Thanksgiving at St. George Island, FL

We decided to spend Thanksgiving at St. George Island in north Florida.

 

The rental house is right on the beach.

 It's sunny and we have the beach all to ourselves.

 

Love spending time together.

 

 Happy Thanksgiving.

Halloween - Spider Web

My work place held a competition for Halloween decoration.  I made a big spider web.

I found inspiration from this picture when I did a google search.

 I used a black yarn and started crochet the outline.

Filling in the web took longer than I thought it would be.

 

Here is the finished web.

 

 All I need now is a giant spider.

 

A surprise visit

Last May my family came over from the UK to help me celebrate my birthday.  It was totally unexpected.  It was a wonderful surprise.

We visited the Everglades.

 Of course Poppy came along too.

  We spent a few days in Miami.

Great hotel and it is pet friendly.

Took Poppy swimming in late afternoon when it was cooler.

 Sun, sands and sea tired her out.

 My family spent a week with us.  Lovely times and many happy memories.

Wild Life in Our Garden: Baby Raccoon

In an area to side of our house, at the base of a tall palm tree...

Poppy found this little furry ball.

  

I then realized a mother raccoon was living at the top of the palm tree.

  Poppy found another baby raccoon.

We kept them safe during the day and returned them to the mother raccoon after dark by leaving them at the base of the tree.

Car Seat Cover

It has been a long while since my last post, my poor blog.  It has just been work, home and not a lot of craft work. So sad.  I miss spending time in my hobby room to play with my yarn, fabric and fleece.  I did manage to finish a project; a new cover for the back seat of the car.

 For our furry princes of course.  She loves it.

Crochet flowers

Having fun with some odd ends of yarn.

 I used some home dyed hand spun yarns.

 Really enjoy this book: 100 flowers to knit & crochet by Lesley Stanfield.

There are so many more pretty flowers in this book.  It is simply a question of which one I should make next.

Rainy Season

We had a beautiful mild winter.

It ended with a big rain storm this week.

 

Over 8 inches of rain in a few hours on Thursday.

The road has turned in to a river..

We surely are in the rainy season now.

Fabric tulip flower

Worked on the leave...

... then the stem this morning.

 

Used a Tube Turner to turn the stem inside out after sewing.  A new set of Tube Turner is surprising expensive.  I purchased a second hand set from an online auction shop.  It is well worth the trouble of getting this tool.  It makes the job of making fabric stripe so easy.

   

 Here is my first fabric flower.  So pretty, love it.

I use the flower pattern from the Chinese book and follow the flower making instruction from the English book "Fabulous Fabric Flowers".  The Chinese book has instruction too, but the English book is much better, clearer and more concise.

What's on my desk top Wednesday?

Playing with fabric; learning to make a few simple fabric flowers.  Traced out the full size tulip pattern directly onto thick cards using a light box.

 3 pink petals make one bloom.

 Using a stuffing fork to fill a little tulip flower with stuffing.

The light box is called LightTracer by ArtoGraph.  I purchased it from my local Joann craft store when it was on sales. 

The blue regular stuffing fork is by Barbara Willis Designs.  I searched around for one and got mine for about $12 from an online shop called SweetBearCreekWhims (http://www.sweetbearcreekwhims.com) It is a great little tool for small project like this one.

A blue summer top

Finished another UFO. 

I received many compliments when I wore this little top; very happy with how it turns out.

Sewing Pattern: Simplicity 4176.

Knitting needles - made in the USA ?

I have been wanting to make this red coat for a while.  I finally got round to order the yarns and pattern and am ready now to make a start.

I normally don't have much problem with getting the right tension/gauge but this one throws me off totally.  This knitting pattern is from the US and asks for size 6mm knitting needles and chunky weight yarn.  

I knitted a swatch and it was way off.  I knitted a second swatch and it was much better.

The difference?

The first swatch on the left used 6mm knitting needles made in the UK.  The second swatch on the right used size 10 (6mm) knitting needles made in Montana USA.  

I guess where your knitting needles are made are important.

 

Mini Iron

I purchased this mini iron from a local Jo-Ann craft store during a sales.  I want to use it for some applique work; it turns out to be a great little tool for dress making too. 

It applies the fusible interfacing to the fabric with precision.

 

 An old sewing UFO is almost done.

Kennedy Space Center - Florida

On our way to visit the Kennedy Space Center.

 Cape Canaveral at a distance.

New Smyrna Beach - Florida

We had lunch at a local restaurant that is off the main road.

 

The building is right by the water.

Their specialty is steam clams.

The restaurant has 2 farms out there and grow their own clams.

We checked out the beach after lunch.