Randomday

Well, I am averaging about two blog posts a month so far in 2019, which is better than last year.

Since last posting I finished the Epitome of Me socks, originally begun in the Lots of Socks knitalong.

I would add the photo, but I have been using my i-phone for all my photos, which means that I must download them onto my laptop from my i-cloud before I can crunch them in Photoscape and add them to my blog. But they have recently started compressing them into a zip file when I download, and then when I tried to move the zip files to my to-be-crunched folder, it tells me it will be about 3 hours before the files are transferred. Thanks, Apple, you are supposed to make my life easier, but this is not it!

Okay, it is downloading photos at the rate of about one every 10 minutes, (still about 3 hours left to go) and this is the finished pair of socks. I gave them to Quarta, and I gave the Flower Shock socks to Emma. I am currently knitting on the first of the "Sara Elin" socks in Malabrigo purple yarn. I am just about ready, finally, to begin the ribbing.

That will be it for the photos this post. We have been busy with Steve traveling, Quarta requiring doctor visits for her dislocated knee (she has had two braces so far and will begin PT next week), Quarta's school play (she was Miss Bingley in Pride and Prejudice, and fortunately the long dress hid her knee brace), a little bit of gardening, and the usual amount of adulting.

I finished one of my two baby quilts, and have started quilting the other. I'm using my regular machine; I've still not gotten back into using the Megaquilter.

This means I have fallen way behind on my UFO goals for the year. The May number is 4: that means (runs to check journal) the Manu cardigan, and a machine quilting finish. (That would be Celtic Solstice, still on the Megaquilter since a long time ago).

A nice lady in our neighborhood is downsizing her fabric stash and I have twice visited her sale in the last two weeks. I am still working on sorting, pre-cutting and organizing my scrap fabrics, so this just prolongs the mess and the fun.

Oh yes, a quick recipe before I go: Lovage Pesto is where I started, having made it once before with hemp seeds and a bit of bought basil pesto, and I changed it up a bit. I'm planning on cooking some pasta to put it over and bringing it to fellowship meal tomorrow.

Lovage and Rosemary Pesto

3 C Lovage leaves, chopped, parboiled for 3 minutes, cooled in cold water bath and squeezed dry
about 3/4 C Rosemary leaves, all stem bits removed and chopped roughly
a little parsley (we don't have much in our garden this year)
a little thyme, just one sprig
many garlic cloves, maybe 12
about 1 t kosher salt
several grinds of black pepper
about 1 C walnuts, toasted for 10 min at 350

Chop/pulse in food processor; add about 1/2 C olive oil or as much as it needs to become smooth.

I sampled this on wheat thins and everyone approved. The food processor is the $25 mini they sell at Costco; I never had one before so this is a marvelous new to me technology. I'm going to experiment with all kinds of pesto now.

I have Latin translation lessons to do, so I should sign off now. Maybe I can do a photo sharing post in the next few days, after downloading and processing all those zipped photos. I'll try for an average of more than 2 posts in May.

On Ringo Lake Mystery Quilt... Part 1 Link-up

Well, it's that time of year once again. I've been busy, really, I just haven't been blogging much... for months. But when Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt rolls around every Thanksgiving, I always bite. This year it's in some really pretty colors, and I allowed myself to buy some new fabric to go with my large amount of scraps from 80's, 90's and 00's.

Check out the first link-up for this quilt: On Ringo Lake Part 1 and you can see what other people are doing.

I seriously love the Mystery Quilt every year. And I have been doing it since Orca Bay, which was 2011, so this will be the seventh one. Three of them have been quilted and finished, and one is on the frame, in progress. Since I last blogged, I've made some progress on the major backlog of quilt tops I have,  but there is still a long way to go. Still, I'm pleased with overall progress on other quilting projects and will post pictures when I can.

Clue 1 was all about these cute little 9-patches, and I really tried to keep the 1/4" seam as accurate as possible. I was mostly successful, and it's a good lesson learned, to take it somewhat slowly. Even taking my time, I finished Saturday. That's after puttering around Friday, buying a little fabric to add to my already very well-endowed scrap stash.

 My personal philosophy of quiltmaking is also a good match for these quilts, because the scrappier they are, the better they look. I took at least as much time cutting down strips to short-ish lengths so that I could get the most variety of fabrics possible in my strip sets.

I made a collage of the fabrics I used in Clue 1: the sunrise was just gorgeous when I was walking Tertia to school a few weeks ago, and it's reminiscent of the corals and deep browns, so I think it belongs in there too. In the center of the photo you can see Mt. Hood outlined in gold. The fabrics at the top left are new; I visited Just For Fun Quilting for the first time and that's what I came home with. Other photos are of my pre-cut strips, and some of my boxes of fat quarters that may be called into service. I have not bought significant new fabrics for a few years, and I have a lot of older fabrics.

Now what shall I do while I'm waiting for the next clue on Friday? I should really clean and organize, and do some quilting on the one in the frame, and get my crafty life in order. Fun times!

Randomday - Playing Catch-up

Yikes, that was a long blog hiatus. Summer is hot, life is busy, the blog goes begging. Sorry about that.

 I did not document the 4th of July here... but it was good.

 I finished a few knitting projects... this T-yarn rug for Charissa's wedding on size 15 needles...

 ... and these Stashbuster Spirals socks for a Christmas gift on size 0 needles.

This is one of the three new pairs of socks I have cast on, but the only one I've photographed so far. And I have placed an order for more yarn with KnitPicks. I should really do a stash report, but that would require me to do math. And I have plans to cast on a bunch of things besides socks. Most recently I have decided to try the Hamilknit hat for Quarta.

Here is the (about) 70-year-old Hydrangea bush in our front yard. Did you know you can root new Hydrangeas from cuttings in water?

This is how you do it. It doesn't always work, but if you keep a green leafy stem in water for long enough, it often sends out roots. And then you can plant it in a pot, and then you can set the pot in the ground over the winter, and then you can plant the whole plant the next spring. We now have a yearling start that's in its own place, and a potted cutting that is doing well (pictured above before I potted it), and a new cutting that is just starting to grow roots.

This photo was taken a month ago... the yearling plant has two blooms now. They are pink because there probably needs to be more acidic material added to the soil. But I am proud of being able to grow these. Our landscaping, along with everything else in our house, is aging and some of it is at a stage where it needs to be replaced. Maybe this little plant will be around for another 50+ years!

It is bizarre that it is August already. I need to get started with all the back-to-school shopping, and paperwork for Tertia, and doctor's appointments that have been put off.

I will call a halt to Randomday for today and determine to pick up the blogging of the incredible fleeting summer soon.

Randomday

 Well, the two guys from Mr. Rooter came out yesterday to dig up the damaged sewer pipe and replace it. Here is what they found: a 40-something pipe, damaged at some point long before we bought the house (the AC installer would never have dug down that far) and covered with a little white plastic cuff that was cut lengthwise and wrapped around the damaged pipe, not even sealed. So it survived for at least 18 years before giving trouble, which I guess is not so bad. Especially since we only had to replace a 3-foot segment of pipe, and not the whole thing out to the street. On the sliding scale of homeowner disasters, this was at least marginally affordable.

The new pipe is much sturdier. The old one could be crumbled by the plumber's hands. And that's the phone line that they had to dig past, and possibly an old cable line.

 Look how neat they left the worksite!

 Right above the repair site is the bathroom window, and above that is the vent where a family of birds has taken up residence. They are very noisy, all the daylight hours. I'm sure they also keep the cats entertained.

 I went to an estate sale yesterday advertising "crafts." Came home with a brown paper envelope with some vintage knitting patterns - argyles, and another copy of the Red Cross sweater vest to knit for WW2 soldiers - my aunt already gave me one, and someday I want to find olive drab yarn and knit it up for Peter.

 Also in the envelope were a bunch of iron-on transfers in those fun 40's happy homemaker designs.

And I bought 2 large cones of thread at 25 cents apiece. Also some frames and some counted cross-stitch fabrics and a nearly full bottle of Resolve carpet cleaner, for a grand total of $4. I kept thinking of my grandmothers, who had many of the same kinds of things. And maybe a little eerie foretaste of myself as a little old lady. She had the same sewing machine as me, only about a decade older.

 Tertia went to the "Life Skills" prom at Skyview yesterday. Quarta did her hair. Both Quarta and Tertia had their doctor check-ups this week. Quarta is 5' 5 1/4" and might still grow. Tertia is at her full adult height of 4' 7".

She danced the night away, or at least until the prom ended at 8:00.

The other three of us had a Bible study group from 7-9, and only one car, so I did a lot of driving back and forth yesterday. I'm tired today and milking the whole Mother's Day holiday for what it's worth, so I went out once this afternoon to check out the quilt store, and it was closed! That happened a few months ago with the yarn store near me. I find that sad. But anyway, I ended up at Joann's, spending my birthday discount card (from October) and buying a quilt batt and about 3 yards of fabric. So I'll have something to add to my stash report next time. I have been spending a lot of time trying to tame my little tiny scraps into usable squares or rectangles, or cutting them into strips. This at the same time as cutting fabric for the latest quilt.

We watched Anne with an E, the first episode, tonight. After Quarta's play, it was a lot edgier, but very well cast. Look forward to seeing more of that. And I think Steve and I might watch another episode of Man in the High Castle. It's getting quite weird.

Quilting update and Stash Report

So yes, I have not been blogging as frequently as in years gone by. But this year I have recovered a bit of the will to stitch, and I am modestly proud of progress made in both quilting and knitting.

The Farmer's Wife Quilt (of many years' duration) is now off the frame, and I chose to put Allietare on, of my backlog of tops needing quilting. Rather than the fussy feathers and custom-quilting each block I used for the Farmer's Wife, I am doing my standard, very do-able "squiggle-loop-star" quilting pattern, which goes quite fast.

In fact, if I hadn't broken off for spring break I would probably be finished by now. It's a good thing I'm not, because I'm still stitching the binding down on the Farmer's Wife. Tonight we watched two episodes of Man in the High Castle and it's close. 

 Another hour of tv watching will probably do it. I'm going to go ahead and count the yardage for the backing of Allietare, and the binding of Farmer's wife, in my ongoing tally of fabric used, to keep myself accountable for using things up rather than buying new. I'm guesstimating 8 yards total for backing one, and adding binding and hanging sleeve to the other.

 I haven't tallied any yarn yet this year, and it's time to start, since I bought some recently, and finished these three projects.

Stash Report:

Fabric tallied this week: 8 yards
Fabric used year to date: 16 yards
Fabric added year to date: 0 yards
Net fabric used: 16 yards

Yarn used year to date: 900 yards
Yarn purchased year to date: 1700 yards
I'm in the red with net 800 yards added, but I hope to finish an old UFO soon to change that.

Let's see if I can keep up with the creative energy I've rediscovered so far this year. It feels very good to be making crafts again and I have at least the desire to de-stash, organize and have fun in the process.

WIP Wednesday and Yarn-along

That's what I used to call it, right? WIP for works-in-progress, and there used to be a little linky-up thing? Wow, blogs are just so five years ago. Everybody else has probably switched to Instagram. But here I am, still plugging away. It's easier this year, not teaching. I am not regretting not teaching. My house is cleaner than it's been for a long time. Which is not to say it's, you know, CLEAN or anything. I have a series of pictures to share today.

 Here is my friendly nemesis, the Megaquilter. I have finished quilting all the blocks in the main section of my Farmer's Wife Quilt. This is the first time MQ has been bare of the FWQ since 2013, when I started off with quilting this epic project.

Seriously I don't know why I waited so long. I finished the bulk of the quilting (about 80%) in the last month, just by working half an hour at a time, 3 days a week. Though not perfect, it's some of the prettiest machine quilting I've ever done, with lots of free-form vines and feathers. I had a method for those little sashing strips and just kept at it. Everything else went much faster and I learned not to sweat the minor imperfections.

 But now we come to the part I couldn't figure out. The borders are wavy. Not so much the top border, which I quilted long ago and it stayed rolled up on the take-up bar for 3 years (below). It's okay, I think. But the other three borders are wonky, too wonky to lie flat and be machine quilted. I was going to try it with the bottom border (and take off the quilt and remount it so I could do the side borders in one pass at a time), but that bottom border was going to have so many little unintentional pintucks quilted into it it would have been a disaster.

 See, here's the (slightly compressed) upper border, next to the unquilted side border, which just had too much ease, just like the bottom border. So I took the whole thing off the frame. and I am in the process of unpicking and resewing those long side seams.

 Again, it's not perfect, but rather than struggle with feeding all this bulk and keeping the batting out of the seams on my machine, I decided to hand-stitch those long seams. It's not so bad. I got one long seam done today while watching 2 1/2 episodes of Call the Midwife and blinking away tears. I remember piecing my first ever quilt by hand, and I actually liked that a lot. I can ease in the fabric better as I go this way. And by sitting at the dining room table I can distribute the weight of all that bulk fairly well, and it looks like it will be lying much flatter when I re-load it back onto the MQ. It will need to have the white setting triangles quilted on the long sides, and the big feather border on the three borders that are being re-sewn. I'm okay with the occasional pucker on the white triangles, but I am optimistic that this will fix the problems with the blue borders and make quilting so much easier.

Wow, this shot came out blurry. But stitching by hand wasn't so bad at all. Memories of Ohio Star, my first quilt.

My most recently finished project in knitting is this pair of socks for Steve, from almost all of the "Bog Fritillary" Skinny Bugga yarn I bought at Sock Summit years ago. Fun fact: the last 8 knitting projects I have finished (in almost 2 years) have been socks. I'm glad the socks are popular, with the family, but I want to knit something fun for me now.

So, my solution is 4 skeins of Madeline Tosh Merino Light in "Cardinal" and a pattern for Manu, which I've wanted to knit for a long time, like, ever since it came out. I should really finish up my long-hibernating Mint Chocolate sweater to clear up some room in my knitting bag first. There's only the buttonhole band and some finishing to do. But if I get tired of hand-sewing long quilt borders, tomorrow I might find an excuse to wind yarn and make a swatch. 

I'm linking up to Ginny's yarn-along, where many other knitting projects can be seen. And I should talk about the books I've been reading lately: finished Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance... highly recommended. I've been reading the Penderwicks series of children's books, which are delightful and I keep asking myself why I never discovered these earlier, and then realizing they haven't really been around that long, they just seem like sweet vintage books about wholesome kids. 

Design Wall Monday and Stash Report

I think it's been about a year since I even attempted one of these. I'm determined to make 2017 a more productive year for quilting and maybe even knitting. (About 4 pairs of socks were knit last year; no quilts were finished).

But this year I've finished the En Provence top, and that clears room on my design wall for the APQquiltalong from (mumble) years ago. It's a low-tone Burgoyne surrounded and I never really gave up on it, I just didn't sew on it last year. I'm working on the 14th of 20 blocks and starting to get excited about it. It's really pretty!

For other people's Design Wall reports, see here.

 Finishing the En Provence top also made me face up to the Beast, that is, the Farmer's Wife Quilt that has been on the Megaquilter frame for 3 years, untouched, growing dusty, some of its fabrics fading from the sun. :(  But I am stepping back to the task and getting into the rhythm of quilting. For this there is so much stopping and starting that I need to keep my tweezers (for pulling up the bobbin thread) and scissors (for snipping the thread ends after about an inch of sewing) handy. It takes about 45 seconds start to finish to do one of those little vines on each sashing unit. The individual blocks are longer, but have to be broken up into two sections because of the fact the Megaquilter is not a long-arm. I was finished with 3 rows  (of 17) when I entered the 3-year hiatus; I just finished row 10 on Saturday. It was totally not worth leaving for that long, and I hope the quilting Erinyes will overlook my fault.

 The kitties rebuke me for leaving them on the rollers so long.

 This is the sad state of my "accessory box" for my 25+ year old Viking. I think they made it with plastic hinges... otherwise very sturdily designed. I am sad I will have to use it as a free-arm from now on. I loved all that cleverly-arranged on-board storage.

 And I mentioned before that I've been following along with the 365-day declutter challenge, so today I tackled my cookbooks. But the shelves they were on were really dusty and dirty, so I had to clean them, and then I was way past my 15 minutes. So I put back the really essential ones and later I will start ruthlessly evaluating 60-year-old homemakers' pamphlets, 15-50 year-old church and civic organization cookbooks, and cookbooks that were all the rage but their time has gone. Seriously, someone must want a guide to Knox Gelatine from the 1950's, or the Once-A-Month cookbook?

Stash Report:


Fabric used week/year to date: 8 yards (estimated for En Provence top)
Fabric added year to date: 0 yards (and I aim to keep it that way)
Net fabric used: 8 yards

Yarn used year to date: 0 yards
Yarn added year to date: 0 yards (and I am on a yarn diet as well)

For other stash reports, Judy L. has them here.

My main knitting project at the moment is a pair of socks from Sanguine Gryphon yarn I bought at Sock Summit 5 years ago. I am turning the heels now so everything is looking up. And if I get some time to do some quilting and knitting both this evening, after cooking and eating a healthy meal, I couldn't possibly ask for more from a Monday.

This and That, some Knitting, and a Stash Update

A certain 16-year-old got her first rose from a boy at school for Valentine's day.  Classy! And maybe a bit disconcerting for her mom and dad.  She also has permission from the orthodontist not to wear her retainer during the school day, just evenings and overnight.  This is a little harder than when she had to wear it all the time, because now she's had that taste of freedom, and realizes it's so much easier to talk, sing, and eat without it.  Speaking of singing, her choir participated in the annual district choir concert over a week ago, and it was lovely. I especially liked "Turn the World Around."

 It seems to be either quilting or knitting, not both, for me lately. I started some new socks:

 I finished an old dishcloth:

 And I started some other new socks:

No quilting has happened during this time.  But I decided to update my occasional stash report to reflect the knitting progress:

Stash Report:

Quilting Fabric:

Used this week: 0 yards

Used year to date: 14 yards

Added this week: 0 yards

Added year to date: 6 yards

Net fabric used year to date: 8 yards

Knitting Yarn:

Used this week: 450 yards (the lime green socks plus the dishcloth)

Used year to date: 450 yards

Added this week: 0 yards

Added year to date: undetermined (one sweater to be unraveled)

Net yarn used year to date: undetermined but still in the red

In other news, the February crud has struck school and I've been fighting off headache, muscle aches, chills and sore throat all week.  This may be why knitting has had such strong appeal.  Yesterday I went to bed after dinner, listened to an audiobook and knit for awhile before sleeping from about 8:30 until 5:00 this morning.  I am listening to third of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan... the audiobook means I miss a lot but it keeps it moving along for me whether I miss something or not, and I think I am hooked on the story now at last.  I am supposed to be writing Certamen questions for the Latin Olympika we are hosting in 2 weeks... yikes! But that has not been happening very fast this week.  With the current state of my laptop (unable to unplug because of battery and charging port issues) I have been doing more of my writing longhand.  I don't think that makes me more productive, but there is a part of me that enjoys having actual paper and ink notes.  But then there's the clutter problem.

I volunteered to take a current events survey on the phone the other day; I think I was a good subject because I remembered who was head of state of Germany (Angela Merkel) and I think I sounded more knowledgeable than the average American on those videos that sometimes show up on late-night shows about politics and foreign policy. Anyway, the caller thanked me profusely for being her first subject of the evening and even called me "hon", so it was time well-spent.

This sounds like a Randomday post, but I'll try to do that tomorrow.

Design Wall Monday and Stash Report

 Let's be completely up-front about it... when it comes to putting together a bed-size quilt like Allietare, my design wall is just not big enough.  You need the family room floor, and you need to vacuum first if there's been a sleepover last weekend.  So after I came home from teaching today I unpinned the sampling of blocks from my design wall and started laying them out on the floor.  Then I decided I really had to change into jeans, because there's a fair amount of crawling around and rearranging.  This is what I came up with, trying to keep a pleasant variety of both reds and golds throughout.

I love the scrappiness of this quilt -- I decided midway in that I was going to go broader in my use of reds and golds if I had to be more restrained in my blacks and neutrals, and I'm glad I did.  It makes the overall effect very lively, to have such a wide variety of tones.  Including those red/white/black prints that wanted to play! They jump out and say "notice me", but in this quilt, that's going to be okay!  I double checked to make sure no two gold squares were matchy with each other at the corners, and I think I caught them all (is anybody else bothered by scrappy quilts that aren't scrappy enough?)  I don't think that will be a problem for me with this one!  Now to find time to stack and label the rows from NW to SE, and I can begin the sewing together.

I'm linking up to Patchwork Times for this. And while I'm at it,

STASH REPORT!  It has been about a year since I've tried this, and SOMETHING needs to be done to keep me accountable.  Plus, I finished the Grand Illusion top Saturday, so that means I can count stash used.

Stash Report:

Quilting Fabric:
Used this week: 12 yards (according to Bonnie's estimate at the beginning, I'm claiming it!)
Bought this year to date: 3 yards (3 Goodwill shirts, already deboned)
Net fabric used year to date: 9 yards

Knitting yarn:
Used this week: 0 yards
Bought year to date: undetermined amount from sweater (from Goodwill) that needs to be unraveled
Net yarn used year to date: -? yards

I will try to do these updates at least monthly, and get my consumption of fabric and yarn up so that my cupboards can be more neatly organized. Yay for a new year and a new start on organization!