I was thinking I’d had a slow week. the kid was home sick, but she didn’t miss much since there were more snow days that closed schools. Ironically, one of the days was supposed to be a staff day, but had been changed to a regular open school day as a make up for the number of snow days already this year. I get behind on everything when others are around, but wouldn’t trade it – except maybe for a well child and some warm, play-outside time. I know opportunities to be around her will change some day. I think that is easier to know and remember when you have already grown several and been through the rough times enough to enjoy the better days. When I looked back on the week, I was pleasantly surprised with what had been done. And it worked out well that she could take a large corner of the work table for a project of her own.
This was the big one. The kid loves animals. We think she may have developed a thing for the parrot hat because it is an acceptable way for an animal, a toy, to go everywhere with her. This one, named Zeb, has already been to school, but the next day the parrot was on her head again. Her mom is a bit sad because her lovely curls are not only hidden but she is having definite bad hair days after the wool blend yarn has tamped it down restyled it.
I’ve started a giraffe, but I’m not telling her or I will hear, “how’s it coming?” once or twice a day. If you are interested in the animal hats, these adorable patterns can be found in Vanessa Moonie’s book, Crocheted Animal Hats.
In the midst of getting set up to work on the giraffe, I realized that another small project bin (like the one I use when binding a quilt, shown in the last post) would be great while the crochet project is by my chair. Of course, that was after I picked up the crochet hooks (keeping 3 sizes handy) and tiny scissors for the fourth time, twice having fallen into the folds of my chair and which then had to be shaken to the floor, and the chair lifted so the hook could be retrieved. So new bins were on the work table. I took advantage of the project to attempt free motion feathers. Eek! Another pleasant crafting surprise for the week.
Still have a lot to smooth out as I sew, but it was more fun and easier than I thought it would be. I finished two bins. I put the mouse in the smaller one for size and because I am going to try to build a new habit of keeping the mouse in a safer location than the arm of my chair since it falls off, often.
The larger one, not shown, is a bit narrower, but long enough to easily accommodate the crochet hooks, a small metal ruler, stitch markers, snips and so on. It is already in place and in use.
And next up are the quilt sandwiches I put together just to practice on, but don’t tell the dogs since they think I make them just for their beds. I dug up the courage to start stitching on them after a couple of days jumping from one free motion quilt video to another, and stopping a couple of times to lust over a long arm or two. Haha on the scary stitching project – the first part was to mark off lines 4″ apart to have some stability and guides. The first quilt I am practicing for has 2″ squares making up a nine patch with 2″ borders and corners. So while I am still having a great time with feathers, I am trying things for that particular quilt.
Can’t wait to show you! I have several lines filled in already. I’m hoping to be able to do a self binding thing to finish it. (The dogs don’t need to know I took the easy and fast way to finish a practice piece.) I didn’t cut it specifically for that, but since it is to be a pad for the dog bed, I’m sure I can fudge around with the size.
In the meantime, hope all is well with you. Very much looking forward to getting the hopscotch quilt off the hanger and on the table to quilt for you!
Love you!
Cathy
Busy Cat Studio 