Progress, finally

We are on another road trip, this time from Seattle to Denver. We'll stay a week in Denver then return home. On the trip over, I knitted up a storm. I finished two bags, a pair of socks, and nearly finished a Christmas theme doll I call Elfie. All she needs is a skirt and she is also complete.

While I am here, I am working on the quilt. I just couldn't decide how to cut the rainbow pieces, and I finally decided that I couldn't tell how it would look until I did it. So, I DID IT. I cut the pieces and laid them out on a table. It is going to be okay, maybe even fine.

I realize that my goals are often much to grandiose. But sometimes, I do achieve them. My goal for this week is to get all the rainbow sewed together, then to add the "city" and sky pieces needed to complete the center of the top.

That seems pretty ambitious, but I might be able to so it.

Carry on!!!

Update Slogging on

So remember my goal was to get the rainbow quilt top finished. So I have the fabric all cut even, (note to self, check to see what last blog says), and in one place. And this whole week, I have done . . . . . . NOTHING on it.

Nick mentioned that I was using the entire top of the stereo cabinet for my handspun yarn display and he didn't have any room for his "stuff". So Thursday, I got up with great intentions of working on the quilt-top, but first cleared off all the yarn from the top of the cabinet and from the back of the sofa.

I have had it in mind for several weeks, even a note on my fiber notebook, to check through the handspun to make sure it is all recorded properly, both in the fiber book and in my Ravelry stash.

Before I got started with that check though, I took some cotton yarn, and crocheted a bowl, kind of open. Remember Macrame! Not quite that, but close. I made it the size of the popcorn bowl that I usually use for storing the handspun, and even blocked it over the bowl. I washed it and soaked it in starch. I used the 50-50 formula, half starch and half water, and later realized I should have used all starch. Then I stretched it out over the bowl to dry. My plan is to make two of these bowls (same size??, graduated??) and use a fabric bowl (which I also starched) and create a hanging basket trio, one on top of the other, to hold my fiber. The basket I crocheted is very open. The sides are like a market basket, just chains attached about every four or five stitches, so the handspun will show through the holes. It is really cute. Only took three or four hours, another hour or so to muck about with the starching and the fabric bowl, and it was midafternoon. Too late for a walk and I still wanted to sort through the handspun and compare it to the Ravelry stash and the fiber notebook.

That was finished up in plenty of time to watch Jeopardy. Nick made dinner (if you can call heating up a frozen concoction "making" dinner, but it was good, and the kind I like that he is not so fond of - spinach, need I say more.)

Today, Friday, is my day to go to the kids, but since they are in school til 2:30 I don't have to leave until noon or one pm. So I cleaned up the kitchen, made Welch Cakes, cleaned up some more, unloaded clean dished from the dishwasher, put dirty ones in. I also washed my over 400 yards of three ply yarn I finished Thursday, and a medium single I really like and think I will keep as a single. I restarched the crocheted bowl to see if I could make it even stiffer. I do want it to stand up by itself, although now I am considering using a wire coat hanger to make a collar for it to hand from. I'm not sure now. By the time I got all this done, I barely had time to shower and leave for the kids. I did take the time to swing by the library on my way, but arrived at 2:15, so pretty close to time to walk over to school to get Smiley.

I describe this to show that I am doing a lot of stuff, but just not the thing I tell myself is high on the critical list. I mean, I want to keep the kitchen clean. I really wanted to finish the two yarns. Having an attractive and useful place to store the yarn is a very good thing. Keeping Ravelry stash and my fiber notebook accurate and up-to-date are critical to being organized about my fiber and stash.

Or, are these just excuses to avoid working on the rainbow, which I am desparately afraid I won't like once it is done. I wish I knew.

Traveling

We are on a trip along the Oregon Coast. I have been knitting up a storm. I knit while DH drives.

Yesterday we stopped at a quilt shop in Newport OR and I was inspired. I went home (to the MH) and dug out the fabrics, planned and cut the next section of the rainbow quilt. It is awesome, that I sorted and cut, that I am continuing to work on it.

I am not sure I am going to like this when I get it done, and I won't know until I sew the thing together. Oh well. That is a worry and sometimes a stopper. But I have decided: DO IT ANYWAY. If I really don't like it, then I can decide then what to do. But try it. That is my message to myself.

I have so many ideas for quilts. The shop was really inspiring. She said they specialize in landscape fabrics. They had so many picture quilts, pieced, appliqued, and even pictures printed onto fabric, then quilted. I got the idea that I could take some of my photos, print them on fabric, paint the important parts (in case the original ink runs or fades) applique other important parts over the print fabric, and create quilt blocks as individual as my camera's eye. Mine, in every way. Can't wait to try it.

They had dozens of lighthouse patterns, material, and other landscape ideas. One was a picture of cute water animals. There are sea lions here, dozens and dozens of them, but I think the water animals weren't really sea lions. The flippers and such were sea-liony, but the heads were more like an otter or perhaps a seal, even a baby polar bear. I'm not really up on my mammals of the sea, but these weren't quite right (to my taste).

There was a quilt pattern, or rather ten to twelve patterns, of local attractions, so one could make a quilt with favorite vistas. That was really awe-inspiring, except that I keep wanting to do my own thing, such as the quilt I have planned of Maritime Canada. The idea of choosing 10-12 pictures, printing them onto 8.5 by 11 muslin, and creating a quilt that way is so exciting. I am ready to choose pictures RIGHT NOW.

I want to make a lighthouse quilt for Julie. The Newport quilt shop had lots of ideas, and I was so inspired.

Keep on keeping on.

Live, learn, love, laugh, leave a legacy.

Suzie

Keeping Going

At the start of October, I had every intention of working heavily on the quilts for the grandkids. But then I took the boys camping for a weekend, and then I got sick or something, anyway didn't feel well for a few days. So much that I missed out on going to the boys last week. And I haven't been working on the quilts AT ALL. Until yesterday.

I kind of feel like I am balancing on top of a large ball, perhaps 10 feet in diameter. As long as I stay centered on the ball top, I am fine. However, once I fall off, it seems impossible to get back on. Imagine trying to climb up on a ten foot high ball. Impossible.

So yesterday, I finally got busy and got sewing again. I have gotten all the colored stripes sewed together, which was my goal for the first week. I know, this has been three weeks. However,....

Next step, pick out "sky", "ground", and "pot of gold" fabric to complete quilt top. And cut apart strips, to resew into rainbow shape. That shouldn't be so difficult. Goal timeline: Get fabrics picked out by Sunday, take with Monday, and complete cut apart-resew by the following Monday.

I can do this.

Procrastination

Here's the thing. I really want to work on my quilts. I have had to make myself sew this week. I have the pattern (in my head) and the fabric all sorted out. Well, okay I sorted and sorted for several days and got the final selection by Tuesday. And I started to sew. At the machine. And it is coming out okay, not wonderful, not breathtaking, but okay.

Is that what I am afraid of, that it will be just okay? Or worse, ugly?

Or the the intended recipient won't like it. He won't, but not because it's not wonderful, but because teenage boys of his ilk wouldn't like anything made by grandma. Only if I give him green stuff, green with zeros on it (plural) is he apt to be excited about his gift. So okay he won't like it and that doesn't matter, I am making it anyway. I am not making it for him, but because I want to be the kind of grandma who has given each of the grandkids a quilt. Why, oh why, didn't I start (I did) and finish (I didn't) when they were still in cribs. Crib size quilts are smaller, quicker to make, and cute. They also don't have to be fashioned to the child's interests, because at that age, they really don't have any readily identifiable interests. So I didn't.

But I like sewing. So why all this procrastination?

I'd have written this Monday, but, you know, I didn't get around to it.

Yes I Care

I think that I must care, otherwise I wouldn't be thinking and blogging about it.

So...

Last weekend, I decided to definitely finish up quilts I have started for Honey and Cutie. Here is what I accomplished this week:

Finished up a bathrobe I made for myself, except for a button.
Located the packets of fabric I have so far set aside for the two quilts.
Started and finished an apron from a kit I found in my stash (I don't wear aprons.)
Got together all the alpaca fiber I have, picked through it to remove as much vegetable matter as possible, and sent almost all of it off to be processed. Yeah!!
Started combing the remaining 12 ounces of alpaca, which was the messy parts that I just couldn't get picked apart and devegied.
Partially frogged about two inches of the socks I am working on, and restarted them.
Spent on day with the grandkids. And finally...
Dragged all four boxes of quilt fabric down to the parlor so that I can open them all, look for more fabric to complement what I have already selected.

So I was busy, and productive, and didn't get very far on the TWO MOST IMPORTANT PROJECTS. sigh.

The rest of my life, part 2

Back from Canada, and still with unanswered questions. But some (one?) answer. I will finish some of the projects I have started, and get rid of the rest (either by frogging, tossing, or giving away undone).

I love doing it all. I love sewing and quilting. I love knitting and spinning. I love dying, and want to use my own dyed products in my other projects. I am not ready to give up some other ideas of what to make and create.

My uncertainty is that I will spend the next twenty or thirty years going from one thing to another, and not ever get very good at anything. And I don't know if I care.

I read somewhere (while I was in Canada) that the colonies of (bacteria, I believe) actually do better if there are some "bad" eggs in the bunch. In the struggle to overcome the bad ones, the good ones get better, stronger, healthier. Now that I don't have to work for money, will I have the will-power, attitude, stick-to-it-iveness to really accomplish something? Or will I just become another old woman with a large stash of fabric, yarn, fiber, and unfinished projects? And again, do I care?

I have to ask the question. I don't have or have to have the answer.

The rest of my life

What am I going to do for the rest of my life?

Do I need a plan?

Should I keep track? Of what?

How will I know when (if) I get there?

Just thought I should ask. Off for Eastern Canada now. Haven't been there yet, so looking forward to it. Should be awesome.

How to Play Kitty Golf

Kitty Golf is a game for children of all ages. It is helpful if they can walk.

Each player selects a toy cat or kitten. (Of course other toy animals can be used, but then it wouldn't be "KITTY" Golf, would it?) Proceed to your nearest disc (frisbee) golf course. Make sure no one else is playing on the course, as Kitty Golf involves a lot of running around and would interfere with other players.

Starting at the first tee, each player throws his cat as far as he can towards the "hole", basket, or goal, whatever you want to call it. The object of the game is to get your cat/kitty into the goal in the least number of throws, however, keeping score is sometimes a challenge for the youngest players. After every player has taken two or three turns, the adult can announce that the first player to get his cat/kitty into the goal is the winner of that hole. This MAY speed up the game somewhat. Or not.

Proceed around the course in this manner as for regular disc golf, for as many holes as you can handle. The winner is the player who has "won" the most holes. This game teaches throwing skills, taking turns, and patience (mostly for the adult!). If things get too slow or the adult finds he/she has had it, an ice cream break may be declared. This results in the game being called on account of ice cream.

Hints for better play: It is best if the cat/kitty is washable. The game involves a lot of running around, screaming and yelling, and some argument, but hardly any skinned knees.