Estate Sales and Self Control

The pictures in this post aren't great, they're what I could quickly get with my phone. I'm still convinced that when it comes to moments like this, less-than-perfect pictures are better than no pictures.  

Because how often do you see lamps like these, still in their original setting?  

Wouldn't they go great with the tiki painting I inherited from my father's mother?

If ever a kitschy painting deserved its own light fixtures, it's this painting and those light fixtures. But neither of them is suited to our ninety-six year old farm house, so I left the lamps for someone else to love. (The painting lives in my sewing room where the rest of the family doesn't have to look at it.)

It was harder to leave behind the antique spinning wheel that had been converted into a lamp, especially after Hubby asked me if I could salvage it. It had caught my eye from the end of the driveway. I love spinning wheels the way I love treadle sewing machines, but I don't have a good spot for one that's been wired for an electric bulb and is falling apart. That poor wheel will probably never spin again, at least not well enough to turn roving into yarn. Then I realized that it wasn't thirty-five dollars, it was seventeen fifty and I started to second guess my decision to pass on it.

Someone please tell me I did the right thing by leaving it behind!

Red Hot Socks

If I'd known what pretty socks this yarn (Sock-Ease Red Hots) would make, I'd have cast on with it a long time ago! I wish this yarn came in more colors. I've used up my skein of Lemon Drop and now I'm happily knitting up my skein of Rock Candy.



The Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango sounded right up my alley.  A best-selling author wants to leave his wife for his mistress, but his wife is the one who actually wrote all of  his books....
It's an interesting story, a bit different from anything I've been reading lately. The reader is kept distant from the characters, kind of like in an episode of that old radio show, The Whisperer, and the author interrupts the story with comments addressed to the reader. I wasn't too anxious to find out what happened, maybe because of that distance.

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times.

Looking Back...

Five Years Ago This Month....

I wasn't having much fun.  I was recovering from knee surgery and the first round of blood clots. They were telling me that I hadn't followed the doctor's instructions (and I was swearing up and down that I had) and that I didn't have to worry about getting clots again in the future.

Quinn and Leif were arguing about whether or not the Creature from the Black Lagoon is a swamp monster.  Five years later, they still haven't decided.

Ten Years Ago This Month....

I was pregnant with a six-month-old and two bigger kids, packing for the move to this house, and distracting myself from the growing pile of boxes with some late night colorwork and felting. The plan was to use these same horses on a sweater for one of the boys, but they outgrew that idea before I managed to follow through on it.

I was working on a round baby blanket....wonder where that ever got to? 

One of the Reasons I'm Not Quilting Right Now

My teenager has been hogging my sewing machine. I wrote about it in this post. She wanted this dress. In the two weeks since then, she's gone from this (using the ugliest fabric in the sewing room to make a muslin and check the fit):

To this: 

That's what she did with three Walmart sheets, a zipper, and a dollar's worth of buttons. And a picture she saw online. There was no pattern.  Edited to add - She's made a tutorial for the dress, if you want to see all of the figuring that went into this creation.

I struggled to make the possum costume. And I had a pattern for half of it.  Any claims I've ever made about being able to sew clothing....I take them back. I'm going to slink back quietly into a corner with my quilts and socks now and be grateful that my biggest complaint about my teenager is that my daughter stays up until 2am working on ruffles and pin tucks.

My Ravelry Queue

I joined Ravelry back in 2007 and have been adding patterns to my queue willy-nilly ever since. At this point, there are just under 1300 projects in it.

Am I deluded enough to think I might knit them all? Nope.

Do I lose any sleep over that? Nope.

I feel a slight obligation to, at some point, knit up all of my yarn and use up all of the my fabric. But, unless I spend money on a certain pattern or buy specific materials for it, I don't worry about following through on all of my plans.

That Ravelry queue includes just about every pattern that's struck my fancy over the past eight years. Lately, I've been going through and deleting some what-was-I-thinking-of projects and some that I've actually made (those are always a nice surprise!) and some sweaters that my boys have outgrown or I've fallen out of love with. Along the way, I'm adding more than I delete, but that's okay.

I'll knit some of them. Or I won't.

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 4 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 41 yards
Net Added for 2015: 36 1/4 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 400 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 4000 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 3675 yards
Net Used for 2015:   325 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Training Socks

Lots of you have commented that you'd like to learn to knit socks.  I can't tell you how many false starts I had with my own attempts at sock knitting. I'd spent months reading books and the posts on a very prolific sock knitting group and it was all completely overwhelming. What finally worked for me was to knit a baby sock from a random pattern I found online.

I have no idea what pattern this is. About all that I do know for sure is that I finished the cuff when I was in labor and delivery being monitored for contractions. I didn't have enough yarn for a second sock, but that wasn't the point. This was practice.

In the past, my recommendation has been to try the Super Quick Baby Socks pattern. But I think I've found something better.

Kate Atherly has written a set of free patterns for "training socks" and they walk you through all of the parts of a sock. Apparently, these have been around for a while, but I just stumbled across them last week.

Training Sock - Toe Up, DPNs 
Training Sock - Top Down, DPNs
Training Sock - Toe Up, Magic Loop/2 Circulars
Training Sock - Top Down, Magic Loop/2 Circulars

These aren't full size socks, they're just practice. You make a sock that's big enough to have all of the parts, but no so big that you'll feel bad if you make a mistake and have to start over.  Assuming that you've already got some worsted weight yarn and the needles, what have you got to lose by casting on a pair?

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {6/19/15}

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.

One of My Favorite Estate Sale Finds

There are estate sales and purchases that stand out in my memory. Every time we drive to visit my parents, we pass the house where we bought the old sleeping bags that Hubby and I use when we camp, even though we've got newer fancier ones. And every time I notice that place, I smile at the memory.  

One of my favorite estate sale stories dates to long before I started blogging. It was in an old house near downtown Salem. (I couldn't tell you which house it was, but I'm guessing it was one that's been torn down to make way for office buildings.) It was one of those sales where the person had lived their for decades and the family is just trying to get rid of the accumulation. 

Up in the attic was a pile of dresses, definitely vintage, most probably dating from the fifties and sixties. With my tiny baby girl in my arms and that gorgeous stash of little dresses, all priced at twenty-five cents each, I did the only sensible thing.

I bought them all, brought them home and washed them, then hung them on the clothesline and took a picture. It's not a good picture, but this was in 1997 and I was using the cheap little 110 camera that I loved because I didn't have to learn to actually load film into it. Right now, I'm just happy that there is a picture, because it makes it possible for me to share the story.

Alex wore the dresses and added some stains and tears and they probably got donated somewhere along the line. If I found them today, I'd still buy them and wash them and hang them on the clothesline, but I might be more hesitant to wear them out.

This post is linked to Share Your Cup, Vintage Inspiration ,

{Yarn Along} Third Time's the Charm!

This is the third time I've cast on with this yarn. The first time, I thought it might pool for Judy's challenge but decided that the colors were subtle enough to deserve some texture. The second time was with an eyelet rib. It was pretty enough, but I got distracted, lost my notes to myself and forgot which stitch pattern I was using.  Instead of guessing and getting it wrong, I unraveled half a sock.

Now, I'm very glad I did because this yarn and this stitch pattern are making something absolutely wonderful. And I've almost got the sizing right.



I remember liking the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, so I happily downloaded The Truth According to Us onto my Kindle. In an attempt to teach his spoiled daughter a lesson, Layla Beck's father packs her off off to Macedonia West Virginia to work on the Federal Writer's Project. Watching Layla grow accustomed to life in the Romeyn household and learn the actual details of Macedonia's history (as opposed to the ones that the town leaders want her to include in her book) was interesting, but the book is long and moves at a very leisurely pace.

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times.

Disclosure - the publisher provided me with an ARC 

A Sewing Bird

This pattern is from one of the Workbasket inserts. The actual transfer is itty-bitty, only about two inches across. I made it twice the size so it would be easier to stitch, and to see in the finished quilt.

When I was little, we visited Grandma Dorothy, an older relative who lived alone in her tiny apartment full of antiques. My parents would sit and talk with her, talking about coins or stamps or genealogy. At least I think that was what it was -- I was sitting on the floor by a bookshelf, totally engrossed in an old book.

We didn't visit very often, but when we did I'd go straight for that spot. I can't tell you how badly I wanted to read the whole book, which was about a little girl being taught by the sewing bird. It was the most wonderful amazing fascinating thing. And I'm guessing now that none of the adults in my life ever had the slightest clue. (My own kids would ask me to write down the title of the book and check for a copy at the library. But I wasn't armed with their problem solving skills. I saw a crumbling old book that I knew I wouldn't be allowed to borrow and that was the end of that.)

As an adult, armed with the magic of Google, I figured out that the book of my dreams was the Mary Frances Sewing Book. I could read it for free online here, but I've never made the time.

Black and White and Waiting for a Border

I'm not sure at this point if I'll use the same border as the pattern that inspired this project, or another variation that I dreamed up while I was doing the piecing. Either option will work. I just felt like sewing some fabric together -- and this isn't a bad way to use up some leftovers.

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Quality Time With My Boys

The boys and I watched Sharknado 2 on Netflix Friday night. They watched. I listened and halfway watched and worked on other things. It was a lot better than the first one -- except there's a song and now it's stuck in my head. As for the boys, they're eagerly waiting for Sharknado 3, which comes out in July.

I think my favorite part of the movie might be the Parents Guide from IMDB, which included important details like -- "A shark slides down flooding hospital stairs, it then slides out the door and is run over by an ambulance." I'm so glad they warned me about that! (I love those parental guides and use them often, but I probably didn't need a detailed description of every last shark bite.)

With some time to kill on Saturday, we visited three quilt shops and a yarn shop -- and a magic shop that sold straight jackets. (No, we didn't buy one!)  I didn't see anything that needed to come home with me, but the two youngest boys had an interesting conversation with the gal at the yarn shop.

She told them that knitting is a series of repeating patterns, just like computer programming, so it would be a good thing to learn. Quinn responded by telling her that he thought it would be better to raise possums and milk them to make cheese (I have NO idea.)  Without missing a beat, the yarn shop gal told him it would be better to shave them and make yarn...  Have I mentioned how rarely I  take the boys into actual yarn and quilt shops with me?

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 4 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 41 yards
Net Added for 2015: 36 1/4 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 3600 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 3675 yards
Net Added for 2015:   75 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Little Bits of Embroidery

I've been thinking that I should do some little pieces to fill in between the bigger embroidered blocks. These two transfers, which were in  the box Janice sent, are just what I didn't know I wanted. 

I'm very happy with the dog, a little less so with the cat. Those whiskers aren't quite right. But a lot of the details in these old transfers can be puzzling.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {6/12/15}

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.

Owlie Socks

I've just finished the most intricate pair of socks I've ever tackled. (Owlie Socks by Julie Elswick Suchomel, a free Ravelry download) They have cables that go all the way down to the tips of the toes. They're top down with heel flaps, both techniques I rarely use.

There are owls on the heel flaps!

And they don't fit. All is not completely lost because they fit Teenage Daughter and she likes owls, but I hate that they don't fit. I should have made the larger size. I know that cables pull in and make things tighter. But sometimes you just plunge on knowing that you're headed down the wrong route. 

I like this pattern, but not enough to do it again right now. If I ever do make another pair of Owlie socks, I'm doing them a little bit differently. For now, I'm already halfway done with another pair of socks that I like even better and I'm sure I've tweaked the patterns just enough that they'll fit me even if they do have cables. 

This post is linked to Finish it Up Friday and Can I get a Whoop Whoop. 

{Yarn Along} Fishernetze

With the owl socks finally done, it was time to find something new and complicated to cast on. Fishernetze, a free Ravelry download, looked like it fit the bill.

Except this gorgeous combination of lace and cables isn't all that complicated. It's fun to knit, but I might be able to make this one my nightly with-other-people-in-the-room knitting, if I can find my magnetic chart keeper.

A few weeks back, Teenage Daughter and I finally got the chance to watch Big Eyes.  Both of us really liked the movie and I wanted to find out more about the story behind it so I reserved Citizen Keane: The Big Lies Behind the Big Eyes from the library. With explanations of how heavy drinking was viewed differently in the 1950s and how college courses considered suitable for women in the late 1930s differ from today, I can't figure out who the target audience of this book is. The writing style was hard to wade through and I really don't know any more than I did after watching the movie.

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times.

Today We Learned About Leeches

It's hot, so the kids and I headed down to spend the afternoon by the river.  The plan was for the boys to wear themselves out splashing in the water while I finished the book I'm reading. And that's more or less what we did for four and a half hours.

Except for the bit with the leech.

I was up to my shoulders in the water when Leif suddenly screamed "Mom, there's a leech on you!" That didn't surprise me. I was expecting that maybe I had a wet leaf stuck to my shoulder....or that he just thought it would be fun to see how high he could make me jump. Turns out that he uses the exact same tone when he's kidding as he does when a skinny green thing is actually affixed to my arm.

Do you know how to properly remove a leech?  We sure didn't. Teenage daughter tried to pull it off and it didn't really want to let go....but when you're standing in the middle of the river, proper technique isn't a high priority. She tugged harder and it came loose. I Googled it when we got home. The right way to remove a leech is to scrape it off with the edge of your fingernail.

So we'll know what to do next time. If there is a next time. We've been swimming in that river for ten years and this was our first leech. So I'm telling myself they can't be all that common, right?  And I'm wondering what blood thinners do to leeches. I don't think my little friend had had time to really attach himself properly. I'm hoping for both our sakes that he hadn't.

Everyone did go back into the water and there were no more little parasites trying for a free meal. Believe me -- we checked!

Here Kitty, Kitty!

Quick and easy, with only a handful of colors. But isn't she cute? 

This is from one on the transfers Janice sent me. I'd seen her before at Q is for Quilter, but it's awfully nice to have the actual transfer!  There's also a duck and a chick and a bunny. Wouldn't they make an adorable baby quilt?

Black and White

My idea was to make a little red and white quilt, but the black fabric left over from the nail polish quilt was just sitting there....

This post is linked to Design Wall Monday.

Weekly Stash Report

I thought about  titling this post "My Blood is Finally Runny Enough!" but figured that might creep out the readers who don't know what's been  going on with me. But my blood is finally runny enough, to the point that I can enjoy some broccoli and other yummy green stuff without too much fear of going back on the shots.

Did you know that there's a reason why pincushions are shaped like tomatoes? Linda from Buzzing and Bumbling got curious and did the research -- and then she took apart her grandmother's pin cushion to see what was hiding inside. And put it back together. Now I want a tomato pin cushion.... I wonder if there's one buried in the sewing room...

And I'm wondering how bad of an idea it would be to use Lara's tutorial to show the boys how to hypnotize frogs.

Maybe while I'm waiting for that dress to get made I should look for a pincushion and a frog...

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 2 1/4 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 4 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 41 yards
Net Added for 2015: 36 1/4 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 400 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 3600 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 3675 yards
Net Added for 2015:   75 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Teenage Daughter's New Dress

Back in 2008, I wrote a post about sharing my sewing machine with my (then) eleven-year-old daughter.  Seven years later, and I'm in the same situation again. She wants to make this dress. Her original plan was to cobble together a couple of different patterns to get what she wanted. She told me it wasn't going to be hard. 

The pattern she had planned to use had an unsatisfactory neckline, so she started over -- and drafted her own project from scratch.  (Prior to giving birth to this child, I was under the delusion that I knew how to sew clothing. Now I just stand back and watch in awe. Because she drafted her own pattern from scratch!)

She needed some expendable fabric to check the fit and design, so I let her dig around in the sewing room for the ugliest sheet she could find. I didn't know I had anything quite that ugly....I'm sure people have made real dresses out of worse, but YIKES!

Those darts and sleeves and pintucks....they all fit perfectly. And did I mention that she drafted her own pattern like it was no big deal?

I should probably mention that Alex hasn't taken any kind of sewing classes, ever. She's sewn with me and my mom and the quilt guild at church. Until a few months ago, she was too busy with other things to mess with a sewing machine very often. Then there was another dress I didn't have time to help her make and she plunged in and did it herself....and now there's THIS.

And, because this is our house, the back of her pattern pieces has what appears to be a monk shooting a scary creature out of his sleeve. Either that, or it's a pipe like in the Super Mario games.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {6/5/15}

Look - I made a baby quilt this week! This is Johnny and you and you can find all of the details in this post.

One of the things I wonder about when I'm making the baby quilts are "appropriate colors." What does that even mean? Some moms don't like pale colors that will show stains. Experts claim that bright primary colors are best for baby's developing eyes....or maybe that was a company trying to pitch their particular line of toys.

When I asked at the pregnancy center, the lady in charge told me that the moms-to-be choose their own quilts and some are thrilled with what she thought were the ugliest quilts imaginable because they were in their favorite colors. So, who knows!

What colors do you use in your baby quilts? Do you limit yourself to juvenile prints? Solids? Whatever you've got on hand?

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.

Meet Johnny!

As the thrift store scrap bags get more and more picked over, I've been telling myself that I could work my way through Bonnie Hunter's books, make a zillion fun little quilts, and probably not make much of a dent. 

Green fabric, I've got. I used a bunch of it  for Quinn's Trip Around the World, but there's still plenty left. Not that I'm trying to use it up. I like green fabric. Red, I've got. I'm hoarding every shade I can find in my stash for a couple of different projects, but I made myself part with just enough for this quilt.

The pattern is Criss Cross Applesauce, from Scraps & Shirttails II.(The book is obscenely overpriced on Amazon right now, but Bonnie is still selling it.)  I wasn't sure at first if I was making a baby quilt or a big person quilt, but after twenty-five blocks I decided that I was done. It's a fun pattern and I may try it again in different colors, but for now this is good.

While I was working on the quilt, Hubby decided that our youngest two kids might not know the story of Johnny Appleseed, so we found and watched the Disney version on youtube (voiced by Dennis Day from the old Jack Benny radio show), and got into a debate about whether it was Paul Bunyan or Pecos Bill who rode a tornado. When did they become "fakelore" instead of tall tales?

This post is linked to Needle and Thread Thursday, Finish it up Friday

Safe For Even Tiny Tots

One of the things I love best about thrift store browsing is the discoveries you can make. There are things from my childhood that I'd entirely forgotten, like the kitchen table. There are things I'd like to take home with me, like that portable phonograph. Sometimes there are things I do take home with me. 

And then there are the things I never suspected existed, like the Craft House Amazing New! Electric Styrofoam Cutter. 

I thought I'd seen most of  the weird craft gadgets from Great-Grandma's day, but this one was new to me. I still can't quite figure out what you'd do with it.  I can maybe understand why you'd cut Styrofoam, but a dedicated cutter -- who needs  that? If Great-Grandma didn't have one, it makes me wonder. She seemed to have collected everything over the years.

It's completely assembled, ready to use, and safe for even tiny tots.

Take a look at this thing. As far as I can tell, you plug it in and that wire gets hot and melts through the Styrofoam. I let my tots do all sorts of things when they were tiny, but this wouldn't have been on the list.

So, tell me -- have you ever seen one of these? Did you have one? What were you cutting Styrofoam for and was this thing any better than a kitchen knife? And does anyone else notice that I'm using the same arguments some quilters use against those die cutters I love so much?

{Yarn Along} Downton Tabby

I've got yarn I love and a pattern I love. They're not in the same projects, but I guess a knitter can't have everything. 

I can have intricate cables or pretty self striping colors, not both in the same pair of socks. I  can live with that!



I've read almost all of the Pampered Pets mystery series by Sparkle Abbey and Downton Tabby is one of my favorites. It's got all of my favorite characters and elements. Betty, with her drawn on red eyebrows, is back to help solve the mystery, and of course there's the brooch and the feud that goes along with it.

When one of Caro's office mates fails to pick up his beloved cat on time, the pet therapist fears that something is very wrong. Then she finds his business partner floating face down in a swimming pool with an electrical cord tightly tied around his neck and doesn't know what to think. Is her friend Cash the killer -- or another victim? The mystery kept me guessing until the end.

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times.

  Disclosure - The publishers provided me with ARCs.

A Mermaid!

Look who I stitched...

As soon as I started choosing patterns for the Garden Party quilt, I knew that I wanted to use the mermaids. I'd bought the transfers a few years back and put them in the steamer trunk. Of course they weren't there when I went up to get them and, even though the pattern is still available, I couldn't find a new one at any of the stores I checked.

After a year of looking, the pattern envelope turned up in a spot where I'd already looked several times. And the pattern that was supposed to be there isn't.

I think I've got gremlins in my sewing room that hide things while I'm dealing with the rest of my life.

I've got things to do!

There hasn't been any time to spend at the sewing machine lately, but I think that we might finally be settling back into something like our normal schedule. (Hubby was on vacation for the last three weeks, but we spent all of it at home so I could get my blood checked twice a week. Not the exciting plan I'd have chosen!)

Now that I can sew again, I'm trying to put together a list of what I was working on. It's not complete, but it'll get me headed in the right direction.

Alex's nail polish quilt
Alex's low volume postage stamp quilt
Heath's panel quilt with the seals and otters
Dingbats!
Lozenges
Spools

And I'm starting a new baby quilt just because I can.

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.