WIP Wednesday, but on a Thursday

I really did mean to write yesterday. Alas, the day just flew!

To see my last update, click here. 

Project Name: Vanilla socks

Started: July 2022

Finished: 

Designer/Source: My own pattern

Yarn:Knit Picks Felici

Colorway: Captain Nemo

Colors: blues

Required Amount: 

Needle/Hook Size: U.S. 1 (2.25 mm)

Gauge: beats me

Made For: Myself

Dye Lots: 18510

After the last update I placed a pin to mark my progress from the last time I shared.

I have a row or two to go before I can start making the heel flap. 

Project Name: Stars and Stripes

Started: July 16, 2022

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Eszter Marjanovic of SubRosa Design Pattern out of Punch Needle and Primitive Stitcher

Fabric: 14 Count Aida by Zweigart, in "toast."
Pattern originally called for 36 count linen, in a light mocha color

Floss: I'm using the called-for colors in DMC

Stitch count: 74 x 122

Size: Too lazy to do the math right now

Needle Size: size 26

I made a little bit of progress on the basket.  After taking this photo I worked on this and got a few more rows of the red done.  Then realized I used the wrong red, and had to rip it all out.  Boo and hiss!

Project Name: Edna goes to brunch

Started: early July 2022

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Lindy Stitches

Fabric: 32 count Mint Splash Lugana by Zweigart

Floss: I'm using the called-for colors in DMC

Stitch count: 133 x 96

Size: 8.3" x 6"

Needle Size: size 28

I worked on the orange a little bit while watching "Naked and Afraid" this past weekend. Because it is evenweave I try to work on this when I have day light. That's the best light! 

In other news, since I seem to not post too much about the daily shenanigans, (believe me, there isn't much shenanigans going on) let me blather a bit. 

This morning the sky was a pretty funky color. 

I had to snap this photo and take a short video.  I immediately sent them off to my SIL's. The one SIL and I seem to have a "thing" about skies and clouds. 

I threw a pork roast on the smoker this morning. It was tonite's supper, and oh, so good!

Three on a Thursday, just because I can. 

1. A short while back I "rescued" some chicks.  Two of them wound up being cornish cross meat birds. 

Well, one of them is super sweet, and each time I go out to the coop, he comes over and greets me and expects loves and scritches. Then he kind of stands guard and "protects" me from the other babies who might want scritches. 

I tried to take a quick video and no one wanted to go into the coop and greet me. I decided to go out into the pen, and they all looked at me like "Who are you?" 

2. The last couple of days I've been watching the hummingbirds at the feeder.  I'm up to 4 birds. I think they all chase each other away from the feeder, and spots in the tree next to the feeder. I'm contemplating setting up a second feeder on the other side of the deck. It will still be close to the birch tree. 

3. I came across an article today about "The Velveteen Rabbit" turning 100 years old this year. I have yet to read the story, or see any of the movies. Can you believe it?  I downloaded the ebook from my library today. I have a feeling I'm going to be bawling at some point while I read it. 

Two years in the making ....

 Back in 2020 the Fat Quarter Shop announced the Sewcialites quilt along. 

I thought "Hey, this will be great! I can totally keep up with one square a week."

But I was wrong. So very wrong. 

Oh, sure, I started out strong and did well for the first month.  Maybe. 

Then life happened, like it always does. Then I gradually fell behind.  If you are connected to my instagram account, you can track down the squares I shared photos of.  

I worked on squares, here and there, but didn't share most of them on any social media.  When I get that far behind on something, it's overwhelming.  Only that's not the right word.  It's hard to pull the project out and work on it. 

Sometime at the end of last year and the start of this year I decided I *was* going to finish it asap.  

You know what happened?  I didn't finish it asap.  

I dragged my heels. 

I pre-cut fabric for the squares and often messed up the measurements, which led to more frustration and putting the whole thing away. 

Deadlines were set, and promptly blown past. 

You know what I have learned. I do not do well with any kind of -along.  Well, I already knew that, but this really hammered that tidbit of knowledge home. 

Finally.  Eventually, I completed ALL the squares and sewed them together after I settled on a layout. 

I decided I really did not like the original layout suggestion.  I went looking through the groups and found a layout that I liked.  Then I decided to add a border. 

Then, the backing. In hindsight this may not have been the best idea, but I decided I was going to make it scrappy.  Shouldn't be hard, right? 

Well, me being me, I managed to make it hard. Earlier this year I had taken all my big scraps of fabric and cut them down to pre-cut sizes.  For some reason I decided that making the squares 9-inch was the way to go.  Which mean I had to trim down *everything.*

 This was when I first started laying out the squares for the backing. 

I eventually ran out of fabrics I thought would work together.  The backing wasn't big enough.  I broke down and purchased fabrics for the big squares and to make a border along all these squares. 

Finally, the backing is all sewn together.

Time to make the quilt sandwich. 

Thanks to the she shed, I have a space that I can lay everything out and be able to pin it together. No more getting the basting pins in the living room carpet. 

First step, lay down the backing. That is when I learned just how huge my backing is. 

It's fine, though.  Totally fine. 

I spent almost two hours pinning my quilt sandwich and the next day realized I had all kinds of pins and tucks going on. 

*Insert heavy sighs* Lots of heavy sighs. 

Funny how quick you can unpin a quilt sandwich. ... 

I pondered how to keep this from happening.  Then I remembered someone, somewhere, saying they use painters tape to keep everything down and prevent shifting. 

That is what I did.  I taped everything down. 

Success!

A few days later I finally started quilting it. Nothing fancy. Just some straight line quilting. Cause, after all this time, I wanted this quilt D-O-N-E, done!

Why yes, that *is* a new sewing machine. My husband found my dream machine and at a great price, and ordered it for my birthday a few months ago. Quilting this quilt was a *dream* thanks to all that throat space!

*ahem* 

Straight line quilting about an inch and a half apart.  The lines are straight-ish. 

Did I mention it was a dream to quilt on this machine? 

Once it was all done, I trimmed off the excess and discovered the backing wasn't as straight as I had hoped.  No biggie to me, though.  I think it looks kind of neat. 

So ... I suppose you are wondering what it looks like all complete. 

It looks awesome! 

To da!

The back

I'm happy with how it turned out, overall.  I'm *thrilled* that it's finally complete.  Probably in time for the next sewcialite quilt along to be announced. You know what I won't be doing? Sewcialite 2. 

It's fun to sew blocks I probably wouldn't attempt or feel are above my skill set, but I just can't keep up on these longer -alongs. 

Course, if I'm not seeing anything on social media, I won't feel like I'm falling behind on anything. 

In any case, I have quite a few projects in the queue I'd like to make and I never fall short on projects. No one will notice I'm not participating. 

In other news, or daily chit chat, I met the work deadline, with little time to spare.  At the last minute my internet decided to crap out on me. It was taking ages for emails to send and files to load.

The day started with a red sky which immediately turned into grey clouds.  It rained a soft rain for a good chunk of the day.  I decided today was the day to make a copy cat Starbucks lemon loaf.  The recipe called for mini loafs. That was too fussy, I decided, so it's being made in a regular bread pan. 

The evening will probably be a quiet one. When weather is like this, I don't have much enthusiasm to do anything. I keep telling myself the rain is very much needed for the garden. 

Three on Thursday

 I'm still trying to figure out how the theme for this Three on Thursday goes. I don't have the time to follow the rabbit trail, I suppose.  

When I saw this blog, she said she was sharing three things that bring her joy.  I can get on board with that!

Three things that bring me joy. 

1. Music.  I like most music.  My pandora channels are kind of all over the place. I've got different kinds of Jazz, big band music, heavy metal, industrial metal, Enigma, New Age, Native American, House and dance, dub steb ... yeah, it's pretty crazy.  I think the only kind of don't have on there is rap.  I can't get into a lot of rap.  Some of the old school stuff, maybe. 

Three songs I've listened to today:

I think I might like this remix better than the original. 

2. Cloud watching. Remember, as a kid, just lazing in the grass and watching the clouds go by? I used to do that a lot. Now I'm a busy adult and rarely have down time to just laze about and watch the clouds.  It's such an underrated thing, and I think important to do. This summer is flying by and I haven't spent nearly as much time as I'd like watching the clouds. 

3. Hummingbirds.  May seem a little odd to say this one.  I get such a kick out of seeing them at the feeder every day during the summer. I used to put out more than one feeder, thinking the few that visit me would each have their own.  No.  They all go for the one next to the deck.  I think it's because the tree provides a place for them to rest. 

The day has been a mostly quiet day. My son had the day off and he spent the day working on the computer he's building.  

I know.  I'm kinda in awe about it too. Every so often he'd call me in and ask me to hold something or place something.  So I said "you know what? Now I get to say I helped build this computer." (Cause I'm so clever, right? LOL) He was like "Yeah, yeah ..." 

There is an early publishing day for work.  Paper needs to be wrapped up by noon tomorrow.  It's also a larger than usual issue.  It's almost all done.  Four pages left. 

When I wasn't messing with pages, I was outside, keeping an eye on Furby. 

Weather-wise, it was gorgeous out. Sunny and not too warm out.  Bit of a breeze. 

WIP Wednesday

 My first projects post in a while. 

Okay, lets go! 

Project Name: Vanilla socks

Started: July 2022

Finished: 

Designer/Source: My own pattern

Yarn:Knit Picks Felici

Colorway: Captain Nemo

Colors: blues

Required Amount: 

Needle/Hook Size: U.S. 1 (2.25 mm)

Gauge: beats me

Made For: Myself

Dye Lots: 18510

My first pair of vanilla socks in a while.  I need something to work on while I'm waiting in the waiting rooms, or passenger in the car. I love Felici socks yarn.  I wish the socks would last a bit longer. 

I have two cross stitch projects going.

Project Name: Edna goes to brunch

Started: early July 2022

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Lindy Stitches

Fabric: 32 count Mint Splash Lugana by Zweigart

Floss: I'm using the called-for colors in DMC

Stitch count: 133 x 96

Size: 8.3" x 6"

Needle Size: size 28

This was this year's Mother's Day gift from my husband. I just love the look on the birds face in the original photo. This is my first time stitching on Lugana.  It has been a bit of a learning curve. I was struggling with it for a while and then *bam* something clicked and now I'm having an easier time with it. I ordered the recommended fabric for this project since I love everything about how this looks. 

I have a fancy new cross stitch stand. It is a Hope Stand.  I put the order in for it back in July.  It's an early Christmas gift from my husband. He didn't know about it until it was delivered.  One of *those* kinds of gifts.  Ha ha ha!  

 

I've been happy with it, and am glad I ordered it. I'm teaching myself to cross stitch with two hands. Slow and steady, and I think I do stitch just a bit faster. 

The other cross stitch I have going is for a stitch along in a Faceb**k I'm a member of.

Project Name: Stars and Stripes

Started: July 16, 2022

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Eszter Marjanovic of SubRosa Design Pattern out of Punch Needle and Primitive Stitcher

Fabric: 14 Count Aida by Zweigart, in "toast."
Pattern originally called for 36 count linen, in a light mocha color

Floss: I'm using the called-for colors in DMC

Stitch count: 74 x 122

Size: Too lazy to do the math right now

Needle Size: size 26

What the finished pattern looks like.

Three on Thursday

 Now that I'm gradually tip-toeing back into the blogging world, I've been gradually expanding my blog roll.  (See list on the right). Some are newsletter type blogs, for quilting and cross stitching.  Basically, I'm trying to reduce the number of emails I receive each day. 

Once upon a time a friend told me that she kept up on her favorite blogs by keeping a blog roll on her blog site, and she checked it at least once a day.  I've always thought that was a great idea, and I adopted it for my own.  I've also used it to keep track of some blogs and sites I didn't want to lose. 

This evening I was looking at my friend's blog. I think she's been blogging longer than me.  I'm guessing she's been way more consistent in the daily blogging than I have these last couple of years.  Her and I met through a knitting community website and I'm in awe that we've managed to stay in some sort of contact all these years. She's got some work stories that will have you raising your eyebrows! 

Anywho, this evening I was reading her blog, and I was looking at her blog roll. I clicked on one blog, then clicked on another, and another.  

I saw something called "Three on Thursday." I was trying to discern if the three had to be related or just any old three. 

I decided to make it a random three.  I'm currently working on a blog post about the garden. While that one is percolating I thought I'd do this theme for the day. 

1. I LOVE a good meme.  I'm a member of a few Faceb**k groups that share this type of meme.  This is one of the tamer ones. 

2. A short bit ago I went to the local Fl**t Farm to stock up on canning jars. I spotted this sale sign and had to take a photo. I have two presto canners that I purchased more than 10 years ago.  I paid nothing close to this amount. Canning and preserving supply costs are getting obscene. 

3. Rainbows ... 

This photo is from October 2021. Early morning. It was a really beautiful sky that day. 

Weather-wise, today was a pretty nice day.  I ended up running to the office this afternoon.  I decided to go to a couple stores, picking up groceries and a couple other things.  One of my coworker's came up for a meeting and it's been ages since we've seen each other. We didn't get to chat for long, though.  I was eager to get the drive home over with and get supper going. Along with a few other things that needed tending, like chicken chores. 

The evening has been pretty quiet.  I'm tired and it's been a bit of a long week. I'm looking forward to the weekend. I've got "Murder, She wrote" on the tv. I've been on a bit of a movie cozy mystery kick lately and I've watched all the Aurora Teagarden movies, and all the episodes of "Dark Winds." Which, by the way, I highly recommend  "Dark Winds." Fabulous series. 

Well. Hello there, August.

 *dusting off the virtual pen and paper*

More than a month ago something got me thinking.  I don't recall what it was, unfortunately. 

Back in 2007, or whenever I got into knitting, I used to listen to a TON of knitting podcasts.  As my hobby load grew, so did my podcast list. 

Have you thought back to someone who used to put out a podcast, blog or youtube videos and they stopped putting out content? Or they said they were ending what they were doing, and you have no idea what they are doing now but wish you did? 

There have been many times I've done a google search for *something* and came up to a blog that was offering a free pattern or chart, and you click to see what their most recent post was and it was from years prior and they wrote about something and then no follow through. 

Podcasters, bloggers and Youtubers who you feel you get to know because they let you in to their life, and then they either burn out, or something happens in real life that was big enough that they stopped sharing updates on what they were up to.

"What happened to this person who tried to reach out to the people of the internet?" I usually wonder.

I looked back at my lost blog post, written in February, (February?!?!?!? Really, it's been that long) and I see I did this same thing. 

Almost. 

Did anyone notice I went silent?  Possibly not. The interwebs are so big and I gave up participating in most communities a long time ago. Most of people I want to stay in touch with are connected to me on Faceb**k, so they know I'm still kicking.  I occasionally share a meme or some tidbit about life, but nothing near the kind of sharing I used to. I've given up on the other social media platforms. I deleted everything on my Twitter.  I made my Instagram private and deleted the app off my phone. (Though I may need to add it back on, and figure out my password so I can post something on there about this blog entry.) Faceb**k is pretty much the only social media site I look at now. Does YouTube count as social media? 

The long and short of it is that I got tired. Algorithms on most social media sites make it almost impossible for others to see what you are sharing. 

Sprinkle in a few other things and I decided that I was going to stop writing. 

You know what I learned? 

There is a certain freedom in not sharing what's going on in your life. Specially when you realize that the social media powers that be are deciding who gets to see what. 

Over the last several months I have enjoyed going about things and not thinking about how I'm going to frame things for a blog post. 

What I haven't enjoyed?  Well, I miss recording my projects and seeing the progression of every thing. I also learned that I suck at keeping notes for my hobbies. 

Sooooo .... I'm dusting off the old blog. Aren't you lucky?!?!?! 

Ha, I still crack myself up. 

It is going to take a while to get myself caught up to a certain point. 

Most likely, I will not post blog links to social media, except Facebook. Maybe.  I strongly encourage you to subscribe to the blog, and receive emails each time I post a new entry, or add my blog to your favorite RSS feed.  Despite some people calling RSS feeds dead, I think they are going to make a comeback. Surely I can't be the only person sick of social media and algorithms determining what shows up on your feed. 

In the meantime, just so this isn't a post of just words, here is a photo of one of the daisies that are growing in my yard.