We had a lovely trip to the beach. I live only about 2.5 hours from Sandbridge Beach and I even lived in Virginia Beach twice, but I never spent any time at Sandbridge. It's a lovely beach and we really enjoyed it. This photo was taken from the pier and that's our condo building in the background. It was the last building before the city public property and Back Bay Wildlife Refuge area. We were well entertained too! The Oceana Naval Air Station is nearby so we got to watch some practice maneuvers. We also discovered that people ride horseback on the beach on Saturday mornings! I'm not a morning person, like this person on the beach, but I did get to see the sunrise every day. We walked on the pier one day and the pigeons and grackles were patiently awaiting any catches from the fishermen on the pier (yes, all men on this day). One day I walked to the Back Bay Wildlife Refuge where this sign says no people beyond this sign. Hmmm, people and tire tracks. We got some sewing and crochet done. Mom finished a veterans top and I finished this one. I'm glad I chose the orange fabric but Mom still wanted the green! I finished the second donation shawl in this yarn. I just need to add a button. I started the third (and last) one in this yarn.
We came home totally relaxed. That will wear off today as I work the election all day. I'll probably post again Thursday.
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In September I pulled these 5 and 6 weight yarns from the stash and made a plan to use them up. I would make winter hats for donation. I've shared 7 already. I've been working on them steadily all month and this weekend I finished the rest of the yarn to make 8 more hats for a total of 15! There was a tiny bit of leftover yarn, but not enough to make another hat. These are all large and XL sizes. Because of the thickness of the yarn, these will be very warm hats. I'll finish the shawl that I'm working on and then I'll deliver all these things I've made soon. While I was cleaning off my cutting table, I found these 2 chemo hats that I made months ago and never shared.
Today is election day so I'll be at the precinct from 5 am to 8 pm. You probably won't hear from me until Thursday. On Thursday, Mom, Kim and I are headed to Sandbridge to enjoy the beach for a few days but I'll post from there. We are having a little sewing retreat and we'll get to see my Great Niece. I didn't post yesterday because I worked the early voting center again so didn't have anything to share. It was so busy that I couldn't even read a page of my book. That's a good thing! On Sunday we went to a local concert of the US Navy Country Current Band. It was a veteran featured event so our quilt club had a booth and we awarded 4 veterans quilts through a raffle. The weather was spectacular and it was a lovely afternoon. On Saturday I actually dyed fabric! I needed to dye some veterans quilt backs, fabric for that quilt I showed last week and some sample swatches. It's been at least a month since I've dyed anything and it was nice to be back. There's been lots of football watching so I've mostly been crocheting. I think I have about 6 rows left for the shawl and a whole lot of rows left on the blanket.
This week I'll be getting on with making some birthday postcards and planning the Christmas postcards. Yesterday was mostly about yard work. We have about 3 of the 10 acres that require some sort of maintenance all the time. I borrowed my brother's electric trimmer and am working on the bushes and edges of the yard. Next will be weeks of leaf blowing. We also delivered a load of firewood to a friend. After that I did get in the sewing room and work on the drain bags a bit. I finished 18 of the first batch of 30. I'll do more yard work today and will likely finish the rest of this batch later today. Last night, during football, I picked up the crochet again and added some rows to this blanket. I think this is going to be too big to be a baby blanket but I'm sure the charity will find a good use for it. I forgot to share that I've been steadily working through the bulky yarn. I made one of these hats before we went to Asheville and 3 of them at the river last weekend. I expect there are 7 or 8 more hats to make from the bulky stash.
I like to rotate my crochet projects so next will be the wheelchair shawl and I'll be back on the hats probably Sunday. Right now, I need to get back out to the yard. Weeds don't wait. and finished the Fab Farm quilt top this weekend. I really just don't love doing sashing and borders so I always procrastinate finishing a quilt. It was time to buckle down and get this one done. I absolutely love the quilt and now I need to think about dyeing a quilt back. With the quilt top done I could put up the veterans quilt blocks on the design wall. This is going to be a fine veterans quilt but, I have to admit that it's not one of my best quilts. There's not enough value difference in some of the blocks. Once it's quilted with some stars and ribbons, it will be improved. I'll look at the arrangement for a couple of days. I won't be sewing again until the weekend, after Mom and I get back from our little adventure. The truth about my weekend is that I was more interested in crochet than sewing. After finishing the blue blanket I needed to start a new blanket. I have way too much yarn, all of it purchased on sale, so I have a lot of options. I decided to do this pink yarn because I already had a pattern picked out. I made this blanket 3 years ago with the same yarn in blue. It's a pretty and easy pattern, perfect for watching TV. During Saturday football I got this started. During Sunday football I worked on the hat yarn that I pulled out a couple of weeks ago. These are made from 6 weight yarn and I had enough for 3 hats. This is the pattern that I used with an L hook. It only takes about an hour to make one of these hats but I won't buy 6 weight yarn again but these will be toasty warm for someone. Next I will work on emptying this bin of 5 weight yarn. The pattern is basically the same, just written for 5 weight yarn. I think I might get 8 - 10 hats from this bin.
Today I might have time to put the veterans quilt together. We leave for Asheville Tuesday so if I don't post tomorrow, I will not post again until Saturday. I finished my big blanket! This is a charity blanket and finished about 48" x 58". I really like how it turned out and it did a fine job of using up a good chunk of yarn. I've made this pattern twice before here and here. Pattern: Sober Granny by Christa of The Secret Yarnery - she has excellent tutorials and patterns Idid not do the border K (6.5 mm) hook Cast on 33 sets of 4 + 2 Color pattern: 8 rows navy 3 rows light blue 5 rows white 3 rows light blue Start and finish with the navy Last row: CH3, 2 DC in 1st SC from previous row * SC in CH2 space from previous row, 3 DC in SC from previous row* SC in last CH2 space If you are looking for a quick gift or donation blanket, this one is awesome. Once you get going you can almost crochet without looking at your stitches. It goes very fast.
Now to find my next blanket project. Yesterday was a busy chore day so I didn't get much creative time. I did have a couple of hours in the afternoon that I should have used to start cutting sashing for Fab Farm but it was so beautiful outside that I decided to listen to my book on the back porch. This is shawl #2. Only a few more rows and I'll be done with the increases. I will probably work on this more tonight at a local concert. My quilt club will have a booth at an event honoring veterans and featuring the US Navy Bluegrass band. It should be a fun evening. Sitting on my back porch is like sitting on the edge of a jungle. I can hear the river and there are lots of birds and squirrels around. I did start clearing the cutting table by cutting some drain bags. My goal is to make 100. If I'm going to pull out the serger I might as well make it worthwhile! I pick dark fabrics because these bags are used in the shower to hold would drains while patients bathe. These are fabrics that have been in my stash a while and haven't been used for anything.
I probably won't post again until Monday because I will not do any kind of sewing today. I've got chimney repair people, errands today and then we have the veteran event tonight. My goal for the weekend is to get Mom's charity quilt quilted, cut out the rest of the drain bags along with the ribbon for the shoulder straps and start sashing Fab Farm. Mom will be hanging out with me so I don't know how far I'll get. During the football game Monday night I finished the shawl that I started on the drive home. I still have to put a button on it but I'll wait on that until I finish 2 more shawls. Why 2 more? Well, it's coming into winter and From The Heart is always asking for shawls. This one comes together really quickly and I have enough of the same yarn to make 2 more. I started a new one yesterday afternoon so I could take it to quilt club to work on a little. I spent some time yesterday getting my crochet projects in order. I unraveled a vest that I was making and not enjoying. I might be pretty close to done with the big blanket. I got this far on vacation. The plan was to finish continue until I added a final section of dark blue. That will make the blanket 46 x 60. But I had a little problem. The ball of navy yarn is the last of the navy in the blanket and it's not enough for another section. It turns out that Lion Brand Pound of Love doesn't come in navy anymore. But I came home and found this navy blue yarn in my stash and I think it will be fine. I'll do the whole section in the new yarn so the transition between the two shouldn't show up too badly. Now I have enough yarn to make this blanket 72" long if I want and I'm kind of inclined to do that. For those of you making donation blankets, do you have an opinion on the size? I also unpacked these 2 hats that I finished on vacation. The one on the left is a man's chemo hat and the one on the right is a kid's hat. I'm going to be really happy to see the end of this tweedy yarn! I decided to switch over to making some winter hats and pulled out my bulky and super bulky yarns. I'm going to start with the super bulky yarns and this speedy pattern. I've made a lot of these caps and they actually look pretty good. I should be able to get 5 hats out of these yarns.
It's nice to have an organized plan so I don't have to think about what to work on for a few weeks. It was kind of a nightmare getting here, but this blanket is finally done and it turned out great! On the way up to maine I thought I was about 75% done with the blanket but, in the car, I noticed that the top was wider than the bottom. At some point I changed from an H size hook to an I size hook. I had to rip it back to the blue arrow. It was the equivalent of more than 1 skein of yarn. I'm glad I did because now it's perfectly 36" square and it's a really sweet blanket. The border really adds a lot to the personality of the blanket and it's a very easy border. There's a row of single crochet, 2 rows of V stitches, a row of granny stitches and a ruffle of chains and single crochet. I made this blanket once before and I'm sure I'll make it again. This one will be donated.
Yarn: Yarn Bee Sweet Delight, 3 weight, 340 yards/skein and I used 3 for the body and about 1/2 for the border. Pattern: Vintage Inspired Fan Stitch blanket by Blossom Crochet Hook Size H, 5.0mm We started off early yesterday to get on the trails before the parking lot filled up. If you want to hike in the morning in Acadia you have to get to the parking areas before 9 to be sure of getting a space. We got to the trailhead about 8 and when we returned about 10:30 there were 5 cars waiting for a parking space. We selected the Bubbles for our hike yesterday. This fun trail has two mountain tops in one trail. This is on top of South Bubble looking over Jordan Pond with the ocean beyond. On the North Bubble we were in view of Pemetic and Cadillac mountains. This weekend my goal is for us to hike one of these. Cadillac is the highest so that's a goal. But if we don't do Cadillac I hope we can do Pemetic, it's my favorite trail in the whole park. We got back in time to relax in the sun for a while and then get in some sewing time. I'm now working on chickens! I started with the sections that are common to all 4 chickens. Getting these out of the way will speed up all of the other chickens. I got the first chicken made and I think it's so cute! We have another friend coming to visit today so I might not get the other chickens done before Monday. The crochet blanket is coming along great. I'm working on the border and only have about a round and half left to go.
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I'm Vicki Welsh and I've been making things as long as I can remember. I used to be a garment maker but transitioned to quilts about 20 years ago. Currently I'm into fabric dyeing, quilting, Zentangle, fabric postcards, fused glass and mosaic. I document my adventures here. Categories
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November 2024
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