Time to Dye

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A Whole New Fab

(affiliate links to my designs)

Spoonflower had another fat quarter sale, so I had to make some new fat quarters.

I'd made a valentine card with six weeks of heartflakes on pink in digital temperature quilt style.

If I made the blocks three inches wide, I would need only a handful more to complete a fat quarter panel.

The pink version turned out so well, I decided I should do the same thing with the blue digital snowflake temperature quilt blocks I've been doing each day this year to see how an all-blue temperature quilt would look. I LOVE IT!!!

I most definitely will crochet a blue temperature project one day using my own hand-dyed blues. Yes, I have enough, and now that I know I don't want to use up all my hand-dyed thread, I don't have to ration my hand-dyeing anymore. I just have to make time. I. CAN'T. WAIT.

Gosh, I made the coolest greeting card, too. I could do a whole series of these and never get tired of them.

I cannot wait to begin sewing these new fat quarters. I might have to add them to last year's digital snowflake patchwork fat quarters for perhaps another quilted jacket!!! I would have the coolest jacket in the galaxy!

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Wordless Wednesday

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A Different Breed of Sag...

I should have taken a photo. I guess I could run snap one really quick before the large-item pickup comes...

Back in our bicycle touring days, my motto was "Death Before SAG." SAG stands for "Support and Gear" and is the affectionate and/or comical term for being picked up when unable to ride any further. I've never really liked the word. It has a negative connotation all the way around. But I see SAG in a whole new light now. Sagging isn't just for weary cyclists. It can mean SO much more.

I was beginning my daily task of adding the previous day's high and low temperature squares to my 2024 digital temperature quilts when I noticed my external computer keyboard was not level. I looked beneath my first home standing desk set-up, which consisted of a very inexpensive short table atop my old sewing machine desk, and was horrified to see two of the table legs leaning so far inward, I was shocked they hadn't yet collapsed.

All four screws on the bottom side of the table had completely stripped their housing, dramatically tilting all four legs. Two legs were severely skewed. If I had leaned on my desk, which I sometimes do while closely inspecting photo details via my (now four-month-old) computer monitor, that little table probably would have squished my year-old laptop and perhaps even destroyed my camera, which was nestled atop the sewing machine desk. I'm sure my computer monitor would not have survived the crash. The keyboard would have been usable, but I'm not sure any of the rest of the electronics would have lived to tell the tale. If I'd leaned just right, I think the resulting disaster probably would have physically injured me, as well. Especially if I'd been vintage me and had tried rescuing my camera, which you can darn sure bet I would have risked just about anything to successfully accomplish.

The old desktop table had lasted a good six years of perhaps way too much weight whenever I leaned on it. I couldn't really have asked for a longer life for the $40 or so I spent on it back in 2018, long before I ever knew I might one day be working from home most of the time.

I knew the desktop standing desk my bosses bought for me in about 2012 was very expensive; that's why I had such a cheap model at home. I was blown away when I looked at the post-pandemic prices of new desktop standing desks and new standing desks. I had initially thought it's probably time to just replace that old sewing machine desk. Now that I've thoroughly explored potential standing desk (scary price) purchases, I think that approximately $90 1984ish sewing desk has quite a few more years of very precious life in it!!!

Last summer, a variety of furniture from our old work office was offered free of charge to anyone who wanted it. I asked if any standing desks were available. Lizard wasn't using his work desk anymore, so he gave it to me for my work-at-home office. It's tough as nails because he bought it way back when he was in college, back when we weren't expected to replace everything every time something new came out. I just love his desk, but, it doesn't go up and down. And I couldn't afford to purchase a new desktop standing desk in 2020. Or now...

I had given the desktop standing desk my bosses had given me to Lizard for his virtual LOUD therapy a couple of years ago. It wouldn't fit on the desk he gave me, and we had to make it fit on the little desk we set up for his laptop. I quickly claimed one of the available desktop standing desks at work last summer, and that's what I'm using for my work computer at home now. PERFECT setup. Absolutely perfect. (At our new office, everyone has motorized standing desks, which also are absolutely perfect but absolutely unaffordable for me at home.)

Once again, Lizard told me he doesn't really need a desk anymore, even though he still tries to use his computer now and then, particularly for virtual doctor visits. He helped me move the desktop standing desk I had given him onto the old sewing desk. My new personal computer space takes some getting used to because it's pretty cramped compared to what it was before the old desktop table nearly folded. There was no room for my mouse if I centered everything!!! It's a tight squeeze, but my re-gifted desktop standing desk is free, and it works. I will adapt. I'm getting pretty good at adapting these days!

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Snowflake Monday

We call it graupel here in the United States. But I think I like the Swedish word better!

You may do whatever you'd like with snowflakes you make from this pattern, but you may not sell or republish the pattern. Thanks, and enjoy!

Finished Size: 6 inches from point to point
Materials: Size 10 crochet thread, size 7 crochet hook, empty pizza box, wax paper or plastic wrap, cellophane tape, water soluble school glue or desired stiffener, water, glitter, small container for glue/water mixture, paintbrush, stick pins that won't be used later for sewing, clear thread or fishing line

Kornsnö Flake Instructions

Make magic ring.

Round 1: Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc), 1 dc in ring, [ch 6, sl st in top of 6th ch from hook (picot loop made), 2 dc in ring] 5 times; 1 sc in 2nd ch of starting ch 2, ch 2, 1 dtr in sc to form 6th picot of Round. Pull magic circle tight.

Round 2: Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc), 2 dc over post of dtr directly below, [in next picot loop work (3 dc, ch 8, sl st in 8th ch from hook (picot loop made), 3 dc)] 5 times; 3 dc in next ch 5 loop, 1 sc in 2nd ch of starting ch 2, ch 3, 1 trtr in sc to form 6th picot loop of Round.
If you're not reading this pattern on Snowcatcher, you're not reading the designer's blog. Please go here to see the original.

Round 3: Ch 1 (counts as 1 sc), over post of trtr directly below work (1 hdc, 1 dc, 1 tr, 1 dtr, 1 trtr), [1 tr in gap between next 2 3/dc groups, in next picot loop work (1 trtr, 1 dtr, 1 tr, 1 dc, 1 hdc, 1 sc, ch 8, sl st in 2nd ch from hook and in each of next 4 ch, [ch 6, sl st in 2nd ch from hook and in each of next 4 ch] 4 times, working back down spoke sl st in next 2 ch, * 1 sc, 1 hdc, 1 dc, 1 tr, 1 dtr, 1 trtr] 6 times, ending * on final repeat; sl st in starting ch; bind off. Weave in ends.

Finish: I've been stiffening my flakes with undiluted, full-strength water soluble school glue for quite a while now, and I've been squishing the glue onto and throughout each flake with my fingers (yucky mess!!!) instead of gingerly painting the flakes with glue. Yes, it's a mess. But it's faster. And stiffer.

Tape wax paper or plastic wrap to top of empty pizza box. Pin snowflake to box on top of wax paper or plastic wrap.

If using glue, mix a few drops of water with a teaspoon of glue in small washable container. Paint snowflake with glue mixture or desired stiffener. Sprinkle lightly with glitter. Wash paintbrush and container thoroughly. Allow snowflake to dry at least 24 hours. Remove pins. Gently peel snowflake from wax paper or plastic wrap. Attach 10-inch clear thread to one spoke, weaving in end. Wrap fishing line around tree branch (or tape to ceiling or any overhead surface) and watch snowflake twirl freely whenever you walk by! Snowflake also may be taped to window or tied to doorknob or cabinet handle.

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Friday Fascination

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Snowflakes Galore

My first quilt finish since October 2022 is in the mail en route to recipient Baby Evelyn!

Because there's not enough time left to make a quilt for my boss who is getting hitched this weekend, the newlyweds are receiving a stash lap quilt I finished back in 2022. It features two of my first Spoonflower snowflake temperature quilt panels, way back before I really knew what I was doing in creating digital temperature quilt panels from existing photographic images. I definitely love the cool side better than the warm side, but I think back to back, the two months contrast beautifully. I think my boss, who has always been a fan of my fiber creations, might enjoy it.

I cut rows off the December and November yardage of my 2023 digital snowflake temperature quilt yardage to create the border for Evelyn's quilt. I had designed the Spoonflower fabric to be cheater panels for puff quilts, but I found out the hard way puff quilts take a LOT of work. My January/February sampler is going to be awesome when I finish it, but the remainder to be quilted it too big to push through my little domestic sewing machine, and I don't really want to try to do it with the longarm. Which means I'll probably end up doing it by hand. No worries; I can do it. I just have to do it. Maybe now that I have my first two 2024 deadlines out of the way, I can get some work done on this project and get an idea of how long it might take to complete it by hand.

I have ten more yards of 2023 panels. All of them were 9 rows by 8 rows. The two I cut up to finish Evelyn's quilt are now 6 rows by 6 rows, which I thought might work great as a very large quilt. So now I've cut up the other ten yards to match. Sewn together, all 12 would make a GREAT puff quilt, but I don't know that I want to put that much time into it. I can do a regular quilt without the puffs, and although I'd have to keep reloading it only my baby quilt-sized Sweet Sixteen (which I affectionately call Ringo), it would still take a while. I've got time to think about it, so the panels are stacked in order by month until I decide what to do with them. Meanwhile, I've got plenty of snowflake strips now from the trimmings I will be able to use in countless projects. Perhaps another baby quilt, but also, maybe the blue squares can become part of the backing for my Moda Blockheads II quilt...

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Wordless Wednesday

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