Living Without a Microwave

My parents owned an appliance store and I grew up in the era of "You can cook ANYTHING in your microwave!"

Our household been living without one since mid-April. It wasn't a deliberate choice -- the thing stopped working and, after spending a day or two stressing over how I'd manage to get it replaced, the kids and I quickly started to figure out how to do everything without it.

Guess what -- it was easy. Way easier than I would have thought it would be. Other than reheating leftover Chinese food for six people. I haven't figured that one out yet...or maybe we need to eat more yummy takeout so I can get more practice. I also don't like that heating leftovers in the oven heats up the house. That's probably my biggest complaint at this point. Once the weather cools down, that'll be less of a problem.

I'm sure we'll replace the microwave at some point, probably sooner rather than later, but I'm not in a big hurry. (It's not like the oven element that burnt out last week. That sent me into a panicked meltdown as I tried to figure out how to cook for a family of six with three burners, a crock pot, and a rice cooker.)

But for now, I can do without it. I just won't be able to use that melt and pour soap I've got in my craft stash, or try any of those cute cake-in-a-mug recipes I've stumbled across on Pinterest.

I love this woman's post about her kitchen. Go read it -- it'll make you love your kitchen, too.  The same day I found that post, I found another one by a woman who didn't think she could survive until she saved up for a new dishwasher.  I live in a house that's almost a hundred years old and has never had one.  Or a garbage disposal. I've got to admit that if I could add anything to my kitchen (except for that replacement oven element), I'd go for the garbage disposal. I hate picking out itty bitty pieces of ceral that have clogged the drain.

Now, if the sewing machine breaks, that is getting fixed as soon as humanly possible. Kitchen appliances are a completely different priority list.

A Fiddler for the Quilt

I think I'm using this fella because, unlike most of my other vintage embroidery transfers, he's not doing housework and he's not a cute animal. And I kind of like those scruffy patches on his jeans.

Making the color choices for this one was a bit tricky. I couldn't figure out the lines on the foot he's stamping, because it didn't look right  for a shoe or a boot. I finally decided it was exposed ankle and made it pink.

When I was stitching the violin, it looked like a random mess of lines. In the photo, I can see where I missed stitching part of the bow, so I'll have to go back and fix that.

There are two other transfers that go with him. I like the guy with the overalls...but I prefer the dress and hair on the girl from the other couple. So I may wind up doing both. Or neither.

While I was Googling to see if these guys are available online, I found a few different square dance and Hillbilly patterns. Now I'm going to have to plan a trip to Walmart (and Joann's and Hobby Lobby) to see if  they've got Hillbilly Doins in their embroidery patterns. Because I love that guy who's leaning back with his fishing pole and looking a lot like Rip Van Winkle.

It's hot!

Not quite "no choice but pack the kids up and haul 'em down to the river" hot, but hot enough to put a crimp in my sewing plans. If I spend any time at all next to the iron, I'll make myself sick.

So I put together the Cheddar Bow-Ties that  I cut last week. There are about a dozen and I'll press them when it's a bit cooler, either early in the morning or late at night.

I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Cutting up Scraps

My husband went back to work this week and I got to work myself, sorting scraps and ironing and cutting and planning...

My fabric stash is an absolute disaster. I've been too stressed to remember where I put things, or what I was working on before life turned into such a crazy mess. So I picked a project -- Bonnie Hunter's Lozenges -- and started pulling fabrics.

I cut a 2 1/2" strip and a 1 1/2" strip and set them in the Lozenge quilt pile. If the fabric is the right shade of brown, I cut another strip for Chocolate Covered Cherries. If the print is right and the piece is big enough, I cut a piece for the newest baby quilt. Depending on whether or not the colors are right, I might cut enough pieces for a couple of Cheddar Bowties or a strip for Scrappy Little Trips.

Before too long, I'll have plenty of stuff to sew while I figure out where I tucked all of my UFOs.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 17 1/2 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 48 yards
Net Added for 2014: 30 1/2 yards

Yarn Used this Week:  0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 5475 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 2610 yards
Net Used for 2014: 2865 yards

I'm linking up to Patchwork Times.

Another Block for the Garden Party Quilt

This little gal is from another one of the Work Basket transfer sheets I borrowed from Mom's stash.

I love that bubble umbrella...and the raincoat...and the puddle...  Those ringlets really should be golden, but I wanted her hair to contrast with the bright yellow coat.

I'm linking her up to Slow Sunday Stitching.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {9/12/14}

I've got the start of a new baby quilt --

This is a lot different than my usual baby quilts -- I'm even following someone else's pattern!

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Bringing Home the New Baby in 1955

I love old children's books, the older the better.  So when someone deemed these too out of date to use for working with kids and offered them to me, I happily accepted.

These two picture books are a fun glimpse into a completely different era of parenting. Just look at Jack's mother coming home from the hospital with the newborn baby bundled up in her lap. It took a while for the baby in her arms to register because I was too focused on that dress (with a waist!) and her perfectly styled hair. I may believe that babies rode in the front seat in 1955, but I don't believe that anyone came home from the hospital looking quite that good.

Mother rests on the couch, Father sits in the big chair, and Jack and Grandma sit quietly, too, until the baby cries.

I think my favorite part of the book is the bathinette. I had a doll size one, briefly, and it's one of those toys that's stuck in my head. It was just so odd...and neat. I didn't realize until I saw the one in the book that they're a real thing for real babies.

And they still make them!



How did I not know about these?! Four kids and I never knew that there was a thing like that out there. If I had a baby, I'd probably be ordering one today.

This post is linked to Vintage Thingie Thursday, Thriftasaurus, Share Your Cup, Ivy and Elephants, We Call it Olde, Savvy Southern Style, Thrifter Maker Fixer, Vintage Bliss Tuesday 

Ocean View Socks

I'm calling these my Ocean View socks, because I knit most of the second sock while sitting on this couch looking at this view. Or at least knowing that it was out there, because most of my knitting happens at night. I don't know how to convince the camera that I want a picture of the sock and the pretty stuff behind it, and I wasn't quick enough to get a picture with pelicans flying by, but you get the idea...

To make it even more appropriate, the yarn is Knitpicks Dancing in the Hula colorway. Ties in with the whole beach idea, even if I was knitting up in Washington State. I think this is the absolute last of the Dancing. Makes me kind of glad I bought it in every colorway...and it's very satisfying to know that I used it all.

Now I'm playing with TOFUtsies. It has shrimp in it.  I think that was my whole motivation for buying this skein way back when. Knitting with shrimp...how could I not want to try that?






Edgar Allan Poe, Jeckle and Hyde, a series of murders that conjure up images of Jack the Ripper, a forbidding basement laboratory,  a heroine who dares not remove her scarf... Of Monsters and Madness
by Jessica Verday is all kinds of mysterious and creepy fun.   After the death of her mother, Annabelle Lee journeys from Siam to Philadelphia to live with her father and grandfather. Accustomed to living with missionaries in a foreign land, she knows nothing of proper ladylike decorum. Her fascination with science and medicine infuriates her father.

My only complaint is that this is the first book in the series and ends with a horrible, wonderful cliff hanger. If I could pick up the second book right now, I'd be happy. But waiting until fall of next year is going to make me a bit cranky.

I've also been reading How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens by Benedict Carey. It's very dry stuff about how the brain works, how memories forms and how we retrieve them later. The gist of it is that the brain is quirky and we still don't understand the best ways to study and learn. (If there even is a "best" answer that works for everyone.)

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis. For more finishes, check out Sew Much Ado, Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?,  and Freedom Fridays, Wonderful at Home, and Inspired Friday.

DIY Blank Jigsaw Puzzles

Jigsaw puzzles continue to be a huge thing around our house and now my little guy wants to design his own. We bought a blank jigsaw puzzle from the educational supply store -- and that was fine -- but they only come in three styles: huge pieces, medium size pieces, and reasonably small pieces. If we did that more than once, every puzzle would have the same shaped pieces.

What fun is that?

So it was back to the Dollar Tree for a couple of inexpensive puzzles and on to Walmart for some white spray paint because I couldn't remember if I had any light grey left over from the Coke bottle jet packs. If you've got outgrown puzzles and a can of paint at home, it's a free project. And who can argue with those?

This is the kind of project that's so easy it almost doesn't need instructions. Put the puzzle together on a piece of cardboard. Take it outside and spray with light coats until you can't see the original design.
For our first try, I separated the pieces first because I was afraid they'd stick together. Don't do that. Because even if you lay them out in careful rows someone will get over-enthusiastic and mix them up and even a 24 piece puzzle is enough to tax Mommy's brain when every piece is solid white. The paint won't glue the pieces together.

If your little artist makes a mistake or changes his vision midstream, just take the cardboard back outside and repaint it. Our puzzle now has six or seven layers of white paint because he started with pens, smeared the design (one of the perils of being left-handed), and repeatedly changed plans.  That may just be my favorite part of this whole thing. The puzzle may never get finished and probably won't get reassembled, but it happily filled his afternoon.

And did I mention that the Monster High puzzles at the Dollar Tree, even if they're too girly for my son's taste, are shaped like coffins?

Cats!

I've been wondering if I could use the Calico Cat die to make striped cats. I knew that I could, but I didn't know if it would look right...

It came close to what I wanted. The light stripes need to be much thinner. The ones on this cat finish at less than an inch, but I think they're too clunky. And I want to make the tail have stripes that aren't lined up with the stripes on the body.

I think I can see how to do that...

This post is linked to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

There's a quilt here somewhere...

I've been fascinated by this gate since Mom pointed it out to me a few years ago. It's just such a neat conglomeration of stuff...

I wish I could've gotten a better picture, but I was trying to be discreet and was afraid that someone was going to come out and yell at me.  Just as we were walking away, a huge shaggy dog meandered around the side of the house and turned its head in our direction. Like he felt obligated to come out and do something.... but didn't have the enthusiasm to even bark. 

That layout of stuff reminds me of Jack Straws, a game I found at a garage sale before the kids were anywhere near old enough to play it with me. Think Pick Up Sticks, but with garden tools instead. 

Now I want to make a whole cloth quilt with silhouettes of rakes and canes and I don't-know-what-all-else.

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 17 1/2 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 48 yards
Net Added for 2014: 30 1/2 yards

Yarn Used this Week:  400 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 5475 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 2610 yards
Net Used for 2014: 2865 yards

I'm linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times.

Holiday Hats for Babies

I've had so much fun knitting baby hats for my own little guys and for the NICU and pregnancy center. The little Halloween hats are my favorite.


Holiday Hats for Babies by Debby Ware is a treasure trove of cut hats for every occasion you can imagine, up to and including Arbor Day. The patterns incorporate chenille and fuzzy yarns and would be a fun way to use up colorful scraps.

The hats are fancy without being terribly over-the-top. An ambitious mommy or grandma could give her favorite little ones a hat for every occasion.

Disclosure -- the publisher provided me with an advance review copy.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {9/5/14}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Barbie Used to Have MUCH Cooler Stuff! {part 2}

A couple of weeks ago, I showed off Barbie's Dream Boat. It took a little more digging, but here's her Friend Ship. 

Before you get the idea that I was too spoiled, Mom found both of these at thrift shops back in the day. It's kind of battered, but vinyl toys that have been neatly folded up for thirty years don't just spring back into shape. And, after what happened to the Town House (which was normal wear and tear on very old cardboard and plastic pillars), my kids aren't getting anywhere near these! 

I've always loved the graphics. In that respect, the plane is almost neater than the boat. There's almost no pink to be found, except for some of the clothes in the coat closet.

There's absolutely no doubt what airline Barbie worked for. I'm curious about those baby bottles -- they seem to be a really prominent fixture.  

The galley is obviously more important than the cockpit. I think the pilot was almost an afterthought. But as a kid, it was the galley and passenger seating that I cared about.  

Think this is the aerial view of wherever that boat was sailing?

And, like the Dream Boat, it folds up nicely for storage. I found a link to the original advertisement on this blog.

This post is linked to Vintage Thingie Thursday, Thriftasaurus, Share Your Cup, Ivy and Elephants, We Call it Olde, Savvy Southern Style, Thrifter Maker Fixer.

{Yarn Along} Congo Socks

It's been almost a year since I decided that I should do something with the single skeins of sock yarn I'd bought with plans to make socks for my boys. I was able to find second skeins for four of the eight colorways. I've finished the Green Envy Socks, and the Rustica Socks. 

These are the Congo Socks --

One skein had brighter colors than the other. I could tell while I was knitting, and it shows up in the picture if you look hard enough, but I'm so glad I used this stuff to make socks for myself instead of the boys. I'm hoping there's enough left to make myself some wrist warmers or something, just because I'm still excited about the colors.

I've got plans to cast on for the Toasted Almond pair soon, then I'm going to have to knit some solid color socks so I'll have leftover yarn to use with the other skeins.


I wasn't really excited about reading Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King. For me, it was something to pick up at the library while I wait for Revival to come out later this fall. It's not my favorite of his books and I doubt that I'll read it again, at least not anytime soon, but it kept me turning pages. There's nothing supernatural in this one, just a fear on my part that the author was going to do something really really awful to the characters (as opposed to the author that's standard for Stephen King novels.) I haven't trusted him since Bag of Bones.

Have you seen the commercial for the Stephen King birthday celebration on Encore? Makes me wish there was more room free on our DVR.

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis. For more finishes, check out Sew Much Ado, Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?,  and Freedom Fridays, Wonderful at Home, and Inspired Friday.

My Favorite Sock Pattern (or lack of one)

These are my Jig socks. They've been finished for a few weeks but never got their own post. 

I think that's one of the neatest tricks I've seen sock yarn do all on its own. I wish Knitpicks was still making Dancing - I just used up my last two skeins.

Several of my readers have asked what sock pattern I use. There's no pattern. Over the past few years, I've figured out what I need to do to make a sock my size and I just keep doing that. Over and over and over. (The end of this sock knitting binge may or may not be near!)

My socks are knit toe up, on four DPNs. That gives me one needle for the instep and two for the heel. Knitpicks wooden DPNs come in sets of six...so buying two sets means I have enough needles to work on three pairs of socks. Last  year when Judy started the pooling sock yarn challenge, I bought three different brands from the store in town. Since then, I've dug my Harmony needles out of the project back they were hiding in. They are absolutely my favorites for sock knitting.

I start at the toe and increase until I've got enough stitches for the foot. Then I knit around and around until it's time for the heel.  No math or swatching here -- I just hold the sock in progress up against a finished sock that fits. If I was knitting something with lace or cables, I'd check the fit at some point, but stockinette is nice and predictable.

Short row heels don't require me to remember any numbers. I've done flap and gusset heels. Those aren't hard, but I can't keep the directions in my head and if I have to change the number of stitches, I'm lost. So short row it is!

Once the heel is turned, I switch to k2p2 ribbing until the cuff is long enough. My DPNs are 6" long, so I use those to judge the length.

Over time, I've found a toe that I like, a heel that I like, the number of stitches that I need to make socks in my size. If I want to make a pair for another family member, I can adjust the numbers and still use the same toe and heel techniques. Or I could add a stitch pattern across the instep and around the ribbing.  But for right now, I just need something to keep my hands moving without too much thought or planning.

Why Not Hocuspocusville?

A couple of times, I've started to wonder if I should spend the time that I'm putting into these blocks making progress on Hocuspocusville. But I've decided that there are a couple of very good justifications for plunging into a new project.

First, I really love the quilt that inspired this project. The more time I spend sorting through vintage patterns and deciding which ones I want to use, the more I become convinced that I'm absolutely going to love my own quilt.

Second, I don't have to worry about these blocks. If I make a bad color choice or my stitches get too wobbly or I carry a float too far across the back and decide that I can't live with it, I can leave that block out. If I decide that one of the Hocuspocusville blocks isn't good enough, I'll have to retrace and restitch the entire thing. I don't think I've got the patience for that.

This project is fun. It's low stress. And I've needed that over the past few months. Once we get into October, I'm sure I'll pull the Hocuspocusville blocks out and stitch on them for a while, but there's no reason I can't play with both.  (I'm pretty sure I may be starting this embroidered Halloween quilt too.)

I'm linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times and Too Cute Tuesday.

Sill haven't found 'em...

But I did find these eighteen envelopes of hot iron transfers at Value Village last week, mostly unopened, all uncut, and all dirt cheap.  They're new reprints of old patterns.

I'm a sucker  for dancing flatware...

And I almost bought this set at an antique store at the Sisters quilt show back in July. I was at the cash register with my cash in my hand before I thought to look in the envelope. Good thing I did, because that one had the wrong transfers inside. I wouldn't have been happy to discover that once I got home!

As soon as Hubby gets back to work, I want to go through every last box in the sewing room and find those transfers I've been looking for. I can't even tell you what's in that bag, just that I tore them out of old Workbasket magazines and put them away for safekeeping back when I had no intention of ever using them. Odd are, they'll be duplicates of what's in Mom's stash. Or things I've already found online. But it's making me crazy that I can't find them.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 17 1/2 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 48 yards
Net Added for 2014: 30 1/2 yards

Yarn Used this Week:  0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 5075 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 2610 yards
Net Used for 2014: 2465 yards

I'm linking up to Judy at Patchwork Times.

A Vicarious Trip to the Desert

This is the first year in forever that we haven't made at least one trip down to the Southwest. I've headed down there with babies in my arms and during most if not all of my pregnancies... Even when I was having so much trouble with my knee, we went and skipped the hiking part. This year the decision was taken out of our hands, something I'm more than a little bit bitter about.

The desert scares me a bit, even when we're travelling in an air conditioned car, with water and cell phones along well traveled roads. Sometimes it scares me a lot. And sometimes you roll up the tent and find out that you've been sleeping on top of scorpions.  



Burro Bill and Me: A Memoir of Our Unusual Death Valley Love Story is the memoir of Edna Calkins Price. In 1931, she met and married her husband, Bill. Shortly after that, they decided to leave civilization behind and head for Death Valley. Over the next decade, they rid themselves of most of their gear. At one point, the only two things she owned that were hers and hers alone were a pair of pink panties and her toothbrush. Then the panties wore out and she sewed new ones out of an old cement bag. I'm picturing fabric like I used for my ironing board cover. They trade their Ford for a string of burros and without a plan for the future, they make their way throughout the Southwest, prospecting and exploring and setting up a trading post at the entrance of the newly founded national monument to earn enough to keep themselves going for the next few years. The book is filled with details of their day to day life.

I wouldn't want to actually live through Edna's experiences, but I loved reading about them. We've spent enough time in the area that I had a good feel for where they were, although I can't decide whether or not the cave filled with skeletons they found might be the Apache Death Cave...

Disclosure -- the publisher provided me with an ARC.