A Slow Sunday with all types of Stitching

July days in Florida are not for the faint of heart, with the humidity rising along with the temps it makes for some sticky days.  I am in the second week of a summer bug, the fever returns every few days though not 102 like it was for 3 days running, the cough is nearly gone but the nausea lingers daily, the one good thing is I'm making progress on my stitching though some days I just felt so miserable I just laid around and slept for hours.

Friday was a full on rainy day and I was feeling well enough to sit up most of the day so I made lots of progress on the granny square afghan I am crocheting for Tessa.

I like working with this Mandala yarn, the way the color changes saves me the time of changing colors and weaving in all those loose ends. The changes aren't always perfect but I like just letting the work flow, one of the groups I'm in some crocheters will cut off sections of the yarn to have a more even flow, I suppose that's a great idea for symmetry but to me it's a lot of extra work.

Yesterday I decided to unravel (frog) the a few rows of crochet I had completed on the Ruana I'm making, the stitches didn't look quite right to me, not realizing I wasn't seeing too clearly while I'm under the weather.

After looking at the pile of unraveled yarn I had second thoughts (after frogging 519 stitches) ugh! So I re-crocheted all those rows and then worked 2 more rows.  Do you ever do something like that, look at something not sure if you are happy with how it looks so you undo all your work only to realize it was fine?   I do it more often than I care to admit.

I'm nearly done stitching the Stitch at Home Challenge piece,  I think to finish it I will use a hoop as a frame so I can hang it.

If all goes well and hopefully feeling better I plan to have it completed this week or early next week which will give me plenty of time to make the August 15th deadline.  My fingers are holding out fairly well with all the stitching and crochet, but the right side of my neck gets so stiff I can barely move it.  Well if it isn't one thing it's another, we do suffer for our Art don't we?

I will link up to Kathy's Quilts today for Slow Sunday Stitching, hop on over to see what Kathy and other talented bloggers are working on:  https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2018/07/slow-sunday-stitching_22.html

I'm feeling a bit weary so let me post this, make a cup of tea and try to get some stitching done today.

The ORT report for July's New Moon

Today is the new moon which is also time for the TUSAL ort report, now if you aren't familiar with what a TUSAL is jump on over to the link here to read what it's all about and perhaps join in the fun https://itsdaffycat.blogspot.com/2018/01/a-totally-useless-stitch-long.html

In a nut shell TUSAL stands for Totally Useless Stitch a Long but to me it's so much more than that, it is sharing with other bloggers what we are stitching and showing off our orts.  If you aren't familiar with the term orts its those little snippets of thread, floss, ribbon yarn etc. from the project you are currently working on.  Here are mine for July so far.

July New Moon Orts

There are a variety of snippets this month so far, I have been working on hand embroidery, some crocheting and even stitched up few Barbie doll dresses for my great niece Tessa.

All the green orts are from the Green Woman piece I recently finished stitching, the purple and pink shades of yarn are from the granny square afghan I am crocheting.

The blue metallic ribbon is from the piece I am making for the Stitch at home Challenge hosted by the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design.

Kreinik Threads provided a Bag o' Bits to each participant for this challenge and each of us has to use some of the threads in our design. As soon as I saw the blue metallic ribbon knew exactly what I wanted.

I didn't have too much trouble threading it through my needle and it stitched easily through the fabric and the stabilizer with no fraying and I plan to work with it again in the future.

Earlier in the week I came down with a summer bug, fever, sore throat, cough and now a tight congested chest which feels like bronchitis again so my stitching is slow going for the most part I am getting as must rest and sleep as I can so I can shake this bug fast. 

We had a brief but very drenching rain this afternoon so I don't need to water the plants

Well that's it for now I need a cup of tea and a place to rest my head for a bit.

For Hiroko the raised beds I was telling you about

These are the raised beds I was telling you about  this is how I made my cement block bed

before planting

early planting net for peas

These are the boxed kits I was telling you about available at Lowes, Home Depot, and Walmart store an online and at Amazon

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Greenland-Gardener-Raised-Garden-Kit/40410332?athcpid=40410332&athpgid=athenaItemPage&athcgid=null&athznid=PWVUB&athieid=v0&athstid=CS002&athguid=466001f5-c97d5990-b9e0e969c0f80818&athena=true

Here are some old photos of my raised beds from 2012

I hope this is helpful to you.

A new month begins with a birthday, a good read and a yarn a long.

Here we are starting a whole new month, summer is well underway here in Florida with lots of hot humid days and thunderstorms rolling through just about every afternoon.

On the 1st of July I celebrated my 63rd birthday, enjoyed a lovely day with my son and some birthday cake in the afternoon.

The day before my sister and great niece Tessa came for a visit, Tessa made me a sweet birthday card and bookmark.

I am using my new bookmark to keep my page in this week's read Hardcore Twenty-Four another fun Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich, I really enjoy her Plum novels they make me laugh out loud and always bring back memories of my home life back in NJ.

We spent a few hours at Silver Springs State Park, took the 30 minute glass bottom boat ride which Tessa just loved.

fish seen through the glass bottom boat

I finished stitching the Green Woman hand embroidery piece last week, now I am trying to decide whether to frame her or make her a wall hanging or pillow cover.

In the meantime I am crocheting a continuous granny square afghan for Tessa using Lion Brand Mandala yarn in Wood Nymph colorway. It's odd for me to be crocheting an afghan, usually the summer months in Florida are too hot to have a large project on my lap even with air conditioning yet I have been itching to crochet and so far the heat isn't bothering me. 

growing granny square

When Tessa saw the afghan she rubbed it on her face claiming it was so squishy and soft it was like fluffy clouds.  She says she loves pink and purple so I told her it was a good thing I was making it for her.

So yesterday I spent 45 minutes at the DMV to renew my driver's license and to my surprise the birth certificate I have had for 63 years is no longer acceptable and I will have to send for a new copy. Which I just finished doing, hoping it is processed quickly but I have the ugh moment of ordering a new birth certificate from NY.  In the meantime, I have an exception letter so I can drive using the new license for the next 60 days and if I don't have the new certificate by then I just bring in proof that I sent for the birth certificate and I can get an extension.  I'm fairly confident I'll receive it in time since the place I ordered was actually an outsourced company, which take up to 3 weeks to process and I paid $17.00 for UPS express shipping rather than the US Mail.   Our local DMV office is quite helpful, the employees are friendly and I always have a pleasant experience. Oh and the eye test was a breeze.

For my birthday one of my friends sent me some lovely Shawl in a Ball yarn in the Prism colorway

I love this blend of cotton and acrylic yarn and I love the colors. I'm not sure what I'm going to make yet though I was thinking of trying the Virus Shawl pattern, I've watched much of the YouTube video and think I will use it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOQ6GBjTjO8

I am linking today at Super Mom No Cape https://www.supermomnocape.com/embroidered-felt-christmas-baubles/
And also here for Yarn Along http://www.gsheller.com/2018/07/yarn-along-july.html