Livin' La Needle Loca

...in which daily crafting returned to normal. Finished: 8/2 Alphabet Afghan (cross stitch) 8/7 Dust covers for spinning wheels (sewing) 8/29 Road to Chaos quilt (quilting) Books: Brewing Crazy, Kim Richardson Ashes in the Falls. Elle Gray Fatal Deception, Elle Gray Gulfside Sunset, Rebecca Regnier Beach Shack Legacy. Cindy Nichols Hunted in the City, Elle Gray Sunset Dreams in Mermaid Bay, Sophie Kenna Heathermoor, Shannon Mayer Newport Harbor Lights, Cindy Nichols Small Favor and Big Rewards, Hope Callaghan The Ghost in the Pole Barn, Hailey Edwards Started: 8/7 Dust Covers for Spinning Wheels WIPs: California Red Poppy Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ]  Herding Cats quilt (quilting)  Illusion Cube Blanket (knitting) [ Ravelry ]   La Cat-trina quilt (quilting)   Morgana (cross stitch) My Recipes (cooking)  Road to Chaos (quilting)    Starwoman (c...

...Happy September! I finished a quilt! Burying the threads took a while, but I finally go them done. This is the Road to Chaos quilt. Specs: Started 2/10/2025 Top completed 6/11/2025 Finished 8/29/2026 Pattern: Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs with some modifications Fabric: Happy Hour March 2020 Fat Quarter pack from The Granary; Grunge Basics in Blue Steel from Moda WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Herding Cats (quilting) Switched to using invisible thread for the top and black thread for the bottom. I'm much happier with how it looks! Morgana (cross stitch) Finished the hair. Working on the final fin. Room Divider/quilt wall. Worked on how to attach the felt and ordered some clips.  Starwoman (cross stitch) Still working on the face.  Studio Cleaned up the fabric scrap container No Work This Week: California Red Poppy Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ]   Gypsy Rose Lee Handspun...

 ...yeah, my brain is still one day off of reality. The Husband is back from his week-long camping trip. While he was gone, I enjoyed uninterrupted crafting time (if you don't count the cats whining at me) and just being with myself for a while. Before he left, he'd bought some fruit, much more than I could eat by myself. There was a container of blueberries that turned into coffee cake. Yum! Other than that little baking task, I concentrated on quilting. The Road to Chaos quilt is now in the final burying thread stages. The quilting and binding is done. I need to make a label and finish with the threads before I can declare it "done." WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Herding Cats (quilting) Started quilting the block motifs. I'm not having fun with this yet. Morgana (cross stitch) Still working on the hair. It goes on for days... Road to Chaos (quilting) Finished quilting the squares and added binding. In the proces...

 ...and I'm enjoying a little alone time.  The Husband is off on a camping trip, so the cats and I are hanging out in the studio. The garden hasn't changed much since last week, but we do have some pink hibiscus now. We've been noticing that with the summer heat, some of the rooms that are stuffy. We have to keep some of the rooms closed a lot of the time because of the cats. They love to go in and knock things off of the counter.  Canela likes to go into the bathrooms and "sing" because her voice echoes so nicely. The studio is closed up after 5:30 pm and doesn't open again until I open it in the morning.  I did an experiment in the studio. I researched diffusers and found a company that uses natural scents, based on essential oils. I'm scent sensitive to perfumes and other scents that are chemical-based, but natural scents don't bother me as much. I bought an ocean and sea salt scent and put it in the studio. I ...

 ...and the quilting continues. With 3 quilts and two cross stitch projects in process at the same time, the time just flies. In the middle of all of this, I'm reorganizing the way I handle finished projects and other things. I have a lot of pins that I have collected over the years. I had them in a display case but there wasn't enough space to display the box and I soon had too many pins to fit in the case. I looked for alternatives and found a pin collector holder.  I'm using 5 of the 6 pages that come with this holder. I have separate pages for Ravelry, Stitches West, Pacific International Quilt Festival, and the many stitching festivals that I attended. I used another page for  some miscellaneous pins along the way. As recommended by someone in the product reviews, I changed out their ring clasps with binder rings that were slightly larger. This holder doesn't take up too much space and works well for me. The only thing I need to figur...

 ...and it's been a productive quilting week.   I've added machine quilting to all three of the quilts in process: Road to Chaos, Herding Cats, and La Cat-trina. Next, I need to attack the quilting within the blocks. I've also been able to do a little stitching on Starwoman and the latest mermaid. The garden is doing well. The Husband continues to add new flowers to keep it looking good. We have orange hibiscus Globe amaranth Double-delight roses and black-eyed Susans.