Livin' La Needle Loca

Happy Halloween! This is my Facebook cover for today -- a quick and dirty creation using a photo, Fireworks to strip out the background of said photo, and Ribbet to create the background and layer on the stripped-down photo to the background image. Not too bad... Monday and Tuesday got away from me, so no posts until now. It's almost open enrollment time at work, which means a lot of prep work for me. Between updating forms, creating fillable PDFs, uploading everything to the website, and updating the intranet web pages, I've been really busy. Things will get back to normal in a few days. I managed to finish plying CSI Examiner's Gloves [ Ravelry ] over the weekend. No photos of it yet.  That's two items I need to photograph! WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Charred Teal Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Still working on color 5 in Section 3. Secret Project About 75% done on the first component. In the Queue Renaissance Mermaid (cross stitch) Shimmering Advan...

...last one of October! While I was busy crafting last weekend, The Husband went to our local nursery and bought a few plants. We now have a rule that before he can plant anything,  I need to take a photo of it and a photo of its label. That way I might have a hope of figuring out what it is when I see it in the garden. Sometimes this works great, other times it's still hard to figure out what it is. This time around, I managed to get some pretty good shots of the plants before they went into the ground. There are a few others where the photo is useful for identification, but not good enough to upload. This is Tecoma "Sparky" Cuphea hybrid "Starfire" Mexican oregano and Purple Top Verbena: Up this weekend: After the normal chores and errands are done, I need to spend some quality time in the studio. Firs and foremost, I want to make a big dent in the secret project. I want to get most of it done because I need to search for some pre-m...

...and an updated look at my quilt in progress. While I didn't technically work on the quilt last week, I do see it every time I walk into my studio. There are some obvious changes that I need to make, but I don't want to touch it just yet. I know that once I get started rearranging squares, I won't be able to stop for at least a couple of hours! I still haven't taken photos of the Arizona handspun [ Ravelry ]. However, I did manage to get a quick photo of the CSI Examiner's Gloves handspun [ Ravelry ]: I practiced my two-ply technique on Arizona, so I'm back to chain-plying on this one. WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Charred Teal Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Working on color 5 in Section 3. CSI Examiner's Gloves (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Finished the singles and started chain-plying. Secret Project Purchased materials and started working on the project. In the Queue Renaissance Mermaid (cross stitch) Shimmering Advancing Point Twill Wrap (w...

...and the weekend report. First off, I'm happy to report that there were no plumbing issues over the weekend. Yay! I went through a couple more boxes from storage and created 2 bacnker's boxes full of recycling. I sent two boxes back to storage after a brief look-see. They contain the Daughter's materials from her PhD program and I'm not sure what to keep and what not to. I need to check with her. The Husband exchanged them for some older boxes, so those are next on my list. On Saturday, I made a trip to JoAnn's to buy some of the components for the secret project. I started working on it on Sunday. I worked on St. Charles (needlepoint) for a little bit. I'm finding that the current fill-in stitch is a little boring, but it does look nice when the section is completed. It's just slow-going. While I was doing the laundry, I plied the Arizona handspun [ Ravelry ]. I need to take photos of the completed yarn. I also started plying CSI Examiner's Gl...

...and keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have any more plumbing surprises in store for us! Here are some more photos from PIQF. I finally finished processing them all. This quilt made me smile - Luci and Desi Llama This quilt made me sad (and mad) - Justice 2018: And this one was my favorite - In the Old Way: These photos and more in my PIQF 2018 Flickr album. Up this weekend: All the chores I didn't get to last weekend because of our plumbing issue. I also have some additional boxes to go through. I've been filling up the paper side of the recyling bin for the last few weeks. And we're stockpiling a bunch of things for Goodwill. It feels good to get rid of things we don't need or don't want anymore! I have a secret project I'd like to start this weekend. I need to do a little research first, but that won't take very long.  Looking forward to getting it started! .

...moving some projects in and out or rotation. I renamed the Purple Hat to Baroque Hat [ Ravelry ] to reflect the color name of the yarn. I'm knitting an extra-long ribbing cuff so it can be folded up or down. I'm having a lot of trouble keeping my focus on this project. I think I'm just bored with hats! WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Arizona handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Finished spinning the singles; waiting to ply. Baroque Hat (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Working on the ribbing. CSI Examiner's Gloves (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Spun about 3/4ths of the singles St. Charles (needlepoint) Still working on the central medallion In the Queue Renaissance Mermaid (cross stitch) Shimmering Advancing Point Twill Wrap (weaving) Works In Progress, Did Not Work On This Week: Charred Teal Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Finishing work for some old crewel pictures (sewing)  Look Through My Window quilt for me (quilting) Mother of Dragons shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] ...

...and the weekend report. I have missed the last two Pacific International Quilt Festivals because we were on vacation. I've been going to the festival for many years, so I sort of missed going (but not enough to reschedule our vacation!). With me only working half days on Fridays, it seemed like a good idea to go to the festival on Friday instead of fighting the crowds and traffic on Saturday or Sunday. Good choice! Traffic was reasonable in both directions and I was able to find parking without a problem. My main reason for going was to see the quilts. There were many wonderful quilts and I took photos of several. I'm busy processing the photos and uploading them to Flickr in my PIQF 2018 album. My friend Randa entered a quilt that got 3rd place for Visual Impact in the New Quilts of Northern California category. It's pretty cool: Many ocean-themed quilts and ecological-themed quilts caught my eye, including "Water is Life, So Why Are We Doing This"...