Time Flies

Oh, dear...has it been since August that I've posted? Sorry!

December was horrible...we had more snow that month than our yearly average. Since then we've had an ice storm (I was one of the 10% in the area that didn't lose power...so grateful!), then a 6" and last week a 9" snow. Temp in the single digits...and we're usually an average of 40 degrees by now. Did I mention I like snow in the abstract? Not when it's piled up higher than my car then we have freezing temps and the icebergs are still in the yards and parking lots two months later.

Had a lovely Christmas with my daughter in St. Peters, came back here for the wedding of a friend of hers, then got to see my son and their four children. Rose (9 mo) is a cutie, John (3 1/2) is the strong silent type, Stephen (2) is a bundle of energy and Brittany (11) is as sweet as ever.

Otherwise, my life's been full of Sweet Adelines! We went to a RES meeting in Kansas City, and our chorus had the opportunity to be coached by Sharon Babb--awesome experience! I'm co-chair of the show (Sept. 6), costume chairperson (remodeling older dresses into tunics, making silver slacks, deciding on earrings...all for the Region 7 competition in April), learning new tags and notes, and loving it all. What a marvelous group of women that I would never had have the opportunity to get to know without chorus. We're growing, too, which is exciting!

I made a quilt at Christmas for my daughter. Used Amy Butler prints and her "brick wall" design, and she loves it. Now I'm working on a knitting bag (oops...you didn't hear that, Deb!), and show costumes of course.

Any Sweet Adelines out there?

For the longest time...

Not only has it been a long time since I posted, that's one of the songs we're learning for our Sweet Adelines show in Nov.--and I have a short duet to sing in the middle of it--nervous making! We're also preparing for an A Capella Workshop as an educational outreach for the community, selling water at the Trails West! festival next weekend (it's only supposed to be 101--oh, well, sales should be good), and a couple of other singing engagements. I volunteered to help organize the show...then found out that puts me in charge for next year! Script committee, costumes, publicity...oh, my! Now you know I wouldn't do it if I didn't love it!

The Fourth of July found me in St. Charles with Deborah, enjoying the fireworks:

I finished my purse! the result makes me very happy! I really enjoyed doing all of the embroidery stitches!

I made pockets just to fit my camera, phone and a pen, then a bigger one on the other side so I can drop my keys in there and not have to dig around forever to find them:
One last picture. I've shown the view from my back porch in winter and summer. Here's a sunset from my front porch:

quilted bag

Had to show my version of the school house quilt block. I used the traditional red, but used a white on black music print for the door, windows and chimneys. The outline and eaves are a black on white print that luckily had the musical staff in a straight line. Each fall our Sweet Adelines region has a Regional Educational Symposium...referred to by everyone as "music school"...hence the embroidered name. The inside is lined and has pockets, using the black on white print. It's machine quilted (I will leave the hand quilting to those with more talent and patience!). Just had to share.

It's a purse!

At least it will be a purse soon! My daughter gave me this scrumptious Vogue pattern and several delightful prints and I have been busy doing the crazy-quilt thing. I tried taking the easy way out and doing machine embroidery, but I have an older machine and the choices just didn't make me happy, so...

I've been embroidering the edges by hand. Much slower, but much more satisfactory! I had sort of forgotten how much fun this can be. (Thanks, Deb!) The piece that looks like Chinese writing in the upper left is what I will be using for the lining. I'll post pictures when I'm done.

Topaz has discovered the delights of sleeping on the top of my pillow-back chair. So comfy!!

Since I started off with a winter picture from my back porch, I wanted to share a summer picture. It's really pretty wild out there...especially with bugs that want to be in here! But we've had deer, a mother red fox and kits, possums, many bunnies, lots of birds, and a racoon that was trying hard to walk in my storm door! I live on the very east edge of St. Joseph, MO. Just east is the acreage that belongs to MWSU campus, with lots of undeveloped land. Much wildlife, and some of it spills over this way.

ISE4

What a fantastic package from Becky in Houston. I am SO lucky to be her pal! The scarf is out of a brick red Noro yarn, with almost 2,000 cables (brave Becky!). I love the color and it is so wonderfully soft! Then there are two skeins of Cotton Comfort from Green Mountain Spinnery (20% organic cotton and 80% wool...and 100% soft and luscious). Four little tins of teas and tea bags (hooray since I don't have a tea ball!). She made the oven mitt, and had downloaded pictures of my cats from this blog, and incorporated them in the mitt! What a neat idea! There are chocolates, treats for the kitties, stitch markers, calendar...Wow!

ISE4 scarf done!

I finished my scarf for this International Scarf Exchange 4 and it's on its way! I'm really happy with the yarn and the pattern. Here's the "falling water" scarf" falling down my front door:

A closer view of the pattern:



It is a simple, 16 stitch repeat and gave me some confidence about something lacy. I used Euroflax in celery. It's true what knitters (and the directions) say about putting the finished item in the washing machine, maybe with a towel or two for friction. I just put it on a couple of towels, smoothed it out, and it dried without needing to pin it. It definitely is softer after being washed, and will continue to soften with each washing.



Ozzie observed the entire operation from the top of the kitchen cabinets:



Now it's back to the dreaded cotton sweater. I want it, but can tell that my gauge is different -- never should have put it down before it was done. Memo to self...

Yarn plus

While I was in St. Charles last week, Deb took me to Myers House.

Wonderful old two-story house. The first floor is all quilting, and the second floor is knitting and weaving. I've never seen so many different sock yarns in one place before! I got the lovely Euroflax from my previous post there.

A new favorite is in picturesque Old St. Charles, down by the river. Fun place to wander and visit and have a "cuppa" or a good meal. The new knitting store is Knit and Caboodle. Here's a picture of her 110 (!!) colors of Cascade 220! Lots of other goodies, and she is encouraging folks to bring a sack lunch on Fridays, nosh and knit there. I bought a luscious Lane Borgosesia Cashwool 100% merino lace yarn, in "Denim" 1460 yards, for $14. I feel a shawl coming on..

Ozzie will help me look for a pattern for the shawl

After he finishes his nap, of course. That's three feet of Bengal kitty (nose to tail tip). He's about four years old, attitude to the eyeballs, but very loving. Usually.
I can't leave without reporting that we won a medal at the Region 7 Sweet Adelines Competition in Kansas City last weekend. Our St. Joseph chorus, named the St. Joe Show Chorus for the last 48 years placed second in small choruses. The chorus almost dissolved about 10 years ago, and has slowly been building back. This is the first time in several years that we've even placed, so we're really happy. One judge complains about Region 7 because " everyone wears black!" We took care of that!
Our director is Kim Kraut (on the left above) who is terrific! Here she is (second from the left below) with her winning quartet, Primo! I know, they're wearing black, but they're from the Kansas City chorus.
We're lucky to have her. I feel so lucky to be a part of this chorus--we're small, but dedicated, loving and supportive of each other. Such fun!