It's Still Yarn

375 yards of yarn spun with only one foot participating!  The fiber content is Suffolk/ Columbia lamb-a soft medium wool that gave me much pleasure in a frustrating time!  This will be showing up in a shawl soon
since the doctor suggested another week of keeping my foot up!

Where there is a will......

 ....there must be a way!  I found that I could prop my foot up on the other side of the sectional couch and then spin just one footed!  The wheel is so finely balanced that it didn't miss a beat!  I felt better after getting some spinning done!  (This is the Suffolk/Columbia cross roving I dyed .)

Well, this helps, too-a cold water massage from Dr Scholl!  (I put in both feet because my 'good' foot is sore from doing all the work lately!)

Slow but Steady

 As soon as I finished this windmill top, I laid it out on the floor for my TA-Da!  Nyki instantly claimed it but I could see an Oh,No! instead.

 Somehow, when I arranged it for sewing I goofed on the same row on all four corners.....nothing to do but rip out and resew!  At least I could do it while sitting down.

 Corrected and bordered!  A good project that was started when Mom and Dad were here for the winter!

 I had a few blocks left over and so I added them to the backing for a bit of punch.  It is now in the quilting queue.

 I hung the serger thread racks..........arranged rainbow-ish for my daughter.

I saw these large recycled glass beads at my friend , Sandy's, on a recent visit and asked to borrow it for an experiment.  Yup, I have a new line of support spindles I am going to make.......soon to be offered for sale.

Remembering

Memorial Day-a big event in my childhood memories......
Thank you to all who have served to keep our nation safe; thank you, Lord, for your watch care over our Nation.

Tropical Storm Beryl

Beryl is moving in.............taken from inside the car on the way home from church at 8pm tonight;
lightly raining and 72F.

Impaired Puttering

 I finished knitting the Spring Shawl-it blocked out to 54" wide and 27" deep.  The Shetland has block out to be just a whisper of yarn-very sheer feeling!  This is proof to my family that I have been taking a lot of down time!

 I tried to get Nyki to model it for me and she wasn't cooperative! (as usual)

 I spent a bit of time moving all the supplies from the corner of the sewing room so that we could finish the flooring under the washer and dryer.

 I could only be on my feet for short bouts so I sat and did some piecing in the down time.  My sewing machine works by button only, if desired, and so I could keep my foot up as I pieced-awkward but better than being grounded on the couch the whole day!

 Bill worked in the garden and the yard-here is his potato crop.

 Then in the afternoon, he came in and tackled the corner!

 We got the flooring in, hooked the washer and dryer back up and then set up the shelves!

 I got most of the supplies into a cubby and will do some more sorting when I can stand longer!  (I think I will be buying another row of cubbies to go up the outside row of shelves.)

It looks very inviting in here now!  It was a long day but worth a little swelling!

A Little Exercise

 Bill brought in the weapon of destruction and I put it together while sitting on the living room floor!
I appreciated the mental healing being busy secured even if my foot was sore trying to keep up with me!

I got all four put together throughout the day, with lots of resting and ice in between workouts because my foot swells to amazing proportions when it is any position but up!  I used my 10 minutes of up time to finish attaching the backs on the last two units today.  I am making progress in small steps but progress nonetheless!

Getting by.......

Our neighbors very generously loaned us their Cadillac of wheelchairs for my recuperation~

Let me say , that the doctors should loan this out instead of crutches!

 The Thao shawl I was working on is history-I just didn't like several elements; I do not like garter stitch on shawls-it eats yarn and doesn't lay nicely,  I do not like having pattern stitches on the return row-I like to purl lickety split on the way home, and thirdly, I was running out of yarn!  Since I am doing a lot of knitting hours , I didn't think I needed to put up with a project I wasn't lovin' so I ripped it all out and started a new one.

 Bill is enjoying the fresh veggies from his garden and fixed these for dinner-sure does fill me with healing vitamins and minerals!

The new shawl is bringing me restfulness.........I removed the accent rows of garter stitch from this, too, and it is moving right along.  (Pattern is from KayMeadors called A Slice of Autumn/Spring)

Grounded......

 The morning started out so promising!  I worked on the triangle quilt, laundry was going, house was cleaned, the fabric for my grand daughters nursery was in the washer.......

the packages for the shelves were delivered

I promptly dropped the 43 pound box on my foot!  It isn't broken just crushed; I have to stay off it until the swelling dissipates-recliner and I will be best friends for the rest of the week!

Progress!

 I finished up the quilt on the frame!  That meant that I could take the frame apart and move it to the new room!

 I sorted and moved and piled so that I can fit the frame in its spot!  I am looking forward to some decent storage for this corner!

 Voila!  So nice to have room on either end of the frame-it just fit in the sewing room!  Eventually, I will install some shelves over the frame for related equipment-thread, etc.  I will most likely build these.

 I also got the wool corner moved to its new corner!  Everything is shaping up nicely!

 Now that the room is set up, I did a craft project in my new area!  I saw this on a on a recent Craftzine post.  I cut up a map into 1" strips, wove them together and then added my own step of ironing fusible to the back so that I could press it to a notebook for a cover!  This one is a map of the town where my brother bought his house, so when I see him in a few weeks, I will give him this!

 I just trimmed it to fit the notebook on the edges but rolled it to the inside of each cover for extra security.   A very fun project!

 I arranged the windmill blocks so that I can sew them into a top.  I had fun trying different designs-I wanted to do random but it just isn't in me!  This is a variation on the 'around the world' layout.

 This afternoon we needed to do some errands so while in Daytona, we visited the ocean.  We had a nice walk at high tide!

 On the way home, we enjoyed a great thunder and lightening storm and then a bit of sunshine brought this!
I took this from the pizza shop where we stopped for dinner.

 When we came out after eating, the sky had changed to this!  It literally glowed a rosy light!

My car knitting!   A little baby sweater in cotton!  What a full day!

A Switcharoo!

 First thing this morning, I hung the deer skin by its head.  In the breezeway. Then I began to empty the sewing room closet and carry everything into the breezeway which was to be my sewing room during the renovation.

 The more we worked to carry everything in, we had this idea.   What if this room became my permanent sewing area and the other room could be redone as another guest room/study for Bill.

 As we worked through the circumstances of that idea it began to grow on us!   The deer skin and deer head were removed from the wall and brought into the guest room.

 I have to finish this quilt on the frame and then we can take it apart, move it and then reassemble it in the new sewing room!

I still have to find room for all my equipment in the wool corner.  Even tho the breezeway is bigger in square footage, it doesn't have the wall space I had in the sewing room.

   I need some shelves to hold the 'mess' because I need order in my work space. I can't believe how much stuff I had in that closet!  The file cabinets will get moved into the den tomorrow then I have to decide whether to build or buy my shelving; neither option is cheap!

The quilt frame will be going on this wall when it is ready to be moved.  This is going to be an ongoing project for a while but I am so happy with the day's progress!

I'm Rich

  Happy Mother's Day!   My parents, children and grandchildren...
                                                                       (NY 10-2011)

A Little Woodworking and Quilting

I am in the process of cleaning out my sewing room so that we can renovate........it will have drywall and wood flooring soon!   (You do realize that soon is a relative word......)

  But in the process, I came across this old deer hide of Bill's.  It has been folded up in a box for a very long time!

I thought it would match the deer head he has mounted and on the wall in the breezeway if it was in a frame........

I also have some tanned skins from his previous hunts, so I made some lacing from one of them.  I read about using a circle a long time ago and it works wonderfully.  I got 8 yards from each circle of leather.  The tack gives me a pivot point and I just keep pulling and cutting.

 Works very efficiently.

I knew just what I wanted it to look like and many hours later, we have it!

As long as I was on the wood tools, I decided to put together a triangle loom.  I have wanted to own one but the price is prohibitive ($250 and up) but the construction is simple.  I laid it out, drew my lines and angles and began the work on the table saw.  It wasn't fun but I was making progress until the saw smelled funny, sounded funny and then quit!  I went and asked Bill for help and he said it has been giving warnings for a while now.   Of course, it died right on the last join!   But he was able to use his skill saw and finish the last board so I could screw the whole thing together at least!  Thank you , dear!  I will save the hundreds of little finishing nails for another day.........you will be seeing the loom again in the near future.

I gave up on the wood projects and did some quilting......half way on the last quilt for Millie's daughter.
It restored my good mood being in the sewing room!

Bill has been harvesting from his winter garden-carrots and

vidalia onions........nothing like fresh food!  (We had some of the fresh potatoes the other day-I will try to get a picture next time!)