Fly over

South Dakota is a fly over state. One day last winter when we went to see the little girls I went outside and looked up there were 17 vapor lines in the sky from planes and jets.  There were also a few geese in the sky. On the way home from our last visit there were v’s and strings of geese scattered across the sky like the threads on my design wall. We saw a couple fields covered with Sand Hill Cranes, and snow geese were landing in pastures further down the road.They come like a tornado dropping in elevation as they circle, thousands of geese. We also saw a couple swans on a prairie slough and pelicans and hundreds of ducks on some small lakes.  A murration or two of blackbirds, they move like the calligraphy of a broad edge pen. Some blackbirds were roosting in the bare trees of an abandoned farmstead it looked like a scene from a Hitchcock movie.  Cruising down the road at 70mph I didn’t even try to get a picture of the flocks flying overhead.  What more might I have seen if I wasn’t knitting.  It’s a 4 hour drive I can knit while hubby drives…….Ann

Machine quilting

 These still chilly days have kept me productive in my sewing room. Three fourths of the blocks are quilted just swinging an arc from point to point. Book club to day to discuss The Girl in His Shadow by Audrey Blake.  Ann

Pin basting

 

Three quilts pin basted and not folded with care because I have machine quilting to do. No time to savor each finished step of the process except to put my feet up and give my back a little rest.  Ann

Off the needles

 

I finished this last weekend. It got a spa day along with a couple other sweaters. Soak in the tub a good rinse into the washer on spin then lounge on the deck in the sun. What a beautiful day that was! I even crowded a couple sweaters together so I could sit on the deck in the sun.  This sweater got a little time in the dryer and came out softer than it went in. The yarn is Cobasi dk weight by Hikoo a combination of cotton, bamboo and silk. It was wonderful to knit but skeins seemed short of the 140 yards on the label it was a very stretchy yarn so maybe the yards was figured stretched. I had to order one more skein to finish the hem ribbing.

Still wearing wool here rain turned to snow yesterday and lots of wind again. April snow won’t last long.  Ann

North wind

 The blocks are done now to arrange them and rearrange them a few dozen times and sew 112 half square triangles for the borders.  Ann

Progress

I had a couple dozen of these north wind blocks together before the weekend and a couple dozen more sewn between this and that…..…I only need 80 blocks then how many ways to arrange them.   Ann

Three weekends in a row

Three weekends in a row we have been able to see the little girls!! We got to skip the ‘getting reacquainted’ bit and go right to hugs and having fun. I brought the doll cradles for them to keep they had such fun with them last weekend. Putting Dollie’s and stuffed animals down for nap time kept them busy for many minutes. Stories and puzzles are always fun and selfies with grammas phone 70 some pictures of mostly foreheads. Then they would want to look at all the pictures and giggle. They call Grandpa “grampa”, they call me “Macca (mah ca)” I think they were trying to say “my gramma” but it became macca.  They can say “gramma” when they think about it but mostly I’m Macca.  I tried to get them to call me Granny Annie but that just makes them giggle more. I do love their giggles. Ann

Fabric auditions

 

Get to work on the second graduation quilt.  The request was for a green quilt but I did not want it to look like a Christmas quilt or a Saint Patrick’s Day quilt or a sports team quilt or a farm machinery quilt. My stash of green fabrics was sadly lacking then I found my stack of Merryvale strips and a wonderful assortment of greens and throw in some blues and purples just for fun.  Start pairing them on the design wall then cut and cut some more. I have sewing to do…..Ann

Fun Easter

Quilt top #2 together before the kids came for Easter, we had a wonderful time.  The snow is melting, fun playing in the sunshine the plastic street markers were used as fishing poles in the snow. Such busy imaginations. Cooked a leg of lamb on the grill, a first it was delicious. I get out of practice cooking for a crowd (only 10) it takes planning and prepping and a couple trips to the grocery store and a couple “oops we will have to do without that”........it was wonderful Ann