A little stash enhancement

 

Once upon a time my yarn stash like my quilt fabric stash all fit in one box,  seperate of course fabric in one box yarn another and then it grew a life of its own. Being a person who likes to be somewhat organized I seperated my yarn into more boxes, one for felting, another for sock yarn, worsted and bulky together  since I don't have much bulky and the leftovers are in another basket. Sock yarn bits in yet another box and also a small basket of just green yarns for knitting more Christmas trees. Balls and skeins for sweaters are each in seperate bags in the boxes so I can find exactly how much I have for a particular sweater because you can't always find the same color or dye lot if you run short.

Some birthday treats for me the last couple weeks.  I heard the yarn at the ag museum calling to me.  They have locally grown and spun alpaca yarn (the long brown skeins on top) and yarn from a company in Nebraska (4 balls to right of alpaca) very nice yarns and so fun to pet the yarn before purchasing. It was 20% off who can pass on a sale!?!  The other yarn I ordered some was discounted and if you order enough they give you a discount what a deal! Yarn for a cotton sweater and more sock yarn.

Knitters and quilters are such tactile people we buy it because we like the way it feels in our hands.  That makes the process of creating so much more enjoyable.  Be a fiber snob.  --Ann--

OTN

 This yarn has been calling to me knit me, knit me, knit me now! The yarn is Rowan Felted tweed 50% wool, 25% alpaca and 25% viscose it feels delicious.The pattern is Smoke by Ankestrick it has saddle shoulder sleeves which I have never knit before and a little knit purl stitch pattern in the front and back.  I only had to add one stitch to the front to get the pattern to meet correctly after knitting the short rows to shape the neck line.  Its amazing how much simpler life is with well written instructions!        --Ann--

10 labeled!!

 

The evenings are chilly enough now that it feels good to throw a quilt over my legs.  Time to sew all those quilt labels.  I sewed a couple new labels last weekend and wouldn't you know I forgot how to open the saved files on the sewing machine. It's not like riding a bike or driving a stick shift!!  Good thing the sewing mastery videos are easy to find.  Ten labels sewn and what a feeling of accomplishment! --Ann--

Teddy bears ready for a picnic

These little bears are ready for a picnic, play clothes, cardigans and if its a tea party, dresses.  But we will have to wait for the weather to be a bit more predictable,  rain one minute then blue sky and sunshine followed by strong wind and a flurry of flying leaves,  dark clouds, rain, blue sky more clouds and wind.

Link to the pattern Mary Jane's Tearoom Candy Bear. This designer has adorable patterns for both knitting in the round or straight needle knitting.  I did in the round.  It's fussy work sewing them together but the instructions are well written with lots of pictures.  So far all the yarn has been leftover from a sweater for the bears and sock yarn for the clothes.  I just love using up those little bits.  I hope they will be content to just play with me until Christmas when they will meet their little girls.  Until then I might just knit a pair to stay at Grandma's house.  --Ann--

Ta da da done

 I finished this last week!! I thought about lots of different ways to quilt this, curved lines weren't right it needed to be something angular so I quilted inside each monkey wrench or churn dasher whatever you want to call it and the same in the center then straight lines with lots of angles. It was slow going I can free motion quilt curves much faster than straight lines.  This quilt used 30 of my many hand dyed fat quarters I still have a pile to sew someday. This was a Buggy Barn pattern.  A stash happy project.  --Ann--

Not killing it

 

Do I remember how???  I borrowed my brothers pickup with a stick shift to pick up a tree. YES I remember!!!  It was like riding a bike only better,  I felt empowered!  Funny how that roar when shifting isn’t as loud when you are sitting in the driver’s seat than when some old guy blows past me on the highway.  And I didn’t kill the engine not even close!  Maybe my next vehicle will have a stick and 4 on the floor.  Ann

Another lovely weekend

 

Another lovely weekend with DD and a lot of laughs, the weather was fantastic for a home football game.  Hubby's nieces came for the game so DD and I went to tailgating to visit with them (hubby was off hunting/fishing again) so we didn't go to the game but did watch some on tv. DD wanted to sew her blocks together because someday soon she is going to want to curl up with this quilt. She did feel a little guilty working on her quilt because it is the color of the opponents but we "pounded" them when she asked her phone for the final score.  SDSU Jacks won 28 - 3 USD coyotes.

Its a rag quilt the seams are on the right side of the fabric.......when the blocks are arranged on the wall I couldn't pick them up and stack them the way I always do which is flip the right over the left picking up the top pair always on top or the way my brain works close the book keeping the first book on top.  I thought to be able to "close the book" and pick then up as I always do we should flip them over to have the backing side together. Well the first 2 row were sewn together but the rows were flipped and 2 other blocks were turned

around.  She had them arranged red / black. She wanted the plaid with the white background in the corner because one of those plaids was centered in the square, flip all the squares over again to the plaids, she could turn the row set around and rearrange blocks or move it to the other end of the blocks -- that was the easiest.  Next pair of blocks......I want to turn them over again DD who is so much smarter than me says why don't we pick them up this way pinch the raw edges together and pull them off the wall.  I'm a visual learner so the book is laying open face down on the table and you pick it up by the spine and stack them keeping the first pair on top.  Yes that worked so much better.  I told you she was smarter than me.  But I added a clip to each pair of blocks so she would always start sewing at the clipped edge. Everything is going swimmingly just a few ripped seams but nothing major.  Now its time to sew the row sets together.  She tried sewing the long row without pinning oops needed to rip.  I pin the intersections for her to sew then she can ease in any fullness because its a rag quilt and all those little inconsistencies will come out in the wash.  She asks me to help pin the next 2 row I'm pinching the seams together and she is handing me the pin I start laughing because I thought she was going to start pinning from the other end. She hands me another pin. (I was trying to sew quilt labels while she was working on this quilt.) She does pin the last two seams by herself.  And wouldn't you know that white plaid that was centered that she wanted in the corner of the quilt is now in the center right edge in the top photo.  No girl in her big girl panties going to cry over that!!  A lovely weekend --Ann--

Machine quilting

 Small steps of progress machine quilting on my wonky churn dash made with my hand dyed fabrics. Ann

That time of year again

 

It’s the 11th anniversary of my 6th birthday!

Let the celebration begin and don’t forget the little celebrations. Like face portal time with the grands three evenings in a row. A quick no problems dental appointment. Sitting in the sun on the deck reading. Going for a walk after supper and watching the masses of blackbirds fly. Coffee with friends, cooking brats on the campfire with hubby, son, brothers and families. Birthday cards, texts and messages and ice cream cake. It’s the little things!!

Ann