FRIDAY- LEAP DAY

It is cold and snowy here. I am actually longing for Spring. When I finally got home on Thursday, I got in my comfortable clothes and I haven't left the house since. Today I finished a sock and started the second sock. I realized that I didn't have any red socks which is weird since red is my favorite color. This is a yarn called "Happy Feet" which is a Merino Wool/Nylon blend.
It's blurry, but this is a picture of one of two of the containers that I have to take with me with my small knitting projects. It is a container that I think is meant to hold a rotary cutter. I got them on the notions wall at JoAnn's and they are fairly inexpensive. Less than $3.00 I think.
I holds everything I could need for a small project. A ruler, row counter, crochet hook for picking up stitches, a small tube that holds darning needles and stitch markers, a stitch holder and this dandy little travel scissors that are short and blunt and sharp. They are made by Heritage Cutlery.
This is a little notebook that I picked up at Barnes and Noble, but I have seen them in more and more places recently. It is about the size of a small Moleskine notebook (3 1/2 x 5 1/2), but about a quarter the price. I keep quick references in it. Directions for my favorite socks, kitchner stitch, heel turn, stitch patterns and observations that I make while working on a project, that I think might come in handy again on another project.
I have moved some stuff around in my sewing room. I have been looking for DAYS for a couple of wallets that zip closed. I take it to Paducah every year, and that is about the only time I use it. I lost one, bought another, and at some point I had both, then I can't find either. Go figure. Today, when I couldn't close the drawer that is in my computer desk, I took it out to see what was obstructing it and in addition to several CD's and all kinds of paperwork, I found one of the wallets! I never would have looked there. Anyway, that's what I am doing.. a whole lot of nothing much. And I love it.

GAUNTLETS

One nice thing about "Stick Girl" is she has two hands so that I can use MY two hands to take the picture of my finished gauntlets. She doesn't have thumbs though.. I can't think of what I want to call my wooden purse and scarf collector.. She has come in handy though, I hang my coat on her shoulder, and my bags across her body. Not a bad investment for $10.00 from a quilt/yarn shop going out of business.
I have been dragging my feet all morning because I don't want to go out in the cold to the store. I have even gone as far as CLEANING MY HOUSE just to put off the trip. But.. this is my last diversion. I have got to do it. I am looking forward to coming home to sew the rest of the day. I hope that you all have a great weekend.

WAIT A MOMENT!

When I am working on a miniature quilt that I plan to put in competition, I at some point reach a "what was I thinking" moment. Let me tell you. I have reached that several times in the last couple of days, and I'm not even close to half done with the major piecing. I will give you a hint, it involves 4 lone stars with 1/4 " finished strips. I am frustrated, and glad that I have extra fabric because there will be do overs. I supose it will be worth it eventually, but WHAT WAS I THINKING!!?? I thought the endless chain with 1/2" squares was difficult. THAT was just time consuming. This one is a whole different experience.

Oh well, I learn something about every quilt that I struggle with. I'm sure something good will come out of this one. What it might be escapes me at this point.

Breaks over.. talk to you later!

SUNDAY

I have actually got a few things done this weekend. Friday, I spent most of the day with my small group and I worked on my mini sampler quilt. The blocks are 3 inches. Several of my group decided to make a set of these blocks using their own colors.

It seems that the only time I get any of them finished is when I meet with them once a month. I sewed some for my competition mini also. Then yesterday, I got laundry done, went to a movie called The Spiderwick Chronicles" which was pretty good. I put a border on one of two ufo's belonging to my friend Bev, that will go into our guild auction this fall. Right now, I am dragging my feet because I know that I need to go out to get dog food, and the wind is blowing, and it is cold and wet. ugh.. why couldn't I force myself out yesterday when the weather was decent and the sun was shining!!! Until next time..

KUNG PAU KITTY

I made this little piece for my guild's Kitty Kapers Challenge. The fortunes read "THAT WAS NOT CHICKEN" and "He who laughs last...doesn't get it."
I like it because whenever I look at the thing it makes me giggle.

ANOTHER UFO IN THE WORKS

Just kidding. I do have to make a quilt for competition first, but the pieces for this have been cut and put away for some time now. I needed black fabric and I picked up Cotton Sateen yesterday for it. These are a few of the geese, and I have a several more to add. Unfortunately, the idea I had when I first started this maybe isn't the way I would go now, but I have the pieces cut already. You would think I would learn.
Speaking of my competition quilt, it will be a miniature, and these are the colors that I am using. They are hand dyed fabrics made by Cherrywood. Which is the best part about making a miniature. I can make a quilt out of these fat quarters and have leftovers!
I have some housework to attend to first. Lucky me. Then I am going to dig in.

I credit EMILY for inspiring me to start knitting again. I read her blog and she constantly shows one great piece after another. I think at the time I started knitting again, she was working on socks with hand dyed yarns. I have knitted quite a few pairs of socks since then. Recently she showed these fingerless mitts that she made with yarn that she dyed herself. The book was already on my shelf, but I failed to notice these long gloves, just what I have been looking for. I had a couple hanks of Koigu Yarn so I started a pair. This is a scarf that I started. I thought the knit1, purl1 stitch would drive me crazy, but it has actually not been too bad. It was hard to get a decent picture of the colors, but I will try again when I finish it. It is Noro Kureyon and a solid black, I don't remember the brand. I have seen these scarves made out of 2 colorways of Noro, but I decided just one Noro and black would be a good choice as well. That's about it. One more day of work, and I am off. I can't wait. We should build an ark there has been so much rain. The storm was so close last night, my bed shook and woke me up. That's a big deal because I sleep soundly. But it is not supposed to get out of the teens for the rest of the week. So all of these big puddles will freeze solid, and I am just going to stay in, work on something, and watch some movies!

WHEW

It only took me a year and a half to finally finish these shades. I don't know what about the project made me put it off. Boring task maybe? After finally finishing them, I see that I need weights of some sort in the bottom to make them hang better. They darken the room considerably, which I'm not sure I like. It feels like a weight has been lifted from me. Now I won't feel guilty if I start some other big project, because I won't have this one looming over me. That's about all of the new stuff that I have going on right now. Later Gators!

I got some sewing done yesterday. I planned my whole day expecting a big snow storm because we kept getting alerts on local TV. We didn't get even a flake. I am just going to judge by looking out of the window from now on.


Today, we went to the Home and Garden Show. The theme this year was Italy. In my opinion, it was not as nice as the Ireland show last year. But, the best thing is we got front row seats to the cooking show. "Dreamy Doughnuts"

It was demonstrations put on by a local Culinary Institute. Funny thing is, I never heard of this woman, and by chance I watched a Weight Watcher DVD, and she was the one giving tips on cooking healthy! Neither lady in the picture is her. The recipe makes 24 doughnuts that have to be eaten in a day.. The recipe from the show.. not the Weight Watcher DVD.. obviously.
It was fun. We didn't buy anything. We saw a demonstration of this very cool counter top chopper. We were all set to buy it until the guy mentioned the show price of 299.99. Yeah right. Of course, I got a lot of ideas, and saw a lot of 'someday' things. It got really busy early in the afternoon, so we left. Well, I'm going to get back to work here in the sewing room. Sometimes I think It isn't a good idea to have my computer in here. It is nice to stream radio and tv shows, but it just sits here and want's me to play. I have to just ignore it most of the time so I can get something else done. Hope you are all well!