Slow stitching & baking

Finally!! The Summer installment of this sampler is done! We went on a camping vacation for 10 days and it was very hard to stitch on this. I truly did not want to get it dirty and camping by nature is very dirty :o)

Anywho, it is done now but with a pretty glaring error. The taller flower should be at the same height as the other full flower. I didn't notice this until I was stitching in the butterfly trail and by then there would have been quite a bit of pulling out. I just decided to leave it as is and make the stem longer. I'm not quite sure I like it this way and will decide at a later date if I should take it out and redo or leave it as a "design element".
Spring and Summer together. I can't wait for Fall - these are really nice patterns!
Something else I have been getting into is baking "real" bread. "Real" bread to me is bread that uses yeast and does not use a breadmaker. I have been wanting to do this for a very long time, but the thought of using yeast and getting everything the right temperature and kneading and all that was pretty daunting. A friend of mine awhile back was raving about this book so when I saw it at the library, I decided that I would give it a go. Well.....it is AMAZING!! Very clear instructions and super easy to do....
Here is the dough rising. This is for four 1-pound loaves. Let it rise for a few hours, put it in the fridge for a while longer...
Pull off enough for one loaf of bread and put the rest back in the fridge for another day...shape and let rise for 40 minutes...
And PRESTO!! Bread. This is the very first loaf in the book, since then I have made many more loaves including a peasant bread recipe and olive bread. I can see that this is going to become super additive. All the kids, me and my husband love, love, love bread and this bread is super yummy! I would highly recommend this book!!

Zucchini & Crookneck Sqush - what to do??

My garden runeth over with zucchini and crook neck squash. I am running out of ideas of what to do with all of them!!

I baked 10 breads two nights ago. 4 of them are from bananas that were past their prime, but the other six were from crookneck squash. Last week I made 6 loaves of zucchini bread and they have disappeared - it's MAGIC!

4 loaves of banana bread - I know boring compared with the others :o)

2 loaves of chocolate, chocolate chip crookneck squash bread

2 loaves of regular crookneck squash bread and 2 loaves with chocolate chips in them.

These are just out of the garden this morning with more on the vine. We have eaten them raw, fried, in salad, with pasta, with chicken....given gobs away......now what??? My freezer can only hold so many loaves of bread along with the other food stuffs that we need! Any ideas.....?

Summer fun & Romantique Sampler

WHEW!! These last 2 parts of the Romantique were finished last night. The due date is today! Why am I always cutting it so close?

Part 13

Part 12-my favorite part so far!

Romantique Sampler in all it's glory. I get the next two parts today :o)

Summer has been so much fun. We have just been hanging out and having a blast. It's been great to just follow along with what the kids want to do! Here J is having fun building with his blocks. He spent a whole day on this.
This is a fun craft I have been wanting to do with the kids for awhile. Use oil pastels (crayons work just as well, I just had these lying around) and cover a sheet of paper completely with big blocks of different colors.
Use black acrylic paint and paint over the entire thing, then before it dries, use a popsicle stick and draw your design. If you make a mistake, not a problem! Just run your paint brush over the paper to "erase" your mistake a go at it again :o) We did this for almost an entire day they loved it so much!

13 year old saying. Pretty cool huh?!

Shrinky dinks

They never got tired of watching these shrink up in the oven! We did this on and off for three days straight - all of the kids - it's nice when everyone has fun doing the same things. Other than crafts, we have had so much fun camping, going to the beach and spending oodles of time at the library. I LOVE SUMMER!!

Coin Purses

I first saw this on Hakucho's blog and thought they were so very clever that I just had to make one. The pattern is from Frankie's Knitted Stuff on Ravelry and this is the link to the pattern:

pinwheel purse.
This one is actually the 2nd one I have made and it came out pretty nice.

Started: 5/17/11

Finished: 5/21/11

Yarn: Deborah Norville Collection Serenity Garden Yarn

Needles: US Size 1

Color: DN800-04 Gems Lot: S582 2011-02

The bottom

All the parts. It really is a clever construction and a quick knit.

Putting it together is a little time consuming with all those seams.

This yarn is so pretty. The only thing I found was that it was a little splitty.

The first little purse I made that got me totally hooked.

Started: 5/13/11

Finished: 5/17/11

Yarn: Patons Kroy Socks FX

Color: 57242 clover colors Lot: 249378

Needles: US 1

I find it very interesting how these variegated sock yarns knit up. I never get tired of watching the color changes.

I have now started my third coin purse, but other knitted and stitching projects are also keeping me occupied so it might be awhile :o)

Fabulous Gift and Romantique update

A wonderfully generous friend on the Bits and Bobs2 Yahoo Group sent me all this cotton!! Isn't is great! And there is so much of it! I had made the off hand comment on one of my messages that I was starting to use other kinds of yarn for my fishes because I had run out of the bits and leftovers of my cotton. She contacted me and sent me hers! There is so much here!

Look at all that cotton - isn't it wonderful. And the best part....as I knit each and every fish with this yarn, I will be thinking of this wonderful and generous friend. Thank you so much, Peggy.

My newest update for the Romantique Sampler.

Part 11

Close up of the detail - it just changes the whole look.

Part 10 - love, love, love those roses!!

Another close up of the details. I can't wait for the next installment!

weaving

Been doing a fair amount of weaving. About 20 minutes per day. It's relaxing and I like the rhythm.

This is meant to be a sampler - so there are tons of different stitches.
basketweave

twill - you can see that my tension is way off and it looks a little "stretched"

pointed twil - what you cannot see here are the edges - they are very uneven

herringbone

weft faced twill

warp faced twill - I have a huge written list of question for my teacher. She has her studio about an hour away so I will not visit her until I am finished with the sampler. Hopefully she has some tips for me because this sampler is very "wonky". I only have a few more patterns to complete and then I will make my next appointment.

Christmas Cross Stitch Stocking

I have made a bit of progress on my oldest daughter's Christmas stocking and it feels good. I came across the "Weekend Stitch-A-Thon" blog where you stitch on a WIP/UFO on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and then post your progress on the blog. I decided that this would keep me honest and working on this stocking. I am still having a lot of start-itis and am still like a little monkey in that each new project or design is new a shiny and must be started RIGHT AWAY!! I am hoping that having to post about this same project will keep it at the front of the stack - at least on the weekends :o) The toe before....
The after - a little more on the dog and the food bowl

The before on the heel...

The after - a little more on the pillow, hair of the girl, and the bear

A picture of the whole thing right now. I am having trouble with this because there are so many color changes and little bits where the stitches need to go before I have to change again. Hopefully, with consistent work it will be done soon! Don't get me wrong, I am still enjoying stitching on this, but it just takes longer and more concentration than some of the other projects I am working on right now.