Work In Progress Wednesday - Hawaii

Since last week, I’ve finished Hawaii and worked on Arizona and more on the borders.

Take a Stitch Tuesday - 115 Whipped Long Tail Chain and 1 Fly Stitch

I tried the Whipped Long Tail Chain with #5 perle cotton. I think with practice this would look much better.

 

Sharon B at Pintangle has just begin the TAST challenge anew.  If you are interested in learning new stitches, now is the perfect time to start.   I saw that Lin at St. Victor Quilts stitched her fly stitch example on a crazy quilt block.  I've been wanting to work on a crazy quilt project for a while now, and thought this is perfect!  I hadn't put away the fabric I pulled for the Mystery Quilt, so I used the purples to make this pieced block.

I did a simple fly stitch, then added a few beads to about half of the fly stitches.  I may add something else to the rest of them later.

Check out the previously posted stitches on the Pintangle TAST page here.

Monday Morning Star Count - Beginning to Embellish

So far I’ve outlined the house using a long and short blanket stitch; outlined the walkway up to the house with some stray grass; outlined the tree trunk with a stem stitch and stitched a few leaves with individual chain stitches. All of these are done with two strands of cotton floss.

 

More to come next week! Linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts.

The Garden Update

This is the fourth summer that we have rented a garden space in our town’s family garden spot.  The summer and the growing season are very short where we live.  We are already eating lettuce and onions.  The tomatoes, kabocha, green peppers, and cucumbers are growing, but not as fast as the weeds.  After a few days of rain, the weeds get out of hand.  We also have corn and potatoes and two kinds of beans.

When Ted is away on field trips, I walk out to the garden by myself. I can exchange greetings and comments about the weather with some of the other gardeners. There is one elderly man, Ono san, who talks to me like I am his good friend. Maybe he doesn’t realize I don’t understand most of what he is saying.  He talks and talks, sometime he chops my weeds or moves my kabocha vines. I try to respond with Hai and So desu to show I am listening, even if I’m not understanding it all.

Baby Raccoons and Déjà Vu

Ted saw these cute little baby raccoons and took some pictures.  I wish I could have seen them too!  Luckily for me, he is a great photographer.

Déjà vu

I wrote about the little scissor boy I saw the other morning here.  He came back again! Again, with no adult anywhere to be seen! I tried to watch where he went so I could figure out where he lives, but he ran around the building (with scissors in hand) and I don’t know where he went. It remains a mystery.

The Good-bye Lunch

The stitch group held a going away luncheon for one of our members, who is moving away, at the new home of another of our members. This was the occasion for the giving of the travel bags I made.  We talked and ate a long leisurely lunch. No stitching at this get-together! 

Morning Entertainment

We live in an apartment on the third floor of a building across an alley from the main university buildings.  I can’t tell you how many interesting things I see from my windows.

At 6:30 in the morning, I look out from my balcony window and see a small child with large scissors cutting the leaves off a tree on the university property.  There is no adult in sight and I don’t recognize the child as someone living in this building.

 

 

After he cuts for a while, he comes running around the fence to the alleyway, with his very long scissors in hand. When he gets to the alley, he pulls out a can of powder from his pocket and shakes it over himself. After putting the can back in his pocket he continues running down the alley until he is out of sight.

Who is this child? What was he doing out alone so early? Hasn’t he been warned not to run with scissors?  What was that can of powder? (Magic powder maybe?) So many mysteries…

Work In Progress Wednesday - California and Kansas

California and Kansas are finished making 21 states completed.  I also started Hawaii and worked on some state lines since last time.