A Little Yarn On The Side

Back in 2008 , I made Andy some summer clothes in dark blue--his favorite color.  Having obviously just developed a love-affair with decorative stitching, I decided that what he would really LOVE was white decorative stitching details: because what grown man, aside from Popeye and perhaps members of the Village People, wouldn't want to appear in public in a sailor suit?  Not even when I took this picture did I realize what a dippy outfit I had made for him.  To his credit, he has worn it around the house a lot , but not in public.  I don't blame him at all--but last week I decided that it was a shame to have gone to so much work for something that would get him beat up if he ever had to appear in public in, so I have finally ripped out all of the decorative stitching except for just the collar and bottom, which looks rather nice together.  Since it took some serious time and effort, I have counted this as one of my Finished Projects for the year, and Andy...

Thanks everyone for your kind words.  I am really pleased with the table runner, and there are no puckers on the back!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Inspired by this amazing FIRST in my quilting, I have started the next one: I didn't notice until uploading the picture that the right side was folded over, but the actual table runner has all the stripes in the same order.  I think I prefer the first version better, but as I already have enough strip blocks done for two table runners like this, I'll stick with this version for two and the next one will go back to the alternating yellow pattern.  I just love the colors, and one of the best ways to learn crafting for me is to make the same project over and over and get a little bit better each time.  While I got the first one quilted without puckers, I still had trouble with the binding, so I'm hoping that these will help me with that. Now if I could just get all of them done by the 31st........................:)

I have finished something!!!! Sorry, didn't mean to shock anyone. I know what a surprise a Finished Project is around here.......

......which is a new month, so I shouldn't be surprised that the newest ornament kit has arrived, though the fact that I received the shipping notification AND the ornaments on the same day was new.  The new kit will involve some gluing, though I just love how they look and really do want to make them.  I had put one set into my Summer Stash-Dash Basket, and decided it was time to start on them: Okay, start on the easiest one.  This kit actually has FIVE ornaments, so I won't feel quite as bad if I mess one up.  Actually, as long as I get to count it for a Finished Project, I might not feel too badly at all.  Being almost a month behind on projects is terrifically motivating.................

Seriously--it's been over a week since my last post--you would think I would have a finished object or two to show you, wouldn't you?  HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?????? First, I have washed, starched, and ironed the ribbon table runner, and I don't think it lays any flatter than before.  I will actually use it as I've gone to all this trouble, but I think we can scratch this off as a potential gift idea.  I try to avoid giving gifts that involved a whole lot of swearing--that just feels wrong. Speaking of swearing, the gauze pants are progressing.  In the future , I swear I will have the sense to alternate difficult, fussy projects with easy ones.  Going right from the ribbon to gauze was just insane, and Theo only agreed to hang out with me from the safety of the thread chest box:  I think you might be able to gauge the level of frustration by the progress on the sock, since you can't see that twitch above my left eye..... Andy went rafting wi...

Now that the party is over, I'm caught up on the canning, and the garden is going to have to get along without me until we drop below 100, I am concentrating on my hip again, so this morning I went down to the gym for some weight lifting and some pool walking.  I've decided that it must be something about being almost naked around a bunch of strangers that really brings out the best in people, because I always meet such nice people when I'm in the pool.  Today was Wilma, who is 82 and who goes to the gym 6 days a week.  While we were talking, another woman showed up who has had both legs amputated below the knee and who is apparently a Monday-Wednesday-Friday regular.  I think any excuse I can come up with for not exercising has just been annihilated, so I'm going to drag my sorry self there again tomorrow morning.  After spending time with them, I came home determined to tackle that blasted table runner and stitched the remaining red ribbons: and almost ...

We had a fabulous time last night and got to catch up with lots of great people.  I'm pretty wiped out, but I have to show you this: A friend of ours does portraits for everyone when they turn 50, so this is Andy with the one she did for him.  It's hard to blow it up enough to see, but she gave him a mandolin earring, and reflected in one of the lenses on the glasses is a ball of yarn and needles to represent me, and on the other side is a cat just peaking over the edge.  It's wonderful--we had to hang it up first thing this morning.  Don't you just love it when people share their creativity?  I just love this picture. Today Andy went out with a friend to listen to some blues, but I am resting and staying well away from the heat.  I don't know why barbecuing is so popular in the summer.  It was over 100 last night, and bright bulb that I am, I had invited everyone over for barbecued hamburgers and sausages with a selection of my homemade mustards...

We're having a party for Andy's 50th birthday tomorrow, so things have been a bit busy around here, but there has been some crafting! First, R obin had suggested pinking shears as a way to rescue the second frog blanket,  so even though it's a completely lame project (piece of fleece with pinked edges), I'm counting it as a finished project: When it has an intended recipient, I'll embroider the name on it to spiff it up a bit.  I could have left it as a bigger blanket and let my two oldest nieces duke it out over the frogs, but the baby gift bin was running very, very low lately. I also finished an almost-identical pair of socks for me!  Really, I gave up trying to get self-striping yarns to ever really match, but I take full credit when they match out of sheer dumb luck.  I bought this yarn while still living at my old house, so that puts it as at least 8 years in the stash, and there's something always a bit thrilling about using up Deep Stash.  ...

And I sort of got to use the new thread chest.  I tried, at any rate.  A friend of ours had a birthday Wednesday, and his wife surprised him with a dobro (resonator guitar) .  I was excited because I knew I had an embroidery design of one of them, and I hadn't made a music bag for him yet.  After a little brainstorming for something funny to say, I came up with Some days I crack myself up--though it could be the heat as it's been 100 degrees or so for the last several days and it really isn't that funny.  At any rate, the really exciting thing about this design was that it was laid out in Madeira colors--which I now have!  Usually, I have to sit down and go through each color online because my software imports the color numbers as belonging to Sulky, so this company's designs come through as a bizarre array of purples and oranges.  But I had the color chart!  So, after fixing it on screen so I could see it clearly, I pulled open the "warm" ...

Ideally, yesterday I would have had a basket all neatly filled with what I plan to make between now and August 31.  However, on Saturday we went to a Harvest Party at one of the local-ish orchards and wineries, and they had a wonderful variety of apricots that I hadn't tried before.  In general, I don't care much for apricots compared to other fruit as the things in stores are pretty dry and flavorless, but these were quite wonderful, so being me, we bought a box of them.  Which explains why I haven't gotten my basket done this morning either: though I'm thinking I should get a special gold star or something for 18 jars of apricot jam in two days.  And, in case you were wondering, 16 pounds of apricots makes significantly more than 18 jars of jam, making tomorrow "brandied apricot preserves" day.  Maybe I should have made that apricot box part of my basket? Speaking of items for my basket: a pair of socks that I started with a pattern I really...

The problem with being a Type A crafter who feels the need to have goals every year is that those goals are rarely reasonable.   If I were every prone to being reasonable in the first place, I wouldn't have goals for my hobby and my friends wouldn't speak of my crafting room in the hushed tones one only uses when discussing those who have gone completely off their rocker.  So, here we are. I ended the first half of the year with 45 finished projects, just over 29 yards of fabric and 22 balls of yarn used up.  I think I can still make 100 projects, though I find the idea of 71 yards of fabric just a wee bit daunting.  Can I do 12 yards of fabric per month?  And how many pairs of pajamas can two people wear......?