Happy Halloween

 

 A wall quilt from my cut and fuse phase back in the 90's, I did show a little more creativity in the free motion machine quilting in the borders and I used a metallic thread. And I stitched the quilt, batting and backing together and turned it then quilted. I can't imagine finishing a quilt that way anymore.

The witch is in...........
warm, cozy, hand knit socks, comfy shoes................

and new shoes. These are the most comfortable heels I have worn in decades. No wonder Grandma had 3 pairs in varying degrees of wear, dress shoes, everyday shoes and garden/paint shoes. happy haunting ~~Ann~~

How Quickly Things Change

 How quickly the weather changes here!  The weekend was sunny and warm with a gentle wind. The tractors and cowboy quilt was finished in the evenings. Last night I looked out before I went to bed, snow was falling without making a sound.

And its still here, I hope it is just visiting and doesn't come back until December. --Ann--

Free motion Quilting

All that is left if the border of the Glorified nine patch. I think I will so undulating lines like the print in the fabric.

So close to the finish of the tractors and cowboys quilt. All over concentric tear drops. Check out the Free Motion Quilting at Leah's  happy quilting --Ann--

On and off the needles

 I just finished these grey sport weight socks with a mock cable from Wendy D. Johnson's book Socks from the Toe Up they are warm and soft and perfect to put on at bedtime when my feet are cold and easy to kick off when my feet get too warm.

I'm so tired of working on boring yarn. These socks are taking forever. I tried the camouflage socks on just to see how the calf was fitting, they were tight on me so I called #1 son and he measured his foot and leg, His calf is 1 1/2 inches larger than mine so I will rip 6 inches then increase 2 stitches every 3rd row. I need to increase the calf by 75% which is more stitches than the heel gusset.  I thought about giving these to #2 son with the slender calves but he has much longer feet. The ripping will wait for a block of time with no interruptions so I can rip evenly. I'm bored with the blue socks too, so I set out a basket of yarn for my next socks to keep motivated and it helped because I got an inch done only 3 1/2 inches to go then the ribbing.

And progress on the first sleeve. Should I use the grey for the edgings or the variegated yarn? It has been great weather to knit. Check out the knitting at Judy's On the Needles. --Ann--

On the Needles

I started my sweater last week and couldn't put it down, it  knit fast on size 9 (5.5mm) needles. It is not striping the way I imagined it would with rows of  each color separated by a couple rows of grey. I thought I could knit to the next color change break the yarn and pull off yarn until I got to the same color, splice and knit some more, knit grey then pick up another color. I would have yards and yards of yarn strewn throughout the house looking for the right color match. Then have all these little balls of color. I'm glad I thought through that scenario in my head. My stripes don't match across since I am knitting from the yoke down but they wouldn't match if I were knitting the front and back separate either. Some color changes are long and some are short. The stripes in the sleeves won't match either.

I have made a little progress on the socks. I am going to increase one more time on the camo socks for son to accommodate his calves then start the ribbing and knit until the yarn is gone. I'm working on the leg of the blue green socks and after DD finished her mittens she started on socks. She is working on a mini practice pair, I started the orangey toes then gave them to her to knit the last 2 row of increases before the plain knit. Her stitches got really big so I will tink for her then let her knit again. Just trying to keep the frustration level low. That is sorta how my mother taught me to sew, she would pin everything for me and sometimes baste to make it easy for me to sew and if I messed up she would rip, keeping my frustration level low and saving the garment. Cooler days and warm knits.........check out On the Needles at Judy's  --Ann--

Winding Ways tutorial

 Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day with little wind and I tried to sew a couple blocks and do this tutorial but wouldn't you know I sewed it together wrong for the camera so I went for a 2 mile walk and did I ever sleep good last night. Today is grey and rainy a much better day to spend in the sewing room and this time the block went together perfectly. Funny how some days are like that.

 I have a paper towel on a tray so things don't slide around and an arrow so I know which direction it needs to be. I took the parts off the wall in order. I have the parts numbered in my head upper left is 1 going counter clockwise lower left is 2, lower right is 3 and upper right is 4.














Flip the skinny triangles, the left side triangle will be sewn to 1, bottom to 2, right side to 3 and top to 4. Match the square end of the triangle with the point of the large triangle and begin sewing, gently curve the skinny triangle to match the edge of the large triangle. This is such a gentle curve that it doesn't need to be pinned. It just fits together.

 Sewn together 1,2,3,4.

Finger press the skinny triangle toward the large triangle. The directions in the magazine called the large triangle A, corner triangle B, and skinny triangle C.












  Lay them back in order.

 Flip 2 onto 1 and 4 onto 3, I like to sew from the inside point to the outside.
Shown sewing 4 and 3.

 The block will not be connected in the center. clip apart and finger press the skinny triangle C toward big triangle A.

Should look like this.
This backward S curve is the best way to seam it. I tried  a C curve and it did not sew together as nice.

 Match the cut off corner of the skinny triangle C to the inside corner of the the corner triangle B. Begin sewing and curve the right side to match the left side the center seams will butt together. Pin if you like but after sewing a couple you won't need to pin.

 It is a very gentle curve and just fit together nice. I use my finger nails to scratch the seam edges into alignment.

 Press and return to its place on the design wall.  Visual scan and the skinny triangles match in the four point stars. The magazine that was in my big box of  parts is the March/April 2004 F & P Love of Quilting. I ordered the acrylic templates from the magazine. The templates have a notch in the center of each side for matching the seams and is helpful. The piecing is not difficult. Only 88 full blocks to sew and 30 some half blocks. It is a good day to sew. --Ann--

It was a dark and stormy night.......

It was a dark and stormy night................dark and rainy all day long. Sometimes the rain would beat on the house sometimes it was a gentle tap. It was a good day for knitting. Darling Daughter is home for a couple days with her knitting. She knit past the thumb then up to the decrease point while I layered and pinned the tractor cowboy quilt then I did some machine quilting on the glorified nine patch. When I was ready for my afternoon coffee she was ready to decrease the end of her mitten. I had 3 rows to catch up with my grey mittens. We finished the point of the mitten together then on to the thumbs.

 Remove the contrasting yarn pick up those stitches and a couple more then shift the stitches evenly on 3 needles, knit a row decrease on each needle then knit for the length of the thumb and decrease again, cut yarn, weave into knitting and done!!!!

 They do look like warm mittens and oh so soft, Malabrigo yarn. There is probably enough yarn left for a head band. I'm so proud of her.

--Ann--

Design wall Monday

 Design wall on the floor this week and it works almost as good as the wall for a small quilt.  I was doing so good on using only fabrics mostly scraps from my stash for this until I went to a fairly big quilt shop in a small town and this cowboy fabric kept calling to me for this baby boy quilt, after all the grampa is a real cowboy.

 I just sewed and flipped log cabin style until the blocks were big enough to trim to 12 1/2 inches then sewed them together side by side. The quilt will be 48 x 60 a nice size for a little boy to drive is tractors to make hay and round up the cattle then doze off to sleep. And Daddy and Grampa can tell stories about the heavy rains and early snow the fall of '13. I can hear the legends growing already.

I have made a little progress on my winding ways. Maybe there will be a tutorial later in the week as I am finally getting a system to keep things in order. It's a good day to sew and be inspired by Judy's  design wall Monday.  --Ann--

On and off the needles

I started a swatch for my sweater with the Donegal tweed and Mushishi yarn. The color changes are short so I'm not going to get the look I was after. I will knit 4 or 5 rows of the Mushishi then 2 rows of the gray and see how things look. It will knit fast on #9 kneedles.

I finished the Bunny Hop Anklets and wore them with my keds, they slide down a little but not completely off my heel like all my store bought footies I may add the bunny tail.  I will definitely be knitting more with my leftover yarn.

I have made progress on the other socks, son told me the first pair I made for him slid down his legs so I am making the calf of these larger but need him to try them on before I go any farther. I'm just working on the gusset of the blue pair. I'm as flighty with knitting projects as quilting. The weather is changing to fall outside and time to put on the hand knit socks. Check out what everyone is knitting at Judy's on the needles. --Ann--

Celebrations

I think the older we get the longer we should celebrate our birthdays. It was mine on the first of October I started celebrating almost 2 weeks ago when I went shopping with daughter, I bought yarn and she started knitting. Less than a week later I was in the yarn shop again and bought yarn for a sweater. Oldest son bought 4 balls of Donegal tweed in Ireland last summer. I was at a loss for what to knit with 4 balls of yarn not quite enough for a vest for me. Anyway there is a striped sweater at the shop made from tweed fingerling, it is knit from a black or navy with a rainbow of horizontal stripes between. The colored yarns are all earthy, it would be a great sweater to wear with jeans. I explained what I had in mind to the gal in the shop and she directed me to tweeds in the appropriate weight and some others that I would have to knit double then I saw this variegated tweed in the right weight I thought I could knit to the color change then knit a couple rows of my grey then knit the next  stretch of color.They thought it was a great combination and pulled out a pattern. Might start today because it is rainy and chilly.  Happy birthday to me.

Hubby took me out for lunch at my favorite restaurant. We went out for supper Saturday night, I had salmon it was delicious. Son brought me a half dozen beautiful bug free apples from his tree. I got birthday wishes in church. I found birthday cards in the mail, my very dearest friend sent this beautiful bouquet of flowers, thank you Ann.

My quilting friends came for lunch on Wednesday. I served lunch on my mother's dishes.
 My mother bought the forget-me-not plates with her weaving money to go with the blue tea set she bought in Sweden in 1952, they are the palest blue. I used my Fostoria goblets and Tyrone crystal wine glasses, I almost got out the sterling silver but that is tucked away in daughter's room because I don't have room in my cupboards for it. Then I would have had to buy a silk blouse and dress slacks to be dressed up enough for the luncheon. It was elegant yet casual and a delightful afternoon.  It's only the 3rd of October I plan to celebrate a couple more weeks.--Finding reason to celebrate the everyday things along with the milestones.--Ann--