Extreme Dot-to-Dot

Coloring for grown-ups has become a big thing. I've done some of it myself and enjoy doing it, especially with someone like my sister. I mentioned to my cousin that I used to love dot-to-dots, and she said they now have Extreme Dot-to-Dots for grown-ups. We were in a craft store, and she pointed them out. Oh, yes! I was excited! I got this book and did the first one in the car.. kind of a bumpy place to do a dot-to-dot, but I sure had fun. I still love these things.

I suppose I should color these after I draw them. Hmm.. maybe while coloring with my sister.

More Than I Remembered

We have a church boutique once a year; this year's will be on Wednesday of this week (tomorrow). It takes place during a big turkey dinner. The boutique is a small, add-on affair that provides a bit of fun in addition to the dinner. It's not a big event that requires a huge inventory, but I never seem to finish all my ideas, mostly because I wait until the last minute to make them. However, when I took an inventory of what I've made, I have more than I remembered! I'm happy. I'll be even happier if the things sell.

Fabric-covered journals; I only made three. Wish I'd had time to make more. On the other hand, who knows if they will sell?

two pillows; the embroidery work was done by the mother from a family our church "adopted" last year for Christmas. She gave us several embroidered pieces as thank-yous. I still have more. If I start now, maybe I can get all of them made into something useable for next year.

a small table or dresser topper

Here is a knitted hat and scarf set that I made with yarn I was able to buy at a super-bargain price (that always makes me happy):

Bookmarks:

I even will attempt to sell a quilt! Selling a quilt at the boutique is doubtful, because most people are looking for small, inexpensive items. But one never knows. (To my surprise, I did sell a quilt at the boutique a couple years ago!) This is a good toddler/young kid size quilt. This photo was taken before it was quilted. If it doesn't sell, I have plenty of other possible destinations for this quilt.

I have a few other odds and ends which I won't photograph (home-made note cards and knitted dish cloths). Hopefully these will make a good addition to the inventory and will help make it a successful boutique again this year.

P.S. Here's a photo of that quilt, completed. I forgot I had photographed it.

The Best Job in the World

Have I ever mentioned how great my current job is? Not only do I get to pick my own hours, and there is no pressure whatsoever to work a specific number of hours, ever... but I also have the best management I've ever worked for in my life. They understand exactly what we worker bees are doing and are very supportive and positive.

Now they have won my heart again, in this way: we are organizing a small silent auction to run at work for a week in mid-November. All those who are participating as vendors voted and chose a charity that the sales will support. I guess I'm in charge, as it was my idea, and I'm doing the behind-the-scenes organizing. So... my bosses offered to give me a half hour, paid, for the work I do at set-up time and another paid half hour for the work I do cleaning up afterwards. What do you think of that?? I thought it was wonderful.

Here are a couple of the items we'll be offering at our auction:

A friend made these crocheted dish cloths, and I decided to make a matching pot holder to make these sets.

I have a couple other projects-in-progress that will be for the auction, but no pictures of them as yet.

Last weekend I finally studied the instructions for the use of my new sewing machine. Now I'm in the groove and can use it for anything. I'm having lots of fun with it. I may have shown something earlier that I made on my new machine, but this block is the official "first" made with my new machine and with me being aware of what I was doing.

I hate reading directions, but being aware is worth the trouble.

(American readers: did you vote today? I did. Exercise your privilege and right to vote!)

Using My Older Camera

I capitulated and got my older camera ready to go. It had been so long since I used it, I had to set everything up again, like the date and time and all that. It feels comfortable, though. My muscle memory knows just how to use it.

I took pictures of my bizarre bazaar items. Nothing very fabulous, but here goes:

potholders and knitted dish cloths

wall hanging made by an online group in a swap/round robin thing (center block is made locally by a Hmong artist)
little zipper bags and two tote bags

hats: ice dyed youth and infant hats; knitted hats

more ice dyed items: a youth shirt, socks, and hair scrunchies

Yarning for Community

We have a crafters group at church. After much discussion we settled on the name Yarning for Community. We work with yarn -- knitting and crocheting. We make things for our community: prayer shawls, hats for all ages, baby booties, and one woman is even crocheting a diaper bag. While we work, we also "yearn" for community... and we have successfully found it in our group. It has been a lot of fun, and fills our souls while we work, talk, and pray together.

Last month we turned in these three prayer shawls.



B.R. has a new grand-daughter arriving from China next week! (Everyone is so excited.) She made this quilt for the little cutie.



We'll be gathering again next week to "yarn" together and to build our community, in more ways than one.

Beads and a Nice Swim

What a gorgeous weekend! Too bad I didn't get to enjoy it too much. I was sick all weekend. Last week I knew it was coming... just had that little tickly premonition that a cold was building inside me.

Saturday I went ahead and attended my scheduled event. We had our monthly crafty group meeting at church. And we overlapped with another group and ate lunch together. I had prepared the main dish. Turns out I made way more than we needed, so I put the leftovers in the freezer and hope to use it for my next gathering of cousins which is coming up in a couple of weeks. I accidentally planned ahead!

Our crafters group had arranged to get a beading lesson. We didn't have a long time to work, but we got several pairs of earrings made. Most of us donated our earrings to sell at our upcoming boutique. I made jewelry years ago, but had given it up. I forgot how much fun it is to make earrings! Maybe I'll get back into that business, ever so slightly. Anyway, we had a fun crafters gathering. I'm so happy that group got started! I really like it and enjoy working together while getting to know other people a little better.





Today I skipped church because of being sick. If I'd felt better I would have gone for a nice, long walk. It was such a gorgeous, sunny, blue-sky day!

I was hoping to have more sewing done than I do at this point. Getting sick put a kabosh on that.. no energy to sit in the sewing room and be productive. So instead of showing you some quilty photos, I'll show you this...

..what would you do if you were swimming along, and this showed up next to you?? Eek!