Got The Blues!

No!  I don't have the Blues!  I'm looking forward to working with Blues!

Bonnie Hunter has invited us to sew with her on 2024 mystery!

I'm anxious to see how the Blues create indigo way.  I love blue fabrics so I ordered

the fabric that she recommended.  I don't usually do that.  With this quilt, I"ll be able to use some of my  own hand dyed indigo fabrics.

There were two color ways to order so I chose this one with strong, darker blues

Here is the fabric selection spread out--

here comes the day after Thanksgiving!

Gather your blues and be prepared for an exciting adventure into blues!

Round To It…

Do you ever have those “round to it” times?  Oh, yes!  I want to do that when “ I get round to it!”

The photo below shows all the patterns printed off that were

“ round to it”patterns!

And guess what, after months of saving these scraps of paper, I’ve not done a ONE of these patterns!  Just put them aside and think “I’ll get round to it” someday—that day hasn’t come, I guess!

Now, my tastes have changed and I’m onto some other “round to its”

Like—finishing hubby’s socks—oh goodness, these socks have been a “

round to it”

since early 2023.  

Nope—started—not finished and winter is a’comin’.

I’ll get “ round to it” soon!  Look how many needles are out of service just for this pair of socks—gee whiz.  

Each time I sit to knit, another reason pops up to place these socks back in the queue of “ round to it” projects. 

Maybe, today is the day………

Will be a good day to knit—oops, I didn’t get “ round to “ measuring the length of his foot—but, I could knit on the other sock’s heel-

I’ll get “round to it” soon! 

 

 

Soup On!! ETC, ETC, ETC

 Love this time of year!  There is a light chill in the air and we are thankful for it!!  So many reasons to enjoy this time of year—

Time to wear hand knit socks!!

• Time to cuddle up in a comfy chair and read a book
• 
  Recent birthday gift from brown headed daughter
  
  
  
  I love that if she has read the book, she includes a review on post it note! 
  
  
• And….. lots of soups! 

  
• First up--chicken sausage gumbo!  I take the easy way out with this gumbo mix--all the spices and thickening agents you need.  Just add cooked chicken (found half rotisserie chicken in freezer) and always have smoked sausage on hand!  Instead of rice, we use riced cauliflower--Yummy good!  Along side we have a nice loaf of French bread. 
• 
  
  
  Second night--split pea soup!  I know, most people don't like split pea but we do especially when we add smoked ham hocks as the seasoning meat
• 
  
• 
• We put the fresh ham hocks on the smoker for several hours, then bake them two hours and now added to the slow cooker
  
  Cooking on low while we do errands and tonight we will have a cooked soup ready for the table! Yum! Yum!
  
  
  Another soup—tomato basil soup!  One of my favorite from National known restaurant!  Instead of buying the ready made jar, I decided to try my hand at making this delicious mixture.  

  

  After all, our basil had been trimmed before first frost—let’s begin……..fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, vegetable broth, etc

  

  Look at this delish bowl of tomato basil soup! Served with toasted cheese sandwich on jalapeño cheese bread! Great meal!
  
  
• This weekend we are hosting family and friends for chili and veggie soup (hubby makes a great soup with beef stock and lots of fresh veggies)  I make the chili and will have lots of goodies accomplishing the soup night==of course, by Saturday night, the temperature will be near 80 again--down goes the AC for sure!  

What's on your soup agenda is for this week??

Holy Moly!!

 Yep, It’s here!  The official start for the holidays—did you participate in Halloween activities?  

Our bucket of goodies was displayed on our front porch as we were attending an adult block party—watching the cameras we saw polite youngsters grab only one bag,  as usual there were a couple who took more than their share.  omeday they will learn!

This weekend is International Quilt Festival!  Will you attend?  I’ll be there with a friend who

Has never attended!! She’ll be blown away! 

Getting ready for Christmas?!!  Seems every year December 25 comes closer than the year before—maybe, it’s just my age.  Here is one way to begin your season now!

Fort Worth Fabric Studio always has unique fabrics and patterns for your sewing pleasure

Order a kit or as I do, use from your stash.  The patterns are free on their website beginning November 8.  Let the sewing room light up!!

Shhhh! She’s Working!

Please be quiet—she’s finally working on “something”!  Doesn’t matter what—she’s come out of her stupors and is plowing ahead on projects.  Let’s show her some support. 

Finally!  This is block #10 from Sew With Me.  Trying to keep the fabrics in red tones.  

And Autumn colors for these blocks from Pat Sloan’s Autumn Wonders—never can have too many fall pieces scattered around the house

Guess I was still slumbering when I was sewing up this easy block; sewed the small squares the wrong way on the orange—ouch!  Jack went to work and we put it right!

 

 

This is a photo of Garlene’s September dishcloth—I know! I know—it’s October!  Seems I slept through September.  Then a good friend invited me to her home for belated birthday dinner—a small token of delight was needed!  Immediately and feverishly I finished knitting up September dishcloth with handspun brown cotton.  In such a rush to gift, no photo was taken.  She loved it as she is a Louisiana gal from hence the cotton came from. 

Time to knit up October!  Well, past time—the end of October looms.  Yarn was needed—found some plied handspun green cotton

These were bobbins from Electric spinner—must ply them in order to knit

Then thought better of using green cotton on white—red looks better with white anyway

October cloth is called pumpkin spice—this one is leaning more to Christmas!  Knitting fast now—November is close at hand—trying to keep up is putting me behind!

Ease Into Fall

 

Cabin in the Woods designed by Katie Hennaqir for American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.  October 23-December, 2023 is the sew along for the fall.  It is done in flannels--wouldn't that be nice and cozy to bundle up in on those cool fall nights.  You can either purchase the magazine or check out the website for instructions.

another warm and cozy fall accessory is that lovely knit shawl by Iya Churakova.  I found the free pattern on Ravelry.  This will be a fun item to knit--easy to follow along with just two rows of instructions.

 

This is a gift for a good friend--Fatcatpatterns has this fun whimcal pattern.  Join her FB group or sign up for her newsletter.  Her patterns are always fun.  

It seems that door banners are the "thing' now!  Like it!  Don't need to do a whole quilt!

I received two books for my recent birthday!  I'm ready to dig into them.

This is a new author to me--but looks fun to read--includes recipes--always a bonus!

Blonde headed daughter gave me this book as it was on my wish list.  Book #13 in an ongoing series.  Takes place in Colorado

Blonde headed daughter loves puzzles--this is a different approach to one big puzzle.

It's an Advent puzzle!  beginning December 1, Each day you open a small box containing small portion of the puzzle.  By the time, December 25 rolls around, you should have completed the puzzle!     Really can't believe we are talking December already!

Sew What You Been Doing?

 We’re back from our travels.  It’s time to sew!  

Just could not resist!  Decided to sew up Autumn Wonders with Pat Sloan—once I finished this block, I took a good look—those 4 patches should have been arranged differently!  Am I doing a date with Jack to change it?  You can bet NOT!!

A new block is posted every Wednesday, of course, I’m not keeping up with blocks! Still another one to finish. 

This block from Sew with Me was fun to do and I screwed it up!!  It does the block look different— no one knows but me. 

Decided this one should be whim-sly—colors I don’t normally use.  This month’s block from A Quilting Life

A fluke photo—I put my phone down on my glass top sewing table and accidentally snapped this photo—fun!  

Let's READ!

 

The Intrepid Reader is sponsoring a historical fiction reading challenge!!

I'm in!  Love books!  really enjoy historical books--can you read a book without thinking how did that happen; when did that happen; why did that happen?

Have your read "The Killers of the Flower Moon"? before it came out as a movie?

I have!! So interesting to learn about this period in our country's history--how could we do such a thing?  I passed my book along to a friend--she wants to read before she attends the big screen.

We are traveling now and we are listening to Elmer Kelon's book "The Time It Never Rained"

We feel like we are in that period of time now, especially in Texas!

What book will you read this month?  Be sure to check out Intrepid Reader's reviews to find your next historical fiction masterpiece!

Thank you!!

 What an amazing day we had Saturday for JD’s fund raiser!  God gave us a beautiful day, huge turnout, support from friends, strangers, and strength from family! We’re blessed to have a wonderful family & extended family base!  

Our car was loaded!  Plus there three other cars just as full with auction donations!

Bid sheets and donations laid out—

One of our fabulous original art pieces donated.  Painted on wine barrel top stave—

Two of JD’s nurses came wearing special shirts that displayed his love of Curious George

Here is the back!  Nurses call him Jerr-Bear!  

What an honor to have them visit!

This table contains all his nurses that attended!  Love them all and their dedication!

Our sweet #CDH Warrior with his curious George! 

Scan to learn about #CDH! 

At Loose Ends

 After all the hurried frenzy of JD's fundraiser, life feels so empty!  Have you ever had that let down feeling once you have completed an important task?  You just don't know what to do with yourself--Guess the best way to get over that feeling is to find another task that will take you to that feeling again!

Back to reality for sure--

Picked up the September dishcloth of the month to hopefully (!) finish before I begin on October's pattern.  I have plenty of hand-spun yarn on hand, so that's not a problem.  These patterns are provided free by Garlene.  September's pattern was named Appeltaart, very simple pattern to knit.

I have another hat on the needles, using stash yarn--this is something I can pick up and just knit!  I've made a number of these caps--mindless knitting!

OH--I did locate hubby's socks, that I've (maybe intentional) forgotten about--but, guess what?  the yarn and unfiished socks just keep getting buried to the bottom of the pile of things I really want to do!

At loose ends about those darn socks!!

Since October is National Breast Cancer Awarness month, Moda fabrics is sponsoring this quilt along with Camille Roskelley using her fabric collection, along with quilt blocks a 'pink' taste.  The QAL began October 3 and runs through November. Stitch along with your best Pink!

There was a bit of disappointing news this week from our local quilt shop--they will no longer rent their long arm quilting machines--real bummer!  my friend and I have been using their machines for over a year and have gotten a lot of tops quilted.  Now, we will need to regroup and learn a different way to quilt those tops!  Research is ongoing as I type!  

It will be a new adventure, for sure.

Little history with knitting

If you incorporate a history lesson with your knitting, all the more better.  OH==an aside here!  When I type "More Better", I always think of the Mexican shop where we were buying tequila and the local shop owner came to us with a "More better" bottle of  Tequila!

Okay back to the topic of this blog--The historical pattern being knit this month with one group of history living knitters is representative of Henriette Sontag, a German opera singer who visited various countries wearing an unusual wrapped shawl—it made an instant impression on many women.  Yes, we need that! THat's the way it is with most everyone who wants to be fashion conscious--doesn't matter the year as this fashion accessory was noted in Mid 1800's!   There is nothing new in the minds of women with it comes to fashion trends.

Henriette Sontag was a famous German opera singer.

n 1849, she was encouraged by the impresario Benjamin Lumley to perform a season at Covent Garden Theatre. She proved to have fully retained her vocal powers. In 1852, she toured America, and in May 1854, at a literary evening in honor of Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna, she made public for the first time the lyrics that Francisco González Bocanegra had written to celebrate the nation (with an Italian musical arrangement). A day after singing Lucia di Lammermoor, she contracted cholera, which would claim her life at age 48.^[1]

So, what if she was an opera singer, what fashion trend did she begin?

where ever she toured, this was the talk of fashion--a cross your heart wrap that hugs your bossom.  This fashion could be seen in the Outlander series. Little Women were also wearing this fashion. There were plenty of patterns written and needles with yarn were flying to knit one of these wraps.

Modern day designers have found other ways to wear this wrap around--one that doesn't hug the breast--as seen in this pattern by Jenn Monahan--a double duty fashion!

So, the next time you think about knitting a garment--think-maybe, just maybe, this will begin a fashion trend of your own!

Historic Knit Garments to Knit is In the Loop Knitting theme--check that blog out for other knitwear for history cotent.