The pile grows

 

Fifty eight potholders sewn, twenty nine pairs that’s way more than all my cousins in the US, Canada and the UK combined.  I used a nice pile of wonder fabrics, I wonder what I was going to use that for when I bought it. Some of it was leftovers from some aprons I sewed. The rest was odd bits. The filling is more bits of cotton fabric from face masks and cotton batting, jersey knits and well worn terry towels. Layers of cotton for thermal protection. 

Many years ago I bought a cute pair of potholders at a craft sale, heart shaped with openings for fingers and thumbs on the back side. I grabbed something out of the over and jerked my hands back so fast they fell off and got scorched on the oven element. They had polyester fiber fill in them. I dropped them in the garbage almost as fast. Only cotton batting and fabrics in my potholders. —Ann—

Square in a Square

 Sometimes I don’t want to make any decisions I just want some mindless sewing time. A basket of cut parts was sitting right where I left it months ago maybe as many as 24 months ago, the pandemic days were so monotonous they are a bit of a blur except that I did sew a lot and cut a pile of strips for more blissful days of sewing.  Sewing these square in a square blocks is mindless except that I need to center the square on each triangle, pinch a crease on each side……. Mindless sewing, off wanders my mind, how can I arrange these boring blocks so I don’t need so many of these boring-to-sew blocks?  Turn them on point and add some tri- rec stars, the math works. I’m starting to get excited about this quilt. —Ann—

A little bit of sewing

 Home again after a week and a half at the river and grands and a week and a half without sewing. I had books to read and knitting but no sewing machine there. I sat in my sewing room after I got unpacked and surveyed the situation. I just needed a little sewing fix……I machine quilted the watermelon pot holders….ahhhh the roar then the hum. The apron and the other potholders were done before the last trip to the river,  we were only home a few days between trips, not enough time to start a quilt but enough to sew some potholders and get fabric ready for a few more. I have cut up the dozens of face masks I sewed during the pandemic to use for the filling, the perfect size. I’m hoping for a cousins weekend this summer and I will have a pair of potholders for everyone.  Happy sewing —Ann—

On the needles

It’s summertime and the projects are slow as are some days. And then again June is almost gone along with one third of the summer.  New knitting on the needles the three balls of yarn are all from the same dye lot they have surprisingly long color sections. I started on the ball that looks the most green with my swatch. Just a few more rows and I will put the sleeves on waste yarn but I always use really narrow satin ribbon because it doesn’t have long fibers that get mixed up with my knitting.  The yarn is zauberball cotton. It will be a nice summer sweater. Ann

Coloring

 The little girls came over to play, well first they wanted “second breakfast “ which is always yogurt and fruit then they do puzzles or get out the blocks and they always ask to color, always! Olivia likes the black sheets and the chalky crayons ( the black sheets wash right off she has no problem with that) Madeline likes the regular old crayons and a coloring book but mostly she likes to build with her crayons but they kept rolling off the table so I put them on a plastic lid. She was very happy lining them up and making occasional marks on the paper. I sat and colored too.  I read in a book this spring Beachfront Bakery: A Killer Cupcake by Fiona Grace about a young woman, Ali, opening a pastry shop and involved in a murder investigation who might have been just a little stressed…..anyway Ali goes into an arts and crafts shop, the owner, Delaney, directs her to a table and tells her to do some coloring while she makes tea for both of them.  Delaney tells her that coloring with her non- dominant hand is a scientifically proven anxiety-busting technique. The book did not have a footnote to back up the claim but I found coloring with my granddaughters to be very relaxing especially on a page with large spaces to color. Those books with the tiny intricate designs might cause rather than eliminate stress.  I wasn’t stressed so I used my right hand.  Ann

Happy Flag day

Happy Flag Day

 

photo storage

I spent a lot of time last week going through photos on my computer.  I received notice that photo stream on my mac was coming to an end, I would need to move things to the cloud that meant buying more storage space.  Do I really need to save all those photos of quilts step by step of progression expecially since I posted the best pics on my blog?  Delete! or how about the group photos someone else took of our family and just held the button down 36 pics of my son getting his dog in position for the pic, it would have made a cute flip book if I printed all those pics and stapled them together.  Delete some more.  Just about all the photos that DD has shared with me were in duplicate or triplicate.  Then there were travel pics some have been made into photo books others in all honesty my kids will probably toss someday because they are not their memories. Some of the pics have been made into the annual calendar they get every year for Christmas and that is probably enough for them.  I think the kids have saved them if not they will find my pile someday.  I worked at it off and on until I had a knot in my shoulder.  How does clicking a mouse cause so much stress? 6000 some fewer photos in storage!!  I moved a lot of photos to shu....fly for the next calendar and photo books for the little girls just in case I didn't do things right and I still have them on the camera card.  Now how do I delete photos from the cloud in the future??  Just another of life's little conundrums.  Ann