Let's Make Baby Quilts! {4/7/17}

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.

Embroidered Faces

Look what my mommy stitched for me when I was a baby...

If my mother hadn't made this, I'd be a little less restrained when I asked WHAT IS UP WITH THOSE EYES?!  That has got to be the poster child for creepy embroidered babies.

I'm not good with faces myself. 

Sublime Stitching has a tutorial on how to stitch small facial features with lots of tips on which stitches and how many threads to use. It's the only one I've found that's for flat embroidery and not dolls.  Now I'm thinking I should just trace some faces and play around with the details instead of letting them make or break an entire block. 

Do you have trouble with faces? Or some good tips for me?

{Yarn and Books} Socks on a Plane

I've got a new favorite pair of socks. 

 Pattern: Socks on a Plane

Yarn: Knitpicks Hawthorne, Sauvie Island 

Isn't it the prettiest pattern? And the prettiest yarn? They were wonderful to knit and fit like a dream. I could have made the legs a bit longer, but I didn't divide the skein before I cast on and was leery of running out and having to break into my second skein. 

Honestly, it's more a feeling that I was supposed to knit the legs longer than that I want them to be longer. 

Now I want to dig out the rest of the Hawthorne from my stash and see what else I can make with it.



I love, love, loved the first two Tarot mysteries by Steve Hockensmith and Lisa Falco. The third book, Give the Devil His Due, might be my favorite so far...and I hate that I can't tell you why without spoiling some things that happened in the second book, which ended on the best kind of cliff-hanger. If you like your cozy mystery heroines a little bit quirky and flawed, start with the first book in the series when Alanis first takes over her mother's shop and starts reading the tarot cards herself. Or start with this one, which will make you want to go back to the beginning of the series.



One of the reasons I enjoy cozy mysteries is that they give me a chance to vicariously quilt or stitch or garden or bake. Mother's Day, Muffins, and Murder by Sara Rosett gave me a chance to experience life as a public school parent. Ellie Avery is hurrying from classroom to classroom to share Mother's Day muffins with both of her children when another woman tells her about the body she just saw in the supply closet, a body that's nowhere to be found after the fire alarm goes off and the building is evacuated. With no body and no adult unaccounted for, there's nothing to report to the police. But there are definitely secrets in the elementary school, and staff members who have plenty to hide. It's an enjoyable cozy with a complicated plot.

Disclosure -- I was provided with advance review copies by the publishers. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along, Crazy Mom Quilts , Wrap up Friday iknead2knit, and  Frontier Dreams  

{Antique Store Temptations} Is This What I'm Looking For?

See the food chopper in the back, behind the the with all of the wonderful gears? It says "100 Universal." Is that the same  thing as the Universal No. 1 Chopper my husband is looking for? If it is, does he want one that sits on the counter instead of clamping to it? (I'm thinking the answer is no, not if he plans on using it.)

Its tag says that the wonderful rusty thing with all of the gears (and doesn't that look like a wind up key sticking out of the top?) is an apple peeler. It sure doesn't look like the ones I own!

From a distance, I thought the chair was kind of cute. Then I read the words on the seat. I want a chair that blesses my house from things that go bump in the night!  If I could figure out where to put it, I'd have checked the price tag.

Lots and lots more food choppers, and not a No. 1 in the batch. I love how they're displayed.

And a pretty dollhouse, way above my head so I couldn't see the graphics inside.

I thought these card table playhouses were a newer invention, but this one dates from 1951. According to an article in Popular Science, it's an oversized paper bag made by the Kennedy Car Liner and Bag Company and can be refolded for re-use "unless play gets too rough." It's also flameproof.

That adorable baby picture I fell in love with a few years ago is still hanging over a doorway in this shop. And I'm still too short to make out the price tag...

4" to 2" .... and Now Up to 12"

I'd hoped to have more of the twelve inch blocks together by this morning, but my weekend got busier than I expected it to.  If I'd followed the original plan of the person who put this kit together, these would be sixteen-patch blocks instead of sixty-four-patches.

But what fun would that be?

Once I've got everything put together and figured out how many blocks I have, I'll figure out how to play them out with the blue sashing. I think that'll bring some kind of sanity to this very scrappy assortment of prints.

This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Main Crush Monday, Monday Making,  Moving it Forward, 

{Weekly Stash Report} Beads and Washi Tape and Seeds and Stuff

While I've been piecing together all of those 2" squares that used to be 4" squares, I've been watching Dollar Tree haul videos on Youtube and thinking that this is the grown up version of my childhood sticker collection. It's really just like the phone conversations I used to have with my best friend about which stickers we'd found and where...except we can all see what we're talking about.

Anyone remember what we used to pay for a sheet of stickers in the early 80s? Because I'm pretty sure it was about the same, if not more, than we'd pay at the dollar store today.

The boys and I have been to the Dollar Tree, and the other Dollar Tree, and then a different one after that. If you're wondering, they don't seem to sell gray crepe paper streamers. But they do sell skinny washi tape and pretty glass beads and stickers you can color yourself.


Weekly Stash Report

No fabric bought or used. Yarn used for a pair of socks that I'll show you in a couple of days. And a bit of vinyl and ribbon used, but I don't track those.

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 2 yards
Fabric added this week:  0 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 5 yards
Net used for 2017: 3 yards

Yarn used this Week:  350  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 2850 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 9350 yards
Net used for 2017: 6500 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Have I Knit this Pair Already?

I've always been intimidated by those knitters who can tell you exactly what yarn they used for which project, especially when it's a solid color. My memory isn't that good, not unless I'm emotionally attached to the yarn for some reason...and I'm attached to a lot of my yarn stash.

So when I found the finished sock on the right in my sewing corner, I was confused. I knew I'd never used Drops Fabel before last year. And I hadn't knit the Guacamole yet, because I'm only halfway through the first sock.

So what was I holding in my hand? It sure looks like the pair that I'm working on right now. 

I did some searching on my own blog and figured out that it's one of the Green Envy pair I knit in Spring of 2014. There are differences between the two colorways if you look closely enough, but it took holding the socks side by side for me to find them.

You'd think I would've remembered knitting with a yarn this similar before, but nope. I didn't have a clue until I picked up the mystery sock.

Looking Back

Ten Years Ago this Month...

I apparently knew how to cable without a cable needle. That would be a handy skill to have right now, but I've lost it.

I was also knitting a lot of lace, things like the Frozen Lake Shawl...

And the Swallowtail Shawl...

Five Years Ago this Month....

Life was full of shiny things. I got the patterns for Hocuspocusville and Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage for my birthday. I also ordered the books for Hobo Quilts (which I haven't finished) and Garden Club Quilts (which I haven't started.)

I was trying to take good pictures of Dashes in the Woods without getting mud on the quilt.

Pattern: Dashes in the Woods

And I was trying some hand-piecing with Do Not Put Your Elbows on the Table (that's the quilt the bees refused to land on.)  

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {3/31/17}

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.

Ribbon and Vinyl

I made a little thing. And I figured out how to photograph it without either the overhead light or my camera flash reflecting off of the vinyl. I just may be happier about that little achievement than I am about the bag itself!

Pattern: Ribbon and Vinyl Zipper Pouches

When the Ribbon and Vinyl Zipper Pouches Tutorial from SewCanShe showed up in my Pinterest feed  I immediately thought of all of that ribbon that Ila sent. There's more than enough of the leopard print ribbon to experiment with and I've got plenty of vinyl and zippers. 

Despite the fact that I managed to attach the little tab/handle wrong twice, the pattern isn't difficult at all. Vinyl and ribbon are a slippery combination, so you'll want either the clips that the tutorial suggests or tape like I used to keep everything lined up until it goes under the needle. And you'll want to double check the instructions for the handle. 

{Yarn and Books} Not Looking at Every Single Stitch

About the time that I was realizing I didn't want to keep plodding away on Twisted Madness, Judy posted that she was working on Socks on a Plane. I wanted to do something different with the Sauvie Island Hawthorne... and the pattern looked intriguing...and here I am today...

This is so much faster and easier on my mind and hands. I can work on it while the family is in the room and likely to talk to me. See the big craft sticks? There are five rounds between each cable twist. Every time I knit my way past a cable section, I move a stick from the left to the right. When I twist the cable, the whole stack goes back to the left. And if I miss moving a stick or drop the whole thing? The world won't end. I'll just try to count rows and make an educated guess.

Why craft sticks? They won't roll off the table. If there were pennies, someone might pick them up (which is understandable -- loose pennies on a table top are fair game around here.) And they were handy when I decided to use something to keep track of my rounds.

These are just a bit more difficult than my usual plain stockinette socks, and different enough to banish that feeling that I'm knitting the same pair over and over and over.



Hubby and I saw the movie trailer for The Circle when we were at the theater watching Kong Skull Island and as soon as we got home I reserved the book from the library. It's the story of Mae Holland, a young woman who, thanks to her college roommate, gets hired by what appears to be the best company on the face of the earth. The Circle has put an end to online bullying and crime and is poised to make the entire world a better place through their products. With their idea that "secrets are lies" and "privacy is theft," it seems like life in The Circle is too good to be true, but Mae isn't seeing any of the warning signs. As much as I liked the book, I didn't care for Mae much. She's an entitled little twenty-something who, before she gets her dream job at The Circle, would rather say she was unemployed than admit that she works in the offices of a utility company. But maybe that's why she loves her new job so much.



The Fire Child by S. K. Tremayne is so amazingly gothic, in the best possible way, that if it wasn't for the cell phones and other modern touches I might have thought I was reading a much older book. In the first few pages Rachel makes her way through her new husband's ancestral home, going from The Old Dining Room, through The New Hall to The Yellow Drawing Room.  And then there are the sprawling basements, and the mine tunnels beneath them that extend under the sea. Did I mention that her husband's first wife drowned in those abandoned tin mines eighteen months earlier and that her body was never recovered? It might have been washed out to sea, or trapped in the tunnels under the old house. And Rachel's young stepson has told her that she will die on Christmas. If you want something that's wonderfully creepy and suspenseful without being actually frightening, this is the book for you.

Disclosure -- I picked up The Circle at the library and was provided with advance review copies by the other publishers. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, iknead2knit, and  Frontier Dreams.

{Thrift Store Temptations} The Last Day of Swim Class

This was going to be last week's post, but I got distracted by the auction and the clocks, so it had to wait. Thursday marked the end of our new schedule, the one that took me past all of the thrift shops every week. Because I didn't know when I'd be out that way again, I stopped at the thrift shop that's farthest from my usual route. 

The copper owl was kind of tempting.  I like his eyes, and he reminded me of our nighttime visitor from a while back.

If you can understand this, please explain it to me! I don't know if I'm more confused by the dog under the glass cloche, or the size of the dog compared to the flowers behind it, or how just plain ugly it all is.

Lately, I'm loving things shaped like little houses. It took a little bit of work to talk myself out of these, at least until I was distracted by the shiny stuff on the next shelf over.

This is THE silverware, the stuff I desperately wanted when Hubby and I got married twenty-six years ago.

Grandma said that it was too expensive and bought us something else. I was an ungrateful brat and quietly exchanged the set she'd bought for a much smaller set of this stuff. Over the years, I've picked up a few more pieces of it at estate sales. This is almost a whole set.

And look what else I found!

It's not the Universal No. 1 Food Chopper that I had my eyes open for, but it's different from the other two Hubby already has...and our anniversary is next month...and it was really cheap. Just in case he hated it (which he didn't.)

From 4"... Down to 2"... and Back up to 3 1/2"

Trust me, this totally makes sense! 

There is a plan and I believe, deep down in my heart, that this is the best possible use for this big stack of squares in oddly mismatched prints.

{Weekly Stash Report} Dish Cloth Cotton

The people who plan strip malls obviously know what they're doing -- why else would they put Gamestop and Michael's within walking distance of each other? If I'm at the craft store, Teenage Son is looking for video games. If I've driven him to Corvallis to find the only copy of Corpse Party (don't ask, because I don't know -- apparently it's not as bad as it sounds), I'm walking across the parking lot to look for washi tape.

They didn't have the tape, but they did have a good sale on Sugar'n Cream and I brought five balls of it home with me, simultaneously resisting the siren call of those Caron Cakes. I don't know what I'd do with one, but they're so dang pretty!

Has anyone bought a Caron Cake, or a Premier Yarns Sweet Roll? Have you used it? Is it as pretty once it's in a project as it is on the shelf at the store?

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 2 yards
Fabric added this week:  0 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 0
Net used for 2017: 3 yards

Yarn used this Week:  0  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 2500 yards
Yarn added this Week: 550 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 9350 yards
Net used for 2017: 6850 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

{I've Been Cooking} Spinach Artichoke Stuffed Chicken

Forgive the picture. I'm obviously not a food blogger and haven't figured out how to get a good shot without steaming up my camera lens. 

I do cook most nights. It's the only way to get the hungry family fed. But lately I've been trying some of those yummy things I've saved on Pinterest. 

Like Spinach Artichoke Stuffed Chicken: 

This was actually as easy to make as the website promised, and it turned out, and it tasted good. I'll be making it again and seeing what variations I can find.

I sort of kind of almost made Salted Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies...by crushing the pretzels I'd bought and mixing them in with a package of Betty Crocker salted caramel cookie mix. It worked! And it was tasty enough that I plan on trying the real thing sometime soon.

The Bubble Up Enchilada Bake wasn't a hit at my house. It was quick and easy and I thought it tasted just fine, but the men folk disagreed. Have I mentioned that they're picky?

How about you? Have you made anything new lately? Got any suggestions for a pack of hungry boys?

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {3/24/17}

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.

Longing for Spring

Pattern: Longing for Spring

Yarn: Drops Fabel (Sunset) 

A couple of weeks ago, I showed you three half knit pairs of socks. Those are all  finished and now I'm casting on for three brand new pairs, because different knitting times call for different types of knitting. No more Second Sock Syndrome at my house, at least for now!

This was my third attempt at knitting with Drops Fabel Sunset. First, I cast on for a plain stockinette pair and decided that they needed some texture. I ripped that out and tried Laburnum Stitch. It was pretty, but a couple of inches into the foot I saw the Longing for Spring pattern and wished I was working on that one instead. One of my needles got pulled loose, so I cast on again.

Now that the socks are done, I can see that they would have looked just fine if I'd continued in the plain stockinette. The stitch pattern is there, but it's subtle. I can see myself doing it again in a solid color. Maybe. It was a fun knit and an easy pattern to follow, but there are lots of others in my queue right now.

Note: I used my favorite toe and heel methods instead of following the pattern exactly as written, because they're my socks and I can do that.

{Yarn Along} New Toes

I gave up. I quit. I said that I couldn't do it. Basically, I did all of those things we're told not to let our kids do. And I'm much happier as a result. I think. After so many months of waiting for Sock Madness, I wish I'd made it farther than the warm up round.

Maybe I could have finished the Twisted Madness socks. Hundreds and hundreds of other knitters did finish theirs. Instead, I made the decision to rip out hours of work and cast on for something new. And to cast on another pair of socks. And to finish those second socks I posted about earlier this month.

Like I said, I think I'm happier as a result. And even if I didn't make it far enough to get assigned to a team, I did manage to do colorwork.



For Whom the Bread Rolls by Sarah Fox

When the Flip Side pancake house is targeted by vandalism and prank calls, new owner Marley McKinney decides to confront the woman responsible. Instead of the peaceful resolution she hoped for, she finds the older woman's body and becomes a suspect herself. My reaction to this one was kind of lukewarm. The vandalism was intriguing, but the other elements of the mystery weren't. Or maybe it's just because I live in the neck of the woods were that sort of thing is more expected than surprising.

Disclosure -- I was provided with an advance review copies by the publishers. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along, Crazy Mom Quilts , Wrap up Friday  

{Estate Auction Temptations} We Went on an Adventure

Many years ago, someone told me that estate auctions were off limits. I don't even know what the context of the conversation was, but I've had that bit of information stuck in my head ever since. I've also been reading Jo's posts about all of her great auction finds and getting jealous. 

On Sunday there was an auction less than half a mile down the highway from our house. I sort of knew where the place was, and I knew that parking would be truly awful. We'd had a bad experience with estate sale parking on Friday and I wasn't going to do that again, so Teenage Son and I hiked down the highway, just to watch. And I signed up for a number, just in case. 

There were clocks. So, so, so many clocks....and pictures....and cars and other stuff we had no interest in....  We watched them auction off some furniture and then headed back to the house. I talked to Hubby about the clocks, specifically the cuckoo clock in pieces in a box, and headed back down the highway to the auction. 

Look what's hanging on my living room wall, where the purple cow head once hung... 

I got it for twenty bucks, figuring that even if it didn't work it would look pretty hanging there on the wall. But it does work! It's not nearly as neat as the one Jo's husband found, but I'm happy with it. And proud of myself for getting it back together myself. The top piece had been removed and the weights were off, so it wasn't a great accomplishment, but I found it.

I got this one, too...

It turns out that the batteries were corroded, but I still like it.

There's a larger fourth picture that goes with these three. They're in awful shape, but I got the entire set for five bucks, along with a few "What is that woman thinking?" looks. I'm not sure quite what I'll do with them now that I have them, but it's a challenge I'm willing to face.  (Edited to add:  Adult Daughter saw them and loves them and has space on her wall. So they're going to her place. I knew there was a reason I rescued them.)

Those are the temptations I couldn't resist. These are some that I did resist, mostly because I was still waiting for the cuckoo clock to come up and knew I couldn't possibly afford everything I loved, let alone carry it home.

The lines across her face are dirt. Really obvious, really unmistakable dirt.

These would have been great to display next to our big old fireplace, but it wasn't meant to be.

I liked this couple, too, but someone else liked them a lot more.

This is the one that Teenage Son wanted. It's massive, and went for a price that boggled my mind considering its condition and lack of a frame. Apparently, The Drunken Monk is a famous painting, so maybe we'll find a cheaper one someday.

I don't know if this was a once in a lifetime auction or if we can hope to find stuff this neat ever again, but it was a fun way to spend the morning.