Finishes

 Succulent heart embroidery is now in pillow form!

The design is from Emblibary called For the Love of Succulents.

I rearranged all of the colors from the original to suit my fancy.

 The partially worked scrap quilt  from my Mom (but not made by her) is made into a top now.

If the storm doesn't knock out power, I will be loading it up on the frame today.

It does have a few wonky spots that will need easing in so I can quilt it without wrinkles

which will make a challenge but I am hoping for the best!

I put the neck rib on the sweater in the same k3, p1 rib as the cuffs and body hem.

I hope it is long enough.  

Granddaughter # 3 is long as well as tall!

If it isn't, I will add rib in the lighter grey like the neck rib.

I might just do that anyway now that I write this-long is always better than short!

Hurricane Dorian Update

Outside, we are continuing to prepare the house and yard for Dorian--

everything that could be  a missile is moved into the garage, 

hanging pots and all of the porch plants are moved up close to the house.

All lawn furniture and lanai chairs are hauled away 

and the plants there are moved up close to the house.

I will have to remember to remove the wind chimes from outside of my bedroom 

which I  didn't removed until 3 am during Irma and it wasn't pretty!  

Every day I see something else that I hadn't noticed which needs removing or securing.

I am trying not to think about putting it all back next week yet, either!

Inside, the laundry is caught up and the pantry is stocked-

even the cats' food is aplenty!

There is easy access to burgers,

taco fixings and hotdogs.

The grill has a back-up propane tank in case we can use that in between bands of rain.

Looking Up

  This sweatshirt sweater went  together the way it is supposed to !

Amazing how much more pleasurable a project is when it is the right size! 

 Bill and I celebrated his stitch removal with a dinner date yesterday--

and enjoyed the blue skies and fluffy clouds before Dorian hits. 

No longer scary looking-the big blue wires are a thing of the past--look----------->

Just tender newly healed skin--no gaping holes or peeking into the parts of the elbow

 that are better left to the imagination!

Just in time because we have a bunch of hurricane preparations to finalize!

You Just Never Know

 Yesterday, after morning perk-up on the house, 

I didn't feel like doing any work on that quilt 

so I organized my threads (ha!) for a new pillow cover!

It is almost the end of August and I haven't made the pillow-for-the month yet!

Almost everything went wrong from the start! 

 For example, my computer decided that it didn't like my thumb drive; 

 I had 'errors on the driver' that needed repairing-so I 'fixed' them.

Then I could read all of the patterns on the thumb drive when I plugged it into my sewing machine except for the one I needed!

The design I spent an hour changing the colors around to match what thread I had on hand.

I finally figured out how to back door fool it into taking the design and began stitching.

 In between arguments with the program, I decided to knit up a new sweater for granddaughter #3

who needs a new sweatshirt style sweater because she outgrew the one I made her at Christmas.

This is a worsted weight yarn by Yarn Bee. 

 (I love their baby yarn and discovered this cake in the right colors!)

I measured it with the gauge ruler and by counting and happily came out exactly the same both ways.

A good beginning.

I happily knit the back and when I took it off the machine, 

I had that funny feeling that it was too short.

I switched to the knitting the sleeve since I had enough yardage to knit a front/sleeve from one cake and back/sleeve from the other-this way they would all be a close match.

Sure enough, that sleeve looked short, too.

When I scoured the pattern I found that I had changed the gauge info on the pattern for the new yarn but hadn't increased the SIZE of the sweater.

It's all ripped out to try again today.

Some days.... 

When coming out of church last night, there was a beautiful flash in this cloud!

I tried for several minutes while sitting in the car to capture the pretty flash but I missed every time.

I'm looking forward to a new day--Bill starts it out by getting rid of his elbow stitches!

The home aide nurse will take them out so we don't have to go to the doctor's office;  

that's a good thing.

He spent yesterday working on our generator in case this hurricane really is as bad as the Weather Station says--if the run on the grocery stores is any indication, it is the end of the world.

Just so you understand!

Work in Progress

How nice to have a piecing marathon yesterday!

Only three more blocks to go and then I can sew these together and add borders!

I hope to get that stage finished today!

This Tuesday

  The Christmas in July QAL have been quilted and bound!

The quilting machine works better than before I hit that pin and messed with the timing!

We also extracted a  piece of a pin from the hook assembly 

(the housing for the bobbin to go into) 

which was preventing us from getting things to turn correctly!

Such a little piece of pin but it stopped the machine cold!

There is a lesson there!

I will look forward to getting this quilt out for use this Christmas!

(which is a very funny thought as we are still in the 90's here!)

(I will rejoin Teeny Needle Tuesday next week

 when I have some more stitching done!)

Garter and Cables FO

 Yes, I finished knitting the sleeves to Mom's sweater and seamed them in place!

 The back of the sweater is full of cables and the garter rib pattern, too.

She did a stunning job of knitting the main body portion of the sweater

 and even seamed it and attached the collar.

There are no buttons on the front because she always wears the sweater open-her preference-

and while the collar looks good on the manikin in the upright position,

she will not wear it this way either. 

 When you grow up, you get to chose your style and stick to it!

It didn't take long to see a problem developing;  the sleeves seemed to be growing!

Sure enough, they are 1" longer then when I knit them.....this yarn, Mellowspun DK, grows!!!

This was the problem in the first place; 

the pattern calls for knitting the sleeve 18 1/2" before binding off for the underarm! 

 I don't know about you but that is a very long sleeve for my petite Mom

hence my reason for rescuing the sweater, and making the adjustment for her!

I think I have a plan of action-I am going to hem the bottom of the sleeve by 1" 

after a few days of resting on the manikin 

to be sure it won't be growing any longer than this!

Front to Back

 The front to the linen t-shirt was knit on Friday

and the back came off the needles without mishap on Saturday.

Not to assemble the components so I can knit the neckline trim in pattern by hand!

I hope to wear it to church next Sunday!

I DID IT MY WAY......!

 The little terrarium might be lonely now but soon it will be joined by many other embroideries!

Here is a photo heavy, word-brief tutorial of how I prepared it for hanging.

 First I traced and cut a piece of cardboard to cover the back.

 I loaded the backing fabric after I had layered it over a piece of batting;  nice and firmly hooped now.

 I trimmed the extra fabric a generous inch beyond the hoop, trimming the batting slightly smaller.

 I threaded a needle with a long length of doubled sewing thread and stitched a 'spider web' to contain the extra fabric.

 I used fabric glue to hold the cardboard in place;

the needle was handy to tuck any ripples or tucks to lay smoothly under the cardboard.

 I placed the hoop right side up on my dryer and then weighed it down for several hours!

 See it under there!?

 When I took the weight off, I could see I had the smooth and flat finish I wanted.

I signed my work, dated it and recorded the designer's name more for my memory than for credit!

I didn't look on YouTube for any 'how-to' information because I knew what I wanted and I did it.

Sometimes, you are your own best inventor.

Linen at Last

 A Sleeve out of Lindy, a linen yarn from KnitPicks..

I like to start with the sleeve for a lot of reasons-it is smaller 

and like a gauge swatch (which I did first!) it gives very good information

 in a smaller piece than a back or front!

I fell in love with a pattern from Machine Monthly Magazine 

and decided to use the hem detail on my own custom pattern!

 And then there were two!  

And they matched exactly!

I'm learning!

This isn't blocked yet so it is a bit wonky-linen yarn yields a funny fabric until it is washed and dried.

But the detail is very pretty and it took as long to do those 15 rows as it did the rest of the sleeve!

This is only elbow length which is the length I will use most of the year!

I am onto the front now--stay tuned!

First Work Then Play

 

 This scrap blanket came from our treasure digging while in NY.

 Look at this-it is all hand sewn with sewing thread doubled in the needle;

each intersection is carefully backstitched!  Which made it more difficult for me to take some of the 

extra blocks and stitch them in a long row to add to each side so the top

would be big enough for a lap robe!

I love looking at the squares in the finished top-what an encyclopedia of its time!

Nyki gave her stamp of approval as soon as I folded it on the sewing table!

I even started stitching the other quilt out of these fabrics!

Only ten more to go!

It's nice to get to play with all of the fabric pieces!

My Timing is Off!

 Well, I know a lot more about the insides of my heavy duty quilting machine!

 The good news was that while it is interesting...we still needed to find the problem.

I hit a pin that was mistakenly in the quilting path and the machine ground to a halt!

This machine is 25 yrs old...it didn't like the interruption.

Not for the first time, I am very grateful for my husband who figures out all things mechanical!

Now that he has figured out the problem, he even knew how to fix it!

TNT

CozyBlue's Terrarium is finished!

I sure enjoyed trying new stitches, 

using the metallic thread for the glass bowl;

this was a good garden to plant!

The moss in the bottom of the bowl are millions or well maybe a hundred!

New in the hoop is a simple, inexpensive kit from Wal-Mart.

I have a bunch of embroideries planned....

Pretty Things

 Sleeve #1 done for the Gable and Cable Cardigan!

And I've already started the second one.

A very pleasant knit and a piece of cake compared to Mom's work for the body of the sweater!

 These are the blooms from the Cereus that I missed Saturday night because I fell asleep too soon!

Yes, these beauties only bloom for one night--

What would we do if we could only shine for one night?!

 But there were two new ones for me to admire last night.

 Isn't it amazing--sorry, I will never be bored with going out at 10:30 to admire them!

And savor their heavenly tropical aroma!

Go ahead and scratch your screen lightly--you just might get a whiff!

Soap Happened!

 I made some soap yesterday-something I haven't done in a long time!

Bill's brand, patchouli, is on the left and mine, lavender, on the right!

I will make another of peppermint early this week;  

the whole family will enjoy the results of my labors!

It took me longer to organize and mix this batch
but everything went together pretty smoothly considering! 

 Next on the Saturday Savor list was to piece a backing for the Christmas quilt made in July;
I used some of the leftover blocks that weren't quite right for the front.

 Then I loaded it up and stitched a few rows to anchor it.

 Then the next item on the list to savor was to re-knit the purple socks;

yup, I ripped them out while in NY because I found too many mistakes.

I tried to rush it to take it with my on my trip and I should've waited and not hurried!

I've got it this time.

It is coming along and I will be able to finish it soon!

Off to church--have a good day!