Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!  --Ann--

Gansey progress

I'm ready for sleeves.  Its nice to know how it fits as I go so I can rip accordingly.  So far so good except I may redo the neck with just a couple rows of garter stitch.  It feels too much like a turtle neck for me.  I wish the stitches showed up better in the photo.  The patterns are just simple knit purl combinations of zig zags, checks, diamonds, diagonals and stripes.  Easy peasy so far.  Pick up the stitches for the sleeves tonight.
The days keep getting a little cooler --Ann--

ta da da top done

 I was so excited to finished the borders on this over the weekend.  I bought the narrow diagonal plaid  for the backing and thought is would be good for the border but a wide chunk of it was too much, too busy for the border but a narrow strip works.  Again I was down to what do I have enough of for the squaring strips and the outside border.  So sadly I am out of so many of these prints.  Some were from designer lines that were meant to be connector fabrics that would connect other lines of fabric in a quilt.  The little tiny prints, the orange with the dots and the turquoise with the little spirals and dots and the 2 tone stripes and the red with the dots are a few of those fabrics.  They provide a place for the eye to rest from the larger busy prints.
Now to decide how to quilt it.  --Ann--

Kaleidoscope

 I always have to play with these blocks after they are all assembled just for the kaleidoscope effect.  I see possibilities where the outside segments could be assembled to look like cubes with the right combination of lights and darks.  Some arrangements look like clutter.

 I am back to the original plan with a straight grain on the outside of the hexagon.  Straight grains just make things lay flat with no ruffled edges.
We had a week and a half of glorious sunshine and long walks.  Now the gray skies have returned and I found my way back to my sewing room.  --Ann--

Sunshine

 More blue sky and sunshine outside there hasn't been much progress since that super windy day last week. Yesterday I went for a walk and walked 3 miles the sunshine felt so good on my face and back then I peeled off my sweater and the warmth of the sun felt even better. --Ann--

Gansey knitting

I started knitting a Gansey sweater because I needed a challenge.  The little sweater on the left is a sampler to get an understanding of what I am doing.  Recommended in the book.  So far it is just knitting in the round and the pattern changes are just knit and purl stitches.  Not too tough.  When I get to the shoulders I will do that part on the sampler then on my sweater.  This is sport weight yarn on #4 needles so it is taking some time.  I much prefer knitting from the top down.  Cozy evening as hubby changes the channel.       --Ann--

Sunnier days

I get more done on gloomy days it must be because I never tire of the color blue and the sky is so big and so blue.  Our fall is not so pretty as other years, the trees are not as colorful, these pics are from 2 years ago when the colors were magnificent.  Why is that?  Is is because we had an early freeze? Two weeks of dreary skies and rain? Not enough sunlight to photosynthesize the leaves? Or whatever they taught us in middle school science.  Anyway I have been auditioning fabrics for the next round of triangles for the star quilt, again my choices are determined by how much I have of a particular fabric.  I'm sad that I have used up so many of the fabrics I let my daughter choose when I was fabric shopping 20 some years ago.  She always picked the brightest and boldest colors and prints.  I would choose some connector fabrics to tie them together because our eyes need a place to rest after seeing so much color and activity like the blue sky.  --Ann--

lunch with cousins

Ok lets do a selfie..........how am I supposed to push the button when I'm holding it like this.....okay you hold it and I'll reach over and push click..........now another one on my phone..........

I had a delightful lunch with cousins last week.  One lives in Kansas so I don't get to see her often enough.  Cousins are the best childhood friends.  I'm sure Grandma bought us the fancy dresses and she's got the cute little Mary Jane shoes and fancy socks!  Mine are plain with lace up shoes.  We've still got bangs.  So glad we got together  --Ann--

Go Jacks

I finished my blue and yellow go jackrabbits socks just in time for Hobo Day, homecoming at SDSU that would be South Dakota not San Diego.  Fun facts found on the internet so they may or may not be true:  we are the only college/university with the jackrabbit for a mascot.   A jack rabbit is a male hare and a female is a jill, Jillrabbits just sounds silly for the women's teams, babies are called leverets but we prefer Baby Jacks for the next generation of Jackrabbits, and a group is called a drove but we prefer team or students or class.  Hares have longer ears and longer back legs than rabbits but we still call them jackrabbits not hares.  --Ann--

Socks

I'm making progress on the socks for my kids and future daughter in law for Christmas.  I love knitting socks and self striping yarn makes it so easy.   Sticks and string make me happy  --Ann--

More sunshine on a grey day

A little orange in a quilt top is like turning on a light.  For not having anything planned yesterday I only got one set of diamonds sewn with all the little interruptions.  I would hate to live my life with out interruptions.  I auditioned so many fabrics for each strip but what it came down to was is there enough of that particular fabric for that strip.  Some of the strips are pieced and many more will be pieced and mis matched in the next round of triangles.  It's not raining today but I'm off to have lunch with my cousins!!!--Ann--

brighter and brighter

 Between doing this and that and the everyday stuff that needed to be done yesterday I cut the dark side of the next round of diamond log cabin blocks and every round gets brighter and brighter.  My little bit of sunshine on another gloomy rainy day.    --Ann--

Same design different colors

 A brighter day but only in my sewing room.  Its been almost a week since the sun peeked through the clouds and even longer since we had clear blue sky.  I miss the clear blue sky.  The pile of bright fabrics were still on the table so I'm making another baby quilt of the same pattern from the book Not your Grandmother's Log Cabin. I cut all the logs before sewing, the short sides are all on the left side of the diamond and the long sides are all on the right.  I couldn't keep the angles correct on the last one since I am directionally challenged.  On to the next twelve diamond log cabin blocks on another dreary day.  Hope you are finding a little sunshine.  --Ann--

Borders sewn

Another flimsy to add to the stack to be basted........one more baby quilt top to sew before I baste a bunch I need some cheery colors and fabrics for these grey days in October.  The last sunny day seems weeks ago.  --Ann--

kaleidoscope

 Part of the fun of these triangle and diamond log cabin blocks is how many ways they can be arranged, turn the blocks just like a kaleidoscope.

Just considering the possibilities then back to the original plan, strips in the corners to square it up then add a narrow border because I'm running out of some of these fabrics.  --Ann--

the 60th anniversary

The 60th anniversary of my 2nd birthday!!! the celebration commences  --Ann--