This is the post-surgery post. I am doing well. I am following my Doctors  orders. I am leaving you with this pretty photo of some flowers that were given to me by my son and daughter in law.
See you later,
Karen
Author: Karen Stewart
Sugery looms
My knee surgery is looming on the horizon and we are down to days before surgery. We are gearing up. I will check back in from time to time when I feel a bit more coherent. So I will see you all later.
I will probably post on Instagram if you really want to see what I’ve been doing.
Talk to you later,
Karen
July’s to do list
I am already writing July’s to do list. Yay, it is the first week of July and I am on a roll, actually I am on the couch resting my knee as it is not happy with me today.
I have hit a wall on being creative these days. I am tired and grumpy a lot of the time. I hate taking pain meds as they tend to drug me up. I have been up since early today and it has taken quite a bit of energy. I have spent  huge amounts of time on Pinterest yesterday and today but I am not inspired to do much. So this to do list may be shorter than normal.
Here is what I have been working on and what I hope to finish this month.
My organization to do list. We have accomplished more than is shown on this photo. It is a much shorter list now.
My sampler blanket
I hope to finish about twelve to 20 crochet hats. I want some to look like these but I also have some new designs running around in my mind.
I am also wanting to finish my quilt before I have surgery.  It is at this stage right now. 
I have quite a bit of quilting left but if I work hard on it a couple of mornings I might get it finished. I have several patterns that I want to write. There is this granny square blanket pattern that I want to write. That is a ton of work for the next two weeks in July. We are still in the middle of changing around our den to a maker space.
Talk to you later,
Karen
Sampler blanket / Makerspace
This week I have been working on the sampler blanket /Â makerspace. While cleaning up the yarn mess to create the makerspace, I came across these blocks I started from my Sampler blanket. I haven’t really forgotten them. There has just been a huge amount of other stuff that I have had to work on. I am blocking them today and I have to admit that they are beautiful!
I thought that they would be ok, but they were so wonky that I Â needed to block them. I block on my ironing board and use my steam iron. I am sure to never touch the iron to the acrylic yarn. This sampler blanket is reminding me of doilies. I love the taupe carpet color behind these squares. It makes the sampler blanket look so clean and lacy.
Before blocking….
After blocking they are a much more uniform size and the edges are straighter. This will make joining a much simpler job.
We are creating a makerspace. What is a makerspace you ask?  well, it is a space where you can make stuff. We have a spare room right now that was our den but as hubs needed a bigger workspace and I needed a brighter workspace, we are creating a makerspace. We both love creating but not the same things. This space will be an area where we can be together but working on different things. He is into electronics, engineering, gizmos, gadgets and 3-d printers. I am into sewing, yarn, painting and artsy craftsy stuff. So we are moving furniture around, sending some off with grown kids as they move on in their lives and getting rid of others. We no longer need a huge room for 8-10 people to watch movies or play video games. We do need a place where we can all gather and make cool stuff.  Our kids are rather techie/creative types, one a programmer, one a mechanical engineer, one a digital design artist (studying), and one into sewing,  So we really do need a space where they can all create!
It will contain:
- a largish table for group work  or cutting
- 4Â chairs for the table
- 3 -4 sewing work spaces
- Storage for yarn, fabric and other soft stuff
- Tool storage on wheels
- 4 roller secretarial type chairs
- Mats for the roller chairs
- a cell phone docking station for all the phones
- wifi access
- several outlets
- a 3-d printer
- Â a fire alarm/smoke alarm/co2 detector
- lots of counter space
- a couch or some comfy chairs for people to hang out in
- good lighting
- all with a industrial type- 50s era style (this is subject to change)
I think we can put together a reputable space without spending too much money. Â We will use what we have until we are sure that working together in one room is actually going to work out! Here are some links to different maker spaces that I found.
https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7095.pdf
http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/a-librarians-guide-to-makerspaces/
We have also set some ground rules, of what can be done in the makerspace. One of the prime rules in our makerspace is no woodworking or spray painting. These both have the potential to damage the machinery in the room.
I will be updating soon with photos of the Sampler blanket / Makerspace.  I hope to include some photos of the creation of the makerspace as we ordered some chairs for the space. I am so excited to see how they look. We almost never buy new things. Our budget and family has prefered the upcycled, recycled, used furniture look. We haven’t bought new furniture in quite a while.
Talk to you later,
Karen
June’s to do list!
Here it is July and I am just now posting June’s to do list. This is more a list of what I finished in June. I have been working steadily. Here is what I have finished up this month. I finished this hat and scarf set.Â
These flannel blankets for Chocolates Baby Shop at Etsy.
This lovely green and white ripple baby blanket.
This blue and white baby blanket.
This green, white and blue baby blanket.
I also finished my quilt top from my quilting class. I just need to sandwich the layers and pin baste it.
I am really pleased with the quilt and it will be nice to have it completely done. Now that I have finished June’s to do list, I should go and actually write a to do list for July! The days are just streaming past so quickly that it is hard for me to take the time to write anything down. I am struggling with some pain from my knee but I know that it will continue to be an issue for some months to come. My surgery is scheduled for the middle of the month. We will see what I get done between now and then.
Talk to you later,
Karen
Scarf, Shawl, or Blanket?
I have been working on this scarf, shawl or  blanket for several weeks. I bought the yarn with the intention of crochet a blanket. I thought I had enough yarn.
It is simply gorgeous yarn and is simply calling out for a blanket. Similar to pink stripe one.  I love this blanket it was fun and easy to crochet.
So I started.
It looks gorgeous. Then I hit a point where it was a bit too long for a scarf, and bit too narrow for a blanket and too much for a shawl! I just hit the long boring bit in the middle and I ran out of yarn! Scarf, shawl or blanket, it just kept gnawing at me that I had made a huge mistake in starting this as a blanket.
There just doesn’t seem to be enough yarn. It keeps eating up the yarn. I am thinking about frogging the whole thing back to the beginning and starting over. At this point the blanket is about 36 inches wide. It has used up 12 skeins of this yarn. Â Frogging this is a bit difficult as the fibers seem to mat together and make knots.
What would you do? I have put it away for awhile. I really need to think this through. It has become incredibly expensive. It is too long for a scarf or shawl and too narrow for a blanket.
Talk to you later,
Karen
Quilting class is over!
Quilting class is over, done, kaput! Did I finish this quilt? NO! Did my Mom finish her quilt? NO! So, we are doing what women have done for centuries. We are getting together once a week to get these quilts finished. We may be meeting for the next 20 years, at the rate we are sewing.
Here is the beginning of my quilt.
These are the colors I started with. I did finally choose not to use the yellow fabric. I’m just not much of a fan of this shade of yellow. Here is my first block.
It has four patch units in it. We learned an easy way to sew these.
Here is the first block. I sewed ten of these blocks. I cut off one edge while photographing it so the block looks bigger on one side than the other.
This is the second block. We started sewing the pin wheels. They were a chore but now I know how to sew them. Then we sewed together the flying geese part of the block which is the pink and white star points. Â We sewed the four patch blocks at home since we knew how to sew them from earlier in the class. I have so much left to sew.
Talk to you later,
Karen
Color Work and Pain
I crave working with bright colors when I am hurting. My color work really seems to improve when I am in physical pain. It has been awhile since I have really written about what is going on at the home front. Right now tropical storm Bill is wreaking havoc. We have had about 4 inches of rain since yesterday and it is still raining. The rain really affects my arthritis and kicks the pain up a notch. I am headed for a knee replacement later this summer so I am spending quite a bit of time just hanging out. I have noticed through the years that I do my best color work in crochet when I am hurting.
Here is the blanket I finished several years ago when I had just finished foot surgery.
I finished this flower blanket before surgery two years ago.
Here is another blanket that I finished right after surgery. I seem to crave color when I am hurting. Here is the hat and scarf set I finished this week.
So you can see why I need to have knee surgery. I should feel much better afterwards. The recovery process has me a bit worried as it takes a bunch of therapy and exercise to get good movement back. I hope that things go well.
Talk to you later,
Karen
Bridesmaids Dress Alteration
Our oldest daughter is a bridesmaid in her friend’s wedding this summer. It is a wonderful event. However, the bridesmaids dress doesn’t quite fit. We ordered three different dresses on three different sizes of the same dress on three different occasions. The last dress fits, sort of. The sweetheart neckline hangs too low for comfort. The upper bodice is lace and to go up a size was going to call for even more alterations. The color is purple and impossible to match.
Here it is in the deconstruction process. My daughter being handy with the seam ripper and also good at basting, removed the solid liner while leaving the lace in place along the zipper and waist. She basted the the lace at the waist line and zipper to hold all the layers of fabric in place. The only spare fabric in this dress was behind the 2 1/2 inch ribbon at the waist line.
We added a fabric strip in behind the ribbon to the lining. Then I sewed the bodice to the lace at the top, zipper and waistline. I used invisible thread as none of the commercial threads matched.
It works and she will be covered for the wedding. This isn’t much of a tutorial but more of what we did to solve the problem. I hope it helps someone.
Talk to you later,
Karen
3 Life Lessons from Quilting Class
There is a point in life when you decide that sitting on the sidelines just isn’t enough. I decided this Spring that it was time to learn how to quilt. This isn’t a sew by hand kind of quilting, I do want to quilt more than one. So, I signed up with some friends for the first class. It was a bunch of fun.
Lesson #1
Buy the exact supplies that the class supply list calls for. I brought a bag of scraps from my sewing room for my first log cabin quilt. Â While it was great that I used up my scraps, it made the quilt unnecessarily difficult. It was harder to keep track of which part of the pattern I was working on. So the first life lesson is not to make life more confusing than it has to be. Don’t add in activities until your schedule is packed full all of the time. Leave down time.
Lesson #2
This time I bought exactly the correct amount of fabric needed for the second quilt, in fact I bought a bit too much. I couldn’t get the teacher to contact me before class so I could see if I could use my scraps. so I bit the bullet and bought fabric. This quilt is quite a bit more expensive than the other but it should be easier to cut and sew. Off I went to quilt class number two with just the right amount of fabric. However, I jumped ahead at a certain point as I was waiting on everyone else to catch up. I then missed a short cut that simplified the process of cutting and sewing. So the second life lesson I learned here was to not run ahead of the teacher but to slow down and enjoy the process. Learn to enjoy being a beginner at something. Allow others to be the experts sometimes.
Lesson #3
The third life lesson I am  learning is not to be afraid to start over. I can’t tell you how many times I have ripped out my sewing to start over. When you are learning a new skill, many times your work looks awful. If you don’t like it, then don’t be afraid to rip it  out or frog it and start over. No one says that you have to keep the bad looking sewing around  staring at you. The same thing applies to life. If you make a mistake own up to it, ask forgiveness or do what you can to make it right. Then move on, putting the past behind you.
talk to you later,
Karen