SHEs Organized

Our neighbor's probably home now, as of Thursday the 27th, his Dwife and DD were going to the hospital for a meeting, about him coming home soon. I got out chartreuse card stock, folded it in half, and got out a kidney-shaped wooded tray thing, for writing in a chair on. I got out some permanent markers, a Pigma pen, and owl stickers. On the face of the card, I lettered a poem about owls onto curved lines, in modern artistic calligraphy lettering. On the inside, I put two 3-D stickers of birds, continued the poem, and added scrapbook clear stickers, which said "Friends" and "Thinking of You." It turned out quite nice. DH puddled up when he read it, too. I kept thinking how I hope I won't bring our Dneighbors to tears, too. I know it'll be happy, fond, touched by kindness tears, if they do come. I've not lettered for ages, took a year-long college weekend course with a master calligrapher, at the local college, too. It was nice to put my old workshops, classes, and training to work, even though it was a quite modern font with a Pigma pen.

Now if I can only motivate myself to crochet on a Dneighbor's 2 dishtowels! They're due by/on May 6, but I wanted to finish them early so I can move onto dgd's butterfly Christmas afghan.

I had to rip out the tringle shawl bc the yarn did not gauge right so I am knitting with it now.

Winding down on knitting and heading to gardening season here as temps. And weather warm up.

Coming in to read about all of your lovely creative projects.

Ivy ~ Your "thinking of you" card sounds beautiful.
Nancy ~ Sorry you had to un-stitch your shawl.

Harriet ~ I am fascinated with all of the colors and shapes you're finding for your bookmarks. Ooo, violets, I love violets! Waiting for the violets to show up in our back yard because that's when I'll know that winter is really, truly over.

Sewing retreat coming up March 20-22. This is one of the 9AM to 9PM -- haul tools & supplies to the meeting room, sew/chat/eat/laugh all day, leave the mess behind to go home and sleep in our own beds, then come back to sew/chat/eat/laugh again.

Today I'll sort out fabrics that need to be washed/dried before I can cut them. I know I have supplies to make lots of the little tote bags for the local organization that works with preschool kids. The org needs hundreds of the little bags each year because they send them home with the preschoolers, with little books or misc. paperwork in them. They like bright colorful cotton prints, and the bags are small enough for the kids to carry by themselves.

As I mentioned in PWYC, it's the kind of project that once I get going in the rhythm, I don't need to concentrate on them so I can talk at the same time. Unless I have machine problems, I should be able to complete at least a dozen bags during the 3 days. Maybe more, depending on how much fabric I can find and get ready before then.

I figured out drop stitch for a piece of prayer knitting this month. Next I need to try lace knitting.
So far more ripping than knitting lol! But I am not giving up!

Does it matter what type or brand of thread you use for lap quilting? I once read about needing to use invisible thread! But with "MY" eyes, how would I be able to see the stitches, if I needed to rip them out with a seam ripper? Is plain white or beige Dual Duty thread "okay"? I'd like to do what's the norm, and invisible thread seems a bit extreme to me. I "THOUGHT" the entire idea of lap quilting was to be able to "see" the tiny hand-sewn stitches. Isn't that the idea behind quilting and thread, stitching, etc....?

Also, I've never ever in my entire life, been able to make a French knot. I tried and tried when I was 9 & 10 years old and embroidered. In later years, I took a silk ribbon embroidery class, but it still fails me, if I try. I just don't "get it". I don't know if I should go to YouTube to actually get baby-step instructions in a video or what. But I get so frustrated when I try. It's been a frustration, which has followed me since I was 9 years old- which is 53 years. I know you can teach an old dog new tricks, but I don't even know where to start.

Also, Grandma, when she was alive, handmade lap robes for nursing homes. She did the crazy quilt stitch and she embroidered with beautiful contrasting threads, all sorts of wonderful embroidery stitches and you guessed it- even FRENCH KNOTS! Grandma's gone, I have absolutely nobody in my life, in person, to teach me, so I guess I'll just look through my quilting books and then go on-line to YouTube. It's like I have a brain block in my head, trying to keep me from figuring out crazy quilts, too. They honestly look hugely complicated, when I see them all finished. Are they hard or are they really easy once you get the "hang" of them? Grandma wasn't a rocket scientist, but if Grandma could have figured these crazy quilts out, certainly I can, too. I just don't know where to start. I don't even have a plan. Maybe an OMM list would help?

Also, this might sound dumb, but.... I used to belong to a craft book club. I got a lot of books, gave many away as welcomed gifts, and kept many books on quilting. I had the idea how I'd someday quilt, so I have all these books. DD gave me several quilting books, too. Also, Dmom gave me a wonderful machine quilting book. All I need to do is get 3 gifts for 3 small grands ages (right now) 14 months, 2 11/12, and 5, for Christmas. Once those gifts are done, it'll free up time to try the quilting hobby for awhile. I'd love to be able to do it this fall. I'm glad I used to belong to a crafting book club. It's going to come in very handy.

So any tips on the "proper" quilting thread, are most welcome!