Livin' La Needle Loca

...I finished the stealth commission quilt and delivered it yesterday!  So what have I been working on since March?  This is "The Hawaiian Shirt Off Your Back": and the label: Specs: Started 3/14/2015; Finished 9/27/2015 Machine pieced and quilted The quilt was commission by my boss' wife. She provided 10 of her husband's Hawaiian shirts to use as the fabric and requested a lap-sized quilt. Because the shirts didn't have a lot of color, I supplemented them with Hawaiian yardage. Both the borders and the binding are batiks. The backing fabric is a cotton surfboard fabric from Dean Miller. And stealth project #2...I had a lot of fabric left from the shirts and didn't want to waste it. My boss has a small dog that he calls "little dog". So I made a doggie pillow out of the same shirt fabrics. This is "...And Your Little Dog, Too": and the reverse: and the label: Specs: Started 8/8/15; Completed 9/20/15 ...

...we're rapidly running out of month! We still have some canna lilies blooming: and the purple salvia is hanging on: Eye candy from the garden is getting sparse, so you also get this morning' sunrise: Up this weekend: My main goal is to finish the hand stitching on the commission quilt. I've been working on it every night this week. Progress is very slow. Honestly, until this is done, I'm not going to work on anything else, including housework. The only thing that will get done is laundry and that's because the washer and dryer are in my studio. I'm looking forward to finishing this puppy! .

...picture-less post because I either can't show you what I'm working on or the photo would look essentially the same s the last one I posted for the project. My crafting life is currently full of loose threads that need to be buried. I worked on them for 2.5 hours last night and I still have a thousand threads to go. Yes, I'm exaggerating, but if you saw what it looks like, you'd think it was a thousand, too. I see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it's going to take a while to get there! WIP Roll Call: Worked on: Beyond Antares, aka Equatorial Nights (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Working on row 42 of 62. It helps that this is my Monday Craft Coffee project, so it gets some play every week. Stealth Commission project (quilting) Burying the threads for the quilted squares. Still need to hand-stitch the binding, make the label, and attach it. Works In Progress, did not work on: Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Empress handspun [ Ravelry ] ...

...and the weekend report. Spin-In: I made gingerbread cookies to take to Spin-In. What was really funny was that my friend Loretta also made ginger cookies for Spin In. My were crisp and hers were soft and frosted. They were both delicious! Loretta did very well with her first spinning lesson. She spun the Corriedale that I brought as practice fiber. I also gave her the pretty dyed Falkland I bought as a later birthday present. I pointed out that f she didn't like spinning,  she can always use the birthday fiber for weaving. Stealth project #2: I tried hand-stitching the label on...and I hated it. I carefully unstitched it and sewed it on using the sewing machine. Given the way it will be used (to be revealed later), machine stitching was the right way to go. Commission Quilt: Finished the machine stitching. Hooray! This included attaching the binding to the front. My shoulder was killing me my the time I finished, but that part is done! Working on burying the th...

...and they say it's going to be another hot weekend. This means that I'm going to melt while I'm quilting...oh, yay. There are still things blooming in the back yard, which will probably die with the weekend's heat. Canna lily: Agastache "Black Adder": Asclepias "Silky Mix" and Angelonia angustifolia. I love this last flower because at certain angles you can see through the flower: Up this weekend: Spin In tomorrow! I haven't spun anything since Tour de Fleece in July! I'm taking my friend Loretta and we're going to teach her how to spin. I have some nice white Corriedale for her to start with and then a nice dyed Falkland. I'm going to lend her one of my spindles so she doesn't have to buy one. If she likes spinning, she can invest in a spindle of her own. Other than that, the major thing to work on is the commission quilt. I need to finish machine quilting the squares and sew on the binding. Th...

...and I finally took a photo of the latest cross stitch project. This is Sail, a design by Shepherd's Bush with buttons by Just Another Button Company: When I bought this in 2004, the shop kitted the design with the buttons and the fabric. I was happy that I could purchase the fabric with it as it can be difficult to get this type of fabric locally. Now that I'm working on it, I am not happy with the fabric color they chose. It's too close to one of the colors in the beach ball and in the lighthouse.  I'm going to leave it for now, but if I really hate it in the lighthouse, I'll pick a darker blue from my DMC stash. WIP Roll Call: Worked on: Beyond Antares, aka Equatorial Nights (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Working on row 38 of 62; need to tink back about 40 stitches to fix a beading error Sail (cross stitch) Working on the letter A Stealth Commission project (quilting) Quilting the centers of the squares, approx. 85% done Stealth project #2 (quilting) Ne...

...and the weekend report. The vacuum monster came out on Saturday and I finally got the leaves, debris, and furry dust bunnies removed. The cats, of course, disappeared as soon as they saw the vacuum. It took a while to convince them I was done! I spent most of the weekend on the commission quilt. I'm nearly done quilting the squares. I had to stop a few times to let the sewing machine cool down. It wasn't a hot weekend, but using the machine that many hours in a day was a bit much for it (and my shoulders!). Once I finish quilting the squares, I need to apply the binding. The final part is to bury a million threads, hand-stitch the binding to the back, and attach the label. Whew! I finished the machine sewing for Stealth Project #2. I made a label for it and just need to hand-stitch it in place. I need to remind myself to take the sewing machine in for a tune-up when I've finished the commission quilt. The poor machine really needs it. I worked a bit on the Sail cr...

...I totally spaced on WIP-it Wednesday. I blame it on the heat. We've been melting all week. Reading and watching TV is about all I could handle when I got home from work. It's a bit cooler today, so I might be able to work on something. I received some lovely roses from my mother and was hoping to take photos of it for Eye Candy Friday. With the heat, the roses croaked early, so no photos. This morning's sunrise was gorgeous: Up this weekend: I'm concentrating on the commission quilt. I must get closer to done! I need to pull the vacuum monster out. The cats and the Husband have been dragging in leaves and other debris from the garden...unintentionally, I'm sure. :) Fortunately, we don't have a lot of carpeting in the house, so it shouldn't take long. That's it. It's short, but then so was the week! .

...it was a good birthday weekend even if it didn't go quite as planned. First, the Finished Object.. This is Summer 9 Patch, a pillow kit from Pine Mountain Designs: Specs: Started 8/14/15; Finished 9/7/15; Pillow kit by Pine Mountain Designs I bought this kit in 2006. I wasn't fond of the pink and green pillow then and I'm still not. However, it is done and it was a nice diversion from the commission piece. The weekend report: I spent a good deal of the weekend on the commission quilt. I quilted the border and am pretty happy with how that turned out. After dithering for a bit, I decided that the squares needed something, so I started quilting them, following the motifs in each square. This is adding a great deal of time to the piece, but in the long run it will be worth it. The stealth piece is nearly done. I have a couple of seams to finish and that's it. It was really too hot to quilt all weekend, but I took a lot of breaks. We planned on taking...

...today is my birthday and I'm just about over my angst about my age now. The Husband started celebrating my birthday early by cooking dinner last night. And not just any dinner...the man barbecued tri tip, lightly smoked with oak wood that my mother sent from home, and made some piquinto beans. Our family moved to Santa Maria when I was in elementary school; my mom, sister, and two brothers still live there. There is nothing like Santa Maria barbecue and the tri tip is the best. The thing that makes it so great is the oak wood. There is nothing like the flavor of meat cooked over oak. That flavor is hard to duplicate in a propane barbecue, but using oak wood chips does a decent job. The Husband did a great job! The other thing he did for my birthday was buy new plants for the garden. He carefully chose varieties that we didn't already have. Here are some of the new things he chose. Santa Cruz Sunset begonia boliviensis: Torenia Hybrid: Fuchsia Emu Bush: ...

...in which no spinning occurred and my reading lagged again. I can't complain too much about the reading. I finished 3 Outlander books, which are huge . Finished: 8/2 Sheep Scissor Companion (cross stitch) 8/16 Sweet Summer (cross stitch) Books: Rebel Queen, Michelle Moran Magic Shifts, Ilona Andrews The Veil, Chloe Neill Dragonfly in Amber, Diana Gabaldon Voyager, Diana Gabaldon Drums of Autumn, Diana Gabaldon Started: 8/1 Sheep Scissor Companion (cross stitch) 8/2 Sweet Summer (cross stitch) 8/14 Summer 9-Patch (cross stitch) 8/15 No-Noro Hat for Halos of Hope (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Worked on: Beyond Antares, aka Equatorial Nights (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Stealth Commission project (quilting) Stealth Commission project #2 (quilting)  Works In Progress, did not work on: Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Empress handspun [ Ravelry ] Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitch) UFOs/Hibernation: Celaeno Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Going Snow...

...with a preview of the commission quilt. OK, it's a small preview. :)  I can't give too much away! WIP Roll Call: Worked on: Summer 9-Patch (cross stitch) Completed 2 of 9 squares; 4 other squares in process Stealth Commission project (quilting) Need to quilt the green border and bind it. I need to decide whether to add some quilting to the center of the blocks. Not sure yet... Stealth project #2 (quilting) One last thing to finish! Works In Progress, did not work on: Be My Baby for My Baby (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Beyond Antares, aka Equatorial Nights (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Empress handspun [ Ravelry ] Mermaid of the Pearls (cross stitch) No-Noro Hat for Halos of Hope (knitting) Started 8/15/15. Ribbing completed and design started. UFOs/Hibernation: Celaeno Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Going Snow Global quilt (quilting) Peacock Pomatomus socks (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Peacock Majesty by Just Nan (cross stitch)\ Tuscon Twilight (needlepoint) WI...

...Happy September! It's my birthday month and I'm a little ambivalent about it this year. It's a big birthday for me and it's making me feel really old. I guess I'm making up for all of the other big birthdays when I didn't really care what my age was. I didn't do as much work on Commission project #1 because I got sucked into project #2. I replaced the light border of Commission project #1. I finished the stitch-in-the-ditch quilting. I am running a couple of tests on scrap fabric to see if my border quilting idea is going to work.  I made great progress on Stealth commission project #2. I decided on the finishing and just did it. I still have a little left to do, but it's very close! I finished the laundry, but the vacuum monster had to wait. We wasted a bunch of time trying to get our new HD cable box to work. We finally decided that the box was the problem. The Husband got a replacement box from Comcast and it worked right out of the gate....