One Thing Leads to Another... And Another...

This morning, I decided to do some closet cleaning... A good thing for the closet and a bad thing for me...

First I did the utility closet... I am not going to show you photos... Not very interesting...

Then I went to the hall closet that I have been shoving sewing supplies in for years. 

 The closet is now clean, but my conscience is not.

I found a LOT of unfinished projects.  Some are over 20 years old... Mostly quilting. 

Tessie was overlooking the cleaning from a safe distance.  She is in the left hand box in the first photo... Suggesting that I shrink the hexagons down to 1/4".  I am madly avoiding her suggestions.

 Anyway, the pieces and other items are going right back where they started... Minus some fabric and other things that didn't even belong in that particular closet.

It looks like an actual closet now and I can easily close the door without force!

I did  find these two weapons... No they mean no harm.  They are both hoop holders for doing embroidery and quilting.

They hold the work whilst the person uses both hands to do the stitching.

I prefer the one at the bottom.  You can either sit on it like a motorcycle or you can do it side saddle.  That's how I use it.

The other one is more formal.. You have to sit in a chair to use it.

It works too.  Just not my favorite.

As usual, I couldn't leave well enough alone.  I padded the seat on the bottom one.  It wasn't comfortable until I did that.

Now I can start work on a project that I have been wanting to do.  I did a shirt for April years ago that had quotes from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" all over it.

I am going to do one for myself with quotes from Albert Einstein, Picasso and a few other favorites.

Just call me "Sidetracked Again".  I will be doing minis too. Honest!

See you tomorrow.

Finished! Oops!

OK... I finished the bunny hutch.  Don't tell anybody that I made the triangles on top too short. 

But after the way it turned out, I am glad that I did!

Here you can see that the tops don't quite meet...

There are a few spots of glue showing on top.  I took the copper work off so that you could see the hole.

If it doesn't work... Fix it!!!  I did.

I went through my findings and found these four triangular findings.

 I had the button in the middle laying on my bedside table.  It was from one of those jars of jewelry from Goodwill.  I saved it out, because I liked it and wanted to use it in some jewelry... This is just as good.

I just decided that the bunnies would like a little extra ventilation in their hutch and went to work.

I glued the points of the triangles to the points of the roof.  Glued the button in the center and let it dry.

The bunnies are perfectly happy with it and Spike and the hedgehog are looking rather envious.

I dread showing it to Tessie, she is going to want a bed with a top like that...

Anyway, if you want to make one, go back and use the pattern for Spike's Pup Tent.  It is basically the same and on that one the points fit together.

I have to go now and find something else to work on...

See you tomorrow.

Not a Lot of Minis...

This afternoon, I tried to get more of the bunny hutch finished... I think that I got three very short rows done.

You see, I was trying to do it in the middle of the Wednesday Witches meeting...

I am trying.  Honest!

The only other mini thing that I did today was a flyer for the Halloween party next Wednesday.

Tessie likes this one because she got her photo on it.

I did do a little more embroidery on the purse that I was carrying things in...

Anyway, this is short and sweet because I am way behind in mini stuff and big people stuff too. 

I promise to do better tomorrow.

See you then.

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday was one of those days.  I pushed the button twice when publishing the blog.  Phyllisa made a comment and told me about it... So... I went and took one off, without looking to see which one had the comments... One of those duh moments. 

I eliminated  her comment and Giac's too.  Sorry you two! I didn't mean to do it.

Anyway.  I found this Mexican hand painted pot yesterday at Goodwill.  This big size goes for about 50 dollars in stores around here... I got it for SIX dollars! 

This morning I potted a euphorbia in it.  Moved a few other plants to bigger pots and that is my excuse for not getting more mini-ing done. 

I have been doing a lot of gardening for the past week.  Getting ready for winter...Yes.  We do get frost here a few times a year.

I trimmed one and a  half of the Cape Honeysuckle, with at bit of help from Walter on the high parts. We can only stuff just so much in the garbage can each week, so it is a slow process.  They aren't picking up brush and bulky stuff until next month.

I did get a little more mini-ing done this afternoon.  I have finished the bottoms of the Bunny Hutch.  All I have left is the peaks.

I had best get back at it an finish the job. 

Saturday is the mini show and sale.  I have to finish a few things so that I will have an excuse to buy more minis. 

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

The Weekend Is Coming!!!

That means that there is a mini show to go to.

I worked on the Bunny Hutch some more this afternoon.  Kota helped... He kept trying to eat the thread...

I kept having to rescue the thread.  He thought that it was something that I wanted him to have to play with... Not really.

Another day or two should do it. 

 Walter is going to be golfing this weekend, so I am going to amuse myself, looking at and maybe buying minis. The show is at the Mini Time Machine Museum this year. 

I made the mistake of saying something about it out loud.

Tessie immediately went into planning mode.

It seems that the bunnies will be staying with Spike in his "hutch". 

I have no idea where the hedgehog will be holed up...

She got them settled in with Spike.  Then she disappeared.

I found her hiding in her closet... She seems to have the idea that she gets to go along...

I took her to one show a few years ago and she now wants to go  whenever there are minis to see.

I am in real trouble because I didn't take her to the museum with me earlier this week. 

She has her shopping bag and purse ready to go... Now she is trying to find comfortable shoes... Shoes? 

I know that she will end up going barefoot and ride in my purse or a pocket.  She wants to be where she can see everything and point out the things that she wants and reallllly needs.

I am going with Judy and Susan, the sister witches. Maybe I can tell her that there isn't enough room in the car?  I have to think of something fast!

See you tomorrow.

Sunday Miscellaneous...

 Just a little bit of everything...

First, we had a pretty spectacular sunset last evening... The funny thing is, if you turned around and looked the other way, it looked all black and stormy.  Weird weather.

I got more done on the Bunny Hutch this afternoon.  Slowly but surely...

Here is two thirds of my fig crop for this year.  A couple of years ago the tree froze.  I was not sure that we were gong to ever have any more figs.

It looks like it is slowly coming back to where it was.  This is six of the ten figs that are on the tree at present.

I am happy to report that Tessie will have Bug Beer in cans as well as other assorted flavors.

I stopped at Dollar Tree today and this one package of pencils will yield a LOT of canned drinks.

I run them through my saw and cut them in about 1/2" lengths.  Then I paint both ends silver.  If I want them to look open, I add a small jump ring and a black ink triangle on one end.  Easy to do and fun for the witches in a couple of weeks. 

I am having the witches Halloween party this year.  Last year about this time, I was not in the mood to celebrate anything... Now I am back to all kinds of witchy things.

Anyway, go find some Halloween pencils and make yourself some canned bug beer and other assorted yummy treats...

I am going to go chop up some pencils now.  See you tomorrow.

Moving Right Along...

 I have one side all stitched and the three others started.

Between Tessie yelling, "Hurry Up!" and Kota trying to steal my thread to play with, I am not going as fast as I would like to.

 I did this same thing once before, for Spike's bed in the townhouse.  I suspect that he is going to want to trade.  His is just leopard skin printed fabric. 

He won't be able to though... I made the door on this one smaller and the house itself smaller... He won't fit!

I have the front partially clipped and ready to go.

After I finish stitching, I will do the same thing that I did with Spike's.  I have cut a piece of cardstock to the size of the stitchery.  The canvas will be wrapped around it and glued down. I will line it.  Then I will stitch all of the corners together, with a fancy stitch. Maybe gold thread would look good.

I will decide as I go along.

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Two Peas in a Pod...

They can't possibly live in this basket!  They need a house of their own... That was Tessie, this morning...

I should have known.

She is insisting that they need a proper bunny hutch....

Not just any bunny hutch!

She dragged out Spike in his bed from her house.

Mind you, he doesn't sleep there anymore.  He has his own house, with four poster bed.

She could very easily move the bunnies into that house/bed/hutch.  She refuses to do so.

So I went to work and started mapping out some canvas to make them a Bargello house of their very own. They seem satisfied... However...

The hedgehog from her kitchen overheard.. He's miffed because he never got a house/bed/hedgehog hole of his own...

I can see what I am going to be doing for the next few days...

Bunny and hedgehog abodes.

I will try to do a pattern after I am done.  I have to work out the Bargello pattern first.

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

More Work, No Matter What...

This afternoon, the TV in the bedroom bit the dust! Not a good thing.  Especially when Walter is going to be gone for four days, starting Tuesday...

So, first he tried to trouble shoot it.  His dad had a TV repair shop when he was  a kid.  He has a background in electronics and can fix most of this kind of stuff... Except TVs that don't want to be fixed.

We had to clean out everything around the dresser for him to get to the TV.  As usual... I cannot do anything without finding more unfinished items... TV remotes included.  I started this one quite a while ago... I guess that I should finish it...

Kota was quite annoyed at us for interrupting his afternoon nap... However, he lit up when Walter brought the TV in.  New Box!

I came in to do the blog.  Walter came in and told me to go look at Kota...

The box from the TV was lying on the floor and just as I rounded the corner, he came wandering out of the box.  It was laying flat on the floor and not more than 8" thick... He had crawled in and wandered around inside until he heard me coming...

In case you hadn't figured it out, no minis today.  We are busy with trying to get the new TV to work.  I had better get back to helping. 

See you tomorrow.

Accomplishments...?

Well. I thought I pulled one over on Tessie, yesterday... Evidently not.

I found this 24 skein pack of embroidery floss at Walmart yesterday morning. Slipped it in the cart when Tessie wasn't poking her head out...

It is tie dyed embroidery floss!  I have never seen regular floss with more than one color on a skein. It was $3.98 for 24 skeins! 

Granted I had to take eight skeins of regular floss to get the 16 skeins of tie dyed, but I had to try it. It comes out to about 17 cents a skein if you count the plain ones too.  I will use those too.  All nice colors.

Anyway, Tessie was present when I started pulling things out of the bags... She saw it.  She immediately ran for the #14 crochet hook and yelled as she went, "Afghans! I need more afghans!".
 Just what I need!  More projects.  I think that it will also work for rugs.  It could be interesting.

As soon as I got things unpacked, I decided to go through the jewelry chest/sewing chest...

I got the first three drawers cleaned out and found that the third drawer was empty.  I put the new floss in that drawer and Tessie climbed in, still holding the #14 hook. 

I think that I am going to try talking her into a rug first.

OK.  I found a bunch of cards of thread that belonged in my travel case... Got the case out.  Tessie started grousing about me not finishing the rugs in there... I can't win.  Wherever I go, she follows and harasses me!

She told me to take her photo whilst she finished the rug that I started... Please note that she doesn't have a needle in her hand... It is still stuck in the edge of the canvas. She claims that she can't get it out, for the rust on the needle!

I did find three other projects that have been kicking around here for years.  The first one is a kit that I found at a show years ago.  It was supposed to be for a fire screen.  I never made it that far... I guess I should at least frame it and hang it somewhere.

The second is a pattern for a modern rug from a book that I bought in England.  The problem is, I did it on fine canvas and it will really only look good in a half inch setting. Oops.  No half inch settings to put it in.

The third one was a bench cover, copied from a book on antique embroidery.  The problem is, I used half of it to cover a stool to go with a dressing table.  I am thinking now that the room needs a matching throw pillow.  It's a shame to waste perfectly good embroidery.

I am going back to work now and finish the rest of the drawers in the jewelry/sewing chest.  Heaven knows what I will find next!

See you tomorrow.

Having Fun Now!

 OK.  I finished six rows on the basket yesterday.  I am pleased with how it is coming along.  With the ceramic bottom, I think that I can put a plant pot inside and put it on the patio. No harm done.

I did a bit more on the rug and then switched to the bag that I started last month.  It is going slowly, but Tessie is urging me to finish, so that she can go somewhere...

When she started nudging me about that, I switched directions again.

Maybe she will stay home if she has to tend to her garden...

In moving the townhouse back to the living room, the roof garden got a bit messy and the railing that Tessie has her hand on fell off.  It was only attached by the end posts.

This is an odd angle to take the photo from, but I was to lazy to go get the step stool.  From here you can see one of the lights that I got at the Dollar Tree.  It doesn't show when you are standing even with the house. 

I just noticed that there is still a pot tipped over.  It must have been Rocky Raccoon's doing.  I guess I should go stand it upright while I am still thinking about it.

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Frittering Away the Morning...

I have a radiation treatment and a Herceptin treatment this afternoon... So... I messed around with the purse this morning. 

I found some bobbin lace that fit the narrow edge of the purse exactly.  I did that part yesterday. That took a long time to get on just right. 

Today, I added three pieces of lace to the boring side.  I will do embroidery work over, around ant through this part.

I had already started the embroidery on the pocket side... I decided to do lace on that side too. 

After I got it all put together, I acquired a passenger.

Tessie popped in and inserted herself into the pocket.  Saying, "This will be perfect.  I can go everywhere you go, when you carry this bag...

I immediately decided to take a very long time to finish it... I wonder  how it would look completely covered in stitchery... Maybe a thick crust of bead work?

Whatever I do, I am NOT carrying it with a witch in the pocket!  Maybe I can tell her that she is too heavy and the doctors won't approve. Perhaps I can get a note from one of the doctors today... All I have to do is neglect to mention that she is only 5 1/4" tall and weighs about an ounce...

I have to run now. 

See you tomorrow.

It Takes a While...

I didn't get a lot of mini-ing done today.  I stumbled over stuff in our walk in closet, trying to get to my clothes...

That led me to believe that the closet needed some cleaning.  This happens about twice a year.  At the change of the seasons... We have two here... Hot and cold.  The hot one is about ready to start, so I pulled everything out and piled it on the bed. Then I had to sort and put everything back in. With the exception of clothing, shoes and purses that needed to be disposed of.

I don't do Walter's clothes, but all of the extra blankets, towels and other household things that we don't use every day are on the shelves above his clothes.

I found the very first needlepoint piece that I ever did... I had no idea what I was doing. It just seemed like a fun thing to do at the time.

I went to a store here in town and asked what kind of canvas to use and what thread, needles and frames. 

Actually, I don't think I got as far as the frame.  I bought the canvas, thread and needles.

I went home and designed this pillow.  How hard could it be? 

Well... first of all, you do all of the stitches in the same direction.  If you don't, the stitches going up and down look different than the ones that you stitch across the canvas...

Please note the line between the third row up in the top of the C.  Yup.  The stitches below are done vertically.  The ones above were done crosswise.  There are numerous other mistakes if you study it closely... Please don't.

I actually got better as I went along and in a few years, I was teaching needlepoint at local stores.

Then I got into cross stitch... That's when the miniature rugs started to happen. 

I still do both, but the rugs are winning the war.

There is no point to this story.  I just wanted to show you.  If at first you don't really succeed, do try again and again.  The results do get better. 

I am going to go work on the Russian rug some more now.  I need to finish it.  Then I can go on to finish the sleeves for the remote controls, without a guilty conscience.

Back to stitching. 

See you tomorrow.

Back In Business!

Thursday, I received 12 sheets of #10 count plastic canvas from Amazon... That led me to ordering 12 sheets of #14 count... Now all I have to do is use it all!

That's easy enough to do.  There are so many things that can be made with this stuff.

I am already thinking of making a case/stand for my iPad. 

I need to replace my case for the channel changer and I am doing one for the other two pieces that I need to change over from regular TV to my Apple TV. 

I found a good start for that one.  I never finished it.  Now's the time!

This one will be a case for two clickers in one.

It's just a good thing that I ran across this supply of #5 pearl cotton at a garage sale, years ago.  A lady that owned a store was getting rid of what she had left... I got the whole pile for way, way less that it would have been in a store... I paid 20.00 for the lot!

Of course, if I bring it out, Tessie immediately wants a few things made... I told her that she is on her own for the time being.

I gave her a needle, a couple of patterns and some canvas scraps... At least that will keep her out of the way for a while.

I am going to go stitch away the rest of the day now.

See you tomorrow.

Two Steps Forward...

This is as far as I have gotten on the crocheted bag, so far... Not too bad for two days of work, when I'm not doing something else. 

It's just a good thing that I didn't make it a little bigger.  Kota would be sleeping in it by now...

 I had a Dr. appointment at 11:30, so that kind of put a hole in the middle of the day...

Before I left, I started taking apart the cover for the channel changer in the bedroom..

It has started coming apart at the seams.  And...

 I am just plain wearing it out in places.  See all of the holes in the stitching?  Plastic canvas is bare! 

All of that area was worn down to the point that when I rubbed my fingers across the inside of the tube, the thread just fell out!  The inside was completely worn through in places.

It looks like a new bunch of stitchery is in order.  If I don't do that, I can never find the changer.  It blends into the woodwork, so to speak...

This is the second one that I have worn to the bone.

As for the bottom of the Weaver's Workshop, It is one step back!  The window that I taped up yesterday, fell out...

I guess that I should go attempt to get more done in the woodworking section.

Back to doing what needs to be done. 

See you tomorrow.