Great Balls

You can certainly tell that this gift I received was from a fellow blogger. My first clue?
The note on top of the package even before I knew what it was or who it was from.  My friend Kay knows me well.  So, of course, after reading this, my excitement grew.

A gift ball?  What in the world is this?  I have already received a ball in the mail in the last month and it didn't even come in a box.

Okay, the gift ball is out of packaging and this is what it looks like.  I started unraveling.

All in all, all these 'amulets' were secured inside the wound yarn with a lovely key fob in the center.  Kay actually makes these beautiful 'amulets' and has a bowl at the ready for when guests come to her house.  I haven't had the pleasure of visiting her actual home so she did me one better and gave my more than my fair share.  I was tickled pink.

Or should I say, red gold, which is what the ball of yarn looked like when I finished re rolling it.  Kay used her leftover yarn and tied the small pieces together.  I wanted to give her the full credit, but she said she saw the idea on Pinterest.  She was afraid that I had seen the idea myself.  I have been very lax in my Pinterest perusing.  I get too carried away.  It's much like watching tv in the daytime.  I never have the tv on unless I have guests because I get distracted so easily.  I would get nothing done.

Clean Sweep

I was gifted some home made pot scrubbers in Florida right before I came back north. I brought a couple with me and absolutely loved them. I showed them to my sister and sis in law and they immediately said that they had to learn how to make them.

The story of their inception is this.

There we were, in our favorite place on the planet (that isn't a restaurant), Joanns, looking for things to use our 40%off coupon and other things because it was 10% off the entire purchase. On our list of things to buy were blades for the Cricuit, and refills for the Xyron along with goggly eyes, itty bitty pompoms, heart shaped brads and lots and lots of marked down and then 50% off Legacy quilt fabric, all the while looking for the ball of what ever it was that the scour pads were made of. We never found them and were talking about the dilemma when the girl who was cutting the fabric said that it was net that they were made of.  She said you cut the netting in strips of two inches  and use as yarn!!!!

We gathered a bunch of netting (my choice being the darkest; why see junk on the thing after using if you don't have to?) and hustled home to make them.  We tried various sizes and ended up with this for their construction.  You would think that the stuff would be hard on your hands but it is not at all.  It good stuff to watch tv and do.  

Scour Scrunchies

One crochet hook (somewhere between H and K)

Nylon Netting:  I bought 3 yards and cut them in two inch strips the long way.  I figured I could make about nine from that.  If you buy less and have shorter strips, you will just join ends together a little more frequently.

To join the strips, take two pieces and line up one end of each on top of each other, Fold the end over about an inch and make a half inch slit in the center of the fold.  Now line the two slit ends on top of each other with the other ends going in opposite directions so  that the cut ends overlap and the slits line up.  Insert the uncut end of the bottom strip through the slits, entering from the top.  Pull both strips so that the end result is a knot.  You can also just knot the two ends.  Just try and have the ends all on one side as you crochet so it is easier to clean up.  You will need about five strips joined the way that I cut the net.  You can roll it in a ball if you want or you can add on as you need to.

Row 1: Chain 4 – then join with slipstitch to form circle

Row 2: Chain 4 – then 11 double crochet in the center

                            -then join with slipstitch

Row 3: Chain 4 – then 2 double crochet in each dc

Row 4: Chain 4 – then dc in each dc

Row 5: Single crochet in each stitch around

Row 6: Single crochet in each stitch around

Row 7: Single crochet every other stitch until there is

            no opening.  Cut a tail and pull through the last loop to knot.  Stuff all ends inside the finished scrunchie.

You Ought To Be In Pictures!!!

Check this out!! My friend Millie just sent me this picture of the blog today that

she can view on her TV!!!!  I have never heard of such a thing.  My Violet is now a tv star!!!

Livin' On The Edge

This gal likes to live on the edge.  At sixteen months old, every step she takes looks like it is gonna end in some sort of head trama but then, it seems to work for the V. We have two steps on the main floor of the house that we all congregate at and Violet manages to park herself within an inch or so of those steps, sometimes with the butt hanging over and she didn't once take a tumble.

This is the first time this year that Violet has crossed the Illinois state line and so sleeping somewhere other than her own bed has been a challenge.  She decided that she had enough sleep and so got up at five a.m. yesterday.  Parents?  Not so happy.  She didn't exhaust herself enough until almost noon and then, to try and salvage some sort of a schedule, Maria and Peter woke her up after three hours of napping.  

This is what came out of that nap.  Apparently someone decided to get her ready to be cast in a new baby version of 'Annie'.

She would make a perfect homeless waif, don't you think?  You couldn't replicate this hairdo if you tried.  And that vacant  'Why did you wake me up' stare.  I know her parents are actors but I definitely see a star in the rising.   

Roll Out The Table

We didn't have everyone for dinner last night. G had to represent us at a friend's kids wedding just over the border in Wisconsin. It was Maria and Peter's fifth wedding anniversary and Maria was preforming in a play she is currently in. So we decided to do something different for dinner.

I had seen this type of thing done on the Food Network's Michael Chiarello's show.

We did a variation of that show.   Maggie covered the porch table with kraft paper and Evan served each place setting a ladle of soft fontina polenta as our plate.

In the center of the table was a combination of various colored bell peppers, grape tomatoes, onions and jalepenos that were oven steamed with oil, fig and balsamic vinegars and s and p. I steamed sweet italian sausage and brother Bill finished them off on the grill, along with sea scallops.  

This was my first helping.  We had a bowl of pesto and more polenta on the table.  We served red wine in pint ball jars.  It was fabulous and everyone loved it. 

And talk about cleanup; just remove the dishes and roll up the mess.  My kinda cleanup. 

We started discussing when we thought G would get home.  He had said that he would see us in the morning because he predicted he would return home at about 2 a.m.   I said that I know he wouldn't stay that long, especially after everyone was drinking and he's not much of a booze lover.  So we decided to put five bucks each on it and each guessed what time he would come through the door.

It was pretty exciting.  We were all huddled together watching The Big Year and my time for his arrival came and went and it was almost out of Mike's time frame and into Bill's, when like a mirage, my sister's face lit up and with a minute to go, she greeted G at 11:46.  The money is burning a hole in her pocket.

Animal Antics

This was yesterdays post.  I don't know what happened but this morning I was telling my sister that my brother is going to be upset because he said that his dog here, Bea, would get more comments than the last post of Violet.  I said that he had none and my sis in law said that something was up because she checked the blog and the new one never showed up.  Well, here it is for what I thought was the second day.  I will be more careful in the future.



The house is starting to fill up for the weekend. Yesterday my brother Bill and Claudia arrived. They got here in record time from St. Louis, and I think I know why.


They let Bea drive!

My sister in law swears that they only let her drive on small back roads but I find that hard to believe.  

Bea does seem to take direction tho'.  When she takes her eyes off the road, she gets reprimanded and then really pays attention to the open road.

Chai is here with sis Mike and the kids will be coming in too.  It should be a great Memorial Weekend for us all.  Enjoy yours too. 

You Are My Sunshine

I took this diva to the park. She starts to howl for joy when she sees where she has ended up after a stroll.  Sixteen months old and she is ready to take on the world; teetering of course.

Gotta Go

I have one minute.  We changed to Xfinity yesterday and it took away my links to anything for the morning.  We couldn't change because of our security system at the house but we got that resolved so now we could ditch AT&T!!!!   Then once I sent two emails, the email went out.  I was gonna blog a darling gift I got from my friend Kay but I am leaving now to see my Violet and have an Apple class so I can't take the time this morning. That's it for now.

My Musings

I got an email form my sister in law saying something about arriving at my house this week and so I had a look at my calendar, and she was right. I thought Memorial weekend was a week later. Maybe because the 31st is on a Friday. I couldn't even believe it. I wanted to make some frozen food for the masses to take home and now I have little time. I have a full day already spoken for on Wednesday and the family starts arriving on Thursday. Yikes! I have three turkey breasts in the oven now and I can smell them all the way from the kitchen so I probably should check on them.

Oh well, it's only food. Every time I look at this new thread catcher that my friend Peggy gave

me, I think it's looking at me and it looks very much like a bird of some sort.  I even had a dream about it; something about a tree and Johnny Depp and this thread catcher.  I bet a shrink would have a field day with that!

I love flowers and like to have them around me all the time.  Sometimes the combination of certain flowers just hits me somehow and I can't stop looking at them.  This grouping is one of those.  There is a pure yellow calli lily that just makes it perfect.  I guess I am rambling today.  Time for a grocery list to be made.  

Anal, Yeah I Said It

You can always steal my ideas. That's one of the reasons I put them out here!!! We're all friends, right? The wedding invitation idea was not my original idea; I saw it on Pinterest.

I found myself making yet another of them yesterday.  I even have the perfect box

to wrap them in, thanks to my sister who, when she buys things she buys them by the case (most likely because it's much cheaper and free shipping, just like me).  I have enough to last me quite awhile.  While I was getting all the supplies to make the ornament I decided to cut all the ribbons for all the remaining 10 glass balls.

I had the scissors, and the four ribbons right there with the opened ball box so I took an extra two minutes and probably saved myself a half hour over the next couple years.  Is that OCD?  I wonder.

Side By Side

First off, thank you Melody Johnson for your endless help on stuff 'over Tommy's head'. I spent the good part of a day on learning how to place pictures side by side and here is the proof that sticktoitevness sometimes works.  This is the way to showcase the 'slices'.  Enjoy this; I had the pleasure of manhandling them for almost two weeks, out of love of course!!!

This first one (these are not in the order of the original photo.  That's just asking waaaaay to much of me) is Kay's and she chose to use the modern art of photo copying some of her piece, hence the car that is unquestionably better than I could have done in my wildest dreams!

Suzie did this one.  I love the detail she added to the house.  I have a feeling there was a little fabric sharing because she has the same commercial tree fabric as the slice next to hers.  That is completely fair game.  We have no rules as to how each person makes their piece.  It just has to somewhat match the placement on the original picture and not be so dense that I can't do the finish work on it.

Anne did a bang up job on her piece.  We were comparing our slices and realized that we had an almost identical stitch in our grass area.  Great minds think?  Well, she does anyway!

Mary Ann was worried that the antenna was no good so she tacked it on and left me the choice of keeping it or chucking it.  It is made with thread work on some filmy stuff and is stunning.  It's one of the best parts of her slice if I could even fathom  picking a favorite.

This is mine.

Gayle does such a wonderful job in free motion trees and things that this was the perfect block for her.  She was the perfect neighbor for my block.  And she has a Violet too so what could be better!

I can't believe how Judy captured the ground coverings here.  I is spectacular.  I am sure the statue right in front of the door was a problem for her but everything looks great.  The original photo was her DIL's.

This is Penny's slice.  She did some clever things on her piece and I particularly like the fact the she kept the selvage on her roof fabric, adding to the look of the branches behind the house.  These girls are so smart!

Irene did a wonderful job on her slice to begin with, and that's even without knowing that she was just out of a cast for her broken arm.  Ya know, if there's a will, there's a way.  Great job.

And last but definitely not least is Robbie's slice.  I hope you can click on hers and see the detail.  The car door handles are beads as well as the light on the pole.  Her bush is made with thread bundling on her sewing machine.  I would show you it in her blog but I am so scared of loosing these side by side pictures that I won't leave the computer from right where I am.

I hope you enjoy checking out the beginning to the end.  I sure did.

A Street In Ireland

I couldn't be happier with the outcome of the group slice quilt. It took me a good week to tweak it but it is in the mailbox, waiting for the postmistress to pick it up and send off the entry to Houston.  Let's go back for a minute.

I was discussing another group quilt for a few months and was getting nowhere until my friend Judy sent me this photo that her daughter in law took while visiting Ireland.

It seemed perfect to me for a group quilt; there was room on top and room on the bottom so that if I needed some wiggle room to match stuff up I would have it.  Plus, with the different colors, it made for friendly colorful piece to work on.  I used a program that Judy suggested called Perfect Resize and came up with a 70 some inch blow up.  It was around 34" tall.

Here it is, on the dining room table in Florida.  I didn't even start the cutting because it was too tightly curved.  It needed to rest.  This was March 22nd.

Here is the first half cut into five parts, all equal.  It was scary to cut it up and all the while I was thinking, don't screw this up.  These blown up pics aren't cheap plus I was running out of time in order to make the Houston cutoff.

Here is the second half, which you can see is much more complicated that the first half.  I randomly gave out the slices except for three.  I knew one person was heavy into tax season and being an accountant, I chose to give her a less complicated block.  I chose what I thought was the most detailed block for myself.  This is not to say that I am any better than any one else in doing these things; far from it, because it is not in my comfort zone.  I chose it because I couldn't, with a clear conscience, give it to anyone else.  Now, after getting all the slices back and spending some quality time with them, I no longer think my block was the most complicated.  Oh, the last one I didn't pick randomly was the big tree.  I know a gal who is great with thread work and I was not disappointed.  Every participant got their slice picture with backing, batting and a list of a thousand directions. Their deadline to have it to me was May 7th. I had them all waiting for me when I returned north. I actually think that the shorter deadline is better because there is less time to fret and procrastinate.

This is the finished work.  I decided to give the bottom an uneven look and I like it so much better than the first time I did it and cut them off evenly.  I wish this picture was bigger but I suppose you can click on it and see detail.  Better yet, I will take pictures of each slice individually and blog them tomorrow.  Right now I need more coffee!

The Good Earth

Since I did the upgrades for the computer I have this spell corrector on everything; that's new to me. I have had it on my phone for texting but my tendency for texting is similar to my wanting to bang my head against a concrete wall; repeatedly. Now I have it in Word, the blog and every other place. I am afraid that I am going to use it unwisely. I tend to not check spelling, counting on my brilliant brain and typing skills to get me through. That may be a thing of the past.

It's that delightful time of year when I can't wait to go outside and dig in the mud in my palatial garden.  Actually my garden consists of five of these  
square planters.  I always think I will like doing the planting but not so much.  I find it even harder to go to the store and get the flowers.  I think about the dirt issue, possible irritants on the floor of my trunk, and just the icky having to haul one of those squeaky, bad wheeled trolleys

around to gather the components for the planters up to the checkout.  This is my haul this year.  I got coral geraniums, little violet snowflake somethings that are very similar to bocapa. I also got a variegated sweet potato vine to trail down the container and a little fern just to be traditional.  I bought this grouping on Monday.  I'm thinking that with watering them a couple times, I can put off the planting for ten days.  I will probably gather enough strength to do it by then.  

Thankfully G does the tomatoes and although I plant the basil (scowling the whole time), G buys it for me.  It's our way of compromising.  Ain't love grand!!!!