Phew........

Phew.........these cross stitch ornaments took a long time to stitch and put together. I realize that I'm getting older when it gets harder to see 32 count fabric to stitch on even with reading glasses and an Ott light with a magnifying lens. It was a real challenge at times. I had thoughts of making more for a few gifts.....not happening!  These will look great at the beach cottage, not just for the holidays but all the time as decor. Now back to working on holiday gifts. 

 

Hexxies

 

I keep forgetting to post a few photos of gifts I made this year. I made some hexxie ornaments - handstitched hexxies. I then put them into 4" embroidery hoops to display/hang. Since I wanted the backs to look nice I used the same backing fabric on the backside. In hindsight I probably should have bought 3" hoops but I didn't so these are bit larger than I might have wanted. If used as an ornament they need a substantial tree to hang on, but myself I've got one hanging on the wall in a small spot that needed 'something' in my sewing room.  I'll post a couple other gifts on another day.......

Felted.........

I felted a wool sweater, on purpose, a couple years ago for an ornament project but I never got around to making them. So I took it with me over to the coast and cut all the little squares. I thought I'd get 3 ornaments out of this sweater that shrunk down to 10 year old size but I got 10!!!  Sorry, no posting of the finished ornaments until after they're gifted. Hmm, I wonder if anyone can figure out what they are...........

This and that........

Not much happening here on the fiber front, loom still not warped and have no desire to do it at the moment. Many skeins of handspun are sitting out for a woven afghan project.....once I get off my butt and get it on the loom.

 I did get the knit Saratoga Shawl blocked yesterday. The pattern and yarn came from Greenwood Fiberworks. I used Yakity Yak yarn which is superwash merino/yak/silk. Jury is out on if I like this on me. It's ok on my mannequin which must be a size 0000 but on me, not so sure, it's really quite small. I think I need to try it on again over a black dress.  I also blocked another Pei Cowl knit out of my handspun but I put it in our education fair display on Saturday before I took a pic of it.

I finished up the small felt applique stockings which should hold a gift card.......I say should because I haven't tried to fit a credit card in one of them yet. They turned out cute. A lot of handwork that bothered my smarting hand more than spinning or weaving does.

Still hating fire season - way too many weeks left of it.  Saturday evening I heard sirens and the horn honking of the fire trucks - they stopped way too close. I called a friend who lives close by and whose husband has a scanner - yes, grass fire just over the hill on a street coming off the side road behind us. And Bailey and I were alone as Sam and a friend were on the coast to do some work on the cottage and golf. Talk about panic time. I was preparing to pack up the car and leave if necessary. A few hours later she called back with an update that all was quiet on the scanner, a spreading fire averted. They were more on the ball than I - they had turned on their sprinklers and had opened their gate in case fire fighters came to tell them to get prepared to leave. We have sprinklers mounted on wood to set up on the peak of the roof but they're not up there right now, Sam only puts them up if we may be in dangers of flying embers........hmm, might have to think about that this week.

The fire close to us, Shan Creek Fire, continues to burn slowly. I've found very few details on it compared to other fires in the region but this morning there is 20% containment (that's new info since yesterday) but it is actively burning with flanking, torching and uphill runs in steep terrain. As of this morning there are now structures threatened - not us, I'm assuming those actually on Shan Creek Rd but I don't really know. The smoke smell this morning is horrible - I had to scan the sky to see if there was another fire close by when I walked out the door - not seeing anything so it must be a shift in the wind this morning. I wish updates were more often but they are better than in year's past - I am grateful for them.

Now off to try and get something done today other than letting fires consume my thoughts.........

What was I thinking???

What was I thinking when I bought this cute half-price kit for small felt stockings? The picture on the package looked so fun and they look to be the perfect size to put gift cards in. Well, they're going to be time suckers. First I had to draw and cut out all the pieces. My first thought was to use fusible web in spite of the directions that said to lightly glue, then hand-stitch. With fusible web I could iron it on and then trace around the shapes onto the backing paper, then cut out, then iron all the pieces on ready for hand-stitching.  Well, good thing I tried the fusible web on a small piece first - the backing paper adhered too, I don't know if it's because this is acrylic felt or what.......but it didn't work. So, back to tracing around each piece and cutting it out. Here they are with all the pieces just sitting on the stockings to keep them organized.  I did get the bird started and almost finished. In addition to a blanket stitch there are embroidery stitches embellishing the stockings. They'll be really cute once finished but not quite what I bargained for. And to top it off once sewn they may be a tiny bit too small for a gift card - ack............so much for my half price bargain..........

No weaving happening here - it's just been too danged hot. No dyeing either for the same reason. In-between trips to the cool coast I've done some spinning and knitting.

Fire season is still in full swing here. The valleys are so full of smoke that I can not only smell it but I can taste it. Yesterday afternoon there was a fire just a couple miles from the house, thank goodness between air and ground support it was stopped before it reached over 5.6 acres. Less than an hour later a car caught on fire behind us a couple miles. ODF (Oregon Department of Forestry) in our region and our local fire fighters are doing a great job so far this fire season keeping fires from getting huge.

I'm starting my count-down to the end of fire season - 8 weeks to go. That is not official and fire season usually isn't over until some time in October but I call the end of fire season the end of September because we usually get our first rain in months by then. I can breathe a sigh of relief when that first rainfall happens.

The temps have come down from a high of 113 last week to 100 today - I can't believe I'm saying 100 feels like a relief. Unfortunately with the temps coming down thunderstorms are also moving in........here they are dry with many lightning strikes which may start fires. I think I may have an ulcer by the time fire season is over.

Yes, I'm complaining about fire season once more.......hey, it's in my mind all day and night, what can I say............