Bazaar Or Bizarre, Either Way is Fine

I downloaded the blogger app and am finding new freedom in our desktop-less world!

Here is the "bizarre" quilt for the church bizarre. Made to use and love you back!

Yarn Diving

I think the knitting hiatus might be coming to an end. Since the stockings I've been piddling with dishcloth patterns and a pair of socks but not really getting anything done. There have been no deadlines so I've taken advantage of the no stress crafting. Only problem is when I don't have a deadline I seem to think nothing needs to be worked on. On second thought, that really isn't a problem, just nothing new to post!

However, two days ago I suddenly was inspired to knit a teacher gift for Little Guy's teacher: a lovely purple chunky scarf with cables. Yum. She taught in Guam for 6 years, has only just moved back to the states, and has little to no warm clothing. Definite need and inspiration there. I casted on, started knitting away, and it has been bliss. A lovely break, new zest for knitting and knitting projects, and loving the chunky yarn because it means it won't take forever to knit. I'm giving it to her Friday so it needs to knit up quick anyway.Speaking of the knitting break, I spent the time quilting, i.e. cutting out pieces, planning, piecing, quilting, sandwiching (when you stack the layers), quilting some more, cutting binding, binding, some embroidery thrown in somewhere, and finishing. For some reason I decided in the midst of cleaning out Mom's stash, mine needed cleaning out too and stuff used or moved on, operating with a realistic mind set: I can't keep it all and will I really use this? It was exhausting at times but I have several finished, some almost, and some in progress. Hopefully will have those posted soon. Mom and I also did a raffle quilt for the church's Christmas Bazaar that they went nuts over. It was so cute and I'm glad they liked it so much. I'm taking a deep breath and preparing myself for us being asked again. Mom pieces and I quilt and finish it. It uses up more of her stash and we get to try out new patterns. I'll be ready for it again in oh, maybe two years. :) I have a king-size quilt being pieced for Crochet Queen.

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!  :)