It will be no surprise to learn that I have no sewing to share with you all. As you can imagine, house preparations are taking up almost all my free time.
So, I’ll have to make so with sharing some of Mom’s recent work. You may recall, that she rather talented at fancy quilting – both free hand and using rulers.
She just finished another class where the focus was on quilting in wedges.
The pieced design is very simple, because the focus on this is in the stitching. There’s so many designs in this one, you could spend hours studying them all. Here’s a closer look at just a few.
Wowza! One of these days, I guess I’ll have to up my game and move on from simple loops!
Knitting time is limited, but I like to keep something on the needles for when I have a spare moment.
This is more Wollmiese, the other stripe yarn left over from Paisley cardigan. It’s a dark magenta that reminds me a lot of pickled beets. I don’t actually like pickled beets, but they were a staple in my house growing up – and they are a pretty colour.
The pattern is my Mr. Dress-up pattern. Like other sock patterns I’ve been choosing lately, it’s a pattern that’s not so complicated I can’t memorize it and work on it in small amounts; but also busy enough to keep it interesting. I don’t think these will fly off the needles like Woodland Walk did – but it’s hard to say. It all depends on how quickly things move along at the new house.
Is there anything more un-fun than packing? Well.. there’s probably is, but packing definitely ranks on the list.
Although we were at first delighted to have a couple months for the great move, it has proved to provide a few challenges that moving all at once doesn’t.
Mostly… what do you pack, and when. We are essentially trying to live between two places, but only have enough stuff for one.
Dave has been in a terrible rush to get all the shelves, etc, taken off the walls here so he can make repairs and make it easy to paint for the next tenant. But a lot of the stuff on those shelves is stuff I’m still using, so it can’t just be packed into a box – and now, without shelving, it’s in my way!!! (Think baking canisters that are now taking up precious counter space, of which I already have too little)
I’ve been trying to stick to packing non-essentials…
…and oddly enough, that does mean my yarn. I’ve left out one ball for my next project (yes, another pair of socks), but the rest of the yarn is all packed up.
Burton was pretty intrigued by all the space that had opened up in the studio closet. Just wait until he sees all the closet space in the new house!
As you read this, I’m hopefully at the new house, wading through a jungle of weeds, trying to prepare some space for the garden plants I’m bringing.
But meanwhile, back at the townhouse, things are starting to bloom again
I bought this pretty white Bellflower last year, but this is the first time it’s bloomed.
I didn’t realize how tall it would get. It’s almost to my waist, and looks quite pretty standing out in the garden.
My Dianthans, which were supposed to be annuals, finally seem to be reaching the end of their life (after about seven years). They are pretty, but they certainly aren’t as showy as they’ve been in previous years. A few of them have died off completely.
The Bachelor button is blooming too. It’s apparently a rare version, and I love it because from the side, it looks a little like a thistle … but with out all the prickles. The bees love it too. In the first picture you can see a little sweat bee working away.
I bought this Alium several years ago, and it was called “Eye Candy” and supposed to contain yellow, pink and white flowers. But for several years, I’ve only ever gotten white.
As pretty and dainty as they are, I was a little disappointed. I wanted those other colours. But then this year, as the white flowers faded away, yellow ones began popping open.
I wonder if the pink will eventually make their debut too!
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been watching as everyone else’s peonies bloomed around me, but mine were still just buds. But finally…
They just exploded into sheer beauty!
The strawberries are finally starting to ripen. But as suspected, I’m not getting to enjoy them. They either disappear completely, or I find them like this.
I definitely need some raised beds at the new place, and maybe some bird netting!
Last, I’ll leave you with my Beardtongue
And oddly named, but beautiful little perennial I have in the front garden! And for some reason it always put up two bloom spikes. One in pink, followed by one in purple.
I told you that you’d see an FO post in short order… so here they are!
The pattern is Woodland Walk and I absolutely love it. Not only does it knit up fast, it’s beautiful and elegant. This is the third pair I’ve made, and it probably won’t be the last.
As I said, this pair is mine, but I’m sorry that I don’t have photos with a pair of my pretty heels…
The shoe collection is all packed up, so you’ll have to make do with my plain old feet. Well… Relic decided my photos needed something a little extra…
So I hope his appearance makes up for the lack of footwear couture.
Burton is giving me stink-eye because I’ve been sewing birds again.
Before we move, I wanted to make something special for neighbour Krista. She has two African Grey parrots (Abby and Baby Girl, and it wasn’t hard to adapt the Rainbow Lovebird pattern to African grey colours.
I don’t have the time (or enough grey fabric) to make a full quilt, so this is just a wall hanging. It’s going up to Mom’s so she can fancy quilt it. She’s going to have fun quilting around those hearts, because as you can see, they are a little on the wonky side. I decided to add the on last minute, and I was totally flying by the seat of my pants while making them. Hopefully they don’t cause her too much trouble!
With Dave’s socks off the needles, I needed to get another pair on. Ever since I finished Paisley’s cardigan, I’ve wanted to use the leftover mauve Wollmeise for a pair of socks for myself. Since it was only used for the pinstripes, there was lots left.
So I started knitting…
I know, I know – it’s already almost a pair!!! And while it may seem crazy fast (even for me…) they aren’t ankle socks, but they aren’t terribly long in the leg either (about 4.5 inches long). I have small feet. And on Saturday, spent almost 8 hours in a vehicle. It’s not often I get to be the passenger anymore, so when Dad said he was driving I made sure to pack my knitting!
I’m making Woodland Walk again. I absolutely love this pattern, and the previous two pairs I made were given away. This pair is going to be mine all mine!
As I mentioned on Saturday, Dad and I were off on a mission. We needed to go to my brother’s, pick up a box trailer, and deliver it to the new house.
Now I live in Stoney Creek (a suburb of Hamilton). My brother lives in Owen Sound, a city about three hours to the northwest. The new house is in a teeny little township called Brooke-Alvinston… three hours south of Owen Sound. And after dropping the trailer off, we needed to drive two hours east to get home. Needless to say, we had a lot of driving ahead of us (approx 617 km, or 380 mi.)
I had also bought myself a lawn mower and weed-whacker. When we did our final walk-through a week before closing, I noticed the grass hadn’t been cut, and part of me suspected they wouldn’t do it before closing. Since we will only be at the house on weekends for the first while, I figured I better come prepared, or I’d be tackling a jungle in very short order.
Dad was supposed to pick me up around 6:30 am, but just after 6, I got a call that he was having some truck trouble. He could sort it out, but he’d be later than planned. We finally got on the road just before 8. We made good time, but the delay meant we didn’t hit the new place until almost 3 pm.
We unhooked the trailer and stored it in the garage, and Dad assembled the mower while I surveyed the yard. I was right…
The grass hadn’t been touched for at least two weeks. It’s hard to tell, but that grass was about knee-high.
Did I also mention that Saturday was BLAZING hot? Like over 30C/86F hot???? It’s not a huge yard, but it looks a lot bigger when you’ve been up since 5:30 am and you’re melting into a puddle in the driveway. I did one round on the lawn to make sure the mower worked (oh boy did it! Love my new lawn shaver!!!), and declared to Dad that I would get up early Sunday morning and come back to finish it when the weather was a little cooler.
Well… you know Dads… that just wasn’t going to do. He took over, declaring he could have it done in 20 minutes.
I hope to go back this week and do a little more clean-up. The garden areas are completely full of weeds now (they were bare when we first looked at the place a little more than a month ago) and I really need to get started on preparing the catio area.
I didn’t take any more pictures, except for this little “decoration” I found hanging on the bathroom door. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before.
I think she’s kinda cute! I’ll probably keep her there.
Just when I thought I was out… she keeps pulling me back in!
And although it looks like I’m talking about the black-market kidney selling business, it actually dyeing. As part of her personal quilting adventure, Mom has discovered ice-dyed mandalas.
Unfortunately, because it’s cotton, we can’t use any of the yarn dyes. Mom bought a little starter kit, and she’s been having an awful lot of fun.
But I must resist…. I’ve got way too much on the go right now.
Wandering Cat Studio 