Sewing Saturday

I'm not a great sewist as I don't enjoy sewing that much; I do it when I need to.  Yesterday I needed to.  

For Christmas a few years ago, I made a super hero cape for my nephew (he was my only nephew at the time) and wrote a little story to go with it.  Right after Christmas this year, I received a polite e-mail from him requesting another cape as he no longer had the original one.  Being a doting auntie, I was happy to grant the request.  Of course, as my nephew now has a younger brother, I couldn't make something for the oldest nephew without making something for the younger one.  Younger nephew decided that he wanted a cape, too.

So after hitting fabric sales at Jo-Ann Fabrics on two separate occasions, discovering that I no longer had the original cape pattern and finding a new one on Etsy after googling "super hero cape sewing pattern," I spent yesterday making two capes.  Here is DH modeling them; the blue one is for older nephew, and the red one is for younger nephew.  I chose sparkly, swirly fabric, suitable for a super hero.  ;-)

I plan to get some stitching time in today.  I'm working on February of "Crabby All Year."  And DH and I plan to watch the Pro Bowl tonight, at least we will if the game doesn't get too one-sided like it always seems to do.

LoneStar

Spaced out

Time got away from me this week; I can't believe it's already Thursday.

I finished my little ornament this weekend and started on the February square of "Crabby All Year."  Yeah, I know - it's not February yet, but I was NOT going to go back to stitching on that durn flag.  Here's the ornament.

DH and I wasted two hours of our lives recently.  We watched the newest Star Trek (2009) movie simply entitled "Star Trek."  I was talked into watching it by an acquaintance that assured me it was a "real" Star Trek (ST) movie.  Said acquaintance is obviously a Trekkie with no clue.  No self-respecting Trekker would consider this a "real" ST movie.

Yeah, the characters had the same names as the ones in Star Trek: The Original Series and Leonard Nimoy even reprised his role as a nearly elderly Spock, but it wasn't a "real" ST movie.  It was a space movie.  It had awesome special effects.  It was lighter and brighter.  It had a couple of suspenseful space battles.  It had some funny lines.  A lot of the actors spoke with great accents.  But it wasn't ST.  It was almost, but not quite, a parody of Star Trek: The Original Series.

I think a bunch of brainless Hollywood types were sitting around a Starbucks one day and one of them said, "Hey!  No one has produced a Star Trek movie lately.  We need to film one.  Those things make a lot of money."  Another one said, "Well, we killed off Kirk and Data, so now what?"  A third guy says, "We don't need those guys.  We'll get newer and younger actors and do something hinky by changing the time line.  Besides, the fans won't notice and won't care; they'll just be happy it's Star Trek."  And so the movie was made.

Uh huh.  This fan noticed and spent most of the movie pointing out discrepancies (until DH asked me to stop, please!).  Changing the time line just didn't do it for me.

I've been a Trekker since the early 70s.  (If you don't know the difference between a Trekkie and a Trekker, then you're obviously a Trekkie.)  I can still tell you the title of any Star Trek: The Original Series episode within 10 seconds of seeing a 20-30 clip of any part of any episode.  I have and have read nearly every ST book ever published.  I've seen every movie and watched most of the newer ST television shows.  And therein lies the rub.  In the ST universe, care has never been taken to insure consistency across the different mediums of television, books, and movies, and this has often been a real pain as a fan.

I'm also a fan of Star Wars (SW).  While this universe has been limited to movies and books, great care has been taken to insure consistency in both mediums.  (I can't speak for computer games in this genre as I don't play computer games.)  But as I have read some SW books that were based on SW computer games, I'd say that care is taken there, too.

So when a character in ST acts out of character or something happens that already did in a different medium with a different outcome, I just roll my eyes and go with it.  This never happens in SW thankfully.  In spite of it all, I have been and always will be a Trekker.

LoneStar 

That durn flag

DH and I spent much of the weekend watching football.  Only one of the teams we were rooting for won, and we had to endure hearing Phil Simms' comments for the Denver Broncos game.  Only three more games to go in this season.  I'm always sad when football is over. 

During the time that football was not on, DH puttered about on his tractor working with the box blade on our pitiful driveway.  While he was puttering, I dutifully and laboriously stitched on "One Nation" - or as I fondly refer to it, that durn flag - a pattern I am stitching because DH likes it.  After I finished the January block of "Crabby All Year," (CAY) I decided to spend a week stitching on "One Nation" and then spend a week on a small Christmas ornament before starting the February block of CAY. 

I'll not bore you with my progress on "One Nation" as it didn't amount to much visually, but I will post a picture of my WIP, one of eight "Christmas in Texas" ornaments from "Texese" by The Scarlet Thread.

LoneStar

A WIP and a plan

I joined a "Crabby All Year" SAL and plan to stitch each month during that month.  As such, I finished stitching the January square and will now put it aside until February.  Here is a picture of it so far with the title and then a close-up of January.

 

I pulled out "One Nation" to stitch on for a week.  If I only stitch on it at the I35 Stitchtogether, then I'll still be stitching on it when I'm 110 at this rate.  So it needs some attention and I'll give it a week each month.

After a week of "One Nation," I plan to stitch a Texas Christmas ornament.  I have several leaflets by Linda G. Jary of The Scarlet Thread.  These are all patterns from the 80s that I acquired from eBay and Amazon over several years.
 

 

This pattern is not by Linda Jary.  I got it because I recognized a couple of the ornaments that a good friend stitched for me about 20 years ago.  I plan to stitch several from this leaflet.

LoneStar

The rest of the quilt squares

I was in such a hurry yesterday to post pictures of the quilt squares that I forgot to write about my weekend.

On Saturday, I went to the I35 Stitchtogether with DH.  He didn't stitch, he went to Cabela's.  We had a great group and I stitched three stars on "One Nation."  I won the door prize (and must now think of something to bring next month!).  It was a good day.  

DH and I got home and watched the Saints game.  Geaux Saints!  And we watched two more Wild Card games on Sunday.  All the teams we were rooting for won.  I'll root for the Giants when they aren't playing the Cowboys.  And as I've disliked the Steelers for a long time - true Cowboys fan that I am - I was very happy to see the Broncos beat them.  Who says Tim Tebow can't pass?!!

Here are the last five quilt squares in no particular order.  Peggy stitched the Egyptian-themed square, Cindy stitched the friendship square, Jennifer stitched the fall leaves, Marilyn used her embroidery machine to stitch the butterfly and hope square, and Sandra stitched the name tree square.  I apologize for the blur on some of the pictures as I did not realize I had a dirty camera lens at the time.

LoneStar

More quilt squares

Here are five more quilt squares.  Sandi adapted and designed the I35 Stitchers square, Lynn did the stiching friends square, Mel stitched the square with the pink flowers and poem, Diane stitched the southwest/kokopelli square, and Dorothy stitched the square with the two cats.

More squares tomorrow!

LoneStar

What I really stitched on in December

Now that the recipient has received it, I can post a picture of what I've been stitching on lately.  One of the gals in our stitching group is dealing with an illness, so of course we stitched her a quilt.  Actually, Georgia made the quilt, we cross stitched the quilt squares.

Here is a picture of the finished quilt; DH is holding it up in the last of the waning evening sun.

I'll post a picture of each stitched square over the next several days; there are 12 in all.  Here is mine and Gloria's.  My pattern is an adaptation of "Quiltin' Lesson" by Diane Graebner Designs on 18 count white Aida with DMC.

LoneStar

Emma and the armadillo

We nearly sold Emma to the monkey house recently.  

Those of you unfamiliar with the terrier breed of dog should know that terriers are independent, single-minded, and obstinate.  Then there's the Jack Russell terrier (JRT), a small dog who thinks he is a big dog.  JRTs believe they can do anything.  And they were specifically bred to hunt underground; they follow their prey down a tunnel or dig down to them.  Keep this in mind as I spin out the tale of Emma and the armadillo.

One fine evening in the the near past (last weekend), DH and I were about ready to go to bed when Emma jumped up off her bed, barked, and ran out of the house through her dog door.  We soon heard her barking and thumping around under the house (we have a pier and beam foundation) in the crawl space, which is about 18 inches high.  We hollered at her to come and she didn't.  We hollered more.  She ignored us.

By following the sounds of the thumping noises and her barking, we determined that Emma was under the corner of the house beneath the utility room, which is under renovation.  DH has part of the flooring up to do some plumbing work, but has the hole covered with plywood.  We could hear Emma and her prey directly under the plywood, so we decided to pull up the plywood and grab her.  DH pulled up the plywood and it spooked the prey which ran over about five feet and huddled under a plumbing pipe.  Emma, of course, followed and was completely out of reach.

She resisted all our calling and cajoling.  We were able to see her by using a flashlight to see under the house from the outside, but we could not reach her.  We determined that her prey was an armadillo.  It was holed up under the plumbing pipe and curled in a ball.  It was not moving and neither was Emma, who was barking at it constantly and pawing and nibbling on it.  (Don't worry, armadillos have a tough, leathery hide which is resistant to gnawing by JRTs.)

THREE HOURS LATER, after non-stop barking and pawing, at 1:00 a.m. in the morning, Emma finally gave up and came in the house for a drink of water.  She was covered in dirt and mud and was filthy.  Her humans were not amused.  I ended up giving her a bath right then.  DH dried her off with a towel, closed her dog door, and put her to bed.  We went to bed.  

Do you know what happens to your upper lip under your nose if you rub it repeatedly on an armadillo?  You rub it raw and give yourself the neon pink upper lip effect (which is healing nicely and will soon be back to normal).  Silly dog.

LoneStar 

Moving on to 2012

Happy New Year and all that rot.  

DH and I aren't much for making a big deal out of New Year's Eve.  We don't celebrate or party.  We usually go to bed before midnight ever arrives.  This year, we were awake.  Not because we wanted to be, but because one of our nearer neighbors had their grandkids over and they shot off fireworks.  We had gone to bed and could see them from our bedroom window, and we could certainly hear the booms, so we made the best of it and enjoyed watching the fireworks from our bed.  Once they were finished, we went to sleep.

We had a nice long weekend and spent most of it puttering and piddling on those honey-do projects that seem to pile up forgotten in the wake of bigger DIY projects like "The Great Summer of '11 Kitchen Disaster."  

DH played on his tractor a lot doing tractorly things.  He crossed several niggling honey-dos off the list.  I did the same and managed to start "Crabby All Year."  We vegged out on football on Sunday and found the Cowboys disappointing.  Oh well.  Maybe next year.

And we finally burned the enormous brush pile we inherited when we bought this place three years ago.  The pile was around seven feet tall and about 14 feet square.  We've had rain lately and the county lifted the Burn Ban, so we fired it off on Saturday.  DH spent the day keeping an eye on it until it burned way down.  

It is still smoldering and DH probably won't be able to smooth it all out with the tractor until Saturday.  Don't worry.  DH has the fire area surrounded with a dike of dirt so it can't escape and burn uncontrolled.

Before

During

Burn, baby, burn!

Done but still smoldering.

LoneStar