TOSSED ABOUT THURSDAY

I'm a bit late to the C2C (corner to corner) Crocheting Fad

 but I just learned it by making a dishcloth! 

 Yes, I liked it enough to make a second one!  

And another batch of rocks is finished! 

 This one is from The Rock Shed and includes several new-to-me specimens with fun names like sunstone, opalite, tiger's eye, amethyst, moss agate, and bluestone to name a few!!

BROKEN AND BEAUTIFUL!

I broke up a blue beer bottle I had on my wall of colored glass in the lanai to put it in the glass tumbler.

It turned out beautifully!  Soft and safe to handle! 

And then I added half of a clear glass vase and have some pretty white glass now! I looked for some red to tumble to have ready today but found that 3 of the glass vases I have are all 'fakes' in that the glass is clear and they have been dyed.  They would tumble like the clear glass and lose all of the color.  I will have to go thrift store shopping to find one!  (or more! lol)

We might not have any fireworks this year but look at this cloud--it was huge but back lit by the sun perfectly!

The free glass is finished--a nice supply to put in another wooden bowl!

And my rocks from Washington are done, too, and in their own special bowl so that I can remember which ones they are without relying on my memory! 

One bobbin finished with the KnitPicks Stroll bare roving I died.  I hope to finish the other bobbin either today or tomorrow!

TUMBLING TUESDAY

My rocks from the Washington trip are almost ready--

they are in the polishing stage now!

The assorted rocks from the freebie rocks are shaping up nicely--two that are really new to me are the tiger's eye rocks.and the pretty black/red ones called landscape Jasper.  These will both be finished next weekend.  I am looking forward to some other rocks a friend brought back from her trip to Alaska!  What a treat!

And the surprise is the glass tumbler!  I can get another one done in just a few days of tumbling;  I am going through all of my beach glass so that I can make any with sharper edges all rounded for using in an art project like this one!

 

TUMBLER TUESDAY

 The new rock tumbler came and I am very pleased with the way it is built!  I will be loading up the two loads which were put on hold when the old one died!  Bill says he will work on the old one and see if he can get it going again--have at it!  Now I know why most people who get into tumbling have more than one tumbler--we have way more ideas than patientce!

*I took the picture of this while I was in bed-it was one of those days yesterday. 

REPAIRS

This batch of rocks was interrupted by a stretched belt that no longer drove the shaft to tumble the rocks!  I had to wash out the barrels and got a sneak peak at them--these are the granddaughter's rocks from Washington!

The rocks are going to be so pretty!  

I had to take the tumbler apart to get the old belt off to order a replacement which will be here Monday.

Today, I am going to sew and putter to my heart's content--

I get to stay home today! 

 My eye is improving so that it isn't painful,

 just a bit achy which is a huge improvement! 

 I might even work at the lathe after I put my goggles back on! lol

 

TUMBLING AND TRAVEL

The latest batch of rocks-this is blue quartz.

These are my favorite cuz they are Amazonite!

The second batch is nearing the end of their tumbling-only one more week for polishing but...

We are going to interrupt things for a bit and take a flight to Seattle to visit oldest son and family 

AND 

to meet our youngest grandson, finally!

 

TUMBLING TUESDAY

This batch of rocks is on its last week-next week will be the big reveal!  I have chert, petrified wood and some other fun rocks!

This was the mystery mix from the RockShed--oh, so pretty after only one week of tumbling!

As long as we are in Spring now, I thought I would show you my veggie beds--and I have green poking up all over!  

Look hard and you can see the beans here!  See-we don't have soil here-we have sand with lots of decaying material in it!  Very different to work with but I have high hopes!

The last block is finished!  Now I have to decide how to attach them to each other--I'm pretty sure I will be crocheting the blocks together--it is easiest and looks good, too.  

I'm off to Quilting Group today; I made some

 machine/ hand needle cushions for the original four of us! 

 I made it out of canvas squares filled with walnut shells.  

The lines are inked on with permanent marker.

  The pile of threads are from the 'fringing' I did to the sides!

 

TUMBLING TUESDAY

Another batch done from the tumbler!  

Some pink and yellow jasper , quartz, epidote and unakite.

These four in the front are my favorites this batch-epidote, pink jasper, unakite and red striped jasper.

We had a campfire last night-a perfect night for it-no wind and a bit chillier than it has been!

This is what I will work on today at quilting group!

 

ROCK TUMBLING TUESDAY

These are shaping up nicely!  Pretty exciting to wash them off and see what changes have taken place since last week!  It is hard not to peek too soon, either!

After washes off the dirt and grit from the last week's tubling, I add the next weeks' grit and mark each barrel.  The one on the left is getting polish--the last weekk for this one!  The one on the right is getting week 3 grit-it has two more weeks to tumble.

Both get loaded back on and will tumble until next week's bathing ritual again.  I have been taking a course on minerals on YouTube and am really getting a handle on this finally!  It is very interesting!!!

Oh, yeah, and just to prove I still work with yarn, too, here is a hat for my son-in-law who loves both the Buffalo Bills....

and SU (Syracuse, NY)!!!

 

TUMBLING TUESDAY

Isn't this a pretty sight for the last day of February!?  The more rounded rocks on the left are some more from Lake Ontario.  The brown one on top and the ones on the right are some that are no completely know-two are petrified wood, one is chert and the others mysteries!  Fun stuff.  They are reloaded for week 3 for the lake rocks and week 2 for the mystery load.

My order of rocks arrived today!  Bill says he is feeling flummoxed over me paying for rocks!  Well, I did and I will be doing it some more until I get to a place where I can rockhound for myself!  These are from the Rock Shop, which has a great variety and wonderfully fair prices!  I bought some blue quartz, green quartz, Amazonite and a mixed bag!  You will be seeing more on them in the future!

And this is a great way to end the 'love' month--a blog friend sent some sock scraps for adding rows to my sock scraps blanket!  Just in time to finish up the row to make it wider!  Thank you!

 

TUMBLING TUESDAY

My first batch of tumbled rocks is finished!  What a thrill.  They are right on the table where I can see them

 each time I pass through!

Here is a close-up of the Lake Ontario rocks.

These are the Carnelian rocks I tumbled for my friend!

Here is what is going in the second batch--some petrifiedd wood and unknown others that the previous owners of this house

 left in a pile outside.

The second tub has these larger Lake Ontario rocks that I started last week.  I have the tubs marked for what grit they are on--#1 and this one is #2.  They each get one week on this stage.  

 

ROCK TUMBLING CABINET!

Bill, who is the king of 'free' brought home this cabinet.  I told him to put it in the 'garage sale pile'.  And then I got to thinking...This would keep my rock tumbling supplies in one neat place and in the bottom-where the piece of foam is, houses the tumbler and helps to muffle the sound!

See?!  It is sitting on a towel;  I drilled a hole in the back for the cord to go to the outlet.  I will buy some wood for solid doors the full length of the cabinet--just add it to the wood shop projects for the near future!

These rocks are in the last stage-the polishing phase of their tumbling.  I already have some new ones in the other tub and some more to go in this one in one week when these are done!  Exciting stuff!

For Valentine's Day, I will be hanging the hearts at the park nearby!

I hope you have a good day by sharing some kindness!

 

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!