LAST DAY OF JULY

I finished this bag this evening with the little bit of Knitmare on Elm Street fabric that I could find. The skull print I got at Hancocks of Paducah, and I was lucky to find the large print in an Etsy shop. The polkadot is a Moda.
I am going to use it as a bag for my knitting. It has several pockets in the inside. I need to find an appropriate large button for the front, but other than that I actually finished it.

I am at the start of my 3 day weekend. I have three small quilts that I have to finish since I waited until the last possible minute to do them.. as usual. When I am finished with those, I am free as a bird. I hope that all of your have a great weekend!

THANKS UNCLE SAM

Several months ago, I started getting form letters from some "government" office in Texas. It said it was the Department of Education. They said they wanted to send me money but they needed my bank account numbers. Of course, being the distrustful person I am in these matters, I turned the address in to the USPS for mail fraud. I kept getting the letters, and I ignored them. Then a few months ago, I got several phone calls, they left messages, but I didn't respond. Finally, when another letter came in the mail, I scrawled on it " If I overpaid on my student loan, you have all of my information listed, either send me a check, or keep it, but don't try to contact me again because I'm not giving you any more information". Well, the check came in the mail today. Boy, do I feel stupid. But, who would expect the government to take 32 years to figure this out? And above all, work that hard to GIVE the money back! So, I am going to spend it on my husband. It is his birthday tomorrow. He does nice things for me every day, now I am going to do something for him.

Also, my daughter got married last week and will soon follow her husband to Anchorage Alaska where he is stationed. For all of these years I have looked at her room, the room I sat and held all of my new babies, and thought about my future sewing room with windows. Now, all I want to see is my baby in it. I know what so many of my friends have gone through before me, and I don't like it at all.

TWISTED STITCHER AUCTION PIECE

This is the quilt I talked about in the previous post. My mini group pieced it and my friend Lindy was responsible for quilting and binding. It is 20x20". It will look great filled up with signatures.

QUIET WEEKEND

I've had a nice quiet weekend so far. I got some laundry done, knitted some and I have even got some playing done in my sewing room. Since I have the house to myself this evening, I put in some DVD's ( I Robot, and Fool's Gold) and just enjoyed myself. I found something interesting that I didn't even know people did these days. It is something I wouldn't even consider. HOMEMADE SANITARY NAPKINS . I didn't even last long with cloth diapers when my twins were babies, I can't even imagine messing with these. Not that I would have to anymore. But when I showed them to my daughter, she didn't think it was such a wonderful idea.

My guild is having a small quilt auction in November and my mini group made a small "Indian Hatchet" do-it-yourself signature quilt. It has 100 2" blocks. It was a really fast project. I ironed freezer paper onto the back of the fabric that would eventually be the signature block. Then I made a template to put in the center of the paper and drew two lines which were the sewing lines for the triangles.

If you are making blocks that you will carry with you to be signed, this is a good way to stabilize the area to be signed and keep the blocks from being stretched or wrinkled. When I was collecting signatures for a quilt, I carried a bunch of finished blocks with the freezer paper still ironed on. I put them in a plastic envelope and kept it in my purse with a pigma pen. When it came time to put the top together, I just tore off the paper and sewed the blocks together.

If you are just going to sew the whole quilt together and then collect signatures, an easier way to do it is to first cut a piece of fabric intended for the signature (center section). Example: if you want a finished 4" block, cut a light colored piece of fabric 4 1/2" square. Then cut 2 squares of contrast fabric 1/4" smaller than the unfinished block. In this example it would be two 4 1/4"squares.

If you keep the blocks small, you won't have to draw a line across the center of the square. Just focus on the end point and your line will be straight

This is what one side looks like after stitching

And this is one side of the block finished. As you can see, there is not a need to trim the block. You will need to cut the 2 extra layers under the color fabric to make a 1/4" seam. Then repeat with the other contrast square for the triangle in the opposite border.

This technique works best with small blocks. There isn't much fabric waste. You would have to use a different technique with a larger block, perhaps paper piecing or templates.

STARTING OVER

I admit it was hard to pull out my Swallowtail shawl. I did it in a fingering weight sock yarn using the free pattern that I found posted by the designer. I had so much trouble with it. I went by the written instructions because I generally like that over charts. I just must be dense, because I would end up with extra stitches or not enough, and then the bobbles being all over the place instead of in a curved line. Then when I got to a couple of places on the second border that said repeat from * and there was no *, I held the shawl up to the light and beheld all of the mistakes and just started ripping.
Luckily, I bought the back issue of Interweave knits that featured the shawl pattern. I decided to go by the charts this time. The charts were more understandable in the magazine issue than the charts in the pdf. This time I decided to use a lace weight and I started over. This time it is going much much better. I am almost halfway finished with the center section.
I decided to start over because so many others have managed to make this little shawl without problems. I knew it was probably more me than the pattern, so I started again. I'm glad that I did.
I managed to get the I spy top done for a quilt that I am making for my little great niece Sara. I made the mistake of picking up a small kit for this. The solid blocks were cut at 3 1/2". They should have been 4 1/2 " like the novelties. So I had to re-cut the novelties so I could use them. I bought the book "Picture Play Quilts" by Ami Simms. It had a pattern for this quilt in the book. My first mistake was grabbing it to start while sewing with friends. I hadn't opened the kit or looked at the book. If I had studied it I would have realized that although there are 12 blocks across in the rows in the quilt in the book, THAT quilt was also bigger than this one and there weren't enough blocks. By the time I realized it was when I sewed on the last row and realized that when you hold it up normally, narrow end up, all of the directional blocks are sideways. Oh well, I got it done, it is bright and colorful, and I know that little Sara won't care.
It's hard to believe I have enough presence of mind to make miniatures isn't it?
I have a few weekends before I have 2 quilts due for my guild auction. They have to be quilted. We have to make one from our miniature group, and I have to make one from me. When that is done, I have to get busy and finish my miniature. I have plans to enter it and it has to be finished before December. Whew. I'd better get busy.

MAKING AN IMPACT THROUGH FIBER

There are so many who are only happy if they can be considered 'fiber artists'. The idea of being a simple quiltmaker doesn't make them feel worthwhile or something. They don't feel that their work is being taken seriously if they don't call themselves 'artists'. I consider myself a quiltmaker, as it is important to me to be a part of a long tradition of quiltmakers. That aside, since this has nothing to do with a quilt, I got this email from a friend from high school. When she had her first child, I made a Christening dress for her.

I would like for you to see a few photos that I sent along with this email of our new grandchild wearing the Baptisimal gown you had made for me 26 years ago. His name is Jacob Evan . Four children now have been baptised wearing this gown........Lisa, Matthew, Katelyn and now Jacob. Lisa carried the bonnet at her wedding. The gown is in mint condition with just a tad of light yellowing on the puff sleeves. It's now packed away awaiting the next grandchild or great grandchild. I want to thank you again for having made it for me. It's something that I will always treasure and it will be handed down from child to child.

I only now remember making the dress. That is all hand embroidery down the front. My own kids Christening dresses were not so elaborate. I don't think my friend understands how important it is to me that she has made this simple gift an important lasting part of this family celebration. It just goes to show that you never know who you will touch with your 'art'. It may be making a quilt, sewing a dress, knitting a shawl. I know that many of us make quilts for people that we never meet. You just never know how much what we do may touch someone and that kindness might just carry on through many people.

I just thought that you might enjoy seeing the happy ending of making something and giving it away.

EARWIG?

Is that what it's called when you have a tune stuck in your head? Ever since I went to a farm market in Amish country and saw the simple word "peck" on a sign, I have had few words and a song playing over and over in my head. My mother used to sing this song to me when I was a little girl.. it went "I love you a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck". I couldn't remember the rest. Finally after a few days, I just put those words into google and I found this BUSHEL AND A PECK SONG which just goes to show you you CAN find anything on the internet.

I was almost done with my swallowtail shawl. And now it is back in a ball. What took me a couple of weeks to do, took about 15 minutes to undo. Such is knitting. I don't know what I did wrong. It was supposed to have all of these little fan shaped bobbles in the border which looked more like clumps of bobbles. I figured why bother to continue? I am going to start again after a break, and maybe just follow the chart instead of the written directions. What a let down. Other that this, nothing more is going on around here, I hope that your weekend is more exciting.

HUNTING DOGS? NOT

This was the view from my lawn chair yesterday. If I would have had my camera (this photo was taken years ago) you would have seen the same thing. Except for the doe and her fawn that were standing on the other side of the fence watching my really observant dogs roll on their backs. She was getting so close to the fence while she was watching all of this, I thought for a minute she had plans to jump over. When Claire ( the Golden Retriever) sat up, still oblivious to her audience, the doe kind of bleated and ran off into the woods with her fawn. It was only then that both of them took off down the fence. Claire gets confused, so she forgot what she was chasing, but Sam streaked down the fence and would have gone under and continued the chase had I not called him back. At times there have been several deer that have jumped the fence. My 12 pound Sam thinks that he will chase them out. Luckily, the deer are also stupid , and jump back over before he gets to them. I have heard of dogs getting kicked to death by deer. He always has his face plastered to the ground tracking something. He is a Shih Tsu that thinks he is a beagle. I say it's because there is such a short distance between his nose to his brain. I have thought that he would catch rabbits or squirrels when he takes off after them, but luckily they have been a little faster. I have to check the porch before I let him out at night because we have a problem with raccoons which are way bigger than he is. They show no fear, and I'm afraid they would kill him, or tear me up as I go to save him. As long as he doesn't find a skunk, I think he will be okay.

TRYING AGAIN

I really don't like having to return merchandise. But as nice as the RCA MP3 was it didn't have the one feature that I needed. It didn't have a bookmarking feature. Which means if I listen to a couple of chapters of a book and then turn it off, it will not restart where I left off, it will go back to the beginning of the book. I am trying a Creative Zen player now. I carefully took it out of the package so I could see if it bookmarks on the music that is pre-installed. I have a tiny old creative MP3 and it worked fine. But I have lost the software that I need to install on my computer so that I can transfer books to it. The library site recommended a Zen I think. I almost got a 4G Sony Walkman player. My Sony CD player has a bookmarking feature, and my husband's Sony car mp3 also does. I had a young man at Best Buy do a computer search to see if it had this feature, and he couldn't find anything that mentioned it. At least he actually understood what the feature was. But no descriptions mentioned it. We were talking about these new digital book readers. I will admit I'm a techno junkie. I love new gadgets. And I will admit that I think that reader is very cool, and I have played with one. But I love good old paper books so much more, and the best part is I only have to stick a scrap paper in where I leave off when I'm reading it. Even if the paper falls out, it is easy to leaf through and find my place. But... I can't sit and read a book when I'm at work. But I can work and listen to a book! Keep your fingers crossed!

CRANKY

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm cranky. I've been cranky for a few weeks.. Hmmm.... I think it started about the time my daughter told me she was getting married in a few weeks. I'm not terribly happy about it on many levels. Let's just go with the girl that has never been away from home, went to college locally so she has never been out on her own, will marry a man that I just don't think she knows well enough, and I don't know at all and will go to Alaska with him as an Army wife. Okay.. I've said it. So now hopefully you will understand why I went off on a country loving rant on Independence Day. I deleted it, not because anyone said anything to me negative to me, not because I didn't believe every word I wrote (actually I thought I was pretty restrained considering how I feel on the subject), but I promised that I wouldn't get political on my blog, and I did. I've just been a little on edge lately, and I apologize.

On the upside of all of this, my poor knee will get a break from my basement studio, because as soon as my daughter leaves, her room will be my new studio with windows. I have measured everything and am planning out how I want it. I have had 5 surgeries on my knee since I was a teen, 2 of them being knee replacements. It has been bothering me lately, and is a chore to drag myself up the stairs. It will be nice to be on the main floor.

Although I have an IPOD, I bought this little Mp3 player with hopes of being able to download some books from the library. Hopefully, I will be able to figure out how to put some of my books on CD on it. None of this stuff works with my IPOD, and I am not paying for an audio book when I don't have any sort of hard copy.
It is really hard to take a photo of this color, but this is the bodice of a dress that I am making for one of my daughters. Luckily I made some versions just in muslin first so that I could fit it properly. This is actually the second red bodice I made. This is the outer layer and the center layer. I serged the seams on the first bodice fairly narrow, and they just seemed to stand up. So with the second attempt, I finished the edges of the seams and pressed them flat. It looks much better now. Now I have to put in stays and the lining.. Of course there is the skirt and the zipper. It has been a long time since I have sewn a garment.
This is a pattern called Rivendell from the book THE ECLECTIC SOLE I love this pattern, and although I could have paid seven or eight dollars to download just that pattern, I decided to spend a little more and get the whole book. It is filled with several unusual sock patterns. I pulled this Sokotta yarn out of my stash. It is a Cotton/Wool/Nylon blend. It is the only thing that I have that is close to what I envision the greens of Rivendell, the home of the elves in Lord of the Rings.
This is what I have been working on. It is the center section of my Swallowtail Shawl . This is an album with pictures, but I found the pattern free from the designer somewhere. I just couldn't find the link to put here. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do at this point. I am going to have to go read some people's blogs so I can get some ideas. The directions just don't make a lot of sense to me. I'm sure it is me though. I haven't done a lot of lace shawl knitting. Each time is a learning experience for me.

I hope that you all are having a good weekend. It has been very nice here. Not too hot and very sunny.