Work at Home

 I loaded up the sweater to add the sleeves yesterday when we finished errands;

I will finish the cuff and knit the other sleeve today, is the plan!

I also finished the quilt on the frame;

today I hope to bind this and load up the next one for quilting!

 I finished the last mile row of k2, p2 ribbing

on Bill's socks ;

they look disproportional but that's his foot--large feet and skinny ankles!

But guess what?

They fit!

Isn't this a pretty staging?!

Halfway!

 

I forced myself to work on the quilt loaded on the frame!

Forced myself because I know the quilt lines needed to be specific

and not a panto this time.

A pantograph is fast,

free motion takes a lot more time and thinking!

When I stitched a misplaced design one too many times,

I gave up and turned to the machine knit

 top-down V-neck sweater for Bill.

It went smoothly and without disaster.

(front and back are finished)

So today I will finish up both of these projects....

as soon as I'm back from a routine doctor appointment !

That trip sure will cut into the creativity time!

Savor the Season

 I'm working on the last mermaid;

she will join the others and then I will need to plan the quilt she will live in!

 I searched for variegated threads and found two kinds;

one twice the price of the other (DMC)

the other cheaper  (JPCoats) 

but there is a sheen on the more expensive that is lacking on the latter.

It wouldn't matter in something like this embroidery quilt

but perhaps mixing the two on the same piece of cross stitch

wouldn't be the best decision.

And on the knitting front, I have turned the heel 

and am about 3" into the leg of the second toe-up sock for Bill.

I am finally caught up all of the way-I thought I was doing better 

until I thought of several things that needed attention so I have quieted all of the

voices of the 'to-do' sirens and will now savor the season!

MQAL Finish

The mystery quilt-along is finished!

It is 60 x 72"

I finished sewing the middle section and then joining it to the others.

This will be donated to the Quilt of Valor leader in my region

who just happens to be in my quilt group!

I will add it to the quilt frame queue

and get quilting!!!

It was a lot of fun to participate in this Winter Mystery Quilt

with Nancy of Wyoming Breezes;

and a big thank you to her for sharing

Alycia Quilts blog info so I would be enticed , er, informed!

Beautiful Plants

 Beautiful and subtle-these leaves that turn pink are actually the 'bloom' for these plants!

 The poinsettia are just beginning to turn color for their seasonal flowers!

 The bromeliad  do their blooming centers throughout the year!

And the pencil cactus tips turn a coral color that is very pretty!

I hope you are blooming where you are today!

I'm off to quilt group!

And here is a pic of Bill and I with some of our grands !

Christmas is Early!

 We had a family Christmas this weekend!

Rain had been predicted but we had a glorious sunny day instead!

 On a walk, we found some beautiful blooming lichen!

I've never seen it in bloom and we appreciated these small (head of a pin small!) flowers!

 There were tons of deer moss or Reindeer Moss which is a fungus!

 Lichen on the old RR ties fence.

 A partial skull and torso bone of an armadillo!

 Look how sharp those teeth are?!

Nothing like a walk up the gully!

                                                              What a perfect day...

Pillow(s) of the Month

I tried hard to make a pillow-a-month

as Will asked me to do way back

in January of the new 2019 year!

I missed the Fall 3 months,

even though I had purchased the design

for each of the months of

September, October and November!

But here is December's pillow

and I made 2!

Preparations!

Nyki and I are wrapping presents and singing Christmas songs;

I'm feeling well,

I have a list of things to accomplish 

(the list will keep me focused)

and no where I have to be except for home!

What a delight!

The weather has been all over the place-

sunny and 80 and then grey and 60!

At least the Camellias and Christmas Cacti are merrily doing their thing!

My backyard is full of trilling/chattering robins

and I hear them from the open patio doors.

Now that is beautiful music to work with!

I have completely ripped out the cloche

and am revamping the pattern

now that I know what the skeleton should look like!

                                                      I'm much happier with the hat now!

With that conquered, I started Bill's sweater!

This is top down-so it is the two triangles

on either side of the v-neck front 

with the band connecting them!

The time consuming fussy part is over-

clear knitting ahead!

A Little Behind!

 I haven't been home for two days....

How can the house get so cluttered and dingy in so short a time?!

After doing the floors and dishes and laundry, 

I rewarded myself with some piecing time!

I saw the final clue to the mystery winter QAL for a QOV quilt,

put up my pieces and then rearranged them please my idea of this quilt!

 Now that the fun is done for the day, 

I am conquering piles like this,

 and this,

 I did put one pillow cover out!

The outside is almost done--see the pile of boxes?

Yeah, that's what I have to go and do now--some wrapping!

I am home  today until church and then home all day tomorrow!  Shhhhh!

Socks of Unusual Size

While I finished the first sock and started right in on the second one,

I didn't have Bill try them on to see if they fit.

The foot fit fine but the 2 x 2 rib was too loose;

even after I tossed this into the washer/dryer! So

So I will have to rip out the leg stitches 

and do a decrease across the whole round at the ankle 

to have 12 fewer stitches to knit the leg again!

It's just another reason to knit the socks toe-up 

because if I had to rip out the whole sock

well, I am not sure it would get done any time soon!

You can see the size comparison here--I am ready to begin the heel on my sock!

A Beautiful Day for a....

 Christmas party with my quilting group at the beach!

 Well, not quite on the beach, but right there anyway.

 Our group of 12 ladies and 6 husbands, 

ate on the upper floor where we had a wonderful view of the ocean.

There were plenty of shrimp boats, sail boats and swimmers

because it was a glorious 80* and utterly perfect beach weather!

We came over the inter-coastal bridge at low tide

and all of the oyster beds were in full view!

I worked on my zig zagular sock for the car ride there and back!

A Cloche

 The latest machine knit experiment!

A Cloche from Knit it Now.

I like to knit through a pattern but then I would like to do it again

with more confidence the second time and this hat is not different.

I would make the contrast band wider and the flip up brim narrower

next time around!

But with all of my musings aside, it was a fun knit and

an nice change from the basic beanie!

It's a Wrap-Completely Finished

 The buttons and buttonholes were accomplished without drama.

 The rhinestone buttons really add to the dress so it isn't too plain.

The best news is I delivered it last night and it fits!

 She couldn't believe I also included this-who knew it was popular again!?

 And this is what I wore to the party last night-

it was so soft and warm;  no layering was needed.

It was the perfect sweatshirt feel!

(I bravely tossed the sweater into the washer on handwash and then into the dryer it went;

nothing like LionBrand WoolEase yarn.)

Here is the out take--Nyki had to photo bomb me as the cell ph clicked!

I will be sewing the mystery HST's together today and making a hat on the knitting machine!

HST Block School

 We took another trip to Daytona today,

it was a beautiful crisp Fall day for us--see, 

December has the best autumnal color for us!

 This is what I learned today;

when you work with directional fabric, 

you have to understand some basic cutting rules.

Sewing blindly along will result in this unhappy situation--see how the writing isn't horizontal

as the rest of the blocks are?

I couldn't understand why I had so many blocks of one direction and so few of the other.

 I had assumed that when I drew my lines and sewed and cut, 

I would have two opposite blocks---I don't,

I have two of the SAME blocks.

 Even though these LOOK like they are opposite, 

when I rotate them 180* I have two identical blocks!

Anyone who has sewn these for pinwheel blocks, can sympathize

when they have one HST that just won't work no matter how many times they turn it! lol

I folded the square and looked at the differences and discovered I had to sew 

the blocks with the diagonal in this direction;

 I would get enough of the blocks I needed.

Now I can get the stitch directional prints

and produce the blocks I need with some determined stitching!