Rayen

By the time this post publishes I will have attended the county quilt show (all the things in the pic were what I bought there in 2024.) Last year I had a lovely time at it with my guy and my favorite person, and invested in a few things for myself, but this year I will probably just go to take pics of the quilts and only buy a little fabric for a friend and finished quilted projects made by the guild members (my way of showing support.) I need to stop buying fabric for myself, as my ability to quilt things by hand is almost over, and I already have enough to last me ten lifetimes. It's a little sad, but it's also part of life. I've been hand-quilting for over thirty years with hands that have been partially crippled, and I knew the day would come when my fingers would no longer cooperate. I'm happy I was able to quilt as long as I have. It's tempting to wail over losing my dexterity, too, because honestly it does seem so unfair. Then I think of what my lif...

The 10 oz. jumbo variegated yarn I thrifted from a Goodwill in The Villages turned out to be a lot of fun. I used almost the entire skein to make this scarf, the pattern for which is free online. I found the pattern on the inside of the label for the self-striping yarn I used to make my previous scarf, and thought it would like nice in variegated. No problems with the pattern. After the foundation row there's a one row repeat of V-stitch and triple double crochet clusters, which kept it interesting even if it was a bit mindless.The odd thing about the yarn was the color variation shifted a bit in the middle of the scarf, but I liked the effect. Once it reached 72" as per the pattern I fastened it off. I had a small ball of yarn left over, so it was a decent one-skein project. Two 5 oz. skeins of worsted would make this if you don't have a jumbo skein.

The yarn lot I thrifted with multiple skeins of the same yarn just arrived, let's see if it really was the bargain I thought. There are 26 skeins of yarn, including vintage skeins of Natura white (11), Dazzleaire (3), K-mart labeled ombre (2), Bernat Baby Softee (2), unlabeled big Mohair (2) and one moonlight mohair, all of which are discontinued. There was also a tool which I think is for knitting in the round. Downside: just one; some of the skeins were obviously stored in a not too clean place, and have some debris on the outside, so I will need to hand-wash those before I use them. Upside: The white acrylic yarn, which was the reason I bought this lot, is in very nice, clean shape. Six of the skeins were actually still in their shipping bag from the original manufacturer. Quite a bit of this discontinued yarn sells for big bucks now. This skein of Moonlight Mohair retails for $14.70 on Amazon. Dazzleaire sells for around $8.99 a skein these days. Na...

I've been tucking a little money away all year so I could shop at the county quilt show, and this was my haul. As I mentioned before I really meant to skip fabric this year, but I saw some bargains I couldn't pass up (and now that my calendar project for next year has shifted back to quilting I needed some.) I spent about half my money in the guild's boutique buying things they made like the placemats and chili pepper hot pad; this helps support their work. I also got some fabric carrots and a pin kit. I visited many of the vendors, who offered some very cool bargains. One was this mystery bag from The Quilted Peacock. Lots of scrap and yardage fabric inside, plus a book quilt pattern and a walking foot for a Janome. I'm going to pass along the latter but I might make a book quilt out of all the fabrics. :) One vendor complimented me on my OOAK shirt, which a dear friend made for me. So I bought these embroidery threads from her booth. You say ni...

This was last year's Thanksgiving dinner, which we actually had on November 14th because my favorite person was visiting. On the official day she had left, so my guy and I went out wandering and actually ended up eating at a fairly nice meal at a busy Cracker Barrel. Never turn up your nose at decent food at a restaurant during the holidays. This year I am probably going to make two dinners, one on the official day for two or (possibly) three people if our nephew moves in, and one in December for (possibly) three or four if our nephew has moved in but isn't visiting his children for the holidays -- and my favorite person (possibly) visits again. That's a lot of possibilities, right? Unhappily we live in an age when the youngsters are totally fine with expecting me to pull a Thanksgiving dinner out of thin air at a moment's notice, possibly because they've never had to make one. In my shoes my mother would go ballistic. Honestly, it's fine with me. ...

On Friday I attended the annual county quilt show, and took a ton of pics. This year was even better than 2024. If you'd like to see the quilts from the show, check out my album here.