Friendship stars

 I machine quilted this for a girlfriend, her first quilt!  I let her use fabrics from my stash, my sewing machine and design wall.  We had fun!  And hardly a dent in the fabric stash.  The baby got the quilt over the weekend, she is now 4 month old her little eyes will have lots too look at, bold bright colors and little black and white motifs. Make tummy time a happy time. I just love looking at these bright colors. She is going to have to make another quilt from my stash sometime. Quilting with friends is the best time. —Ann—

Ta da da da da done

 

Finished and ready to go to the post office.  The baby is 4 months old already. What have I been doing??  Not much blog worthy. —Ann—

Just one hour

 

Ok two hours the first hour…..in the iris garden dead heading they are still stunning ! And the one hour in the sewing room….that’s all it took to machine quilt all the blocks.  That wonderful feeling of accomplishing something! Hubby has been gone fishing and I haven’t checked many things off my list, so far it has just been the little details of life “don’t forget to do this” “make that appointment” etc. no real accomplishments until my one hour in the sewing room.  Tomorrow I will stitch the borders and the binding. That one hour in the sewing room was like pushing the ‘reset’ in my head. What can you get done in an hour?  —Ann—

It’s summertime

 

A perfect summer morning—Ann—

The watercolor was done with an app 

Iris

The iris are blooming at McCrorey gardens at SDSU in Brookings. I help weed them once a week for one hour. It’s amazing how many weeds 8 to 12 women can pull in an hour. The blooms are bigger and more numerous than last year. They got rain and sunshine at the perfect time this year.  They were glorious before the wind today. —Ann—
 

Writing in books

 

A few decades ago back when I was doing calligraphy and my children were babies I wrote their names in all their books that were gifts, their name, year and the occasion and a couple books signed by the author. The little girls always want me to read that page and always followed by a slew of questions and explanations. “ This was my daddy’s book?” “From mommy and  daddy?” Followed by long explanation of grandma and grandpa are your daddy’s mommy and daddy. We are still working on that concept. I have continued the tradition of writing in the books I give to each of them and together. My calligraphy is not as nice as it once was it’s like all things that require practice to get to a degree of perfection if you don’t do it you loose it. These books are theirs but the books stay at my house. We always read the inscription before reading the story.

My mother gave me a stack of books from my childhood years ago, it was fun to read the inscriptions in them from my grandparents and godparents but sadly those books had been stored in the basement and smelled musty really musty. I shelved them with my books briefly but the smell migrated so I spread them outside in the sun for days but couldn’t get rid of the smell so I tossed them all. Most were little golden books. I still have a couple that I got after my parents passed away, my daughter says she can still smell grandma’s house in them.  Making keepsakes—Ann—

 

Reading list#2 2024

  

1. Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy I have read other books by this writer that have liked much better. Or maybe it was too slow paced after reading William Kent Krueger. 
2. Three Inch Teeth by C.J. Box another thriller, I read it in one day.
3. Thunderstruck by Erik Larson about Marconi and the invention of the wireless radio which send messages in Morse code. Way more than I needed to know about radio waves and antenna but also growing aggression in Germany before WW1 and a mystery. Wireless radio played a vital roll in catching the villain. 
4. The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger for book club a death was it accidental or murder, lots of secrets and confidences, the story takes place in the 1950’s dealing with post was trauma and family. Very good!
5. A Walk Along the Beach by Debbie Macomber a young woman dealing with the death of her sister from cancer and a romance, just a nice story after the murder and gore of the 3 previous books.
6. The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner WW2 Japanese and German internment camps in USA, about friendship, family, and home. Very good!
7. Stolen Beauty by Laurie Lico Albanese about the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt and a woman he painted in late 1800’s-early 1900’s and about the woman’s niece during WW2 and the recovery of the painting.  The painting is The Woman in Gold, Ann Marie O’Connor wrote a similar book, The Lady in Gold which was made into a movie with Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds. I need to watch the movie again. Very good.
8. Mrs. Kennedy and Me by Clint Hill about the secret service agent assigned to protect First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy for book club.
9. Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict about Mrs. Winston Churchill. Very good
10. Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O’Connor something light after 3 serious but very good books
11. The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear stand alone book, not part of the Maisie Dobbs series. Story takes place in England after WW II and back tracks to WWI in Belgium resistance fighters then to resistance during WW II. Good story and interesting characters.
12. The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht for book club weird story but lots to think about how family stories are passed on and become larger than life. Good book club discussion but no one really liked the book. The grandfather/ doctor in the story carried a copy of The Jungle Book his whole life.
13. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling my knowledge of the book was from the 1967 Disney animation. (I watched that again too) the book was very dark but fun to read.
14. The Tuscan Orphan by Siobhan Daiko WW2 Italy army nurse and orphaned girl, the search for her parents and a love story. The book was ok but not great.
15. Start a new list……..

Fun weekend with the little girls and some of my favorite books. I never get tired of reading kids books. DD and I were shopping together a couple weekends ago we found what she needed in the first store we went to so after a couple other shops we went to the big book store just to read picture books. —Ann—

It’s not done until I love it

 A sweater I knit this past winter from Berroco Remix Light 30%nylon, 27% cotton, 24% acrylic, 10% silk and 9% linen. It was a dream to knit and washes beautifully in the washing machine and then into the dryer!

Fresh out of dryer

The end of the day the ribbing is stretched out of shape and I look like I had a tough day. 

It’s not done until I love it.  I ripped the ribbing and re knit the neck with a rolled neck finish, it doesn’t stretch. Then I ripped the cuffs and reknit a garter stitch cuff on much smaller needles. I also ripped the 2 x 2 ribbing from the hem and did a split hem in garter stitch.  It looks so much better. This yarn in a 2x2 ribbing does not have any memory, it stretches out but doesn’t pull back in unless it has been through the washer and dryer. I’m going to get more of this yarn to knit pullovers for the little girls. It’s been a learning experience.           —Ann—

Flowering crab apple trees

 

The flowering crab apple trees are in full bloom here. The next strong wind it will look like a snowstorm of white and pink petals. The watercolor was done with a couple clicks on the Waterlogue app. Enjoying the colors and warmer days. —Ann—

Sweater and jeans

Last summer I started knitting this yarn into a cardigan things did not go well so I ripped and put it away. The yarn needed a time out.  It is zauberball cotton from Schopple Wolle.  I thought I would try again with this pattern called Derecho on ravelry the yarn was so much better behaved after months in time out. I lengthen the sleeves from cap to three quarter.  It was just tv time knitting with no hiccups. After a soak and spin through the washer then into the dryer and almost dry, it shrank to perfection. 

 I bought some new jeans that I needed to hem up. The first pair easy peasy cut the hem off then turn it up twice and stitch. Same procedure for the second pair, try them on and the right leg is longer than the left. Argh I was so glad I used the single stitch instead of the triple stitch suggested for hemming denim. Rip one leg then decide to rip both to make sure both are the same length. It looked  the same, measure again. Turn the hem up again and stitch with long stitches, try on again, right leg is still longer. Rip the basting stitches and trim less than a quarter inch from that leg turn the hem again and baste. They looked the same check placement of my feet, toes match turn looked the same on my heels, put shoes on with heels. The hems match!! Sew the hem with shorter stitches and done!—Ann—

Socks

 

I have been knitting socks on the numerous road trips to see the little girls, after all they are only 3 for a year. Socks for them knit from a cotton bamboo yarn, footies for me from Wool Addicts footprints yarn wool, cotton and nylon, and birthday socks for son.

Knitting on the road….

—Ann—

Design wall

 A little quilt top finally together I had almost all the pieces in a bag of “quilt seeds” leftover from other baby quilts. Fewer decisions when I can start with quilt seeds. I will just say a nephew ( I won’t go into the greats and grands of the family tree) and his wife have a new baby girl. A tummy time quilt with lots of colors and black and white patterns for those little eyes to focus. Rainy days and sunny days, still chilly days are good days to quilt.  —Ann—

A little rain….

 A little rain, a little sunshine and the daffodils burst into bloom!! The little round yellow flowers too                         (dandelions) spring is really here.  Sketches from three old sketchbooks and the current sketchbook.  My models are from the grocery store when they were available back in March. The flowers that opened all the way were beautiful but a lot were duds, the bud swelled then nothing.  I would love to pick a big bunch of daffodils but the neighbors might scowl if someone takes their happy little blooms.

Minki blankets

 

I made a couple minki blankets for the little grands because when the try to take a nap at grandma’s house….the bed isn’t right and the pillow doesn’t feel right and the little quilts don’t feel right either….so next time grandma will have blankets with minki on the back and I really hope they “feel right”. 

I just used some yardage that I had to make a ‘quilt back’ then laid it on the minki and folded the minki over the cotton then stitched it with the triple zigzag stitch.  After we read a pile of story books they can count the little animals and maybe fall asleep. Ha!! It’s a good plan. —Ann—

7 million stitches

Seven million…..7,000,273 stitches on my sweet 16 machine.  I bought it in January of 2013.  How many miles of thread would that be? How many spools of thread? Those would all be interesting numbers and bigger numbers than my brain can handle.  How many quilts have I quilted on it since 2013? That was a number I could find, I went through my blog and counted 135 quilts! Those are the quilts I pieced because I took pictures but I quilted a few for friends that I don’t have pictures of proof.
 By the time I finished the square in a square quilt my counter was 7,016,824 stitches.  The just swing an arc from point to point in the squares and stars.  Simple but effective free motion quilting.  —Ann—

Friendship stars

 

We got it together!  My girlfriend’s granddaughter was born early mom and baby are doing great. She went to help and stayed for a few weeks.  It didn’t take long at all to sew the triangles together then the fun of arranging them—random placement of the black prints or pair them up?  Pair them up! Mix the colors up but don’t put two of the same close together or the same blacks side by side. So many things to think about and so many ways to arrange things. We were just playing with blocks like when we were little.  I have had so much fun helping her put this together and she got more excited as each step progressed from strips to squares to 4 patches to triangles to friendship stars to blocks to a quilt top and then the borders. Tummy time will be fun time with these bright colors and black and white prints.  —Ann—

Pasque flower

 One day last week I looked through my old sketchbooks, I have a pile. This page sparked memories of the day I sketched the pasque flower. One of my PEO sisters had been out to the ranch and picked a bucket full of pasque flowers, we each took one home so I sketched it the next couple days. I think it was 2007.  Sadly so much native prairie has been tilled or over grazed that finding a pasque flower in the wild is a rare sight.  The top pic is a print I did 30 some years ago when I was doing a lot of calligraphy and trying to sell it at art/craft shows, I might have broke even on my printing costs. It is hand painted and I still have a stack of them.  We are having the same kind of weather as in 2007 I wonder where the pasque flowers are blooming. —Ann—