Looking Back

Five Years Ago...

I soaked a quilt in sugar water in an attempt to coax the bees into landing on it. It didn't work. 

I played with Crayolas and made Lobster Sue. 

I'd started a spool pattern that I absolutely loved.... at least until I saw Bonnie Hunter's leaders and enders version. I don't know when I'll get all of those little 3 1/2" spools done, but I'll definitely enjoy the finished quilt more. 

And I made a ton of little Halloween hats for the NICU.

Ten Years Ago...

I was knitting at the river and the boys almost startled a snake. I got lucky and it went under my knitting bag instead of straight inside. Thank goodness! These days I'd be able to deal with it, but back then I might've abandoned the whole thing. 

I joined Ravelry. 

I was still knitting lots of shawls and had room on the sewing room bed to block them. These days, it's buried under a mountain of fabric scraps. 

I paper pieced for the first and last time. I've tried since then, but never with any success. 

Compass Socks

These may be my favorite socks ever. 

After spending way too much time trying to find the perfect pattern to use with this yarn, I decided to just wing it a bit. They're almost the same as the lace rib socks I've done twice already, but I added an extra line of knit stitches between the purls and that was just enough to make them a bit fancier and a bit prettier...

And did I mention that I could still knit the pattern from memory, so I didn't need to haul around a chart or written notes? I want to find more stitch patterns like that.

The lace pattern flows happily into the k1p1 ribbing. I'm not a fan of  k1p1, but it's going to make things this pretty and symmetrical I'll struggle through a couple of inches of it.

And I got the lace pattern centered across the top of the foot without having to jog it one stitch to the left or right. That would have worked, but having it centered it better. (Not being able to figure out how to center a 9 stitch lace pattern is why I decided against the pattern I'd planned on using.)

Did I mention that I love this yarn?

{I've Been Reading} and Bowling...and Swimming...

My boys and I have been embracing the fact that it's summer and the weather is...well, the weather is hotter than I'd like, but we're making the best of it. As many days as we can pull it off, we visit the bowling alley (which offers kids two free games a day including the shoe rental) and then head down to the swimming hole. August is ticking away quicker than I'd like and the free bowling offer will end soon. And it doesn't seem fair to make them choose one or the other (never mind getting everyone to agree on the same option!)

I bring my books and my knitting and enjoy watching the kids do their thing. And I get incredibly mushy about using the ball my husband bought me back when we were still dating almost thirty years ago. I'd get even mushier about using the bowling shoes Grandma passed on to me at the same time, but those seem to have vanished. So I stole my husband's. It's not like he's used them since then!




The Walls by Hollie Overton

As soon as I saw that the author of Baby Doll had another thriller out, I wanted to read it. After her blissful new marriage turns into a waking nightmare, Kristy Tucker begins to look differently at the death row inmates she works with. What if murder is sometimes the only option? What if some of the inmates are as innocent as they claim to be? I stayed up way too late to find out how it would  end, because wondering would have kept me awake anyway. The Walls didn't disappoint.



See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt

Another Lizzie Borden book...and still this one somehow kept me turning pages to find out what was coming next. The story alternates between several seemingly unreliable first person narrators and even if you're pretty sure what happened in the Borden house on that fateful day, it's an interesting read. The story opens with Lizzie and it did take me some time to get into the rhythm of her muddled thoughts, but once I was comfortable with the language, I was hooked.





All Signs Point to Murder by Connie di Marco

I snatched this one up even though I had mixed feelings about the first book in this series. (The mystery element in that one was great, but the heroine rubbed me the wrong way.) I really warmed up to Julia in this second book. When her friend's wedding ends in murder, Julia is anxious to help. The mystery is complicated and fills most of the book, but I was intrigued by Julia's past and definitely want to find out more about it. I'm never going to be a believer in astrology, but it's sure intriguing to read about.

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

Summery Cross Stitch

I'm positive that I wrote about this project a few days ago, with a different picture that showed less progress. That picture is over on Instagram, but I know that I wrote about all of the trouble I was having with the chart...and now I can't find any trace of that post. Not scheduled, or published, or hidden somewhere under the wrong date...

After another night of stitching, I'm getting better at this and feeling considerably less annoyed with the chart. Now I'm just annoyed that I lost, or maybe imagined, the other post. (Not the one where I complained about sorting floss, the one where I complained about the large chart that's too small to read even after blowing it up to 200%)

{The Row By Row Experience} One More Shop

I hate to say it, but I'm losing my enthusiasm for the row by row road trip. It's too dang hot and my car is on its fifth summer with no air conditioning and I'm not about to drive the truck to new shops in towns I'm not familiar with and I've got a ton of other things going on right now. The Row by Row Experience is still great, it's just not working into my life as well as I'd hoped this year.

Tuesday's errands put me within a couple of blocks of Finally Together, so I stopped to pick up the pattern for their row. This is the third location I've visited this shop at over the years and it's by far the best. They've got a ton of sample quilts to look at and a great selection of fabrics and patterns.

I resisted temptation, but just barely and only because I still have new fabric from a couple of other  shops that I haven't touched yet. And it's close enough to home that I can always go back if that panel with the owls won't get out of my imagination. 

Crawdads and My New Chair

Today's summer fun PSA -- if a crawdad clamps onto the skin between your fingers and you leap around with it dangling from your hand, it's not going to let go. What it may do is reach up and grab your hand with its other claw. Repeatedly. And if you mom, who is smart enough not to pick up the crawdads herself, had hermit crabs as pets when she was your age, she might not be too sympathetic, but will help you pry the poor creature off. 

A few weeks back, I splurged on a new toy...

This has been the best purchase. (It was more than I wanted to spend, but after looking it up online the price I paid at Costco was less than half what they're asking on Amazon.) After four trips down to the river, I'm convinced it's going to its keep.

Once the weather cools down, I'll be taking it to the park so I can find a shady spot to read my book while the boys ride their bikes. Those park benches by the playground aren't at all comfortable.

I didn't realize until we set it up that it has a cup holder and a little pocket that's perfectly sized for my phone. And two zipper pockets on the back. I can keep it packed with our smaller beach stuff and not worry about forgetting anything.

This is like the jog stroller, a purchase that I put off for way too long because I was making do just fine with what I had.  Now my sons  can spend more time looking for crawdads and I can spend more time happily knitting under the trees.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {8/4/17}

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.

Potluck Project Bag

I struggled with the placement of these fabrics. Some I adore and others are just fillers. It wouldn't be the best use of my precuts to only pull out the ones I love, not when I'm just working with 2 1/2" squares to begin with. So I fussed and fussed some more and got them all pieced into two panels.

That was the hard part. Sewing a zippered project bag is easy, even if I succumb the influence of Lier over at Ikat Bag and line it properly. And quilt the outside because if I'm playing with the fabric that's too good to cut, I should do things right. I'll like the finished bag more if it has some substance and holds its shape.

After all of that careful fabric placement and choosing the best thrifted zipper to match the yellows, can you see what I did? (Hint -- look at where the zipper is and which direction the prints are facing.) I didn't see the problem until I had the entire bag assembled and I wasn't about to rip out every seam to redo it. I keep hearing that we're not supposed to point out our mistakes, but if I can save one of you from sewing directional prints the wrong direction, I'm happy to share my embarrassment.

These Socks Aren't Exciting, but They've Been Places!

I've taken this pair in progress bowling three times and down to the river twice and I'm sure they'll have lots more adventures by the time they're done. Either they'll be filled with happy memories or I'll pull them out of the drawer years from now and have no clue where they came from or what yarn I used.




Optical Delusion by Hunter Shea

What if those X-Ray glasses that they advertised in the back of comic books were real? Martin's son got a pair, but they just make his eyes hurt. When Martin tries them on, though, they work exactly as advertised. He can actually see through clothes, and walls, and furniture. The thrill is worth a little headache, until he starts to see far more than he wanted to. Hunter Shea's Mail Order Massacres are all kinds of fun. He started with instant Sea Serpents in Just Add Water, now we've got the X-Ray Glasses and, coming in a few months, we get a nuclear submarine. I'm really enjoying this series.



The Way It Hurts by Patty Blount

What drew me to this book was the social media aspect of it, how something can suddenly go viral and spin completely out of control. And that's what I wound up liking most about the story, but it took a long time for it to get there. Elijah is putting everything he has into his band, sure that when they make it big it will solve the problems in his life. When he sees Kristen sing in her school musical, he decides that her voice is just what they're missing. The problem is that Kristen isn't into metal and doesn't want to scream for him, no matter how much he posts about it online. While the two of them are bantering back and forth with the "KrisVsEli" hashtag, each in pursuit of their own goals, they're stirring up their online fans until things become dangerous. And that's when the book really pulled me in.  For a book with absolutely no sex, there are way too many references to Eli's erections and Kristen's chest. It's a young adult novel, and it reads like one, but it was a fun read once things got interesting.



Guilty By Laura Elliot

Based on the book's description, I really thought I'd like this one.  Karl Lawson becomes the prime suspect in the disappearance of his niece, mostly due to the work of an overzealous reporter. Six years later, he has lost everything that was important to him and the reporter who did it to him is thriving. I was interested for the first third of the book, but after that it dragged on and on and I was never sure which of the two main characters I was supposed to sympathize with. (After a while, it wound up being neither.)


Disclosure -- I was provided with advance review copies by the publishers. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to iknead2knit, and  Frontier Dreams  

It's Hot and Going to Get Hotter

My daughter just messaged me that it's supposed to hit 111 degrees later this week. I'd heard that already, but the weather app on my phone has been telling me that it was only going to hit 100 and I was hoping that those other reports I was hearing were for Portland... 

Nope. I still had my phone set to Sisters weather for the quilt show. I was much happier believing that report applied to us here. And honestly by that point, hot is hot. Another ten degrees isn't going to make that much more difference.

Lately, I've been jealous of everyone else's blackberry pictures. I kept telling myself that they were someplace else, then they'd mention marionberries which are definitely a local thing.... We've got four acres overgrown with vines and until last night I hadn't seen a single ripe berry. Now I'm hoping the boys picked enough for both cobbler and a pie.

Design Wall Update

The Hawaiian quilt block is basted. The pack of Moda Candy is pieced together into what will be the front and back of a new project bag. Not spectacular, but it's progress!

{Thrift Shop Temptations} What do You Want to Rescue?

Every time I see a box of dolls like this at an estate sale, I want to scoop them up and bring them home with me. I resist the temptation, because I've got dolls like this already and mine are sooo much better. (I'll post about those later, when I've decided how I want to tell their story.) 

These ladies were at a local thrift shop last week. The price really wasn't bad at all and I may regret passing them up. Or not. Yesterday, I could have picked up a boyfriend for them....

Teenage Son tried to talk me into this sewing machine...

It smelled of musty old oil, and I convinced myself that it was missing pieces without really looking closely. For $12.50, it probably would have been worth plugging it in to see if it ran, but I don't have the space or the need for another machine...but the last time I was tempted by a machine like this one, it was fifty bucks and definitely missing pieces...

There was also another cute old machine at a different shop, that only for $7.50. I didn't even take a picture of that one. Sometimes I think the key to resisting temptation is not getting too close. There will always be more sewing machines, and more neat vintage dolls, right?

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {7/28/17}

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.

Halloween in July is Over

Look what I finished! For a ninety-nine cent thrift shop cross stitch kit, it's pretty dang cute. I'm thinking about maybe tea-dying it and adding a black ruffle around the outer edge, but for now it's done. 

The kit, which wasn't a brand I'm familiar with, only left me with one complaint. There is barely enough room for the design on that pre-made banner. I did my best to center the design and was one stitch too far for the left. Any more than that, and I wouldn't have had room for the letter H.

Other than that, the colors were pre-sorted and there was more than enough of each color.  The chart was large and easy to read unlike the chart I'm using now, which I'll tell you about in a few days.

I'm glad I decided to pick up my cross-stitching again. I'd forgotten how much fun it is.

This post is linked to Crazy Mom Quilts.

{Books and Yarn} Texture

I must've gone through my entire Ralvelry queue trying to find the perfect pattern to use with this yarn...and in the end I'm making those same lace rib socks I've made twice so far this year. But instead of doing two purl stitches between the rows of lace, I'm doing a purl-knit-purl. It's just different enough to keep me entertained, and I love the way it looks.




The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond.

Alice and Jake don't intend to join The Pact, it just sort of happens. After he says that he loves weddings, Alice invites a new client to her own upcoming celebration. Soon after that, a wooden box containing a smaller locked box is delivered to their house.  Once they return from their honeymoon, a Pact member comes and explains the significance of the gift to Jake and Alice. It's an invitation to join an elite group dedicated to strengthening the marriages of their members. What could be wrong with that? Plenty.

I absolutely loved this fast-paced thriller. It is dumb of Jake and Alice to sign on the dotted line in the first place, especially since Alice is a lawyer and doesn't take the time to read the entire contract, but real people sign up for predatory time shares and multi-level marketing companies all the time, so I was able to understand how they slipped into the group's clutches. As far as fictional married couples go, these two seem to really care about each other. They're three-dimensional characters who actually communicate with each other. Alice's background as a lawyer and Jake's background as a marriage counselor give them plenty of insight into what's right and what's very, very wrong with the group they've fallen in with. The entire book is told from Jake's point of view, so there's no bouncing back and forth between multiple characters. We know what he knows, and what Alice tells him and, except for a brief teaser at the beginning, things happen in order.



Anything But Simple by Lucinda J Miller

I picked up this one because I was curious. I enjoy the glimpses that memoirs give me into lives different from my own and I always worry that I'm breaking some unknown rule when we're shopping at the local grocery stores owned by Mennonites. Maybe, I thought, this book would help me figure out some of those rules. I came away from reading it with the thought that maybe I've been worrying about nothing. The author's life was interesting to read about and not nearly as different from my own as I would have imagined. She's open about her thought and feelings, but I never felt like she was sharing too many intimate details.



Tangible Spirits by Becki Willis

The dead stay dead. Gera Stapleton is convinced of that fact and not at all pleased to be sent to report on a murder in the ghost filled town of Jerome, Arizona. Everyone but her seems convinced that Mac, the most well known of the local spooks, is the killer.  (They also blame him for problems with the local wifi.) There's a strong romantic element to the plot that reminds me of the Harlequins I used to read and I've never been so concerned about a heroine's driving ability. Tangible Spirits combines an intriguing murder mystery with some really fascinating local legends. I'm not sure I correctly separated the real ones from the author's creations, but I definitely enjoyed having a different view of Jerome than we get when walking through the gift shops on our annual trip down to Sedona.  

Disclosure -- I was provided with advance review copies by the publishers. All opinions are my own. This post is linked to  iknead2knit, and  Frontier Dreams  

I'd Forgotten Why I Gave up on Cross Stitch Kits

I used to shy away from cross stitch kits. Given the choice, I'd always buy a pattern and floss. 

Over all the years of not stitching, I'd forgotten about that. Now that I've splurged on so many kits from that estate sale, I remember why I felt that way.  

Unlike the brand new kits I've added to my stash over the past couple of years, this one came with a bundle of unidentified floss. I'm not good at telling the difference between light lime green, dark lime green, and light green. Or light blue, royal blue, light slate blue, and dark slate blue. (And no, I'm not making those color names up, they're all in there.)

So last night I pulled up a chart to convert the Bucilla floss numbers to DMC and used my DMC color card to make sure that  I was matching the right shades to the right color names. I still wound up making some educated guesses, but I think it's close enough, especially for a sunset.

The Challenge of Working With Precuts

I enjoy working with precuts, but they can present some real challenges. 

I thought I'd use this Moda Candy bundle to make a project bag. It's been sitting in my stash for a while, too pretty to actually use in a project (or that's what I'd convinced myself because the ruler print is so absolutely perfect. Last night the solution finally hit me. Sew the squares into two panels and make a bag -- can't mess the fabric up that way, right?

I was going to divide the squares into two piles and arrange the fabrics so that the colors were evenly distributed. Once I got started, it was like a particularly vicious math problem. There are sooo many of those tiny checks. And a bunch of the prints are directional. And the whole thing just started to make my head spin.

I thought I was close to figuring it out, putting my favorite prints on one side of the bag and the others on the back...except for all of those tiny checks. Some of them even have duplicates! Looking at the pictures as I type this, I can see lots of poor choices with the fabric placement, then I think of sewing them together and keeping every square in the right order and facing the right direction and I think I'll just take the boys down to the river instead of struggling with it.

I do love the fabric collection (Moda Potluck) and could do amazing things with a jelly roll or some yardage, but these little 2 1/2" squares may be the death of me. Or may go back into my drawer of fabric that's too good to cut into.

{Estate Sale Tempations} ALL the Cross-Stitch Kits

Do you drive past garage sales because they don't have much stuff spread out on the lawn or driveway?  I do that all the time, but maybe I shouldn't. Because I never ever would have stopped at this one if I hadn't seen the Craigslist ad with a box of what looked like old cross stitch kits with "$3.00 Each" written across the front. 

And I would have never known what I missed out on. 

There were several boxes of kits. The ones for three bucks each, the ones for five bucks each (supposedly because those were more expensive kits, but I couldn't see a rhyme or reason to which was where), and the ones for fifty cents each. Those are the ones in the top picture.

In the box of five dollar kits was a plastic bag full of little kits. I could see one of the Mill Hill Halloween kits and what looked like a bunch of the smaller beaded kits. All for five dollars. (That worked out to thirty-five cents a kit, in case you're wondering.)

I looked through the boxes of three and five dollar kits and almost bought one before realizing that it was embellished cross-stitch, which isn't my style at all, and then bought the stuff from those first two pictures, all for ten dollars, and went off to do the grocery shopping.

All the way through Winco and Costco I kept thinking about the yarn. It was a dollar a skein, which is probably the least expensive way I'll ever be able to try that ruffled novelty yarn...and the sale was due to end soon, so maybe they'd be negotiable on the prices. The ad did say "Everything must go!"

When the lady saw me looking, she said I could have the yarn for two bucks if I took the whole bag. At that point, I wasn't even sure any of the ruffled stuff was left, but for two dollars I'd happily knit scarves for the library's annual mitten tree.

And then she told me that the kits were marked down to two dollars each...

Instead of asking myself what I was absolutely sure I'd get around to stitching I went through and picked out all of the kits that even sort of fit my taste. Did I mention that none of these have been opened?

The whole haul only cost me twenty-six dollars and I doubt I took half of the kits they had, not to mention whatever was there on Friday. I doubt I'll ever stitch them all, but I can always pass them along or resell them or, for what I paid, use the  fabric and  floss for something else.

As for those other sales I've driven past.... I doubt they had anything like this!

How about you? Do you judge yard sales from your car window?