Embroidered Anatomy

One more block stitched and three left to go.

As much as I love the way the embroidery looks on my recycled linen skirt, I can't get excited about tracing the designs. My pen skips over the rough threads and with the light box shining through it, the variations of the fabric make it tough to see what I'm doing.

I know I want to embroider on linen again in the future, but maybe next time I can find something with a smoother weave.

More Patient Than I Used To Be

Drops Fabel in the Texmex colorway.  I'm loving this yarn and the way the colors change so unpredictably. 

I was halfway through the foot of the first sock when I finally convinced myself that going down a needle size would give me denser fabric and a more enjoyable sock. (That was also the point when I finished the Toasted Almond socks, which freed up a pair of needles.)  I'm much more satisfied with the denser fabric.

A few years ago, I wouldn't have ripped out three days of knitting unless there was absolutely no choice. These days, I can scrap and entire sock. Does that means I'm progressing as a knitter?





Thanks to the advice she offered in her local newspaper column, astrologer Julia Bonatti has enraged a charismatic cult leader. With the membership of the Prophet's Tabernacle picketing outside her apartment, scaring away her clients and enraging her neighbors, Julia is running out of options. The authorities refuse to believe that Reverend Roy is anything but a responsible member of their community, but Julia and her fellow business owners can see how dangerous he is and refuse to be terrorized. When the elderly aunt of a client falls under the Reverend's spell, the astrologer takes matters into her own hands.  The Madness of Mercury by Connie di Marco is the  first title in a new series and I've got to admit that I didn't love Julia or the advice she offered her clients and readers. Something about her rubbed me the wrong way.

Disclosure -- I was provided with an advance review copy by the publishers. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along, iknead2knit 

{Thrift Store Finds} New Kitchen Curtains

I found this at the thrift shop and it was love at first sight, even if three dollars was a little more than I wanted to pay. (While I was hanging them, I found a second price tag for seventy-five cents. Looks like they didn't sell at someone's garage sale and then got donated and then  found me.)

This is the perfect touch for a shabby old farmhouse kitchen.  

Even after living in this house for ten years, we're still making due with plenty of things that came with the place. When we finally started to move in, I had a six-month-old and had just found out that I was pregnant with number four. Before the move was over, I'd spent a month in the hospital on bed rest and both places had been broken into.  If something wasn't really important, we didn't waste time worrying about it. 

The cheap lace curtains in the kitchen window weren't even on my radar.  I knew that I didn't love them, but it wasn't until I took them down to put up my new find that I realized how nasty they were. Polyester and grease is an unpleasant combination.  

I'd almost always rather knit something myself than buy a stranger's work, but these crochet hot pads were in a bundle of four and I was in desperate need. They're simple and perfectly worn and do the job and make me smile. I'll keep using these even after I make some myself. (Only two made it into the photo because the others are in the wash.)

Not bad for a quick trip to the thrift store and a grand total of four bucks!

Time to Retire My Favorite Tote Bag?

I hate to even think it, but my favorite bag ever is starting to lose its shine. When I first made my Nancy Drew tote, it stood up on its own.

These days it slumps and shows its age.

I can't complain -- this bag has been with me just about every time I left the house for  the past three years. That's a hundred and fifty some trips to the library (which means it's hauled a couple thousand books for me and the kids) and countless trips to the park and lots of vacations...

Don't get me wrong. I'm not about to toss my favorite bag. But I'm thinking it might be time to start planning a replacement for the Best Bag Ever. I love the size of this one and the strap is the perfect length to wear over my shoulder or across my chest.  But I'd like the next bag to zip across the top and for it to have an inside pocket to keep my phone from falling to the bottom. I can't find my phone under everything even when it's ringing.

I can take the lessons I learned from this bag and make another one that's the perfect size and has the perfect strap length and doesn't spill everything onto the floor of the car when I knock it over....but the new bag won't have that book spine fabric.

That's what's going to stop me. I've got lots of wonderful fabric, but I can't think of any prints in my stash that I'd happily carry every day for the next three years.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 4 3/4 yards
Fabric added this week: 0 yards
Fabric added year to date: 11 yards (+2 sheets)
Net used for 2016: 6 1/4 yards

Yarn used this Week: 800 yards
Yarn used year to Date: 3550 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 5526 yards
Net added for 2016: 1976 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Ever Stayed in a Haunted Hotel?

Would you stay in a haunted hotel? Or take your kids to one? Apparently, we've done it more than once.

I didn't realize that we were supposed to be afraid of the Clown Motel in Tonopah until someone told me they'd seen it on Ghost Adventures. After that, I looked it up online and then refused to believe that it was actually next to an old cemetery. I couldn't have possibly stayed there so many times without noticing the creepy old burial ground, right? We checked it out on Google Earth, which proved that I could. It's right there, adjacent to the parking lot. And somehow none of us ever noticed.

The internet makes the place sound absolutely terrifying. Like I said, we've stayed there five or six times and never even knew that it was supposed to be haunted, let alone had that "oppressive sense of creeping dread."  I agree with whoever said that the sign out front makes it look like something out of a Quentin Tarantino movie, but it's cheap and not at all bad for the price.

The place we stayed one night in Montana could still give me nightmares fifteen years later. When you can get a cabin that will sleep five people for thirty-five bucks, that should be a huge red flag. So should the fact that the guy in line ahead of us had three big dogs and it was just fine with the owners. And the fact that it was the only place for miles with any vacancies. I spent that night half expecting the guy in the hockey mask to burst up through the uneven floors because that run down cabin would have been perfectly at home on the shores of  Crystal Lake.

The haunted hotel I do want to visit and take my kids to? The Stanley, in Estes Park Colorado. Because that's the hotel The Shining was based on and the place is absolutely gorgeous.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {6/3/16}

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.

{Throwback Thursday} Leif's Snails

For years, I've been wanting to make a scrappy snail's trail quilt and putting it off because it sounds hard. Somehow, I managed to completely forget that I've already made a quilt with that block in it.

Made in 2009, this is another one of those quilts from my phase where I'd see a pattern and think "I think I could do that -- I should try!"  It's starting to seem like I made a lot more leaps of faith back then. 

The pattern is from Quilter's Newsletter. (Sorry, but I can't remember it's name or which issue it was in. If it helps, it's the same one as North Pacific.) It's one of those rare projects that I bought brand new yardage to make...and then actually made the quilt I bought it for.

There's a hole in the upper right hand corner that goes all the way through the quilt. I'm not asking too many questions. This one was made during the same period as Scrappy Mountains (which had a run in with some safety scissors) and Birds in the Air (ball point pen on the white muslin back) and whichever quilt it was that they duct taped pennies too. I was sad at the time, but I've gotten over it. And I think this one might be honest wear-and-tear. Or possibly the handiwork of my Whirlpool Cabrio.

Toasted Almond Socks

If I'd known how yummy this yarn (Red Heart Heart & Sole - Toasted Almond) would look once it was actually knit into a pair of socks, it wouldn't have been waiting patiently in my stash for so many years. I love these narrow stripes and rich colors! 

This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Wrap up Fruday,  Yarn Along, iknead2knit, Crazy Mom Quilts.  

{I've Been Reading} Macgruder's Curiosity Cabinet

Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet by H. P. Wood completely immersed me in the world of 1904 Coney Island. The story begins as Kitty Haywood sits on a bench, penniless and alone. Her mother has vanished from the hotel they were staying at, her belongings are gone, and she has no one to turn to for help. She finds herself at Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet, a museum of oddities. I don't want to say more about the plot than the publisher gives away in the book's description, because I don't want to spoil it for you, but if you're even a little bit interested in sideshows and dime museums, pick this one up. The  cast of characters is absolutely amazing and I was in tears by the end. The author includes an afterword where she explains which elements of the book are historically accurate and which are fictional. (I'd always wondered if flea circuses were a real thing!)

Disclosure -- I was provided with an advance review copy by the publisher. All opinions are my own.  

We're All Set to Make a Mess

Years ago, the library had a selection of books with instructions for making different doughs and clays and goods and slimes. I kept checking them out over and over, always meaning to buy our own copies.

Now there's Pinterest and I don't need the library or a book. A quick scroll through my Pinterest or Facebook feed will show me the possibilities of exploding ivory soap in the microwave and then using the soap to make ghost mud or mixing white glue and borax to make silly putty or the million and one other things that I've pinned to try when my boys are bored.




I've got a whole board of things pinned. These days, my problem is pulling together the supplies. So many of these projects claim that you can do them with what you've already got in the kitchen, but if I use up all of my dish soap or corn starch making fun projects, I'm going to paint myself into a corner and not have what I need for actually making dinner or washing the dishes. It's a twenty mile drive to Walmart, so I try not to do that.

I bought corn starch and baking soda from the bulk bins at Winco, which left me with leaking platic bags of I'm-not-sure-what-this-is.  Not the best plan. A couple of weeks ago, I finally pulled out some big mason jars and filled them with baking soda and borax and corn starch and put actual labels on them.  Now it's all here when we need it and I don't have to worry about pilfering the kitchen or identifying mystery bags. I also had a big bottle of cheap dish washing detergent, but I used that up when we ran out of the stuff that's actually suitable for washing dishes.

It's Probably Time to Come Up With a Plan

I thought I'd seen some vintage anatomy charts with decorative borders, but after searching online and coming up with nothing, I guess those were just in my imagination. I'm going to have to translate those fuzzy memories into an actual sketch on a piece of graph paper. I've still got the ribs, a foot, and the lungs to stitch, so I can keep procrastinating for a while longer.

Someone asked where I'd found the pattern for this project. It's the Anatomy Design Pack from Urban Threads, which comes in two versions, one for hand stitching and one for embroidery. There's no pattern for assembling them into a quilt, just the embroidery patterns. I usually wind up doing my own thing, so that works for me. The pattern is cheap -- $4.00 for the entire set -- and it's on sale until Tuesday night. (No affiliation, I'm just a happy customer who bought my own patterns and is trying to resist the urge to buy more before I get some of my other projects done.)

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Not Taking Care of My Fabric Scissors

You know all of those memes and infographics showing the rules for use for good fabric scissors? We don't follow those rules in this house. My scissors cut paper and other questionable things and, more often than not, I'm the one doing the cutting.

This has to take the cake for the stupidest thing I've allowed to be cut with my sewing scissors.

Floor mats for the truck.

I don't know what else we had that would cut through that rubber without snapping. Experience has taught me that my 88 cent Harbor Freight kitchen shears weren't up for the job and I couldn't imagine the school scissors surviving the job, even if I did buy the better ones. So I grabbed my oldest set of fabric scissors and handed them over.

Maybe Hubby can fix them with that fancy knife sharpener my folks got him last Christmas.

What's the worst thing you've cut with your good scissors? Or are you a purist who really never uses them for anything but quilt shop quality fabric?

Cable Left, Cable Right

As much as I love cables, I've always been intimidated by them. If I follow the chart carefully, I can make them happen, but I've never understood exactly how it is that they work.

Cable Left, Cable Right: 94 Knitted Cables solves the mystery, explaining how he same exact four-stitch cable can be abbreviated eight different ways - no wonder I've been confused! The book contains a wide variety of cable charts, which explain how the cables do what they do.  It also explains how to make them even more involved by using textured stitches within the cable, multiple colors, and beads. It also gives tips for designing with cables and how to work increases and decreases into the pattern.

I definitely want a  copy of this book in my knitting reference library.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {5/27/16}

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.

Stitchy Thoughts

Honestly, I'm running out of titles for these anatomy embroidery posts and things to say about them. I still love that I'm using linen salvaged from a thrift store skirt and the way the single strand of embroidery floss looks.

Swatching the New Sock Yarn

The Toasted Almond socks are only a little more than half done, but I couldn't wait to knit up a swatch with my new yarn (Drops Fabel, Texmex).

It's hard to tell from just the toe if I love the yarn or not, but I'm definitely thrilled with the colors.

Flexagons and Puzzle Balls

The boys and I made Flextangles. They're kind of a little bit like those cootie catchers we all made in grade school, but a lot more impressive. After I found them on Pinterest I made one as a trial run, then Leif made one. When Quinn made his, he decided to use the four sets of diamonds to illustrate a story. Have I mentioned that I'm amazed by my sons?

These little things are absolutely fascinating. It's a folded paper tube that thinks its a kaleidoscope! Which, of course, makes me wonder if I could translate it into fabric. I can imagine how the diamonds would fit together, but I'm not sure if interfacing would make it too stiff or not stiff enough...or what if I used fusible web and left the paper inside?

I clicked over to Pinterest and did a search for puzzle balls to see if someone else had already figured it out. I found tutorials for the traditional Amish puzzle ball...and then I found this...



The book is Amamani Puzzle Balls by Dedri Uys and I don't have a copy of my own yet, but I've got it in my shopping cart to add to my next Amazon order. I still don't know how to crochet, but this is the sort of thing that's going to motivate me to learn.

There is AN OCTOPUS! (And the pattern is free on Ravelry.)  And there's AN OCTOPUS MADE FROM FABRIC!!!  I might be getting a bit giddy at this point, but these are so cute I can barely stand it.

I'm linking up to WFMW. 

Crosses and Spools

For the second week in a row, I've got something to show off on my design wall... 

The Red Cross quilt top is finished and I've pieced another dozen spools.

This post is linked to Patchwork Times. 

There Are Twelve Pairs of Gorgeous Striped Socks in My Future...

Earlier this month, it hit me that we've got at least three big road trips planned for the summer and I'm down to the last of my self-striping sock yarn. There's some multicolored stuff that I've decided would work better with some kind of texture or lace, there's one skein that I'm saving for a special destination, and there's some stuff I bought years ago and have fallen out of love with. I don't want to fuss with contrasting heels and toes while we're actually on the road. 

Car knitting requires exciting yarn that I'm currently drooling over. I know...I could knit plain socks in whatever solid color I pulled from my stash, but it wouldn't make the miles fly by as quickly or make me as happy.  

So I decided to order the Drops Fabel that I've been wanting since I first saw it a few years back. Guacamole, Texmex, and Red Chili. What could be more perfect for a trip to Arizona? 

When I got to their site the yarn was marked down to $2.00 a skein. It's on  sale at NordicMart until the end of May. For the first time in my knitting life, I paid for priority shipping to be sure that I'd have this stuff in my knitting bag before our first trip. I ordered on Wednesday and the bulging priority mail box was waiting for me at the post office on Saturday.

This is my first big yarn purchase in six months, which makes it completely guilt free. I went a long time without buying yarn and when I did, it was a great deal on yarn I'm excited about. Now the question is whether or not I can stay this good!

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 4 3/4 yards
Fabric added this week:  0 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 11 yards (+2 sheets)
Net used for 2016: 6 1/4 yards

Yarn used this Week: 0  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 2750 yards
Yarn added this Week: 5376 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 5526 yards
Net added for 2016: 2776 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Still Slowly Stitching

Hands and spines have lots of tiny little bones -- and after this, I've still got a foot and rib cage to stitch my way through.

If the finished quilt looks like what I'm picturing in my head, it'll all be worth it.