On the Needles

Progress during the olympics and it has been such a pleasant change from the presidential campaign.  I had about 2 inches of these done before the start and almost started a new pair just for the olympics but they would have been brown or dark blue for one of the boys this stripe was more in tune to the colors of the tropics.  Sometimes I get so caught up in the competition or performance that I set the needles aside.  Linking to Judy's OTN.  --Ann--

Minatures

My maternal grandmother was a very talented lady. She made beautiful quilts in the 30's click,  click and she was a master at arranging flowers and dried flowers.  These were some little place cards she made for the fair well over 40 years ago and are sadly falling apart.  How she cut an acorn crown in half without breaking it to bits is beyond me and then she had the imagination to take all these little bits, pine needles and stickers and put them together into a miniature  floral arrangement and glue it together.  I remember gluing peanut shells together to make a giraffe with her and gluing corn and other seeds into a rooster mosaic. She could keep me busy for hours. She also made some wonderful pinecone wreaths and Christmas trees, click that I am keeping forever. --Ann--

Out of the cupboard

 Another quilt out of the cupboard.  This is an oldie from the early 1990's.  I made a romper for DD out of the blue iris fabric.  I used a goofy tool to cut the star points, first I cut bias strips at an odd angle and sewed two strips together then cut rectangles.... anyway I cut all right hand triangles or maybe it was left but I only had one side so I had to make the mirror image side so somewhere I have a similar  quilt that has never been finished.  The pairs of star points are 2 rectangles sewn together.  I thought I tossed the tool when the tri rec tools came out but I found it last week so now it is gone.  I just machine quilted in the ditch.  Now I would  accentuate the pale yellow star in the middle with free motion quilting and quilt the cornerstones of the blocks to look like bees or butterflies.  I had so little imagination for machine quilting then but I did put a lot of effort into piecing the border.  I could use it for practice quilting. --Ann--

Antique quilt Bunny Hop

As I sort through the closets I find lots of treasures including this heirloom.  I got it from my mother and I'm sure her mother made it but what ever I was told about the quilt is long forgotten.  Alternating blocks quick and easy then I started to take a close up of the print and saw the bunnies.  Those have to be my grandmothers stitches.  It might have been pieced by her mother or mother in law but Grandma Selma quilted it. She started having fun with the quilting stencil because this bunny is twisted slightly in other blocks for a different position in the hop.  Treasures to keep.  --Ann--

On and Off the needles

I finished my summer cardigan Fine Sand with the hempathy yarn which machine washes wonderfully.  Now I just need a cooler day to wear it! Maybe in September.  I made the sleeves longer than 3/4 length because it may shrink a little.  It has short rows in the back so the hem is longer in the back and drapes really nice.  I had my serious face on for the pictures burst mode and self timer,  am I standing in the right place? is the camera going to focus? am I moving too fast? should I have blocked the sweater first? does it make my butt look big? should I have worn a different  t shirt? so many serious thoughts so I cut my head off.

Footies are finished except for the bunny tail to keep them up inside a shoe. They stay up with some shoes but not all shoes. Is it the foot? the sock? or the shoe? The bunny tail solves the problem.  I am getting started on socks for Christmas gifts. Just a 3x3 basket weave pattern with 2 knit rows between, its more fun than plain knitting and doesn't detract from the stripes.   Looking forward to some Olympic knitting time. --Ann--Linking to Judy's OTN

Saving forever on digital

Letting go of more stuff, the new house doesn't have nearly as many closets as our last two houses so storage space is at a premium good thing I read the life-changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo and I'm still not tossing to her standards.  Downsizing was not really part of the plan, the house is almost as big but lacking in comparable closets.  Funny how that didn't register in my brain until the final walk through when I'm envisioning our stuff in the house and none of their stuff.  My sewing room will be so user friendly with less stuff that I will sew lots more quilts and even be able to access the drawing and painting tools.  Such fun ahead.  Optimistic thinking makes it easier.  Back to work --Ann--

Old baggage

Sketch, sketch then watercolor,  the colors are so anemic looking.

I go through things and toss then look again a few days latter and toss some more.  I'm letting go of some baggage that I have been dragging around for decades and 11 moves.  My large sketchbooks from college and some art work from high school.   The last time I looked at this stuff was the last time I packed 10 years ago.  It has only been taking up space since.  So now I am letting go.  I figure the next move will either be in with one of my kids or to the nursing home and I don't think either one will give me a closet big enough for all my baggage.

 There were a few blank pages left in one sketchbook so I took a break and sketched it is amazing how fast a sketch can be done with big fat carpenter type pencils.  I'm keeping the pencils along with all my smaller sketchbooks.  20 days until the moving truck comes and only 3 more times to fill the dumpster. --Ann--