Archive for the ‘Sewing’ Category

Blue

May 23, 2008

I’m not a blue person.  I have tried to like blue, but I don’t.  Well, I like denim.  I have several pairs of blue jeans and a couple of blue denim jackets, but shirts and blouses don’t work for me.  This morning, I put on a light blue cotton shirt to go walking.  I’ve had it for several years and it still looks new.  I had bought a few long sleeved cotton shirts to take to Florida when I was sent down for a week as a Subject Matter Expert.  It was February and I was suffering from “winter skin” that I needed to keep covered.  I had a very hard time finding anything and not much time to do it.  So I settled for the blue.  I tried to perk it up with one of my flamboyant pins.  I wound up going down there about four times helping to computerize training sessions.  I became known as “The Pin Lady” which is much better than “Boring Light Blue Shirt Lady”.  Every time I went  I took my gaudiest pins and no one seemed to notice anything else I was wearing.

Anyway—-my neighbor was out walking her dog at the same time we were.  She remarked at how much she liked my shirt.  I said something about giving to Goodwill or would she like it.  She said, “Yes. I’ll take it.”  So I think that I will do some cutting and sewing on it so that it will fit her better.

May 22, 2008

case coverI started on the camera case today.  I really like the speckled orange and I think I’ll line it with the tiger fabric.  It’s very soft and will help to protect the camera.  I am using leftover cut away stabilizer for interfacing.  I don’t know yet if I will close it with a button and buttonhole or use Velcro.  I hope I have the right orange thread.  If not, I probably have some variegated that will work.  I really need to get up to Dover.  Walmart doesn’t have much and the thread they carry splits and breaks.

Since we have an extra week on the mystery quilt, I thought I might make some more blocks.  That way, if I really like it, it would not be that much effort to make it bigger for our bed.  If not, I can always put it on the spare bed.  It already has orange sheets.  

Camera Case

May 20, 2008

glitzI got out a bunch of my glitzy fabric today.  My daughter asked me to make her a case for her new camera.  Jeez!!  She said to use whatever I felt like using.  Does she know what kind of visions come to mind?  She should by this time.  So, this is what I found.  What do you think? 

Rats!  I just realized that i didn’t get everything in the picture and the colors are not as bright as they really are.  The light peach is actually bright orange with silver spots.  There is some black velvet with gold trim next to the fuchsia and fuzzy purple spots on the right.  I’ll try and take another shot tomorrow, if I remember.  I have something extra to show you anyway.apres rain

The geese and geesettes have been out in troves.  Maude and Zip get so excited watching them, but they both keep their distance.   That’s eleven babies.  I wonder if they are all theirs?  This group has been coming for several days now.  I guess they like our little creek.  The ones born on the island, I see almost every morning and evening.

I’ve been making progress on my Noro socks and I’m about 2/3s through my second sleeve on the sweater.  I found the needles I need for the body.  I want to try and knit the body in the round, but I don’t know if my hands can take it.  Intarsia is much easier in the round.  I’ve been trying to catch up on my blog reading, too.  It was cooler today and too windy to knit outside.   

Not Knitting?

May 19, 2008

biscuit&winstonNot very many came to knitting group today.  There were not a whole lot there last month either.  What causes this?  I knit year round.  Not knitting is unheard of to me.  I will probably abandon my heavy wool sweater once it gets hot.  But, I still have two more pairs of socks and gloves planned and a half done vest on tiny needles that I need to get back to.  I will still be there twice a month unless something that I can’t reschedule comes along.  I can’t get together  like this for sewing.  My machine alone weighs 35 lbs.  Then there is all the other crap in order to sew.  And there is the fact that I would have to drive so far.  The poor thing should have had it’s annual physical two months ago, but that’s a 40 mile drive and I haven’t found another reason to go.  Why am I such a sourpuss?  I’ll have to think about that.  I have got a ton of pictures to download and I haven’t even felt like doing that.  I’m going to take my murder mystery and go to bed.  I can’t even find any good science fiction lately.  What’s this world coming to?  Here’s my son with his little girl.

Drunk Kitties

May 16, 2008

maud and 4 patchesWell, I’ve got things to do so this will be short again.  This is one of the days that I wouldn’t have posted if it weren’t for the fact that I said I would do it every day for a year. 

It rained during the night and all morning so we got the cats drug which is always a lot of fun.  Maude tried to get into my squares and went to sleep.

Flower Mart Day?

May 7, 2008

PeonyPeoniesNasturismI’m not sure.  It’s always on Wednesday in May.  It’s around the Washington Monument in downtown Baltimore.  I went a few times when I was little with Nanny.  She was so much fun.  We were always taking buses and streetcars.  I had no idea where I was going most of the time.  Sometimes we went shopping, but often we looked at houses.  My mother said they moved a lot when she was growing up.  Nanny made me feel special.  She taught me how to embroider and how to sew.  She often cut things out for me because she said I always looked like I was in pain.  Actually, this was true because I am left-handed and I never had a pair of right-handed scissors until I was an adult.  She also tried to teach me how to crochet right-handed, but she gave up.  I finally learned left-handed when I was in my late twenties.  Nanny loved flowers.  These pictures are for her.  I felt loved and I loved her.

Purse Progress

May 7, 2008

I only have a few more ends to weave in and then I can start felting.  I hope it still looks good when that’s done.  Every time I do something like this, I cringe until it’s done.  Also, I have never felted anything in this washer.  This one does weird things.  I had hoped to felt at my other house, but I didn’t have much time to work on it.  I love my son, but I love my new house, too.  Did I say that before?  Another senior moment. Also, I managed to complete Clue #3 this evening.  It really didn’t take long at all.  I wasn’t about to leave my machines out with Doug walking around with a paintbrush in his hand. 

 

Baby Geese

April 30, 2008

We have four new babies born on the island this year. They had seven last year. Does that mean anything? I’ll have to look.

I haven’t been able to get close enough yet. They are very protective and my cats don’t help matters any.

I have been working on the purse. I hope that it turns out the way I want it.

I only did two rows of this navy blue. It started getting really thin so I backtracked to where it was still thick and changed yarn.

I finished cutting the pieces for clue#3, but I couldn’t sew them together. Maybe tomorrow.

 

Clue #2 Finished

April 27, 2008

I finally finished them around 8PM. I did a few at a time. It’s not that I am losing interest, it’s more like there is so much that I want to do.

And now, Doug wants me to help paint. Ugh. I know that it has to be done, but I am always stuck with the detailing. Standing in one spot is so boring. I am glad he took all the wallpaper trim down. It was so ugly and she hadn’t even cleaned the wall before hand. You could see where she had something diferent before. Now the walls are completely smooth and what has been done so far looks good. It’s a happy color. When we are done, our neighbor Frank is going to install a simple crown molding. We don’t want to detract from the view out the windows. Not that much of anything would.

We are still waiting for goose babies. There has also been a fair number of shore birds at low tide lately. They like those baby fishies. I like watching them dash about on their long skinny yellow legs.

I also got the ribbing done on the second sleeve of my sweater.

My Little Girl

April 24, 2008

There are times when I wish that I really didn’t like animals. And last night was definitely one of them. Maude was gone from 1PM until 6AM. I didn’t get to sleep until after 1AM. We left the back door to the garage open a few inches and locked the door to the house. At 3:30, she still had not come home. Finally, at 6AM, she came bounding in from the garage and headed for the chow. I opened a fresh can of chicken for her. She was really hungry. I was so glad to see her and so mad at her. I told her she was a very bad girl in a very sweet voice. I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea, but I needed to say it. She does like to wander, but she always heads home when it gets dark. I bought her for her “A” personality. She does not let Zip run over her. She thinks she weights thirty pounds. I could never keep her in. She doesn’t like to be held, but she will get in your lap and she likes to petted and scratched. She’s a pistol.

Now she’s catching up on her sleep.

It was such a nice day that I sat out back and worked on my socks. I am starting the heel. I have done this heel before, but it has been a long time. Thanks to Lucy’s excellent instructions, the heel is now finished.

Here is how it looked this afternoon.

I also started sewing together my little squares and triangles.

And now, I think I’ll take my book and go to bed.