Weekend Thus Far

Things have been busy. My kids have been on summer vacation all of a week and are already driving me crazy. It's going to be a long, long summer here along Florida's Emerald Coast.

I managed to get three, maybe four rows crocheted on my gemstone/black afghan. The afghan is just 3 inches shy on either side of being king size. I'm planning to take a progress pic tomorrow as I have some film I need to use up. Hopefully I'll have a few progress pics of various projects by the end of the week. I really would love to invest in a digital camera, but since I don't have one right now I just have to wait on developing and finishing out rolls of film.

I'm hoping that this blog is making some kind of sense to the reader as I'm hopped up on cold meds and tend to ramble.

I've also been working on DS#3's quilt top. Yes, the same one I said I wanted to finish over a week ago. I'm very close, but not quite, finished. I've been bouncing around on what color to use for the sashing and I'm also rethinking my plan of using a wild tropical fish print for the backing. I may just go with a nice batik.

I've been rereading Lisa Boyer's That Dorky Homemade Look for inspiration as this quilt is about as dorky looking a quilt as you'll find. It's your basic nine patch block and it uses a lot of novelty fabrics. Some I used more than once because there's just so many novelty fabrics I was able to find in my area so I focused on novelty fabrics that had several images I could take from each cut of fabric. In theory it's an I Spy Quilt, in all honesty it's just butt ugly. My son will love it though because there's a lot going on in the quilt top. I tried to tone down the wildness of the quilt using black in the blocks--of course I think now that the black is what makes it uglier than it might have been if I had gone with say a red or navy. I'm hoping to have a pic of it on this roll of film so that you, the reader, can see what I'm talking about here.

I'm obsessing now over the Summer Fiesta Afghan in the new Crochet magazine. It's so cool. I started to buy the magazine yesterday but I just recently subscribed to Crochet and since I have received my bill I'm hoping this new issue will be my first subscription issue. Just as sure as I buy it it will show up in my mailbox. If it isn't here by next weekend I may go on and buy it.

The funny thing is, recently I have been toying with doing a granny square afghan in the Red Heart Kids colors of lime, orange, yellow, pink, turquoise, orchid, and blue(maybe periwinkle too). Yes, that would be one wild granny square afghan. I thought it would be a fun summer project. Granny squares aren't too hot to create while sitting out in the yard like a larger one piece afghan would be. Oh, what's funny about it is that these colors, a few of them are used in the Summer Fiesta afghan in Crochet magazine. What I'm unsure about with my granny square afghan, should all the centers be the same color or just the final round of each granny square? I'm planning on the lime to be the edging color. Now I wonder though if the blue should be the anchoring color and just let the squares run wild with all the bright colors. I hate having to make these decisions because I'm just not good with colors. I know how I want things to look and how I think they'll look in my mind, but reality is never quite the same. Maybe I just have really bad taste. Anyway I love the lime and want it to be the main color. Guess I'll start stockpiling Red Heart Kids yarn and maybe can start on this sometime in July. Wonder if I should just kit up the Summer Fiesta afghan while I'm at it? Can you tell I'm just a Florida chick through and through? I love those wild neon bright colors. I ought to be able to get them out of my system this summer though. Two bright afghans and DS#1's glow in the dark Ohio Star quilt should have me ready to puke by the end of summer. I'll be begging for some nice neutral colors to sooth me.

I've also been sorting through some cross stitch projects that are in my "waiting to start" pile. I had forgotten how many wonderful projects are sitting on go. Every so often it's good to fondle the stash.

My interests vary so much, I try to make time for them all because in their own way each one is rewarding.

I love crocheting because it's soothing. I love the rythmn of the hook and now there's just so many fun, funky, hip things to crochet my list of "want to do" projects grows and grows. I even added a crochet section to my cross stitch organizer. I think the blank pages for the cross stitch projects will work fine for making lists of what I need for various projects and that way I'll have it with me all the time and every time I'm out shopping I can pull out my organizer and see what colors I need and what the store has. Stitcher's Organizer with a little tweaking could work well for any kind of stasher. The files are all for cross stitch supplies and designers but the blank pages can be downloaded and used to keep track of crochet stash, things needed for future projects, patterns and magazines you have in the stash or want to buy. I used to have tons of lists in my purse for various projects and even books I want to read. Since discovering the Stitcher's Organizer I've combined all my hobby stashes in one convenient place. I bought dividers and have a section for Crochet projects that I want to kit up and a reading section that lists books I want to buy. Since I keep my day runner in my purse it's with me whenever I'm at the Used bookstore or the Mall or the LNS or Walmart. The cross stitch section is more thorough as I have a list of DMC threads I have already in the stash, GAST, WDWs, projects in rotation, projects that are kitted and ready to go and then projects that need kitting up. It's really nice to have everything all together especially since I plan projects way in advance. I can't help it, I love kitting things up and hoarding them at home so they are ready to go when I get an urge to start them. Since I make only rare trips to the Hobby Lobby, which happens to have the best yarn selection, it's even better that I have all these dream projects and what I need for them listed and with me at all times. I've been reading so much lately about people with "stash guilt", I can honestly say I have no guilt at all about any stash I have hoarded up and any projects waiting to be worked on. I love my stash. It's my security blanket, it's there for me when there is no money to buy new stash, it saves me from boredom, it brings me pleasure.

The only guilt I have at the moment is for the projects that are thisclose to being finished and I just can't bring myself to work on them. It felt good to work on my gemstone/black afghan and DS#3's quilt and an old UFO I ran across the other day by CHS, Americana. I've been bouncing back and forth between these three projects the last couple of days and making progress on all of them. That's a great feeling.

Now if I could just scrapbook a few pages this weekend I'd feel really good about myself.