{Yarn Along} A Bit of Halloween Knitting

My goal, which I made before I knew how soon I was going to have surgery, was to finish the September Scare socks before the first Scary Sock pattern was released. I got the socks done with hours to spare and when the first pattern, for a pair of socks based on Stranger Things, was released I pulled out some appropriate yarn. And then I procrastinated because I was too stressed to learn a new technique (the jogless jog) and I wasn't sure which size I should make and I was just feeling spectacularly unmotivated.

Then there were only a couple of days left until the next pattern so I decided to hold off and see which of the two I was more inspired by. Those white blobs are a bit of Halloween knitting from my Ravelry queue that may or may not come together as planned.

Monday night, the second pattern was released. It's based on The Birds and has spiralling feathers and is looking a lot more tempting. But it's cuff down and I'm still not feeling all that motivated to cast on sixty-some stitches and join without twisting.

I spent the first couple of days after my surgery curled up with a stack of library books.

The Obsession by Nora Roberts had been renewed and renewed again and returned and checked out and renewed....I wanted to read it but there was always something else I needed/wanted to start first. I'm glad I kept this copy at home until the time was right. There are two stories here -- the one that starts the night Naomi follows her father into the woods and opens a locked root cellar where she discovers the woman he's been holding captive, and the one where Naomi has grown up, become a successful photographer, and is renovating a neglected old house.  I was immediately pulled into the first half of the book, but it took me some time to warm up to grown up Naomi. The book is a romantic suspense and not nearly as dark as the other stuff I've been reading these days.

The Shut Eye by Belinda Bauer starts with five footprints that a four-year-old left in wet cement moments before he disappeared without a trace. Hoping for answers that the police can't provide, his mother turns to a psychic who refuses to help. There's a lot going on here and I'm not sure it all tied together well.

Halfway through End of Watch I'm not enjoying it as much as I did Finders Keepers.

Disclosure -- The books are from the library. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, Yarn Along,  

{Thrift Shop Temptations} Now I Want a Toy Iron

The sun is shining and I needed stuff to make dinner and wasn't in too much of a rush to finally stop at the thrift shop I've been driving past for months. Here in our small town it looks like the line between "thrift store" and "antique mall" and "video rental store that also sells random crap"

is very blurred. 

There was some pretty eye  candy to be found in the antique mall and now I've got a sudden urge to buy myself a toy iron. It might have been this toy iron, except for that chipped horse head. 

I remember having a toy iron and ironing board when I was little, and I remember Grandpa clipping off the electrical prongs. Which makes me both wonder if it was at one point a functional iron and wish that we'd hung onto it. The ironing board was around forever and might possibly be in my attic, but the iron is long gone.

This antique quilt was in absolutely awful condition, but that pink sashing and border pulled me across the room to take a look at it. I didn't want to unfold it to get a look a the whole thing, not when I was in no way interested in becoming its next owner, but I had to get a picture of that wide scalloped border.

Some  days, you just need some pretty vintage eye candy to make the world seem happier.

Life Gave Me Another Spider...

I've been wrestling with this post, trying to decide what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. Then I went outside for a minute and life gave me another spider, one that's even better than the last spider it sent to cheer me up.

This guy was lurking outside my sewing room door. He's huge! I'm not a big fan of spiders, especially not big scary looking spiders, but he's outside doing his spider thing and that's fine with me. Then I moved the door and he scuttled across his web to hide under a big leaf that was stuck there.

Because, apparently I'm the scary one. When I went back outside with the camera, he tried to hide behind the siding. Do spiders have issues with anxiety?

I had the procedure on Thursday. It wasn't a hysterectomy, it was a uterine ablation, which is drastic enough for me  at this point.

When I started taking Warfarin my usually light periods got heavy. When they switched me to Xarelto back in February, those heavy periods got downright scary. I mentioned it to the GP, and to the gynecologist, and the hematologist....and no one paid much attention except to give me the standard guidelines for when to head to the emergency room.

And this is the part where I'm going to jump up and down in praise of doing online research. It turns out I've been losing a lot of blood over the past eight months -- I knew that and told my doctors that, but I wasn't using the right details to describe it. I'll spare you those, except to tell you if you think your doctor is ignoring you there are some sites that explain how to go from "a lot" to an actual measurement. Once I had actual measurements, the doctor's reaction changed  from "that's just the blood thinners" to "we need to deal with this."

It's too soon to know if the ablation will be effective, or how effective it will be, but at least I survived the procedure itself!

Scary Sock Yarn

My sock yarn stash lives here and there and everywhere. Not really...but it's not all in one convenient place.

The sock yarn I want to knit next lives in a cute little suitcase that I inherited from Grandma. The Fabel takes up its own hat box, and there's are another two or three hat boxes out in the sewing room....and a Rubbermaid tub of the sock yarn that won't fit in the pretty boxes.

It's not a bad situation. Over the past couple of years, I've learned that, even when I'm not intending to, I knit a lot of socks. Fifty-four pairs just in the three years since the accident. (And no, I don't need that many pairs or wear them all and I don't care.) Almost all of my yarn stash was purchased on sale and having it lets me participate in fun things like Sock Madness and the Super Scary Sock knitalong.  Or to just knit and knit and knit when I'm feeling stressed.

Before my surgery last week, I rummaged through my sock yarn stash to remind myself what was in there and pull out a few skeins that might or might not be suitable for the upcoming Scary Socks. Surgery went well, but I'm taking it easy for a couple of days.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 7 1/4 yards
Fabric added this week:  0 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 29 1/4 yards (+2 sheets)
Net added for 2016: 22 yards

Yarn used this Week: 0  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 5900 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 9118 yards
Net added for 2016: 3218 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Skeleton Clothes Pin Fingers

This project, inspired by a tutorial over on I Gotta Create! was on my to-do list for last Halloween, but I ran out of October too quickly.  This year I'm determined to tackle my Pinterest board and do some of the things that are actually possible (as opposed to the ones that are just drool-worthy)

If you've seen my kitchen pictures, you'll know that I'm not a fan of crackle paint effects, especially when it's red and inside of my cabinets and drawers, but I can appreciate it on this project.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {10/7/16}

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} Halloween Stitching

I'm too cheap to have things professionally framed, so most of the pieces that I've stitched are tucked away in my sewing room waiting for me to come up with a more practical solution. Last year, I tried to find these so I could add fabric borders, but they managed to avoid me until Summer and by then it was too late. 

This year, I'm thinking of just tacking them up on the wall as-is so I can enjoy them. 

Spooky Row by Bent Creek 

 Three Gables by Cross Eyed Cricket 

I almost never stitched with the specialty threads a pattern called for, but I loved  these two projects enough to splurge on supplies and to actually stitch them.

{I've Been Reading} A Memory of Muskets

Last September, I told you abut Death on the Prairie, a cozy mystery that I loved because so much of the plot involved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to get my hands on an advance review copy of the latest book in the Chloe Ellefson mystery series.  Go order yourself a copy of A Memory of Muskets by Kathleen Ernst. It is absolutely amazing! Seriously -- I finished the book at 1am and had to convince myself that immediately buying a copy of the first book and downloading it onto my Kindle might not be the best idea, but only because I had to be up in a few hours.

An unidentified man in a civil war uniform is found on the grounds of Old World Wisconsin. He doesn't belong to either of the groups involved in the reenactment that Chloe is helping to organize, but his clothes and belongings suggest that he's devoted to "the hobby." The mystery kept me guessing until the very end (my best guess was time traveler and I knew that couldn't possibly be it!) and the solution, when it came, made absolute sense.  To complicate matters further, Chloe is unable to enter the cabin on her boyfriend Roelke's family farm. The building that is supposed to be her private sanctuary fills her with a dark and heavy sense of dread. She can't explain the problem to Roelke, but she also can't bring herself to enter the building.



When I saw that Emma Donoghue had a new book out, I couldn't wait to read it. The Wonder is nothing at all like Room, but I loved it just as much. Lib Wright, a widowed nurse trained by Miss Nightingale herself, is sent to Ireland to keep watch over an eleven-year-old girl who has survived for the past four months on nothing but manna from heaven.  I had to warm up to Lib, who is very sure of her professional training and has no patience at all for the girl's family or what she sees as their backwards ways. Surrounded by those who are sure that Anna is a living miracle, Lib refuses to believe in even the possibility that such a thing could be true and sets out to discover who is sneaking the girl nourishment. The pacing is a bit slow and it took me a a while to get through the book, but it was definitely worth reading.



Author Julie Prentice and her family are glad for a new home and a new start, far away from the stalker who plagued her. She wasn't counting on the overzealous head of the homeowners association and the endless rules and regulations. When the harassment begins again, can't be sure if her stalker has found her or if it's a member of her own neighborhood.  The story is told from two different points of view and alternates between the past and present. More than once I lost track of who and when and had to flip back a few pages to get myself re-oriented. There's been a tragedy and, in the present, witnessed are testifying before the Grand Jury but it isn't until almost the last page that we find out who the victim of the tragedy was. By the very end, I feel like the author was almost doing backflips to keep the identity secret for just a bit longer. Although I wasn't satisfied with the resolution, I did enjoy the read to get there. The characters feel like real people and it's easy to care what happens to them.

Disclosure -- I was provided with advance review copies by the publishers. 

Vinyl Zipper Bag

I've wanted to try sewing with clear vinyl for a long time now, but never took the plunge and bought any of it.  The more I look at zipper ideas on Pinterest, the more intriguing possibilities I stumble across.

I had enough advance notice before I lost my car last week to pick up a yard of the vinyl and decided to see if I could pull this project off without a teflon presser foot. It turns out that I could, since all of my sewing was through the fabric on the outside of the vinyl. The most fiddly part of the whole thing was making my own bias tape.

This is a mish-mash of a few different tutorials.  I'm not happy with all of  the little details, but I'll be giving it another try soon.

This post is linked to  Bag It over at Elm Street Quilts. 

Storing My Triangles

I think TheEclecticAbuela was probably kidding when she said I could store my triangles in my Triangle Bag, but it's really the best idea ever!

I want to make Stairsteps by Jo of Jo's Country Junction. It calls for about a zillion 1 1/2" hsts. I've been doing them as leaders and enders when I work on things like the Be My Neighbor blocks and, knowing me, I will lose track of a bunch of them.

So I'm putting them in baggies in my triangle bag. One for unsewn triangles and one for the sewn ones. And, when I get around to doing some pressing and trimming, I'll probably need a third bag.

This post is linked to Patchwork Times. 

{To Good To Cut} Halloween Fabric

The week before last, the alternator in Teenage Daughter's car went out and she used the van while her car was in the shop. Which was fine. We picked it up and on the drive home Hubby realized that a wheel bearing had gone bad so it sat in our driveway for a few days and then at the mechanic's place for another week. Which was okay.  Friday, they called and the other wheel bearing is bad (but they couldn't tell it was making noise until they replaced the first one.) The boys and I have plenty to do here at the house, but this is starting to get a bit old. If I really want to go someplace, I'll have to drive either my daughter or husband to work and then pick them up, which means a couple of extra hours on the road. I'm not that desperate yet.  

And as if the car wasn't enough fun, I'm having surgery on Thursday. It should make my life much better, but that's what they told me about the knee surgery so I'm a little stressed and the hormones they've got me taking don't seem to be helping matters any. Neither does the fact that they changed the date on me. (I'm completely sympathetic to the patient who needs the emergency hysterectomy and I'll gladly give up my place on the schedule for her, but I wish they'd told me about the change before we went through so much hassle with my husband's employer to get him off the schedule for that day.)   

Except for a yard of clear vinyl that I picked up at Walmart with the groceries, I'm not buying fabric. Instead I'm going through my stash and deciding what I'm excited about. 

Halloween fabric is almost always exciting....

I think the one on the right is going to be the backing for Hocuspocusville (at least that was the plan when I ordered it a few years back), have no plan for the ones in the middle, and am trying to decide whether to applique those potion bottles on a bookshelf quilt.

The boys need bags for carrying library books that aren't feminine or babyish and this zombie drive in print that I found at one of the shops we visited while we were collecting Row by Row patterns has got to be the most non-girly cut of fabric on the face of the Earth! Just one problem....I think when I finish the bag I'm going to want to keep it for myself. Same with the movie posters.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 3/4 yards
Fabric used year to date: 7 1/4 yards
Fabric added this week:  0 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 29 1/4 yards (+2 sheets)
Net added for 2016: 22 yards

Yarn used this Week: 400  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 5900 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 9118 yards
Net added for 2016: 3218 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

September Scare Socks

Pattern: Jack or Not

Yarn: Knitpicks Stroll  

It took me a full month, but I got the pair done before the first Supper Sock Scarefest pattern was released. I'm a little surprised by that, and very happy!

As I type this on Friday afternoon, there are at least seven hours to go until the next pattern is released. So now I'm on pins and needles, waiting to see if the socks are based on a horror movie that I actually like. Last year I couldn't bring myself to knit Babadook socks. I didn't enjoy the movie and I don't do much colorwork. But I did do The Fly and The Wicker Socks and a couple of pairs from earlier years.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {9/30/16}

How many baby quilts can I back with a four yard length of polar bear fabric? So far, the total seems to be three with the possibility of one more.

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.

Vintage Blackboard Quilt

I'm not usually a fan of anything that's too school-ish, especially not flashcards, but it was love at first sight when I saw this novelty print. For years it sat in my "too good to cut" stash. I used a little bit for a bag that didn't turn out at all well, then a bigger piece for a rice bag. Seeing the way it looks when I cut it for the rice bag made me decide that the busy novelty print would be great as a wide border.

But a wide border for what? I couldn't decide until I saw an Irish Chain quilt that someone had made with a black background. That made me think of chalkboards...and then I found this fabric in my stash. It was intended for a different project, but with its dusty black color and the paler flecks it was the perfect background. That other project will have to use something else. 

I didn't write down the measurements I used, but the nine patch blocks seem to measure 1 3/4" and the finished quilt is 16" x 21"ish.   don't measure tiny blocks after you quilt them - it's not even remotely accurate.  

I'm loving this little quilt so much that it's currently hanging over my sewing machine in the space that Strawberry Fields had been in since 2011. I'm always pinning little blocks up there and I figure this one is better suited to be a sort-of bulliten board. 

Going back to the picture at the top of the post, the bell belonged to Great Aunt Molly, who taught at a girls' boarding school.  I'm told that she used it in her classroom. The Bobbsey Twins books are from the library bookstore where I scored a huge stack of them for fifty cents a piece. I was never a big fan of that series, but I couldn't leave them behind...not at that price. And once Grandma saw them and told me those were the ones she'd read as a girl, there was no way I was going to part with them!

This post is linked to Crazy Mom Quilts

There's Hope...

If I knit quickly, I may be able to get my September Scare socks done before the first Super Sock Scarefest pattern is released next week.  Last year, I only managed to finish two pairs -- neither of them within the deadlines. This year, I hope I can do better.




The thing I loved best about You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott was the author's voice, which was like watching a crime drama with a dispassionate narrator explaining what led up to the tragedy and its aftermath. I still felt close to the characters, maybe because the entire book focuses on one woman, the mother of an elite young gymnast, and she's not hiding anything from the reader as she figures out the ugly truth. If you're looking for a thriller that isn't too far-fetched, this one may be for you.

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  

Because I've Got Fabric With Polar Bears on It...

I had four yards of fabric with polar bears on it and one finished blue baby quilt top. So I made a second top. That left me with enough fabric to back a third blue baby quilt, so I pieced another top. 

The pattern is Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips Around the World. To keep the quilt symmetrical and baby-quilt sized, I used 2" strips.

Aside from laying out the strips to see if any of my blues were oddly glaring, I let the colors fall randomly. Am I the only one who sews the blocks together and then waits until the light is good for picture taking to actually look at the finished quilt?

The backing and batting is cut to size and I've got just enough fabric for one more quilt, as long as I keep it small and/or piece the backing a bit.

I've got to admit that I'm not a fan of this fabric, but it's quilt shop quality and suitable  for babies and - at probably fifty cents a yard - it was definitely the right price!

Be My Neighbor

I love, love, love quilts with houses on them but -- except for that single red schoolhouse block -- I haven't made a house quilt yet.  I've got patterns. Lots and lots of patterns. But there's always been something else to do first.

Last week, I stumbled across the Moda Be My Neighbor Pattern Club and printed the first two patterns. And then I actually got a few quality hours with my sewing machine...

These blocks are HUGE. I know, the measurements are right there on the pattern, but my brain wasn't quilt processing how big an 18" block actually would be. I rarely work with pieces this big and, after making these first two blocks I don't plan on changing my ways.

What this quilt really has going for it, besides houses, is that I can make it with my existing fabric stash and it'll be a great utility quilt when it's done.

This post is linked to Patchwork Times. 

Halloween Supplies

Have you seen the Halloween Haul videos on YouTube?  I discovered them last week and I'm absolutely fascinated.  What struck me most is the difference between those videos and my own trip to the Dollar Tree for seasonal supplies. None of my stuff looks like Halloween -- yet.

It's easier for me to justify the purchase when I'm making something, not just hanging something ready made on the wall.

The bigger part of the haul, which I didn't take a picture of, was the supplies for baking. I've got a working oven this year, cranberries are back on the menu, and I'm determined to bake all of the wonderful yummy things, starting with Homemade Maple Pecan Cranberry Granola.

My boys love granola for breakfast (we get ours from the bulk section at Winco), but I've never tried making it. This is definitely a recipe we'll use again.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 6 1/2 yards
Fabric added this week:  0 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 29 1/4 yards (+2 sheets)
Net added for 2016: 22 3/4 yards

Yarn used this Week: 0  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 5500 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 9118 yards
Net added for 2016: 3618 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Messy Fun With the Boys

The plan was to make Galaxy Playdough, but after I tracked down the glitter and the black food coloring and read the instructions again, I realized that I do not have the patience to go back to the store for cream of tartar or to cook playdough on the stove....so we used our usual glue/water/borax mix and added the food coloring and glitter to that.

I do the measuring, the boys do the mixing, and I don't get bluish green hands. And once the slime is mixed it's an outdoor experience to keep it far away from quilts and carpet and couches. We're all happier with that system!

I'm linking up with WFMW at Giving Up on Perfect.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {9/23/16}

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.