Doing a little dance

So I was up at 4:30 this morning, wide awake. This isn't usual and there was a tiny part of my brain that felt cranky about it but the rest of me was kinda happy. This meant a few hours to myself. So what did I do? Dishes, laundry, made coffee (not necessarily in that order), and watched children's programming. It's where I find the meaning to life. If you can't make it simple and with a sense of humor, what good is it? One of my new favorite quotes I saw on my younger brother's networking page and it went something like "if you're going to tell them the truth you better make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.". I can see myself on both sides of that... But I digress. I had walked outside because there was a little daylight and I remembered Hubby saying I needed to move my birdbath because it was killing the grass. (It didn't need much help. We've been in such a drought many of us have contemplated investing in scrub brush and rock gardens because obviously IT'S NOT GOING TO RAIN EVER AGAIN UNTIL WE GET STARK NAKED ON THE BLUE MOON AND DO A FUNKY DANCE. Apparently someone was crazy enough to do that because it rained a lovely soaking rain all yesterday.) The dog was delighted to see me and the hummingbirds were pissed. I thought it was because I was outside but turns out their feeder had fallen. So I fixed that, picked up the birdbath, and moved it to the flowerbed. I was about to turn to go into the house but noticed lots of humming. I paused, thinking there either was a huge beehive 2 feet away that appeared overnight (industrious little critters) or I was way too fragrant for them to stay away. I turned slowly to where I heard all the motion and was amazed. Next to me, flying around my moon flower bed, were dozens of happy honeybees, busily taking advantage of the cooler weather. They could have cared less about me, they just wanted the moon flowers, at least 2-3 per bloom and there are at least 30 blooms on that thing. I just had to pause and give God a little thank you. Life has been a huge roller coaster lately and where it's been great, it's been too gosh-dang busy and it's been really hard to keep calm and remember priorities. It's funny how the harder you try to keep life simple and stay home everyone wants you out and about. C'est la vie. Glad I was up to fix the hummingbird feeder and I'm loving this extra time this morning.

Christmas in July

The one with the green reindeer was the original, knitted and decorated back in the early 70s.

The one with the wreath I did for the mom of the family to match the original tree (the dad's from the time he was little).

The blue with the snowman was for the son and the pink for the daughter.

A view of what finally got finished!  I was so pleased with it and had a great time visiting with the two friends of mine that had done more "embellishing" than I ever would dream.  I'd never had a thing for sequins or other shiny things but this was the perfect project to try them out.

"Monet's Childhood"

My baby.  Totally birthed itself out of trying to use up all the fun kid fabrics I kept finding and throwing in a pile.  And yes, that delicious back is Amy Butler design and a gift from LMSS just so she could "see what I did with it."  Love it.  Love her.  And this is 90"x 90" and a dream to wrap up in on chilly days (not that we are having many of these anymore!)

The title came from a "Clueless" quote about a girl being "so Monet," i.e. from far away it looks o.k. but up close it's just a big mess.

Just twist the rag on the 10th.

Um, I've been quilting.  A LOT.  Not much knitting.  Finally finished the bee stitch shrug (oops, need to get a picture of that) and have been working on the Christmas stockings for friends but Harriet hasn't been speaking to me through knitting.  She's all up in the sewing and so sewing I've been doing.

Above is a rag quilt variation for one of HHubby's nieces.  Her mom gave me the fabric to use (the niece had picked them out with her mother a few years ago) and I came up with this for her 10th birthday. 

Rag time

My "little" brother is about to graduate college and this is what I had to give him.  It's all his t-shirts from his "early years."  He couldn't believe it and loves it.

This is the way I recommend to do rag quilts.  All you need is the top (10 or more inches square) and the back (fleece; eliminates the need for any batting), sew it together with the seam on the right side (NOT wrong side) with a seam allowance of 0.5 inches, sew 0.5 inches (or more if you want) around the border to hold it all in, and snip the seams to make them fluffy (careful not to snip the sewn line).  No kidding, that's it.  You pop it in the washer to get everything curled around the edges and throw it on the bed.  Crazy, huh?  So's little bro so it all works perfectly!  :)

Aspen is lovely this time of year

My afternoon extra daughter has been busy when we aren't doing homework.  The first picture is her own creation: a sock dog.  She has since made another so this one could have a friend.  The second picture is our Christmas present to her: her own quilt, done rag quilt style.  Highly recommend this technique for the speed of completion but do not recommend doing the squares this small, unless you just really want to.  She was worth it and it turned out so lovely.  However, I don't think I'll be doing squares that small again; just the snipping of the seams gave my fingers nerve damage and they still tingle a little from time to time.  She was worth it all, though!  She's a sweetheart!

Merry Merry Christmas!

Our tree finally has an angel.  Wanted to share this with you and wish you the merriest of holidays ever.