Full Circle!

 As the morning breaks, I realize that today is the last day of school for Will

and I have the privilege to drive him to school which closes our full circle

 because I drove him to his first day, too!

What a year it has been.

Today is also the last day with the boys under my watch-care;

they are moving with their Dad to be closer to his work.

Through this whole ordeal of family upheaval they have lived with us or 

for the last 6 months with their dad near us so Will could continue being at school and Ethan could stay with us for the day while Dad works more than an hour away.  We also picked Will up from school each day and then our son picked them up after he finished his work day.

It was hard and wonderful every day of the two plus years of this whole upheaval.

This plant is called a Bleeding Heart Vine (Cleredendrum family) here in Florida.

I think it is an appropriate plant to highlight today.

It is beautiful when you get up close. 

And here is a glimpse of the pond lawn area-

the flood is receding just in time for the rainy season to begin!

We will see what happens here through the next month.

Savor this day of lasts.....

Really?!

 I can't believe she messed up a two row repeat?!

But this was a success today!

Going to watch the classroom awards at the end of his kindergarten class!

What a wonder he is!

United!

Two sleeves and a body unite.

I sped around the sleeve stitches as if on a speed boat;

going around all of the yoke and sleeve stitches is like shifting

to a fully loaded barge!

I will soon find my new rhythm.

And I will be adding short rows here at this point

to increase the height of the back armhole

just as you would find in a paper sewing pattern.

Full steam ahead!

Now to yoke...

Substitutes

Since the design wall was empty

and

I can't do any rotary cutting,

I put some charm packs together to make some charity quilts.

Then I did a swatch for some new yarn 

which I want to use for a machine knit sweater.

We will see how it goes! 

(I've learned a new way to make a gauge for machine knitting;

all the counting is done while it is knit so there is no counting after.

I merely measure the distance between the dots for stitches per inch

and the rows between the white rows and voila!)

They even sell a gauge ruler which I have ordered so it is going to be even simpler!

 The plumeria is in full swing!

The scent wafts throughout the lanai.

(If you look closely under the topmost bloom

you will see that the sandhill crane photo bombed me!)

Coming in at a close second is my first yellow lily!

ZigZagular Done

The socks are off the needles!

They will be on their way to their recipient by the end of the week!

Yarn-KnitPicks Hawthorne Speckle Handpaint in Cosmic

64 sts on #1 needle

Toe-up sock w/short row heel and twisted rib cuff

A Valley

Friday afternoon, I made a wrong move and cracked a rib again.

I had gone a long time without doing that...

The pain is excruciating--don't even think about sneezing or sleeping.

And then there has been a mix up with one of my medicines-

and now I have to deal with the magnified pain to be without it (Prednisone)

and to add to the misery, because this messes with hormones,

it is inducing hot flashes which adds to the inability to sleep.

I am again a shadow of myself.

 I watched my sewing machine embroider this design and then turned it into a pillow.

I finished the Zigzagular Socks and used the leftover bit to add a square to my blanket.

I also started the second sleeve to the Begonia Sweater.

It is easy knitting and perfect for right now.

Blast Off!

 What a day-busy yet very enjoyable!

A woman my daughter's age and her young son came for a visit;

Ethan and he are very close in age and played so nicely together--good for both of them!

I sure found it pleasurable to talk 'woman's talk' and watch the boys play.

We even spent a long time in the pool on this hot day!

I finally picked up my knitting to turn the heel on the second Solar sock by late evening.

(This is Nemo hogging my lap and chewing the yarn to let me know he was there!)

Bill came running to announce to me (I was already in bed) there is a launch of a rocket!

"Come on, let's go out and see if we see it!"  

As soon as we stepped outside, we could hear it!

The picture is really a speck but we could see the flames in the first few minutes and then the tail plume as it roared away from earth-always an amazing sight to me!

Look What I Did!

 It is complete--I even cut a dowel and applied a twisted cord to hang it!

I think Will enjoy having a paper on display-math or artwork are his favorites right now.

I will give it to him next week.

 I also completed and washed the sampler quilt!

This crinkled in just the right way-it feels like an old quilt much loved already.

 I had a few favorite blocks;

the quilting was loose and spontaneous on each block.

 Yet, I kept some elements to repeat so that they would have some unity.

 I enjoyed just quilting and not worrying about particulars!

I quilted all of the borders and sashes with the same motif, though.

 And I remembered to include my label.

This will go into the donation box , if my daughter doesn't want it back.

 And I finally remembered to purchase a yard and a half  of flannel backing
 so I could load the flannel quilt top!

I am quilting this with a loose free motion meander which is very quick;

it was loaded, layered and then half of the quilting was done in half an hour!

But this leaves me with an empty design wall!

Time to pull out that languishing quilt kit!

(such a hardship-not at all! lol)

Oh, and I added a knit block to the sampler blanket

made on the knitting machine.

(the block on the lower right-the cabled block)

It was my first forage into cables on the machine and it was easy to do and the results are pleasing.

Nice to have a successful first attempt.

Progressive

 I have one sleeve done for the Begonia sweater--16" of a close fitting sleeve.

The cool thing about he sleeve is that while it is close fitting, 

it doesn't squeeze or bind because it is knit in the half fisherman (broken rib) stitch!

It will be nice to get the other one done and head on into the yoke!

 And tonight the surprise for Will was completely appliqued

 and I loaded it on the frame and quilted it!!!!1

I was very fatigued standing that long but I was so close, 

I wasn't walking away until it was done!

Tomorrow I will be applying the binding on this one and the sampler, too!

Look what was delivered this afternoon!

It sits on the end table by Bill and brightens his day;

it is nice to be remembered;  he isn't 'sick' but he hasn't been able to live normally either!

So, if you've ever wondered-Don't hesitate to send flowers to a man!
(Bill has been to two drs  this week-they are not thrilled with
his progress or the lack thereof .)

Framing It Up!

 Look what I did-quilting!

I actually felt up to the demands of the day;  about time!

I would quilt a block and then housework, then a block, then Little Guy, etc throughout the day.

 I kept the same type of scallop hopping on each block 

with a little twist of individualism on each one.

The borders were from a recent free video from APQS!

 Tomorrow I will do the binding and call it a done deal!

Here's the reason for the sudden spurt of  'get it done' around the frame!

I want that wall hanging to be finished so I can give it to Will next week!

(It was a surprise but someone blabbed.  You know who you are.)

Whittling...

I turned a bit on Saturday--the kind with the lathe.

I started with a big chunk of wood, made it round-

hollowed out one end of the little piece and then started forming the knob on top

and the lathe started acting up--

the problem with buying old and used is that they are old and used.

I am hoping it is not used up!

Upon checking out the 'parts' I removed, there are several pieces missing.

Little things like washers, or spacers used to keep everything aligned.

I will have to get my husband involved today and hear it, see it 

and most importantly to say, "Yeah, I can fix that!"

Take Flight!

 I embroidered an easy project yesterday;

a tote bag embellished by a scene of flamingos!

 I used a thread that is variegated with light to dark pink 

which gave a subtle shading which was the goal!

I gifted the bag to my sister-in-law who came for a visit (with my brother).

It was so nice to sit and talk to catch up on what is going on for each of us.

 I also finished one of the Zigzagular socks!

I will begin the second one today!

STOP HERE IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A STRONG STOMACH FOR WOUNDS!!!!!!!!!

This is what we have been struggling to heal;

the brown in the wound is the silver embedded cell paper which is supposed to encourage healing.

Things don't look like they are going so well to me.

We continue with our antibiotic infusions 3x a day.

Bill goes to the infectious disease doctor tomorrow.

It can't happen too soon-I don't need a degree to know this is not looking healthy, thank you.

Celebrating Accomplishments

 Look what I did!

I pieced a wall hanging!

I need to stitch all of the appliques in place and embroider the face 

this is a lot of stitching done at one sitting.
(It will be a surprise for Will at the end of school soon!)

Little Guy is learning to play happily all on his own!

(In the center area, I will be stitching a  large clip to hang 'important' papers to display!)

And look at the beautiful Peace Lily!

It is happy in a shady corner of the lanai-

we all have to find that place in life where we flower our best....

Live and Learn

 Lena is not always silly-at least I am not good at capturing the moment-usually!

She stayed in here for a long time.

 Here is the new bit of horticulture education for myself--Bill was given this long stick--on the left.

I watered it all winter and a bit of green did start showing up on the tips.

I thought he had given me a bum job but soon we could see that on the top 

there was definitely a cluster of flower buds.

This afternoon, one of the buds opened into this beautiful flower-

AND the aroma is beyond description! 

 Dare I say, it smells better than a rose to me!

A quick search on  Google and I learned that it is a Plumeria or Frangipani;  

the one and only essential oil I have worn as a perfume since I was 18!

How exciting to meet the real flower! 

 And not to minimize the flower on the right, the Canna Lily--

lacking in aroma but very showy in its red flowers that just keep on coming!  

 I found a few minutes yesterday to cut out the pieces for this wall hanging 

and  actually sewed two strips today.

And look who was tired out after all of that sewing!

New Job?!

 It is still wet and swampy out back.

The frogs are happy.

 Dear Husband, who is suffering from extreme cabin fever, decided to use the old mower to do a little mowing...

it was wetter than he thought.  And he  is not as quick at steering with only one arm.

I was able to use the golf cart to pull him out using a tow rope.

 And my neighbor Millie also needed some help!

One more pass was one too many!

Good thing I know my way around a 'tow vehicle'!

 The middle of May and a bit of rain and all of the yard shoots out rain lilies!

Beautiful and aromatic!

It was a nice day to be outside!

A night out for dinner (the rain date for our anniversary!) and then a lit by the river.