Ohhh Emmm Geeee....

The UFO list has added a few more items today. I made a strategic error in judgment, apparently. Let me explain.

Last time I did laundry, I got to poking around at some of the tubs that are living in the garage. There are racks out there, and I store things on them like Christmas decorations, Halloween stuff--you know, all the seasonal and storage sorta things that I want to keep but don't necessarily have room for in the house. This is also complicated by the fact that there are still boxes out there that were packed when we did the big house reno a few years ago. (Okay, it was in 2008. That's a few.) Some of  the tubs are clear, which has been my choice for a while, but some are opaque.  There were two on the rack across from the washer and dryer, one green and one purple.

I thought maybe the green one was my project box from one of my Asilomar classes, but it turned out to hold glass. Whew. Not  that glass isn't a problem of a sort,  but at least it isn't quilts.

Which is what turned out to be in the purple tub. Oh. Em Gee. Guess I have a few things to add to the UFO list.

Ruthie's Jacket, front

Ruthie's Jacket--Back

The reason for the pictures of Ruthie's jacket--Ruth was my mother-in-law, and I made the jacket for her--is to explain this first project. You can see it's mostly laid out ready to be quilted.

Remember back when quilted jackets were all the rage? Gail Abeloe has a wonderful pattern that was all the rage. Well, I couldn't (of course) just make squares-on-point for my jackets. Of course not.

I think I made four or five of them. Ruthie's was the plainest--she loved navy blue and red and chickens and roosters. Meg's had teeny tiny blocks, the largest I think was only an inch or so across.  Anyway, t his is the pieces for another jacket which never quite got finished. So what should I do with it? I'm tempted to quilt it, cut it down to quilt or wall hanging size, or maybe turn it into a purse or tote bag.  There's too much work in it to abandon it, but I'm certainly not going to make a jacket out of it.

At least not to that pattern.

Moving on:

Quilt. All quilted, just needs binding. I can do this.

I think this one was going to be a class sample. The colors are much more vivid in person--but it will make a nice lap quilt.

A quilt historian could probably date it from the fabrics. The peacock feather is a version of the Liberty print that was ubiquitous in its day--but it's a cotton.

At least, it just needs binding, as does this little Christmas tree wall hanging.

Can't remember now if there was going to be embellishments on this, or if it was just going to feature that really cute fabric.

Closeup of the fabric didn't come out too well--not sure why the color washed out so much, because this wasn't flash and it was just bright daylight.

Oh well, the colors in the f ull tree picture are much closer to the real thing. Now to find some binding that will work on  it.


This pinwheel quilt is just a top--no backing fabric with it. I love the deep plums and navy, and the print. Adding it to my to-be-quilted pile.

Houses anyone?? For some reason,there are two of  these little house quilts. I had to take a picture of them folded side by side so you can see there really are two of  them!

Again, just tops.

I am pretty sure these were class samples, back in the old Bearly Stitchin' days, when there were two shops and therefore two samples were de rigueur  I'm undecided about finishing these as is--they're a bit of an awkward size. I'm thinking of taking one of them apart, and adding a third row to the other top then finishing the rest of the blocks as two wall hangings.

Or I could just finish them up the way they are--they'd work on the back of a sofa or chair. Maybe largish wall hangings?

I dunno. For now they are going in the to-be-quilted pile.

Which is threatening to burst out of its tub. (A clear tub. I've learned my lesson about putting things in opaque containers!)


Cats!

Had to take a couple of closeups of this one--there's a lot of detail on it!

Mostly the cats are pieced, but the fun little details are fused on. I kind of think this means I need to break out my satin stitch foot and some shiny threads--I don't think that quilting alone will anchor things down well enough.

I certainly have a nice collection of Sulky and other threads I could use--and it isn't THAT big a quilt.
Yes it is...

...but it's awfully cute!!

Next! I just KNEW I had used that black fabric with the silver stars in at least one quilt!

This one is all quilted and just needs binding... well, except for one detail... whoops. Yes, that's the back of this quilt: a lobster clambake. With the corner folded down and caught in the quilting. Guess I don't really wonder why this one isn't finished.
But it's an easy fix.

W

Speaking of true UFOs... this one is still very much a WIP. This was from a class at Asilomar with Ellen Anne Eddy, who is a true genius of the needle and has a very distinctive style. She's also gifted at teaching her techniques.

You know it's complicated when this is what I have to show for an entire week of sewing for upwards of 12 hours a day!!  (I was a lot  younger then.) Somewhere there is another box that has the rest of the pieces to be appliqued onto this...there's a lot of dtail work still to be done, mainly anchoring down some of those floaty lace pieces.  It's definitely going into its own clear box for one of those times when I really am feeling the muse.
In other words, not when I'm looking at this huge stack of things-to-finish.


Speaking of which, this little gem is all quilted and ready for binding. Whew!

A little Trip Around the World baby quilt. Cute, and I like the way the colors fade into each other. This was one of the classes I taught the most often, and one of my favorite patterns to work with.

So  that's today's uncoverings--I guess I'd better cut some bindings and get busy sewing them on!

Just to make things more "interesting" it seems that my desktop computer is rebelling against my habit of taking pictures, and it's telling me there's no more room to add more. Rude, huh? So I had to upload these to the laptop, which was fine for getting them onto Blogger and Flickr, but trying to write a blog on the laptop is pretty annoying. (The laptop has a bad habit of wiping out lines of text if I move my fingers just the wrong way, i.e. the way I normally type.)
So today's been a comedy of errors and hairpulling and general wailing and gnashing of teeth. Time to have some dinner and an adult beverage (or two) and work on captioning and annotating my pics on Flickr.

Also updating the sidebar with the "new" "discoveries" from today!

Small Steps Forward

First of all, here's a picture of my original Trillian scarf. The  yarn is Miss Babs Yowza in a colorway called Violets in the Grass. This is the same yarn that I'm using for the Denver Cowl that I posted last week. It's a yummy wooly weight that I think is perfect for the current "cold snap." Yes, I realize that I'm a bit spoiled here in SoCal, because when it gets cold here, well, the rest of the country would probably consider this shorts and T-shirts weather!

Trillian hadn't had  her photo taken yet, so my Ravelry project page for her is kind of naked. No more!

 Finished sewing down the binding on this quilt, even though the quilting on it isn't done  yet. It's just much more pleasant to quilt something with a clean edge--and the borders are all quilted, at least, so it made sense to go ahead and put the binding on.

 Here's the first of the four little sweaters getting its blocking bath.  And  then it's been laid out on the guest bed to dry into shape. I'm still thinking I might go ahead and toss it into the dryer--the yarn is Plymouth Encore, which is machine wash and dryable. I know better than to make sweaters for kids with busy working parents out of yarn that needs to be coddled. Plenty of time for t hat later on, when t hey can learn to do their own hand-wash-and-blocking!

I'm kidding. Well, not really--kids do grow up into people who can take care of their knits, as well as do other things like get jobs and manage t heir lives!

So it's on to the next of the little sweaters. Bet you wouldn't believe t his is for my granddaughter, huh?

So, a little progress is being made, in spite of spending a good part of the day with "Dayquil brain." Or maybe it's just sneezy-wheezy-snot-brain. Whichever it is, I'm hoping it will just go away now.

Projects...

 One of my ongoing projects involves going through my yarn stash and attempting to catalog all of it on Ravelry. The stash and project files on that site are great tools, but in some ways? Well, let's just say that they can generate even more projects!

It's a good thing  there isn't something like Ravelry for quilters. There are some sites that are trying, but for me they don't have the combination of community and useful features. Maybe someday. I keep trying them out!

Meantime, as you can see, I have had company in my efforts. Hi-Hi loves to be nearby when I'm doing something.

 Even though he will suddenly abandon me for the delights of his stinky disgusting catnip mouse, or his poor tattered teddy bear.  He's a good little buddy. I've read that Maine coons are great that way--they'll be your pal, your buddy, your nearby companion, but not your "baby."

Speaking of which, several times lately when I've been sitting in my TV chair--which is also my knitting chair, my quilting chair, whatever--I'll feel a thump and have a furry face thrust under my hand for some skritching--and it will be Shyla. She got quite comfy today while I tried to eat soup around her.

This needlepoint canvas  has been a project for quite a long while--I kitted it myself using #5 perle cotton, and it really needs to be done with #8. I took it to the shop with me, but couldn't find the range of colors I needed. I did test an area with 4 strands of floss--tried 3, but it didn't cover. I do like the #8 perle best so I think tomorrow I'll make a trek to A Stitch In Time and see what they have.

I know this isn't a  food blog, but hey, quilters and knitters and others like to eat, right? A new bakery has opened in West Covina, not too far from Middle Daughter and my sis-and-brother-in-law. Friday, I went to lunch with MD (she'd just had another iteration of her 29th birthday) and then we hit the bakery. The coffee creme brulee was dee-lish-ious!  I think, though, that next time I'll try to eat it on site. There are caramelly drips all over. Including in my gearshift where I had set the box down when I was getting in the car...

Today turned out to be a good soup day, so I made up a batch of potato-corn chowder. I was all set to make clam chowder again, but I had neither enough clams nor the clam  juice. I did  have the chowder "kit" from my Christmas stocking, though, so I figured it would be a good thing to use it up.

Had to add my own bacon, onion, garlic, cream, and chicken broth, but it came out pretty tasty. Plus, in addition to tonight's dinner, I have 4 more servings in the fridge.

 I love these little storage bowls! They hold just enough for a generous serving, they have nice tight lids, and they stack.

Last picture here is some rum-raisin toast. The bread is also from the new bakery, it's soft and fresh. I might be happier with more raisins, but this will do.

In fact, I feel a snack attack coming on. Maybe I need to go toast some bread...