Definition? ... glutton

What is the definition of glutton, as in "a glutton for extra work"? I use the word and often wonder if I have the definition correct in my mind. So I decided to look it up. According to   http://www.dictionary.com/browse/glutton?o=1

glutton:
    noun
    1. a person who eats and drinks excessively or voraciously
    2. a person with a remarkably great desire or capacity for something: a glutton for work; a glutton for punishment

So "no" for #1 but a definite "yes" for #2. I am a glutton for adding extra projects and starting something new.

With that said, a few days ago I joined another online quilting group, the Birthday Exchange. I thought to myself, this is manageable. I can do single blocks for only 9 people over the year, all to be sewn in an effort to reduce stash. Besides, I will learn new blocks, blocks that I have never sewn before. Is that rationalizing or what? LOL  Of course as fortunes would have it, there is a block due in 10 days (that means received by birthday)

The first block is called Broken Wheel  and is desired to be done in colours of the individual's choice on a neutral background.

As we traveled by bus back from Mexico, I constantly rolled what little stash I have over in my mind. The neutral background is where I was stymied. Then last evening, I had an epiphany - I have the whole set of Fossil Fern FQs that I bought! Yes, I bet I will find a neutral with coordinators in that. And I did and immediately pulled them for my sewing session tomorrow:

 The dark is actually a darker version of the medium lilac.

Traveling places on public transportation leaves one with a lot of time on your hands - you can only look out the window so long. I took my donation scarf with me to knit. I got it finished

(long enough to wrap around one's neck or sew together to make a cowl) and looked around for what else can I do, I still have 2 skeins of yarn left? Ah hah! How about I learn how to turn a sock heel using this yarn and make a surprise pair of socks for DH. Looked up tutorials and found what I needed and got started.

Getting the heel started was no problem. The frustration came in when it became time to turn the heel. The instructions sounded backwards and Mr Rippet [photo] came to visit a couple of times. (Sometimes he likes to visit a lot, and other times, he is content to sit and watch) Finally it looked somewhat right. Then on to the gusset. A gusset, in a stocking? This took a couple of tries as well. But it was finally accomplished (wished I had take photos along the way - will on the pair to this one) and then on the way back to the US I kept knitting. Upon reading the instructions for shaping the toe when I was back in the carro-casa, I realized I was supposed to fit it to my foot to ensure a proper fit in the shaping. Oh well, Mr Rippet can come to visit again! With trepidation I tried it on with needles dangling precariously and discovered a perfect fit. If it fits me then it will fit him, no problem. Onward to the shaping of the toe once it is long enough for his foot.

As for the Magic Cube quilt for DS#1, it is coming together quite nicely. Almost finished the piecing of the focal point of the quilt.

From this 

I went to this Now I am ready to put on the sides in plain black. I believe that it will be called "Can You See Them?" referring to the illusions.

And lastly, what about friends who live out of 2 suitcases? Would they be able to haul a small lap quilt around I wonder? Have one just for them but ......

What does one do when ...

When one's home is in the shop and one is staying in a hotel with limited space, what does one do?

Knit for starters: Finished up the second mitten and started the scarf.

I had a bit of trouble with the mittens as I really didn't have a pattern and I was relying on memory and the combining of patterns. Not a good idea. Then I was not using a row counter and was relying on my visualized counting. Again, not the best idea I have ever had. Still, they are now finished and I have a much better pattern from my mother. These little gems took far less yarn than I had anticipated so if the same is for the scarf, I am going to have yarn left over - not something that I wanted.

You drive an hour to go to a quilt store only to buy 1 piece of 1 yard fabric because you could not find anything further that you either needed or liked.    This will be a better mix for the NYB that needs to be cut out.

 

Then you eat ice cream on the way back to town.

You make a trip to the RV to get a bag with another project that is in need of cutting of pieces. After gathering up all the necessary items to do this and returning to the hotel, you sit back and say, "You know, I am really tired and I am thinking that I will go to bed early tonight." Then you proceed to order pizza and pull out the computer and decide to write in your blog, after ordering more fabric online because you found something that you simply couldn't live without!

And what did you do with your day today?

What, already the end of the month ...

I can not believe it, already the end of the month. We have had a busy celebratory month both in the touristing arena and for me, the sewing and knitting arena. I sew when we are in site and knit while riding in a car, so lately I have accomplished a lot there (at least for me).

First off, we have the new UFO Number Game announced. Yup, here they are: Low number is #4

Other number is #41. Oh yeah, my #4 has been finished - so will replace it with #6, DS#1s quilt. I do not have high numbers which gives me more time to work on #1, OUR Quilt, to bring it to a finish as well. At least to the flimsie stage would be nice. February's numbers, #7 - got lost in the shuffle, and assigned #3, Mom's Quilt, to replace the lack of the high number - completed as a UFO to move me down the list. 

Remember the toque that I made? Well, it was made initially for DH but it is slightly snug on his head so it became a donation for my Mom's senior's group. But first I have to make a set for it. That means mittens and a scarf. Driving around Louisiana this last week, I started the mittens.

After many false starts and a couple of Mr Rippit's down to the ribbing, I have finally got it the way that I like it. I like the colours but am not sure if they are what a teen would like.

DS#1s quilt is giving me a pretty good learning curve. I am making a pattern called "Magic Cube" from KwiltArt. It is a pattern that I bought in Houston and got started right before the New Year so that it would be a good UFO to have.  I changed the colorway however, to  on a black background.
The learning curve involved the sewing of the triangles that made up the cube in the centre so that there was no "tenting" at the joins of all 6 triangles. Had yet to master that. IT came together beautifully and there is no "tenting" - so that is another skill that I have finally mastered.

The radiating spokes are also coming along once I figured out that the freezer paper method should have been drawn in the reverse. All is ok though, it will be reversed, but who will know - only me!

 The cutting instructions are very vague and after reading them numerous times, I still had to revamp what I was doing. They are coming along just fine now and should have all four sides completed in a couple of days of sewing off and on. The name for this quilt still has not come to me. Guess it needs to flow a bit more and get put together for the inspiration.

OUR Quilt has progressed with the completion another block last evening. Once again I thank my guardian angel that all the seams and points lined up. This is going to be a majestic quilt once finished and am hoping for it to be on the bed by the Christmas season, including pillow cases.

And to a new start this year, the 365 Challenge. These are definitely hard to get my fingers wrapped around. They are so little and I often have trouble working the very small pieces. I collect the patterns as they come out but have little towards completing the blocks and catching up. So much of the time was focused on completing the quilt for Mom and after, I never got back into doing them. My next JOT will be to cut out some of the blocks, ready to sew together.

I did finish up DGDs 2nd (requested) pillow case, which now needs to get put in the mail. I have decided to use up a lot of the 2/3yds of fabric that I have and make pillowcases or maybe the pillowcase dresses for African children. And from what I saw in Africa, some of those little girls could use them along with a pair of panties. 

On to more sewing ....    

Graduation

Just a quick note to put up some photos from Brooke's Graduation last night. A beautiful, meaningful commencement and a beautiful graduate:
 the happy family

 Happy grandparents and graduate

Today we start our journey in ernest. We are embarking on the train trip that will take us from Dar es Salam, down through Tanzania and into Zambia. It takes 46 hours plus delays so will be interesting. If you want to follow our travels in Africa, please go to:  Where are we today?

The only things that I brought with me for while I travel besides my camera, are:
~ Knitting - my silk scarf.   I will get this finished sometime for sure.

~ Crocheting - my granny square coat squares. Now that I have all the wool, I can go to town on them. I forgot, however, a needle to sew them together so will end up with a bunch of finished squares with loose tags of yarn. 
~ Needlework - 2 Christmas Crackers. These are the ones that I gave Mom for Christmas. They are just not for her in her current state. So I promised to complete them for her and then make them up into crackers. I believe that she wants to give them to my sister Lauri for Christmas, so I had better get going on them!  

Already February ...

It is amazing how fast time flies. My mother used to tell me that the older I got the faster time would fly by and I sure am a believer now. Almost the end of January, and what have I accomplished?

Starting with our return to the USA, the first "get re-acquainted with" Miss Betsy was the first UFO finish of the year. I needed to do this to get my mojo back in place after it's long hiatus. Winter's Coming did just that.

But then my declining mojo was interrupted again as we took a flying trip to Canada to visit my folks. What could I take that was easy and quick? The cowl that Brooke indirectly asked me to make for her. It knit up quickly and by the 3rd day of visiting (taking into account that I had hours and hours of flight time) I had the required 54+" done.

Once home I quickly got it sewn up and mailed.

When I finished with the knitting the next thing out of the bag was the third in the Golden Cracker Christmas series.

This looked like a fairly easy one to do until I looked closer at it. A lot of beads to be attached which is not a good thing for air travel. Too much to worry about in too little of arm/maneuvering room to fiddle with beads. So I got that to the bead stage before leaving. I have since added some of the beads and continued on while parked here in the RV in the Coooold weather of Texas.

As a result of this, I ended up buying a second set of knitting needles in Edmonton for the trip back to Texas. Started a second cowl, this one for me, which will be a "in the car" project only. By the time I got home, I had 1bout 12" done on it. Rocking and rolling.

With the weather here in Texas taking a turn for the worse, I then started to organize my stashes here in the RV. There is way too much and I need to learn to concentrate on only a couple of projects in each medium at a time. Listed out a ziplock bag of stash so that I know where it is when I need it and it will go into the storage unit next trip.

For now I started on the One Toe Out of the Box  January challenge - Snow: A rug mug. I decided that for each month I would make a mug rug and give the series to my DDIL in Texas for her desk at work (she eats at her desk all the time). This will be her Christmas present for 2014. Fabric cut to 8"x11", quilted and bound with a monthly theme.

 Didn't realize before that the one side is a little wonky. Should have looked at that a little more closely. Guess I will be going back and fixing that!

Next up, getting started on piecing Brooke's quilt. I cut out the fabric to make the first of the blocks to see how I like them one evening while trying to stay out of the elements. This is where I am currently at: Ziplock bags labeled with each unit.

 From here I will construct the blocks, section by section. I am sure that there is a better way that I can organize them but for the life of me, I can't come up with one. I will have to go to the store to see what I can find to organize them in a manner that makes it easy to use and to store on a daily basis. 

Having had a discussion on leaders and enders, I am going to see what I can put together to try that out. For now, however, I will use Zach's quilt blocks in between each snowball square in Brooke's to simplify the sewing - no struggling with each corner square, one on top of the other. Zach's blocky is taken from the Wonky Log Cabin block found at Just Jude's blog made with blocks like this ... 

 only out of blue and lime greens.

As for UFO completions, I am working on getting my "Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" (girl) quilted. As a UFO, this is how it looks, being taken out of the from Panamá box.

 This is really cute fabric and I bought enough to make another but in a Friendship pattern as well as the same fabric in blues for boys. The Friendship is a UFO not even listed: It is still in the Panamá Box while the boys one is still in the wanna make pile. The last time I went to the storage unit I was able to find the fabric that I bought for the binding so now it is simply a matter of getting it completed. Working diligently on it: 

I foresee a break in my mojo coming fairly soon. A trip to Panama is in the works and later, a trip to Iraq, but in the meantime, onward with the sewing/quilting/needlework.

Quilted UFO #1...

A couple of days ago I read emails and discovered that I was in position #3 of the Ladies in Waiting for the Queen position in the Stashbuster's UFO Challenge, and I haven't even made it to the quilt shop to get my application "fees" yet. So, heeding the thumping of the heart - do I want to don the regal wardrobe while riding the TransWorld Express (train)? I think not. So as soon as we got the RV out of storage and parked, out came Miss Betsy and a review of what I had to accomplish in the way of UFO's and "want to do's" and what would take the least amount of time. "Winter", a 2013 Christmas present left behind during our travels, received the winning vote. I started with this ...

 The fabric chosen and started, getting to this point  The colours seen in direct winter sunlight did not have the effect and value that I had hoped for when choosing them. If I remember correctly the lighting in the store was incandescent but I had thought daylight. So the first dilemma: Do I want to change the fabrics and start over by ripping put what has been done. NO! So I persevered. I didn't dislike the colours but rather they were a little off for the reason I was doing this - a 2013 Christmas present (not taken with me on our travels). Their Christmas dishes are blues and silver yet the fabrics, in direct sunlight, have a distinct purplish hue to the blues. So we will see how it goes over, and if necessary, I can remake it. 

A marathon day of sewing and binding sewn as I traveled to the doctor appointment, I completed tonight and this is what I have ...  20 x 60" table runner.

Completed. Done. Move me down out of the Ladies in Waiting list.

On to another subject: Knitting. During conversations with my granddaughter and me knitting a scarf for myself out of lacy silk fiber, she hinted, albeit indirectly, that she would love to have a cowl. All the kids in school were wearing them. So off I headed, ended with a white synthetic with a slight sparkle (probably way too much, maybe enough for two), needles and a downloaded pattern from the internet. 

 A good travel project for sure: 15" wide and 54" long, then connected end to end through provisional casting on. By the time I had gotten to our parking spot for this week, I had already knit quite a bit and also realized that this particular pattern, cute as it is, draws the width in to about 12", not quite as big as I wanted it. With re-evaluation I realized two things: need bigger needles and more stitches.  Still, it will be quite nice when finished, and, quite warm. Of course, now that I am making her one, the temperatures will remain high here in Texas, :) and I have another UFO on my hands.

So now, what UFO project will be next? I am thinking, the "Monkeys Jumping on the Bed as it will be a stitch in the ditch finish and then binding for completion. During this process I will also get started on DGD's new one for her newly redone bedroom. I am hoping to alternate new with a UFO for more progress. For travel I will take the appliqué Merry Merry Snowmen.

'til later ....