Sigh of Relief

The plate cozy came out PERFECT! The casserole cozy could have been better, but the recipient loved it. And both are done. Finally!

So now I can actually finish other projects without guilt. Such as my cosmos fleece...

And a fleece scarf!

Tweet

Wordless Wednesday

Tweet

Smile! You're on AI!

I'd been seeing the "work" caricatures of my friends and laughing with them at some of the AI-included elements. Most people are able to prompt the image generator with the generic "caricature of me with everything you know about me and my work" and then feeding in fun details, such as my nurse friend who said she's been practicing since the dinosaurs roamed the earth. She came up with the funniest ER image with her in full medical gear riding a T-rex.

AI image-generators don't know much about me, so I knew I'd have to help quite a bit with details I don't necessarily want any AI program to know about me. But I couldn't resist. I wanted an "at-work" image of me to make us laugh, but also to make my friends and loved ones laugh.

I still have privacy concerns, but man, was this fun. I got some really fun images!!!

What I love best is these images brought back some incredible memories for Lizard, and that makes it all worth it.

Tweet

No Flake Monday

I need two more heartflakes for a special project I'm working on, so I took another stab at my Part I Snowflake. I'm still struggling with the heart-shaped openings in this flake!

I decided to put heart picots on the tips because I had no faith the heart shape was going to work out. Again.

The prototype was such a bear to pin because I need to redo the last few rounds and increase the chain spaces to help the flake lay flat. But also, my snowflake factory, a pizza box, is a wee bit too old. Too many pin holes. I couldn't pull any of the points tight enough.

If there's no flake pattern today, it's because I'm still working on it. I think I'm going to change it up quite a bit to get those heart shapes, so it's not going to look like the AI inspiration at all. And that's kind of fine with me because that makes it even more my idea. Meanwhile, the struggle with this flake is reminding me of our current weather situation. We are still deeply embedded in drought, and the forecasted snow accumulation we longed for last week resulted in a whole three photos!!! Insufficient!!! Bring on the snow, please!!!

Tweet

Friday Fantastic

Tweet

Scrappy

One of my closest friends asked me (nearly a year ago now...) if I could make a bowl cozy and a casserole cozy for her. She asked if I could make them microwavable. She said I have to let her pay for them. (I normally would never charge her for anything I make.) And she asked me to use only what I have. She asked for browns. Good thing I have browns in my scraps!

Good thing I have all-cotton batting. Good thing I have brown cotton thread. Polyester blends would not be safe in the microwave.

I knew I had leftovers from Lizard's Stonehenge quilts, and I knew I'd used some in my nephew Matthew's quilt. But I had not looked in any of my scrap boxes for... probably years. Many years.

When I finally dug out the Stonehenge scraps last weekend, I realized I had enough to do some fancy piecing. I decided, however, to use up the smallest pieces and make both cozies totally reversible and completely different. My friend had bought a couple of bowl cozies at a farmer's market, and I had no idea what they looked like, other than they were done in browns. I thought scrappy would best blend with what she already has.

I am not at all disappointed with the four pieces of fabric I made. They could almost be a quilt!

I stay-stitched around all the edges, then preshrunk both the blocks and the all-cotton batting. I don't want the cozies to shrink and not fit their bowl and casserole dish once they've been used. Or, well, loved a lot.

Let the quilting begin!

Tweet

Wordless Wednesday

Tweet