Flowering crab apple trees

 

The flowering crab apple trees are in full bloom here. The next strong wind it will look like a snowstorm of white and pink petals. The watercolor was done with a couple clicks on the Waterlogue app. Enjoying the colors and warmer days. —Ann—

Sweater and jeans

Last summer I started knitting this yarn into a cardigan things did not go well so I ripped and put it away. The yarn needed a time out.  It is zauberball cotton from Schopple Wolle.  I thought I would try again with this pattern called Derecho on ravelry the yarn was so much better behaved after months in time out. I lengthen the sleeves from cap to three quarter.  It was just tv time knitting with no hiccups. After a soak and spin through the washer then into the dryer and almost dry, it shrank to perfection. 

 I bought some new jeans that I needed to hem up. The first pair easy peasy cut the hem off then turn it up twice and stitch. Same procedure for the second pair, try them on and the right leg is longer than the left. Argh I was so glad I used the single stitch instead of the triple stitch suggested for hemming denim. Rip one leg then decide to rip both to make sure both are the same length. It looked  the same, measure again. Turn the hem up again and stitch with long stitches, try on again, right leg is still longer. Rip the basting stitches and trim less than a quarter inch from that leg turn the hem again and baste. They looked the same check placement of my feet, toes match turn looked the same on my heels, put shoes on with heels. The hems match!! Sew the hem with shorter stitches and done!—Ann—

Socks

 

I have been knitting socks on the numerous road trips to see the little girls, after all they are only 3 for a year. Socks for them knit from a cotton bamboo yarn, footies for me from Wool Addicts footprints yarn wool, cotton and nylon, and birthday socks for son.

Knitting on the road….

—Ann—

Design wall

 A little quilt top finally together I had almost all the pieces in a bag of “quilt seeds” leftover from other baby quilts. Fewer decisions when I can start with quilt seeds. I will just say a nephew ( I won’t go into the greats and grands of the family tree) and his wife have a new baby girl. A tummy time quilt with lots of colors and black and white patterns for those little eyes to focus. Rainy days and sunny days, still chilly days are good days to quilt.  —Ann—

A little rain….

 A little rain, a little sunshine and the daffodils burst into bloom!! The little round yellow flowers too                         (dandelions) spring is really here.  Sketches from three old sketchbooks and the current sketchbook.  My models are from the grocery store when they were available back in March. The flowers that opened all the way were beautiful but a lot were duds, the bud swelled then nothing.  I would love to pick a big bunch of daffodils but the neighbors might scowl if someone takes their happy little blooms.

Minki blankets

 

I made a couple minki blankets for the little grands because when the try to take a nap at grandma’s house….the bed isn’t right and the pillow doesn’t feel right and the little quilts don’t feel right either….so next time grandma will have blankets with minki on the back and I really hope they “feel right”. 

I just used some yardage that I had to make a ‘quilt back’ then laid it on the minki and folded the minki over the cotton then stitched it with the triple zigzag stitch.  After we read a pile of story books they can count the little animals and maybe fall asleep. Ha!! It’s a good plan. —Ann—

7 million stitches

Seven million…..7,000,273 stitches on my sweet 16 machine.  I bought it in January of 2013.  How many miles of thread would that be? How many spools of thread? Those would all be interesting numbers and bigger numbers than my brain can handle.  How many quilts have I quilted on it since 2013? That was a number I could find, I went through my blog and counted 135 quilts! Those are the quilts I pieced because I took pictures but I quilted a few for friends that I don’t have pictures of proof.
 By the time I finished the square in a square quilt my counter was 7,016,824 stitches.  The just swing an arc from point to point in the squares and stars.  Simple but effective free motion quilting.  —Ann—