HOMEWARD BOUND

Mom and I crafted this together today. 

 A lot of fun and interesting that the month of November is bare!

I managed to make a hat and mittens to match for 8-10 year olds.

And I am mostly packed up and ready to head to the airport.  Time enough for a few more stories, card game and then savoring all of the memories.

Ta-Da Times 2 !

I ordered these canning jar rings ages ago and they finally came-so I wanted them not for canning but for crafting!  I sprayed painted them orange first.

Then I threaded an orange ribbon through the rings and tied it tightly in the middle.  It naturally forms the pumpkin shape.  In the center hole, I placed a real pumpkin stem saved from seasons past.

I now have a very seasonal table centerpiece!

Once that was complete, I wanted to head to the lathe. 

 Bill installed the LED light overhead for me and what a difference it made!  I sanded and polished the inside of the bowl

 and then it was time to turn it around to complete the base.

This is where I am having trouble to hold the bowl in place to remove the tenon that I make first so that the chuck can hold this while I hollow it out.

I made a chunk of wood into what is called a jam chuck--I shape the end of this chuck so that the bowl will fit over the end perfectly.

I then 'jam' the bowl between this wooden piece and bring the tail stock up to the bottom of the bowl as I cut away the now unnecessary tenon.

I whittle it down to a little nub and then remove it.  I sand this down and apply the finish to match the rest of the bowl.

And then I have a near perfect bowl from a piece of Camphor tree from our own yard!  The bowl is 4" x 4".  It took a lot longer than I thought but I hung in there until it was a done deal.  I can't wait until the next project now! lol

 

Sweet,Soft and Crafty!

  

 Summer Blooms II is officially finished and ready to comfort.

 See the crinkles?  This is also a good sense of the color.  I love it!

I also finished the second baby sweater that is part of my 'training' on the knitting machine!  

This one is  a size 3-6 months; I used Bernat Baby yarn. 

 I'm sending this one off to my newest grandniece! 

 I think I need to make a new sweater for big sister, too, 

so I will wait to send it out until I finish hers. 

 Not a burden to have to knit another sweater!

 Like Meredith, I had a late night scramble to make a tribute to Dr Seuss;

I have to have something amazing for every day this week!  

I drew this 'badge' and Will colored it in.

I taped the pin to the back to the cardboard back (the front is made of canvas fabric)

 using medical tape so it will stay put! 

 I only have four more badges to make!

  I'm glad I only had to make one today! 

 Now to brush up on the sketching skills!

Frog Legs

 I passed the halfway mark while working through the frog quilt!

I have cut my time to applique them to only 11 minutes.  

Those frog fingers will be the death of me! lol

Tw0 more rows to go and I will be finished!

Will made this frame for his Dad for Father's Day-he was so excited to give this gift to him yesterday.

I am glad this rough and tough little boy has such a wonderfully creative streak, too!

Parts Make a Whole

 Another dishcloth made;  it wasn't enough yarn to make a whole one

 so I used a bit from a new skein to add borders top and bottom.

This one is knit in seed stitch;  

I thought I wouldn't like doing a whole dishcloth in seed stitch 

but I didn't mind the rhythm of it at all and I like the texture of it in my hand!

The pond lawn is covered with these wildflowers again this Spring.

The camera wanted to focus on the ones in the background

 instead of the one right in front of me! 

 I saw some color in the tree back there and found this......

the hurricane had tangled it beyond repair 

so I cut all the parts from the string and I am going to build it again!

I have been saving colored bottles to make one of these

and now I don't have to cut the bottoms off-I can just enjoy this one!

This one was tangled , too, and I almost just tossed it

 because they are pretty common

 but I saved all the disks after I cut them apart

 and I will decide if I am going to rebuild this one later!

Plans

Mom had bought a kit to make these plastic canvas card holders and saved them to work on while I am here.  We managed to finish both our halves and stitch them together and they work!

(I won't mention that I got mine done before her!)

We have several more to make but this was all we could get done before we had to start this other project!

We cut out enough squares for the front and back of a lap sized rag quilt.

We are doing the back squares all in the dark green and all the lighter colored ones for the front where all the ragged edges will fringe.

We sewed two blocks together and left notes on the pile of squares so Mom can work on it after I go-she likes projects to do but gets bogged down on the 'where do I begin' steps!

I am a great enabler!

We managed to collect all the goods for this from her stash!

Post Tryptophan Day

A LOT of down time today after the flurries of the last few days....Ashley and I made a few more ornaments...these are halves of a whole;  they get glued back to back with a hanger loop in between the layers.  We had fun decorating while Will napped. 

When he woke up, we let him decorate his own tree!  He had ideas! 

And was very particular about which color went where.  He did like using the Accuquilt a lot, too. 

AND I AM DONE WITH THE ENTRELAC BLANKET FOR NEW BABY, EATHAN!

It did become a bit of a knitting grind stone around my neck but I kept my eye on the goal most of the time!  I got it done almost whole month before he is due!

I used Prism yarn from Mary Maxim.  The pattern is now engraved on my knitting heart;  it is over a base set of 10 triangles, 10 stitches each.  It turns out about 36" wide by 42" long.

Quick!  Where is some sock yarn?!

Final Days Projects

 I saw a cool tutorial to make a cat tent on Craft: Daily and I gave the kids a list and we accumulated our ingredients!  A fun project and the cats cooperated and enjoyed it, too!

 While the project is titled Cat Tent, I think it is a bit small for a cat and is a good project for kittens!  When Marsel is tired of moving it around, she can donate it to her local cat shelter!

 Abigail and I planned a kitchen project-even though that is not my favorite room, she is and so we made a dessert for dinner.

 A recent Facebook recipe, tweaked by me.   It was delicious!

 Then we wrapped up our frenzy with some t-shirt dyeing.  We bought a kit from Hobby Lobby for the dyes and then had fun picking our scrunching up designs for the shirts!

 We found this cool wasp nest in the corner of the garage, too.  You can see inside it!

 From the front, it looks strange now-like a balloon!

 The results were amazing and I have convinced them to save up and buy some more dye to do some more of this kind of project with friends!  This is Marsel's shirt.

 Abigail's shirt.

 David's shirt.

 Abigail's .

 And David's.   I will show you the finished surprise project tomorrow.

 Since I am on a colored glass hunt, we found this beer bottle of black glass!  I was cleaned and wrapped and brought home for a near-future project in the glass lab!

These two skeins are from the annual LYS trip, superwash Liberty wool from Classic Elite.

For the record, we learned that no matter how much time you are together (and this was a record one, at 26 days together counting the days watching Will at my house, too!) it is still painful to say goodbye! But it was wonderful to have Bill meet me at the airport.

What Have I Been Doing?

 We had a beautiful view of the 'Blue Moon'.

 Bill picked a branch from the Date Palm tree so I could try a batch of jelly from it.  (The jam batch of two years ago was not a success.)

 Doesn't it look delicious?  The fruit are super sweet.

 The branch looks cool when it is empty of all its fruit.  I was tempted to keep it but it is large at 2 1/2' and not really.......well, you know.

 I got a large pot of fruit and simmered it all day to make a mash so I could strain it for jelling.

Suffice it to say, I scorched the bottom and ruined the whole batch.   Have I ever mentioned I do not shine my brightest in the kitchen......

 A friend gave me a  package of these pre-cut polar fleece fringed squares.  I put it together and have a wonderful throw!

 I worked on a new outfit for Aria all week-she turns one this coming week!

 The diaper cover is so cute!  I have to get buttons before I can say, 'done'  on this !

 I did successfully bake some more discs for wind chimes!

 Even drilled the holes and strung them together!

 Another batch of soap is drying in the mold.  This one is orange scented and also has orange peel exfoliant added.  It smells wonderful so far!

 I have finished the Shetland wool, all 1,688 yards of fingering weight wool!  I can get started on the newly designed shawl this week!

 I watched an old program about Knitting featuring Cat Bordhi about starting toe-up socks with a garter stitch square so I gave it a try with some left over sock yarn!  This is a little girl's sock.....
it is cute and an easy beginning!

Our banana trees have come back full steam from the frost of the winter and we have quite the grove now.  They are about 10' tall.

And the best thing is we have new bananas growing!  They are early enough that we don't have to worry about frost taking them!   I will keep watching them so I can get a picture of the bloom fully opened, too.  As it is right now, the bud is about 15" long.