Crochet

Many quilters have other hobbies besides making quilts. One of my hobbies is to crochet. I thought I would share what I have been doing. This first one has been challenge for me. I had to rip out the first part of this Crochet Along several times. It is an intermediate pattern. The photos and instructions are  really good but I am learning new things as I crochet this one. A new set of instructions comes out every Sunday. If you want to join in you will not be far behind because this is just the second week. The mystery will be an afghan when all done. A lot of people are doing theirs in bright yarn. Even though it would be fun to do that I chose to use yarn that will go with the decor of my home. You can read more about this Mystery Crochet Along here. 

 I had bought a skein of this yarn to make this cowl which I have started. It is coming along too.

 I started this bed runner last year. It is a sage green but this photo doesn't really show the true color. This is going to be the width of a king size bed. I might be half way done. It is a real easy pattern which was from one of my magazines.

 For those of you who like to embroider I thought I would share this with you all. Many of you are familiar with Jenny's designs. Go by her blog to find out what Operation Sparrow is all about. I will be joining her in this ministry.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Two days for me

My babysitting schedule has changed a bit. I now have Wednesdays and Thursdays off from watching my grandson. Yesterday I decided to pull out these blocks that I started last year. Moda had an alphabet blog hop. I did a pretty good job keeping up with them. Then something came up and I didn't get the rest of the letters made. 

 This will be a quilt for Damien to sleep under when he is at grandma's house.

 I did get the letter K made.

 And speaking of quilts for my grandson. The mailman brought a box up to my door that I was not expecting. Stephanie from the "Rummage" blog sent an all corduroy quilt for Damien. She washed it already and it is the softest quilt ever. To me it is softer than flannel. It is a small quilt which will be perfect to use when he is in his car seat or stroller. Thank you so very much Stephanie. Such a sweet thing to do.

Just in case you want to try to make some corduroy quilts you can look for a book that Stephanie wrote, Uncommonly Corduroy. There are some fabulous designs in this book. I have seen the book at JoAnn's and in the Connecting Threads catalog.

 Yesterday I also got my last Bertie's BOM ironed on the back ground and the half square triangles made for the borders.

 Today the Applique Addicts had our first meeting of the year. We are working on a raffle quilt when our guild hosts the symposium in a few year.All the blocks are different orchids and will be done in batik fabrics.  I have two blocks to make which I hope to start next week. Charlotte got hers appliqued. Isn't it so pretty?

  Joyce made this wonderful clutch.

 I worked on these two blocks.

  Look at this fabulous table topper Jane made. It is a Primitive Gatherings pattern.

 Brenda was also working with some wool to make a strawberry table runner.

 It has been two good days for sewing for me. Hope you had time to do some sewing too.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

3 days in a Row

         Friday-- #2 and #3 blocks done! from Jacquelynne Steves BOM.

        Saturday-- Squash Blossom block done! from local shop BOM.

Sunday--Five blocks prepped! from Jeni's blog from the Willow sew along.

I will be linking up to What a Hoot! BOMs Away.

Can I be honest with all you quilters? After being in a sling for 6 weeks and doing nothing but sitting around mostly watching TV had put me in a rut. For a couple of weeks now I could have very easily gone into my sewing room to sew. I just did not feel like it. I am not one to just sit around doing nothing. I asked my kids to get me one of these Vivofit exercise bands for Christmas. This band has helped me to get up out of my chair and start moving again. Walking is my favorite way to exercise. This band challenges me to walk more steps each day.  I am feeling much better and have gone in my sewing room three days in a row. Yippee!

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Beachy

I shared on the previous post how my daughter likes anything related to the beach. I asked my friend Laura, who does my machine quilting, to make a table topper/wallhanging for my daughter for Christmas.

 I asked her to make a whole cloth quilt using her very skilled free motion abilities. These two photos

show the detail. The quilt measures about 17" by 11". Laura did the machine quilting in a silver thread even though it looks white or pinkish in the photos.

Laura gave it to me before Christmas. I was still in the sling after shoulder surgery so I was not able to finish the edge. So that is now sitting in my sewing room waiting for me to finish for my daughter.
Laura is so talented and if you need a quilt done send her an email. Go to her blog to see more of her work.

I got some advice about the new "robot" verification gadget. Leanne shared with me that you can just ignore checking the "I am not a robot" box and your comment will still go through. I tried it and it worked. You can also do something to "embed" the comment section to your blog. Go to this blog to find our how to get rid of the the robot thing on your blog. Kathy explains how. Thanks Raewyn for this link.

This second way of embedded comments with the blog is not my favorite way to leave a comment. The reason why is that if there are a lot of comments you have to scroll down to the comment box.

When you comment on my blog you get a separate window. Then you can click on "jump to comment form." You don't have to sit and scroll through all the comments especially if you don't care to read them. I prefer this way of commenting because of tendonitis which can flair up when I use my arm a certain way over and over again.

So for now I am going to leave my comment section with the robot box but just ignore it and please leave a comment. 

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Last Weekend

This past weekend I participated in my first virtual sew along with Jacquelynne Steves. She started a BOM in October last year. I got the first block made but then I had to have the shoulder surgery. I am making my daughter a quilt for her new apartment. She loves anything "beachy" so I decided to put the shell fabric in the middle of the block instead of the applique or embroidery that Jacquelynne is also sharing each month.

The sew along lasted four hours. Jacquelynne had the sew along so that it would give us time to catch up before she releases the next block. I got the next two blocks cut out. I also got some of the parts sewn together.

 I hope to finish the blocks up Thursday or Friday. (the finished block shows the true colors, the light was bad)

Can anyone help me with this?

I brought up the comments and noticed that "I am not a robot" word verification is my blog. I did not put it there. I went to my settings to change it but the box to check is still there. I did get rid of the word verification part.  I was wondering if any one knows how to get rid of the other part. I noticed that some blogs have it and some don't.  I really don't like having to do that myself so why would I make you all do it.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

While I was Away

It has been a long two months. On November 5 I had shoulder surgery to repair my rotator cuff on my left shoulder. I thought I was going to be in the sling for three weeks but things were worse than I thought so I ended up wearing the sling for 6 weeks. I started physical therapy the first week of December. It was horrible when the therapist moved my shoulder to start the therapy. It was so painful. I didn't cry at therapy but I sure did when I started my therapy at home. I am progressing well. I can now lift my arm to the second shelf in my kitchen cabinets. Being able to type with both hands is really great too.

The weekend before Christmas Mr. P. and I both got the flu so there was no celebrating at our house. We were by ourselves and feeling pretty pitiful. To top it all off our live Christmas tree was infested with some kind of bug that decided to hatch and start crawling around the floor. At least they were slow moving so we were able to kill them and take the tree back outside. We thought freezing weather would kill them but it didn't. We had planned to bring the tree back inside when we did have our family get together but it was still infested.

Last week my son and his wife from DC came home. My other son and his wife, my grandson, and my daughter all got together last weekend to celebrate Christmas together. We had a great time. It was all over way to soon.

So the house is back in order and I am getting back to a more regular routine. So I thought I would share a little bit of what I did do while recuperating from surgery. First, I had to show you some of my fall veggies. These were picked before surgery. I have a bed of carrots still out in the garden. There are two beds covered with plastic to protect some of the cool weather veggies. (broccoli, kohlrabi,cauliflower, and onions)

In my previous post I revealed a table runner that I had made while testing some paper piecing/applique patterns for Missie of Traditional Primitives. The pattern is now available if you are interested. Isn't it wonderful? You can get it here. I am excited to do those applique blocks in the border.

So what is a girl to do when she can't do much but sit around? I did read some blogs and followed some blog hops. I also did a little shopping on the internet. I also watched way to much Netflix on my TV.

 I won this package of batiks during the Canadian blog hop.

When I finally could get out and drive I bought this gorgeous yarn to make this cowl.

And I visited a new quilt shop to me and bought these fabrics.

 I was finally able to get in my sewing room in time to make this BOM before the meeting this week at the quilt shop.

 Oh, and remember I mentioned I was making a rag quilt for my daughter-in-law. Here is it all finished. She loved it. If you go back to this post you can see that I used a rotary cutter that cuts like pinking shears, sort of. Well after I washed the quilt I didn't like the look so I clipped all the edges and washed the quilt again. Much better!

This little guy is now 9 months old. I started watching him again this week. I will only be watching him 3 days instead of 5. He will be going back to the girl who was watching him while I recuperated from surgery. She has a little boy so Damien will be playing with his little 2 year old friend on Thursday and Friday. I will miss him but it will also give me time to sew and do other things while he is at his friend's house.

Thanks so much to those of you who sent emails to see how I was doing. You all are so sweet.

Happy New Year to you all.

With Passion,

Carrie P.