Dishcloths & Pillow

Two more dishcloths for you:

I also made a pillow:

The stitching was done by my aunt.  You can see more of her stitching that I've taken off her lovely greeting cards and turned into decorative items here, here, and here. 

I still have a pile of finished stitching that needs finish finishing, but I can't decide how to complete the items.  Such decisions I have to make!

Dishcloths!

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been crocheting.  Dishcloths, to be exact.  Over the past couple of months, I've picked up some Sugar 'n Cream yarn when it's been on sale, and I probably started with eight skeins or so.  Best of all, I've finally found a pattern that I like!  It's the Country Ripple Dishcloth by Kristine Mullen, and it can be found here.  The pattern works up quickly and produces a thick cloth.  I find that I need to crochet about 18 rows to make a square (the pattern calls for 30 rows).

I finished this dishcloth Monday night.

Too bad these dishcloths have to be used!  I completed one while we were on vacation, and we have been using it; it is holding up nicely, so there's hope the rest of them will look good for a while.

September Gardens and More

A.W.O.L.  That's how I feel.  From Sunday the 4th through the following Saturday, I was very sick with a terrible stomach bug.  I'll spare you the details, but if I tell you I lost six pounds, you'll have some idea how bad it was.  Since I left my bed, I've been weak and lacking in energy, but just today, I finally felt good enough to get outside in the beautiful sunshine and warmth and do some gardening. 

I planted some zinnias this year in my front garden.  I love these flowers! 

While Phil and I were outside, a bunch of small, black birds started swirling around in the sky.  A number of them landed on the nearby cell tower.  Can you see them, lined up on the top?  In the second photo, you can see some flying.

The trees in our backyard aren't very colorful in the fall.  Here you can barely see a bit of color that signifies autumn is here:

As I was heading back inside, I glanced down at the edge of the garage door track and spotted this very effective spider web.  (If bugs trapped in webs bother you, scroll quickly!)

This picture of Callie came out over-exposed and I did quite a bit of tweaking to get it acceptable, but she was awake, which is unusual for her, so that's why I'm sharing it.

I will be back soon with more pictures from our Amish country vacation, as well as some crocheting projects I've been working on.

Vacation Part 1 - Repost

My daughter brought to my attention that the pictures on the first posting of this entry got lost somehow.  I'm not sure where they went.  Strange things have been happening at our house with our Internet connection, so perhaps whatever gremlin is wreaking havoc here got to my blog post.  LOL  In any case, here's the entry again, with pictures this time - I hope!

We had our first vacation in six long years August 10 - 16.  We traveled down to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, about a 6.5 hour drive from home (including rest stops), which is home to the oldest settlement of Amish in the United States.  [You can read more about the Amish and Lancaster county here and here.]  This is one of my favorite places - it's peaceful, beautiful, and quaint, with farms as far as the eye can see.  For the first time, I was the designated driver, so I missed a lot of photo opportunities.  And because we had five people to please, two of whom are dealing with chronic illness which slows us down, we didn't get to do as much as we have in previous visits.  I would love to visit craft and quilt shops all day, but other than Sarah, no one in our family would enjoy that!  I do have picture of one quilt to share with you today.  This one was in the window of the Old Country Store in Intercourse.  Unfortunately, I don't have the name of it, but it sure is pretty!

 

 The octagonal part in the middle was defined using lovely white braid.  There was also braid incorporated into the scallops at the bottom.  Beautiful!

Vacation Part 3 - Covered Bridges

According to Wikipedia, there are 29 covered bridges in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  We went over three, two of which I have pictures of.

See the little monkey under the bridge?  That's Claude.  He accompanied us on vacation, and enjoyed trying all kinds of new things, including sitting in a covered bridge!

I loved this stone building!

Heidi, we did go into the Old Country Store, the shop with the quilt in the window.  It is horribly overpriced, but has a wonderful selection of quilts (priced in the 100's of dollars) and an extensive fabric selection.  It seems that almost every shop has something quilted, whether it's full-sized quilts, throw pillows, or even potholders.  Someday, I would love to own an Amish quilt.  (I am a lousy quilter or I'd make one for myself.)

We have also been to Ohio Amish country, although I don't remember how long ago.  It is not as commercial as Pennsylvania.  I do recall the place we stayed - an old cabin.  We had thunderstorms every night, and the electricity would go out briefly.  It's not the worst place we've stayed, but it came close!  We always cook as much of our own food as is possible to save money, so sometimes it is difficult to find places to stay that have kitchen facilities and are still affordable.

BTW, and this is totally off topic, I was shocked to discover tonight that regular yogurt can have a lot of cholesterol in it!  I recently learned that my bad cholesterol is too high, so I am more conscious of the fat in what I eat.  Greek yogurt, on the other hand, seems to be cholesterol free.  We're going to look around and see where we can get it for the best price.  We mostly use yogurt in smoothies, but I suspect there are other recipes I can sneak it into.

Happy crafting - and eating!