quilting zen and woodchuck den

My Farm Girl Vintage Sampler quilt is coming along nicely!

I'm nearly halfway done.  I organized my scraps into "rainbow order" and the bright, bright, bright is now coming more naturally! 

I'm not sure how I will feel about the finished quilt.  There's a part of me that wants to order a few mixed fabric bundles in the beautiful muted, earthy colors I love from Fig Tree and make another version of this quilt which is more suited to my color preference.  I have enjoyed making this so much, though, that I don't think I'll mind making another. 

I've also been knitting, although not nearly as much, since knitting still hurts my hands.  I'm making a pair of gingham-checkered socks and I've just started the second one.

Another fun project!  I heard about "half birthdays" earlier this year - celebrating the halfway point between your last birthday and your next one.  I definitely don't need a real reason to have a celebration, so I scheduled it on Google Calendar.  When it popped up this weekend for Todd, I had a great idea.  I didn't want to make a whole cake (to be cut in half), and a half cupcake seemed like a bit of a stretch for a celebration.  I decided to take a small-batch chocolate cookie recipe (which made 12 cookies) and press the dough into half of an 8" cake pan.  I made a foil "wall" and used pie weights as a buttress. 

The resulting cookie was a perfect half-cookie cake size.  Livened up with a little almond-tinted frosting and festooned with sprinkles, it made a very cheerful half birthday surprise!

Around the house this week we've had a lot of interesting creatures.  A wheel bug was resting in one of our ferns.  They're pretty aggressive and have a nasty bite (said to be much more painful than a bee sting), but I've found that the general wildlife rule applies:  leave them alone and they'll leave you alone.

Check out that spiky wheel!  Both males and females have them and its general purpose is unknown...perhaps an intimidation tactic?

Can you see that long, pointy rostrum?  They're in the assassin bug family.

I saw some wood ducks a week or so ago, but they're very flighty (no pun intended) and I've been unable to get close.  These ducks, though, don't seem to mind. 

I was gratified to see the growing flock.  Last year, we only had four!

Our little woodchuck has been very active too.

He's got a den under a fallen tree stump in our back yard.

I don't see him very much, but I'm always keeping an eye out!

For weeks, spiders everywhere.  Then, boom!  Nothing.  I did find a nice web in the back yard, where this yellow jacket had just been tidily wrapped up for later consumption.

I couldn't catch the spider, though...he was too fast for me!

Lots of flowers still blooming.

Our orange ginger lilies, which I transplanted around the front of the house, are blooming.  I wouldn't plant them again, though. The flowers are too short-lived and the plants themselves remind me of corn stalks.  While they last, though...

A few random gardenias are still opening up, and the japonica bushes are starting to sprout the funny 'puffballs' that will eventually become bright black berries.

Some leaves are falling...

...but I miss the bold, varied displays of the Midwest.  At least it's a little cooler this week.  Last week we hit 90 degrees again!  I dreamed about a snow storm last night.  I think it's back to winter-scene puzzles for me!

Have a great week! 

Knitted sweater and better weather!

I have curtailed my baking quite a bit, but one of my favorite baking websites is Sally's Baking Addiction.  She has a monthly baking challenge that I just started participating in, and I love it!  The September challenge:  piping sunflower cupcakes.  I bought my ingredients and set aside some time, only to discover that I didn't have the right leaf tip needed to pipe the cupcake petals.  ARGH!  I substituted a different tip, but between the incorrect tip and the near-90s temps, my petals were a little droopy.

Todd's office still liked them!

I also made one of my old standbys, half chocolate chip and half chocolate cookies.

And now that it's basically PUMPKIN SEASON (despite the forecast of, you guessed it, near 90s again by the end of the week), I'll be baking a lot more.  Next up, oversize pumpkin muffins with crumb topping and browned butter oatmeal pumpkin cookies with cinnamon chips.  Hooray for my favorite season!

Despite my sore fingers, I'm knitting on.  I started knitting a pair of gloves, but chose a yarn that contained silk.  Silk doesn't have any "give" (like cotton) and kills my fingers.  So I quit halfway through...

...and re-knitted in green wool.  I knitted the right glove in the Portuguese style, but my fingers hurt so much by the end that I used my old "clutch and throw" method for the left glove.  As you can see, it's significantly smaller, but fits so much better.  The right glove is a bit too big but will work (I'm thinking about layering with those small, tight gloves from Target).  I blocked the left glove after this picture was taken to make it a little bit bigger, so the difference is less noticeable.  Layering gloves will be fine because my hands are always so cold!

I also finished my sweater...hooray!  I knitted it to be two sizes smaller than I am currently, but since I knitted it in the Portuguese style, I think it's only one size too small.

I had a friend at the gym model it (she's a size S/M) so that I could at least see how the neck laid on the shoulders.  Taking into account both poor lighting and a poor fit on my model - I love it!  It's all blocked and waiting for cooler weather.

I have been working on my Snails quilt, but very slowly.  Our cats are very pleased with this development.  If I leave a piece of fabric out too long, a cat will claim it.

The same goes for quilts.  My Snails quilt has been in the machine so long that the cats think I've really been making them a giant bed.

I've finally had to admit to myself that while I love choosing and cutting fabric and love the actual piecing of a quilt, I despise the actual quilting of it.  I've practiced and practiced...

...but despite the addition of a quilting table, special gloves, and a slippery surface to quilt on, I stink. For my Snails quilt, I chose to quilt a giant concentric circle.  I thought it would be really easy.  But you're constantly rotating the quilt, shoving it through the tiny throat space again and again...such a pain.  Also, when quilting concentric circles, you have to stop and start (when adjusting fabric) every few inches or so.  When you start quilting again, your needle jumps, leaving an obvious jag in the line.

I was ready to pull my hair out, but thankfully someone advised me to "pool" the fabric around the needle before starting to stitch again, and that does minimize the jag.  Todd suggested that I bite the bullet and pay someone to do my quilting - it costs around $130 - but so far I'm stubbornly sticking to it.  I'm forcing myself to put in 30 minutes a day and hopefully it will be done within a couple of weeks!

Speaking of cutting up fabric, I got a package of fabric scraps through the Random Acts of Kindness forum on Ravelry.  I *love* receiving random scraps of fabric.  I took a couple of hours on Saturday and cut them up into common fabric sizes:  2", 2.5", 3", 3.5", 4", and 5".  I also have 1.5", 2", and 2.5" strips.

I would probably never purchase, say, watermelon-print fabric...but it's going to be so fun to use in a scrap quilt!

We're slowly sliding into fall in South Carolina.  Cooler evenings mean Scrabble time by the pond.

Todd is finally able to do some home improvement projects in comfort, like digging a water-diverting trench around the house.

Here's hoping for more cooler days ahead - SOON.  Have a great week!

Lots of scraps and turkey chaps

I love picking flowers in January.

The camellias are beautiful, and the Lenten Roses, or Helleborus, are now in bloom.

Just like animals, flowers have distinct personalities.  Lenten roses are the Victorian ladies of my garden. They're shy and blushing, with faces bent toward the ground, but with delicately colored apparel meant to attract attention (in a modest way).  They last forever as a cut flower, too.  An all-around winner.

My favorite camellia bush is blooming right now, too.  I love it!

Richly-colored fungus has started to sprout all over our biggest tree stump.

Have you ever wondered why mushrooms sprout on tree trunks or trees, for that matter?  They're opportunists and look for entry points on wood.  They eat the tissue of a tree, so if you see a live tree with mushrooms sprouting on it, it's in trouble.  It's a good thing to see them on stumps, because they accelerate the decomposition.  People actually order spores to shake onto their stumps...it's cheaper and easier (although not quicker!)  than digging them up.  

The sun is shining and the creatures are out and about!

The turkeys are out every day.

Beautiful feathers!

This turkey was separated from the group and slow to notice me.  When he did, he fled.  But look - because of his agitation, his head turned blue!

I started and finished a quick but satisfying project this week.  I have piles and piles of fabric scraps - wrinkled, balled up, trailing shreds.  I read somewhere that when you have scraps, you should immediately cut them into squares (2", 3", 3.5", 4", and 5") or strips (1.5", 2.5").  Then they're already in the most commonly-used sizes and when you accumulate enough, you can make a scrap quilt. 

I had two piles of scraps this size:

I set up a station and worked on cutting about 15 minutes a day.  Before too long, I had my nicely-organized group!

I am excited to see what kind of random combinations will show up!

I also practiced machine applique this week.  I am not very interested in applique, but I thought I ought to learn, especially since applique is used on my block-of-the-month quilt.  A few Youtube videos later...

My first try is on the left and second on the right.  I thought I'd improved enough to move on to my quilt square.  I decided against the snowman design given in the pattern and traced out a snow-covered branch.  I added a little bird and appliqued things into place.

I don't know...there's something not right about it.  It's just not appealing to me right now.  Until I have some inspiration, I'm going to put it aside and just think about what I might want to do with it.

Last week I was halfway through the work day when I realized that I had a headache.  I took some medicine and curled up on the couch with my quilt for about 30 minutes.  I was walking by it later that afternoon and had to take a picture.  It's going to get a lot of use!

Also, there's a cat under that quilt.  She curled up with me while I was resting and stayed there the rest of the day. 

Speaking of quilts, I've been feeling a little antsy lately.  I've been knitting at night, but have felt like something is missing.  I realized that I haven't done any sewing for a long time.  I finished my quilt blocks months ago, and the only real sewing I've done is the less-than-pleasant machine quilting needed to secure the quilt layers.  It's time to start a new quilt!  I pulled out my notes, but some of the fabric I'd chosen is now on backorder or discontinued.  This week, I'm going to try to pick the right fabric to go with my chosen quilt pattern, and hopefully make an order.  I can't wait to get started!