Some Assembly Required!

 

What?? Is going on here?!!  

Hopefully, I can keep up with this mess!

Definitely looks confusing!! all it takes is some assembly required—and a brain that will keep things straight. 

Attention! Please! 

There are four different projects ongoing here—when you have everything cut and ready to sew, why stop sewing on one project especially when you can sew one after the other??

It’s called leader-ender!

There are the 1/2 squares that are borders for Peaceful Paths--red and white.

Then there are the pieces for the Heart Quilt—it is slow work cutting 1.5” strips and sub cutting into 2.5” sections

The turkey squares will make a nice table runner.  I was gifted Dresden pieces—didn’t know what to do with them , finally settled on turkeys! The center pieces were from a panel fabric, just perfect for a fall runner

While cleaning out a basket, I came cross the squares - side pieces—all that was needed was center 4.5” square—patriotic top for sure

In the bin was this!! More small pieces!  

Onward we go as we do “ leader-ender” sewing! 

 

Sundry Items

The days dwindle by--seems like yesterday we were in January and look up--here it is mid March!!

We all seem to say "where did the time go?"

I know where our time went--keeping good thoughts for baby JD, his mom and dad, my mother, our daughter who was in hospital for 10 days and friends who are on a different life path.

Yes, each day dwindles down to a precious few minutes we can cherish.  

I must tell you about a young man we met--he came to look at our HVAC unit (sad--but, it needs to be replaced--unhappy face!)  Anyway, he told us of his family event, which wasn't extreme but it was unfortunate--It was time to share!  and share we did!  We both put our faith in the good Lord!  That's how we make it through each and every day!! It was a chance to celebrate our trust in God! 

 Remarkable--how HE puts the words in our mouths to say what is needed in those times !

Anyway, that was an aside to this blog!

The Lucky One sponsored by Fort Worth Fabric Studio has posted the second clue to the mystery--

I'm excited that this will be a table runner!!

The clue was easy peazy!  I used greens from my stash!  This is the start of year long project--Brown headed daughter has always requested table runners--I'm on the first one for the year!!  YAY!

I'm stacking up the blocks for Pat Sloan's Childhood Memories Quilt along.

She has plenty of others to keep your attention

Another one bites the dust from Sewcialities 2  from Fat Quarter Shop Jolly Jabber,  I try to keep up to date with these blocks as they drop each week, but so far I'm behind two weeks. This will be patriotic top.

Peaceful Pathways Anew!

Peaceful Pathways have been renewed!  

I've been looking at this plastic bin sitting in my stack of many plastic bins--I can see some red fabric and white fabric.  How long has it been sitting there?  Oh, ages, I'm sure--at least since 2011 or before.

Opening the bin, I find a partial top--Hence, Peaceful Pathways by Esther Aliu.  At one time, I was a member of her BOM club.  She is the most awesome designer of lovely quilts!  Her work is beyond my scope of expertise for sure.  

But, this one BOM captured my fancy! 

Yes, I want to make this!  It had embroidery and piecework--that would be fun to do!

You can guess what happen though--yelp! I ran out of interest--

Opening the bin, I found I had all the embroidery pieces and some of the piecework along with the instructions.  And look!  how many 2.5" half square triangles were finished??

Seemed to me, most of the hard part was done so

all it took was to open the box and renew my desire to finish

Peaceful Pathways

Why not?!!  We had just had a wonderful retreat to refresh

our journey --this is the perfect way to complete that feeling or Anew!

I just needed to put the parts together--and I decided it would be easier to do by hand stitching--especially with all those stops and starts

Love this Biblical verse--almost every wedding these verses are recited by bride or groom.

The middle was complete--just place all those odd shaped pieces along the sides

see those 1/2 square triangles?  That took alot of time to stitch--

and I found all the triangles I needed to complete the other border--

Center all together and all the borders sewn together--just go from there!

 

A Little More Zen

Years ago I turned to Zentangles as a way to relax and refresh my brain.  Then, things got in my way and I put those aside and went onto something else

Now!

I'm back at zentangling!

Gathered my supplies--shading pencils, micron pens, artist's tiles, snubbing point

We're ready!

There are many patterns to learn--you can find them on Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, etc.

There are online couirses, newsletters

Free lessons is good!  When I first learned, we had a speaker who walked us through the first sessions. 

What is a Zentangle? 

"The Zentangle Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. We call these patterns, tangles. You create tangles with combinations of dots, lines, simple curves, S-curves and orbs. These simple shapes are the "Elemental Strokes" in all Zentangle art. These patterns are drawn on small pieces of paper called "tiles." We call them tiles because you can assemble them into mosaics."

Here are a few of my tiles, past and present

From different angles, you'll see unique features of the line drawings

These are simple line drawings--easy to follow

relaxation in all senses!

 

Retreat to Refresh!

Recently, we took time to refresh our bodies and souls--we took a little retreat to the beach area.  Our family had been sailing through life--no cares, no worries--oh, there are the little hiccups that we all exprience, but when our precious great grandson was born with his birth defect--we all felt somehow disconnected.  Granddaughter and hubby spent every spare minute in NICU with little JD; family members rallied by their side.  Then an unexpected text came from the brown headed daughter--

"I'm in ER with shortness of breathe and a-fib!  Don't worry, I'm doing fine!"  Not so fine for us, she lives in Colorado!  She is doing fine now, after tests, meds, week stay in hospital--of course, she is doing fine--we had the line of prayers going for her!

Aside here--do you get unlimited prayers?  Or is it like my mother said--"don't pray too much--you'll use up your prayer supply!"  Oh Mother!  How wrong can you be!  This is another topic to discuss at a later date.

Our great grandson is doing better; brown headed daughter is doing better--I'm just waiting for the third thing to drop--saying is 'it comes in threes!"  Anyway, our elastic band of stress had been stretched to it's max and we needed a breather, a retreat to refresh.  

The beach is..................................................................awesome!!

Here is what we saw in one section of the beach:  Yarn bombing!  How exciting to see works of art on the beach--

The Bollards were decked out in the finest of wear!  

Fanciful creatures

whimsical animals

sea monsters

girlish characters 

plain and colorful

Stunning beauty

Happy faces

and super people

and the lone cacti on the desert sand!

If you can make a plain lonely bollard look happy and adventurous. then any stump could be made joyful with some yarn and imaginations!

On your next trip to retreat and refresh, look for the awesome feature that are man made and the

wonders of God's creations--you can find these features in the most unusual places.

 

February Review

It's that time of the year again!  Sewing for charity!  Fat Quarter Shop is offering this beautfil pattern--

designed by Cory Yoder

The first step was posted February 28--I'm on board to sew another beatutiful quilt top and give to

charity.

And for other things sewn in February-- I present the following:

Pat Sloan's Sweet Childhood Memories--patterns appear each week, so I'm trying to keep up with each weeks sewing--for this top I'm using my scraps stash--and boy! do I have a big bin of those scraps!

Sew With Me is my red blocks to sew--this is the second block in the 2023 season.  Easy to sew!

Another block in the Sewcialites 2 prsented by Fat Quarter Shop.  This will be my Patriotic quilt--there are several designers involved in this quilt along. 

A Quilting Life offers another quilt along--another reason to use up my stash bin.  Why is it that I can never use up all the scraps in that bin?  It just seems to multiple!!

Some knitting is involved too in February--

I'm finishing up another Musselburgh hat designed by Ysolda

I use the “pouch” to hold my yarn.  This is a great way to use up small amounts of yarn.

I don't know what it is about this pattern, but it's so addictive to knit and that is all it is--Knit!

Also, working my way through the months with Kitchen Sink Shop--she presents a free dishcloth pattern each month with a yearly theme.  

This January pattern

February pattern

I'm using my handspun cotton to create these lovely gifts for friends and the best part of 2023--her theme is Cookie Delicious-ness!  Recipes included!

Finally!!

 Finally!  I received my EEW--this little thing is kind of creepy in some ways!  It's tiny but packs as punch with it's power!  I'm talking about EEW Nano 2--an electric spinning wheel that is affordable and travelable!

From this photo you can't really determine how small it is.

Here is the story:  last spring an enabler friend, who shall remain anonymous (Nancy)  told me about a Kickstarter program-- to get on the list to purchase one of these handy dandy wheels.  At first, I thought I don't really need another wheel or drop spindle, but for the price of $100 how could I go wrong with an electric wheel!  So after a few days of thinking it over, I pulled the plug and ordered the wheel--as any good kickstarter programs, you need to make the number set for manufacturing,  

Finally!!  the number required to make it a GO was reached--yay!  I was going to receive an EEW within the next few months.

Then out of mind, I forgot about the whole thing until the email arrived--"your EEW will be shipped in October" good news!  I watched the mail for that special arrival.

Since we travel often, My son's mailing address was given.  

Finally!  the notice came that my package was delivered to his mailbox!!

He goes to this mailbox--but, no packages.  He had one to be delivered also--both not there

not delivered!   A report was made to post office--they would check it out--but, no package appeared anytime--

big, sigh--I was not receiving the EEW I ordered.  I figured if a person took the package would have no idea what it was and in the trash it would go!  My son and I were both disappointed Big Time!!

Here we are, several months down the road and I kept thinking about that little wheel-- the money was refunded—I looked at the website--Dreaming Robots--and YES!  The EEW was still available for order--of course, it was a little more money, but no care for me!  I ordered one!  and this time, I received it!

The first thing I did after reading the instructions was to ply my singles handspun  cotton yarn--small but 

mighty! Is this machine!!

I'm having fun!!  

OH! Darn!

Yes—got to Darn something!  It just happens to be hubby’s sock that I knit from my handspun wool.  Needless, to say—this handspun yarn is long gone, but I found a suitable wool to use to patch the hole that his big toe made.

It took me some time to finally darn it— this is the least of my favorite things to do!  Well, actually it’s not on my favorite list at all!

I remembered the darning egg my friend gifted me many moons ago—just perfect to slip into the sock up to the hole and darn away!1

What’s a darning egg? 

Darning is a sewing technique for repairing holes or worn areas in fabric or knitting using needleand thread alone. It is often done by hand, but it is also possible to darn with a sewing machine. Hand darning employs the darning stitch, a simple running stitch in which the thread is "woven" in rows along the grain of the fabric, with the stitcher reversing direction at the end of each row, and then filling in the framework thus created, as if weaving. Darning is a traditional method for repairing fabric damage or holes that do not run along a seam, and where patching is impractical or would create discomfort for the wearer, such as on the heel of a sock.

I guess I’d better knit him another pair of socks before winter returns—that gives me about five months to finish. I have the perfect wool too!  Some that is well aged!  This yarn was bought during one of our many trips to UK when our daughter and family lived near Manchester—I just couldn’t stay away from my grand babies!  I was always popping into a yarn shop, a book shop, or a charity shop to see what was available.   One visit to charity shop, I found a treasure—a package of blue wool yarn!! And that is the yarn which will be knit into hubby’s socks!

I'm searching my stash of sock patterns--want something plain, easy to knit--he doesn't care for design elements, which suits me just fine.

And here is the perfect pattern for this yarn!  Wool-ease sock pattern--FREE--great price too!

 

Update!

Our second little great grandson has been born!! And immediately placed in NICU—where he’ll reside for several weeks.  His pediatric doctors will assess his condition of CDH and decide when to do surgery to repair his diaphragm.  

This is his "crib" for awhile--he has the greatest attention any newborn could receive--at the present time, he is incubated,  He weighted 5 lbs.6 oz and 18.9" in length at birth. 

His name has been some concern to us!  

 For weeks they called him "JD" but only the parents knew what the initals would stand for.

Finally, in the hospital room as we were visiting Mommy and Daddy, we learned his name to be placed on the birth certificate--JD = Jerry Daniel--he is named for his paternal grandfather (Jerry) and his great grandfather (Daniel--this brought tears to my hubby's eyes)

From the time I learned she was pregnant, I called her precious cargo--"Jelly Bean"

and I think that name will stick with him.

I can't imagine how my granddaughter felt after his birth when she saw all the nurses and doctors surrounding him--as she did not get to hold him or touch him!  They placed him in his crib, walked past her, directly to the NICU bear pod.  She thought he would be placed in giraffe pod but being in the bear pod is just as good.

Great grandfather and I were thrilled that we could visit him in the bear pod--he is surrounded by attentive nurses and doctors--I admit I had to cry when I saw him--so tiny and helpless--so sweet though with the Grace of God shining down on him!

Mommy finally got to visit and touch her son-- my heart aches to think of those mothers who carried

their child in their womb but unable to hold and kiss their tiny foreheads once birthed.

The mom and dad did as I suggested--sleep with the blanket I knitted and give to the nurses, who told them that any thing they would like, could be placed in the crib with him--he has a whole little corner to post photos, place mementos to surround him with love.

His other grandparents gave him stuffed bears!!  appropriate for the Bear Pod!

He is definitely surrounded by much love. 

If you believe in the power of pray, please say one for JD—he has had a few rough patches to overcome. 

 

Lent Meditations

 Lent is fast approaching and if you would like to participate in a special way to appreciate this special time of the year, here is one way.  Beginning, February 20th, Victoria Methodist Church in Bristol, UK is running Lent Mystery Knitalong. Participants will receive weekly documents containing daily knitting clues and accompanying reflections/meditations written especially by Ministers and worship leaders from the Bristol area and beyond.

the knitting clues will be released on the following dates:

Monday 20th February
Friday 24th February
Friday 3rd March
Friday 10th March
Friday 17th March
Friday 24th March
Friday 31st March

Due to the mystery nature of the knitalong, photos of the completed scarf will not be added on this pattern page until Easter, so as not to spoil the surprise for those working on it!

This knitalong is very much a team effort; big thanks to the seven reflection writers, and others who participated to make sure this knit along will go smoothly.

For more information, see: https://bit.ly/LentKAL-2023

Step In Right Direction!

 Into February and I’m taking a step in the right direction!  I finished knitting this

Once I got into the pattern, it was smooth sailing! 

I know—two different yarn colors—in my defense, this pattern was begun at each end to meet in the middle so why not have different color in the middle!!?

That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!!

I blocked it on these handy dandy snap together puzzle pieces—works well.  

Now, onto the next adventure to finish this one—

It was paused on September month—should be a breeze to finish !  

Which I did--finished that darn lingering scarf!  photo doesn't do it justice--but it's on the way to being blocked!

and the other unfinished one I had looked at and thought about for so long!  It's no longer on the needles--I made the decision that I didn't really want to knit on it any longer--so I pulled off the stitches, wound the balls of yarn and will wait for another inspiration to come along!

Relief!  That feels so good!  Nothing pressing for me to complete no UFOs in the yarn closet!

On to better and brighter decisions--