bright sunny colors.  I really wanted to take pics of it outside with better light but for days it was too windy then the snow melted and I didn't want to lay it on the dirty grass.  It was sewn entirely with fabrics from the stash.  And look at it next to In a Fog.  I much prefer a Sunny Day and this winter every sunny day has been memorable since there have been so few.  --Ann--

On and Off the Needles and Reading

  The scarf is zauberball and I knit it into a shawl a couple years ago which was really fun to knit but I never used it so I ripped and can wear this with my brown dress coat.  The reading mitts are finished and my latest list of books:

1. The Quilters Ghost by Jennifer  Chiaverini
2. On a Snowy Night by Debbie Macomber
3. Once Upon a Grind by Cleo Coyle
4. The Girl With No Shadow by Joanne Harris continuation of the lives of the characters in Chocolat
5. Sleeping Embers of an Ordinary Mind by Anne Charnock  three stories in three different  centuries, 15th century story talked about composition in painting a lot of things I had forgotten, the father of the girl, Antonia, was an innovator  with realistic perspective drawing. The main character in the other centuries were Toni and Toniah, painting and art were central to the other centuries but the stories fell short in weaving the three together and the book just ended and I'm thinking huh am I missing pages then I read the reviews from other readers.  The book fell short for them also.
6. The Childern's Blizzard by David Laskin for book club  Much of the tragedy of 1888 happened in South Dakota because of the time of day that the blizzard hit. It was also a history and politics of weather forecasting.
7. The Shoemaker's Wife  by Adriani Trigiani about Italian immigrants to America specifically to the iron range of Minnesota. very good story  I'll be reading more of her work.
8. The Martian by Andy Weir I just about quit reading this book after a couple chapters but then people on earth got involved and the drama picked up; imagine that earthlings causing drama.  Darling daughter was home shortly after I finished reading The Martian and she had the movie on her laptop and being of the generation that grew up with computers she was able to play it on the desk top computer so I pulled out my office chair from my sewing room and we watched the movie in comfort and hot beverages.
9. Brain on Fire My Month of Madness  by Susannah Cahalan  for book club,  a true story about a young woman with an inflammation in the brain and her journey to a diagnosis and recovery.

Our snow is almost gone here but far from spring like weather with lots of wind and finally a little sunshine.  I should dust since I can see it today.  Linking to Judy's OTN  --Ann--

Sunny Day Quilting

Actually it is overcast here again.  I finished the borders last week then promptly layered and pinned.  I'm just swinging arcs in each triangle from point to point and can do several blocks with continuous stitching.  My other favorite form of free motion quilting -- never stopping well maybe seldom stopping.  Remember trying to draw the house with the X in it when you were a little kid?!?  Little did I know that it would be a useful skill in machine quilting.

And this is the back I'm so glad it is on the back because it was in constant motion as I ironed it before layering the quilt.  Happy quilting.  --Ann--

adding to the stash

Weekend purchases, I haven't added to the stash for a long time. I found Little House on the Prairie fabric, I thought it would be perfect for the back of a baby quilt.  Niece purchased some because she wants me to make a throw size quilt for her bed.  We stopped at the Sewing Seeds Quilt Company in New Ulm, Mn which was featured in the BH&G AP&Q summer 2015 Quilt Sampler issue.  It was a wonderful shop. It looked just like the pictures in the magazine.  She wants something traditional and scrappy with squares so these might be some possibilities.

Thinking about the next quilt as I machine quilt the current quilt. The design wall may be blank but the mind is not.  --Ann--

On and Off the Needles

Another pair of reading mitts are on the needles.  I think every coat or jacket should have a pair of mitts or gloves in the pockets.  I started on the thumb which is really clumsy with both mitts still on the cable,  I would rather skimp on the finger part than not have a thumb at all, but it looks like there will be plenty of yarn.  I finished the sweater!!! Its big and cozy and comfy.  Hubby and I spent last weekend with a niece and her family, she treated us to a wonderful time, we went to 2 college hockey games,  I visited a yarn shop and made a small purchase and started another pair of socks on the drive home.  I taught her how to knit the duffers slippers, I knit one she knit the other. Then we stayed an extra day because of blowing snow.  We went to some quilt shops and made some more purchases next weeks topic.  A little bit of sunshine today! after all these overcast days a little sunshine is worth noting.  Linking to Judy's OTN  --Ann--

In A Fog is Finished

Another overcast day but its not snowing here, yippee! This was finished over the weekend even the binding.  I did meandering feathers and concentric tear drops  my favorite speedy FMQ  in the center and a feather in the border with an echo. It stitched fast. Now back to brighter things on the wall.  Its a good day to sew.  --Ann--

Like a Sunny Day, Design Wall

I was a kid with a pile of blocks to play with over the weekend.  At first I was rearranging then on the wall then I took them all off and sorted them into piles of mostly yellow, mostly blue, red, green and purple.  Like a kid with Halloween candy.  Then I would start at one corner and pick and choose and work my way across the wall and move things around. Then step back and hmmm and hmmm some more.  Then they would all come tumbling down again to start the process over a third or fourth time.  The last time up I started with the yellows and blues, arranging them diagonally and alternating. That just looked like clutter.  I liked them better when I grouped 4 yellows then 4 blues.  The groups of spun out from there.  In the top 2 photos the blues are together but not by value.  The greens at the bottom of the first 2 photos were moved and regrouped.  The third photo the yellows and reds on the right side have been moved.  In the last photo the blues were grouped more by value and the green at the bottom was moved to the right so the two puddles of green were not lined up in the same row.  All the while I'm arranging these blocks I'm jumping up and down from my sweet 16 machine quilting on the white on white quilt.  I could just sit and study the quilt but I see the problems better with a glance.  I believe this is the final arrangement.  There are two of each block and they are at least two rows apart.  I like the way my eye moves around the quilt.  Today I sew the blocks together.  Linking to Judy's DWM.  --Ann--