Category Archives: Embroidery

Crafty Friday

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Well, to give you some relief from the food pictures this week, and the food pictures yet to come….

The last block of the bunny quilt. Now to get it assembled and quilted, hopefully by niece’s birthday in October.

The first block of the Vortex Afghan. This is supposed to measure 17 inches, and mine measures 24 inches. Apparently I should be using a smaller hook. Oh well, not turning back now. This might be a 4-block baby blanket, not a 6 block one. These colors also look pretty scary in this picture, they are not that bad, really.

And two lazy cats, sleeping on the afghan, when I have perfectly lovely rugs/blankets/etc. on the arms of the couch for them. Yes, they do apparently know they look picturesque.

This is my list of things I am interested in, for the IA State Fair. I am not saying I am going to eat all of these things, I am saying I am interested in them….

German chocolate funnel cake, and carrot and blue sapphire funnel cakes, Chocolate Lava Cake, Deep-Fried Ho-Ho, Deep-Fried Cupcake, Mini Donuts, Apple slush, Fried Butter, FriedPineapple, Fried candy bars, pickles, twinkies, and oreos Chocolate-Covered Frozen S’more, Deep Fried Cheesecake Covered in Chocolate

Lamb sandwich, Beef Sundae, Breakfast Lamb Sausage (bratwurst), Jennie grinder, Gizmo italian beef, Cheese Curds, Crescenti, Bacon Wrapped Eggs, egg cooked in a muffin tin wrapped in bacon and covered with cheese,Turkey Tenderloin Sandwich

On A Stick: Double Bacon Corn Dogs, Deep-fried Pickle Dawg – A quarter slice kosher dill, covered in cream cheese, wrapped in ham or pastrami, dipped in batter and deep fried, Dutch Letter, Fried Pineapple on a stick (Fresh pineapple dipped in funnel cake batter and deep fried), Hot bologna on a stick, Cornbrat (bratwurst dipped in corndog batter), Meatless corn dog/fried veggies, Veggie table, Cheese On A Stick, Pastries – Dutch Letters

I Return from Sabbatical

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I have decided that every month of June shapes up like this one, I will pretty much declare myself to be on sabbatical and just post occasionally when I can. I was on travel so much, and pretty much frazzled when I WAS at home or in the office.

So: catching up on things, mostly my self-imposed or self-caused deadlines. I am done with the November bunny block, and have started on the December one. I had hoped to have that one done by tonight but other things got in the way. Plus I prefer that there be something interesting on TV to listen to while I embroider. Could have maybe finished it if we had stayed home to watch the golf tournament, but we went to the movies to see Men in Black Three instead, which was very good, way better than the 2nd one and almost as good as the 1st one.

Here is the November one. It is kind of disturbing that a herbivore is cooking up another herbivore for Thanksgiving dinner, but I guess these aren’t realistic blocks, after all the rabbit IS wearing an apron.

I also got my Color Affection Shawl done in time for the Camp Loopy (online summer knitting camp, yes I know I am nuts) deadline, and got it posted. It still needs blocking, and I have some loops that got pulled and need to be worked back in evenly, but it is done. I am not completely happy with the shape right now, but I think blocking will help that.

For my next project, I am going to crochet a baby blanket. I am going to use my “default” pattern that I use when I need a baby blanked quickly for a gift. That is not the case this time, but I do need a project that I can get done in a month and still stay sane. And we recently learned that we are going to have a new niece or nephew in late December or early January, so this will be something I can have done in advance. If I get it done in time I will enter it in the Boulder County Fair as well.

I also got in some work this weekend on the pieced quilt for the niece that just turned one. Would like to get that one done and quilted and entered in the fair, and then sent to her. I need to catch up on the baby quilts if there is going to be another baby!

My office decided to take Monday off instead of the actual 4th, so we have a three-day weekend. I am going to spend the day 1) Getting Leo the cat shaved for the summer, 2) getting the piano tuned, and 3) running errands and hopefully getting some sewing/embroidery/knitting done.

Will report on the garden and other projects later this week. Also, expect pictures of an angry but short-haired cat.

Progress Report

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I have been meeting my self-imposed deadline of finishing one bunny block per week. The June one was a little out of sync, parts of the design had not transferred well, due to my poor ironing skills, and I needed to do some tracing in a window on a sunny day. I finally got that done and got this block done by the end of last Sunday. (Good thing there was some golf to watch/listen to.) The problem with this block is the rabbit-bride had to be wearing a white dress, which is not going to show up really well on the completed quilt. I don’t suppose I had to make the church white but it seemed like the thing to do. I did make the veil a light silver color, so maybe it will show up a bit differently.

I finished the October blockthe week before, not quite on deadline, but by the end of Tuesday. I am behind on the one for this week, but hopefully will have some time on Sunday. I have a business trip tomorrow, and am taking my Camp Loopy project, the color affection shawl (picture below.) The June one also had much less detail than this October one had.

This one was kind of a pain, but it looks nice, I guess. Now I just have November and December left.

Here is the color affection shawl. Thanks to my friend Judy, I am doing it on the size of needles recommended. Usually I go down two sizes, but she is also a loose knitter, and she is knitting it on a size up from the recommended size 6 needles. I am hoping to get to the end of the 2nd section (lavender and cream stripes) by the time I get home from my trip, and carpooling to a meeting on Friday. If I get enough knitting time on the airplane, maybe I can take embroidery on the trip to the meeting. I can’t just sit in a car and ride, it is very difficult for me. I have to be reading, or knitting, or embroidering. Usually I don’t get carsick. Usually.

I watered the flowers tonight and one of the peonies lopped over and bent its stem, so I felt the need to bring it in for a bouquet. Peonies are in my top five favorite flowers, and they are blooming happily this year. I am very tempted to convert most of the upper garden to peonies. It is half peonies and bleeding hearts anyway. Maybe I will put in an additional row this year. Can’t have too many peonies, in my opinion.

After a stressful day at work and coming home to swamp cooler problems, I declared it to be a night to sit in the driveway and have a drink and watch the sun go down. It was great. I will be making that declaration more often this summer.