Tuesday, January 31, 2012

She used it! :)

Peaches slept on the orange pad on Joel's bed last night. I moved the pad out to the front room for today and she actually used it for a bit this morning! :)  Yeah! :)

Monday, January 30, 2012

A few pics for you

Figured I'd show you what I've done lately ...

Just this morning I was looking to cover an old chair pad to make a pad for Peaches, and I found this orange fleece with paw prints on it, so I made ....


She's checked it out but hasn't claimed it yet.  Maybe a bit later....

Last night I knit these while watching reruns of Dancing with the Stars from 2007.


A few days ago I finished this long skinny red scarf for the hospital.


I need to make time to take what red scarves I have to the hospital as I don't have any more red yarn, atleast not enough to make a whole scarf. 

Friday, January 27, 2012

New Hair for Tara !

So, I decided to get a haircut and was able to also get my hair highlighted today. 

We are going to a company party for dh, so I figured I'd improve my looks a bit. 

I think she said she cut off 3 inches.

If I get some comments .. I may post a picture :)

Thursday, January 26, 2012

A neat basket weaving idea . . .

I was shown this link today ...

http://www.designsponge.com/2012/01/sewing-101-recycled-paper-basket.html#more-127114


(picture is from the tutorial, not mine.)

It's weaving with paper strips ... combining a little sewing with paper with recycling ..... looks like a really neat idea... makes me want to make a waste paper basket out of newspapers! :)  If I do, I'll be sure to show you! :)

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

It's Snowing Again

It's snowing today.  When I got up this morning, there were lots of big fat flakes of snow falling from the sky.  It was actually very pretty.  I'm glad I don't have to go anywhere today though, as I hate driving in snow.  I can do it, I just don't like it.  The snow had lightened up a bit, but it's back to being very heavy again.  I'm sure we'll have to shovel before dh gets home tonight.



Today I hope to get some quilting done, and will probably work on some knitting this evening.  Here are the projects that I'm intending to work on.

Scarf is a *k2,p1* pattern.  Love it!

I got the pattern for this quilt from Lynne. Her blog is here.  I've linked you to the posts about the celtic knots quilt.  She is a very special lady/woman (what's the best term for adult female?) and I'm glad to e-know her! :)

Well, here is is after noon already and I haven't done much of anything.  I was having trouble getting the pictures uploaded. Blogger wouldn't do it the normal way for some reason.  I have done some Facebook and Castleville, and I have one load in the wash. I was going to move the load to the dryer, but when I went in there, found that Missy Peaches had not quite hit the box with her number 2, so I had to clean that up first and went ahead and scooped out the rest of the box while I was at it.  That is supposed to be the boys' job every day, but I guess I didn't ask them yesterday. (Why do I have to ask/tell them when they know they are to do it every day?)  Boys! 

ahem, anyway ... I'm moving forward, but very slowly.  I'm off to actually move the load to the dryer, and perhaps put in another one.  (Not sure how full the baskets are, there might be enough for a load, or it might be better to wait a day or two.)

Hope you all are having a good day ... :)


Friday, January 13, 2012

Quilting and Snow

Lots to show you today, so it will be a picture heavy post.  Enjoy your walk through my ... life :)

I got a new thermometer for the backyard, and a set of two birdfeeders last weekend.  It is put on a hook thing that my dad made (several years ago).  My dad has been very good to me :) This pic was taken as the snow was starting yesterday morning.
 I worked on a bit of quilting.  The following photos show my process through taking some dresdan blades that someone had given me, and making them into something useful.  It's very much a "use it up" project, as the blades don't match, and the background piece is a poly blend, and I used small scraps of batting.
one piece quilted

second piece basted

Quilted & Trimmed neatly
Starting to come together . . .
It was meant for Peaches, but ...
She just doesnt' seem interested in it, . . .
 So I've taken it for putting behind me on the couch :)  You snooze you lose! :) lol.

Here's some pictures of the yard as the snow was starting . . .


 And here's the red scarf I finished last night.  This is for the Grafton Hospital.
 The following are pictures from this morning.
Beautiful Mourning Dove.

Another Mounring Dove

Backyard
 Don't know if you can see, but something walked through our backyard last night.  Not sure what it was, possibly a deer?


New Thermometer set up ...
 Isn't it pretty with the dogwood bush behind it? :)

So hope you enjoyed your little "walk".  Comments welcome!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Peaches, Knitting, & Crochet

Let me open with a few pictures of our cat Peaches.  She has taken to moving around the house and catching sunshine where she can find it.  During the middle of the day, it's been dh & my bed.


Isn't she cute? :)

Here's the red scarves I've completed for the hospital in Grafton.  I hope to get two more done before I deliver to them at the end of this month.
Also - here are a few dishcloths I've crocheted in the last few evenings.  Actually all but one of these was done in one evening, a couple of days ago .. I am just now getting a picture of them posted...

Yesterday I spent some time in my sewing area .. and found some old dresdan plate blades that someone had given me.  They are of older fabric, and so Ijust started sewing some of them together.  I've got some fused and sewn on to squares of whitish fabric (also old, probably poly blend .. ) and I plan on making them into a pad meant for Peaches to lay on .. I hope to finish it this weekend ..

Monday, January 9, 2012

Random thoughts - & Special Olympics Scarf #18

I haven't posted in a few days, so here's just a few random thoughts and such ..

If you ever wanted to learn how to do a bargello quilt, this website has a tutorial started on it.  They are really much easier than they first appear!

I added a pic on my sidebar for the Quilting Is Murder shop hop.  It's a bit of a different take on the internet shop hop.  You still go to quilt fabric websites, and click on the clue, and get entered for the prize .. but there is also a murder mystery story that you get to read chapters of each week and each week you get a mini puzzle to solve, submit your answer and enter for a smaller prize.  It's quite fun!  Check it out. :)

I got the Special Olympics box mailed off on Friday morning.  It was so neat, and such a God-thing .. I had collected $12 for shipping from the other members of the group, and the cost of the postage with a delivery confirmation was $12.05! lol... worked out perfectly!  We ended up sending in 31 scarves. 

Here is My scarf number 18.  I was able to finish it and include it in the 31 that got mailed.


Wisconsin Special Olympics  is reported as having received 455 as of January 5th, so our 31 will go a ways to getting them to their goal of 600.  I just checked the tracking number and it was delivered on Saturday. the 7th.  :)

Now I'm trying to work on a few red scarves for the hospital in Grafton, WI.  They want to give their Cardiac patients a scarf when they "graduate" :).  I have one done, and one almost done.  I also have enough red yarn to make two more.  I'll also be sending in as many premie hats as I can get done the end of this month.  I'll try to get pictures of these scarves and the hats before I deliver them.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Special Olympics Update - 2 more scarves

Just thought I'd share a quick photo of two scarves that I recieved from NH yesterday.  She did a great job! :)
This is NH's 2nd and 3rd scarves for the Special Olympics project .. That makes 29 that we are sending in, with 1 more on my needles that I should be able to finish today.

What did I do yesterday? or How to Piece Batting Scraps.

Yesterday ... well, I pieced batting :)

I save the strips of batting that come when you trim the edges of quilts.  These are usually anywhere from 2 to 4 inches wide, but some can be about a foot or more.

I start by sorting and  making sure my strips are from the same type and color of batting.
Then I lightly iron them so that they dont' have any major wrinkles and will lie flat.

Then I find two with straight edges and I use a large zig zag to sew the edges together.  I butt the edges together as I put it under the presser foot so that there will not be a ridge or bump on the seam line.


If I don't have straight edges, then I will cut them so they are straight, or overlap the edges of two pieces and cut through the overlap.  This makes two edges that will butt together nicely to make a flat seam - even if it's a wavy seam, it won't show as long as it's not bumpy.




After a bit of this .. you have a nice flat piece of batting that can be used.

not quite enough pieced together yet.

nice big piece for my project.

close up of seams.

I used mine yesterday for a quilted tree skirt to go on the small Christmas tree that we purchased this year and is on a microwave cart in our dining room. I had the top pieced a week or so before Christmas, but never got around to getting it quilted an on the tree.  So I went ahead and basted ....

and then took it to the machine and zig zag quilted all the radius seams ... and used a narrow bias binding for the binding, although I turned it all to the back except for the center circle.


And that's how I spent most of yesterday.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Special Olympics Scarves 16 & 17

Okay, well, ds2 did not finish his scarf, we ended up unraveling the 12 inches or so that he had done .. but that means that I had more yarn to use, so I went ahead and made up two more scarves .. using some of the yarn ET had given me and the skein that ds2 had.

So here is my scarf number 16 - it's granny squares .. I had some leftover from my earlier granny square scarf, (Hey that was #6 - this one is 16 .. kind of neat!) so I just made some more to finish this one off.


And my number 17 is another lemonade stitch scarf like my number 4 scarf and like my number 13 as well.  I love this stitch, it's very fast and gives a nice texture.
Our knitting and crochet group has one more meeting this Thursday before I mail the box on Friday.  I may even try to mail it on Thursday if I can squeeze it in between the meeting and ds2's piano lesson.

A wonderful BOM to follow for 2012

If you've followed Jenny at Elefantz.com .. then you know she's a talented designer.  She's got yet another great project starting up .. this is her free bom for 2012.


She's starting out with the verse Jeremiah 29:11 .. and I love that verse.  I think I will work on it today .. I need a new project to keep me motivated ..  Anyone with me?