OUT OF THE COMFORT ZONE

Well, at least out of my comfort zone.

I've taken a bit of a respite from my quilt top sewing and have been working on some home decoration items.

Luckily for me, my daughter Eleni of Eleni Interiors, Columbia SC was here to visit me last week and cut a pattern for me for drapery swags. I think they're going to be OK. Realistically they will most likely stay draped over my stairway banister for a while -- until my husband is ready to install the rods. Who knows when that will be.

And on the knitting front, I left my comfort zone of using 4 double point needles for knitting socks. I get e-mails from my local yarn shops. A couple weeks ago, there was a message that Loopville was hosting a class to learn the "magic loop" method for knitting socsk. That's using one circular needle instead of the double points. So I decided to jump on the opportunity. This is the beginning of my "bed socks". I'll have toasty tootsies this winter.

I'm doing OK, in spite of the fact that I didn't pick up that knitting for over a week after the class, I remembered how to do it when I picked it back up a couple days ago.

Now if I can just remember how to do the "long tail" cast on that Jinka taught me the same day. Ah, and I just finished the back of my granddaughter's sweater, so it IS time to cast on -- for the fronts. Hmmmmm, I wonder just which cast on method will be used on those sweater fronts! I'll keep you posted.

MY QUILTING FRIENDS

. . . well, at least some of them.

These are the ladies from our internet quilting group who were able to attend our friend's funeral, and honored me by visiting my home either before or after our good-byes to our dear, sweet Jan.

(All but one sweet lady from NC who drove in for the funeral and did not have time to join us for brunch.)

These dear ladies come from Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Maryland, Massachusetts and Alabama.

Thanks to the internet for bringing us together!

. . . AND ANOTHER MEMORIAL

. . . for my dear friend Jan who passed away yesterday.

Her kindness and genuine caring for others was greater than any I have ever known.

And if anyone thinks that on-line friendships are meaningless, they need to know how many or her on-line quilting friends are traveling great distances (some flying; some driving) to come to her funeral.

This is an excerpt from her obituary:

"She was a passionate quilter and a longtime member of a nationwide internet quilters group making quilts for many charities. She was particularly proud of two of her quilts which were donated to Autism Speaks and the Chron's Society. The group performed many acts of knidess for Janet during her illness. An avid blogger, pictures of Janet's quilts and details of her life can be seen at her blog, quilting in davie.blogspot.com Janet's mission in life was to help children and their causes; she succeeded beyond limits.."

We will miss you, dear Jan.

ON THIS MEMORIAL DAY . . .

THANK YOU !

'Nuff said.

. . . and EMBROIDERS occasionally

Well, although my embroidery is not quite as stunning or prolific as my daughter's, I thought I'd show you how I am currently spending some evening hours.

I guess it's been about 3years ago, now, that I was involved in a "light/dark" fabric exchange with my on-line quilting friends. The quilt has been assembled for quite some time and I have been working on the embroidery off and on for a couple years.

Not sure if you'll be able to see much embroidery in this photo:

But you might get the idea here:

The half-square triangles are the fabrics sent by my friends. I found coordinating "almost solids" to add to each block and machine embroidered the sender's initials in the middle block. Each large block has machine SITD quilting and the small blocks have hand quilting around them. Then I added embroidery to the "solid" block to kind of mirror the pattern in the prints within that block. So the quilt encompasses several types of quilting.

I am almost finished, now working on highlighting the sashing with back stitch and French knots.

(As I was working on it the other night, my stitches took me by the block made from my dear friend Jan's fabrics. Sadly, she will not be adding to her blog or see this blog entry as she is now in hospice care after a courageous battle with breast cancer.)

I found several new-to-me embroidery stitches in this book.

This is a shot of the entire quilt before I began the hand embroidery.

A few more evenings and a 3 year project will be finished! FINALLY !

BACK HOME

Yes, I'm back home. In fact I've been home a while -- got home two weeks ago today.

A few days my first week were spent in Nashville staying with grandchildren while Mom and Dad and big sis were at the Spring Quilt Market.

Then trying to catch up on the house and get a little bit of a garden started has kept me pretty busy.

I have managed to add a couple more strips to the charity quilt that's been on my "design wall" for a couple months now. Hopefully that top will be finished this week.

I did do a bit of knitting while I was gone. I've found that socks are the perfect travel project -- easy to pack and not too cumbersome to work on in an airplane seat.

I didn't quite have the second pair finished when I cam home and I didn't have a good large eye tapestry needle, so the first three socks traveled home keeping each other very good company, strung on the same two knitting needles waiting for the Kichener stitch. It worked.

I've started on another pair of socks . . .

and the next birthday sweater.

So that's what I've been up too lately.

I think I'm going to go downstairs, get my "design wall" and see if I can figure out a spot to put it in the laundry room. (I'm basically lazy and don't like to pick up my "stuff" every time I leave the project, but it's really driving me nuts having it left out in a living area all the time.) So the work space area dilemma continues . . .

SNAKES, LIZARDS, FIRE ENGINES . . .

Just a few more quilts for Project Linus. I'll drop them off this morning.

I love these for little boys:

FLOWERS . . .

These are a little wonky. Hopefully after they are laundered they will puff up enough that the wonkiness won't show. They are a bit larger, so should be great for a couple teen girls.

and EASTER BUNNIES . . .

for some really little folks.

AND hooray, my latest sweater is finished.

Just in time, too. I'm headed off to Greece again for a few weeks and will return home just a few days before little Roman's birthday. AND I'll get to see him (and his family) as I'll be babysitting for them while his mom is at Spring Quilt Market.

Oh, and speaking of "sitting", I'd best get my key to the house sitter.

Have a great spring.