Face Lift

 I did a spontaneous double-take on this fabric and instantly saw it on my dining room chairs.

This set is old;  inherited from Bill's parents.

 I had a rough idea of the fabric needs and thought I had the foam measured out right.  

(I didn't but that comes later!)

 When I pulled the seat off the chair and pulled the staples from the cover, 

I was quite surprised to see another layer underneath!  

The velvet was disintegrating and the padding was so discolored and musty!

  You've served your time;  goodbye!

This fabric is typical of the 1940's and I have even seen another chair at a friend's and she concurred the time frame.   

Since that was when his parents married, 

we assumed the set was from then.  

 I am thinking much earlier now!  

  

 The chair seats are of solid mahogany-no pressed plywood these!  

The wood is still in great shape and no splits or warping.  

 (I wish I had treated it with wood oil before I covered them again!)

 I traced a pattern......cut out my fabric,

 cut out the batting to cover the foam and then cut out the foam.  

Covering chairs is easy in this case;  no sewing but there is a lot of muscle-

in both pulling staples and real tacks 

(the small black kind most of you will remember if you are over 50! lol) . 

 Also a lot of picking up and turning over to unscrew the seats with the drill 

and then reverse the order to put it all back together again! 

 It is so worth it to have the dining room get a face lift! 

 I will show you the whole room when I finish the other two chairs! 

Remember, I said more on that-yeah, I ran out of the foam

 but we will stop and pick some more up today so I can finish them!)

  (I'm pretty sure there is enough to do a table runner, too!  Yippee!)

Another 'Silver Shawlette' in Teal

 The shawl with its modifications is completed!

How light and airy it is with fingering weight yarn instead of the DK handspun yarn I used for the first shawl!

 Right off the needles it looked a bit wrinkled and stubby.

 Blocking sure works magic on a lace shawl!  This blocks out to 14" deep and 7' long (6' in the crescent shape to fit on my blocking board!)

 I didn't decrease at the leave tips but kept the stitch count high to make the shawl longer.  I also made a seamless change  to the body of the shawl by using garter stitch for the short (long !) rows to 'fill' in the body of the shawl-remember this is knit bottom up!

  I also added a yarn over edge to the top of the shawl.

I can't wait to wear this shawl-it is a perfect weight to bridge the weather from hot to a bit more moderate in our Autumn.  

I did use just a bit over one skein of KnitPicks Chroma Fingering yarn on size 7 needles.  There is enough yarn left in the skein to make a pair of socks, no problem!  

Studio Called

 Orange blocks cut out and one sewn for the LeMoyne Star quilt.  There are nine block of orange so one down!

I moved the rows over like this so I could use more room on the design wall.  I only need some grey blocks when I finish the orange and then I can begin to think about organizing their layout! 

 I needed room so I could lay the log cabin triangles out  to get a feel for how the colors would play to give me a pleasing pinwheel secondary pattern.  This is only a test so I can figure out the size and rows, etc;  I think I need 10 more blocks at least and I think I will make it with the reds being in shortest supply!  I have a back up plan , though! lol

Here's a cute project I came across from Emblibrary.com if you have a machine that embroiders, too.

These are made of felt-I will make a bunch for the grands....

Sunshine in a Bush

 These blossoms remind me of orchids but they are Cassia!

 The whole bush is covered with a dense cover of these 2" blooms.

 The bush is 15" of sunshine!

I see them out my front door and the front yard is brightened with this radiant color!

I'm Here!

 New sweater knit is progressing nicely-

this is the left front worked up to the armhole-now ready for some decreasing for there

 and the V-neck edge.  

Lovely yarn and interesting pattern. 

 (Drift)

 New to the needles is Shale which knits up quickly on larger needles

 and will most likely find itself in the dyepot  upon completion

 since the natural is too white for my likes but we will see.

And this completed top is destined for some sleeves! 

 It is a beautiful yarn of Merino and Angora so it is warm-

not so great for summer but just right for our winters if it only had some 3/4 length sleeves. 

 I will be picking up the yoke stitches and knitting down for the sleeves.

  Because I think I can.....

On the Needles!

We have a left front in progress!

The pattern is easy to build and relaxing to knit-always a bonus!  

But I will tell you I ripped this out and am doing it again in the next size.

I doubted myself after the swatch and dropped a size to make up for the gauge

being off but now it is drawing in too much;

better to find out now than when the sweater is done!!!

                   I finished the pink blocks and will start cutting out the orange ones tomorrow!      

And this mess is turning into something very neat, if you can believe it!

                                     (I try to sneak in a block, 5 mins flat when I can!)                                             

And I am accumulating a pile of triangles!

This will be a Quilt of Valor donation if I can get enough blocks to 

make a twin sized quilt.

Excitement in a Box!

 A box of yarnish goodness has arrived!  I even bought some of the newer Foursquare needles.   A pleasant surprise is the new cables;  very flexible.  I can't wait to use them.

 This is what has caught my eye-a new texture stitch cardigan!

I have nailed the first swatch for this; 

 there are two , one for stockinette stitch and one swatch for the texture stitches.

   I nailed the first swatch but can't get the second.  

 I will keep trying because I want this to fit me when I am done!  

 It's all good.

      Looking straight out my window is a lovely area filled with the Roselle plants, all in bloom!

And not too far from them is the 20 foot Cassia plant that is in full bloom!

It will stay in this glorious coloring until the frost might strike-we are hoping that will skip us this winter!

Our breakfast visitor-some kind of moth and it is beautiful!

On to swatching!

Temporary Delay!

 I was so close the end of this shawl but I ran out of yarn!  

 It is the re-make of the Silver Leaves Shawlette; 

 I couldn't make the leaves point the other way

but I did manage to very easily skip the decreases so I have a longer shawl.  

(It's probably why I ran out of yarn!)  

I have ordered a new skein and will work on the second toddler sock until it comes!

It is still this warm out here!  I love how the pool matches the shawl!

New Technology - Wonderful and Awful

A new laptop was delivered this afternoon!

It is slightly smaller than my old one and a pound lighter.

(both positive points with my wrists!)

The joy dims pretty quickly when I have to slog through setting it up like my old one

 which was so easy access and convenient!

I'm sorry to whine;  

I have come down with a cold and my head is exploding with fluids....

Someone else is not adjusting to the time change either!

                              He is up too early and wipes out way before our usual schedule-

well he is keeping to it but I am not cooperating as far as he's concerned!  

 We have to meet in the middle!  

Soon! 

CATS CAN'T TELL TIME!

Bright and early, a herd of elements trooped through the room!

So much for sleeping in an extra hour! 

 I finished one little two year old sock!

  On to the second....

 We were given this curb-side-save mirror and hung it over the buffet. 

 It is VERY heavy and I needed help to get it up there

 but it looks as good as I imagined! 

  Hooray!

 I made some soap again-I need it ready to pass out to my family;

  I haven't kept up with making soap for all of us!

One of the best parts of pumpkin carving-the seeds!

                  I just love to munch on these after a good roast in the oven!

                I started sewing the pile of pieces for the row of pink blocks! 
While it isn't my favorite color, the pink and white together does look sweet!

Seeing Red

Boy Wonder didn't want to have the booster seat any more but he couldn't quite reach without a bit of a boost.

Grandma made him a cushion that is grown up and he was thrilled~ 

 Nap-time project today-a pin cushion/thread catcher!  

A sweet sewing idea but also works for knitters because of all the clutter we accumulate-it can all be contained and still handy with this item!

 My yard is full of red blooms!  This is the Caleandra.

 The Shrimp Plant. 

 (I am still seeing hummingbirds and they love this plant!)

 All the Coleus is beautiful shades of red and rust and bronze!

 The Indigo has produced its third crop of leaves! 

 It is striking-now to learn how to make it a dye bath!

The Ti plant has lots more pink/red than showed up in the photo but it is such a pop of flame in our yard! 

 The Poinsettia should be joining the show in the next month! 

 We already had a red Camellia but I missed a pic of it!  

I love this time of year!