Return From An Amazing Vacation

Last week my dear daughter, my dear friend and I took off on a week driving trip.  We planned a trip from Florida to Savannah, Georgia and then to Asheville, North Carolina and back again.

Our first stop was Tybee Island Lighthouse and Fort Screven.

We walked the River district, and the historic section of downtown Savannah.  We also took a Ghost Tour one evening.

We took a day to drive up to Asheville, North Carolina and play in the mountains.  We had a low key birthday celebration for dear daughter on her birthday.  We spent the day walking through Asheville downtown and boosting the local economy.  Dear daughter finally opened her gift and loved it.  I gave her Stitch ears so she will have special ears for future trips to Disney World.

We spent a day at the Biltmore Estate meeting another friend for the day, toured the house, ate lunch at the Stables, bought souvenirs and returned to our vacation rental very tired.

Our last day in North Carolina we wanted to drive up to Mount Mitchell but the Blue Ridge Parkway was closed because of ice on the roads.  We did manage to visit the visitors centers on the Parkway.  We drove over to Hendersonville and spent the morning and part of the afternoon looking at the local history in the old courthouse.  There is a beautiful quilt that memorializes the local history in that courthouse.  

Then we went to Grandad's Apple Orchard for apple cider doughnuts.  Here is the view from that property.

Our last stop was Chimney Rock.  The road up to the view was full of hairpin turns.   I enjoyed this stop more than I thought I would.  You take an elevator up 26 stories from the parking lot and you arrive at the top of the rock.  The views were amazing.  Then you can walk up 44 steps to another section of the rock for more views.  Here is a picture of Lake Lure from Chimney Rock.

That was our vacation.  I got one ear warmer knit on vacation.  Here it is.  This was the Licorice Red Heart yarn that I bought last month.

Yard Work, Family Reunion, Family Wedding, And Quilting

     I've been busy cleaning up my yard for the past month.  It was a complete mess.  I have tons of leaves to shred for mulch, big sticks to take the chain saw to, and at least 32 big black plastic bags of yard waste ready to go out to the curb.   I spent every night and every minute I could out in the yard during the month of May.  It was not fun.  And then to top it all off, it was really dry the month of May and with all that dry weather, the pine straw started falling as soon as I finished raking up last year's leaves.  I had to rake up all of that pine straw and I filled up another four bags of yard wast.  I mowed the grass last night and I'm all caught up with big yard word.  Tomorrow I'm going to poke around and do some weeding in the front beds.  Easy work after all the raking and bagging.

     Another easy outdoor project I have to do is get some some summer flowers to put in this big lovely pot.  My daughter gave this to me last month because of the sea turtles on it.  It was nice of her to think of me when she saw it.

     

    At the end of May, my DD and I went travelling.  We flew to Colorado to attend my niece's wedding.  It was also a mini family reunion, meeting up with both my brothers, their wives and one of my first cousins and her husband on my Dad's side.  Daughter and I always have a good time when we travel and meeting up with family this time was really special.  All of us out-of-towners in our immediate family gathered at the hotel on Friday night, May 31st. to decide where to gather and eat some dinner.  We went to a fun bar and grill and had a great time catching up.  The next day we were on our own until we had to go to the late afternoon wedding.  My niece was radiant and her husband must be a great guy to want to marry into this family.  LoL.  They both are very happy.  Her father, my brother, was so happy that the wedding was over, he was jumping around on the dance floor like a nut.  It was a fun reception.  Everyone danced and enjoyed themselves.  It didn't hurt that there was an open bar.  On Sunday our family, my sister-in-law's sister and husband, and the groom's parents gathered for brunch at a fun local restaurant for a lovely meal.  Then our family spent the afternoon at my brother's home talking, laughing and eating pizza.  It was a lovely way to wind down.  DD and I had to leave early on Monday.  It took all day to get back to Florida.

   This week I have been working on my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt this week.  I finally finished row four.  The quilt top is officially half done.  Here is a picture of my progress so far.

 

     The last time I posted a picture of this quilt with three rows done was January 16, 2019.  That's a long time in between rows.

    Now I'm basting more hexagons to make the rest of the flowers for the last 3 rows.   I need enough hexies to make 14 whole flowers and 2 half flowers to finish those last rows.   Time to get this done.

Souvenir Fabrics

  I have just returned from vacation.  I was treated to a trip to Hawaii by my daughter for my sixtieth birthday.  She rented a condo on the beach at Kona and an SUV.   We drove all over the island looking at sites.  We went to Volcanoes National Park and spent six hours hiking and having lunch at Volcano House.  We went to a black sand beach.  We drove to Hilo to see the Lyman House, Akaka Falls, and Rainbow Falls.  We went to a luau at the Marriott in Kona.  We swam at the beach at Hapuna State Recreational Area and we went star gazing on Mauna Kea.  It was a beautiful trip.  She even made time for us to do a little fabric souvenir shopping in  Honokaa at a little shop called Too Stitch. Here are my finds.  I bought two yards of each of these. 

Everyone Needs A Simple Knitted Lacy Scarf

    I definitely need one.

     I have made myself a few crocheted scarfs over the last few years, but I really like this scarf and the pattern is so easy.  I found this free pattern on Ravelry several years ago and I've made two of these for gifts.  The pattern is called the One Row Lace Scarf by Turvid.  It's very pretty and very easy to knit, which is good for me because I'm not the most accomplished knitter.  You don't have to be a Ravelry member to get the pattern.  Here is the link to the blog with the pattern.   Link here.

    This would make an awesome travel knitting project because it's a simple pattern to memorize and it makes such a pretty fabric.  It's almost as small to carry as a sock.

   I'm making my scarf with size ten Sunstruck (by Knit Picks) circular needles (larger size needles are suggested to show off the lacy stitches and I think the 10 is perfect) with a 24 inch cord.  I tried a 16 inch cord would but it was too short for me.  I would rather have too much cord than not enough.   This is a back and forth project so you can certainly knit this on straight needles but I like the circulars for keeping my project secure. 

    I'm using Knit Picks Brava worsted in the silver colorway.  This yarn is acrylic, which I like.  It's soft and indestructible.  I like that I don't have to worry about bugs eating it and it's washable.  The pattern writer used alpaca yarn to make hers, so feel free to use a natural fiber.  There was also the perfect amount of yardage in a skein of this yarn.  The pattern calls for 175 yards of yarn and this yarn comes with 218 yards.  I'm using two skeins on this scarf because I want this one to be extra long, but one skein of this yarn would be enough for a scarf according to the pattern.

  Here's a picture of my pretty progress so far.

      I bought a lot of Knit Picks Brava in different colors (there are lots of beautiful colors) earlier this year and I think all of it would be great in this pattern.  I picked the grey because, well, it's grey.  I like grey.  I will probably make more of these in some of the other colors, like currant (burgundy) Dublin (dark green), solstice heather (bright navy blue), and white.     

    Knit Picks also has a worsted weight yarn called Mighty Stitch which is a 80% acrylic and 20% super wash wool.  I bought a few skeins of this as well in January to try it out.  I like a good acrylic/natural fiber blend.   The Mighty Stitch comes lots of colors and is a 208 yard skein.

   This blog post turned into a complete Knit Picks commercial.  Sorry about that.  I just like Knit Picks.  I buy a lot of their products and I use them.  

Packaging That I Can Recycle To Hold Needles and Pins

   I've been trying to find a decent container for my used sewing machine needles and bent pins.  I had a pill bottle that I filled up over the last four years which I disposed of last month.  I currently have two pill bottles that I prepared and are ready to fill with old needles and bent pins.  Today I found some packaging that would work really well for this job.

   Burt's Bees makes a tinted lip balm that comes in a plastic blister package.  The blister package holds a cardboard tube that then holds the separate plastic tube of lip balm.  I bought the lip balm because I wanted to try it.  I had no idea that the packaging would be this cool.  The cardboard tube is closed on both ends and is the perfect size to store old needles and pins or you can even use it for your traveling sewing kit.

  The lip balm was $6.62 at the store.

   Here's a picture of the tube.

Neck Pillow For Long Distance Drives

  When I'm not driving, of course.

   I'll be using this around the house as well.  I may even make another for a back up.  I have quite a bit of neck pain and I usually deal with it, but I think this will help me a lot.

    I used this tutorial here.  The link has the .pdf pattern and the sewing instructions.  This project took me about 2 hours from cutting the fabric to the last stitch.  It was fun to make, it fits well, and is super comfortable.  I used cotton fabric from my stash and an almost 12 oz. bag of fiberfill which I bought yesterday.

   Using stash fabric and a $4.00 bag of fiberfill, this would make a nice gift for someone.