1000 posts

I’ve got nothing profound or monumental for my 1000th post even though I have been thinking about this for weeks.  It has taken me 10 years to hit that number. Blogging motivates me to finish projects, to learn something new and share the successes and find humor in the failures.  It has been a great way to connect with like minded people. I’m still making important the little things, finding the beauty,  looking at the details and making it a memory.  And we all know the memory is not as sharp at it used to be.  Celebrating 1000 posts today.  --Ann--

knitting

The blue sweater has been ripped!!!! And starting over with a pattern that I like the way it fits.  I made with in a coral cotton yarn and have worn it a lot and I love the way the blue feels and the way it washed.  One of those great things about yarn and knitting its not done until you love it.  I hope to be wearing it this fall.  #6 of shawls for son's fiance' its over half done and will be done before September.  Sticks and string --- a happy place --Ann--

another one done #4

 Another one done and I'm done with these plaids for a while.   There are some leftover blocks and segments and a few yards yet to be used.  Those will have to wait until I'm in the mood for plaids again.  I passed the 5 million stitch number on my sweet 16 machine! --Ann--

little things

Maple seeds.

Fashion show

Lavender is Hempathy yarn,  green and gold is Zauberball,  blue and grey is 2 strands of sock yarn scraps  held together,  last is Pappagallo 50 cotton 50 microfiber
Same person,  same sweater pattern,  different yarns  --Ann--

another finish this week

This is the fourth time I have knit this sweater pattern called Fine Sand.  Some things are worth repeating and I like the way it fits and drapes.  You never know what multi colored / self striping yarn is going to do.  The longer the rows got the more the colors stacked and kept stacking up, one side of the front is blue and the other is tan.  The sleeves are striped.  The yarn is Lana Grossa Pappagallo cotton and microfiber.  The evenings are getting cooler I'll be wearing it soon.  --Ann--

Pondering and the back side of August

I slept late the other morning, there were four digits on the clock -- that late. I took my coffee to the deck to soak up some vitamin D, I think the deck faces southwest so it is late morning when the sun was hitting it, our house is not square to the world so it makes me more directionally challenged than usual. It was a beautiful morning too bad I missed most of it, bright blue sky, no wind, no bugs  and comfortable temp, the birds were chirping, a goldfinch was sitting at the very top of the maple tree. Too far away for a photo then it flew and a red finch took its place and then another joined it.  The tips of the maple are starting to turn color.  Too soon for me. Does that mean we are going to have an early fall and earlier winter?  I hope it just means we are going to have a more colorful fall.  Wet summers do that to our trees here.  Savoring the rest of the summer  --Ann--

tadada done #3

 Slow quilting on this quilt but in the quilt's defense it is a queen size and 90 inches square.  It took time, and going is slow is better than ripping.  Its a simple design, simple piecing and needed simple quilting just an arc from corner to corner and the same in the border.  Red, Black and Plaid is what I am calling this quilt.  --Ann--

Mismatched

Mismatched socks from the same ball of yarn!  The red skein is the one  from which these socks were knit.  I wound it into one ball and worked from both ends and they never came close to matching.

  A scarf would have been a better choice for this yarn.  They are done and I'm not going to rip.  My niece picked out the yarn for gloves after I bullied her into picking out something more colorful.  I knit as far as the cuffs of the gloves then decided to order the yarn that she origionally picked for gloves, a self striping grey.  They go with her black coat and her grey coat and her other grey jacket.  A small finish this week.  --Ann--

Sunflowers

I don't think there is anything that says August better than sunflowers except maybe sweet corn.

         























I pulled weeds and trim the iris at Mc Crory Gardens this morning, I got there early so I could look at the flowers and left a trail of foot prints across the dew covered grass.  The sunflowers were spectacular its fun to see what the seed people have done to change the color of the blossoms.  I still like the bright yellow best.   The upper left blossom just looks anemic with the pale yellow and rust.  The lower right flower is brighter in the photo than it was in person.  I always thought the short wild sunflowers were like a class of second graders with their faces looking every direction.  I hope you are enjoying August its slipping away too fast for me.  --Ann--

Some little things

 Some days its the little things that need to be recorded like enjoying a cup of coffee on the deck in the sunshine and a little breeze or sketching the stuff around me just because I can.   And then there are those other little things like how can something as tiny as lint cause so much trouble in the bobbin case?  Or mosquitoes, gnats and flies, so tiny but a huge annoyance?  Or how can a bug the size of a cicada make so much noise that it can stop a conversation?  Sometimes I wonder about these little things because the big things in the world are beyond me.    Prayers for our country.
 --Ann--

A good start

 I machine quilted about half of this quilt Red Black and Plaid yesterday, 3 bobbins worth of thread.  I'm just stitching an arc from corner to corner I think it is called the orange peel design.  The backing fabric is a rich burgundy color not orange the way it showed up in the photo.  Can you see I have worn the rubber coating off these garden gloves from free motion quilting?  They make it so much easier on the arms and shoulders I can quilt for hours or at least 3 bobbins of thread.
--Ann--

Another one done

 This is machine quilted with the concentric tear drops that I do so often with isocord thread on top and maxilock on the bobbin.  There is so little lint with either of those threads that I just put my foot down and sew.  I found a couple lengths of binding in the leftover box that were just right for this quilt.  Add it to the stack.  Don't you just love August with sweet corn,  peaches, vine ripe watermelon and tomatoes.  No holidays in August just the best food everyday.  --Ann--