Changes

In my last post, I talked about changing the title of my blog because I wanted it to include alot of everything that goes on in my life and not just the knitting and crocheting.  I decided to change the title of my blog to The Farmer's Granddaughter.  The reasoning behind this is because I am a farmer's granddaughter and and since my grandfather died when I was only about 6 years old, I never got to know him very well.  All I have are stories my mother has told me about her mom and dad.  And everyone in the family called them Mom and Dad, even the grandchildren.  I have a picture, that I will post later, of me and my grandmother, but I was very small and I don't remember her at all.  The main memory I have of my grandfather is of me jumping in his lap every time I would go and visit.  As soon as I walked in the door to their house, I would run and jump in his lap and he would say, "Dad's 'ole sweet baby."  I held on to this precious memory for so many years thinking that this term of endearment was mine alone.  Sadly, I found out later that he said this to ALL of his granddaughters, not just me.  But, that's ok.  I still hold on to that memory and bring it out every now and then when I'm needing to feel loved.

My mother has told me many stories about her childhood.  She was the youngest of 7 other children on the farm that her father owned and worked himself with the help of his sons and grandsons.  There are so many stories that she has told me and I won't tell them all in this post, but I'll tell more later.  The main reason I wanted to name my blog the way I did is because I want to have a connection to my grandparents.  Since they both died when I was so small, I really missed out on having grandparents to love and nurture me.  My dad's parents were divorced and I ever saw his dad at all.  He was just a very strange and distant man who had no use for me or the rest of his family either, apparently.  My dad's mother was the closest thing to a grandparent I ever had in my life and even she was distant at times.  She had alot more contact with her other grandchildren than she ever did with me, for some reason.  My cousins all talk about all the wonderful memories they had of her, I a few memories, but not as many as they do.  Anyway, I digress.  I think that if my mom's parents had been a little younger when I was born I would have had wonderfully loving grandparents.  There is no doubt of that in my mind.  So, naming this blog is a way for me to have a connection to them and especially my grandmother because she was a farmer's wife and homemaker.  She grew her own garden and canned all of her vegetables and probably lots more things that I don't even know about.  But, the most intriguing thing about her to me is that she was a quiltmaker.  She must have passed the gene down to me because I am a quiltmaker too.  I also have alot of other interests.  I hope, by changing the name of my blog, this will allow me to be more flexible in my blog posts.  Hopefully, I will blog more often and not worry that just because I don't have a knitting project going on that I have nothing to blog about.  I will also post pictures too because I know how boring it is to go to a blog with no pictures.  I'm mean, we're all about the visual, right?  Plus, pictures on others' blogs give me so much pleasure and are so inspiring.  So, until next time...

I haven't been blogging much lately.  I guess I've just been busy with other things, but I really need to get back to blogging more.  I'm actually thinking about changing the name of my blog to something other than Sharon's Knitting and Other Stuff.  I think sometimes I don't blog because I think I'm limited to only blogging about knitting and if I'm not working on a knitting project, then I think I really don't have anything to say.  The more I think about it, the more I think I want it to be more than just knitting.  I think I still want it to be knitting, but also about other things that I like to do.  I also like writing poetry and short stories, crochet, quilting, and I also like photography.  So, I'm going to have to give it some thought about the name change. 

Lately, I have been thinking about my writing.  I have several cousins who are talented at writing poetry and short stories.  The other day one of them sent to me a copy of her newest short story and she also sent a CD that had a recording of her reading the story.  It was so awesome!  It really made the story come alive.  Her mother (my first cousin) and I got to talking about how it would be a good way for us to also record our poems and short stories as a way to preserve them.  So, we are going to do that.  I have already bought an inexpensive microphone just for testing and have recorded a few poems.  As a test, I burned the recordings to a CD and played it in my CD player in my car, and it worked great!  That really got me excited about recording other stuff and also inspired me to try and write some more.

I do have some knitting to show you.  This is a scarf that I'm working on as a gift for a dear lady who is a friend of me and my mother.  The pattern is the Flyng V Scarf from the book Exquisite Little Knits.  I've talked about this book before and this pattern.  I love the pattern.  It's very easy to do and with a variegated yarn, looks great!  The yarn I'm using for this scarf is Deborah Norville's Collection Everyday Soft Worsted.  It's anti-pilling.  I'm using size 7 knitting needles for this one.  The color is Red Rocks.

Dolls and Doll Clothes

Lately, I've become interested in historical dresses.  Since I don't have the experience or confidence to sew adult size dresses, I decided to try and make some doll dresses.  I've been wanting an American Girl doll for a long time, but I just can't justify paying over a hundred dollars for one.  So, after doing a little research, I decided to go to Target and look for a similar one called Our Generation.  I know alot of people have bought these dolls for a much cheaper price instead of the AG dolls.  They are very similar in size and body type and, to be honest, I think the Target dolls have a much prettier face on them.  The one below I bought at Target for $21.99.  Very affordable.  The hair is not the same as the AG dolls, but I plan to leave it up the way it came in the box so that won't be a problem.  I found the dress pattern for Kirsten's school dress at this link.  It's kind of a hidden link because I couldn't find it by doing a search in Google.  I just happened to find it the other day by chance.  Anyway, I thought I would try this dress first and it has its mistakes, but overall I think it came out pretty well.

I'm working on a Civil War era pattern that I found on Etsy.  Hopefully, it will go well and if it does I'll post a picture of it in a few days.

Beaded Change Purse

This is my first knit beaded change purse.  I'm very excited about it.  This is an area in knitting that I had not explored before.  I love learning new things in knitting and I'm really happy to have accomplished this one.  I bought my kit from Purse Paradise.  The pattern for this one is called Elaine.  I also bought the Danielle kit.  It's a little bit bigger, I think.  Elaine didn't take me too long to knit.  I think I will be making more of these little beaded purses.  These little purses take size 8 DMC pearl cotton, size 11/0 seed beads, and 1 pair size 0000 needles, except I found that the size 0000 was just too msall for my eyes, so I used size 000 knitting needles.  Unfortunately, that size is not available in the craft or knitting stores in my area, so I also ordered them from Purse Paradise.  You can find some purse frames at Joann's, but only one size.  So, it's kind of tricky finding all the materials, but once you do, it's so much fun to make these!  The knitting itself is very easy, the sewing of the bag to the frame a little tricky, but not bad.  It wasn't bad at all, in fact.

Flying V Scarf

Here is the picture I promised of the Flying V Scarf from the book Esquisite Little Knits.  I dug out my book last night so I could make a copy of the pattern.  I think I might be making another one of these soon.  Both of these scarves are great examples of easy patterns that look really complicated.  I like those kinds of projects.

Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf

I haven't been working on very much related to knitting lately, but I dug this scarf out a couple of days ago and I've been working on it.  I love this pattern.  It's so easy, but it looks so complicated, and best of all it's free.  You can find the pattern here.  I sure wish there were more patterns like this for free.  There is another pattern I absolutely love, but it's not free.  It's called the Flying V Scarf and the pattern is in the book Esquisite Little Knits.  I have one that I've made and I'll have to take a picture of it and post it.  It's another easy scarf pattern that looks so difficult.  Variegated yarn brings out the best in both of these scarves.

The Gathering Place Again

Well, Friday I decided to go The Gathering Place again to shop for a Christmas gift for a friend.  It was pouring down rain that day, but I was determined to go despite the downpour and I had a great time!  It would have been more fun with someone else, but I decided on the spur of the moment to go and I felt like it was pretty short notice to ask anyone to go with me.  Anyway, I went and I took some more pictures with my new little camera.  Here they are:

Another great place I found was called Art Crafters.  They have a huge art gallery where their main purpose is to frame artwork, but they also have some artisans who rent spaces in their store and sell their stuff.  They had one really pretty framed jigsaw puzzle.  I have read that you can frame them, but I've never seen one framed and it was awesome!  I didn't get a picture of it.  But, it got me to thinking that maybe I can do a jigsaw puzzle and frame it myself.  I have some great puzzles that I have never put together.  I hate the idea of putting them together and then just disassembling them again.  Framing them would be a great way to preserve them and keep all the hard work that was put into assembling them.

Now, we are just trying to finish up our Christmas shopping and wrapping.  I think we are finished now except for wrapping some last gifts.  I can't believe that Christmas is at the end of this week.  Where has the time gone?

Pictures

This weekend while I was at The Gathering Place with Melba, I saw her take out a really small camera and take a picture of a gingerbread man that she thought she might be able to make.  As I was watching her I remembered that I had intended to bring my own camera and left my house in such a rush, that I forgot it.  It got me to thinking about how clunky my camera is and how heavy it is when I have to carry it around when shopping.  You never know when you want to take a picture and usually I have no camera with me.  So, I decided to buy myself a really small digital camera that I can carry in my purse all the time.  It's not much bigger than a cell phone and there is a pocket in my purse where I can keep it and it will be convenient for me any time I want to take a quick photo.  It's also small enough to fit into a fanny pack, which is what Melba had with her on Saturday.  This little camera was on sale at Sears for $59.99.  I did have to buy a photo card, but that was on sale for $7.99.  This is what it looks like:

I didn't even read any reviews, I just winged it and went and bought it, so who knows what I'm in for.  But, I do have another Fujifilm Finepix larger digital camera and it's great, so hopefully this one will be ok too.

Here are some more pictures that I took with it this morning.  Just a few photos around my office.  First, my ribbon tree that I made this year for Christmas.

Next a little push pin beaded kind of tree that I made last year.

Then a couple of my African Violets that are in my office.

The Gathering Place

Yesterday I had the most wonderful afternoon. I went to Dayton to visit my cousin Melba, and we went to this wonderful place called The Gathering Place.  The link is here. It was so wonderful. While we were there, Melba's daughters, Karol and Sheila met us there. We had the best time. The Gathering Place looks like this:

I also love Melba's house. I love the way she has it decorated. She has a simple, country theme with lamps on her kitchen counters, country washtubs and dried flowers hanging from the ceiling. It's just awesome.

Here is a picture of the beautiful dried flowers in her kitchen.  I would love to take a camera and take more pictures. I always feel so inspired after I've visited her home. 

Mom's Home!

Today my mom went home from rehabilitation from a broken hip.  It's been a very stressful 7 weeks.  We were hoping that we would have someone to stay with her during the day while I work so my husband could stay at night.  But, that didn't pan out.  I'm really discouraged over it, and feeling like I can't depend on anyone, but my wonderful husband said, don't worry, we'll work it out.  What a gem he is.  He's the one who has been keeping me upbeat when I feel so down about everything.  At least this way my mom will save some money.

My mind has been so all over the place, that I haven't had the time or the energy to work on anything related to knitting or sewing.  By 8:30 every night I'm already nodding off and struggling to stay awake awhile longer.  Usually, I just say the heck with it and go on to bed.

So, that has been my life for the past 7 weeks.  I'm really glad my mom is doing better and I know she's glad to be home in her own environment and comfort zone.

Pocketful of Posies

Our library just cataloged a wonderful new children's book by author and illustrator Salley Mavor.  She is a brilliant needleworker and this new book Pocketful of Posies is illustrated completely in what she calls fabric relief pages.  The pages are just full of beautiful embroidery, needlework and all kinds of cute, whimsical creatures that she has made herself.  Each page is created by gluing or attaching in some way the embroidery, etc. to a backround fabric and then are photographed for the book.

I'm very intrigued and interested by this type of art and she has also written a book with actual projects that you can do yourself.  The book is titled Felted Wee Folk.

I went ahead and ordered an inexpensive used copy of the book.  I'm always interested in how others make their artwork and how the artwork is used.  I think it's really interesting how she has used her art to illustrate children's books.

Stressed

September has been a stressful month.  I haven't been on here much, and I'm sorry about that.  My mother fell and broke her hip on her birthday of all days.  Not that it's good any time, but on your birthday?  That's terrible.  She had surgery the next day and they put screws in and by the second day she was already transported to rehab.  This is her second week there and she's making pretty good progress.  She's not confined to the bed anymore and she doesn't stay in the bed unless it's at night and she's sleeping.  She is spending most of her time in a wheelchair so she can roll herself around the rehab facility and also so she can roll herself to the dining room for her meals.  She's getting therapy 2 times a day and it's really helping.

But ... and I feel so guilty for saying this ... I'm exhausted.  I'm her only child, so I'm the one doing all the running around errands, doing things for her that she can't do herself right now.  It's hard because I work a full time job and after work, instead of going home, I go to my mom's apartment and then to the rehab place.  It puts me getting home usually no earlier than 6 p.m. and by that time I'm not in the mood to cook.  My husband, Eddie, helps when he can, but he's out of town right now and I really miss him.  Plus, his mother is not doing well, and he's been helping out alot with her too.  His mother has had 2 heart attacks in the last 3 years.  Her arteries are almost completed blocked and she elected not to have the open heart surgery because of her age and the risks involved.  So, the sad truth is that she will never get better.

Well, on a more upbeat note.  I decided, for some reason, to start a latch hook project.  I was in Hobby Lobby the other day and I saw this cute Santa Claus and since I had a 40% coupon, I bought it. It looks like this:

It's really cute and so far pretty easy. I thought I'd better get a fairly easy one since it's been years since I did latch hook.

Origami Cranes

I've been away from here for awhile.  I've been working on different things, but I really have nothing to show for most of it.  I seem to be going from one thing to the next lately.  I've been working on something fun, though.  I have always wanted to learn origami, but never had the courage to try it.  I learned to make an origami crane and then I made more origami cranes and then I thought, what in the heck am I going to do with all these cranes?  So, I decided to make a couple of origami crane mobiles.  I made one for the bedroom and one for the sunroom.  Now, I can't seem to stop making them, so I'll probably end of making more for the house.

This one is one I made for the bedroom.

This is the one I made for the sunroom.

I really think they are pretty and I love looking at them.  There is something relaxing about seeing them gently flying.

Oh, there is one other thing ... I bought a Kindle from Amazon last month and I absolutely love reading on it.

And the other exciting thing is that our library dean in the library where I work is buying us all iPad 2's. I've never had one before and I've coveted the ones that others have, so I'm looking forward to getting it and using it work pleasure as well as work.

Quilting Fever

For the last couple of weeks I've really had quilting fever. It all started when I watched Sewing With Nancy and they were talking about Bargello Quilts With a Twist. It looked really complicated and it was challenging for me, but I actually managed to make a couple of wall hangings and I will share pictures soon.

So then, after that I was in the grocery store and bought a Quilt Almanac for 2011.

It was around $9.99, but I hadn't bought one in awhile and I thumbed through and saw several things I was interested in. And I ran across this.

And I thought, oh boy, that doesn't look hard at all. And it wasn't hard. Not at all. It was fun.  The least fun was cutting the pieces out, but the hardest part for me was being able to find batik fabrics in my area. Most of the very few quilt stores that we had have all closed up, so I've been getting most of my stuff from Joann's, Hancock's and Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby doesn't have batik fabrics at all, but Joann's and Hancock's have a little bit. Enough for me to make this:

I didn't want to tackle the big quilt, so I decided to make a small wall hanging. I'm really happy with it.  I haven't quilted it yet, but tomorrow I'll be marking it and quilting it by hand.  I've tried my hand at free motion stitching and that didn't go very well.  I guess it takes practice, but I was really discouraged and I don't know if I'll try that again.

Then I found this pretty thing:

It's called Flip Flop Flakes. I may have seen it advertised in another quilting magazine. I can't remember now where I saw it, but there was information for how to order it. It doesn't look too hard and I'm looking forward to making that one. I went ahead and ordered the kit for it from Quiltmaker. I must have seen that in Quiltmaker magazine. I started to just try and buy the batiks, but I wasn't sure I could find everything in the colors and I really liked the colors of the one in the picture, so I broke down and bought the kit. I can't wait to get it and try that pattern.

I had to go today to the Singer Sewing Center to get a 1/4" presser foot for my sewing machine because I'm tired of trying to guess what 1/4" is. I love my new presser foot. I also needed a new foot pedal for my machine since my old one had started sticking and it was very frustrating, especially when I was trying to free motion quilt and it was hard to keep a steady pace going.

I'm trying to decide if I'm going to the American Quilter's Society quilt show in Knoxville in July. I haven't been in 2 or 3 years and I would love to go again seeing as how I seem to be having a quilting fever right now. I'm used to going to Nashville, though, to the Opryland Hotel, but for some reason they stopped having it there. It could have been the big flood that had awhile back. Anyway, I'm sure it's just as good in Knoxville.

More Flowers

Just a few more flowers from my garden.  My peonies and white irises are doing really well this year.