Friday Finishes!

I hope everyone had a good week, mine was up and down. The up was time with my grandsons, the down was Bill's surgery was messed up, so his eyesight is worse. Now he has to wait for that to heal up before they do another one.

Another good thing is my ability to make things, that keeps me sane and even if they are small items, it was nice to have some new things to enjoy. The first thing I finished was a small braided mat for Moki's bowl. It is the perfect size to sit in front of the corner cabinet and more homey looking than the junk rug I had.

This is a great way to use up old wool that is not great for hooking or applique. The green was given to me and the moths got to it, but it still works in braids. It measures 22' x 16" and I realize, it kills my bad arm, so if I make big ones, I will have to work on them a bit at a time. I messed up on the end, but I just wanted to finish it and it is good enough.

I also made up a stitchery, a lavender pillow which went into the box of wool strips, that I rolled up. The lavender keeps the wool, fresh smelling and moths do not like it. The design is by Diane Knott for Lori's facebook group, Humble Work Hand Embroidery. There was more to the design, but I wanted to keep it simple. I used colored pencils before I stitched and a twisted yarn around the edge. It measures 5 1/2" x 3 1/2".

Today I got all my paint supplies out of my sewing room and set my machine back on the desk. Next I will clean up and organize and start practicing on my quilter and prepping some new pieces, time to quilt.

Saturday we went to the boy's birthday. I got Nick a  Vtech smart watch and Alex got a fun kid's watch. Nick's can take photos and video, so he can use it when we go to the beach or on hikes. Their party was at a science center, so they did experiments and got to make slime, to take home. Alex was more interested in getting a cupcake.

It is always good to see the boys having fun.

On Sunday we took the boys out and got a slip and slide and other fun things to have a fun day in the yard. Then their dad said he wanted us to come back for an early dinner, so we ended up at their house for a Birthday dinner for Bill. We gave Ivy a gift certificate for her Birthday and she got a new fire pit. This time my son made a dinner I could eat, so it was nice to relax and let them do all the work and spend time together.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Friday Finish!

This week I was behind since Bill had his cataract surgery, but all went well, so one more eye to go. It is so nice that it goes so quickly and easily and he won't need to wear his glasses anymore. When Bill is home, I never get much done, he distracts me too much, lol.

But, I decided to try a new piece for my beach display, a whale. I looked online for ideas and liked the more realistic look, so I redid the design a bit and enlarged it. I thought it was large enough for turning, but I was wrong, the tail would not go through and I ended up ripping more than a few loops. I had to slit open the entire back to turn it easily, but it is for me and no one sees the back, but the large slit made it sew up more tightly and turned his tail. I definitely have to rethink how I design something so it sews and turns easier. To fix the pulled loops on the tail, I used my ink marker and colored over the white, that was showing.

He is 6" long, so the next one will be bigger and thought out better. I would love to know how others turn small areas for shaped pieces, that are stiff like this. I was thinking I could sew by hand, by whipstitching the backing to the piece, so no turning.

I have also been making my yard more bird friendly. I bought a new house, a beach one and more peanut bricks, the birds love it. I learned that Robins and other species like an open house to build their nest on, so something to find for some future houses. I found this under my porch, the robin keeps leaving it, every time we go out there, so hopefully they will hatch.

And of course we got one last good weekend of glass hunting without the crowds. There is less glass to be found with everyone enjoying the nice weather, but I still found some nice pieces and a little plate of plastic corn. Nick went home with that one, he thought it was neat.

Tonight I watched the boys while their parents went birthday shopping. They are a handful, but we kept it calm most of the night. Tomorrow is their birthday party and then we will hit the beach for a little bit, before we go home. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Friday Finish!

First I would like to apologize to those of you, who have blogs. I see to be having a problem with my browser lately, so I am going to have to backup my data and clean out my computer and reinstall my browser and hopefully my computer will run a few more years without having to get a new one. I am not able to comment on most blogs, I comment and it disappears, but on blogs that have security pictures, they seem to work. So, I do enjoy reading your blogs, but I can't always comment.

This week I wanted to do something from my Seaside Ornies pattern. I made ornaments to hang on my tree, but I wanted something larger, so I enlarged the ship and lighthouse. The ship is 5" tall and the lighthouse is 6". Perfect sizes for shelf sitters and a summer display.

I added the pail and one of my felt starfish for fun, along with a piece of driftwood, I found on the beach. I think it would be fun to make smaller pails and items and make a whole scene. Maybe if I get creative, I can make an old salt man to add to the scene. Not sure if I would punch it or do one in needle felted, which would be a fun challenge for me.

Later I can make a better back drop for the scene, I do have plenty of larger canvases. If you have the pattern or would like to purchase this one, you can redo them into larger sizes, even for hooking, I was thinking, larger pillows would be fun. You can find the link to the pattern in the left column, or my Ecrater site.

Last weekend was spent with the boys, which is always something I love, no matter what we do. We took them to the bird sanctuary which they loved, but even the short walk, wore them out, so we will have to take shorter walks for now. The beach is always their favorite, they got to play in the sand and a small playground, just their size.

I am also enjoying my back yard, I am adding more flowers on my deck and garden, and the trees are full and green, and two of the bird houses have residents, so it is my own little sanctuary. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, looks like we finally got away from the rain, so we can enjoy getting out, both days.

Friday Finishes!

This week I kept busy with some new projects. I started with a little hut style house. It is from Lin Wellford's painting houses book, so I basically followed her pattern and added some of my own touches. The roof on hers was done with wood putty to make it stand out, but I just painted mine.

Then I decided I wanted to make something quick and easy, so I did some ladybugs. She also has this pattern in one of her books. The large one is for the garden and the little ones are to hide, when we go hiking. Hopefully the boys will go out with us tomorrow and Nick loves to hide the rocks for me. I really don't hide them, I like people to see them as they walk along a trail.

I also finished a stitchery from Kathy Schmitz's one stitch club. It is not really a design I would use for display and I will be doing americana soon, so I kept it simple and put lavender inside, so I can use it as a sachet.

This week I have a lot of visitors. We put up some peanut butter suet and some cheap wire holders and the birds love it. Of course the squirrels and other critters are enjoying it too, so I won't be replacing them everyday. The other day I saw the guinea hens under the feeder and they had company. This guy is huge and he is all alone, not sure why, but someone said he is an older turkey, the beard which is hanging down in front, is long, which helps to tell their age. I learned something new.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I also wanted to let those who comment know, I do read and appreciate all of your comments, but I cannot always respond if they are no reply or email that I can respond to.

Monday Finish and Finds!

This weekend I was able to get more work done on my new rock, we had rain on Sunday and today I finished the last of it. It is a bit shiny since the spray finish was still setting. But I need the higher shine since it will be sitting outside.

The design came from a rock painting book by Lin Welford. She has several books for animals and painting on rocks, that have easy to follow patterns and diagrams for each step. Of course I never follow directions and added a few of my own touches. I really do think I do better when I go from a photo, when I try something simple, I make more of a mess, lol. I like the idea of doing churches that I have taken photos of, I just need to find the right shapes.

We were able to enjoy a day at the beach, even though it sprinkled on us, a few times. The good thing was, no people and Bean got to play off leash. I found a few nice pieces, but with a dreary day, it is harder to see glass with all the wet rocks on the beach.

Since we had more time, and the tide was at it's lowest, we were able to walk along the entire beach. It is good to get some walking in and I did find a nice piece of driftwood. The photo is deceiving, I am at the farthest end that you can walk, before you hit cliffs and looking back, there are rock areas and small beaches in between each one, until you get back to the sandier end.

The Rocks in this area are carved out by the strong waves, they remind me of a landscape in the mid-west. It was nice to get out, before the rainy Sunday.

Friday Finish and Finds!

I finished my turtle, that was it for this week. I am working on a new stitchery of the month and other projects and gardening and keeping up with the house and animals, it seems I have less and less time lately, to do it all.

I love how he came out, not perfect but he is fun and makes me smile.

And one thing keeping me busy is, stripping and sewing strips for rug braiding. The great thing is, it will cut down on the old wool stash from the thrifts and I will have it ready whenever I want to make a little rug. I think I will make a mat for the cat dish next, the thinner wools will be good for that. This is just a start, I was trying to sew on my machine and the bobbin messed up again, so I think I need to get my little Juki out and use that, not worth wrecking my good machine, sewing on wools. Sew by hand is relaxing while I watch tv, but it will take me forever.

And of course we went to the beach on the weekend. We stopped at the southern beach after shopping and the tide was almost in, but we still found some nice pieces. The second day we went to our favorite spot, at low tide. There were a few beach collectors that got there first, but I found quite a few pieces that they missed.

And I have been enjoying some time on the porch, my way to relax and unwind. Lots of critters and birds are enjoying the feeder. The squirrels are a pain, they knock all the seed out of the feeders and I have seen them batt a few birds to get it all for themselves. The Guinea fowl have been spending more time in my yard, even taking naps. There were six and now there are only two, not sure if they got hit by cars or predators.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We have rain coming in, but I am s sure I can squeeze in some more beach time.