Color play on project in process

 Hello, everyone.

Today is a Color Play post: one where various fabrics are laid out and considered in relation to colors, pattern, etc.

The base is a set of blocks for the Summer Table Runner/Flag from Sweet Pea. There was earlier color play to decide between a strip of six and a three-pairs configuration, and also to decide which "M" goes where. At that time I noticed that the people who created this pattern apparently combined an existing letter or two with small changes, as the up and down alteration they like isn't happening all the way through. No biggie. (It's in the M blocks, the light one is Block 3 in the instruction, which would make a low U and  low M, but I put it as the fourth block to get the light and dark alternation which makes a low M and a low E.) 

 There are several iterations.

This first candidate is very summery, but the colors don't work as well as I expected. Probably will use it for the Fourth of July runner instead. (I have a whole yard of the lovely roses.)

The pink and green at the bottom doesn't work well, it's too busy. Keeping the psychedelic waves for more consideration.

Now trying another summery rose print. It comes off too busy for my taste, though if only an inch or so will show it would maybe work. 

Swapping the waves and the small roses. The roses are still reading as busy.

Toward the end, one is rising in the ranks...but can still be outrun by one final contender. 

Blueberries on yellow or psychedelic waves? On the one hand, the blue and yellow hit all of the blocks pretty well. On the other hand, the waves read as "almost a solid."

I actually lean toward the blueberries. There is only going to be an inch or so showing anyway and the colors work with everything.

Another finished project

 Hello, everyone.

Last year, for much of the year, I was attending a Block of the Month class at my local quilting shop. The quilt was the embroidered Kimberbell Jingle All The Way quilt, a decorative quilt with many different blocks.

It's finished.

The whole thing, draped over the living room sofa.

Detail of the cute little houses. (These are "whimsical" houses, which seems to mean that they're obviously designed to look like brightly colored falling-down shacks. Whatever.)

The Christmas tree on the right is a machine-embroidered "chenille" applique. The "ornaments" are heart shaped red Mother of Pearl beads from the stash--there weren't any suitably tiny red buttons in the house.

The light string along the house roofs is free-standing lace with "Mylar" plastic inside. 

The wreaths on the doors are a fringe stitch embellished with a few red seed beads. 

The doorknobs  are little buttons, embellished a bit more with beads on the top. The only buttons small enough and a good color were four-hole buttons, and I wanted to cover up the holes. Thus the seed beads (from stash) on top of the buttons.

The row of Flying Geese below the green house is an in-the-hoop block. As is the green "starlight mint" on the right.

At the bottom of the big picture, the snow globes have sequins and/or glitter inside of the plastic globes.

This has been a tour de force as quilts go, I have never done this before. I learned a lot.

I added a sleeve behind the top binding so it can be hung on a rod during the Christmas season.

New hiking socks!

 Hello, everyone.

I have a new pair of hiking socks! They're Merino blend ones, and they don't turn into warm, wet sponges on my feet! (Darn Tough, I'm looking back at you here.)

These socks from Icebreaker and they're made as different socks for different feet. It should minimize the rumpling problem when hiking. 

The light gray rectangle on the top of the foot is thinner and breathes. There is some padding underfoot and at the toes, but not enough to be huge. These are ladies' quarter socks, in a summer weight. 

These socks are really comfortable so far, but we're just beginning our training for the next Camino walk and I really want to see how they work out on the 7 mile tram loop road, plus fire towers, at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. 

There are other gray socks around the house, so I took some wool yarn and embroidered a little wine-colored granito on the outside edge of each ankle. This is my sock marking method, it keeps pairs together and keeps DH from trying to mash his feet into my littler socks. 

The need for sock marking became clear in 2015, actually, though I didn't act on it until much later. We gave our wash load of sweaty stuff to a nice man at a place we slept for him to run it through the washer. He brought the pile back later and my three identical looking pairs of Injinji gray liner socks were in balls. The next morning I was shocked--hey, the eyes weren't even open yet!--to discover that he'd apparently rolled pairs without realizing that Injinji toe socks come in left and right. I had 2 left socks in my hand. The next ball was 2 rights. It took a bit to wake up enough to cope with this! Later I put a granito of green on both halves of one pair, and red on another. I can't remember if I dotted all three pairs in different colors of yarn or decided that no-dot is also a mark. Later when my navy/white socks got mixed up with DH's black/white same-brand socks, mine got a blue dot on their ankles. Because folding laundry is so much easier when I don't need to stress out about sock matching.

A finished project

 Hello, everyone. 

This was the meeting project for our sewing club this month. 

It's from snugglepuppyapplique.com and we did it on burlap. Using burlap was a first for me. 

The applique pieces were mostly not fabric, they were embroidery glitter and pleather ribbons. (The tires are a remnant from the black filigreed coasters from last year.)

The hanging ribbon is a double ribbon. I added the lace because it just seemed to need something at the bottom. (Ribbon and lace are from stash.)

A picture from April

 Hello, everyone.

The old homestead has been busy with various repairs and improvements lately and new photos haven't been taken...other than some more breakfast photos, that is. (I should really take some dinner pictures, too, but I never think of it in time.)

This picture was taken on the thirtieth of April of this year, on a day we drove around a lot in Colorado. This was the day we saw antelope, elk, beefalo, buffalo(?), a lama, and so on.

We had pulled over to let the pup stretch her legs a little, near a stream and across from this view of mountains and snow and some large grazing animals in the distance.

A little farther down the road we saw this sign. Possibly the animals above were some of the conserved wildlife?

A Day Visit to Rocky Mountains National Park

 Hello, everyone.

The weekend we spent in Denver--a family visit--included a really interesting side trip to Rocky Mountains National Park.

The park is about 2 hours' drive from the big city. Understandably, it is very popular with both the local folks and the tourists. We were there before summer travel season got going and there was still about an hour waiting in line at the entrance gate.

We got to view various wildlife while creeping forward in the entrance line: some deer, some rodent-sized creatures. (Memory fades just which small four legged things, but they were interesting. Not beaver, not chipmunk...)

It would be my recommendation that if one is visiting from out of the area, one should make some effort to do the visit to the park on a week day. And get on the road over there early. (Leave Denver before 0700 if you can!) The way is partly freeways and partly scenic.

We viewed snow--okay, okay, many people wouldn't cross the road to see the stuff, but we live in South Texas. Snow is a Thing here--which was at the end of its season but not completely, as we learned a few days later. The flowers weren't really into action yet, but some were poking their little green stems up from the soil. We were there at the end of April, so spring was still beginning in the area.

There are many pull-off spots with small parking lots and trail heads and generally interesting sights. We didn't go to the Glacier viewing trail as that parking lot was already completely full, but we did go to a couple of others.

The first one has a small loop walk around a pond. 

I was fascinated by a species of low growing shrub that was scattered around at the bases of trees. This is one of the larger ones. It was growing alongside the walking trail.

The ducks were on the lake already--note that there is still ice on the water as well!--and they were engaging in duck style social life. Which looks like chasing each other around. It can be hard to tell whether the ducks are trying to claim good areas and chase each other away from them or thinking romantic thoughts.

This pair of mallards was having duck nap time right next to the trail. I noticed that the female was sleeping with one eye open. Possibly the male (the green-headed one) as well. When the wild creatures are resting, one should not disturb them.

The trail crossed over some snow, but I was too busy trying not to fall down to take any pictures of the white stuff. 

We left that place and drove about looking at the views and stopped at another small parking lot. Following a trail that didn't seem to go anywhere led to an open meadow and, off in the distance, a herd of deer eating their mid-morning snack. The photo has been cropped, it might not be obvious that it was taken on the biggest zoom on the camera; we didn't want to disturb the wild creatures while we were looking at them. After we watched them for a while, some other people came along with a dog, hiking. From probably a quarter mile away the deer noticed and discreetly left for more solitary parts, before the dog even knew deer were around.

Rocky Mountain National Park has a lot of visitors, but it is still an interesting place to see. They do have at least one glacier. Because it is near Denver, it is more convenient to air travel than many of the scenic parks are.

The park has a web site. They recommend that people who want to take their dogs for a hike go to one of the nearby National Forest areas as the park is more focused on wild natural areas. While we saw a couple of dogs, there were not a lot. I would personally suggest that in a natural wild or remote place the dog should be on a leash so he doesn't get lost for good and all. 

One Last Photo from Manitou Springs

 Hello, everyone.

There was one more picture from Manitou Springs that I wanted to share.

The bench with the bright decorations was made from old skis--there is a business in the area that redoes the old skis into furniture. (I didn't think it looked super comfortable, but it's cute.)

The pup was enjoying herself in the shade.