Stained Glass.......

Not glass but colored....

I am trying the Shadow Hat with black as the contrast and not white this time.

I looks like stained glass on the right side.

You will have to trust me on this for now!

Spurts

                                The binding is on the Bowtie Quilt!                                   

Five minutes here and there really add up to get a project done!

Remember that!

 I was admiring my little label I remembered to sew into the binding when I noticed this:

 two blocks that I missed quilting!

 I loaded it up on the frame again!

I've never attempted this but I couldn't see any other way to fix it!

 It stitched up just fine, I'm glad to say!

 Even the stitching on the back is interesting!

The center of each bowtie is dimensional so I hope it survives my usual

'into the washer and dryer' after I complete the quilts.

I will let you know how it turns out!

(This block is very unconventional in its construction 

but really easy so give it a try!)

Repeat Until the End of the Row

 Another Shadow Hat in the pile.   It was a very hot day (98*F) so we were in and outside accordingly!

 We found Ethan a 'new' truck at a yard sale;

he loved the truck just not me asking him to hold still for a photo!

 Will watched a Gopher Tortoise walk a long ways in the yard 

 and we wondered which den he would pick?! 

There he goes!

It was amazing according to this four year old!

The men had chain saw work to remove the tree from the tractor shelter.

A typical day here, I'd say!

Now to Bind...

                                       

Bow tie is off the frame and waiting for its binding.

I'm hoping to get to it in the next few days!

 While anywhere in the front yard

you are caressed by the heady jasmine aroma!

It is beyond wonderful!

We visited the lake, enjoying the journey on the dock.

Halfway

 I am halfway done with this little scrap sock yarn blanket!

I have used 50 different yarns in the70 squares so far.

I am knitting on 2.5mm needles with a 40 stitch square.

Very enjoyable to make these little squares and since I pick up and knit them to their neighbor, there is no sewing them together!

 I was halfway right about this two-colored blooming angel trumpet-

 The outside of the bloom is yellow-

the outside of the funnel part stays yellow but

The incredible peachy pink color stole the show and I missed the yellow on the first bloom!

I love learning to see colors better-I think my seeing (not visually but mentally)

is in direct training with my watercolor painting.

It spills over into so many areas of my life now!

Firsts and Lasts

 While the boys played out front, I knit on this second Shadow Hat.  I cast on 90 stitches and knit it farther along before I started the decreases for the top.  I think I have it a bit too long so that it will wash and dry just right this time.  (Still out of Chroma fingering weight.)

 The Italian Non-Prickly Pear Cactus has its first bloom!

 You know it is near to May when you see these yellow prickly pear cactus flowers!

There are 6 camellias on this bush-the last of them.

This year they have broke their blooming season record! 

 Our Magnificent Magnolia tree has its first blooms

-lots and lots of them!

 The Angel Trumpet has two different colored blooms on the same branch!

 I've finally had enough of the old high chair seat-

An upgrade was in order and approved by its present occupant! lol

Striped!

 I had a little ball of hand spun yarn in gray

 and another little one of charcoal color 

so I decided to put them to work together!

 I wanted to try the 'no jog color striping' method.

It takes a bit of forethought to get the tension even

but it worked!

 The thing is that is moves the first stitch of the row over every time so it is not a good technique for colorwork chart knitting obviously

but for hats it worked great!

If you look closely, you can see a diagonal line of stitches.

This is what I mean when I said you need to work at keeping the tension even.

After blocking, the stitches were invisible and the hat, in superwash hand spun,

 is ready for the donation pile!

A Sumptuous Saturday!

 Everyone woke up cheerful this morning and Bill took the boys over for an early morning visit with our neighbors.

Which meant that I had a quiet early morning time in the studio!

I finished piecing the bow tie quilt and added the borders.

 I loaded it right up on the frame and set to work.

 Everything just fell into place which was so unusual!

 I moved on to watercolor the second , vertical painting of the Sprague House.

 And then while the first wash was drying, I cut out a bunch of the crazy colors blocks so I could grab a pile and piece it through the week.

The blocks are adding up.

I want to have 24 done by the end of the month.

I'm getting there!

When Bill got home with the boys-I was so refreshed and ready to start our day!

What a gift.

And now, in honor of Earth Day-this is the source of a great rotting stink in our front flowers.  It is just an amazing and disgusting mushroom,

called a stinkhorn mushroom.

It has a much more scientific name and a lot of disparaging ones, too.

Bill pulls them up and on a good day, 

he gets them at their source-the round root if left in the ground,

will have another stinky mushroom up within days!

You can almost see them grow!

Be grateful there is no scratch and sniff screen.

These babies smell like the walking dead!

Spun Out!

 I took the whole production outside so I could ply the last little bit of the Gulf Native wool and finish it up!

 I even wound it off the bobbin right away.

 A slight over spin but that usually relaxes after the washing!

 What an accomplishment!

463 yards of fingering weight yarn in this squishy, soft yarn.

Against all odds because I was getting zoomed by bikes, scooters and tyke trucks!

It plumped up after washing just right.

I am thinking I will dye it so that I can use it in a garment with the

cactus dyed rose yarn.

One other skein of this fiber I will dye a sage green and that will give me a full pound of this yarn.

Some Fair Isle knitting is in my future!

We Present this Medallion to You!

 Ta Da!  In only 10 months, I pieced my medallion quilt and then quilted it!

I enjoyed every step of this discounted Craftsy class!

The dimensions of this quilt are 89" x 81"

 I tried to do a different quilting design for every area;  

it got a bit complicated through the middle but really fun as I go further along!

 I free motion quilted it and totally relaxed and enjoyed the work.

I also learned halfway through the quilt that I could use my

sewing chair at its highest level at the quilting frame!

No standing for hours!!!!

Which just goes to show you, you can teach an old dog new tricks!

And in the evening as I spread the quilt on my bed,

 Nyki promptly jumped up to take a bath!

(No, the quilt is not for my bed but I wanted to try it out before I fold it up for use somewhere for someone!)