Livin' La Needle Loca

 ...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.

 ...because somehow I'm a day behind this week. Sigh. I've spent a lot of the week quilting. I started with Road to Chaos. I thought it would be straight-forward, like most of my Yellow Brick Road quilts, but Chaos decided to be something else. Instead of my standard method of straight-line quilting from end to end, Chaos wanted different quilting in each section of each block. That's what happens when you put "chaos" in the quilt's name. WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Herding Cats (quilting) Completed sashing quilting. Morgana (cross stitch) Still working on the hair. Road to Chaos (quilting) Finished the quilting the sashing. Working on quilting the squares. Starwoman (cross stitch) Working on the face.  Studio Ordered and installed chair mat. No Work This Week: California Red Poppy Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ]   Gypsy Rose Lee Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ]  Illusion Cube Blanket (knit...

 ...and a little eye candy, too. My latest finished objects are covers for my spinning wheels. I needed covers to protect my wheels and my loom from both dust and sun.  In looking at fabric for the covers, I realized that getting the right amount of yardage would cost me more than I wanted to spend. Instead I found a set of bed sheets in a pattern that I liked. I'm using the flat sheet to cover my Baby Wolf loom. I cut apart the fitted sheet to make two covers for my spinning wheels. I lined them with white-on-white fabric from my stash. I added a teal ribbon from the stash to the top as a handle. They're not the greatest looking things but they'll be quite functional. Specs: Started 8/3/2026 Finished 8/7/2026 No pattern Fabric: Main fabric from  Southshore Geometric Maze sheets and white-on-white fabric from stash.  

 ...so many projects, it's hard to pick just one to work on! I finished the Alphabet Afghan. I'm letting it hang up to hopefully get some wrinkles out before I take photos. I'm tweaking things in the studio. One thing that I needed to address was ordering a chair mat. Having to roll my chair between the computer and the sewing machine will tear up the area rug over time. It took a bit to figure out what size and type to order, but it's on its way. I'm starting to work on some of the outstanding WIPs, but there are other things that also need to happen. For example, I need to get some dust covers on the Baby Wolf loom and both spinning wheels. For the moment, the loom is covered with a decorative flat sheet, clipped in a couple of places. I'll eventually sew the corners into it, but it's good for now. As for the spinning wheel covers, I've cut out the pieces and need to sewing. Our garden path looked great in this morning...