Livin' La Needle Loca

 ...Finished Object first. I started and finished this mini-picture in the last week. This is Spooky Sheep: Specs: Started 8/24/2020 Finished 8/30/2020 Kit from Shepherd’s Bush The news: We adopted 2 kittens!  They are tortoiseshell sisters, approximately 3 months old. We haven't named them yet, but we're working on it. I am so happy to have cats in my house again!

 ...yay, another finished object. The fires, smokey and bad air made me very anxious this last week. Spinning is always my go-to project when I need to zen out. Yesterday, I finished Outlaw [ Ravelry ]: and the close up: Specs: Started 8/12/2020 Finished 8/26/2020 Merino-Silk (4 0z.) from Greenwood Fiberworks 216.67 yds. chain-ply; 13 WPI The Husband planted some marigolds called Day of the Dead. They have large large, yellow blooms and are a much taller plant that most marigolds. He's planting a lot of new flowers that I'll take photos of soon.

...already! I realized that the week had gone by so quickly that I totally forgot to feed my sourdough starter. I fed it today, only 2 days past my target date. The good part is that since it's stored in the refrigerator, there's a little more wiggle room. Whew! I'm making progress on my Day of the Dead quilt. After several false starts, I now have a plan that makes me happy. I've renamed the quilt to "Noche de los Muertos" because there are some blocks with dancing calacas. Here's what it looks like this morning: I'm also working on a handspun. I should finish plying it today. This is Outlaw [ Ravelry ]: WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Noche de los Muertos quilt (quilting) Finalized block organization and sewed a colored bottom border on each block. Outlaw handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Plying Renaissance Mermaid (cross stitch) Still working on the curve on the tail.  Se...

 ...I love these small cross stitch projects! This is the Christmas Foursome pillow: Specs: Started 8/3/2020 Finished 8/23/2020 Kit from Pine Mountain Designs I made a slight variation to the pattern, leaving two rows of empty fabric between each square. The only challenging things about these Pine Mountain pillow kits is that there is no color list. You have to guess which floss colors go with which section of the chart. On most of these projects, it's relatively easy to figure out the colors. For this one, there were 3 sections in the chart where it was difficult to tell which color belonged where. I ended up with a left-over color. It looks OK, so I'm not going to worry about it! It's been a challenging week with all of the fires around us. We can no longer leave our windows open because it smells like smoke 24/7. Fortunately, the temperature dropped 10 degrees so it's not as painful. However, it's still warm!

 ...a finished object, which doubles as my eye candy for today. I finished the stitching for one of my cross stitch project. This is Wee Seashore: Specs: Wee Seashore Started 8/3/2020 Finished 8/20/2020 Pattern: Wee Seashore by Heart in Hand Threads: Weeks Dye Works I'm minimizing the time I spend outdoors because of the smokey air. We are in the Santa Clara Valley, so the Santa Cruz area fires are not far away. The smoke is playing havoc with my sinuses and my throat is dry and sore.  At any rate, it means that I am not outside taking photos!

 ...it's hot and smokey. With all of the lightning-caused fires in our area, air quality sucks. My throat is raw and I have a headache. At least we have power for now. I've been working on small projects that are easy to do when it's hot. Here's the current state of Wee Seashore: I hope to finish the stitching by the end of the month. WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Christmas 4-square Pillow (cross stitch) Working on square 1. Day of the Dead quilt (quilting) Finalized block organization and sewed a colored bottom border on each block. Renaissance Mermaid (cross stitch) Still working on the curve on the tail.  Secret project (knitting) Continued knitting Wee Seashore (cross stitch) Completed stitching the sand and started the back-stitching Works In Progress, Did Not Work On This Week: By the Sea needle roll (cross stitch) Look Through My Window quilt for me (quil...

 ...around 100 degrees for a couple of days. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hot days only happen a few times a year. In my area, temperatures in the high 90s and 100s are rare. Well, we've had several rare days in a row and it sucks!  Like many of my neighbors, we don't have air conditioning so over 100 degrees is miserable. Add to that, our power went out on Friday and was out for 19 hours, so no fans for relief. The only saving grace is that we hadn't gone food shopping for the week yet, so we didn't lose much. Early Sunday morning, we had thunderstorms, another unusual occurrence. The skies were spectacular! This morning, we had more gorgeous clouds: 20 minutes later, we had amazing color: Lots more photos in my Flickr photostream . And, yes, clouds are one of my favorite things to photograph! LOL!

 ...and Mother Nature put on a show this morning. Here's one photo of the sunrise. There are lots more in my Flickr photostream. The Husband bought some new flowers. This is Oenothera: Bidens: Osterospermum: and Gaura: It's been a hot few days, making it had to get anything crafty done.

 ...lots of things in process. I've been working on the mermaid and Tucson Twilight. Neither one of them look significantly different than my last photos. I have made more progress on Wee Seashore: There's a lot of sand to stitch in this picture, so much that I get bored stitching it. I'm switching off between this, the mermaid, and a small Christmas project that I started last week. I started a secret project as a gift for someone. I can show this sneak peek, but this is it until the gift is delivered. It's turning out to be an enjoyable project and a nice break from stitching. I finally received the last feature fabric for the Day of the Dead quilt. I'm now working on the block layout. I hope to finish this quilt top in a week or so. WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Christmas 4-square Pillow (cross stitch) Started stitching Day of the Dead quilt (quilting) Cut out the fin...

...day number 150 of Shelter in Place. Over the weekend, I started a new knitting project. I found a free pattern on Ravelry and hit my yarn stash for something appropriate. That's all I can say for now, because it's a secret. :) I worked on some needlework projects and toyed with the idea of started a handspun. I'm bouncing between projects, trying to get a little done on a lot of projects.

...wow, these weeks are going by fast! Our panache figs are ripening: New to the garden is Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate: Texas Sage: and Lilyturf: I recently purchased some stickers from Latinx vendor I found ( https://www.laserenatejera.store/ ). I promptly put one on my MacBook and used the rest for my vision board. The board holds reminders that of my Latinx culture, affirmations, and reminders.

...and I have a case of raging start-itis that I'm trying to curb. The Renaissance Mermaid is coming along: For some reason, I'm having trouble staying oriented in the pattern. I'm marking my working copy to indicate what I've stitches and using a post-it to highlight the current row. It's not like I haven't stitched a pattern from this designer before. Working on it... One of the projects that I "started" is Wee Seashore, a small cross stitch picture from Heart in Hand. The word start is in quotes, because I actually had stitched a couple of rows a few years ago and then put it away. I have no idea when I really started this, so I'm just going to go with a 2020 start date. Here's the current state of the Tucson Twilight needlepoint: These colors are working much better. WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Peacock Majesty by Just Nan (cross stitch) Working on row 10. ...

...a big month for finishes due to Tour de Fleece. Finished: 7/4 Mourning Dove's Cousin handspun [ Ravelry ] 4.0 oz. Merino-Silk from The Yarn Wench 218.75 yds., 13 WPI 7/5 Dovesong handspun [ Ravelry ] Falkland (4.2 oz.) from The Yarn Wench Plied with Bernat Satin Sport yarn in Meadow 50 yds., Bulky weight 7/6 Cherry Peacock handspun [ Ravelry ] Falkland (4.2 oz.) from The Yarn Wench Plied with Moda Dea Cheri in Teal 62.5 yds., Super bulky weight 7/7 Herbal handspun [ Ravelry ] Falkland (4.2 oz.) from The Yarn Wench Plied with an unidentified tape yarn in my stash 37.5 yds., Super bulky weight 7/7 Face Masks (5) for me (sewing 7/11 Mahogany Peacock handspun [ Ravelry ] Falkland (4.4 oz.) from The Yarn Wench Plied with Trendsetter Grace in Brown and Coats & Clark Polyester thread in teal 50 yds., super Bulky weight 7/12 Winter Peacock...

...continuing my quest to find projects that are fast to finish. This project has been sitting in my stash for a while. This is the Have Ewe Any Wool pin cushion: Specs: Started 8/1/2020 Completed 8/2/2020 Kit from Shepherd’s Bush I'll switch back to bigger projects soon!