Pink and yellow shoo fly

Quilt top together.  --Ann--

Pink and yellow

Pink and yellow is one of my favorite color combinations.  I had short strips left from the pink fan (click) and log cabin quilt I cut a few yellow strips and made shoo fly blocks then I discovered my short strips of pink were so short that I couldn't sew 4 strips around each block.   Rip, rip, rip on the yellow blocks to make them all mis matched instead of oops I ran out of fabric.  At first I thought a straight set then after playing with the blocks and auditioning several best supporting fabrics, yea sometimes I think of my fabrics  like I'm casting actors in my quilt. Or I look at my fabrics and think that would be so and so from this movies and that movie.  I thought on point was best. Spring has been playing hide and seek with winter, its a good day to sew.--Ann--

On the needles

It's been a non-blog-worthy week.  We have had rain and wind, a dusting of snow, more wind and sunshine then I had to dust.  I got a good start on the sweater but have questions on the directions, some of the numbers do not add up right or I am doing it wrong. I have been looking at other patterns. I might email the designer or I might start fresh.  

I just need to focus to finish the gloves, it takes so little time to knit each finger............I keep getting distracted. 

 I got an email from the  library that an ebook was available so I clicked a few buttons and opened the book.  I can be a very disorganized person I have read lots of books on dealing with clutter and getting organized.  I like to get organized but never stay organized.  The book is the life-changing magic of tidying up the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing written by marie condo.  yes all small letters.  How could I not read a book with all those catchy words, magic, life-changing, decluttering and organizing in the title?  It was a quick read with lots of good information. She has clients start by going through their clothing and if the garment doesn't "spark joy" when you touch it get rid of it. She had a whole chapter on socks so that is where I started. She said we abuse our socks all day when they are stretched over our feet and crammed into our shoes,  we should not roll them in balls and stretch the cuff over the sock or tie them in knots when they are not in use. They should be rolled toward the cuff and stored on end, even panty hose.  Maybe thats why I had so much trouble putting them on, the hose were not "relaxing in my spa drawer for socks" on their days off. I should have rolled up all my footies too. She said we should spend as much time caring for our clothes, folding and rolling carefully as we do choosing and purchasing a garment.  Some parts were very amusing. As a fiber artist that should be easy since we love to touch the fabric or the yarn as we work on it.

 So what did I do when my sock drawer was organized? Start a new pair!

Why did the elephant paint her toe nails all different colors?
    
 to hid in Ann's sock drawer!
Happy Easter  bet you thought I was going to say jelly beans.
linking to Judy's OTN  --Ann--

Still celebrating Saint Patrick's Day

 That's a lot of green,  the grass is green!!!!

I finished the binding over the weekend!  I'm so glad I took my time with the Celtic knots.  They did get easier as I progressed.  Next year it will be hanging on the wall for the month of March.   For now it  is on the stair rail.  ta da done  --Ann--

On and off the Needles and the battle of the panty hose

 Swatch to gauge the needle size for the sweater.  Its really a soft yummy lavender not as grey as the photo.  I'll start the sweater this weekend.

  Socks were finished in time to wear green socks for Saint Patrick's Day. And they slid on my feet so easy unlike the great battle of the panty hose from a couple weeks ago.
I live in a part of the country where pressing a crease in blue jeans is considered dressed up so it is a treat to really get dressed up for a special occasion which meant heels and panty hose, not heels under boot cut pressed jeans.  So I get out of the shower and am putting on my panty hose in a hotel room with a  bed so high I almost have to jump to sit on the bed and then my feet are dangling.  I scrunch up the leg and put the left toes in and pulled it up over my knee then scrunch up the other leg and put the right toes in and pull up over the right knee then I finish pulling up the left leg then the right.  I have to scoot off the bed to pull the waist up.  It doesn't feel right so I look down at my legs the left leg looked twisted so off comes the left leg and I try again, scrunch up the leg and over the toes, over the knee, and up the thigh it was like trying to pull a  tourniquet over my thigh so I took off the left leg again.   This time I shook it out and carefully slide my toes in and pulled up gradually, still twisted! I tried again, the panty hose were winning I was ready to toss them as defective panty hose and open the spare pair. Still twisted! I took both legs off and gave the panty hose a good shake and tried again this time slipping both feet in  at the same time. I was sitting on the bed like a little kid with dangling feet  I  pulled them up a little bit at a time while I was scooting off the bed then stood up and finished the process.  Finally my legs were on straight!  I felt like I needed to take another shower.  Just dab with the washcloth  then finish getting dressed.  Slip, skirt, blouse, jacket and heels.  Ready to go and hubby says "you look nice."  --Ann--
linking to Judy's OTN

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

 Happy Saint Patrick's Day! I've been plugging away at this quilt for weeks now and better to do it right than fast so it is not finished for Saint Patrick's Day 2016.  Next year it will be hanging on the wall. I'm going to keep at it until it is finished.    I figured if I cut the pattern along the outside stitching line I wouldn't have so much paper to pick and I could place the points on the  seams. I quilted the first Celtic knot.  So far so good.........only 17 more to go.

 And the back, I chose this green with the little hexagon design because it reminds me of the Giant's Causeway on the north coast of Ireland.  Hexagon shaped pillars or stone, legend says they were built by the giant Fin McCool.

 And Celtic knot number 2! had a problem with the tension I didn't see it because of the paper I was stitching through.  Fortunately it was easy to remove and left a scar so easy re-stitching.

 A Celtic Cross with a Celtic knot

A happy, generous nature, a friendly spirit too - these are the gifts Saint Patrick has surely given you - and may every day to come bring a generous part of all the happy things in life that keep joy in your heart.  an Irish Blessing

--Ann--

On the Needles

No progress on the gnarly, creepy looking gloves from last week since we were away for 6 days and I didn't want to loose needles in the car or hotel rooms.  I worked on socks.  I hope one pair is done for St. Patrick's Day.  I had the opportunity to acquire some more yarns the "pairfect" has a section of yellow yarn in the middle where the second sock begins and the pattern of the socks should match.  That will be for son's birthday in June.  The turquoise is for daughter and I need to get them done by the middle of April.  The next sock yarn is just because I liked it and the lavender is for a sweater.  I'm looking at the Seawater pattern by Laura Aylor.   Happy knitting and linking to Judy's OTN. --Ann--

Home Again

We had a wonderful extended weekend.  First to a wedding party, the bride and groom eloped in October so everyone else was catching up in their celebration.  The food was the best wedding food I have ever eaten  and not just because hubby and I have been on a weight loss program for the last 6 weeks (HD has lost 25 and I have lost almost 12 so real food was a treat and big treat.  Now we can go back to our meal replacements.  I held steady while we were gone.) The food was fabulous the party was fun, they showed their roof top in Greece wedding video, some toasts were made that were humorous and touching.  It was a celebration!  Then there was brunch at the parent's of the bride's home, my very dearest friend since forever and I'm sorry I didn't center the photo better.  They loved the quilt.  The weekend was perfect sunny and warm, her daffodils were blooming, brunch was delicious on her beautiful dishes and silver and little serviettes (small linen napkins).  Then it was back to South Dakota for the Summit league basketball tournament and our  SDSU Jackrabbits won both the mens and women's championship games.  What could be better!  --Ann--

The Red Eye and One Blue Eye

The Red Eye quilt top is together.  I want to make the same quilt again in wools but it may wait until next fall or winter I need some bright cheerful colors again.   As I was digging through the stash for the next project I found a length of fabric that is perfect for the back of this.  The square to the left looks like a sunny side egg on the blue plate special. --Ann--

On the Needles

I have lots of yarn in my stash for small projects but nothing for big projects like sweaters. I started on a pair of gloves. They look a bit creepy right now like something out of a Hitchcock presents short story about a guy who kept wagering his wife's fingers.  The funny or creepy things I think of.... anyway I knit them 2 at a time until I got to the ring finger and the rest will be knit on dpn I'm using a sock yarn that feels very heavy to me for socks so gloves it is.  The label has long been separated from the ball.  Linking to Judy's OTN. --Ann--

machine quilting

I started machine quilting the rings of my St. Patricks quilt and I was thinking I would quilt it the same as the pink and green quilt but as I worked I finally had some fresh ideas,  how could I have missed the obvious?!?? to quilt celtic knots in the background.   I'm back to drawing the house with the X without lifting my pencil only this time its four loops and a ring.  Now that I have drawn it out and marked which lines go over and which go under I have figured out that I can stitch in a continuous line but there will be some backtracking at the bridges.  I taped the design to soft scribble paper and stitched through on the sewing machine so I can pin that pattern to the quilt and stitch then pick the paper.  That seems to be the best plan so far.  I'm going to continue working on the rings and think on it some more.  Funny how solutions come when I'm doing something else.  --Ann--

The Red Eye Blocks

The bright colors of the bias squares next to the black of the red eyes has a very folk art look.  What is folk art?  Just art by folk.  Anyway I wanted to make this a nice throw size and I wanted it symmetrical so to make it wide enough I would have had six blocks across and eight blocks down so it would have had a bias square on  one edge  and a red eye on the other edge.  Sometimes I really like things to be symmetrical so I did half blocks for the borders. If I had really been symmetrical the side blocks would have matched across the quilt but I wanted to use the strips I had cut and not cut more. Now to sew the blocks together.  --Ann--

Snowball corner

It started snowing yesterday afternoon and now the ground is white again.
 This is my use-less-fabric-method of sewing a snowball corner to a square to make a red eye block.

I'm using the extra 2 inch wide strips from the square in a square bias blocks.
I used my easy angle to cut the red triangle and I cut a paper corner for accurate placement of the triangle on the black square.

 Place the white square on the corner of the black and line up the bias edge of the red triangle .

  Sew 4 units
 press two up and two down and trim away the extra and sew the four patch

Perfect intersections and corners.  16 sets left to sew.   Its a great day to sew. --Ann--