Time to Knit

 

 

Today I went to Hobby Lobby....a quick trip, thinking it would be quite a while before I visited it again.  You just don't know these days.  Among my other purchases, it seems a little bird flew into my basket and came home with me.  So, tonight while trying to decide what to post, the bird caught my attention and made it's way onto my work table.  I had already decided to use this gorgeous piece of fabric....a segment of a curtain I made years ago.  

 

 

This watercolor painting, given to me in 1981 in Silver City, N.M. by my next door neighbor and artist,  Arlene Foster, had been calling for my attention the last few days, so it became another element of my little 'scene.' 

 

 

A small piece of knitting....intending to be a scarf of some kind was next.  I love knitting a simple scarf....not much thinking involved and keeps your hands busy while your mind wanders, considering all kinds of things....while you "just breathe."

 

 

Notice the bird seems to have flown into the knitting needle basket, perhaps becoming interested in learning another thing or two about how humans might warm their nest.  I love these needles...the longer ones are antique, the shorter ones new bamboo.  I like knitting with wooden needles.

 

 

Well, seems the little bird flew away.  Ready for an adventure somewhere else, I suppose.

So....the cold is coming....who knows if we will have snow as in the painting. Whatever happens, I will be under some quilts, perhaps knitting away...and watching for a little bird. 

                                                           Have a warm and happy heart

                                                                                 from

                                                                       Bird Nest Cottage

                                                                             ❤️❤️❤️ 

 

 

Miss Minerva Prim

 

 

And, here is Miss Minerva Prim.

In 1994, my quilt guild held a doll challenge.  An  identical ready made doll was given to all interested and the challenge was to dress a doll to your own liking and then winners would be chosen at a future meeting.  Miss Minerva Prim was my entry.

After finishing the doll, I couldn't think of a good name for her until my little group went to Paducah, Kentucky for the annual quilt show.  

 

We decided to ride around the town for a bit looking at pretty houses 

 and the blooming Dogwood trees.  At some point, we turned onto a street and when I read the name of the street sign, I knew that would be the doll's name.  I believe the name of the street was Minerva Place.  I named her Minerva Prim because I thought she looked rather prim and proper.

The things we do.

 

On her petticoat, I wrote:

🖤 Miss Minerva Prim loves to talk about quilts. 

 My name, the year and the town I lived in.

 

 

I made her clothing, her knitted shawl, a basket with "bolts" of fabric," a sewing basket and several                                   quilting books.  I also found a pair of glasses for her.

 

Oh, yes, I found a chair and table just the right size for her

and just today, added

  the silk bonnet on a stand, a tea cup and saucer, plus the brass bird pincushion I've shown here many times before.

 

   

    And, I made a little set of quilt books for her too.  Not real books of course. I could make those better now but at the time, I didn't really know what I was doing.

                                        

I glued them all together so I wouldn't be chasing them all over the place.  Still holding up pretty good since 1994!

And, the tea cup...so cute.  I have a bunch of these I purchased just a few weeks ago, not even thinking they would be the right size for Miss Minerva!

She is wearing a long sleeved blouse, embroidered down the front, a skirt made of black file with embroidery along the hem, that petticoat I wrote on and I found the perfect size shoes for her when out shopping one day before she was finished.  That was lucky.  She is also wearing a button that looks like a watch and also a shawl I knitted for her from bedspread weight crochet cotton.

She is working on a quilt square as you can see.    A friend of mine made that quilt square and being unsatisfied with it she threw it in the garbage.  This was way before I made the doll.  I had rescued the wonderful little square from the garbage and saved it, and when I made the doll decided Miss Minerva would love to have it.  

Once again, the things we do!

I hope you liked the visit with Miss Minerva. 

                         She has been with me a long time now and every so often she likes to be seen.                      
                   
                                                          Wherever You May Be This Day

                                                                            BE WELL                                                                        

from

Bird Nest Cottage

❤️❤️❤️

 

                                                             
 

A Finished Project....and Texas

 

I tried to find something different to post today....but for some reason....nothing attracted my eye.  Then I remembered this great photo of the most recent scarf I finished knitting.  I LOVE finishing something!!  And, I thought this photo was really good.  Taken on my iPhone.  The colors look so vibrant.  And, this photo illustrates what my friends and I were thinking when we said we should have a needle in our hands at least once a day.  It doesn't matter what kind of needle.  Shown is a needle weaving in the yarn ends of this scarf.  And, I finished that border in one day...so there you are!  A good day!

 

This is the same scarf.  The photo was taken with my camera...in a different room, different time of day, different light, etc.  Not so vibrant...but ok.  You can see the border...crocheted in a knit every row pattern and fun to do.  I like it...you don't have to THINK!  It's like meditation....

 

Here is the actual yarn I used.   The color is "Echo."  Art. E793, 3940.  After knitting the scarf, I crocheted five or six rows of single crochet around the edge, then, I did a little scalloped edge....sc, ch three, sc, repeat all the way around. End. Easy Peasy.  Do three sc in the corner st.  As you can see on the photo above this one...the border IS variegated as I used the same yarn for the whole project, but in this photo, the scallop looks like one continuous color.

Now....the Texas part.  I am going to visit my sister and two brothers.  I am now the oldest in my family.  There are four siblings.  Me.  Then, my brother, Mike.  He is sixteen months younger than me.  Next is my sister, Debbie, she is ten years younger.  Then, there is Robert, who is thirteen years younger.  I have seen my sister this year, but haven't seen the brothers in several years.  My daughter, Kelly is driving me there...somewhere between eight and ten hours, depending on traffic.  She hasn't seen her uncles in many years.  It will be interesting.  

I wanted to post something tonight, so this is what you get...but, hopefully, I will have something different when I come back next week.  Wishing you a lovely week with good weather and good fun.

And, til next time, take care.  ♥ pat

My 70th Birthday Giveaway

Today, my 70th Birthday, has been a lovely day!  I heard from my children, siblings and friends and friends of my children I don't even know, along with a visit from my sweet friend, Kelley,  and Brenda, another Hall Monitor of the Universe.  Something she and I both share.  So, while I am another year older....it was a happy day....bittersweet, but beautiful.   I will also have another birthday,  I guess you might say, as tomorrow I will spend the afternoon over at my daughter and son-in-law's house.  We will be making pizza and watching the Cowboy game.  Something a displaced Texan still likes to do.

As you see here....a reminder of the scarves and pin I am giving a reader of my blog.  As you recall, I like to give someone I don't know a gift on my birthday.  When I talked to my son in San Francisco this morning, I asked him to choose a number from the comments made on my Giveaway post, two posts back.  (A job the old navy man used to do for me.)  Scott gave me a number...and as it turns out, ERIN from Minnesota is the winner!  Maybe my scarf will help keep her warm this winter!  Erin, please send me your regular mailing address so I can ship your prize off to you....and I hope you enjoy it.

I think these photos are pretty good ones...taken on my iPhone.  I need to use it more often, it appears.

For those of you who didn't win...please know that I am grateful for your interest in my blog and I hope to offer a Giveaway again in the near future.  Thank all of you for acknowledging my return to blogland after an absence while I moved to a new home.  Your kind comments cheered me up considerably.

I'll post again as soon as I can and as always, I will appreciate your comments and emails.  Of course, you never know what I will be showing you and as it happens, I don't know what I'm doing until the minute I decide to post. 

  Y'all take care out there and until next time...take care!  ♥ pat

Weaving in the Ends: An Autumn Giveaway

Every year for my birthday I like to have a Giveaway on my blog.  Well, I didn't last year, but you know life here last year was not conducive to thinking of that kind of thing.  This year, well, I think it's a good idea and hope to continue on with these Giveaways once in a while and especially on my birthday.

So, what to give?  That was the question.  Around about the time I was thinking of this...(the end of last week)... some of my friends and I had decided to have a daily Challenge.  Not being all that productive lately and wanting to share some enthusiasm, we decided that we each should hold a needle in our hands for at least a few minutes each day and we would then email each other with the results...thus spurring us on to be more creative and accomplish something, even a little bit at a time.   I suppose filing a report makes you want to be productive and creative.  While doing "my own little bit" with a needle turned out to be weaving in the yarn ends of the eight scarves I have knitted over most of the last year, it was work with a needle and no one said what kind of needle!  Without going into details about why I had eight unfinished scarves around, I did have them and it occurred to me that weaving in those ends would require holding a needle and so my first Challenge project would be to finish the scarves.  Weaving the yarn ends in took me two days, working in a few minutes here and a few minutes there.

After finishing this little job...another thought occurred to me.  I had knitted two scarves from the same yarn.  Why, I don't know...but there they were calling out to me....Autumn Giveaway!!  The yarn is in lovely colors for this season...why not?  So....I decided right then and there to give the winner one scarf....and also one to share with a friend.  I love it when a plan comes together!  I also rummaged through my "junk jewelry" and found a Leaf Pin and thought it would go great with the scarf.  So there we are...my 2014 Birthday Giveaway!

Here one is all tied up with some terrific ribbon I also found in my stash.  It's really cool and thought it would look good with this yarn.  So...do you want to win it?  If so....please leave a comment on this blog post.  Also make sure I have a way to get in touch with you should you be the winner!  This coming Saturday, October 18th, is my 70th birthday.  I hope to present this Giveaway to one of you as my gift to me....a Happy Day for You! 

Pictured below are some of the scarves I finished.  A project completed.  That's a good feeling!!  I hope to post again in the middle of the week or thereabouts.  Something pretty.  Something that goes with the season.  Meantime....please comment, you might win!

Take care and til next time,   ♥ Pat 

Two Gifts

Hi!  Hope you are all well......I know you are busy and I am also busy....but thought I'd spend some time showing you two beautiful gifts recently given to me by friends.  Beautiful things deserve to be seen and appreciated, not to mention that the gift  'givers' should be properly thanked.   So, here we are...my two absolutely gorgeous gifts....from friends Jim and Susan.  First I'll begin with Jim.  He sent lace.  Susan gave me a beautiful knitted scarf from her very own hands....and I used it as the background for Jim's lace.  You'll notice it through out this post...more later.

Jim sometimes sends me things in the mail,  not all that often though, so I was surprised the other day when I went to the mailbox and this little envelope was there.  It's 5" x 8" and since there was no envelope art to see, I expected it just had a note or something in it. (He has been known to send me fabulous "envelope art.")  Imagine my surprise when I opened it and all these little lacey treasures fell out of it. Whoo-hoo!!!

They are all very small and perfectly wonderful!  I've photographed each and added a closeup of each.  They deserve to be seen as closely as possible and are a wonderful sight to see.  Oh, it boggles the mind how such tiny lacey things can take your breath!

And, it's closeup.  So lovely.

 

A little square one......so dainty.

And, it's closeup.  Makes me imagine all kinds of ways to use these..... you think there might there be a crazy quilt in my future?

A very small round lacey thing, more inspiration for a crazy quilt.

Things that can be done with just a needle and thread are a constant amazement to me.  Don't you sometimes wonder who invented the first needle?  Well, I'm sure that first needle was a piece of bone or something, but how did the idea get in that person's head?  Yes, it boggles the mind!

 A rose is a rose.  Thank goodness!

 And, the rose's closeup......

This piece is quite small too, about three inches square.  Of course, I love the little embroidered flowers in the corners!

 No way I could do all the work on this piece...but, I COULD embroider those corners!

 Quite a fantastic triangle, wouldn't you say?

 And, it's closeup.

 Another square....so pretty...the inspiration in every thread!

LOVE!!!  I have to tell you that Jim went to Texas, may I say SEVERAL times this summer and fall to work on an estate sale for a friend of his that does that kind of thing for a living.  The estate was that of a multimillionaire in Dallas and it went on over several months.  Mostly Jim cleaned silver.  If you read his blog, then you know.  But, evidently, he managed to get into some other things, as he often does, and these pieces he bought for me.  Lucky me!!!

   

Now, here is a view of the scarf that Susan made just for me.  Of course, it is green, as you know, I love the color green.  Susan is a knitter and a quiltmaker and quite a lovely person.    This scarf is so soft, sometimes I just pick it up to handle it for a while...very tactile.  

This photo absolutely does NOT do it justice...it's not drab at all....just a lovely varigated green, as soft looking as it feels.

 

 All the various shades of green.......can you SEE how soft it is???  So lovely.

So, THANK YOU, Susan, and THANK YOU, Jim...for remembering me in your thoughts and deeds.

I am very grateful for you both!!

Now, my blog readers....kindly take note....I will be having a Valentine Giveaway....if you check back with me over the weekend...I will post about the Giveaway....and would love for you to comment in order to win it.  See you over the weekend!!!  take care, pat