Sew I See!

Well, I wasn't happy with how the quilting machine was behaving (skipping some stitches), so I've left it for now.  Soon I'll need to get back to it, but for now, I've allowed myself to start another quilt, instead.  I had a set of Halloween-themed fat quarters bought on clearance a while back, and this seemed like a good time to finally use them.  Looking for pattern inspiration months ago, I found a starry quilt that seemed like a good match.  I selected a slightly larger block size, to make it come together a bit more quickly-- and also because I thought larger blocks might better suit the fabrics.   There are two types of star blocks in this quilt.  The pattern book I'm using calls them sawtooth stars and variable stars, but maybe they're known by other names, too.  So far I've only made some of the sawtooth stars.   Progress photos taken along the way: That's where I am, at this point.  I may not finish this quilt top by Hallow...

Trying to stay "in the groove" with this craft blog!  The key does seem to be posting regularly, even if there's nothing momentous to report.   You may have noticed the font size on this blog changed recently.  I've been increasing it, because when I checked how it looks on the tablet (and maybe the phone, can't recall), it seemed too small for comfortable reading.  I hope this will make it a bit better.  - - - - - - - I didn't do a whole lot of crafting this long holiday weekend, but I did some.  There are now a couple more string blocks for the HST project and another inch or two on the current diamond painting.   What I'm more excited about, however, is that I finally resumed work on the freestyle words that have been sitting on the design wall for ever a long, long time.  As always in these cases, once I started working on it, it went fairly quickly and I enjoyed it.  (Why does this happen so often?)  I didn't spend that ...

I finished a larger-than-usual (for me) diamond painting, since last time.  There wasn't much left to do, after I filled in most of it while Donald was travelling in July.  (He went to a figure-painting show in the Netherlands, then visited his family in Sweden.)  I needed a break from it, so set it aside.  The last 1.5 inches or so went pretty quickly, once I got it back out again.   It's a 40x60 cm diamond painting, with an image of jars of wildflowers against a dilapidated wall with peeling paint-- I mean, against a shabby chic wall.  😜   * * * Sidetrack!  Is shabby chic still "a thing"?  I'm sure some people are still decorating in that style.  In fact, I recently saw a decorating magazine where many things looked like the "primitive" or "country" style I remember from the 90s.  Are those things back in style or did they just never go away for the people who love them?   I think I've officially reached that ...

I applied the binding to the latest quilt ("Retro-Cali Ribbon Stars").  Then it spent a week waiting for me to stitch down the last side of the label.  I tend to put off hand-stitching, because I don't love it.  When I finally did it, though, it really wasn't that bad, so I went ahead and stitched down the label for the long-languishing second "Tall Tales" quilt that has been nearly-done for such a long time.  I labeled both quilts, let the ink set (at least 24 hours recommended), and gave them their first washes.  Photos and "ta-da" posts to follow soon, I hope.   In the meantime, there are a couple of other projects I can share progress reports on.   First, I completed the fox diamond painting Kimberly gave me for Christmas.  I'm happy with how it turned out!  (They always look better from a distance, but here's a photo, anyway...) I'm already zooming through the next diamond painting-- a picture of flowers in glass jars.  Th...

Gosh, I knew it had been a while since my last blog post, but I didn't realize it had been that  long!   For more than a year, now, Donald's been sole owner of his web-design business, and I've been pitching in where I could, originally with small, sporadic jobs.  I've been depositing checks, mailing invoices (before everyone switched over to email), copywriting, emailing reports to clients, occasionally doing some of the simplest parts of building websites and filling in the content-- that kind of thing.  As time has progressed, the work has become more consistent.  I still handle the monthly checks and assist with the occasional data entry, etc. for new sites, but my primary focus is on copywriting-- specifically, writing for SEO (search engine optimization).  I usually enjoy it when I have an idea.  When I don't  have any ideas (or the idea involves researching and writing about health problems and medical procedures 😱), it's somewhat les...