It's Hip to be SQUARE

More lovely signs of fall, although our temperatures remain in the mid-90s.  Cooler mornings.  Earlier sunsets.  More cues from plants, like our alliums, just ready to pop open. 

Our sweet autumn clematis is in full bloom.  It's much more prolific this year because of the additional sunshine it's received since our tree debacle.

Rain is still infrequent, but definitely happens more than it did during our long drought summer.  I love to see mushrooms popping up after a storm.

Our front beds are also beneficiaries of a new pattern of sunlight.  Would you believe that I did not plant ANY of these flowers?

I planted this vinca, an annual, last year.  In one small spot.  It did not thrive because of the shade, but it reseeded nicely and spread down through the beds.  It even jumped across the driveway!

I've just left it alone.  It's welcome to spread where it wants to!

I haven't seen our goz in about a month. 

I tell myself that they're off "training" somewhere else, getting stronger, getting used to flying, and they'll be back in a few weeks.  We always see a lot of geese here, so I'll have to be patient.  Todd did see a turkey yesterday, and I saw a stray cat sleeping on the stairs outside our sun room this morning.  I always see a lot of strays here in the fall.

When I got a little closer, I could see that he was injured on his face and around his neck.  He was a grizzled old fellow!

The Chamberlains were on the cusp of adopting a fourth pet.  I brought him some food and water, which he inhaled greedily.  Then he loped off into the woods.  I remember seeing this little guy last year, too.  He's a die-hard stray.  I'll keep an eye out for him, though, and may start setting out food.

Our lazy cats don't know how lucky they are!

I started my new quilt last week and I am really moving along with it!  I decided to pre-cut my pieces.  Since the quilt is paper-pieced, I didn't need exact measurements, but I eyeballed my triangles and rectangles, mentally added my 1/4" seam allowance, and cut generous-sized pieces.  It only took one evening to cut everything out. 

I employed an assembly line process.  Each block is made up of four smaller squares.  So, I took four pieces of my pre-printed pattern and sewed the first 2 fabric pieces onto each of them, and then piece #3, and so on.

I was able to finish a whole 4-piece square pretty quickly.

The side half stars line up with the same on adjacent squares to form full stars.

I love it!

I got this done in just 3 days!  The blocks aren't sewn together yet because I'm not sure how big it's going to be.  The fabric was pretty expensive so I may just work through what I have and see if I'm satisfied with a comfy couch throw or if I want to go all the way with a quilt for our bed.  Right now I'm thinking couch throw, because I'd want to do something more simple for a bed quilt (two main colors, I think).  But I love making this.  For once, I've done everything in the proper way.  I washed and ironed each fabric.  I iron flat each seam after sewing.  If I'm off, even by a little bit, when joining 2 of the 4 squares together, I take them apart and try again.  I really want to do a good job!  It's a fun fall project.

Have a great week!

Early Risers

It's a couple of weeks early, but we're getting some beautiful color outside now.  The trees are still bare and grasses are dormant, but many bulbs are starting to come up.

Daffodils...

 Hyacinths...

...and snowdrops are all showing their faces.

It's almost crocus time!

Strangely, many of our azaleas are budding out.  They really don't get going here until mid-March through April, so hopefully they don't all blaze out and wither prematurely.

 

I love seeing all the green.

I planted tons of muscari (grape hyacinth) and peonies, but the ground in front was so churned up by machines when our trees were felled, chopped, and carted away that I don't hold out hope that any survived.  Still, we have our "old faithfuls" in the helleborus:

Carolina Jessamine:

And, of course, camellias:

I don't mean to pick more flowers when I go out to take photos.  But they're so beautiful and plentiful, and those not picked just fall to the ground in a few days.

So I pick.

And every room, from late February to mid-May, is full of bouquets.  Big bouquets, small bouquets, single stems, whatever. 

I read a story about a famous gardener who regularly cared for over 60 bouquets in her house in spring, so at least I'm not the only one who's crazy for them! 

I've been too busy to do any crafting, but I did find time in the past two weeks to start and finish a mini-quilting project.  Eight wedges are sewn together separately and then pieced together.  I did make ONE mistake:  I used a white piece instead of tan.  Overall, though, I don't really notice it.

I decided to hang it over the back fireplace.  It blends in well, I think.  

I found more vintage craft books at a thrift store this weekend, so hopefully I'll have time soon to pull some design ideas from them.

Have a great week!

Color Impaired

A cold snap has hit South Carolina!  And coincidentally, I hurt both my leg (at the gym) and my back (slept in a funny position and twisted a muscle), so I haven't been outside much in the past week.  I've been keeping busy inside, though, both with work and craft projects.

I finished these knitting projects a while back but forgot to photograph them.  First, and my favorite, is this aviator-style hat with a really cute ribbed brim and earflaps.  The pattern is Amelia E. on Ravelry.com. 

Next, I finished that slouchy pink hat knitted in seed stitch with a side cable.  This picture isn't exactly representative of the final project, but it looks really nice on!  I'll have to have Todd take a photo later.

I finished a pair of gloves that have been languishing in my knitting basket for about six months.  I have a matching hat so I'm pleased to get this project completed.  You'll notice that one is slightly larger than the other.  That's what happens when you let so much time go between mittens and forget what size needle you used!  They basically fit, though, so that's what counts. 

I gave up on the socks I was knitting in a very lackluster way this week.  I always knit socks with size 2 needles, even fair isle socks, but I used size 1 for this pair (per the instructions).  The leg was just too small.  I wasn't pleased with the colors, either.  I definitely don't have an eye for color and can't seem to predict what a finished design will look like, even when I scribble a sample sketch with my colored pencils.  And, ahem, sometimes I am too impatient to even take that step.  My mistake here is easy for me to see and hopefully learn from, though.

I used scraps from leftover balls, so I was somewhat limited in my color choices, but see how I picked colors that didn't "pop" together?  Yellow/white and green/blue were the worst culprits.  The grey is a little too dark with the red, and the overall color choices are not cohesive and completely obscure the star that the pattern makes. 

In a way, I did the same thing with the quilt I'm working on.  I have about 12 different fabrics that I'm working with, and my only plan was to try not to have two octagons with the same fabric side by side. I think the blue fabric is a little too dark and doesn't blend well with the cooler colors of the surrounding octagons.  The white stars between the octagons don't really "pop," either.  I gave it a good critical look earlier this week and considered stopping after this current row.  I could still quilt it and then make it into a pretty bit of fabric to hang over the back of one of the couches.  I'm enjoying it quite a bit, though, and have decided to go ahead and finish it.  It's good practice and I've got a lot of fabric.  It will go on a full-size bed.  To get an idea of the size here, each octagon is 8" across.  I try do do one square of two wedges per day.  It's really coming along! 

Otherwise, some smaller projects completed...I made a couple of trips to thrift stores this week in search of picture frames for some art prints I've had laying around here for several months.  I was able to frame all 3 pictures perfectly for about $5.  Score!

I cleaned out my office closet, which was almost dangerous to open before.  I got rid of almost everything and I'm so pleased to have some new space.

Finally, Todd and I started working on our first piece of furniture for the mouse house.  It's a tiny dresser with real removable drawers, done at 1/12" scale!  First we measured the drawings...

...and made the cuts!

I was somewhat hampered by my sore back (sawing is not as easy as it looks!), but we have almost all the pieces cut out.  Then it's just a matter of gluing everything together.  Todd is really excited too and it seems that we get a FedEx shipment of this special wood almost every day! 

Hopefully I'll be able to get outside later this week and try out my new fancy lens that magnifies images x5.  Have a great week!