Catch of the Day - threads

What a great day today. It's not the sunniest day, and a bit on the cool side.

About mid-morning Mert said, let's go to North Carolina for a drive, and off we go. We head into a small town called Southport. It's a seaside community with many quaint gift shops and restaurants. As we drove by this needle arts store, I did a double take. I was surprised to find it here since a much bigger city like Myrtle Beach doesn't seem to have anything like this. I was thrilled. We started out little tour of Southport at this shop. Angelwing Needle Arts. It has quilting, knitting, cross-stitch supplies and more.

I breezed by the knitting since I have enough wool at home to choke a horse. I was impressed by the amount of threads they have. I'm used to buying threads online, so it was so wonderful to see all the threads in poerson. They had many many find threads, ribbons and other stitables. They also had every DMC perle cotton you could ever want. It was a little overwhelming.

I was taken care of by Donna Bennet who is the owner operator of the store. She was friendly and very helpful to the visitors who came in while I was there.

I wished I had a "wish-list" built for a particular project. I didn't. But alas, instead I purchased some goodies for my stash. So here is my catch of the day at Southport, so to speak.

I concentrated on the Needle Necessities flosses since I know that they might be harder to buy in the future.

In my stash, I already have some of the RG threads such as Encore, Splendor and Bravo. So today I bought some of the Neon Rays, Pebbly Perle and Patina to try out. I have some Weeks and Wildflowers flosses but you can always use more, right?

Anyway, I encourage anyone of you in the North or South Carolina area, to stop by Angelwing Needle Arts in Southport North Carolina. Bring your wish list with you. You won't be disappointed.

Here are some pictures of the threads, ribbons and beads at Angelwing.

What's for Lunch?

Well, it's getting on in the week, and I haven't blogged for a couple of days. We're pretty relaxed down here, and there's not a lot to blog about. I've already blogged about the weather. And I've already blogged about our condo, the quilt show and the dolphins. I only blog about my crazy quilting on Mondays, so now what. How about Food?

Here is my absolute favorite lunch while in Myrtle Beach. We've been out to a few fast food places that we don't have at home, and even with that, this is still my favorite lunch and we make it at the condo.

We get these Azteca salad shells at the local IGA store that is about a 5 minute walk from our condo. I've never seen them before except for here. These shells are quite like the deep fried ones, that I used to get when my friend Julie and I would go for lunch at Mexicala Rose's. These these are more pastry like and since they are baked, they are less greasy. The best thing about these, is that they are not quite as big. Just perfect for a lunch.

Here's how it works. The box contains enough stuff for 4 shells. Take the little cardboard forms out of the box and fold them to make an upside down bowls. I'm good at origami, so these are a snap to do.

Next, drape the prepared pastry shell over the form and bake for 6 minutes in a 350 F oven. Take out of the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.

Then Invert onto a dish, and fill with your favorite salad.

For us, it's a tossed salad with a scoop of chili on top. Much like a Wendy's salad, except half the size. Here is our finished salad with shredded cheese on top. It was yummy.

I wonder if any such thing exists in our Sobeys or superstore? If you see some, let me know.

A hot day in MB

This is the north end of our 25' deck at the condo that overlooks the beach. We don't use this table very much, but we do keep a dollar store thermometer under the shade of the table. We are temperature people, you see. We need to know the temp is so we can decide what to wear out for our walk. There are many variables. Long pants, shorts, long sleeves, short sleeve, or jackets etc.

Yesterday was an unusually hot day in Myrtle Beach. I know you all are going to feel sorry for us, but at high noon, it was almost too hot to lay on the deck.

Mert was golfing. It was almost too hot for golf. It was 83 degrees on the golf course and 80 at the beach.

Today was a more tepid day. 70 degrees at noon and it looks like more of the same for tomorrow.

I can't believe we check out of here in 2 more weeks.

Crazy Quilting in MB - Week 3 of 4

It's hard to believe that 3 weeks have gone by already and I'm working on silk ribbons already. When I did my first CQ sock last fall, I'm sure I was on week 12 before having the confidence to move on.

So, after this week, I have to say, that silk ribbons are so nice to work with. I don't have very many ribbons - maybe 6 or 7 hand dyed ones. I haven't really embellished very many seams yet with these silks. I really liked doing this rouching one. It's one that I learned in my Linda H. class last year. I don't think I've seen this technique anywhere else that I've been browsing. It's quick and very effective. Although, this ribbon might have been a bit dark for the placement, I really like it. It's staying.

I really like the floral sprays and I need a bit more imagination when making sprays. In these below, I didn't have a plan when starting out. I just laid down the roses, then worked around them.

I like the 5 spoke ribbons. I can't seem to move away from them. I'm trying different leaf techniques.

I still need to put leaves on these. I'm not sure which to use. These 3 roses were made from a single cut of 7mm wide ribbon. It's such a coincidence that the color changed for the entire rose in the center. I love the hand-dyed ribbons.

More 5 spoke roses. I love the dark color. In real color, they are more purple than blue.

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This week, along with more thread and ribbon, I'm starting to work on beads, buttons, and shells. I'm anxious to see how the sparkle will add so much to my 2 socks. I'll show you next Monday.

Is it a dolphin, or is it a porpus.

Every morning, we scan the waters for dolphins, or are they porpuses. Usually we see them just enough for me to run and get my camera, start it up, zoom in, then they're gone. It must be the time change, but they were around particularly long this morning. Tomorrow watch for my Week 3 Crazy Quilting - Silk Ribbons..

Come for a Visit!

Each day, as we walk the beach, we both admire these three beach houses in a row. They are about a 20 minute walk up the beach from our condo. They are so fresh and new looking and the blue South Carolina skies set them off perfectly. The cars park under the houses from the street side. We haven't seen that side yet, but maybe tomorrow we'll walk on the street for a change. Want to come for a visit, they're for rent.

Comments

I'm not sure why there is no comments button on my Catch of the Day blog. I'm testing this to see if you can leave those Catch of the day comments here. And a bit of late news, Grace had laid claim to all the unsuccessful shells. She'll get them when we go home in April.

Catch of the Day

Each day, our daily walk yields a bit more warmth. This morning, even though we're walking early, our walk was way to warm for long sleeves. Just like at home, you never know how warm or cool you're going to be, so we're a bit over cautious. Tomorrow, it's going to be short sleeves.

On our beach walk, I get the notion that it would be nice to put a single pretty shell on each of my crazy quilted socks, since they were mostly created here. So it's eyes down, and we're looking for perfect small shells that might be suitable. After picking up several, I determine it's got to be a shell with a hole of course, a pretty color, and shiny if possible. Next week, will I be adding beads, buttons and now shells to my socks, so that gives us 7 - 10 days to look.

Here is Grampie walking ahead of me, on the lookout for shells at the high water mark. If you look closely at the extreme left of this picture, you can see the balcony to our condo.

Our Catch of the day.

This is a good one. It's less than half an inch, and a nice size hole to tack on to the sock. It's very bleached out and the color is very white.

A perfectly white, quite shiny and smooth, but no hole.

Perfect size, but not very much character, but a lovely hole.

There are many clusters like this on the beach, but for the most part they are too big, or not a nice color, or no hole, or too many holes, or broken.

Every day we'll take out top ten picks home, then make our selections next week from the top 75 - 100. It's like American Idol for shells.

Our search continues.

Happy Birthday Jessica!

Edit: - Look at Jessica's Video Below.

Happy Birthday Jessica!

Can it be 10 short years ago, that Grampie and I drove to Halifax to see this new baby, our first grandchild!

I remember the evening that we got the call that the baby was coming soon. The next morning, we drove to Halifax not knowing who would be entering our lives. It's a girl. She was born before we got there. We approach the hospital room and 10 steps before the room, I tried to hold back the tears. ..unsuccessfully. A baby, a baby. It's like the whole miracle of birth had just hit me. We walk into the room and by this time, I'm crying out loud... as I pick up this little baby. She was small and precious and was ours. Our first grand-child.

And that was 10 years ago today.

Happy Birthday Jessica!

Crazy Quilting in MB - Week 2 of 4

I've been stitching all week. One thing I realized, is that I didn't bring any of my plain color flosses. I went right away to the computer and started a shopping cart at Evening Star Designs, then I caught myself... was this just an excuse to order more beautiful threads, and I think it was. I stopped into the local Michaels, bought a few green DMC's skeins and I'm on my way.

So, this week, I've been stitching down seams on both socks. Now, I'm trying really hard to do some combinations. I'm looking at pictures of others work, browsing through my Carole Samples book, and some I'm making up as I go along. As I'm browsing pictures on the web, I'm deciding my next piece will be all whites and off whites much like this one and this one on Sharon Boggins Picassa. I love that look. I badly need a fresh set of threads and silk ribbons in whites, antique off whites and ecru. I keep getting off track.

Back to the 2 socks that I'm working on now. They are fairly neutral and light to medium in color. This week, I've concentrated on using threads and I'll do ribbons and beads and more threads in the coming weeks. I'm using many variegated threads by Sassa Lynne, Necessities, and Stef Francis. I think I like using size 8 Perle as my favorite. I didn't have a favorite when making my first CQ sock. I seem to be more relaxed about doing these socks and I find myself developing favorite stitches, colors etc.

First I'll show you some rows that I did that are now waiting for beading or ribbon which will come in late Week 3 or 4.

The photo was intended to be a bit of a diagonal stitch, but when I put the row on, the stitches fell into perfect vertical position even though the seam is slanted down. So these flowers will have pretty bead heads on them.

One of the other participants in the class I took last fall, shared bits of handmade lace with us. This is a very small bit - maybe 3 to 4 inches and I had a hard time to place it. But in an effort to had some curves to my piece, this bit of lace will define the heel of the sock. I can't wait to put some ribbon and beads to accent it.

I think this is when I fell in love with the Success Strips that I talked about in a blogpost I did last week. I also love this cranberry color Necessities Perle 8 thread that I got from Evening Star Designs.

Does this not look like a lawn mower chopped off the heads of these flowers. I haven't decided what to put on them, but I can't wait to try out some flower beads.

I saw this technique for making the wheel stitch online somewhere last year. I couldn't find it again to give them credit but here is a picture to show you. You cut out a perfect half circle and pin it down and use as a template. I labour over stupid things, "How am I going to cut out a perfect half circle, and out of what?" I look around for a day or 2, thinking half circle, half circle... "What am I going to use?" Then I spot the Trident gum pack sitting in my sewing basket. It already had a perfect half circle cut out... This is the perfect size. Lucky me!.

So this is my first set of wheels. I struggled a bit, but I really like them and I will definitely incorporate them into future works. Of course, these will have some beads applied.

And the last bit I have for you today is a bit of a picture tutorial on how to tea dye your embroidery bits - with leftover coffee. I got the idea to add bits of free standing lace embroidery from this block of Sharon Boggin's quilt, "I dropped the button box" and I've seen it on several other works as I browse the web. So since I have an embroidery machine, I set out to create some small fsl embroideries. I stitched these using Marathon polyester white thread. But the white seems too stark, don't you think? So I head to the coffee pot this morning and pour the 2 tablespoons of leftover coffee into a small container. I'm not sure if the polyester thread will stain. After a fe minutes, I realize it dyes beautifully I love how the color turned out. See the comparison below.

Here you can see the color difference between the dyed butterfly and the white ladybug. I like the softness of the off-white.

Here is the ladybug, soaking in coffee for about 5 minutes. Rinse off with water and lay flat to dry. If you want lighter color, reduce the soaking time.

And the rest of my little embroideries that I dyed this morning. I'll apply these to my socks this week. By the way, these embroideries came from the "Marie Osmond Lace up your Life Vol. 1 "collection. When you go to the link, click on the view designs link to see all the designs. I only stitched out the small ones in a single hooping.

No Snow at the Beach

I'm afraid to report that I didn't see one flake of snow that few in our area overnight. I was up a couple of times to check it out. I watched on the news this morning, and a community to the west of us by about an hour had the snow. The waters are calm this morning and it's overcast outside right now. Sun is forecast for later this morning. So we carry on with our day.

My camera batteries are charging. I'll post about my Crazy Quilt progress later today.

A Storm Day in Myrtle Beach

Yep, they've called it already. I don't know when the last time Myrtle had snow was, but they are expecting up to 1 inch of snow over night. They've already cancelled school for tomorrow. This will be just like at home I expect although, I'm not sure they have any snow plows here!

See the picture above. The storm is brewing. The waves are so high. The dark clouds are closing in on the horizon's blue skies. There is a lone photographer on the beach taking pictures of the incredible waves. The waters are so calm usually, and it's fun to watch the high waters as they crash near the shore. You know, I am a bit of an expert in high waters. Did you see my post from the Caribbean sea in early December. Now those where high waves.

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I know I won't be able to out do the folks at home when it comes to the amount of snow, but have you ever seen palm trees in the snow. I'll take pictures in the morning and show you.

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And later in the afternoon, I'll be posting about my crazy quilting progress - week 2.