Having fun

piecing on my Feather weight..
It is relaxing sewing slow. 

Since I began several months  ago working with Mariner's compasses I have reconfigured this piece several time, even taking it apart when it was almost completed  and made way more M-compass circles than I had initially thought I would.  The first image is of it is  when I thought using black and white would be a good thing.  But half way through I thought not so good.

So I did a lot of un-sewing and left it on the wall while the G-kids where here and redrew the cartoon.  Moved the circles around and made more M-compasses.  Got back to it piecing all the circles into the background  last week but not steady at it because I have now caught the same knitting bug I had last winter and I am knitting baby caps at the rate of one a day for the local hospital's nursery .  Most of them are in an unisex ecru color cotton yarn but  I am also knitting some in red to get a jump start on making the requested red ones for February heart month.

Here is what my piece looks like currently.

I am down 21 pounds with lots more to go and  still walking on my treadmill.  I am doing 4  to 5 miles a day now but want to walk 5 every day.

Physically I could do it all at once but mentally no matter what I do to entertain myself, books on cd, music or the  TV,  I get bored at 2 miles and have to really kick myself mentally to walk for 3, so the thought of doing 5 miles straight .  So I do it in two sessions, one mid-day and the other at bedtime.   2-1/2 x 2 gets me to 5.  I was about to type, no sweat but that would be a lie.  I sweat oh boy do I sweat.

It has been the Summer of the the grand and great grands

and ferrying them back and forth to gymnastic, and baseball camp.  No one with little people think and know that it is not as simple as said.  There is laundry and lost items and lunch boxes to fill and getting them to bed and worse getting them up if not kept to a set bedtime.  Needless to say I have been busy but not so much as I would like to have been in the studio.  My knitting needles are getting a good workout making charity knitted hats for a local hospital nursery.  I have no problem putting my needles down and picking up where I left off when I here my name being called by a little person.

I was trying to take a picture of Olivia.  My youngest grandchild.  She has been here for almost two months this summer.  Below is my daughter Rene with Xaviar 8 and Aundrea 5.  Feather weight, 77.  Just acquired it a week ago and had time to stitch with it today.

Still working on the Mariner's compass composition.  Have changed the arrangement several times and still not sure of it yet.

The last compass  I think is being sewn together. 

  I haven't had enough concentrated time to audition my fabric choices for the background yet.  

 

The great-grands are here for another two weeks.  Olivia is going home on Monday.  The school year for her is starting soon.

Still making Mariner's Compasses

with a developing idea of the final composition,  At any rate, I haven't grown bored with the making of them yet.
    I went to the library on Sunday afternoon and picked up a few books on CD's to listen to while stitching.     Have finished  listening to "In the Company of Others" a Father Tim novel by Jan Karon.  It was nice to reacquaint myself with her main character and was happy to see a newer issue by her, "Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good"  on the library shelf which I will listen to next.

Collection of stars...hmm, what shall they become.  While I contemplate, I am starting another one.

Freezer paper pieces are all cut out and waiting for me to select the fabrics for the next star. 

Almost every light in my studio space is on.  It is a really  grey and gloomy day with periods of heavy rain and distant lightening

I can't believe it is June.

     Sorry I have been away for so long.  I've had several friends and blog followers ask if I am okay and if I am going to blog again.  For several months I have been meaning to get back to doing so, but life stepped in and tripped me up on the way to my desk top  computer on more than one occasion.  But again when I thought about blogging, I realized I had no pictures to add to the post.  All words, no images, not good.  It is not that I don't have pictures it just that of late, I am more apt to take pictures with my I-pad which I upload to my Facebook page instead using my camera and posting on my blog. 
     I will try to do better. 

     Since I was last here,

1. I went to Quilt-Con in Savannah. GA.  That is the annual Modern Quilters big show.  Really enjoyed seeing Savannah and spending time with my daughter Rene.  She was the driver. I will reserve my comments on the quilts. 
2. I did a couple of shifts at the SAQA membership table, during the AQS Show in Dayton Beach. The quilts there were more to my liking. 
3. My little Mini was rear ended in a hit and run accident,  It spend a week in the repair shop.  Good as new and all is well with it and me.
4. I traveled to Westchester, NY to do a trunk show, talk and teach a class for the Northern Star Quilt guild.  That was fun.  I arrived there a week after the big snow fall they had the week before.  Despite not owning a coat I survived with a long sleeve t-shirt, socks and several thick sweaters. 
5. I taught a one day workshop here in my studio space for 5 quilters from the quilt guild in Melbourne, FL  I like doing that.  It is really nice not having to pack up and haul stuff to a off site location.
6. I enjoyed my nine day stay in Virginia for weeklong retreat with the Girl Friends in Sandbridge, VA  Several of us were ill with a stomach flu.  Even though I was not as sick as some, it took me a week to feel like normal after I got home.
7. I drove over to the Gulf side of the state to do a trunk show and teach a workshop for the Manatee Quilters Guild and I spent two nights with my friend Carole.  She offered me a bed and I treated her to dinner both evenings.  Just like every time we are together, we ran our mouths and the time flew.
8. My son Myke and his wife Mel were here for a  visit.  She was here for a conference, Myke to golf .  Loved seeing them.  Hoping they come back soon and stay longer. 
9. I had my annual blood work, heart check-up and echo gram done in May.  All is good. 
10. Yes, I am over my sock knitting addiction.  I completed 6 pair which I love wearing around the house.  Since I have been spending more time in my studio stitching,  I haven't had much interest in socks.

So I guess you want to know what I stitched and what I am working on. 

I have used this simple flower to teach one day machine applique and machine quilting classes in the past.  Most recently for the Manatee Quilt guild and during the Girl Friends retreat.  Thought I'd see what several flowers in a composition would look like.  It was quick, fun and looks like Spring.

The piece below is a pieced version of the flowers I paint when I can't think of any thing else. I am getting really comfortable with my Janome again.

So much so that I am working on a composition using varying sizes of Mariner's compasses,  I have been working on this for a week or so.  The largest star measures 30 inches so this is going to be a rather large piece. 

     Three-four weeks ago when I  stayed with my friend Carole over in Sarasota, FL she put me on to her way of organizing her fabric stash and keeping it neat.  She wraps her fabric on  BCW Golden comic book boards.  They are certified acid free which is a good thing.  Carole orders her boards from Amazon.  There is a comic book and toy store less than 1/2 a mile from my front door and I was happy to learn they carries them. 
     On my first visit to the store I brought one pack of 100 boards and a book shelf on the way home from Big Lots.  Silly me, even though I don't have a large stash, not anywhere close to number of yards I had once upon a time. I should have know one pack and one shelf was not going to suffice.  The next day I had Josh, my grandson put together  a second shelf  and I drove to the store for two more packs of boards. 
     Now all of my commercial and hand dyes are neatly stored and visible.
I really like this and I have three cubbies left in this book shelf to fill. 

Knit one, purl two or ch1, dc in next st

What?

Yes I am knitting  and crocheting.  Two activities I have not done in years. 

Why?

Several days ago I got an email from one of the ladies I meet with on Fridays.  She was forwarding a request from a group of  hospitals in the Orlando area that cater to women  and babies.  They wanted to  acknowledge Heart Health Month by having every baby wear a red knitted or crocheted hat while in the nursery.  So they were asking  knitters and hookers to make 1,000  red hats.

I have a soft spot for babies,  after all I had four.  I also have a soft spot for preemies since NICU was where I spent several years as a nurse in my really early nursing career.

While I haven't knitted or crocheted as I said in years, the needles for these two crafts do not take up much room, so I still had them stored in a drawer as well as several balls of year that I could not bring myself to get rid of.  Several happened to be red.  More blue red that what I would call heart red, but hey, red is red.

The first hat I crochet I used a variegated cotton yarn to see if I could get comfortable doing it.  It was like riding a bike.  Once you know how you never forget.  Same with the knitting, although it did take several tries getting the hang of working with double pointed needles that I went out and brought on New Years day from Joann's after I spent several hours earlier being frustrated with trying to knit in the round using the magic loop techniques.  For the non knitters that is a way to  knit in the round on a single set of cable needles.

I did not have a number of hats I wanted to donate to the cause in mind when I started, but since
New Years Eve I have  knitted or crocheted nine hats and I should finish the 10th one before bedtime tonight. 

Now I have decided I see how many I can make before the turn in deadline of January 15.

Hope everyone 2017 is getting off to a great and creative start.