What the well dressed skeleton is wearing

This season, the well dressed skeleton is wearing a prom dress. It is prom season, you know. (Tee hee)You do have a skeleton at your work place, don't you?
Please observe her lovely wrist corsage, adding a bit of charm to her rather bony arm.
Just so you know what I've been sewing this week!

Not one bit

I have not done one bit of sewing or knitting all week. :0/ I looked around and decided my free time really needed to be spent cleaning. This is most unusual for me, especially since we weren't even expecting company!

Do you have a place in your house you would never never never photograph for your blog, because, well, even after spending four hours cleaning it is still a disaster? I admit I don't clean our porch nearly often enough. You see, every single time I get it reasonably tidy, someone brings something large into the household, and decides the porch is the best place to store it.

I accumulated several bags of cardboard and paper to take to the recycling center, a few bags to take to Goodwill, and yes, some things that no one would have any use for at all, that went into the trash.

I also cleaned our closet and found something I hadn't seen in years. It is made from shirt sleeves, cut into three inch squares. Years ago I worked for a uniform company. Sometimes perfectly good long sleeved shirts needed to become short sleeved shirts. I got to keep the sleeves, and made quite a few things out of them. Baby quilts for co-workers, place mats, pillows, and a doll quilt, as shown, just for fun.

Larry and I had a GREAT walk this morning. We started out just going to the Post Office to mail our letters - er, bills. Yes, as my nephew kindly pointed out, they do make house calls, but we like our walks. Once we arrived we decided to take a different route home, so we could see all the flowering trees in the cemetery. Once there, we strayed further from our planned route, and ended up walking for two hours and twenty minutes! I do wish we had taken the camera. We saw one lovely sight right after another, such as a beautiful small lake with ducks, geese, and a swan gliding majestically along. It had a lovely walking path alongside which we thoroughly enjoyed.

I hope I'll do some sewing this week!

Do you like. . .?

Yellow?Or pink and yellow?
Or just pink?
or blue?
or white?
The colors are magnificent this year.

Global Economy

I got a really fun surprise in the mail today. Look what Heather sent from Ireland! Her crochet work is just outstanding. I hope I can learn to do that. I love the gift tag she made, too. I feel so badly that air travel has been halted for so many days. I know it is creating a hardship in ways I wouldn't have thought of.
Another vote of confidence for the doctor who said the soon to be born grandchild of a co-worker will be a girl.
I had lots of fun with this!
I started it after work on Friday, and finished it yesterday afternoon. My shoulders ached by the time the last stitch was in place. Would you like to hear a really lazy method of binding a quilt? I've done this a lot. I make sure the backing is at least one inch bigger all the way around than the top. After it is all quilted I just fold the backing over the edge, pin in place, and stitch. Presto - a neatly bound quilt. I forgot to take a picture of the back, and I already delivered it, so it's too late now. The back is solid animal print fabric with a border of a brown print , which is the binding you see.

Wet weekend projects

In the summer I hope a wet weekend will be all about swimming. For now a wet weekend means we find things to do inside. I had a lot of trouble with this mitten, and had to amputate the thumb four times. I am so wishing I had paid attention when Mom was still able to knit. She was a master, and could knit anything. My sister is another master, but she lives 700 miles away. I doubt if she'll be dropping by to help me with this thumb!In my optimistic way I started a new mitten. Now it would have been sensible to make the second one out of the same yarn so I would eventually have a pair, but I just wanted to see how this yarn would knit up.
We're having another baby at work. The ultrasound technician said it's a boy. The doctor said it's a girl. I was going to wait until its arrival so I would know for sure, but what if it's sunny and warm then, and I want to play outside? I'm making it mostly unisex with a few small pink squares thrown in to side with the doctor.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend! If you want a cool geography lesson go visit Jodie. www.vintagericrac.blogspot.com

Do you fly?

The last time I defied the laws of gravity and rode in a conveyance several hundred feet above the earth was in 1973. Back then you could take anything on the plane. People still smoked in planes back then, and yes, I did knit on board, using those big dangerous knitting needles, and (gasp!) scissors. You see, though I love to read, there are times when I can't. Such as when I'm defying the laws of gravity. Or when a no doubt very skillful surgeon is operating on a loved one. When I'm a bit (or a lot) uneasy I can't enjoy reading. I need to do something like knitting. Or sewing. Which both require dangerous weaponry, or at least needles and scissors.

You know and I know that a plane full of happily occupied passengers is much safer than one filled with bored and testy passengers. Knitting needles are no more dangerous than a pencil or pen, but don't say it out loud, or we may not even be able to write on the next flight.

My counted cross stitch needle isn't the least bit sharp, and I suppose I could use my teeth to cut the thread.

Well, bloggers, what do you do when you fly? We have a little fantasy of visiting the Aloha state, but we can't get there without defying gravity.


This is the stool sample I told you about. A little office humor. Cute, isn't it?

Non-gift

This is the non-gift I decided on. It's a bookmark for a gal who loves to read. I got the cross stitch pattern from a library book, pictured below. It took about two hours to stitch and put together, and the supplies came to less than $1, and were out of my stash, so really didn't cost a thing. Many thanks to my sister, Sara, who gave me the idea to make bookmarks. She made one for our mom a year or so ago. Every time I read aloud to Mom we use Sara's pretty bookmark. I'll be making more!
This book has some delightful patterns in it. Don't you love libraries where everything is free, and you don't have to find a permanent home for it. Of course you do have to give it back, but then someone else gets to borrow it. :>}

Inquiry

What to do?

Have you ever received an invitation to a party that says, "No gifts"? And then when you get there find that there are not only gifts, but a designated table to hold them?

And what if you have a previous commitment and cannot attend? Do you send a non gift anyway?

Untidy houseguests

Our cat is not quite sure what to do about the houseguests. It's a problem for him because he stays inside and they stay outside. They have spent a lot of time building
a really untidy house. Lots of flying back and forth. Lots of carrying building supplies. There is a very neat little nest at the top. I wonder if they think all this trailing debris somehow camouflages their home, making it invisible to predators?

Do you remember?

Do you remember when we used to get out a piece of notebook paper, or if we'd just had a birthday, a pretty piece of stationery, and write - with a pen! - a letter to a friend or family member? We'd find an envelope, look up their address, write it on the envelope, attach a stamp, and take it to the mailbox. A few days later it would arrive in their mailbox. I miss that. It must explain why I enjoy books of essays, or better yet, letters!

"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" and "Daddy Long Legs" are two of my favorite books. They are made up entirely of letters. I also enjoy books of essays, which are almost like letters.

In honor of a tradition that is nearly extinct, this blog post is a letter to you, my blog friends.

Hi there!

It's 6:30 on Saturday morning, and I have to leave for work at 7. I am eating my cereal while typing, and have yet to pack my lunch, so this will be short. The daffodils did get their third snowfall yesterday, but they're tougher than they look, and manage to bob back up again, with a smile on their faces.

I went to visit Mom yesterday and found her quite well. When I visited on Tuesday we spent the whole time outside in the sunshine and 82 degrees. Yesterday we watched the snow out the window and read aloud. Her memory is not good, so a book of essays is a good choice. She doesn't have to follow a plot.

Have you read any of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's books? They're wonderful! She's the Lisa Boyer of knitting. Lisa has written two marvelous books of essays on quilting, and Stephanie is entertaining us with her insights on knitting.

One of our patients at work brought in some darling little plastic bottles with typed labels saying "stool sample". We see a lot of that in our office, as you can imagine, but these sample bottles had cute little wooden stools with four legs! They're about 3/4 of an inch across and tall, and are adorable. A little medical office humor!

We've had four out of four cars in our family in the shop in the last month. Of course we like to do our part to keep the economy going, but it's much more fun to do so via the quilt shop or yarn shop.

Hoping all is well with you and yours, and do have a delightful weekend. Imagine this arriving in your mailbox in a cheerful green envelope.

Lots of love,
Diana

It's time!

It's time to enjoy the hyacinths - they smell heavenly.
Legend has it that the daffodils have to be snowed on three times. These hardy flowers have been snowed on twice, and I sincerely hope we'll skip the third one this year! LOL.
The yard looks so pretty with spots of color here and there.
It's even time to put away the winter boots and get out the summer shoes. Or is it? When I mentioned it to Daniel he said, "You know what will happen if we do." Okay, so we'll leave the boots out, but I'm still wearing my summer shoes!

Bunny Flop

These are the bunnies. Same directions, just different sizes of yarn and needles. Unfortunately
they resemble fish more than bunnies. I never would have made two after seeing the finished product, except I had been knitting them simultaneously. Ah well, another learning experience. I've had a lot of those lately. :0/

Wishing you and yours a Blessed Easter.