Visiting Alabama

I'm visiting my daughter in Huntsville, Alabama. I flew down last week, and we have been seeing the sights and are having a good time. These are mountains off in the distance.This is the rocket at the space center here in Huntsville. Lots of school groups come here to attend space camp.Here is the view from my daughter's apartment.
We made a trip to Yarn Expressions, and I bought some of this Mochi Plus yarn to make fingerless gloves while my daughter is at work.I hope you are all finding some time to stitch or knit today.

Each time I think I'm going to update my blog more often, I seem to write less. I have been busy doing some sewing but mostly prepping blocks for hand piecing and applique. Here are some hexagons that I have done using the English Paper Piecing method.
I have been working on blocks for a 3 inch block swap I'm in at a retreat next month. I will show photos of those blocks after we exchange.

I also went to the Imax showing of the Wizard of Oz on the big screen on September 23. It was in high def and had been digitally remastered. I saw things in that movie that evening that I had never seen watching it on television or DVD. It was a real treat. Hope you are finding some time to stitch.

Mitered Square Blanket Group

Last night was the monthly get together of the Mitered Square Knitting Group at Mass Ave Knit Shop. This is the third meeting, so you can see how much some of the gals there have done. Most of us are using a variety of sock yarns. The idea of this blanket is supposed to be to use your scraps of yarn left over after knitting a pair of socks.

The first two photos are my blanket. OK I haven't knit this many pair of socks.

This one is coming along nicely. And so is this one.

This one has a lot of bright, cheery colors.

This one has two rows of black as the base of each square so that it gives an overall stained glass look. Very nice!!

This one is using all Mini Mochi yarns in various colors. The blending of colors in this yarn gives a soft look.

Lots of people left before I started taking photos. After this group winds up, we are going to do a knit log cabin blanket.

Being a quilter as well as knitting and crocheting, I love these knit projects that look like quilts.

I have rewritten the pattern for the mitered square blanket. I will try and put a link to it on my blog. Or if you would like a copy of the pattern, just email me.

Hope you are finding some time to stitch some today.

Project Linus Blankets

Some of my handwork lately has been crocheting these edges around fleece to donate to Project Linus. Yesterday our local coordinator e-mailed that one of our local hospital needs children's blankets, so I'll drop these off this morning.

This one will go to Project Linus also. I made this from a bundle of Minkie that I bought a few years back at a quilt show. If you are a quilter you know about those things you see at quilt shows that are screaming "pick me up and buy me". This blanket has been around, too. I pieced the top and donated it and the backing a year ago at the Make A Blanket Day where we all get together and sew Project Linus labels on the backs of donation quilts. One of our other coordinators took this top home to finish. At the next get together she brought it back unfinished. So I brought it back home and kept it another 6 months before I finished it.

I hope you take some time to do some stitching today!!!

Visiting Alabama

I'm in Huntsville, Alabama, for the Labor Day weekend visiting my daughter. We have been having a good time, visiting, eating good food and doing a bit of sightseeing.

My daughter's apartment is on Lady Anne Lake. We walked around the lake yesterday and saw this bird outside of the apartment. We think it's a stork.

We visited Providence, a fairly new part of town.


There are fountains everywhere.

We had lunch at the Mellow Mushroom. They specialize in Italian cuisine. We had a couple different types of pizza, and I tried humus for the first time. They served it with warm pita bread, and it was interesting.

Today we visited a new mall called Bridge Street.

It is built around a man made lake.
The landscaping is just gorgeous.

These pink, ruffly trees are everywhere. We aren't sure what they are.

There are fountains of all kinds.....

You can have lunch on the water......

Take a ride on the carousel.......Or take a goldola ride......Sunset over the lake. Tomorrow afternoon we head back home.

Stash Enhancement and A New Project

Now this is going to look like I've done a lot of shopping, but we have two quilt shops near here that are going out of business. One is Quiltmakers and the other is Zig-Zag Corner. Zig-Zag will have a web based business so they aren't completely going away. Quiltmakers will close at the end of October.



These Halloween fabrics are part of my stash enhancement experience, and I'm reallly tempted to start a new project with them. I just completed the stitchery. I answered a survey quite awhile ago over on Gayle's blog (Sentimental Stitches), and she sent me the cute pattern for the witch as a thank you.

This was one of those batik bundles that I couldn't pass up. And, these I got just because I liked them!!I think this will be a table cover.

I've been sorting and organizing fabric. I probably should finish a UFO or two before starting something with these new fabrics.....maybe. More later. Happy stitching!!!

Flowers and Baskets

There isn't a lot of sewing going on here this week. More on that later. For today here are some photos of the flowers on my deck and in the back yard.

Mandevilla
Balloon Flower

Rust Day Lily

Another Day Lily

Susan G. Komen Dahlia Our back yard early in the spring before weeding and flowers blooming.
These are the baskets that I worked on while recovering from knee replacement. They are done in one piece and portable. They are from the book When The Cold Wind Blows by Barb Adams and Alma Allen. A friend reduced the size of the basket so it would fit in a charm square. This is a great use for all of those charm packs that we've bought and can't remember why!!




Thanks for visiting.