Garden Maze

No, no quilt today although I'm working on quilting. I took some photos of the things growing in the yard yesterday and thought I would show you.

First we have the new iris plants (planted last Fall).

The Cinnamon Ferns are totally taking over again. Gotta pull a whole bunch this year as they have spread 1.5 feet beyond their little brick barrier. They look great now, but come July, ick.

Yes, we didn't bob the chives again, but they still work well. I like chives in salads for the slight oniony taste. These are more than a decade old and planted in a half whiskey barrel. You wouldn't think they'd survived Minnesota cold, but they do. Look pretty too. My favorite colors are purple and green.

Here's the Rosemary Shrub. I can barely taste this stuff, but we use it in biscuits, turkey and focaccia. It has its own wagon as it needs to be brought into warmer places when it gets too cold. By June, we'll take it off its wagon for several months to be part of the patio decor.

It Was THIS BIG!

My sister Patty went fishing during the Minnesota Fishing Opener this past weekend and look what she caught! A big ol' Northern. This one is 5 pounds. She caught two others, both a decent size, but a little smaller. I didn't get any photos of Bill my BIL with any fish, although I know he caught some too. Look at those teeth! So, what does this have to do with Needlework? Not a darn thing (pun intended) other than last year, I finished knitting my blue socks in that chair behind her last year (I know, weak reference, but it's all I can manage. Hopefully, I will have as impressive of photo to present later this year when I go fishing. Finally, before you ask, yes, my sister and I look very much alike except she has blondish hair and blue eyes and I'm a brunette with brown eyes. She is also a hunter and a terrific gardener (with my BIL) and is growing 6 or 7 different varieties of tomatoes this year. Her needlework hobby is primarily making doll clothing (I featured a few examples a few months ago). So, congratulations Patty!! I'll try to find a celebratory recipe for you!

Non-Craft Post

Yes, this is a totally non-craft post, but I'm so excited. Some months ago, I spent eons talking myself out of buying something. Finally, caved and then Amazon was OUT!! Wahhhhh!! Ok. I whined about that for a few weeks and then discovered the item on Ebay. I immediately bought one. It came today. I'm doing happy dances all over the place! Here's my find!


In case you haven't figured it out, I'm a total Garfield fan. I'm not excessive (I have only a couple of Garfield trinkets), but this was sortof an ideal useful item! The jelly donut is a cup warmer, so this is a great treat for me while knitting or crocheting. For quilting or scrapbooking, I have a special cupholder (Creative Memories) or I end up with scraps in my cup. It's true, I have way too many coffee cups, but I tend to mostly drink out of only 4 cups. Now 5! Anyway, happy dance, happy dance. Back to our regularly scheduled program.

I've Been Tagged (a few times)

I've been tagged by 3 others so far, so I thought I'd finally post something. I don't know who to tag, so I'm just a leak in the game. The question is....6 weird things about me.

Six Weird Things About Me

1. I talk to cats and my computer. Most of the time, it's polite.
2. I talk to myself too. Just have to remember not to do it in public ("Now, how did I miss that stitch?" or "What have we here?")
3. I am a neurotic map looker upper. Mapquest and I are buddies. If someone indicates they are from some hole-in-the-wall place, I gotta look it up. I just can't help myself.
4. I tend to spend money on fabric and yarn before buying needed clothing or footwear. There is 6 inches of snow and I still have no boots.
5. I hate shopping but I like errands. I avoid clothing shopping until I have nothing left in wearable condition. And then I still avoid it! I can do errands all day. Food shopping I tolerate.
6. The word "utilize" makes me totally crazy. The correct form is use, used, using or usage. People have enough trouble understanding each other without popularizing useless government speak. Family members say it to torment me.

Merry Christmas and Happy Yule!

On the needlecraft side, I finished the Paddlewheel quilt today! Full treatment to follow tomorrow (if we still have all this sun). I'll have it kitten tested before I take photos (must be cat approved you know). I have to do labels for all the 2006 quilts now that I found my fabric labels again.

I got Electric Quilt 6 for Christmas and I've been playing with it and actually following the tutorial. Finished Lesson 1, on to Lesson 2! I was happy to find out that I can scan my own fabrics in, since there isn't a chance that they would be in EQ6. Now, I just have to figure out how we can toggle between hi res and low res because it's very hard to read the screens outside of the quilting program. There MUST be a way of doing it in XP. We just haven't discovered it yet.

The Christmas Train is pretty popular. Dad is trying to figure out how to squeeze in one more car and Mom torments the kids by adding one more stuffed animal periodically. Bob the Builder arrived only about a week ago. Kids even get out of their vehicles to have their picture taken in front of the Train. I am only a train worker bee. I help move the train onto the front lawn and back again after Jan. 1. Now, for the photos. First, we start with our engineers.

The Engine! The wheels are stationary during the day, but move at night.
>
Next, the Gift car.

Next is the animal box car (technically, they aren't all animals).

Here's Grog and Nog. Need fuel to celebrate, right? The garland keeps getting ravaged by wind. Guys, here's a place where duct tape just doesn't work.

Here's the Caboose. Little Nemo even has bubbles.

Upper window of Caboose has Santa Bears. For those not in the know, around 1985, Daytons offered a Santa Bear. It was so popular, that they designed new Santa Bears every year for a number of years afterwards. The Dayton's store is no more, but Santa Bear lives on in the Christmas Train.

We Got A Winner!

My Mom and Dad have had a Christmas train for some years now. This year, they won 1st Prize in the 1st Annual Lighting Display for a Large Non-motion Display (the wheels are motorized). First Prize was $50 (which pays for replacement light bulbs and stuff).

Their neighbor directly across the street won 1st Prize for Large Motion Display (deer are animated). They have a very elegant display. Our end of the block tied up half the contest.

Want to see more Christmas Train Photos!? Go to this link: www.picturetrail.com/quiltsrus. They are in the Family Photos Section near the top. Yes, kitty photos are in the Pet section also, but I need to upload more!

I did manage to finish sewing the last border on the Paddlewheel quilt and have cut the fabric to make up the binding. Coming into the home stretch, but I know tomorrow will be full of errands, so I don't expect to get much done then.

Cute Dolly Stuff & Kitty

I've mostly just been working on the Giant Granny today and pinning the backing on the Paddlewheel quilt (remember, I told you there was hand work, but still a lot less than trying to pull a whole queen sized quilt through the sewing machine!).

I have to share this with you! None of my extended family members crochet, knit or quilt. However, my sisters do sew things. My sister in Central MN has been making doll clothing for her grandkids for a couple of years and is now selling them. They are mostly her own designs and most are historical. Here's an example. I think these are just great!

Also, here's a new photo of another train car on the Christmas Train. Lots of little figures for the kids (and they recognize all of them!


Finally, a kitty photo. Kitty jacknife. How do you sleep this way?

Paddlewheels are Turning

I'm still quilting along on the Paddlewheel Quilt. I thought I could get it done by the end of November, but I'd say I have a couple more weeks to go. Here are the sections that are completed already. I still have to trim them, but it's easier to do it all at once. One more doublestrip to go, then the borders. For those who have asked, the name of the pattern is Paddlewheels and Pinwheels and it is in Lynnette Jensen's book Thimbleberries Book of Quilts (avail. at Amazon.com). The quilting is going along pretty well, but I only get a couple of blocks quilted daily. The borders will be done using cross-hatching.

Here's my Dad's Christmas Train. It has a bunch of cars as well (heck it covers the whole front yard), but this is the only photo that came out clear. As you can see from the house behind, this thing is huge.

My Trip (with Photos)

Well, I'm back in Suburbia once more. Browerville, MN, where I was staying, is a cute little town located in Central Minnesota. Not a lot of stores. However, with encroachment from Brainerd, it might change over time. But, right now, it's just the right size and has most of what one needs. The best thing about Browerville downtown is Steve's Market. They provide homemade sausages and other meats which are very yummy! The sausages grill wonderfully. Oh, and did I mention that I grilled for the first time as well!? Yes, it's probably a no-brainer using a gas grill, but I never figured it out before. I give credit to my sister for teaching me the finer points of grilling.

First, for you sock knitters, here's my sock progress just before I did the heels. I'll be working on socks this weekend, so perhaps much more progress. Heel turn went fine. Now on to the gusset. This is the view from my sister's front porch about 30 feet away. Duck weeds and cattails and it looks very picturesque.
Here is my completed top from Mystery #18. I really like this one. I plan to quilt it using freehand leaves. This is a twin sized quilt and includes fabric from "In the Beginning" as well as Kaufman.


The long awaited finish of my parent's anniversary quilt. I started this in May 2005 with the intention of completing the top prior to my parents' 50th anniversary last year. I just didn't have the space to lay this out to figure out how to finish it. Yes, well, some things are easier for others. Anyway, top is done now. Although I have planned to tie it, I may quilt it using the method where you only put in 1/3 of the batting at a time to reduce bulk. This is a queen sized quilt that is otherwise just too difficult to do in my home machine. We'll see. I want to finish this during the Summer. The pattern is Pine Trees from Lynnette Jensen of Thimbleberries. All the fabrics are from several lines from Thimbleberries.

Accomplishing

Managed to get a couple of quilt tops done! Finished Mystery #18! It looks so bright and cheerful. Also finished my Thimbleberries quilt. I'll post complete photos this weekend. On and off working on my socks. Turned heels on both so far.

One disadvantage of rural America. Way too many bugs. Ticks. Mosquitoes. Horseflies that bite. Ick. Then there's this small, green beetle that seems to seek me out. It doesn't seem to do anything, but makes me feel like I have creepy crawlies all over me. Ticks. I hate ticks. I haven't had a tick on me in decades and ewwwwww....one got on me yesterday (I can hear my sister laughing at me). Anyway, Nature should just stay away from me while I'm outside. I'm trying to knit, for Pete's sake.

On the plus side, I had a wondrous view of a firefly convention. It was 1 a.m. (yeah, I don't sleep well) and they were everywhere! Wow, that was really cool. Never saw that before. In addition, I've never seen so many dragonflies in one place also. I wonder if it has to do with the neighbor growing a field of alfalfa? Don't know, but they are keen to see.

Housesitting and Projects

I'm housesitting at my sister's and having a good, relaxing time with the kitties. Unfortunately, I can't provide photos easily. My sister and BIL live in Central Minnesota, right in the middle of lake country. They were disgruntled with my fishing pole (button reel with expandable pole), so taught me how to fish with a REAL fishing pole. We practiced for awhile then. I went out fishing 10 minutes after they left on Friday and caught my very first Northern Pike on only the 4th throw. Need I say lunch?

Spent the weekend working on Mystery Quilt #18 from www.Quiltaholics.com. I did run into a snag, but should finish the quilt top today. I love the diamond border, but it sure wasn't easy to sew! I think I'd like to include it on a future project, so will research easier ways for me to do it (probably cheater corners or paper piecing...who knows).

Sew, for the rest of today, I'll be finishing up the Mystery, then start working on one of the quilting projects I brought with me. The weather is so great though (and mosquitoless in the daytime), I'm spending a lot of time outdoors knitting and hopefully will have a completed pair of socks by the end of the week!

4 Things I Did Do

4 jobs I’ve had in my life:
Cashier
Customer Service Clerk
Wire Operator (entered stock, bond and
commodity orders)
Technical Writer

4 movies I can watch over and over:
Godzilla (the one with Matthew Broderick)
Die Hard
Armageddon
Men In Black

4 TV shows I love to watch:
24
Midsommer Murders
Extreme Cowboy Race (on RFD channel)
Food Unwrapped (Food TV)

4 places I have lived:
Massachusetts (semi-rural)
Boston
Minneapolis
several Minneapolis 'burbs

4 places I have been on holiday:
West Texas
Hawaii
Maine
London

4 of my favorite dishes:
Chicken Caccatore
Steak with fries
Omellette
Homemade submarine (hero) sandwich

4 websites I visit daily:
www.about.com
www.knittersreview.com
http://quiltville.com/
www.crochetville.org (on hiatus, temporary I hope!)

4 places I would rather be right now:
Texas: at least until it gets hot.
Fishing (anywhere)
My own home
In a needlework shop (with a pristine credit card)

4 bloggers whose blogs I visit frequently:
http://yarntomato.com/blog/ (crochet)
http://thecrochetdude.blogspot.com/
http://www.doodle-head.com/blog/
http://www.nowherethoughts.net/sarpysam/ (I skip the politics, love the photos)

Texas Trip Stuff

Now that I've sortof organized since my return, I can post again.

I started my trip at the Texas State Fair in Dallas. Wow, those buildings are awesome--wonderful art deco style. Of course, I checked out the Creative Activities area-plenty of quilts! Not too much cross stitch or knitting and only a couple of crocheted afghans. It took me half a day to figure out what was wrong at the Fair-no kids. Unlike the Minnesota State Fair, this fair starts after the kids are in school, so you don't see any teenagers until after 4 p.m. The evening parade and light show was worth staying for. Wow!

Loved the Ranch Rodeo at the Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering in Ft Worth Stockyards(http://www.theredsteagallcowboygathering.com/). I was surprised about how much of the cowboy music I already knew. Also took the time out to visit Cabbage Rose Quilt Shop in Ft Worth (http://www.cabbagerosequilting.com/) and bought lots of western fabric/patterns. I think I spent more than two hours there! They were also very helpful in giving me directions to other quilt shops that also carried western stuff. Unfortunately, I missed out on most due to arriving after they closed.

Meandered my way to San Antonio via rural highways. Much better than the direct route not only for scenery but for a more relaxing drive. Saw the Alamo and cruised the River Walk (some fine Margaritas were drunk as well). Visited Cross Stitch Plus in San Antonio (http://members.aol.com/CrStPLofSA/). This was a wonderful shop and carried a good selection of Western/Texas patterns also.

After San Antonio, I drove to Houston. Unfortunately, due to the Astros, there simply were no hotel rooms to be had for the weekend (if you didn't already have reservations). So, I did the Houston Quilt Festival all in one day (and had to skip my visit to NASA). Exhausting, but doable. Bought lots of stuff, but limited my fabric purchases to small/tiny prints (best place to find them). My most significant impression of the quilts was that there were many more 'artsy' quilts and modern designs than traditional. I tend to prefer traditional.

Returned to San Antonio and visited both the San Antonio Zoo and Sea World (and finally got sunburned). Then chose to visit caves, which were wonderful! I stopped at Cave Without A Name, Natural Bridge Caverns and Caverns of Sonora. Even if out of your way, they are all worth stopping for. I managed to get as far west as Ozana, then started going north to Abeline. If you plan to visit, check ahead. They have fewer tours at this time of year. For more information on the caves I visited:
www.cavewithoutaname.com
http://www.naturalbridgecaverns.com/
http://www.cavernsofsonora.com/

I got the biggest kick out of the guys. As soon as they heard I was from MN, they would immediately launch into the problems the Vikings were having. So, yes, without ever hearing the news, I had the blow-by-blow account of Culpepper's injury. When I get all my photos back, I'll upload some!

I Miss My Mac and other silly stories

While organizing some of my photos on the computer, I came across a picture of my old Mac. I miss him. This is a photo of him moments before he was packed into the car to be taken away to be recycled in June 2004 (teary eyed moment). I bought him in 1987 at a cost of $1,500. I still haven't sold the printer (the 24 pin dot matrix one still has a market). My replacement Mac is older than dirt as well (bought in 1994), however, it still works for everything I need it for except for the Internet.

Anyway, along with that, I also found an opportunity to take a photo of another afghan that was finished in the past. This was my first Mile A Minute Afghan and made for my Mom. The light blue was Orlon, while the dark blue was a newer acrylic from Caron. I did this entire thing during lunch hours at work in 1992. This is a satisfying pattern-it looks pretty and finishes fairly quickly. A variagated gives an entirely different look. Change to woodsy colors and it's a guy afghan. With the no-dye-lot yarns, you have to be much more selective of yarn choices or the result isn't very soft. The specific pattern used for this one is a booklet (still sold at Joann's and Michaels) called Learn To Crochet The Mile-A-Minute Annie Way (there's a photo of the booklet in my July 15, 2005 blog entry). Lots of other Mile-a-Minute patterns are available, but the one I received from a gal in England is my very next one.

Other Stuff I do

Do I only do needlework? Nope. I love movies and books.

I am not a regular TV watcher. Not that there are not good shows on, but just not important enough for me to remember to turn the TV on. I tried, I really did, to enjoy Desperate Housewives, but I was just so turned off by some of the characters that I just stopped bothering. I've been watching 24 (Keiffer Sutherland) on DVD, so will make an effort to see the episodes as they air this year.

I'm very much a movie watcher and I will admit that my preference are high body count movies. Horror, thrillers, action adventure are movies I will go out of my way to see generally (OK..Blade did have a little more blood than I could take, but oh well). I also like kid-like movies (Shrek, Ants, Nemo). I occasionally like a romantic comedy, but I wait until it's on Cinemax to see it. The last one I really liked was You Got Mail. I did rather like Meg Ryan movies, but she isn't 'cute' anymore. So far, I haven't found her particularly good in dramatic roles either.

I have boycotted Tom Cruise movies since 1997. He may be a good actor, but a fruitcake whose career should die before he does any more damage. Seems others are finally catching on!

Most recently, I went to see Corpse Bride. If you didn't like Nightmare Before Christmas, you won't like this movie. It has an interesting story, but the music isn't anywhere near the caliber of the first movie (stories aren't related..just the style). I enjoyed the movie, but this is not one I'd watch over and over. Featured trailers for future movies that looked interesting included Chicken Little, the next Harry Potter movie and Chronicles of Narnia. I go the first day to every Harry Potter movie. Just gotta.

I can no longer read my favorite books. I have eye damage that makes reading a book very difficult. In fact, I haven't read a single Harry Potter book, yet I know them very well via audio editions. On a computer, I can adjust contrast, font, and all making reading easy. Can't on a book. Some of my favorite authors include Anne McCaffrey, Christopher Stasheff and most recently Dean Koontz. I've also become a fan of funny vampire romance books. It's dumb, but hey, I enjoy them.

Ok..well, I'll add more if I get to it today.

Storm Damage and Progress

As I type this, I am surrounded by the sound of chain saws. Last night, while watching TV about the path of Hurricane Rita, and wondering if I'm even going to be able to go on my Texas trip, we got hit by a big storm that caused significant damage. In fact, there was a tornado only a couple of blocks away (F2 about 50 feet wide, meterologists say). We, however, had straight line winds estimated at 80 mph. So, we've lost a couple of trees and had a 'train wreck.' My Dad's scale model Christmas Train broke its bracing and fell sideways. The caboose lost it's roof. The trees we lost were due to be cut down in a couple of years, so it's not too tragic. Some folks lost all the trees in their yards and of course, some folks lost their homes. A large section of the business district in both Blaine and Coon Rapids lost power all day, so I wasn't able to get my bifocals today. Darn it.

Note the 5 gallon buckets to get an idea of how big this Christmas lawn ornament is.

Every evening, I've been doing about 1/2 an hour of sewing on the Depression quilt. I just make HSTs. It's also one of the few things I can do on any craft stuff without getting these new bifocals as I can't read directions and work on project at the same time! Darn it.

Goodbye Peter Jennings

I've missed seeing Peter Jennings whenever I watch the news. He's been anchoring on ABC pretty much my entire adult life. The one thing he said to learn from his illness was to quit smoking. As an ex-smoker myself, I can understand not only how hard it is to quit, but also how easy it can be to start again.

I'm fortunate. I finally quit after 7 or 8 attempts in January 1991. I recognized that my problem wasn't nicotine addiction so much as the habit of smoking (like biting your fingernails). In the 3 months prior to that, I eliminated habitual places, where I smoked, one at a time. Finally, the only place I smoked was my chair. The day I quit (mid-January), I started an afghan. I made it a goal to finish it for my sister's birthday and it kept my hands busy, busy, busy. Yes, I finished it by February 16 (the night before). I also found that I had to eliminate certain things. Beer was one of them as I always smoked when I drank alcohol. It took about 3 years before I could drink a beer without craving a cigarette.

All of my cigarette money went to buying needlework stuff, so technically, I didn't really save any money by quitting smoking. I created a new demon--one that could fall in on me if the piles of stash get too high!

Today, I didn't get any needlework done so far, but I have been sorting and packing away in anticipation of repainting in September. All these fabrics I had forgotten about, I get to visit again. I am also using my 2.5 gallon Hefty zips to sort out stuff needed for planned projects. I found that these are large enough not only to contain the book/pattern, but also to keep the fabric somewhat wrinkle free. It also reminds me to stop buying more fabric....

Happy Birthday To Me!

I'm 39. Again. Here's the cake my sister made featuring my favorite cartoon character. That strange stuff on top is multicolored sprinkles. The only needlework I've done is undoing a giant multicolor yarn knot. The pieces will all go into the Colorful Granny afghan. Oh, yes, I'm in a unique category. I started out having two younger sisters...I now have 2 older sisters. :)

Welcome to my new blog!

I have been blogging now for about a year. Over that time period, I worked on my hobbies and updated multiple blogs. In February 2004, I became ill with the flu, followed by complications. I not only couldn't blog, but I couldn't even work on my needlework hobbies. This was followed by spending more time trying to update multiple blogs than working on hobbies! I decided that soon, I would create a single blog with all my hobbies and then some. Soon became TODAY! I do not plan to try to transfer my blogs to this one since my main goal of a blog is to help motivate me to complete projects (I suffer from startupititis), but will occasionally update them with finished projects to keep them active.

[Update Dec. 2005: My other craft blogs have now been deleted, so I have eliminated the links. Projects can still be seen at www.picturetrail.com/quiltsrus]

Current projects in progress include One Line Afghan (crochet), LadyBug Afghan (knit), Halloween Scarecrow (cross sitch) and a Thimbleberries Pine Tree quilt for my parents for their 50th wedding anniversary. My goal had been to have the top done by their anniversary (July 2) so that they could decide if they wanted it tied or quilted, but I guess it won't be done until next week. Car trouble and unexpected sewing machine failures messed up my goal!