What’s worse is she has a 13 year old boy, and shouldn’t he already know how to do everything on a computer, inside and out? Wouldn’t you think? Because it’s just instinctive to boys? But no. So yesterday at one of our impromptu lessons, she asked me to figure out why the laptop is not wirelessly connecting to the printer. It did once, about a year ago, but it’s never done it again since. A fine starting point, knowing something is capable of working, but for some mysterious reason. . . isn’t.

So I pored over the printer manual pdf (useless), reinstalled the software, looked hard at the network set-up, which saw all the devices on the network, but for some reason put the printer off to the side and said it wasn’t connected to the network. It SAW it on the network, but not connected?  So, long long long long story short, I eventually got it on to the network.

I am so proud of myself. I didn’t actually do any teaching that day because I was too frustrated, but at least I learned something.

Yay, lovely new fabric! I picked up the plain gray at Walmart, because it was $1.50 a yard. Geez, I should have bought the whole bolt, right? I did go back and buy an additional yard, so happy there was still some left. I realized I’d need more, if I wanted to end with a border. I had been on the lookout for plain gray, because I’d seen finished gray and yellow quilts, and thought they were so pretty. But then somewhere along the way I decided I had a friend who needed a quilt, and it should be gray/red/black/white — and boy am I glad I didn’t go through with that because it would have been awful busy. And then I read a blog who was giving away a stack of fat quarters in sky blue/gray variations (I didn’t win the give-away) and I thought, “WOW, that looks terrific!” So on my next trip to the big city, I stopped at Craft World and checked out the flat-fold table (sale — $3.99 a yard!) to see what could be done. There were actually two flat-fold tables, and almost no gray available and almost no robin’s egg blue. I got the best of what there was, and then had to go check the sale bin of fat quarters. I was really looking for Tiffany’s blue, not robin’s egg, and I think I ended up real close to somewhere between the two. Details, details, I know.

What was really depressing was how much 30s repro was available on the table, now that I don’t need it. I have half a mind to go back and just buy it up for the future, though. It’s not going to be “current” forever, after all, and I’m sure it’s (1930s quilts) a place I’ll want to re-visit. Today we’re snowed in, though, so it won’t be happening for a while. On the plus side, I bet a lot of other customers are snowed in, too, so it won’t sell out quickly.

So, failing actual activity, I have a few more paintings to show off. I guess for anybody else, who had less time for painting, this would be the Big Deal post of the week. Wow, I have become blase about it. Is that a good thing? Maybe?

Anyway, a few favorites….

filed under: nubian goat, horse, pug, poodle, paintings and art

But so my blog doesn’t seem so empty, I’ll put up a few preview photos of paintings I’m going to list on ebay this week.

There will be more up, and I think I painted about 5 bunny portraits.  So many aspects of bunny.

For Christmas, my dad finished making the beech chair frame. This project has been in the works for ten or eleven years, and I had just about given up on it. This was the year I was going to buy a new chair, because the old one had completely had it, so of course I had my fingers crossed this Morris chair would be finished before I committed myself to a different one.

My parents brought cushions to cover, as well, and I already had the upholstery fabric on hand. When I bought the couch six years ago, I requested extra yardage, because I knew I wanted the couch and chair to match. Now the couch is starting to look a little shabby, but it has the same kind of cushions as the chair, so I feel confident about recovering it all in the future and maintaining the matched set.

When I laid out my yardage, I realized it was going to be a tight squeeze to fit in all the necessary pieces. Because of the pattern on the fabric, and it needed to match. So I drew out some pattern templates on waste fabric, and played with moving them around to see what I could do. (If you look closely at the finished photos, the diamond pattern is not exactly center on either cushions, but it is oh-so-close).

The pattern called for the bottom cushion being one long wrap-around length so the top and bottom was part of the same piece. The fabric design ran the wrong way to allow enough fabric, so I had to use two pieces, and added the piping between. I didn’t want to use piping at all because it seemed difficult, and I knew there wasn’t enough fabric to create it from bias lengths, but I looked online and read about piping and it said the bias was necessary to allow piping to curve. This project has only corners, so I decided straight-of-grain would be allowable. I used some polyester garden twine inside the piping, and just winged it. The piping runs around three sides of the back cushion, and just the front edge of the bottom cushion. If you look closely at the pattern above and below the piping on the bottom cushion, you’ll see I got lucky on the fabric pattern being a close match. It could have gone a lot more wrong than that, and I didn’t have enough fabric to do otherwise.

The only thing I see really wrong with my sewing is the back cushion looks a little tuft-y at the corners. This is because I did not know how how deep to make the corner pleats, I think, and did not make them deep enough. I had pattern templates to work from, but no instructions. I looked at my couch to see how it had been constructed, and tried to copy the same methods.

Overall, beautiful, and looks as good as professional!

Thanks, Dad, this will be passed down to the next generation!

The drawer is still usable, because she adapted it to allow the pipe to ease through.

The inner workings don’t take up much room at all, either. I know it’s not a simple project (because they are never as simple as I imagine they will be!), but it looks like it would be pretty easy to do.

The only drawback looks to be the lack of an overflow catcher, which is pretty necessary when you have someone around who likes to constantly wash things (my-little-ponies, barbies, little petshops) in the sink. But for older people, this is beautiful!

Now I’m trying to think what period hand/body towels would look like, and I don’t have any idea. I know at one point people used plain linen, but I don’t know when terry cloth came into mass production.  And did people embroider on hand towels 100 years ago? There are so many examples of kitchen towels, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything bath-related.

I’m going to have to pay extra attention to old movies for inspiration….

You’re welcome.

My sister made these funky little hens for gifts. They are filled with rice, and heavy.

They are quite helpful already, because my good friend Ellen gave me this book.

“There’s a new Jamie book!” I said to my friend Ellen when we went to the movies. “About his time after Aurdsmier!” She was a little non-plussed, and then I realized, “Oh, but you haven’t read that far yet. That’s the second book. Well, you’ll read it, and then there’s a new one!” Except it is like really the 8th book or so, and my friend has still only read book one. (Ahem, Outlander.) And really, it’s the third or fourth John Grey book, and not a Jamie book, but Jamie is IN IT so I will count it. Until I tell you otherwise when I’ve finished reading.) She’s tried to read book two, but couldn’t get into it despite my urging that it picks up after the first hundred pages. She’s content just to read and re-read the first book of the series. Which I don’t understand at all. Why dip your toe in when you can wallow?

But she remembered and gave me the book. So what do the hens my sister made and books have to do with each other, you ask….They allow you to do this:

Which leaves your hands free so you can do this:

Because this year I sort of fell behind on Christmas, I guess there was just so much other stuff going on I was completely overwhelmed. It was that kind of year. But I am motivated to start on next Christmas awfully early, so that’s good, right?

The interesting knitting turns into this, photo courtesy of Martha Stewart.com

Is that adorable or what? you can find the knitting instructions here. I am using size 3 needles instead of size 4, so I am a bit bummed about how long it is taking to knit. Definitely not a one day project, despite it looks so cute and tidy. Still, I hope to have several knit by next year this time.

As for a one-day-project, I did knit up the pink yarn into a button-hole scarf that has about waist-length drape. I checked out Biglots for more yarn, and was fortunate to find another skein of the chenille. So three skein lengths makes an average-length scarf. Although, full disclosure, one of the skeins seemed to have only half the yarn of the other two, so there’s a reason the yarn is ending up at Biglots for $1. Still, what a warm scarf and it took only one day! It’s 11 stitches wide, knit on size 11 needles.

So whew, that’s one gift down. I’ve got my fingers crossed more yarn will come in, because I’d like to make a matching hat.

And also, let’s keep our fingers crossed that I remain motivated to work on gifts for next year! Even at one gift a month, that’s still not enough for everyone…. Darn, I’d better get busy!

I hope everyone has a terrific holiday, with friends and family and a cozy home. Thank you so much for visiting my blog, checking in, and buying my paintings. Have a very merry Christmas, and may the new year be ever better than the last!

I’m going to have to try that pie-crust tip of substituting vodka for half the water. The theory behind it, is water binds with the flour to produce gluten, which toughens the crust. The vodka does not bind. I love reading about science behind food, don’t you? I knew you did. I recently read another tip that recommended using vinegar for half the water, and I’ll bet the reasoning was similar.

It’s a long read, but worth it if you love pie!