That's the question.

Split finger tips, dry skin, scuttling from one heat source to another.
Winter.
Gotta love it.

Here's my theory:
We have two houses. TWO.
The one we live in, and the studio.
They are both situated in middle of the DEEP FREEZE.

I think we need to sell the one we live in.
Then buy a small place somewhere warm........just not Florida.
I am not a fan of Florida.

But Georgia, South Carolina........both of them .......right THIS MINUTE..........are FORTY degrees warmer than it is here in northeast NY.  And both of them will be 68 degrees next week.
Hallelujah.

Then we could live at the studio from mid April to Thanksgiving, and then GO SOUTH for the WINTER.

 

 I could take a couple of looms with me.
L can handle the studio...in fact, she would probably love the peace and quiet.

My mother?   GET IN THE CAR.

 

Roy is happy as long as he is wherever we are.

 (Christa, this is the slub yarn, 85% rayon, 15% silk)


So what is the problem, you ask?????

When I bring this subject up, DH looks at me as if I have just suggested we take a trip to Mars.
He is resistant to change, and apparently would rather deal with frigid temps and what seems to be an endless winter.
My question is this:  if you don't live your wild and precious life NOW, then when will you?

 

Don't ask why we have TWO 31"x99" hemmed runners.

DON'T ASK.

(I won't tell, L, I promise)

 

 So I guess I will have to just go south without DH.  I can send him lots of photos of Roy and I laying in the sun.
I'll take Roy.  I'll take my headache.
Do you think he'll keep my mother?  That sounds fair, don't you think?

Read More

Taking the day, every day.

I won't lie to you.
My head does NOT like this deep freeze we are experiencing.  I don't even want to walk Roy when the sun is shining, it's that cold.

I wake up in the morning, and swear to God someone smacked the back of my head with a large stick.
Luckily for me, I am fiercely stubborn, and pig headed, and resistant to being bossed around, even by a smashing headache.
I know, a lot of people would just stay in bed, or lounge around in their bathrobes watching TV all day.

Uh, no.  Not me.
I order myself out of bed, and to the shower, where I stand eyes clenched letting the steamy hot water run on my neck.  I eventually end up downstairs making tea, dressed and ready for the day with a bit of an attitude: damnyouheadacheyouarenotthebossofme.
Eat cereal immediately, so I can put Motrin down my pie hole without getting sick, drink hot tea,  put my fave herbal rice pack that has been in  the  microwave for 3 minutes right on the back of my neck.
And then I am very, very still for just as long as possible.
And slowly, very slowly, my reward comes.  The headache backs off just a bit, and then a bit more.

It never really goes away.
But Jimmy crack corn and I don't care....if you know what I mean.  This is my life, and it may not be perfect, but damn, it is my life, and I am going to proceed, headache in hand if you will.  If that's the way it has to be, then so be it. 
I can do this.
(repeat several times for effect)

My friend, Bonnie, and I went to Trader Joe's today, about 50 minutes away.  She and I are both vegetarians, and like a lot of the same foods.
It was a real treat.  I bought so many cool things to eat, I don't know where to start.

I also bought my mother some flowers, just to cheer her up.

I decided to take the whole day off, all of it.  So we went to lunch at my fave place, the Rockhill Bakery, and then I came home to knit in a sunny window.

My cohort, is usually nearby.  VERY nearby.

That's not to say that wanting to be warm doesn't make him just a little fickle.   And my mother has a stove that he warms up to.

But he'll be back.  Cause he loves me more than that old stove.

Read More

The Rug that L made.

Loom warped, 8'x10' rug woven by L.

I cut the fabric, and when she was done, I tied the fringe, and sewed the three pieces together....but L made the rug.
Her first SOLO BIG RUG ORDER.
WHOO HOO.

Have to put this in her employee folder.
Ha!

It did turn out quite nicely, didn't it?? It went to a penthouse in Manhattan.
I'm serious, it really did.

Today I had a student.  It went well.

She has done a little weaving on her own, but runs into trouble when warping.  She didn't have any trouble today.

There is nothing quite so satisfying as a well wound warp.

You asked about Next and Nuff..........and their new shelter.....when it's warmer they sit in their respective chairs, but now they have  a nice wind break with the heated pad.

 

Fifty one days until spring.

Who's counting.

 

Read More

Continuous Curve Quilting

I've been quilting my quilt with the blocks made by the girls in the Redbird Bee. I find deciding on a quilting design for pieced blocks quite difficult. Continuous Curved Quilting is really a great technique, especially when you can quilt the whole block without stopping and starting again.

It takes some study and thinking. A bit of venturing off from the direction you might presume at first. I thought I'd share with you the path that made the quilting one continuous line for this block. 

You can see here where I started, traveled to the center square and completed that...

 The pink lines represent where I continued around 3 sides of the squares and 2 sides of the triangles, ending up where I started...

Following a chalk line I drew from corner to corner on each outer square, I quilted continuous curves on either side of the lines. I wanted to end up back to the corner I entered. The dashed lines represent the last 2 quilting lines in the square...

I then quilted the 4th side of the inner square which brought me to the next outer square and continued around the block in the same manner...

I think it creates a nice design that really highlights the piecing. My thread choice is Aurifil 50, a nice fine thread that doesn't make a big impact on your fabric. I switched between using gray blue and soft orange for thread colors, depending on the color of the block.

I'm on to stitching the binding down and can't wait to show you the finished quilt. Those Redbird girls are awesome!   . . . Cindy

Read More

Brrr.

Ah, yes, it's cold.  Too cold. And I've worried and worried about Next and Nuff.........but in their own cat stubborn "know it all" way, they resist coming in the house.  So today, I'm looking out the window, at their box on the porch, and it occurred to me that there wasn't much to stop the wind, and that maybe we should have put it in a more sheltered place.

L, the cat hater, listened, and then in her best cat hater fashion, took a ride up the road to a local farm, and made THREE trips back and forth with a bale of hay in the back of her Subaru each time.

Now their box is surrounded on its exposed three sides, with sturdy bales of hay, and there are a few heavy rugs on top of it, and the heated pad inside.
Now if they will just curl up together,  they can stay warm. 
I will probably still worry, but not so much.
Thank goodness for  Aunt Lois  the cat hater.


                                                                (Next on a rug in warmer days)


Life around here is pretty exciting.

I spent quite a bit of time organizing my knitting needles.  They were in a jumbled mess in a big box, and I finally had enough of searching for the needles I needed.
I probably have every size anyone would ever need, in straight needles, circular needles, and double pointed needles.  But they don't do me much good when I can't find them.

I think it's winter, it makes me zero in on junk drawers, and makes me want to live a more minimalist life.
I am half way through my books and saved magazines.
My kitchen cupboards are next.

I recently realized that when I do my own laundry of jeans, long sleeve shirts and under wear, I do the same clothes over and over.   I do the laundry, wear the same clothes the next week, and then do the laundry again.  I am so NOT a clothes horse.  That bit of information inspired me to go through my closets and my dresser, and bag up a LOT of clothes that I haven't worn in longer than I can remember.
I also matched all my socks, and threw out all the ones with holes.  What I found out is that I really have plenty of socks, now that I can find them.
Now I know this is probably driving you wild with excitement, but hey, it's winter in New York.

And before I bore you to tears, I'm going to go drink my hot chocolate, before it gets cold.
Staying warm is my Number ONE priority.

Read More

A day in paradise.

Can you call two friends knitting, a "Knit In"??

Well, we did call it that, and it was perfect.
A perfect quiet day,with my bff.



On the ride there, I can feel the stress leaving my body.
A sigh escapes me.

As we sat and knitted, the birds made a ruckus at the bird feeders, the brook icy cold in the background.

The warmth of the fireplace was  beyond lovely, and the occasional whiff of wood burning was nostalgic to me.
My friend's house is bathed in beautiful, restorative, sunlight.

While my friend occasionally grumbles about the lack of cupboards, the thought of chopping veggies on this countertop in this open, sunlit kitchen is very appealing.

There is a flow to her little house, and such a good feeling.  It is tastefully decorated, accidentally or otherwise, everything is just right.

The quiet is what I miss most about my own life.  I remember living like this, and there is really nothing quite like it.
It will always be in my heart, and it will always be what I aspire to have once again.
Someday.

We chatted away the rest of the morning, had a gourmet lunch of home made black bean soup, and puff pastries with broccoli, onions, and mushrooms.  Then over tea, we chatted away the afternoon.
After accepting me into their domain, Winnie (left) and Topsy (right) slept in the sun.  Like Roy, Winnie snores.

There is something so peaceful about a home with dogs and cats lying around in total peacefulness.
They are all loved, and they know it.
And it's all good.

Topsy, you may be needy, but you're very sweet inside.

Outside, sunflower seeds attracted the flock.

There are times that I am confused about what I am missing, and about what I need most, and about what makes me happy.

This was a simple, beautiful reminder, that it's not that complicated, at all.

Read More

Modern Courthouse Steps

I so love this idea of taking one traditional block and turning it into a quilt! That's exactly what Denyse Schmidt did in her book Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration. 

 The quilt in the book uses solid fabrics, but I chose to bust some of the stash by using prints in analogous colors of orange/yellow, orange, orange/red, red and fuchsia. For the light strips, I used leftover bits of solids in creams and tans.

It's quilted using the #4 serpentine stitch on my Bernina through the middle of each strip. I've played with this stitch for quilting before, but was never happy with the result. The key was increasing the length quite a bit - length of 4 and width of 5 - and I'm super happy with it.

The back is a combination of a solid cream and print with a 1" strip separating them to mimic the 1" strips in the quilt.

After quilting, I was stumped on a binding, but ended up using the leftover solid pieces for a solid scrappy binding.

I'm wondering what other traditional blocks would look nice blown up as a whole quilt?

. . . Cindy

Read More