Sunday: A Typical Day of Rest. It's Not Work If You Love What You Are Doing.

Back in 2013 I began this wall hanging as part of a Brown Bag Challenge at a local fabric shop (Little Fabric Garden).

The blocks themselves went together rather easily. I was rather proud of how crisp the points came out.

The holly leaf pattern is an original pattern. You can read more about it here.

The project was put on hold because my hand quilting of the leaves looked horrible on both sides. Because I'm working on finishing up projects, it was put back on the active work-in-progress pile.

After speaking with one of the ladies at the fabric shop and learning that to have someone with a long arm complete the quilting would cost more than budgeted, I decided to attempt machine quilting on my own.

That bright idea only got this far:

What a pain in the butt trying to quilt this small detail using a conventional sewing machine. Too much like work.

So...

Set aside for a little while until a solution could be found.

After weighing options, I decided to rip out the leaves already hand quilted and embroider them instead.

Rip. . . Rip. . . Rip. . .

It took about a half hour to rip out and then embroider the two leaves on this triangle. Although ripping is time consuming, it's the best solution because the embroidery really accentuates the leaves, as you can see from the first picture in this post.

After the leaves and berries are all embroidered, I will stitch-in-the-ditch using a similar green.

This is going to take a while. *sigh*

Good thing I find embroidery relaxing.

Here's hoping you have a wonderful Sunday!

Wednesday Worktable. The Little Stinker.

I came across this pattern book while looking for something else.

Even though I have several projects waiting completion (as always), I decided to take a break and make something different.

I purchased this book several years ago for the hedgehog pattern and made a few of them before becoming bored with the pattern.

All of the patterns in this book are very easy. Single crochet in rounds for the most part. Increase and decreases as well. Nothing more complicated than counting.

This week I chose to make the skunk. It's just very cute.

Being an experienced crocheter, when the pattern increased for the nose I placed some crochet thread across the stitches to mark where the nose should be embroidered.

This is how he turned out.

I'm undecided on whether to make another, but if I do I'll make the arms and legs bigger.

Other than that, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

What do you think?

Happy Valentine's Day!

This Valentine's Day I have decided to practice kindness. Today I've done my best to have a pleasant word and a smile for everyone I met as I went about my bi-weekly errands.

But I've taken it a step further. I've adopted one of the stray cats in the community. Not that I'm bringing it into my home. I don't really want another indoor cat. Especially a cat I know nothing about.

I have made a shelter for him out of an old tote in a place that provides shelter from the elements, but allows an almost 360 degree view without compromising security from predators. An old fleece blanket big enough to act as a nest is inside the shelter.

With all the streams that feed Tunungwant Creek, water isn't a problem for any animal in the wild. Food is a different story. I will be feeding him both dry and wet food once a day - right before sunset. It won't be enough to completely sustain him, but it will be enough that he won't starve. He'll still have to hunt for some of his food.

Speaking of food...

Time for Valentine's Day dinner. I hope you have had a wonderful day full of smiles and laughter.

Blessed be.

Monday Mini-project.

A while back I purchased some felt from a friend at an insanely low bargain price. A few weeks later, I purchased this little, green and white felt bird from her as well.

The felt was automatically relegated to the official craft room in a small shopping bag with the rest of the felt stash. The little bird has been sitting above the computer staring at me with its beady little eyes... Inspiring me to try to make a little birdie like it.

I rose to the challenge.

None of the patterns I have printed matched this type of bird, so a Google search led me to this pattern. Not exactly the same thing, but close enough.

Now, in with the felt was some lovely baby blue flannel. That's what I chose to work with. Unfortunately, flannel frays bad enough that the seam depth needed to be about 1/4 an inch.

This is the result:

Not good.

Rather than waste the time spent embroidering another top and more wings, the trusty old seam ripper came out.

Seams were removed and sewn again from the inside.




This is the result:

Again, not good.

Some day I'll make another birdie again using this pattern. But flannel definitely won't be used.

Live and learn, right?!

Friday Farewell. A Story about Reggie the Cat.

WARNING: This post is likely to be a downer. It's the story of a cat who crossed the rainbow bridge yesterday afternoon.

When Dad died of cancer back in 2006 Mom was inconsolable. He meant so very much to her. Her house felt so empty without him. Too quiet by far. So she wouldn't feel so all alone, she began to search for a cat to be her companion. Now, you'd think you could just go to a shelter and pick one up, but because Mom had the lymph nodes in her arm removed (cancer) the cat needed to be de-clawed.

She worked with the local shelter and, sure enough, a few months later she received a phone call and Reggie came into our lives. He was smaller than my two tom cats. His fur was a little longer than short-hair cats; the feel of the fur under your hand was simply luxurious.

He was good company for her. He was a talky-cat and filled up some of the silence. She named him Reggie after Dad. Raymond Eugene Gross; R. E. G. Similar to how she signed her hand-crafted greeting cards (GiGi). She was very creative.

Reggie loved his toys. He would toss his mice or birds up in the air and catch them. He'd bat them around and chase them across the floor.

One of his talents was as a mouser. Time after time he'd catch mice. Better than any trap! The downside to him catching mice was when he "gifted" them to Mom while she slept. Then she'd discover them when she woke up. Ewwwww...

Mom fed him Fancy Feast canned cat food. She gave him cat treats from time to time. He ate Purina Naturals dry cat food. Loving Momma that she was, Reggie also got special food on holidays (the good food with real shrimp!). She loved him very, very much.

Throwback Thursday. My Sewing Box.

Last Thursday I showed y'all my Great-Grandmother’s sewing box and talked a bit about it's contents. Today, I want to show you one of my most prized possessions: a wooden sewing box painted and customized for me by my loving daughter. She gave it to me in April of 2011 as a going away present when I moved back to Pennsylvania.

It doesn't have as many things inside as Great-Grandmother's, but it does have the basics. It has needles, pins, buttons, both metal and leather thimbles, a working needle holder (the little dollie) and a threaded needle holder.

Usually there are scissors and more spools of thread there as well, but they're are currently being used for a different project. (surprise, surprise).

Wednesday Worktable. Forest Reflections Shawl.

This shawl was crocheted using two strands of lace weight Harmony by Jojoland in a color named Lavender Fields. The pattern is called "Forest Reflections" and was included in the Summer 2010 issue of Interweave Crochet magazine.

Naturally, because a lighter weight yarn than recommended was used, #0 vs. #1, the finished project was smaller. Even after hand-washing and blocking, it measured 53" by 27" (with the 5" fringe) rather than 59" by 31".

It took some time to decide how to make the shawl bigger. To options came to mind: add more pattern rows or add fringe. Ripping back such a lightweight yarn would more than likely damage the piece, so the fringe option won.

Little did I know the fringe would take so long to make. After the first few, I grabbed a piece of cardboard and made an assembly line out of it. Ten fringes at a time rather than one. Then on to attaching the fringe to the sides of the shawl. The tricky part, because the yarn has a subtle color gradation, was to make sure the fringe on both sides matched. So, the fringe was added left then right then left then right.... Can you believe there are 99 fringes on there? 49 on each side with the 1 at the bottom.

Note to self:  Another life lesson learned. Fringe takes a tediously long amount of time to make and attach.

It turned out quite nice, tho. If I do say so myself.

Back to the grindstone for me. There are more almost finished projects waiting to be worked on.

Y'all have a great day.