Eight weeks!

 

It's true. I checked my blog. It has taken me eight weeks to successfully tat Robin Perfetti's Criss Cross pattern from Four Dozen Tatted Bookmarks.

Now that I have completed it, I can't believe it took me so long. The problem? I was looking at the wrong spot on the diagram, so I didn't realize that when I reached the bottom portion of the bookmark I should have had one more pattern repeat on the second side than I had on the first side.

When did I come to this realization? It was right before I headed off to bed Tuesday evening. Of course, it took me all day Wednesday to un-tat my precious hand-dyed thread (size 20m Hakelgarn, Buttercup, from LadyShuttleMaker). I was able to finish the bookmark in about an hour this morning. 

Yes, I have made myself a note so that when I tat this beautiful pattern again, I will not have the same problem!

I can now move on to the next bookmark!

Multi-crafting

Today I finished binding all of the blocks for my quilt. Now I can concentrate on joining them together and finishing up the quilt.

I crocheted another ornament. It would be nice to figure out why mine doesn't look as crisp as the one in the video. I'm beginning to think I didn't follow the directions correctly.

Instead of exploring the crocheted version further, I went back to knitting on my circular knitting machine. I think I may stick with these. I have a lot of ornaments to cover, and I can complete six ornaments in about an hour. I'm pretty sure the crocheted ornaments take me about two hours to make one. I think I'll go with faster!

All better!

I survived my wasp sting and finger slices. Now all I have is some very small rough patches of skin, which are healing nicely thanks to some lavender salve that daughter Joanne gave me this summer. I did manage to get some crafting done, I just didn't take the time to post.

I finally finished the Curds & Whey bookmark (Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior) that I started a couple of weeks ago. This is more of the Serafil thread that I bough a while back. I have been working slowly on Robin Perfetti's Criss Cross from Four Dozen Tatted Bookmarks, but I don't want to post my progress and jinx myself!

I found this cute crocheted ornament tutorial on YouTube. I wish I had used a darker green, but I am determined to use yarn that I have in my stash. I'll keep looking for a darker green.

I've been helping the new elementary school librarian get the library set up as she likes it. I made these adorable curtains for her, and we were able to hang them last week. The blue/gray wall looks very boring to me, but I know Stefani will do her best to give it more interest. I do miss the Smoky Mountains mural that some very talented teachers painted years ago in memory of one of our teachers who died from cancer. The mural and Mara's rocking chair were part of the library for many years. Both disappeared after I retired from teaching.

I have some scraps left, and I think I'll try and come up with something cute for Stefani to use in the library.

I now have four strips of my quilt sewn together. I hope to finish up the final two strips this week.

Angela came over on Saturday to help me do some organizing upstairs. The art students are definitely going to have some fun with craft items that I no longer need!

Wasp sting

What an adventure! I was stung by a wasp after I posted on Friday. I really was minding my own business, and a wasp should not have been in the house. I was sweeping the floor when I felt something on the back of my neck. I brushed it away and didn't think any more of it. I have a long handled dust pan, and when I went to empty it I grabbed a different part of the handle. Apparently, the wasp followed me and landed on the handle... right where I grabbed it!

Boy, did that hurt! I put ice on it right away, and elevated my hand. I could not believe how much my finger swelled, and when the pain of the sting eased, it itched like crazy... for two days! I tried every remedy I could find. I wasn't taking any chances!

At the same time the wasp stung me, I managed to cut my pinky finger on a rough spot on the dust pan handle. I didn't even know there was a rough spot!

Distraction is the best medicine for me, so I cranked out some more Christmas ornaments. With an injured middle finger and pinky finger on my right hand, and injured thumb on my left hand, tatting was not an option.

Oh, did I mention that I accidentally grabbed my thread snips by the sharp end and sliced my thumb? I think I was meant to take a rest from crafting.

I did manage to sew the next two strips of my quilt together. I think I'll work on sewing the two strips of two together before moving on to the last pair.

Mom keeps saying that life is an adventure, and I think she's right!

Remembering to post

With changes to my daily routine, I have been forgetting to post!

Reaching into a plastic box to retrieve ornaments was annoying, so I pulled out what was left and put them in this fabric bin for easy access. As you can see, I've chosen red for the next group of ornaments. It has a nice silver thread running through it for added sparkle. I plan on finishing up this group of ornaments over the weekend.

Stitching the first two rows of my quilt together took two evenings. I can usually sew the rows together in one evening, but the t.v. show we were watching really caught my interest, so I kept stopping to watch what was happening on the screen. The funny thing is, I can't remember the name of the show or what it was about!

Two more blocks are bound. I kind of lost my rhythm for accomplishing things with volunteering at the elementary school library. If I hadn't volunteered, I really think I would have finished this quilt a week ago. Luckily, I'm not on a deadline!

Mission accomplished!

Stefani and I were able to finish getting the elementary library books in order yesterday. What a feeling of accomplishment! Now I can get back to my "normal" retirement routine.

Angela came over Saturday morning and put together the second storage unit for me. Sunday afternoon, I spent time going through a couple of boxes of supplies, deciding which to keep and which were no longer needed. The two little storage cabinets are coming in quite handy.

There was no school on Monday because of Labor Day, so I really expected to get a lot done. I did not. Angela came over for a sewing lesson, which was lots of fun. Moving things around to make room for the new storage cabinets inspired me to stop looking at half finished projects and start working on them. 

Last year, I really enjoyed making knit Christmas ornaments on my 22 pin circular knitting machine. I have quite a bit of Christmas colored yarn in my stash, as well as the 3 1/2" ornaments that I bought on clearance. 

Monday afternoon I rewatched the YouTube video on how to make these ornaments, and then I made it my goal to use up what was left of the green yarn. That, of course, led to using up the little bit of red and the little bit of multi-color. The result was ten ornaments finished for Christmas gift giving!

 

Baby steps

I feel like I was taking baby steps with crafting this week. I've been volunteering at the elementary school library for the past two weeks, and I will probably be there for all of the upcoming week. I'm helping the new librarian reorganize the library. It's turning out to be a much bigger job than either of us anticipated!

As a result, I'm too tired to do much of anything when I get home... a ring and a chain here and there, five minutes at the sewing machine, ten minutes of reorganizing at home... I'm looking forward to getting back into a normal school year routine of leaving the house around 10:30 and arriving back home around 1:30.

One of the high school girls is saving money to buy a sewing machine. When I heard what she was doing, I asked if she'd like to help me organize my craft supplies, something I've been working on for years without much success. She came over Friday afternoon and put together this seven drawer storage cabinet for me. It's a great size for my craft supplies, and I have two great spots where it will be useful. I may have to order another!

Dave's sister gave daughter Carol her chair that she was given as a young girl. The fabric was well worn, and the chair needed some tender loving care. Carol went on a fabric hunt and found some beautiful vintage fabric from the 1930s on Etsy. Even with the extremely high shipping cost, the fabric was less expensive than any fabrics she found in upholstery shops in our area. 

We were surprised at the similarities between the two fabrics. Carol is holding a piece of the old fabric that the upholsterer was able to salvage.

The chair looks great in Carol's bedroom! So, my Saturday adventure was picking up Carol's chair. It doesn't sound like much, but it's a half hour drive to Carol's house and another hour to the upholstery shop.  That makes a total of three hours driving time for me. I didn't mind. I find it easy to talk with all of my daughters, and that always makes the time fly by.

I recently watched a YouTube video on turning a sweatshirt into a patchwork jacket. I followed the directions for cutting apart the sweatshirt earlier in the week, and I chose the fabric that I wanted to use. Yesterday afternoon I cut my fabric strips into the size rectangles I wanted. My plan was to also bind more blocks for my quilt, but I ran out of energy.

I'm making slow progress on my latest Curds & Whey bookmark from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. 

Dave is heading out to help a friend today, so maybe I'll have some time to make good progress on my projects. I want to accomplish as much as I can today and tomorrow, because I know that crafting time will be sparse in the coming week!

Starting the second strip

 

There wasn't much time for crafting today, but I did manage to bind two blocks and join them together. This week is proving to be a very busy one, so I don't expect to get much done. Still, any progress is good progress!

First strip

 

Last night I sewed the first strip together for my current quilt. I meant to bind more blocks this today, but it didn't happen. Instead, I volunteered at the elementary school in the morning, did my lunch duty, and then went grocery shopping with Mom. It was a busy day!

Bookmark and quilt blocks

 

Today I gave Serafil another try, and I'm glad I did. Maybe it was a difference in my attitude, but this Curds & Whey bookmark tatted up beautifully. The thread is color #156.

I spent the afternoon binding the quilt blocks for the first row of my new quilt. It took me a while to settle on which fabric to use for the binding. My choice was this soft gray or a tone on tone white fabric. The white seemed to stark to me. I'm glad I went with the gray!

Busy Saturday

 

I forgot to post yesterday that I finished quilting the blocks for my new quilt. I know I opened my computer, but I must have been distracted by something. That seems to happen a lot these days!

This morning I finished reading The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier, the story of a glass making family in Murano, Italy. The story was interesting but a bit bizarre. The family ages normally, but they skip through time. Everyone else in the world stays on a normal timeline. The story starts over five hundred years ago, and ends after the 2020 pandemic. It was interesting, but not something I would read again. I do plan on reading at least one more book by this author with the hope that everything happens in one time frame!

Tollway Tatters met this morning. We had a nice sized group, and I managed to tat a Curds & Whey bookmark from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. Since I used larger picots than I have been lately, my three mistakes are pretty well hidden.

We talked about tatting with polyester thread and King Tut. I've decided I'll give the Serafil another try, and I'm really tempted to start a hanky edging in King Tut. Getting together with other tatters sets my mind spinning with ideas!

I squared up all of my quilt blocks this afternoon, and then I arranged the layout for my quilt. This one will be a little smaller than my last one, only 30 blocks, 5 across and 6 down. 

I've decided that I will machine stitch the binding, but hand stitch the blocks together. I need something that will keep me awake when Dave and I watch t.v. at night!

Half way there!

 

My allergies were really bothering me today, so I didn't feel like doing much of anything. I did take some time to quilt this afternoon, and I was surprised when I checked my progress to find that I have half of my blocks quilted. Yay!

13

 

I wasn't quite as tired when I returned home from school today, so I did some quilting. 13 blocks are quilted with 19 to go.

Tatting didn't happen last night. My hands just didn't want to work with shuttles and thread. I think they might have been protesting the number of books I've been moving around the past few days!

Back on track

I was exhausted when I got home from school. The beginning of the year gets tougher every year. I took a nap, something I rarely do, and then I headed for my sewing machine.

I'm keeping the quilting design very simple for these blocks.

The fabrics are so busy that I think anything more complex would be lost. 

Tonight I'll see if I can focus on some tatting!

Nothing to post

Thursday and Friday were filled with back-to-school activities.

We had a staff breakfast on Thursday, followed by a district wide staff meeting. I didn't have any other meetings to attend, so I headed home until lunchtime. Our district has been very generous with providing breakfast and lunch on that first day back. After lunch, we had another brief meeting. Then, I was able to head home to work on my online training sessions.

While watching my training sessions, I managed to knit three dishcloths. I had 14 to complete, ranging from 15 to 25 minutes each. I had until January to complete them, but I like to get them out of the way so that I don't forget about them! No, I didn't get them done in one day. I worked in spurts through Sunday.

Friday morning, I helped the new elementary librarian work on setting up the library. In the afternoon, Dave and I helped daughter Carol move Drama Club supplies back into their designated areas. There was renovation work done over the summer, and everything had to be moved out for the work to be accomplished. Naturally, it all had to be moved back!

Saturday and Sunday, all of my free time was spent making beaded pens for the middle school and high school students. Nothing new there.

Today, I'm heading in early to help the new elementary librarian. After that, I'm headed in for lunch duty. I hope to get some crafting done this afternoon. Making beaded pens was fun, but I'm done with that!

Blocks

 

Yesterday was so busy, I forgot to post on my blog! I finished sewing the last three strip sets in the morning. The next step was to cut the strips into 10" squares. After that, I layered the blocks with batting and batting so that they're all ready for quilting.

My math skills are not the best, but I knew something was off with my squares. I should have had an inch or two left after cutting each strip set into squares.

It wasn't until I was stacking the blocks in layers that I realized I had cut the squares at 10.5". I'll have to do some trimming before I start the actual quilting.

We have back-to-school meetings this morning. I should be finished around 10 a.m., but the full-time staff members will be working all day. Monday is the first day of school. We're starting about a week later than usual because of improvements being made at the elementary school over the summer. I'm really looking forward to my daily strolls around the cafeteria!

Starting over

 

I finally gave up on my Criss Cross bookmark over the weekend. I must have taken out the stitches on the end eight or nine times. I never did figure out what I was doing wrong. I finally snipped the threads and decided to start over.

My sister Janet loves rescuing bits and pieces that Mom and I have decided to discard. I'm not sure what she does with them, but she's welcome to all of my mistakes!

I started over using the same thread as my mistake piece, size 20 Hakelgarn, hand-dyed Buttercup from LadyShuttleMaker. I'm taking it slowly with the hope that I tat everything correctly this time around!

Last night, I sorted my jelly roll strips into eight groups of five.

The pattern that Joanne and I are following has the strips going from dark to light.

In the pattern, the fabric strips are a gradation from dark to light in shades of gray and brown.

My jelly roll doesn't have the same type of shading, so I just sorted them the way I thought they looked best.

I managed to sew together five of the eight strip sets before calling it quits for the day.

Tomorrow, I hope to finish sewing together the strip sets. Maybe I'll even start cutting them into 10" blocks!

Finished!

 

I finished my four patch pot holder quilt today! I am so pleased with the way it turned out. 

Note: Mom asked, so I looked it up. I started this July 20.

Again, I love the way the different quilting patterns show up on the back.

After dinner, I laid out the strips for my next quilt. Daughter Joanne and I are going to make the same quilt pattern. She organized her strips last week. I'm not sure when we will actually start, but at least I'm at the same point as Joanne.

Tonight... back to tatting!

Break

We had a break in the weather today... no rain! Unfortunately, we have a chance of rain every day this week. As long as we don't have any more storms for a while, I can handle more rain.

For tatting, I decided to stick with Curds & Whey from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. I decided to try some Serafil thread that I purchased several years ago. Tatting with polyester thread is not as enjoyable as working with cotton thread. I found it harder to close my rings and keep them closed. As pretty as this thread is, I think I'll save it for something else.

My sister came to visit this weekend. While she worked on making Christmas ornaments, I worked on my four patch quilt, I was inspired to keep working after seeing the four strips sewn together.

Since we were having so much fun crafting, I finished another strip. I have two more to complete, and then I will be able to finish the quilt.

As for Janet, she finished six ornaments this weekend. I wish I had taken pictures!

Thunder storms

We have had thunderstorms every day this week, not as wild as Tuesday, but enough to keep me off of my computer!

Dave has been busy cleaning up branches that fell during Tuesday's storm. There was so much more than I initially thought. Luckily, we had no other damage.

We're expecting more rain soon, so I thought I'd get a quick post in before shutting down my computer.

I finished another Curds & Whey bookmark from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. This one is in size 20 Lizbeth #180 Honey Drizzle.

Between storms, I managed to sew together the first two strips of my four patch pot holder quilt.

Yesterday, I managed to sew together the third strip. 

We're expecting more rain soon, so I'll be signing off. Hopefully, there will be some clear time this afternoon!