I Hear You Knockin', But You Can't Come In

 I was telling someone the other day that we hadn't had much luck with our garden this year.  The flower gardens that the previous owner put in (and they are numerous) are overgrown, but the veggies we planted haven't done much.  There just hasn't been enough rain this summer for them to flourish.

We did get one cucumber and a handful of baby carrots that I used in a pasta salad.  The cherry tomatoes that Paul put in a hanging planter did okay.  I've made a pasta salad of some sort every week and haven't had to buy tomatoes for them, so that's a plus.  We got a few small beefsteak tomatoes, and I used them in a tomato cream pasta sauce the other night.  Yummy.

The only thing that is doing well is the gourd.  And OMGsh is it doing well.  It's a bit creepy truth to tell.  It has completely taken over the side garden, has pushed it's way through the privacy fence to the front garden, is climbing the chain link to get into the neighbor's yard, and is covering my living room window.  I swear it knocks on that window at night begging to be let in from the cold.  It's like something from a bad scifi movie.  I hope the gourds it produced fare well through this early chill at night.  I really want some cute birdhouses for the yard next year.

I am such a serial starter!  I can't help it.  I see something; decide it would look great here, there, somewhere; and have to get supplies to start it.  Seriously, it's like a mental disorder.  If I don't start it right away, I get antsy, distracted, and sometimes even grumpy.  I lose interest in the other projects I have started and make life generally unpleasant for the guys in the house.  Poor Paul, Sebastian, and Digit.

So, to save them grief, when I spied this while flipping through cross stitch magazines, I didn't even try to stop myself beginning to stitch.

This really shouldn't take that long to stitch up.  No back stitching, no filling in, just some swirly curls in 2 colors of orange.  A nice soothing piece to work on while watching the boob tube in the evenings.  I'm planning to add quilted borders to this and use it as a table topper.

Now that the loom is put back to rights, I was able to get a tad bit of weaving done the other day.  I can see waffles!!!  I need to figure out something for this.  I was planning to work on it on the enclosed porch, but Sebastian is horrible out there, and he's definitely a velcro dog and feels he needs to be stuck to me 24/7.  I might need to move the loom to the spare room after Jenn visits and work on this up there under the Ott light.

Another Framed block completed yesterday.  I've been doing some chain piecing on this and believe that I can have the rest of the blocks finished tomorrow.  I'll be putting it aside when they are done because I really need to get another top quilted before getting this one ready.

Also finished the too small applique block I was working on for the lap quilt.  I can't believe the base fabric was 1/2" too small in this kit.  I'll have to add some kind of border to this to fix that.

A Hole In The Head, Oh Yes Please

Friday I received the upgrade kit for my loom, but I wasn't able to actually upgrade the loom until Sunday.  I had already decided that I was taking a road trip on Saturday to get a couple more Row by Row kits.  

I was on the road fairly early Saturday and listened to an audio book on my drive.  The first shop I visited didn't have any kits left, so I settled for just the free pattern.  Also picked up a layer cake to add to my Civil War Sampler fabrics, and a kit for an applique table runner.  The second shop had the kit for their row, so I grabbed that, and I found a strip pack that will work great with that first pattern I picked up.  I think I'm done getting rows now.  I had initially picked out 12 that I want, but the 4 that I haven't grabbed yet are 6 hour drives from here.  Not sure I have it in me for 2 weekend long trips by myself, so I'm going to settle for using the 8 I have and call it a day.

Anyway, Sunday afternoon Paul and I finished removing the warp from the loom, then installed the upgrade kit.  Isn't it pretty in all its black metal glory?  The instructions for placing the earth magnet have much to be desired, and we wound up drilling 2 holes in the front and 3 in the back before all was said and done.  Very frustrating!

I spent the rest of the day Sunday redressing the loom, and last night Paul helped me get it wrapped onto the back bar. This afternoon I will probably spend some time getting them all tied to the front bar so I'm ready to start weaving.

As if I didn't have enough on my hands already, I got it in my head to do something to recycle these old bath towels.

Pinterest was consulted and I found myself cutting 1/2" x 5" strips like this.  If you choose to do this yourself, be aware that there will be terry bits and pieces everywhere.  And I do mean everywhere.  It appears to multiply.  The floor of my sewing room looks like 10 towels were run through a food processor instead of just 1/4 of 1 towel was cut into strips.

After cutting these strips, I am tying them to this rug canvas.  Once complete, this should be a cushy bath mat.  I plan to do this in a checkerboard pattern since I have 2 colors to work with.

 There were quite a few interesting ideas for recycling towels on Pinterest.  Good thing I have so many of them to recycle huh?

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Oh my goodness!  I never win anything, but I just won the most fantastic prize!  Karen from Karen's Quilting had a drawing to pass on her Winter Wonderland Quilt pattern and my name came up!  I'm so excited.  Here is a photo of the pattern package.  The center panel is all embroidery.  Can't wait to get started on this.  If you want to see a beautiful version of this, pop over to see Karen's on her blog.

I realized last night that I had completely forgotten to post a photo of this week's Civil War Sampler block.  I finished it this past weekend, but with all the hoopla with the loom, I forgot to show it off.  I had some issues with bias on this block, so I'll have to do some creative adjustments when I add sashing to this one.  I guess I need to slow down when working with these half square triangles.

This was the state of my loom yesterday.  Sigh.  Paul helped me get some of the warp taken off last night.  I was originally hoping to keep the warp on the loom and install the ratchet/pawl upgrade kit around it, but after looking at the instructions online, there's no way that is going to happen.  Now I'm hoping to get the warp removed and save it somehow.

I've been wrapping the pieces up on a shoebox.  In my mind, this will work out nicely.  We'll see once the upgrade kit arrives, which should be by this weekend.  Sunday afternoon will most likely be spent upgrading the loom.

I finished the quilting on this little 9 patch lap quilt.  I was going to do a spiral starting from the bottom right also, but once I finished the first one, I felt there would be too much overlap and decided against it.  I have a few ends to bury and the binding to sew down, then this is done.

I do like how this turned out, but ...

... I still think I like the back better.

Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave

No progress on the waffle weave towels to show.  Why?  Well, you see that thing in the photo below?  That's the ratchet on the back bar of my loom.  It's plastic.  The teeth bent.

See that bird shaped thing below the ratchet?  It's the pawl for the back bar of my loom.  It is supposed to be above the ratchet, not below.  The beak shaped part fits into the ratchet to hold the bar in place and keep tension on my warp.  I was merrily weaving along and POP. The pawl must have been in the ratchet at a spot where the teeth were bent, the ratchet gave way, and the pawl was forced under when the tension was released.  My warp quickly unwound and was on the floor.  The cat was watching the warp with huge black eyes.  The dog came running to see if he could "help".  Chaos ensued.

This particular loom is now sold with metal parts, and there is an upgrade kit available.  Wish I had known that before beginning this.  I would have ordered a kit, and waited to get started.  My warp now looks like this.  A bit of a tangled mess on the front bar.  I'm hoping to get an upgrade kit soon, have Paul help me get it installed on the back bar, spend many hours fussing to get the warp wound back onto the back bar, hold it in place with its pretty new metal parts, install the new metal ratchet and pawl on the front bar, and try again.  Whew!  I'm tired just thinking about it.

In happier news, the random number generator has chosen the convertible mittens I was making for Paul.  They were lost in the shuffle when I only had 2" of the first cuff done.  This is what happens when you cast on 17 projects folks.  I do not recommend it!  We watched two movies last night, during which I finished the first cuff, completed the thumb gusset, and worked within 3 rounds of separating for the fingers.  If I keep up at that rate, I'll get these done within a week!

It's just a jump to the left ....

Look what arrived in the mail yesterday!!

Look what I did last night!!

Any guess as to what I'll be doing this afternoon??

Wish me luck in my endeavor to master waffle weave.  Hopefully there will be enough progress to show tomorrow.  Even after warping the loom for 2 towels, and winding the shuttles, it barely looks like a dent has been put in the cones.  I think I'll get quite a few towels out of this!

Waffles ... but where's the chicken?

I've been working almost exclusively on the Mermaid jacket in the evenings while watching the boob tube.  The first sleeve is finished, and the second is just over half done.  I see an end in sight!  Of course, now all my cross stitch projects are languishing, but I'm sure I'll get the stitchy bug back when this jacket is finally a FO.

I finally ordered the supplies I needed to do a weaving project.  The heddle and extra shuttle I needed are shipping today, and hopefully the yarn will ship in the next day or two.  I'm really excited about this project.  This will be the first thing I have had on the loom where I have to read a draft and follow a pattern.  I've been doing fine all these years just warping how I see fit and doing plain weave.  I'll be making the waffle weave kitchen towels pictured below.  I have blue, green, yellow, and orange yarn coming in.  I wasn't sure which combo I wanted, but this way I can make several matching sets.

Depending on how this goes, I may try a 4 shaft pattern next.  I'll need to get heddle blocks and extra heddles for that, but it will be fun to see what I can do with my rigid heddle loom.