Quilting Today

 ...yes, I know that's the name of a magazine. One I rather like!

But today, I was the one quilting. Got the Brother threaded up--my glasses are awful for threading a machine with invisible thread, that stuff just disappears... but I managed to get it done. This quilt needed some more vertical lines quilted, so I thought doing that would be a good way to get used to the machine. This is a new machine, a semi-industrial type that sews straight stitch only, and can go very very fast. Unlike my mother's industrial machine, on which I learned to sew, it does have a reverse so I can back  up if I need to. Not that I need to very often, but it's nice to have it. Very handy when sewing on binding.

This is the machine I used to sew the binding on this quilt and its counterpart. It already had the walking foot on, and I really do want to become proficient with it. I've learned that for me, the learning curve on something new--a new technique, a new machine, whatever--just can't be rushed, and once I accepted that, I've been a lot less frustrated with myself. (Not that I don't occasionally slip back!)

The plan for this quilt is to do straight almost-ditch stitching on all t he vertical lines, including the bamboo stems in two of the yukata prints. Then I'll free-motion the center panel, and  probably add some free motion work to the bamboo panels too. The batting is Warm n' Natural, so it doesn't need to be quilted too closely, so I'm not going to try to do the horizontal lines on the block strips. 

So the quilting session went along quite nicely, interspersed with jaunts out to the garage to wrangle the laundry. Then things started to go a little wonky--first, I ran out of bobbin. No problem, had another one ready to go. Then the top thread broke, and for the life of me I couldn't get the needle rethreaded.

Took that as a "sign" that maybe it was time to quit for the night, so I've shut down and put it to bed for the night. Hopefully tomorrow morning my eyes won't be too tired (and my fingers too large and klutzy) and I can once again get the needle threaded and get back to work! 

The Best-Laid Plans...

... can  have a way of going pear-shaped and toppling over in no time flat!

Today's plan including changing the bed sheets, doing some laundry, and hanging out at the sewing machine, working on some of those quilts that I've been talking about working on.

Because talking about them doesn't accomplish much, other than making me feel bad about not, actually, working on them.

Started off the day okay. Got the bed stripped, much to Hi Hi's displeasure.

He had been comfortably curled up in a nest of quilts, and resisted quite strenuously as I attempted to wrest t hem away from him.

It was a battle to get the sheets off, too, but I am still bigger and stronger than he is... and I know how to lure him off the bed by waving  the brush at him. He loves to be brushed!

So here he is, getting himself all ready for a nice long nap in the sun. I do like the way the sun throws shadows through the lace curtain to make patterns on  the bed. I was also trying to get the sheen of his fur in the sun. He still has a nice thick luxurious coat, but it's not nearly as when he was younger. Still, he's looking good for an old cat!

And this is how the rest of the day went... tried to heat up some chowder for lunch, used the microwave instead of dirtying a pan. Great idea...except. The bowl slipped out of my mitt-covered hand, dropped onto the tray, chipped off a chunk of the tray and splashed EVERYWHERE. At least the bowl survived--Fiestaware is pretty tough, and it did land on the plastic tray rather than the stove or the granite.

Now I've finished cleaning up the mess, heated up the last serving of chowder in a pan on the stove, and t he laundry is chugging merrily away out in the garage. No quilting has been attempted, though--it's been "one of those" days. When I was trying to upload my pictures, I got a message from the computer that it didn't have enough free space to upload them! Three pictures and there was no room? So it was  housecleaning-the-disk-drive time, and now it's almost dinnertime.  Going to (gulp) reheat the leftovers from last night's chicken and dumplings, and hope that they, too, don't wind up all over the outside of the stove instead of inside me.

Let the UFO Wrangling Begin!

 After listing all my UFOs (well, as many as I could lay my hands on fairly comfortably in the last couple of days) I decided that perhaps I should actually,  you know, maybe start doing something to them?

Does taking their picture and blogging about them count? I hope so--at least, it's provided a wee bit of motivation!

These two quilts are listed on the UFO list on the sidebar as "red white and blue" quilts, but they have some history to them.  If   you've been following this blog for a while, you may remember my "quilting doctors" from several years ago. Both retired--he was a pediatrician, she a pediatric nephrologist--they'd taken up quilting as an activity they could both enjoy and do as a team. It sort of worked out that she sewed, he cut and pressed and pinned. I "consulted." 

After Hurricane Katrina, moved by the plight of the displaced dialysis patients, they began making quilts to send down to their colleagues in the affected areas.  A group of us would get together and team-sew, producing a lot of quilts out of our "ugly fabrics"--lots of scrappy Log Cabins and 9-patches and Yellow Brick Roads. 

These were a couple of the last quilts they worked on together. When they knew she was dying, they passed their fabric and projects along to me. Both of these quilts were already pinned and ready to be quilted, so of course they moved to the top of the list. I took them with me to Asilomar last year for the machine quilting class I took with Sue Rasmussen, and got quite a bit of quilting done on both of them. 

The top one was a surprise--I hadn't opened it up, had just seen the back and could tell it was pinned and ready so when I did finally unfold it and saw t he wonderful Yukata cloth bands, I was delighted. I think those bands will lend themselves to some nice free-motion work. Well, we'll see how nice my free-motion quilting can get--it's been a while since I did much, although during that week I found that yes indeed I still remember how to do it!

So that's project #1--you probably can't tell, but I have sewn the binding onto it already, since the edges are all quilted. It mainly just needs the free-motion work on the Yukata, and of course sewing the binding down.

Here's #2--also in red/white/blue though quite a different feeling to it!

 If you look at the picture in a larger version,  you'll see that the binding is about 1/3 sew down and there are binding clips holding it in place. I love these little plastic clippies--no more punctured fingers from pins, no more pins falling out all over the place for the cats to chase and bat and hopefully not eat!

I took a close-up so you can see the cute print and the stripey blocks.  I guess it's a variation on a Rail Fence, and the striped border fabric is mitered. I started by quilting this in the ditch along the block lines (which is what I was doing with the other quilt as well), getting it anchored down. I'll probably do something with the print, maybe echo-quilt the little wagons and bikes and cars and things.

  

So, thanks to Anna at Woolie Mammoth for the inspiration/encouragement to get busy on these quilts!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go sew some binding tonight. I haven't forgotten about the little sweaters; the lime green one--Abby's--is only about 4 loooonnnggg rows from being done with the knitting. Then some hand finishing, buttons, and on to the next one. It's just that it's kind of a chilly night and the thought of sitting under a quilt to keep me toasty while I sew is very appealing!

A New Year, A New Accounting

 My lists of WIPs has been updated over there --> on the sidebar, and just for fun I listed as many of my FOs for the year as I could recall. I'm sure there are more, as I seem to recall binding off several things and of course the quilts had a little help from the nice folks at Cloth and Quilts, who longarmed 8 quilts for me. I could get spoiled with this whole quilt-by-check business. Well, except for the "writing the checks" part.

All this accounting is part of my accountability project. I have a LOT of yarn and a LOT of fabric, as well as a LOT of other craft materials and projects around the place. So it really makes a great deal of sense to work on what I have, instead of acquiring new projects and letting the old ones slide.

What a concept, huh?

When I listed the quilts, I made a note of what stage they're in. Hopefully I will be able to remember how to make the necessary changes when I finish something.

And I will finish something. Honest.

For today, I have one project (the Cedar Leaf Shawlette) that I'm going to cast on--it's kind of a tradition with one of my Ravelry/FaceBook groups, a way of affirming that yes, indeed, I dan start and finish something this year. I'm also hoping to finish up another project--Abby's green sweater is only about 5 rows from completion. Which will include weaving in a lot of ends, closing up  the armholes, and sewing on buttons. (Uh oh. Where will I find buttons? Oh yeah...)

So here's a toast to this year's wishes--health, happiness, love and joy and all the good things of life!

PS--Don't know if I've posted much about Shyla before. She came to live with me about a year and a half ago, and she's been a "hidey" kitty for most of that time. She's begun coming out for pets and this week she actually came out and climbed on my lap while I was knitting! Now, if she'd just learn to tolerate HiHi a little more (he has a scabby ear from their latest set-to) we'd have a nice little happy "family." Poor HiHi misses his buddy Simon a lot (well, I do too) and he really wants a cat buddy. 

Maybe that should be Shyla's new year resolution?

Roll Call!

 It's that time of  year again. Christmas is over, and while I've still got all the decorations up and  the house is looking festive, I'm thinking ahead to the next stages. Besides, don't we all like to start a new new year with a clean slate and some sort of plan? Well, if you have the patience to wade through  this post, you can see what's percolating in my rather active brain. (Just because the body is achy and slowing down, doesn't mean the mind has to follow along, right?)

First of all,  I thought I'd start with my knitting projects. Tomorrow if it goes as planned, I'll get on to the quilty things...but for now, it was easy to round up the knits-in-progress. Here's my current crop, rustled out of their project bags and primped for photography!

First up, there are some little sweaters--okay, there are four of them. Because I have four "little" grandkids. They're all made from the same pattern, the Gramps Cardigan by Kate Oates. (I'm sorry I'm not linking to these here, but really, I'm just glad to be posting pictures. Honestly. There is more information on my Ravelry projects page here.)

 So here's Audrey's: pink. Very pink.

 

Abby's is lime green.

 Nate's is a darker, kind of Kelly green.  And Garrett's is blue. Not quite Dodger blue, but pretty close!

This is a basket of afghan squares in Silk Garden. Started quite a long time ago. I'm afraid to look it up to see. There are 110 of them.

The last of the Absolutely Fabulous throws, in Colinette yarns. I do want to finish this. The giant needles kind of hurt my hands, though.

 The third of the Lady Eleanor entrelac wraps. This one is probably the most colorful.. It certainly is the best traveled. The second one was finished and given to Caitlin for her mumbledy-birthday; the first one is very close to done, just languishing waiting for blocking. I'm kind of thinking that a crocheted edging--single crochet, nothing fance\y--would help these to lay a little flatter. The Rowan Tapestry yarn is luscious, t hough.

 And so is this Frog Creek Luxuriant, in the Herbivore colorway. The pattern is Trillian, one of the Hitchhiker series by Martina Behm. This is the second of these I've made, too, but in fingering/sock weight it's taking much longer. This was my France knitting this year. It isn't so much in need of "finishing" per se, since it's my go-to group and general KIP knitting.

Here's a problem child. This is Jordan, in Euroflax, left over from a group KAL a couple of years ago. Euroflax is linen, it's lovely stuff, but it's like knitting with string and it's very slippery. In fact, some of the stitches have slipped right off the needles, and I am very seriously considering frogging this and then either starting it over, or repurposing the yarn. It's a lot of knitting to frog...but it's also going to show if it's got errors in it. The jury is out.

This is a little hat project I started last June, when I was at Webs and needed something to work on. I'd finished the project I'd brought with me--when does THAT ever happen?--but Webs is such a delightful place to look for yarn and projects in! Hence the hat. The ribbed part is done and it's ready to start the lacy section, which is why it's stopped where it is.

 A kind of old  hoary project--the yarn is lovely, the pattern not too difficult, and it goes quickly. Really it does.

 Swallowtail Shawl. Two things about this one: the pattern is not working out right, and I can't seem to figure out where it's gone wrong. It's not a hard pattern although one does have to like working nupps! (Nupps are little imps of Satan, lovely to look at and tedious to work!) The second thing is that this is an awful lot of turquoise yarn, and I wonder if I (or anyone for that matter) wants to be draped in this much turquoise lace. The yarn is wonderful to knit with, though.

 Cedar Leaf Shawlette. Not technically a WIP yet because it isn't cast on, but it is wound and ready to go. Another Webs purchase.

 Flambe shawlette. So close to finished... so close! Working the attached border, which is only 16 stitches wide. I even knit backwards so I don't have to turn it every time I do a row. This one's close.

 There's a name for this pattern but I'm not sure what it is. The yarn is Kid Silk Night, which is regular Kid Silk Haze with sparkles in it. This is a knit-till-you-run-out-of yarn project and nearly done. Got stalled when it got warm.

 This one is old enough to shave by now. It's not hard, it's just... I dunno. It's very lavender. The pattern is Hanging Garden by Sivia Harding, it's well written and easy to follow. Really it is.

Color Affection. Yes, I jumped on this bandwagon. Three colors of Madelinetosh. I love the colors, I love the yarn. I'm not so crazy about miles and miles and miles of garter stitch, though I'm now at t he short-row section so I may be able to work on it without dozing off mid-row.

 Cast on twice, frogged, ready to start again. Shawl with beads. Silk yarn. Pretty straightforward pattern.

 More silk yarn. Just not feeling it. Decided to frog the lavender silk and redo it in the deep dark midnight blue-black.

 Puff, puff. This one is the Obi Shawl, which was the first Fickle Zen mystery KAL. I got this far and my printer gave up the ghost, so I couldn't print out the rest of the directions. (I have t hem printed now. This is a gorgeous yarn and a lovely pattern and I am eager to work on it! Then I can start the second Fickle Zen pattern...)

There is one more UFO I'm embarrassed to mention, and that's the Original Map Of The World Sweater. My OOPS cohorts have promised to force me to finish it this year. Yes, this year...2012. I think it has about an hour's work left on it, max. So it may get done.

Maybe.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go start the button bands on Abby's sweater. It would be nice to get one of them finished this year!!*

*I was going to do all 4 of them during November for NaKniSweMo, National Knit a Sweater Month, the knitters' version of NaNoWriMo. You can stop laughing any time now.

Yo Gabba Gabba! Quilt

Yo Gabba Gabba! Quilt partly assembled, a photo by marie watterlond on Flickr.

Made these blocks a little while ago, and tried to sew them together today. Well, I got this far... you'll have to check my Flickr page to see what derailed my sewing. But I'll bet you can guess...

Soup Day!

 My morning started out fairly early, with a couple of trays of Roma tomatoes going into the oven. Today was Soup Day, a sort of almost-annual tradition where the Daughters and I get together and spend the day cooking.

 Tomatoes roasted while I showered, dressed, and ingested some coffee...

and then mixed up a batch of cranberry-orange muffins. After all, t hey bake at the same temperature the oven had already reached for the  tomatoes--and by the way, don't those tomatoes look yummy?

 Tomatoes, muffins, and I made it over to Youngest Daughter's, where we were shortly joined by Middle Daughter and the boys. The cousins had a great time playing--they really enjoy spending time with each other. Here's G playing with trains, while A1 tries out the double-umbrella maneuver.

 The stove was pretty busy! That's cauliflower in the back, cooking for a cheddar/cauliflower soup; meat for the Taco Soup; those tomatoes have made it into the soup pot.

Aren't they looking tasty? The basil was freshly picked from the herb garden about 2 minutes before it went into the soup pot...

 Split pea soup simmering in the big crock pot--it spent all day in there till the peas disintegrated!

 The other crockpot held the taco-beef soup.

 Courtney, the organizer of this cookstravaganza, making sure the crocks are doing their thing.

 The cauliflower/cheddar soup, pureed and ready to put into containers. That's a second batch of taco-beef soup on the stove.

First soup ready to go... labeled for distribution. Caitlin thought it was very funny to call it "cali" soup since we're in, you guessed it, California.

 Tomato soup, taco soup, and California cauliflower soups, ready to go. And then the chicken-tortilla soup and the beef vegetable soups were done and ready to go out. Luckily, Courtney has an extra fridge in the garage, so this could all get a quick chill while we kept  cooking.

 Here's Caitlin, stirring the Roux That Wouldn't, for the clam chowder. The pot in the back has the potatoes, onions, celery and garlic simmering in clam broth; she's stirring up a roux with cream and half-and-half, which eventually did  thicken up so it could be mixed in with the potatoes. So good!

 Getting things ready for the last soup of the day, a loaded baked potato soup. This one was the hit of the Halloween party last year, so it was a natural to make.

 Here's Meighan stirring another Roux With Attitude--somehow, when it's got 12 cups of milk in it, it seems to take a while to thicken.

At the end of the day, we divvied up the containers--I think we used every available container, including a whole box of freezer baggies. I have soup in my freezer and fridge, as do all three daughters.

The irony of spending the day  making lots of hearty and delicious tummy- and soul-warming soups is that it was really really hot today. Figures! The kids didn't seem to mind playing inside, though, and they got lots of samples of what was cooking. Nate's big question: is it spicy?