LONG MAY SHE WAVE!

The quilting is finished and now this great MQAL is awaiting its binding which will happen soon.

 Thank you, Alycia, for the great design!

The quilting lines read, Your Service ... Our Freedom!    The thread if variegated red/wh/blue.  As soon as I come home from a trip to NY to sing happy birthday to my Dad, I will bind you and donate you to Quilts of Valor!  My Dad turns 90 on Friday--more pictures from the frozen north will be sent to you!

 

ROCKING!!!!

I took the rocks out of the tumber to take a peek and move them from stage 1 grit to stage 2 grit.  I was as excited as a kid at the candy counter!

These are some of my favorite found rocks from Lake Ontario--some I have had for decades!  It was so amazing to see them begin to show their true colors! 

Here are some close-ups of my favorite ones!  This I believe is dolomite. 

Some red jasper, quartz in hematite.

A luxullianite--a type of granite!

This is an amazonite--it's me all over! lol  

(that's the name I call myself bc I mostly shop at amazon!)

These are three examples of quartz--rose, golden and milky.

A beautiful example of jasper!

This one had me stumped for a long time but I think I have identified it as unakite-pink, green and quarts in basalt.

The second tumbler held some quarts and carnelians!  My friend had purchased these a long time ago and never tumbled them so she gave them to me to try. 

This one has layers so is called an agate.  The colors range from golden to deep red;  some are opaque and othes quite tranlucent!

I loaded up the barrels for their next week of tumbling!

Until next time!

 

QOV SEWING DAY

This is what I accomplished yesterday for the *QOV sewing day.  There was a huge selection of 'kits' prepared for our choosing or some instead worked on making miles of binding or a constellatioin of star blocks!  It was wonderful!  

I had a pile of 2 1/2" blocks which I had to sew into 4-patches first and then matched them up with squares to make a larger 4-patch!  The rows alternated the 4-patches with blue blocks for the pattern-keeping the reds running in a diagonal and while you are talking, snacking and laughing caused some ripping out to occur! lol

I have several blocks for two more rows finished and we take the work home to finish it up and return the top for additional work.  It was a huge success and such a pleasant way to say thank you to our veterans!

 

*QOV=Quilts of Valor which are presented to veterans upon request to the charity

FOR THE NON-HAT-WEARERS!

I know, I make so many hats but I hate to wear them--only in a blizzard will you find me wearing one since I got glasses--20+ years ago! lol  So when I saw the pattern to make earwarmers on the Sentro knitting machine, I thought I should try it.  I had some leftover handspun yarn-some of the same yarn I had made the scarf from which I thought would feel nice and coordinate with the scarf!  It was a breeze to make \and I will be making a lot more of these in the weeks to come! 

 (We keep getting the cold northern winds here

 and it has been in the high 30's again the last few mornings!)

See what it looks like on?  

I can fluff my hair on top of it

 and it doesn't make me cringeat the sight of it on my head! 

 This will be good to wear without ruining a hairdo

 as a beanie does to short hair! 

 (Don't pay attention to my serious expression--I took the pic before bedtime and I look like I need to go to sleep--which I did right afterwards! lol)

 

Today, I am off to a QOV sewing day-there are 16 of us who will be sewing  blocks, sewing together blocks and just plain enjoying working together!  (our group leader will be away on the 'real' QOV Sew Day so we scheduled it a bit early!)

NEWBORN HATS

I hoped to make 10 yesterday but I will make the other three today.  Nice to have the house deep cleaned--all corners tamed and the other sleeve on the Gneiss Sweater will be completed!  I'm grateful for feeling so much better today, if a bit fuzzy-headed after the migraine!!!

 

GNEISS IS NICE!

The latest sweater is moving right along but I dont like the worsted weight yarn as much as I enjoyed knitting with the DK weight! 

 The yarn is called Zebra but to me it looks like one of the rocks I am learning about--gneiss looks like this!!

I decided to use one skein to make the two sleeves and then I will have all the yarn I need for length without worrying if there would be enough for sleeves!  And by doing them first, I don't have a whole sweater to haul around as I shoot around the sleeve!

I was knocked flat yesterday with a rogue migraine-the 'lose your sight and have to go to bed with dark and no sound' kinda migraine!  The new meds I take as soon as the vision goes makes me go stone cold for hours and then I get way too hot for hours before I find my normal temperature;  it is really an adventure!  I hope to move around like a normal human today!

 

WOOD ON WEDNESDAY

This bowl kept having problems;  I kept finding solutions.

But it won yesterday when the tenon I had formed on the back fell apart and threw the bowl off the lathe!

It chipped it in one place and cracked an inch off the other.  See the metal bit in the center?   That is where the wood screw that held it on the lathe for the first part severed.  

I had the last word.  Yup--it was fuel in the fireplace and warmed up the room nicely so I could knit in peace watching it burn.....!

Yesterday, woman visited our quilting group and brought this for show 'n tell--it is done in single crochet stitch by colored stitch following the chart you see peeking on the middle left.  This was truly amazing and looked like a woven blanket!  (I would say it is most like intarsia in knitting because no yarns are carried along the back!)

She came back later on and dropped this off for me--a beginner's pattern so I could try it!  This might be my 'new' stitching skill for the year!  

 

TUMBLING TUESDAY

Each year I try to learn something new in the area of hand skills.  This year I have chosen Rock Tumbling!  I have watched YouTube, read 'how to identify rocks and minerals' books and have finally purchased my own dual drum rock tumbler and the grit needed to smooth the rocks, usually in one week intervals which means you have at least 4 weeks to wait for you polished rocks!

I have collected and admired rocks since my earliest memories.  (In fact, I can still remember the horror to learn my parents had somehow disposed of my paper grocery bags full of rocks when we moved when I was 15!)  I grew up living under an hour away from Lake Ontario on the South shore.  I thought for a very long time (until 12) that the name of the lake was Grandpa's Lake because that is what we called it when we stayed at my Grandpa's camp at the shore!  I still have rocks I have collected from there and I will tumble a few of them to polish them.  Lake tumbled rocks don't take as long because they have already been 'tumbled' naturally.  

I am also tumbling in the second drum, a bag of carnelians from a friend who has had them saved for ages!  I hope to see some shiny, rounded 'gems' when I finish with these!

 

The unit has gone out to the garage to run continuously for about a week for stage one!  To be continued next Tuesday!

A BETTER SWEATER STORY!

Might I proudly say--I have knit a sweater that fits!  It is the pattern by Kaitlin Harthold called the Perfect Knit T-Shirt and it certainly is!!!!  I followed the directions exactly even when I thought I knew better and did the I-Cord bind off with a larger needle but it stretched out the sleeves and hem so I ripped out my poor idea and did just as instructed and it is an amazing finish!!!!  (I did make the sleeves a bit longer than the pattern directs cuz  that is more attractive at my age!)

This is the yarn.

 Here are the stats--I will say, I love the way a DKweight yarn feels when knit into a sweater!

CUT IT UP!

I tackled the new quillt kit--so much to read and figure out when you first open it up because there are lots of fabrics and you need to label EVERYTHING!  I cut out a few block worth of pieces so I could get the feel of the block.

There are 17 of each of these two blocks-one larger star and one smaller.  The center is different on the small star but is all the same fabric on the large one!  I'm already thinking how different it would look if I do the stripes in red and white and all of the stars in blue on the next quilt! lol

I have only two rows left to do on the quilt frame but my laser light needed charging and so I had to quit!

So I went and played in the garage --a new oak bowl is growing!  The wormwood screw broke on this piece and I had to figure out how to continue on this.  The answer is using a piece of wood that fits in the chuck which is hot glued onto the bowl!  My daughter and I worked with my two little craft glue guns to get enough glue in place at the same time--a lot of fun!  And it worked!  I am ready to use the heat gun to soften the glue and pull the bowl off so I can turn it around on the lathe and hollow out the center of the bowl!  I'm glad so many of my tools work in differnt genres!

 

COMPLETED

The day loomed long with my daughter back home so I touched base with the studio;  I finished piecing the Hippo Top.  I am glad to report there was no drama and in no time it was ready for its place in the queue for the quilting machine!

  (I still have to finish the QOV on the frame-I worked on it, too,

 but no finish there, I'm afraid.)

It was pleasant to walk around outside again-it is a nice habit as so many of you know.  I am pleased to see the open blooms from the last Camellia bush.  This one has so many candy cane spots on the deep pink blossoms-truly pretty. 

 In fact, this one is my favorite.  

And look who has come home!  The long awaited repairs have been completed on the BobCat Tractor! Bill brought it home late yesterday and was too tired to unload it but I imagine he will make up for lost time today!  It was 'injured' last June and he is finally getting it back from the dealer.  I couldn't picture going without my lathe or sewing machine for that length of time!

 

A SLOW WALK

The weather was mild again and we enjoyed an afternoon walk.  This red-shouldered hawk kept watch.

Nyki felt like a panther walking across this decaying log!

Lena kept watch like a tiger in the grass.

The cats didn't like the fact the other one was also 'part of the group' and tried to ignore each other.  Nyki liked keeping her eye on us when we weren't looking-she is hiding by the corn crib.

Lena liked running ahead and then laying down 

and rolling in the sandy soil! 

This is a Google picture but what we kept seeing doing maneuvers overhead-a pair of them.  We could see it was a fighter jet but unlike any we recognized.  A quick photo and txt to my oldest son who is ex-AirForce and we were told it is an A-10 Warthog!  Still in active service since the 1970's!  Cool!

We closed out the day with a great meal after a bit of knitting again!  The visit comes to a close but my heart is full.