 If I had bothered to post yesterday this is all I would have had to show for Monday. Mom and I went to see a friend's new house and I was late getting to sewing. I was so excited to get the first 2 moth blocks together when I saw that I swapped the antennas on the moths. I just turned off the lights and let it alone until yesterday. It was an easy and quick fix but I just wasn't in the mood.  After the block is made it gets triangles added to each side. The design is kind of genius because you don't have to worry about the seams being perfect. Once you sew the corner triangles on the block is then trimmed down to 10" square so it's a very forgiving pattern.  I settled in for lots of sewing yesterday afternoon and I got all of the moth blocks done and trimmed before I headed out for a neighborhood zoning meeting. these blocks are so cute! I'm so glad I decided to make this quilt. My neighborhood meeting was about a neighbor wanting to subdivide their 10 acre lot into 2 lots (8 and and 2 acres) so their daughter could build a house. Normally in this part of the county you could not subdivide a 10 acre lot but their lot used to be divided into 2 properties anyway so they are just setting it back to the way it once was. No one had a problem with it. I just love living in this neighborhood. We used to have one really cranky neighbor but he died several years ago. Now everyone else is lovely.  I am still making progress on the poncho and I still love it. I try to do two rounds every morning after breakfast when the natural light is good. It takes a lot longer now, there are over 230 stitches on a round now and about every 10 rows it goes up another 21 stitches. I'm getting near the end of the second ball and will probably use one more. I have enough for another project, I way overbought!
Today I just have some yard work and a run to Costco and then I can get on with the leaf blocks for the quilt.
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 On Saturday I dumped out the 9th truckload of mulch. I twas the hardest day because it was the beds around the house so there was more shoveling and wheelbarrowing around. It took about 4 hours of hard work but I'm done for another year! Here are the Lenten Roses that my Mom planted a few years ago. They seem quite happy. I'm glad to have this job done and to get back to my rudimentary daily exercises that are less strenuous.  Yesterday I got back in the dye studio to dye a lot of quilt backs for veterans quilts.  I even dyed one for one of my own quilts. I was going to dye a backing for the Oak Moth quilt but I decided that I'd piece a backing from the vintage and repro fabrics so I can use more of them up.  Every day I add 2 or 3 rows to the shawl. It's slowly growing.  After dinner last night I finally had time to start cutting out the Oak Moth quilt. I got all of the background fabric cut, aside from sashing and borders.  I started cutting the leaf blocks. I hope to get all of the rest of it cut out today and maybe start sewing.
At least I don't have to mulch!  My days lately involve a session of mulching followed by a couple of hours sitting by a window and working on the poncho. I'm completely obsessed with it. Yesterday I finished off the first ball of yarn and I'm 80% confident that it's going to work out well. There's a lot more stitches to go and I'm happy to keep rolling on.  Daylight is best for the poncho so at night I work on my other 2 projects. This is a donation blanket and I've just started the 2nd of 6 balls of yarn and then there is one more ball for the border.  I went through my pattern books and have come up with 2 possible ideas to use my Paula fabrics. I might eventually make both.  I also pulled out this pattern that I bought last summer and I'm thinking that it might be cute in feedsack fabrics. I have a huge stash of those that I need to start working with.  I've also got to get busy dyeing some quilt backs. I brought home 8 more quilt tops from the quilt club meeting Tuesday night! We delivered 32 finished quilts to out VA contact for our first delivery of 2025.  Finally, I have the answer to a burning question. Many of us wondered how they would handled the porta potties when they loaded up the dumpster. I now have the answer. They pump them out and completely clean them before loading the dumpster to take it away. I suppose they take they empty the box at the dump and immediately drop it off in someone else's front yard for the next project.
 I had some quality time to work on this poncho this weekend. I've determined that, because of the dark color, I have to work on it during the day sitting by a window. SO far it seems like it might fit but I'll keep going to finish this ball and see how it fits them. I think I'm on about row 35. We had some nice weather so I got more mulching done and have emptied 5 truckloads so far. I have 5 or 6 more to go.  The other thing that I worked on this weekend it cutting out some pieces for a test block.  This is the block I'm trying to make. It's from the Lepidoptera pattern from Elizabeth Hartman. I'm not sure it's going to work in the "Paual" fabrics but I'll get this one block sewn together and try it out. I think I'm also going to try it in Hand dyed fabrics too.
My plans for the week are for more mulching, sewing some Lepidoptera blocks and cleaning up after the house work is done. It's possible that things will be complete today!  I finished the two wheelchair blankets last month so it was time to start a new blanket project. I usually start with the yarn and find a pattern after that. This yarn is a Herrschner's yarn and, honestly, I don't love it. I like how it looks but it's a little stiff. I'll probably give it a gentle wash when I finish it. I found a pattern on Yarnspirations that has an easy repeat. I think this one will come together pretty quickly as I alternate it with my other 2 projects.  This is the experimental poncho. I had not worked on in since we got back from Tucson, until this weekend. I still need to add a lot of rows before I know if this will work. If you don't remember, the pattern is for a bulky yarn and I'm using a 3 weight. I've tried to adjust the pattern as best I can. It's fun to crochet and I'll know in a few weeks if it will work.  Finally, the shawl. I think I'm done with all the increase rows so from here it will be about 14 more rows until it's done. This cotton/acrylic yarn is a little hard on my hands but I think it's pretty in the shawl.  Now, let me share the most fun thing I did this weekend. My friend Becky does the most beautiful hand applique and hand quilting. This is her most recent quilt and she brought it over Sunday to get it basted on the longarm. Basting it on the longarm makes it easier for her to load on her frame. It's a treat for me because I get to see the quilt up close before anyone else does! You can click on these photos to see more detail of her beautiful applique and creative fussy cutting.
This week is going to be devoted to veterans quilts. I have 8, maybe 10, to quilt by next Tuesday. The work on the house is continuing. These guys only take a break for rain, otherwise they haven't skipped a day! They are doing great work so we are happy tolerate the constant banging. Chris makes them coffee every morning and I buy or make them some sort of dessert for lunch. I think they have another week of work to do and then we have other people installing the porch railings and gutters. It should be like new once everyone is done.  OK, so I mostly wasted yesterday. I found out that the Philadelphia parade was shown on my local CBS channel so I had to watch it. No quilting happened but I did pull out this blanket to finish while I watched TV. It's a 24 x 40" wheelchair blanket for donation. I made it with Hobby Lobby Yarn Bee Soft & Chunky. It will look familiar because this is the second one that I've made.  The stitch is the linen stitch with alternating single crochet and chain stitches. It's easy and mindless, perfect for watching TV. I used a K hook for this bulky yarn.  Before I start another blanket project I will add the leftovers to a scrappy corner to corner blanket. These can be good pet blankets.  My mail yesterday brought my Super Bowl t-shirt!
 Credit: Getty As we were starting our drive home we realized that we had to alter our 4-day drive to a 3-day drive to avoid arriving home in the snow. The original plan was to spend the second night in Texarkana so we could watch the Super Bowl from the hotel. Instead we (Chris) drove straight through to Nashville. I watched the game on my cell phone and Chris had to listen. My excited screams kept him from getting drowsy. I'm sorry for any KC fans, but that was a textbook beatdown and I'm so happy for this team. A friend offered to drive me to Philly for the parade Friday but the last thing I want to do right now is get in a car. I'll watch on YouTube or TV. But, boy, was that exciting!  We drove 10 more hours to get home about 5pm Monday and I'm so glad we didn't wait until Tuesday to try to get home in this! We certainly wouldn't have made it in Chris' car. We did get home early enough Monday that I was able to watch the game again on the big TV and it was even more fun because there were less commercials and inconsequential plays and timeouts were cut. I'll watch it again for sure.  Most of Tuesday was spent putting everything away and doing laundry. When I unpack, I try to put things away read for the next trip. So I restock my toiletries bag and my travel kitchen supplies bag. But, honestly, I wasted most of the day on social media reading about the victory. Yes, I'm that kind of fan.  I did do a tiny bit of sewing. This is Chris' favorite shirt. It has to be 30 years old and he took it on vacation! I decided to offer to fix it so he can keep wearing it but only if he promised to only wear it around the house or working outside.  He agreed so I did a rough patch job. There were about 10 smaller places that I also "fixed". I don't, for a minute, believe that he will not wear this in public. I bet that it shows up on our Maine vacation.  Tomorrow I'm going to try to stay off the internet and get the rest of this veterans quilt sewn together so I can start quilting it. Then I need to start on a baby quilt that would be nice to finish before the shower on March 8. By the way, does anyone know why showers are called "sprinkles" now? I've been invited to a sprinkle, not a shower. WTH?  I did do quite a bit of crochet in the car. I need to measure this one but I think it's almost done. It's a wheelchair leg blanket.  I got this much of the shawl made. I'm a little burned out on crochet for the moment but I'll probably be back to it in a few days. I'd like to do mostly sewing this week. I certainly won't be going anywhere today!
This morning we are on the road to return home. It's been an absolutely fabulous vacation with lots of sun and great time with our friends. We did a lot of relaxing and sunbathing on our last few days  Laura and I did head out on one little adventure to visit San Xavier Del Bac Mission, south of Tucson. It is on the Tohono O'odham reservation, as is Kitt Peak Observatory. I believe that it's the oldest mission in Arizona and dates back to 1692. It's an active church and, while it gets a lot of tourist traffic, it's not really set up to be a tourist destination. There's no flyer with confirmation or docents. Of course, there's a very nice gift shop!  It was well worth the 40 minute drive. The artwork and craftsmanship is amazing. The Wikipedia article about it is very informative and Google had tons of great images.  This little Roadrunner has gotten very accustomed to all the visitors dropping crumbs. I didn't have to use the zoom at all. I think I could have almost petted it. Speaking of wildlife, yesterday morning Chris saw 3 coyotes and a bobcat on the path behind the condo. Very cool.  On the crochet front, I've started my new crochet project. It's a poncho that is supposed to be made with bulky weight yarn. I really wanted a lighter weight version so I'm giving this a try. I give it about a 50/50 chance of working out. I started this Monday night when everyone else had a wonderful evening at Kitt Peak Observatory. I didn't go because of the altitude but it gave me a few uninterrupted quiet hours to get this started. I really love this pattern and the stitch is fun. If it doesn't work with this yarn I will get some bulky yarn and make one to the pattern. I'll tell you more about the pattern in another post. I won't work on this again until I get home.  You can sort of start to see the pattern starting to develop. I probably need to do at least 20 more rows before I know if it's going to work. Meanwhile, I have 2 projects ready to go in the car for the ride home.
We will take 4 days driving home and will arrive late Tuesday. That means that I'll be watching my Eagles in the Super Bowl from a hotel along the way, probably in or near Texarkana.  Last night while everyone else was at the Kitt Peak Observatory I vacuumed enough of the floor to be able to take a few crochet projects. I have finished the two shawls I was working on and I'm happy to report that this is the end of that yarn for shawls. There's a little left over that will go in a scrapghan at some point. The pattern is this one. I've made it so many times now that I don't think I need the pattern anymore. It's such a good one for donation shawls. I already have yarn picked for the next one.  Here's the second one. I do like how the yarn makes each one look a little different.  I brought along a couple of Caron Cotton Cakes from my stash and started a shawl like the brown one I made last month. This will probably hold me to be one of my car projects for the ride home.
On the critter front we have seen a coyote, lots of quail, javelina, roadrunners and several varieties of hummingbirds. At the Arizona-Sedona Desert Museum we also saw mountain goats and a grey wolf. Everyone else checked out the reptile exhibit. In vacation news the weather is hot and glorious. Yesterday ot got up to 84 and it's supposed to be a couple of degrees warmer today. We've had a couple of good days sunning and reading by the pool. Sunday night we went to a concert at the Hotel Congress in downtown Tucson. It was fun to see downtown Tucson but, I have to admit, it was some of the most boring music I've ever heard. But it was a lovely night to sit outside with friends. Yesterday I skipped the morning walk because my ankle/foot is acting up a little. Today I'll tape it and do a walk, not a hike. Last night everyone but me went to the Kitt Peak Observatory. I passed because I have well documented altitude problems at anything above about 5500'. the observatory is at 6900'. Instead I stayed back and relaxed, made myself some fake bread, read, watched a movie and did some crochet. It was lovely. We left Hot Springs Wednesday morning and settled in for the longest day of driving to get to Midland, TX. I think it was about 9 hours. Through Arkansas I got a good look at the rice and forestry industries. As I researched, I learned that Arkansas is most known for poultry but I didn't see any of that in the parts where we were. We were lucky to make it around Dallas without any slowdowns. I actually visited Midland/Odessa in the 1980's when I was working for KPMG. I was sent there to do an IT audit. It was at a severe down period in the oil industry and I had never seen such a depressing place. Today it's booming! There are oil and gas workers everywhere and the economy is strong. There's also a big investment in that area in solar and wind. It was kind of depressing to see so many windmills not working. I'd say only about 30% were actually working. Anyway, it was all interesting.  While looking around for interesting things, I discovered that Odessa has a replica of Stonehenge. We just had to check it out before leaving town. It's at the University of Texas Permian Basin and was built in 6 weeks in 2004. I wouldn't make a special trip but if you are near Odessa you should go to see it. After that visit we were off to White Sands National Park. We drove I20 and I10 through El Paso and then north to Alamogordo. We got to go through a border crossing station and saw part of the border wall near El Paso. El Paso looks like a very interesting city and I think it would be fun to explore if we are ever back in this corner of the country.  White Sands National Park is amazing. If you have never done so, look it up in Google maps to see the satellite view of this wonder. The size is hard to describe. It reminds me of the vastness of Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. The white sand is gypsum and it's as far as you can see. The park is only part of the total sand area. Much of it is a government missile testing range. Chris' Dad actually worked here some when he worked on missile development after he retired from the Navy. When you visit the park you have to check the testing schedule because occasionally a road to the park might be closed. It's not something that happens very often but it does occasionally happen. Here are a few more photos.  Of course you can't go anywhere anymore without running into some girls ( always girls) doing photo sessions for social media. These three were out there at least a half hour just posing for photos. It seems like a colossal waste of time but to each her own.  On the crochet front I'm making steady progress on all of my projects. Here's the wheelchair blanket so far. I've worked on it for 2 days.  This is the shawl that I started. I finished up the partial cake and set it aside for now. I have 2 more cakes and I know I can get finish this one and get one more made with the remaining cakes.  I decided to start the second shawl and to see how far I get with one whole cake. Then I'll know how much of the last cake to allocate to each. So, I'm making progress all around.
Today we finally head to Tucson where we can sleep in the same bed for 2 whole weeks and cook some meals in a real kitchen! |
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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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