I Like #320

 Welcome to another week of things to like.  I've started the process of getting a contractor to do some work at my house and unfortunately the damage is quite a bit more extensive than I thought.  No estimates yet but I'm preparing for the worst.

Blue and Spooky had been "nesting" in the sofa enough that they tore through the top layer of fabric.  I was very sad because I really like this sofa, so this weekend I sort of recovered the seat where he'd been tearing through.  It's not really that nice because none of the cushions come off (which is actually good), but I stitched it down all around as best I could and stapled it around the back of the footrest.  And this fabric, a remnant from my sister's mother-in-law (thanks Mary!) is fairly sturdy.  We'll see how long it lasts.  Blue wanted to help and almost expired from stress when I made him stay in the nice beautiful 70 degree backyard while I did the couch project alone.

The dogs are super snuggly, but unfortunately Spooky is sick, he has a horrible cough that won't go away.  We went to the vet first thing Monday and they gave him some antibiotics but so far they're not doing anything.  

We're nearing Christmas cactus season which always brightens up the grey days!   They're not open yet but all the leaves have buds and the promise of more color to come cheers me up!

It's been a fun week for internet memes too, these three all came across my feeds this week and made me giggle.

#fitnessforknitters

And this one is Spooky all the way.  If I'm lucky.  If I'm not lucky I still get that much bed space but I get the spiky feet side.

Hope everyone is hanging in there!  For more things to like, head over to LeeAnna's!

Fierce Planets- Finished

 When I left off yesterday, I had cut off a bunch of the purple background on my Fierce Planets quilt and decided I hated it.  Of course.  Big sigh.  I had turned and finished all the edges using a bunch of bias tape that had been kindly destashed to me (thanks Mary Alice), and there really was no easy way to add the background back on.  But I really wanted it back so I decided to do a sort of open work approach.  To add some movement to the piece, like a big planet explosion.  I laid it out and drafted some new edges for each little piece.

I finished all the new edges.

Then using my dissolvable floriani stabilizer I quilted across the individual pieces using monofilament thread.  Of course I don't have any pictures of that (facepalm).  After stitching well across all the pieces, I dissolved the stabilizer and blocked it out.  

Here's the final piece,  named "Wild Thing".  It wound up finishing at 43" x 64".  The artist statement reads: "The axis of rotation of Uranus is tilted over 90 degrees from its revolution axis, and its magnetic axis also has a large tilt relative to its rotation axis. I imagine Uranus as the crazy bouncy child, the one who brings chaos wherever she goes; the one who breaks all the rules and succeeds anyway. She is someone who opens our eyes to all the weird and wonderful different ways things can be."

Wild Thing, c. 2023, Shannon Conley

This one was like pulling teeth, but I got it done and am generally pleased with the outcome.

Seed Heads 2-Finished

 Earlier this week I started sharing about a new pom pom piece, and today I'm back to share the final piece.  The final piece, called Seed Pods #2, is 54" x 35" x 3".  It hangs from a regular pocket but I had to use a thicker than usual slat and also stitch a pocket for half a pool noodle along the bottom of the quilt so that it didn't flop weirdly because of the depth of the pom poms.  The pom poms stick out half on the back and half on the front.  They aren't stitched in, just pushed through the small holes I cut in the quilt.  They are quite secure and can be adjusted if needed.

The piece used only five colors of yarn to make the gradient, yellow, purple, teal, grey and pink.  Making the pom pom gradient was the next part!  It's called Seed Heads 2 because it reminds me of dandelion seed heads.

Seed Heads 2, c. 2023 Shannon Conley

This was a super fun color blending project, and I look forward to thinking of other things to do with all this wonderful yarn!

New Pom Pom Quilt

 I have tons and tons of this fuzzy pastel acrylic yarn that my friend Georgia gave me (Hi Georgia!!), and it's not really that great for knitting and couching so I've been thinking what to do with it. Earlier this year, I made a little pom-pom quilt for the SAQA Auction (going on now!  Go bid and get cool art!)

I had a really fun time making this gradient of pom-poms with some of the yarn, and thought I'd try to make a bigger version.

I did a bunch of graphing out my pom poms and colors on graph paper, with instructions for each one on how many strands of each color it should have.  It was really delightful to watch the gradients come into being as I made the pom poms.  While making them, they each had a little tag corresponding to their place in the grid, but I took all the tags off as I put them in the quilt.

My grid was 7 x 9 so there were 63 pom poms.  Even after making them all I don't really think I made a dent in the yarn, so clearly additional yarn-based projects will be forthcoming.

I liked the brown background from the auction piece, but I didn't have any more of that dupioni silk fabric, but I pulled this piece of weird, kind of fuzzy chenille-like brown fabric that was in a box of stuff destashed to me by my sister's mother-in-law (Hi Mary Alice!).  I marked my grid, quilted and faced the quilt, and then cut out all the little circles to stick in the pom poms.  The texture of the fabric went really well with the pom poms actually.

Come back later this week to see the finished quilt!