FRUIT AND FLOWERS

This is a Queen Palm in my front yard and its fruit is ripening and falling from the large 'bunch' high up in the tree.

It hits the ground and I can collect them for jelly (they are mostly a pit with a thick skin but very sweet juice when you pop it in your mouth!  Most people just leave them for the squirrels, raccoons or possums to enjoy.  Since I do NOT like those critters in my front yard, I will collect the fruit and put it out back in the critter feeder!  I did make jelly when we first moved here

 but it is a lot of work!

At the base of the palm tree is this pot of beautiful New Guinea Impatiens--it has exploded into a huge plant with so many blossoms over the summer!  I have several in the front yard--they can handle the all day sunshine unlike many other flowers.

And this is almost gone 

but I sure have enjoyed the Muscadine Cider 

Bill bought for me when in Georgia. 

 If you see it for sale near you, 

I highly recommend it giving it a try!

And inside, I caught up with block # 4 of the Garden Song sewalong ( the 4 block on the bottom left)  I traced all of the appliques, fused them to the right colors and centered them on the appropriate sized background fabric.  Now I just need to stitch them in place.  And no, my machine is still not loving the invisible thread that I am using--it keeps telling me to check my needle thread!  So it is stitch 2", get the warning beep, push the OK button and sew another 2".  Not the most fun at the sewing machine but I am going to finish it!!!!!

 

ALL IN A DAY

Catching up on block number 3 of Garden Song. 

 My machine decided it didn't like working on it; 

 I'm hoping after a rest it will behave!

The Thanksgiving wall hanging is loaded on the frame and I am hoping to get it all done today, too!

 

SOCKS ON SUNDAY

A pair of socks is completed;  they will be in the mail in no time!

They are another pair of the  Barcelona Memories 2 Socks

 by Zanete.

I cast on a pair of Petty Harbor socks using the new gusset and heel I learned from Zanete.  The yarn is from daughter's stash when we did the big dive for all of those hats.  I have a pair of Petty Harbor socks and they are one of my favorites because the texture gives such a very comfy feel!  

 

GROUT WORK

I finally found the right combination of stitches to make the 'grout' lines for my mosaic hexagons.  I am using a slip stitch alternating a stitch on each side of the rows I want to connect. I attach each of the  hexagon on their vertical side and then I stitch the horizontal seam to connect the next row. It is time consuming but it lies flat and gives good coverage.  I am making myself bury all of the ends before I connect the next row so that I don't have them ALL to do at the end! lol  (The row at the top is the stack of each row to try and keep some order and to keep Lena from skidding through them!)

 

OUT FOR A SEW DAY

We (my friend, Mary, and I ) enjoyed a  few hours of sewing together at our local quilt shop for Quilts of Valor.

Mary and I made a dozen string blocks.

And one of the string blocks quilts we made last month was presented;  what a precious time and a good reminder of why we are sewing the red/white and blue!

 

HOW THE GARDEN GROWS!

Block two of Garden Song sewalong is complete.  

My early Camellia bush is blooming!  I do enjoy the start of their season which will last now until well into January.

And I have baby string beans up about 4"!  

And the radishes are making themselves known!  The other seeds are just emerging and in another week, they will be photoed, too!

Today, I'm off to join in the QOV sewing group.

 

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

It was wonderful to be in the studio again-not just moving things around but actually sewing! The newest wall hanging was stitched without any drama, gratefully!

Today, I will be loading it onto the frame so that I can get it up at the front door area before the weekend!

I finished the table runner so that I could free up the quilting frame--I'm pleased with the results! 

 (Thank you, Araignee, for the kit!)

I also cut out and fused 4 new blocks from Garden Song sew-a-long and just might get to begin applique also! 

 Nice to be upright creative with fabric again!

 

FEELING BETTER

I added two smaller pumpkins to add to the larger one I made while in Georgia.    They make a pretty trio!

The hats keep on coming--I am using up so many of the leftover balls of worsted weight in the stash.  I'm up to 36 hats and figured I am this close, I might as well hit 50--a nice round number!

And I am going to tackle this sewing project today--I haven't felt up to the task but today is the day.  

I will begin as soon as I am back from voting, that is!!!

 

WRINKLES

I've been having too much fun-yup, that's me getting 17.6 ounces of blood removed to alleviate an overabundance of red blood cells.  

It can account for the perpetual headache, the sluggish feeling and the breathlessness.  A bit of blood-letting can still be beneficial; let's hope so!   I was weak as a sick puppy when finished 

but a bowl of chicken soup and a nap,

 sure did help to feel a bit stronger!

We made a few more hats to add to the pile--

I've got a full box all ready to hand in now!

(2 DOZEN)

I cleaned two windows in my bedroom

-(the abundance of rain has led to a green tint !)

-such a nicer view now!

And Bill was outside, hard at work,

 cleaning up the many branches the wind brought down!

 

ALL IN A DAY'S WORK

Lena and I made some hats today.  

She helps a lot, as you can imagine!

The morning rain let up so I went out to plant in my raised garden bed.  I planted string beans, Swiss Chard, carrots and radishes.  

The hibiscus are sending out daily blossoms-so beautiful! 

 (7" across)

And look at the surprise bloom --it is a starfish cactus flower

 or a Stapelia Grandiflora.  (10")

I am heading back to where you donate blood to try and alleviate an overproduction of red blood cells which is giving me some troubling symptoms.  Bill will take me but I hope to do okay; I have done this before but you never know!  

 

ODE TO YARN

The grand daughter sweater continues to grow.  I have never constructed a sweater like this so I am just doing what the pattern says and going with the flow-so far so good.

The 4th pair of Barcelona Memories 2 sock is beginning to get a lacy cuff.  I only made one major mistake on the heel that required a bit of tinking but other than that, it has gone smoothly.

I also cast on for the beginning of the t-shirt sweater that Berroco has begun as a KAL.  Another unusual start for a top down sweater so it is good to keep my brain cells bouncing around since the rest of my body is pretty inert! lol

 

YARN LOVE

My oldest grand daughter asked me to knit her a cardigan

 and I was pleased with the pattern and yarn we chose! 

 The yarn order arrived yesterday and I couldn't wait to cast on!

The pattern is Lakes Cardigan on Ravelry;  it has a very interesting top-down approach which I am enjoying so far! 

I also used my new ball winder to cake the ripped out sweater yarn so I could weigh it and figure out the amount I had for the new t-shirt style sweater I'lll knit for me.  

Since I am down for the count right now, 

yarn is a bright spot in my day!

YARN: TINKING AND KNITTING

When I pulled out my pretty cabled Fall sweater to take to Georgia, I found several holes from moth damage (the moths made small holes whish I 'explored' to see if they could be fixed). 

I left the damaged sweater to think about when I got home. 

I did the only sensible thing--ripped out the whole sweter

 and save the yarn I could! 

I am making good progress on the latest pair of socks!

HOME ONCE AGAIN

I made all of these hexagons on the grueling drive home yesterday!  (2 skeins of HomeSpun yarn)I will add them to the 7 I had previously made and today I will be digging into my stash to find a few skeins I have squirreled away, too!

The colors were just beginning in NE Georgia but it won't be long and they will be enjoying even more.  We did enjoy the cool mornings and the drop in humidity while there!  I had a very pleasant surprise when we got home, to have our own humidity finally out of the suffocating range!

I wanted to show you the afghan my daughter is making--she only needs two more squares (top right-ish).  The blocks are 5" square so this is a good sized blanket--and very soft because it is made with Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn brand. 

She now has the joy of seaming it all together!!!! 

 Well, the joy comes when it is all done! lol 

 

MORE CATS AND HATS

Ollie, the orange cat, is only 2 and very curious unlike Felix, 

the 13 year old Manx.  He is much harder to for us to enjoy because he hides when 'strangers' are in the house but he always get brave on the last day of our visit 

and it was that way this time, too.

We did finally get the cats out of the way to photograph

 our haul of hats all lined up!  We had a blast all week with the knitting machine and cranked out many hats

 and tamed the old yarn bin as a bonus!

We are heading home today....enough said about that.

 

OFF TO UNIVERSITY

I went to my oldest grand daughter's university yesterday; 

 she commutes so  my daughter and I went along so I could see where she attends. The architecture was beautiful!

The structure that looks like a ladder has a large bell in each of the 'rungs' that plays on the hour.

The campus is sprawling so there is space to walk, 

to relax and contemplate!

I crocheted a skein of Homespun yarn from LionBrand--one of the skeins we discovered in the big bin binge-we wanted to know if it was feasible to work with and I think it will make a pretty mosaic hexagon blanket!