A Little Yarn On The Side

It may not look like it, but this is a cat with stress issues.  We flew out to Indiana for Andy's family reunion obscenely early on Thursday morning.  Because it's such a busy time of year for our friends, how much I would worry about fires with the drought this year, and because I wanted to poison the little vole-monsters who have been plaguing the garden all spring, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to board the cats while we were gone.  Because of our travel times, the cats were due to check in the day before we left and get picked up the day after we arrived.  I made the reservations well in advance, made a copy of their immunization records, and thought I was really pretty clever for coming up with this whole idea in the first place. STILL feeling like I was planning ahead, we dug out the suitcases Tuesday night.  I have joked many times about Theo getting upset when he sees suitcases come out because he hates change so much, but I always thou...

........the tough make three quick ornaments to stay on track: I had actually decided that I had enough lace icicle ornaments for a while, but this week between trying to combat the vole infestation in the garden, trying to get to the gym, doing my pt exercises every day, then trying to get the garden plants weeded and mulched before the next wave of extreme heat hits, I decided that one can NEVER have too many lace icicle ornaments.  It's best to be a bit desperate flexible with these things.............

I realize it will pay off at the end of the summer, but gardening is REALLY getting in the way of my crafting.  Dang it!

It's this hot today, and after three whole days completely off pain pills, I had a rather bad night and ended up back on full meds for the rest of the night.  That's always a bit hard to take, but on such a hot day it just sucks the life out of me.  And Theo.  Last night I did get the remaining two sets of strips sewn together, with a new color order on the smaller one,  and the original order on the set made with 2-inch strips.  I'm really rather proud of myself for moving on to the next sets.  The way I usually do things is to finish the first set, set the second set aside "meaning to get around to it," and then spend the next year and a half moving it around rather than finishing it.  Of course, these still have to make it all the way to Ornament Stage, but I think them even making it to Long Uneven Strip Stage might be some serious personal growth on my part.  Or, as close as I ever get.  In the meantime, I am keeping myse...

Last night my "helpers" and I finished two more striped ornaments, and kept an eye on all suspicious (meaning "dog") activity in the neighborhood.   (We try to do our bit for the community) It seems that we have had our "nice" summer weather, and have moved on to the "hot and horrible" phase.  For crafting, this means that the morning of Finishing Friday--like all mornings--will now be spent in trying to keep the garden alive.  The afternoons, which will now be mostly in the 90s or higher, will be spent somewhere with air conditioning.  I know temperatures are rising and everything, but I still wonder about people who lived here before air conditioning.  Did they just spend the summers naked? This afternoon's stay-in-the-airiconditioned-house project was: more ornament shapes!  I decided to try out some new shapes, and I thought cookie cutters might be a good source, and these are the ones I found.  We might have more, but I woul...

I've been thinking about a new ornament design, and this afternoon it was a bit too warm to work in the garden, so I thought it would be a perfect time to try it out. First, I dug out 5 blue Christmas fabrics, ironed them just enough to get by, then cut two 1 1/2-inch strips and one 2-inch strip from each color.  Then it was time to play with one of my favorite feet: I have 3 different 1/4-inch quilting feet (one came free with the second Husqvarna), but this is the only one I can truly manage 1/4-inch seams with.  While I think I'm staying on the edge of the other feet, I don't always stay as close as I should.  This one has a guide for me to use, and I am happy to say that even I can manage 1/4-inch seams with this one.  I laid out the strips in the order I wanted, sewed them each together with the 1/4-inch seams, then pressed the seams toward the dark fabrics.   One thing that always amazes me with fabric is this: every last one of these fabri...

The new bag has received kitty approval, and I'm actually possibly considering making another one--though with some edits.  The bag sags toward the bow way too much, and at least needs the striped band on the other side as well, if not a second bow.  I'm not saying I'm quite this crazy yet, but if I get there, should I stick with the white lining (which could use a pocket), or should I branch out and match the pinstripe with red: I'll admit, I'm not usually very daring with color, but I think I could make a second bag (without as many errors, even) for a Christmas gift.  What do you think? I have been just a bit under the weather again, so there has been mostly knitting today.  There's a new ornament,  bringing me to 142, and progress has been made on the new sock, which will be either a birthday or Christmas gift for Andy (as he already knows about them, I don't have to be sneaky).  The pattern is hard to see, but it's a nice, stretchy...