look what I found

I was working on the charger for the battery to my camera, again, and found these in the memory of the camera.

Pictures of the afghan I made for my brother! 

My brother was watching me knit one evening at my sister's while we were settling her estate.  He said he liked how the afghan was turning out and who was I making it for.  I said nobody, in particular, would he like it.  He kind of thought I was joking.  So we discussed how long to make it.  He wanted it long enough to go over his head and tuck under his heels.

So it ended up the usual 48 inches wide but is 96 inches long.  I used Frankie Brown's Ten Stitch Blanket pattern on Ravelry, instead of 10 stitches, I used 20 stitches.  Knitted it on US#6 needles.  I then added the mitered corner blocks at each end to get the additional length I need before adding the 2 borders I had planned on.

I have other projects finished so maybe I will have something positive to upload.

Y'all have a good day!

Judy

I've sit down to write several time, but just can't make myself.  I'm still in Kansas settling my sister's estate.  Maybe later.

Judy

back to kansas

Monday morning I'm heading back to Kansas.  Sis called, they are stopping the chemo because it's not working and the tumor is growing.  She has an appointment next Wednesday for the hospice group to come out and get that arranged.  Hopefully we can get all the financial and legal details tied up while she is still able.  

Damn It!

Sister Suzy has taken a shine to a kitten a friend's family has found.  We may end up with it.  I've explained about the deposit and the increase in rent.  So we will see what happens.  (I expect when I get back to have another cat.  I hope it isn't as mental as the last one!)

I think I have the Blogger problems straightened out so maybe I can get on and post.  I won't know until I get to Wichita.

Catch y'all later.

Judy

my solution

This is what happens when you have several hundred miles of flapping, shredding tarp and rope beating on your fake leather recliner.

The more you touched the arms the worse it got.  It had gotten to the point if you sat down in the chair you had little flaky bits all over you.  So this is my solution, cover the arms.

I had a raggedy pair jeans that couldn't be rescued.  So I cut the inseams, center front and back seams out.  I did some fancy pinning, trimming and sewing.  And viol`a!  Arm covers that look like they are going to stay on and not slide around like the kind our mothers had on the arms of their sofas.

I haven't figured out what to do with the back of the recliner yet.  Right now a folded afghan covers it.

Next up, is to finish packing because I'm heading back to my sister's in Wichita probably for the summer and maybe part of the fall.  Or at least until the doctors can get her pain under control, so she can figure out what she wants to do.

Hope everybody is having a good day!

Judy

a fleece afghan

Sis decided she wanted to send me home with all the pieces of fabric she had laying around.  No good deed goes unpunished. 😇  What am I going to do with a big bag of fabric?  The cotton pieces got folded up and put in a dresser I store some of the fabric in.  I decided to make an afghan with the fleece and I will be taking it back with me to Wichita.  She needs another blankie! 😉

So I squared the pieces up, split the brown nubby looking piece in two (Yup, that dark brown piece in the back is the other half to the lighter brown piece.)  Then I built a back out of one of the big piece of cotton.  As I sewed the pieces of fleece together I attached them to the backing at the same time.  I cut the backing an extra two inches per side to bring the backing around for the binding.  I had helped my mother to do this with comforts she made out of oddball feed-sack quilt tops she had.  The squaring up the fabric is something my grandmother did to make, quick, wool comfort tops when my aunt and uncle moved into an unheated house with 5 little kids in the late fall.

As you can see I just folded the raw edges under and zigzag the edge closed.  The whole thing only took 4 or 5 hours to do, once I had figured out how I wanted to construct it.

What my sister was thinking when she bought this fabric I don't know, but she gets it back on the back of an afghan. 😉  I didn't think to put a label on this one.  It is done, so it is time to get back to the scrap project I'm working on.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Judy

10-minute quilt block quilt...finished

I posted about this quilting project back in November of 2012.  I finally finished it.  This is one of the projects I found and took with me to Sis's.  The top was complete and I had made a backing for it.  So I pinned a batting in it and put it in the bottom of my suitcase.

It is interesting to note that it is the post with the most hits on my blog.  Everyone is looking for fast to make quilt blocks. This block is Not fast or easy.  It is fiddly to make as an eight-inch sized block, to put it politely.  That post is here.

I do think it would make a great bow-tie block with the raised center square.  I also like how after washing, the edges of the center squares are wavy with the way I quilted them.

The quilting is my typical stitch-in-the-ditch, a diagonal through the center of the blocks while I pondered what to do with the center squares.  I didn't want the centers to loose the raised effect but I had to do some sort of quilting because the section was to big to leave unquilted.  Thus, quilting a presser-foot's width from the edge hoping to maintain the raised look for the center of the block.  I think I accomplished that.  I used a diamond for the outside borders.

The back is twelve-inch squares so the quilt is somewhat reversible.  I like the square-in-a-square look in the quilting on the back.

Well, the label is on and it is time to put this quilt to rest and move on to the next project.  I hope everyone is having a lovely day.

Judy

a baby quilt

While I was suppose to be working on another quilt for a wedding in October, Sister Suzy came home from practicum and said they were going to have a baby shower for one of the guys at the end of May.  A distraction! Yes!  So I went out on the web, looked around, did some thinking on subject and this quilt from Missouri Star Quilt Company looked like a good bet.  They called it the Simple Squares Quilt.

I thought the quilt would look perfect in a rainbow of colors.   The quilt measures 42" by 54" after washing.  I used a low-loft batting.  That's all that Micheal's carries here in Phoenix.  I need to check out some of the quilt shops, Jo-Ann's and Hobby Lobby to see if any one carries medium or high loft battings since I like them better.

The big block is 5-inch squares.  The little block is 2 1/2-inch squares and the white sashing strips are 2 1/2 by 5-inches.  Borders were 3-inches wide.

I used stitch-in-the-ditch for the quilting.  I had trouble figuring out what to use in the border.  I wanted diamonds or triangles but couldn't get the math to work.  Then I had the bright idea to use a rectangle and connect them.

I took the leftover fabric from cutting the 5-inch strips, cut them 2 1/2" wide and sewed them in a rainbow for the binding.  The next time I do a rainbow binding I will pick off the cut edges so that it will be easier to match up sewing the strips of bias together.  I had some places where the color changes didn't match up neatly.

I used the last of the blue seersucker for the backing.

Sister Suzy will be adding a book to go with it.  Will be fun to see what she chooses.  I am betting Tuesday by David Wiesner or The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, both favorites from her childhood.

Well the label is on, so it is time to wrap this up and to wish that all of you have a great day.

Judy