Boring

Nothing much to report here.  I've caught a cold that seems bent on making me miserable and is threatening to take away my voice.  It's also slowed me down for the annual hall decking, but I'm hoping to get some of that underway this week.

The stitchers' guild has asked me to build them a website, so I've been beating HTML into place for a couple of days.  I'm at a stopping point now, at least until I get more information from the board. 

Here's hoping I can get some stitching done soon.  I've actually done some minis, but I can't show them until after the coming weekend.  They're gifts for my friends down south and I'm heading that way (weather permitting) on Saturday for the holiday luncheon.


That's all for now.  I'm off to find more herbal tea with honey and perhaps some chocolate.

Thanksgiving in Pictures

Happy (belated)Thanksgiving to all my blog friends.  FH and I have been busy for the last several days with prep work.  My parents came up for the holiday and we cooked a feast.  Everything with the exception of the pumpkin pie was home-made.  [FH was given the pie by the Red Cross for donating blood Tuesday night.  One less thing I needed to bake and it wasn't bad.  My pies are better though.]

Everything went smoothly except for the weather.  It was so cold after three hours of smoking the bird FH had to bring it inside so it would finish properly.  However it only delayed getting to the table by thirty minutes.

Hickory smoked turkey, before carving.

Set table, complete with shaped napkins.

Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, bread dressing, blue cranberries, and plain cranberries.

Pumpkin pie, stir-fried broccoli, turkey, green beans with almonds, cherry-pecan cake, grape tomatoes, clemintine oranges, the sulphide-free wines, and chocolate.

Plate lacking bread dressing, since I forgot it.  Also the home-made dinner rolls.

Tea with cream and sugar.

Blackberry cobbler with ice cream.

Late night snack that FH whipped together for us.

A cure for leftovers: turkey salad with dried cranberries, pecans, celery, sweet onion, egg, and mayonnaise on home-made honey-oat bread.

Same sandwich bt with home-grown cabbage and carrot sprouts.

Not bad for the first big dinner that involved parts of the family.

Afterward I was able to get a bit of stitching in.

Crochet-top towel for my stash of gifts.

Ornament for the Guild exchange next month.

I'm off to go sleep off the leftovers.  Night all!

By the Fireside

A Few Finishes

I've been getting a few hibernating projects finished lately.  Here are pictures of two with one new project for giggles.

A baby blanket that I started for a great-nephew five years ago.  I got distracted and now I dug it out for a baby who's due in mid January.

A fall/Thanksgiving themed crochet top towel.  I worked this one up the night I finished the blanket.

Fleece booties for my stash of baby gifts.  I like to have a supply on hand and I've been running low for a while now.  This pair had been lacking soles and the decorative buttons for about four years.

I've got another project I'm finishing up and another to start.  Here's hoping I can work on them in between cooking/baking for the holiday.

Reupholstering

A week ago I went south to fetch some furniture home.  Namely my paternal grandmother's dining room furniture.  FH and I finally have some grown-up furniture in the house.  Not only are these much loved heirlooms but given our love of entertaining the lack of a large table was becoming irritating.

The latest timesink for me has been fighting with my grandmother's dining room chairs. They have been naught but bare frames and have been this way since I was in high school.  Several things (grandchildren) came up and my mother never got around to actually reupholstering them.  She did however make a lovely book (with photos) showing how the original upholstery was put together and included a pattern for the seat cushions.  She also saved original pieces of fabric to use as patterns.  I finally finished them on Friday evening after about two weeks of stop and go work. The project stopped and started based on availability of materials. Everything was here except for the fabric, which arrived Wednesday. Then the real fun began.

Here is a pictorial step-by-step of the process:

Bare frame.

 Jute buckram webbing.

 New cushion cut to fit.  This replaces the original (and very icky) horsehair.

 Muslin to cover the cushion and make future upholstery easier.

 The gorgeous fabric that Mom picked out for the chairs.

 Simple black fabric to cover the bottom and make things look more finished.

 Close up of the fabric.

 I plan on covering a few 12" pillow forms with some of the leftover fabric.  That way FH can comfortably sit in these chairs for a long meal.  Once the sun is up we are going to spray some Scotchguard on the fabric to hopefully help protect it from spills and dirty cat feet.

If I get a chance during daylight hours I'll get a picture of the dining room set in situ.  I'm off for some much needed sleep.

Copy Cat

With one small difference...

A different number to correspond with Pollux's larger frame and ability to dominate in skirmishes.

I actually started this one last week but was distracted by going to fetch the rest of my furniture from down south.  I'll post more on that later, hopefully tomorrow or Friday.

Again the original pattern can be found here.

On to Happier Things

FH suggested I make Castor a new sweater, so I checked my notes on the blue one and made a few modifications.  Again the original design is by DIY Maven.

The last two rounds at the next are done in kitchen cotton while the rest of the body is worked in LB Homespun.  I used kitchen cotton to embroider the numbers on the back.

The yellow cotton at the collar helps snug in the neck enough that it doesn't flop as easily as the blue one.  He's been gaining some weight back, so I made the belly a little loose so it won't get too tight.

I could have used cotton for the whole thing but I didn't think he'd stay as warm so I went out and bought some green Homespun.

Pollux is in for a shock though.  I think he needs a matching one before the game this Sunday night. ;-)

Auction is Over

And what a day it was!

My humble contributions of stitched pumpkins and crochet top towels brought in roughly $70 for the guild.  That made all the effort worth it to me.  I'll be setting things aside for next year's auction ahead of time.

I did manage to win the piece I wanted.  I spent the better part of several months with the guild's quilting group putting together a queen-sized quilt for the auction.  Much of that time was spent keeping Confetti from sleeping on the blocks.  In fact on the day she died we were in the sewing room and I was working on the bottom row of blocks.  She had been helping me do this of course.

So many happy memories were tied up in this piece, even though it's not quite my style.  But I bid on it and won it.  Now it's mine to treasure and be reminded of happy things.  It's going to live in the sewing room on the bed where I will always think of my sweet kitten.