Since it’s just a tablerunner — so not huge — I’m just going to spray baste it.  So quick and easy for those smaller projects and no pins to remove as I’m free motion quilting.  I’ve got it sitting across the room from me so I can stare at it and  try to decide how I want to quilt it.  Now I’m just hoping there’s some gray thread in the thread box so I can start quilting on it tomorrow.

And, since all the fabrics came out of the stash – at least I’ll have something to report on the stashbusting report tomorrow.  But for now – time to taste test those brownies and get a cup of coffee.

  Of course I got a bit sidetracked after making these because they gave me an idea for a new quilt design incorporating them so I’ve been playing in EQ a bit.  But I was due for a break and had to get dinner started — cornish hen and baked potatoe in the oven so just need to make some veggies. Yummm.  Also made some brownies so there’s even dessert!  I forgot to put in the mint chocolate chips I was going to add to the brownies but dumped some on top when they were done and let them melt so they know have minty chocolate frosting.

Earlier today I could see some commotion at the bird feeder outside my door.  Hmmm…. through the blinds I snapped this.

   Where there’s a will, there’s a way.  One daring jump…..

and he landed on top of the birdfeeder — which explained all the seeds scattered on the ground below that I saw this morning.

 They don’t look like much here except a super skinny sock – but that’s deceiving since they are super stretchy which I like.

Here they are stretched out a bit on the sock blocker.

  The yarn is Everlasting in Daylily color.  The stitch doesn’t show real well in the photo but it’s sort of a interweave braided looking thing which is super simple to do and no cable needle.  You can see it much better on the pattern since there the sock is done in a solid yarn.  I’ll definitely use this pattern again in a solid so the stitches really pop.  The pattern is Nine-To-Five by Nicole Hindes which I think I found through Ravelry.  it will be a great looking pair of socks.

Now time to get this table cleared off so I can get to some sewing.  My January UFO challenge project which I was so diligent the beginning of the month of getting the last blocks made, borders on, and pin basted — it still sitting and waiting to be quilted.  Hmmm… may not get it done this month and have to add it on to next months’ UFO project — a deadline has interceded and I need to get that project done.  So time to stitch on a few blocks and maybe get the deadline project top done so I can start quilting on it this week.

Denise

So far – four pairs finished in January.  Now if I average a pair of socks  a week – think of all those new socks I could have at the end of the year! LOL  That definitely won’t be happening.  But one new pair made and three finished off from the socks in progress bin is a pretty good start.

I cast on the second sock to the Ombre pair last night and have a couple inches of that one done.  Still haven’t wound the pink yarn yet – I may finish this one before starting on a new pair.

I restarted with the black print and I like the block so much better.  So it’s a good thing I kept messing things up I guess.  I can’t show you the blocks yet bu these are the other fabrics I’m using with it.

  The red orange is a bit darker but it has lighter splotches and sort of a brownish black that sort of look like some one dry brushed paint over it.  The gray  is one of my current favorite tone on tones – it doesn’t show up real well in the photo  but its a paisly tone on tone.  And the black has tone on tone specks of black and lighter grayish looking ones.

One block is done and the rest are in various stages and 3 or 4 others in various stages.

I did venture outside to run an errand since the temps  who hooo its a heat wave – 29 degrees.  But foggy and misty and the winds were picking up as I came home so not really a great day but warmer than it has been.

I nearly have the socks – the brown/cream/purple ones from the single sock stash – nearly finished.  I think I must be just a row or two away from the toe decreases so should hopefully get them finished off tonight.  So need to wind that pink yarn so I can start on that one to work on at home and cast on the second ombre one to work on during my bus ride.

Oh and check out the Granny’s Hankie blocks by readers page – I finally remembered to add Sigrid’s photo of all her completed blocks.  They turned out absolutely lovely!

Denise

Hopefully today I’ll get that top together since my brain finally kicked in and I found my math error last night.  I blame it all on the over zealous cleaning of the sewing room one day where I must have tossed my original pattern.

So after deciding to use my “favorite fabric” posted yesterday, I walked by this fabric

   That black fabric…hmmmm… that would look really cool in the blocks I’m making (it’s far more striking in person with the black and gray, hints of red and orange, and gold glitz smatterings)

So I’m thinking I may set aside the “favorite fabric” pieces for now — I will still make the blocks out of them – maybe for a tablerunner for the breakfast bar for me me me — and try this black for the larger project.

First things first — time to hit the shower, get some laundry started and find some breakfast.  Then I’ll clear off one layer of scraps and go find some fabrics to go with that black print and start cutting again.

First, I went looking for the pattern I had printed out which has been laying around the sewing room for ages.  In my last cleaning frenzy I must have tossed it not realizing what it was since it was printed on the back of some scrap paper.   But of course first I dug through all possible locations for it making a mess and finally gave up.  Reprinted and then had to refigure pieces for the block.

All the pieces made for a block (and several others cut out incorrectly) hmmmm … clearly something was off and I new it had to be my math.  So I fixed it — or so I thought.  Cut out enough for one block and made just a quarter of the block – dang I added an extra seam allowance in there so one section was 1/4″ too long.  So all that stuff hit the wastebasket (or the floor near it) since I just realized I seem to have made a mess of scraps I knocked off the table onto the floor.

Of course all this involved going to and from the stash several times pulling out multiple fabrics trying to decide what to use (which are now piled on the sewing room table) and then in the end when I finally got one quarter of the block to turn out correctly — yep I now have the right measurements (WHEW!) — I decided to change fabrics entirely.  So a whole lot of cutting and stitching and one little measley quarter block to show for it. LOL  Oh well, I’m on the right track now and should be able to move along more quickly when I get back at it.

A few days ago friend Judy was talking about her all time favorite fabric.  I thought about it at the time and there are many fabrics I love but nothing in particular sprang to mind.  Then, as I was looking the second time round for fabric for this project I keep messing up, I found this in the stash.

  And I thought – yes! this is my all time favorite fabric.  I didn’t think I had any of it left.  It has been used in small bits and pieces in many projects.  One of my favorite quilts hanging on my sewing room wall has some of it in it.  Why is it a favorite – I guess since I love fall colors and it has so many in it.  You can pick out different shades of oranges, golds, greens, mucky purples, tans, browns and they all look great next to it.   I bought it many years ago – not for anything in particular but just because it shouted it must come home with me.  Alas, this is probably the last project I’ll be able to use it on and it will be gone. :-(  But I’m sure during some trip to the quilt shop some new favorite will come along and in the meantime, well there’s still a lot of pretty fabrics in the stash.

Now, since clearly the sewing is not being so cooperative tonight, I think I’ll go knit for a while.  After I taste a bit of that little berry pie I pulled out of the freezer and baked this afternoon.  And I remembered to buy a little containter of vanilla ice cream to go with it so just need to fill my coffee cup and I’ll be all set.  Tomorrow I’ll straighten up all the scraps and piles of fabrics!

I also managed to get two loaves of bread made – finally found my mom’s recipe I thought I had lost – and it turned out very good.  But it’s been a fairly lazy sort of day and about 5 p.m. I decided there really was no point in changing out of my jammies at that point so good thing no one came to the door. LOL

It’s another frigid day – minus 3 – so I’ll be staying in side, knitting and sewing and baking some bread.  That’s if I ever actually get out of my jammies and get busy.  I’ve spent the morning bundled under a quilt, knitting on the other pair of socks and have the foot about half done but it’s time to get dressed so I can warm up and get baking – which will warm the kitchen and living room up better than the furnace is doing at this point without having to kick up the heat.  Fresh baked bread awaits!

And I’ve got to get into the sewing room so just maybe I’ll have something to report on my stashbusting report tomorrow!

  What is my dilemma — which of these lovelies to use next.  I’ve been working on a sock the last couple of days – just an easy peasy plain one that I needed to make the second sock for.  It’s not quite done but I think I need to start on one that’s got a bit of a pattern or texture to it and save the easy one for the bus ride.  But which of these yarns to use!  I picked my three most favorite solidy looking ones from the storage container.  The pattern, which I’m drawing a blank on the name of at the moment, I think would look good in any of these.  Now you no I’m not partial to pink, but that bright pink (Vintage Sari) is really calling to me, but then so is Candlewick (the gold) and Earl Gray.  Hmm…. I have to go pull out the pattern and try to make a decision as to which to wind.

That didn’t keep us from venturing out this evening tho – a friend who has this weird need to go somewhere whenever it is snowing around here — emailed about going out for dinner.  LOL  So she picked me up at work (which saved me what would have surely been a long slow ride home on the snow-covered roads), we went to a favorite friday fish fry restaurant (where we did not have to wait for a table because all the sane people stayed home or went straight home).  The snow actually stopped on our way to the restaurant but it’s too cold for the salt to do anything about the snow on the roads but they weren’t too bad even tho it was a bit tricky to figure out where one lane stopped and the next started.

Then on the way home we stopped at the grocery store – got front row parking and it too was mostly empty for a Friday night.  I may have to go shopping during snow storms more often – no lines, no crowds, no waiting!  It was funny tho because the first four aisles in the store we went by all had one person in them standing in the middle of the aisle talking loudly on their cell phone.  It struck me as too funny.  I turned to her and asked how it was possible that I could  shop without being on a cell phone?  How were those people able to buy groceries before cell phones were readily available?  She has a cell phone — shouldn’t she be calling someone?

Now I’m not looking for angry comments from cell phone users.  I do believe some are able to shop and not have to be on the phone at the same time. LOL   I will admit, I’m not a cell phone owner and appreciate that they are necessary for some people but in certain circumstances do find them annoying — like blocking the grocery store aisle while standing there talking or the guy who rides my bus who every single night and calls his wife from the bus (do you know how noisy it is riding a bus — the bus itself is a noisy contraption so you have to talk extra loud to be heard on a cell phone) but he calls every night to say “I’m on the bus.”  Seriously – that’s their whole conversation other than “see you soon”.    Well where the heck else would he be at that time of day on a work day?  Is it a secret warning to his wife — get the gigalo out of the house now honey, I’m nearly home?  Is it a warning that dinner better be on the table in 10 minutes because he gets off the bus in only a couple blocks after he calls?  I just don’t get it.

But anyway…. got some groceries and then trudged my way to my door (since no one had been out to shovel the sidewalk or steps yet) asking my friend wait in the parking lot to make sure that the keys the landlords gave me last week really opened the new deadbolt lock they had put on my apartment door today.  In this case — glad she had a cell phone since I just called her once I got in the door and told her the cost was clear – I got in -and didn’t have to walk back around to the parking lot in the cold and snow to tell her.  See, I don’t believe all cell phone useage is bad.  But if one day you are blocking the grocery store aisle while on your phone I might accidentally ram my cart into you…… I did say it would be accidentally didn’t I? ROFLOL