Friday, April 29, 2011

Bittersweet and "I Do" Day

I went to bed at 11pm EST Thursday night and set my alarm for 4am. My intentions of course was to watch the Royal wedding of Miss Kate to her Prince William. I do recall the alarm and my turning it off. At 5am I was jolted wide awake and thinking, "Oh no, I have missed the wedding!" When I got myself situated in front of the tv I saw that everything was fine and members of the Royal family were in route and arriving at Westminster. Of course I watched it all and it truly was a fairy tale wedding. Could the bride have been any more beautiful, I think not. The dress was so simple and so elegant. She needed no jewels, for she is "the jewel". In my world she could have worn a burlap sack and still been lovely. I think everyone feels so very good about this marriage. It was a bittersweet moment when news reporters mentioned how the day was overcast, but when Kate was getting out of the car at the Abby the sunshine came out a bit, like it was Diana who had arrived and smiled on this young woman. At that point I got a bit teary, because I do remember the wedding of Diana and Charles. Our friends across the pond now have a new princess and I can clearly see that she is loved. God Bless them.  ♥

Thursday, April 28, 2011

A Bit Frazzled

Just a wee bit of a note (without benefit of photo)......my idea to join the African Flowers while adding the last round did not fair well for me. I got one row done and started joining the second row and then I was NOT happy at all with the way it all looked. My flowers were turning out a bit puffy and since I am using acrylic yarn I really didn't want to try and block those motifs or the finished blanket............so, I did what I seem to be doing best these days.........I took all those joined flowers apart (woman on a mission) and decided to add the sage green individually and then I will HAND SEW them all together. Call me crazy, call me batty, but I expect to be done with this now in about a month, oh my!! Leave it to me to take the long way in doing anything and the hard way out. It is soooooo the story of my life, but anyone who knows me, knows I will rip it apart till I get it right. And another thing, I wish now that I would have found a lighter sage green. The Red Heart yarn I have is called Light Sage, well if that is a light sage, I would hate to see what the dark sage looks like. I just think a lighter green would have made the flower colors POP out so much more......I am really beginning to think I am getting to be such a fuss butt that there isn't much that satisfies me. I hope I am not turning into a crotchety old woman. See what menopause can do to you. It robs you of your good sense and reason. I just hope a straight jacket is not in my future, lol ♥

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

The Layout Is "NOT" Fun

No rain this morning, but the weatherman says to expect some light rain later today. Yesterday I woke up to a rainy, cold, dreary Ohio morning. It rained here on Easter morning. I think the saying goes, "If it rains on Easter Sunday then it will rain for the next 6 or 7 Sundays". One can only hope that is another old wives tale, or just a silly saying. Just a head's up on my husband, who has been going through chemo, he is doing well. That is a blessing to this family. He has been feeling good and strong enough to mow the grass 2 times now. He refuses my help. Even though it has been cold, the grass is so pretty, green.....and growing.

Now for some fun or not, I got all of the African Flowers completed. I should be thrilled, and I am to a point, but I always dread laying out the color scheme whether it be crochet or quilting blocks. I started searching for ideas......Ravelry......that has got to be the best ever spot to see what other creative people have done with their handiwork.


 I really think laying out the flowers on the floor would give me a better vantage point to check color design, but when you have 2 little dust mops running around the house you dare not put anything on the floor, because they consider it their territory. So I opted for my bed to use as my work surface.


I saw on Ravelry a very pretty layout for these motifs and the design was to put all the hexes in one large hex. It saves making half hexes if you want filled out edges like with a square or rectangle......    


 I sorted yellows, blues, reds, etc........and then the process began.........and I switched a few around, stood back several times to take a look at a distance and changed a couple again.......then I pulled out the binoculars and you might think "crazy girl, what on earth for?"



and I give you a little hint that I learned long ago with quilt layout.......grab a pair of binoculars and stand back from your layout and look through the opposite ends. It will throw your design further away from you and can see dark and lights better. It will give you an idea what the joined pieces will look like at a distance. Since motifs aren't joined yet and we aren't able to hang them on a clothes line or fence, this little trick helps to let you move colors around if they are too close or clumped in one spot before the final step of joining.           


So now I will start joining them and see what happens. I debated a long time about whether to add the sage border around each flower. I will show you some progress in a few days........oh and yes, I have another project in the works, I just couldn't help myself. Since I couldn't lay out my flowers last evening (when I finished them) cause someone was sleeping in my bed, lol, I grabbed a circular knitting needle and started making a little doll sweater. The pattern seems easy enough, and with my simple knitting skills I should be able to complete it. More to come....... ♥


Monday, April 25, 2011

Debbiedoos Newbie Party

Rainy day here today. I checked out what Debbie is doing on her blog and she has some lovely pics of her newly re-done bedroom. She is also having her Newbie Party which is every Monday so check it out when you get some time. You can link to her pages and her party by clicking on her button in the right column of my pages, or look for her in my Lovely Blogs list under Debbiedoos Blogging and Blabbing . I will post again, just passing through at the moment. Hope everyone is doing well and that you all had a wonderful Easter Holiday ♥

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Happily Getting There

Work in progress, please excuse my mess....
Just a short note to let all of you lovely people know that I am so close now to the end of making all of my African Flower motifs. I had 169 to make and they are all done except to do the last row on about 26 of the flowers. I also have the tails to weave on those. Hopefully I can finish them up this evening while watching a bit of tv. Of course then comes the last and final row when joining all of them and maybe a border row or two when completely joined. I hope the next time I post about this it will be complete with a picture of the finished item. Happy hooking and hope all of you have a safe and joyous Easter holiday. Please let us remember why we celebrate ♥

Friday, April 15, 2011

Slowly Making Progress

Oh yeah, I am still plugging away at "the flowers". I can hardly believe that I have made over 100 of them already. I crochet about 10-20 and then sit and weave the ends. There was no way I was going to face doing that when I completed them all. Besides, I still have the border to put around them and plan to join them as I go. I so wish I was a better photographer. It would probably help if I sat for several days and played around with my camera AFTER reading the instruction book. My youngest daughter Meghan has a wonderful camera, and she takes excellent pictures. Some day I will post some of her pics. They are beautiful. In the meantime squint your eyes at my pics, it might make an improvement on what you see, lol ♥ 
             
Just a random display on the small felt board.

Closer look.

One of the prettier combo of colors.

More in the works.

My work place in the living room, my footstool table.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Another 2 Bite the Dust

This Monday morning I decided to stay true to my word and finish up another UFO. I was determined and decided to complete 2 things instead of 1. The first is a cowl scarf made of Lion Brand Yarn Vanna's Choice in the color Brick. I love this yarn. It is knitted worsted weight and soft. All the cowl needed was for me to sew up the seam joining the two ends to make it a circle. I debated whether to add a flower, but for the pic I just added a pin. I suppose if I get ambitious later on I might add a crocheted flower.       


The second thing I finished up was this knitted Christmas stocking that I made for my youngest daughter Meghan. She has a fireplace and it sure needed something to dress it up during the holidays. Unfortunately, her mother, yours truly, was a slacker and never got it done in time for Christmas. Shamefully, all I needed to do to finish it was to put a ring at the top so it could be hung up. The stocking was made from a Red Heart knitting worsted weight yarn. I do knit, but I do not profess to be very good at it. I love knitting though, especially when it is done by some of you who can work magic with the needles. I suppose I would get better if I kept at it, but I guess I love my crochet hooks way too much ♥     
          
 
                             

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Slow Saturday

Just popping in to say, "Hi, and yes, I am still working on "the flowers". I am happily hooking away and the flower garden is growing steadily by small leaps and bounds. I had them all piled up on the stool in front of my chair but after countless times of going through them, I decided to bring out my small felt board that I use for laying out my quilting designs. I tacked up the flowers with pins. No more figuring out what colors to combine for the next flower when I can check that out with a quick glance. I have played around a bit with the layout. I am sure flowers will be moved many times so I can get this right before I add the border green (which I found this week and is going to be a lovely sage). Again, poor lighting, so I apologize.....my progress so far.......♥    


Saturday, April 2, 2011

A Bit of Down Time

Today I put down my crochet hook for awhile (prying it out of my hand). We will go visit my oldest daughter and her husband for a few hours this afternoon. She just started her own scrap booking blog found here and opened herself a little Etsy store devoted to her passion. She is a full-time social worker for the State of Ohio and I don't know how she manages to juggle all the things that she does. Her love of scrappin' is what helps her keep her sanity and we all know how important it is to be able to leave life's stresses behind and bury ourselves in what we love to do. Her little Etsy store is doing a bit of business, plus she has been making greeting cards and doing nicely selling them to co-workers. The orders came in slowly and word of mouth helped to jump start her business. Now she is a bit swamped and so I offer to help her and she accepts my help.......I will be doing some die cuts or punches for her. In return, she offers to feed us some hot wings. Her dad says he will go along. He does not offer to help. I imagine it was the mention of food that enticed him to tag along :P

Last evening I counted how many new African Flowers I had managed to whip up and the count was around 18. Do I have any offers to come weave the yarn tails in for me? What?? Did I hear someone say, "I'm getting outta here?" LOL, I know, that has got to be the worst part ever when doing any kind of motif with color changes. I sat in my chair thinking how tired I was and then I spied out a bit of doily thread scraps and it was like a light bulb went off above my head and I got a second wind. I dug out a small steel crochet hook and I think you all get the picture.......YES!  






This little darling is a bit too large for my dollhouse, I do believe it just isn't to the 1:12 scale and so I would have to either go with a smaller doily thread or embroidery floss. It was fun to try and if I do anymore experiments I will post what develops (if I am not blind by then from doing such tiny work, lol). In the meantime, I will continue to work with worsted weight yarns. Enjoy your weekend. ♥
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