Tile and Wood

The day was much chillier but it was dry and a good day to work on the chimney!  I finished the first side and even began work on the other;  what a good feeling!  It looks so good with the grout--it has been several years without it, if you can believe it. 

 Very unlike me to begin and not finish a project.  

But it is happening now and that is what counts!  

 I cleaned the house-a really deep clean and for a reward (after a piece of chocolate) I worked at finding a way to try and save that cracked bowl.  Well, it almost beat me but I made it shorter-removing the cracked inch and then another crack opened here on the side.  I sanded and rounded it out after breaking out the loose bit and applied the sealing spray and voila!  

It is a cute little 4 x 4" artsy bowl!

After church today (in person and I wore the new cardigan!) I will work some more on the chimney and then enjoy a nap!

Work is Pleasure

The best part of these wonky stars is that it uses up every little scrap-even left over piano key slices!  Do you see that Lena is on my work table with me and in the front right, you might've noticed a bit of salted dark chocolate....fuel for the brain!

I finished quite a few before the sunshine warmed things up 

and I went outside!

In the same way we like to work on UFO's in the sewing room, there are plenty of UnFinishedObjects around the house, too.  Like the outside fireplace chimney that I needed to grout.  (only two sides still need to be done.)  It took me an hour to do these 12 tiles!  It will be slow going but I am going to get it done while the weather is mild so I don't overheat!

Don't look up--and see how many more rows there are to do!  Every job looks daunting if you look at all you have to do;  better to see how much you DID get done and then keep going!

Speaking of getting going....I turned one of the Sapele wood blanks I received for Christmas.  The bottom is done; once I turn it around, I can begin to hollow out the bowl portion.  It is a beautiful wood to work with -what a treat!

This was my mild 72* view from the garage; 

 you can see my chair for taking breaks

 and my wood pile which is waiting to be cut up and stacked! 

 (I need an electric chain saw!)

 

Dabbling

This is Dorset wool ready to spin. 

One 4 oz bobbin finished and on to the next. 

In between things, I make a blue block for the medallion quilt. 

Every time I walk through the studio, I rearrange the pinwheel blocks.

I think I have decided on this one! 

My big project today was working on the north side of the chimney.

I am doing all the full tiles and when I only have partial ones left to do, I will work with Bill.  It just took too much arm strength to use the tile saw last time I did it myself. 

I am using my vacation from watching Will because he is on vacation! 

At the end of the day, Nyki laid her head on my knitting and covered the roving so I only had 12" to spin and then.....

I gave up and went to bed!

On the Square

 I have one of the five window sills completely finished!

 The other four have the tile adhered but not yet grouted.

 The cutting of the tile is done for now!  Phew!  The marble tiles look great but they sure did crumble easily!

 Here is the cutting station!  Bill did a ton of cutting for me when I wore out!

When I needed a break from the tough stuff, I spent some time in the sewing room.   I saw this link for a YouTube video on a blog friend's post and

decided to tweak it a bit to make these.

A whole bunch of these!   About a dozen I think!  I made all kinds of mistakes on the first one but they are cranking out pretty easily now!

 I am doing a row of quilting blocks a day on the flower basket quilt.   It is progressing nicely!

 I am outlining the flower basket blocks and adding a pretty free-form feathered wreath in the plain blocks.

It gives this quilt the illusion of tradition with a bit of a modern flair.  Perfectly complimentary!

 I am hanging in there with the nieces socks.  I am working a bit on each sock....

But the boot cuffs keep calling my name!   Two pair done and I am almost done with a third pair!

Brightening My Corner

 The quilt of Millie's vintage fabrics is off the frame and delivered to her!

 It was a blast to quilt!   How can you not be happy with all those colors?!

 The chunky hat has had a remake and is all blocked.

 I like it much better now!  Will add it to the stash!

 The weaving was completed last night and I put my line of clear school glue along both ends so first thing this morning I could cut it from the loom and hem it, press it and use it!

 The buffet is polished and reorganized!

  ( I will completely clear it when we cover it with Thanksgiving dishes next week!)

 If you look closely, you can see how the yarn goes thick and thin which gives a very complicated wave to the weave.   I think another one will happen with this yarn-I will experiment with a golden warp next time.  It was nice to weave again.

 Here is a project that has been waiting for me for several years!   This niche used to be a window until we built the addition.   Bill left if recessed for me to places shelves and pretties.  The glass come from the old jealousie windows in the train house where my parents stay each winter when Bill and Dad replaced them....I saved them to be used here and today it finally happened.   The long delay was also due to frustration trying to find small brackets-the glass is only 4" wide and the recess is under 6".  It seems you can't find them under 6" which means they would stick out.

 I bought these plastic brackets from Ikea and cut them with my scroll saw so they fit and then used tile adhesive to fill in the ends so they didn't look cut.  I used 3M foam double-sided tape to hold the glass to the bracket.  It is a heady feeling to conquer such hurdles!  (Now I can get serious about adding Lefton birds to my collection!)

 This is on my needles-it has to be my most favorite cardigan to knit!  My Mom made it for me growing up, I made it for Marsel and then Abigail and now I will make it for another couple of grand daughters!  The yoke grows by adding the lace chevrons which are popular again.  
                                 
  I am using Cascade Paint superwash worsted.  (Get a look at the price on this booklet!)

 I applied the grout today!  Oh, yes, it is just such a wonderful window treatment!

 We head to the tile store to buy some more tile tomorrow!  I have a job for a while to finish all the windows in the addition!  Bring it on!

 On my bucket list is pottery.  I have been looking for an affordable pottery wheel for a while.  With a timely word from a friend, I am now the proud owner of one!!!!

 I can not wait to get going with this!   The clay will be delivered on Monday and then you will see my efforts!  ( I think I could learn to make my own tiles......)

 I also bought a few pieces he had for sale for inspiration!  There is going to be a new art to delight my hands very soon!

 Bill and I took a tour this afternoon to see what the frost last night had done.   Yes, it did its worst to our banana grove.  Very sad.

The Maple trees will begin to color now that we have had two nights near freezing.  And so it goes.

Recovery Time!

 I did the repair on Bill's tencel socks that had holes in both heels.   I did rip them back and reknit them;  that said, it is successful repair but it wouldn't work for wool yarn.   I can say I did this-once!  He is happy.

 When the knitting was done on the this Wild Leaves Hat from Patternfish, I cast on the second one with the remaining yarn.  Yes, I like doing the pattern that much.

 I managed to sew all the blocks together in little bits of time but it added up and now I have to look for more of the white to work the border out. What I can find for fabric will really help me decide on the border design.

 The quilting is fine' for the apple core quilt.

 Yes, it just needs its binding!

 Hat number two just about knit itself!  (I had just a few yards of yarn left!)  This makes hat number three from this pattern.  There might be one more!  (I have another indigo cake of yarn!)

 The tile for one of the spare bedrooms has been sitting in the bed table drawer.  For years.  Not any more!  Bill pulled the ceramic saw back out for me and I buzzed the row of tiles and then adhered them to the sill.

 The cut off pieces adhered to the front so the corner is complete!  Tomorrow it will take just a bit of grout time and I can say, "Completed!" ( I needed a small project of tile-the kitchen was very hard on my body! )

The sock  for Matthew has just turned the heel.  I forgot how much I enjoy working with a faux isle type yarn!   So far, there has been no repeat in the pattern!  I will finish these soon because he wants a short crew sock.   I hope to cast on the toe of the next one tonight!