Pondering Projects on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well my week was every bit as busy as I thought it would be... lots of running around, but I got people to their appointments and I had several nice dinners with friends... I worked out with Anna and went to rehab... got out in my yard  a bit... the flowers have gone rogue and I attempted to hack some stuff back... and even though I filled 5 large lawn waste bags, there isn't a visible difference... sigh...  however, I did get  a little bit of crafty stuff done.  So overall a pretty good week. 

At the moment (which is always subject to change) this upcoming week looks a little calmer. Fingers crossed.

Let's start with what I did accomplish... and talk about the new projects I'm pondering... shiny objects that popped up on my radar this week. 

I finished up the little Santa from Prairie Schooler No. 158 Christmas Eve... I'm calling him the Stuck Santa... LOL

And I thought about starting another Prairie Schooler Santa but this chart called out to me again...it's been languishing in my craft room for a while... Bent Creek's Let's Be Thankful...

on Thursday I was thinking/pondering about this one and got up some energy to dye some fabric for it, as I already have all the called for overdyed flosses... and I decided that instead of my usual 32 ct I'd try a 36 ct... that BBD For the Birds piece I worked on a week ago is on 36 ct... and I'm using 2 strands of floss ... cause I like my stitches to have good coverage.. and it was looking fine... and instead of being 17.25" long on 32 ct fabric,  it would only be 15.33" long on the 36 ct .. I though the smaller size would fit better in my displays... so that's what I'm doing... and here's where I am...

and here's a close up ...

I'm very happy with the floss colors on this linen... it is a 36 ct Wichlet Edinburgh that I smushed into a jar with Rit Tan dye... I LOVE the splotchyness. However, I'm not convinced that I have enough of the floss that the letters are stitched in... it is Weeks Hazelnut... and the chart doesn't call for any additional skeins ... and you would use more floss on the called for 32 ct than on 36 ct... but I fear I may run out. I'm going to see if I have another skein in my stash... I like the subtle color changes with over dyed floss, but I LOVE the fact that DMC is way more consistent and if I needed another skein I can be pretty certain it would match. We shall see how this turns out.

Oh and somehow when I switched to this 36 ct I was having a hard time seeing the threads... and I use magnifiers but it wasn't enough...and then I remembered I had one pair of really strong magnifiers left over from before  I had my cataract surgery... so I dug them out and wow!  what a difference that made... now I'm thinking that perhaps my problem with 40 ct is that I didn't have enough magnification... need to pull out that one Rosewood Manor chart I started on 40 ct and see if I can SEE it better...

There were a couple of lazy nights again this week and I did get a sock finished and it's mate started...

I think this pink is so pretty and I don't have any pink pairs in my sock drawer. 

And while knitting I came across this picture on IG and well I GOTTA DO THIS!!   

All the squares are Opal sock yarn and in this blanket they are all the Opal mini skeins... which I have a bunch of, along with a HUGE stash of Opal yarn... I LOVE OPAL SOCK YARN!!! Now in pondering this project which I know will take some time... the blanket in the pic was started in 2018  and finished in 2020. Go here and see more pictures... the only thing that stopped me from starting this is I've never knit a mitered square... I did look at a couple of patterns and I know there are videos on YouTube ... but I haven't had a chance to watch any yet... definitely on my list of things to do this upcoming week. I know this will be a long term project but it is appealing because each little square (I think they finished like 3.5" and use 5 grams of yarn) should work up rather quickly and all the different colors would make different patterns... I don't think I'd get bored with this. 

The maker of this blanket is Gail.Toronto..  Purple Circle Yarn Co. ... here's her website... I ordered an Advent calendar from her last year... here's what it looked like when it arrived...

and here's what it looked like on December 25th when I had opened all the packages...

and I was very happy with it... and the other week she was trying to gauge interest in doing another calendar this year... I told her I would definitely love another Advent Calendar and we worked out the details and I already received mine. I'm being good and won't open it till the beginning of December because I LOVE a good Advent calendar and this is definitely  a GREAT one!

Along with this project two quilt ideas have me itching to sew... first off I'm really liking this pattern I talked about last week... Weathered Whimsey by Moonkin Stitchery which you can find it and a lot more patterns here for FREE!

 And I have two new Ruby Star FQ packs that I think would be perfect for this pattern.  

The first is Merry Happy...

I love the prints... gummy bears and ornaments and presents and wreaths...I think this would be a fun quilt to give to Chris and Jenny and Elliott...they requested a Christmas quilt last year and Christmas quilts are some of my favorite quilts to make... and I already have over 50...maybe 60 Christmas quilts... so it would be good for some more of them to live that their house...

And another Ruby Star collection caught my eye... this is brand new... 1-800-Notion...

I think this collection would also look great using this pattern...and I want to keep this one for me!

I'm a little late to the show regarding Ruby Star fabrics... for a while they just weren't on my radar but lately I like lots of their collections. I used to sew almost all my quilts using brights... and then I wandered away... and these Ruby Star fabrics are in that brights palette... a bit of nostalgia for me... 

oh oh... I opened the FQ bundle of Merry Happy and measured each FQ... they were all about 18.5" in length ... and they are 22" wide... but there is only 21 usable inches as the selvedge is 1" wide... so this will work for the Weathered Whimsey pattern... now I assume the 1- 800 Notion FQ bundle will measure the same but I'm not taking any chances and I will measure ALL the FQs just to be sure before I start cutting... I got burnt the last time I assumed all FQs were 18" in length...

So I am longing for Fall... cooler temperatures...less pollen... lower energy bills... but Mother Nature is still hanging onto Summer this week... temperatures in 90s... yuck... along with pondering crafty projects  I've been pondering what to do with the yard... right now I'm trying to find someone to cut back everything in the beds... and then I want someone to help me re-imagine the yard... more shrubs and less annuals ... less wild and crazy... more civilized ... and less work for me...  I sent an email request to a couple of landscape places that said they'd come out and do a free estimate... I think that's a good way to start... and I did figure out why my water bill was so high... there is a break in my drip irrigation in the front yard that let water pour out in one spot. I have stopped using the drip for the time being and I'm holding off getting it fixed until after the new roof gets put on and beds get cleaned out... I think there is a high probability that there may be another place that gets broken and leaks before all that is finished. 

Plans for next week include working out with Anna, picking Elliott up from school,  and seeing my surgeon for a follow up... that's scheduled for this coming Friday. I went for my 7th session of rehab last Friday... and while I have one more session scheduled they told me it really wasn't necessary. I've reached all the markers they set and they know I will keep continuing to improve...yeah... not sure yet if I will cancel that last session or not. They do give me a nice workout. 

As I'm writing this on Saturday I have plans to do dinner with Chris and Jenny and Elliott and then go watch fireworks in our old neighborhood.  That will be fun... and Sunday I need to get groceries for a certain family member and replace their glucose monitor.... Nick has already prepped a pan of lasagna for dinner.. YUM... hoping to get some sewing/knitting/stitching time in next week. 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... hope your week ahead is a good one... 

happy stitching-

carol fun