Fresh look

Same coat, 

still winter, 

still cold outside,
lots of snow,

fresh look, 

attitude improved.

--Ann-- 

machine quilting

An afternoon of power sewing, I haven't done that for months.  A girlfriend's daughter is having a baby soon and this might be the perfect quilt for a baby girl if she has a baby girl.  I thought I would get it done and enjoy looking at it for a couple weeks.  I pieced this back in 2017 and it has just been waiting..........for the perfect baby girl.  There is a boy quilt completly done already.  --Ann--

Quilt top done

 First quilt top of 2020 finished add it to the short stack because I like to have at least 3 quilt tops done before I get the quilt frame out to pin the layers together.  What shoud I do next???
--Ann--

End of the saga

These books were supposed to last me all winter but once I started reading I couldn’t stop. There was snow, a good day to read, then there was wind, a good day to read, then it was just plain cold, a good day to read. I got so wrapped up, not just in a quilt, but with the characters and story that I would go to bed wondering what they would do tomorrow.

More adventures and misadventures for Ross always the good guy fighting for the underdog,   Demelza  holding down Nampara while he is away. They are still the hot couple in Cornwall,  their children are growing up, getting into scrapes, romances, and heart breaks.  George Warlaggen still caring only for himself while butting heads with everyone, he does remarry to a beautiful woman who loves to spend his money. Georges relationship with son, Valentine, is strained as Valentine gets more irresponsible and eccentric. Dwight Enys,  the country doctor,  tending the poor and the wealthy while keeping their secrets.  England is dealing with repercussions of the French Revolution and the Napolonic Wars.  Steam power has come and is pumping water from the lower levels of the mines.  Social and economic change is creeping across the country.

Winston Graham’s Poldark books: Ross Poldark, Demelza, Jeremy Poldark, Warlaggen,  The Black Moon, The Four Swans, The Angry Tide, The Stranger from the Sea, The Miller’s Dance,  The Loving Cup, The Twisted Sword, Bella Poldark.  The first book was written in 1945 and the last book in 2002.  Winston Graham died in 2003 at age 95.

I finished the last book on Saturday and I’m still wondering what they will do next, their youngest is just a boy and they have a grandchild. Ross has a title, well earned for his service to the Crown and Parliament making Demelza a Lady.

Some stories are limited to the pages of the book, when I close the book I’m done. Not so with these books Winston Graham has created a world and an era by bringing real events and people into the story but also by including small characters and local events which add so much to the depth of the story.  Each book left me wanting to know more and sad that I came to the end.  I guess it’s time to get back to my life in the present. More cold, snow and wind.  ~~Ann~~

organizing my head

Yesterday I went to my sewing room and just looked at the mess for a while.  The day before that I looked at the mess then knit a few rows and thought about my plan of attack and went back upstairs.

First I had to sew a label for a quilt but then I thought maybe I would like to make a new baby quilt instead of the one that is finished that I really do like so I got out the western and cowboy fabrics lots of leftovers from all those boy quilts I made.  Look at pictures of those quilts to help me decide what to make...........look through all the pictures.......maybe a sailboat quilt would be quicker,  pull out the bright fabrics I need 4 or 9 fat quarters for the boats,  sashing and border fabric if I only sew 4 sailboats.  Most of the bright fabrics have been cut so there are very few full fat quarters............spot the background fabrics from the finished quilt.  I could make another one just like it because I really like that quilt. I felt like I had accomplished a lot at this point even though I had nothing to show for it except more fabric on the table.

Still didn't get the label sewn but I did get the table cleared and cut the sashing for this quilt which has been on the design wall since November.  Tomorrow I will blow the dust off the sewing machine and sew.  I feel like my head is organized for 2020.  --Ann--

Finished

I told you this yarn enchanted the needles. I just knit, knit, knit and it was done!  A few close up because I can't figure out how to use the self timer and burst mode on my camera, the old one was so easy and the selfie thing just isn't working for me.

The little details that make this sweater special, the neck and the neck ribbing knitted double and folded over and stitched with a purl row on the fold.  Love it! and the shoulder tab.....just another little detail that makes it special.  —Ann—

On the needles

Progress on my sweater, the weather must be cold and snowy and windy,  I want to get it done so I can wear it! Its hand dyed yarn and you can see how each skein was a little bit different.  They looked to be very uniform in the skeins and even more uniform when I wound them into balls............. but ....... the second ball was a warmer gray with some very light gray segments, the third had less gray between color changes at the beginning of the ball, the 4th was most like the first.  What will happen with the sleeves?  Have you ever wondered how they hand dye some of these yarns, is it spread on huge tables and spattered with dye, is each skein done individually, how many miles of yarn do they do at a time or in a run?  A mile of yarn figures out to 8 balls of 220 yard balls.  And they do it without getting tangled.  Happy knitting in 2020.  --Ann--