I Like Thursday ~ Beaches

 

The question for us today for 

I Like Thursday @ Not Afraid of Color

is  "Amusement Park or Day at the Beach?"

I am a beach person. 

Coast to Coast.

Above is the Atlantic ...  in Maine.

Below is the Pacific ... 

... at Huntington Beach, California.

I feel that I am lucky to have put my toes in the ocean

 on both the east and the west coast.

In my younger days, I could walk the sands for hours,

end to end and back again on any beach, anywhere, 

any time of day or year,

knowing I have never put my toes in exactly the same place.

The beach is ever changing.

The tides are ever flowing.

Each moment is unique,

a once in a lifetime experience ... and, yet, eternal.

It is a return to winter here today.

The kitties and I are snug and warm inside,

stitching our crochet,

and dreaming of the beach.

May your Thursday be happy, my friends. 

I Like Thursday ~ My Kitties

 

Maestro, 12 weeks, and me.

The prompt for today for

I Like Thursday @ Not Afraid of Color

is 

 "If you could choose any baby animal to be your pet, 

what would you pick and why?"

I would choose a kitten,

as I have done so over and over in my life.

My pet does not have to be a baby animal.

They are all my babies.

Why?

For the unconditional love,

on both sides.

I Like Thursday ~ Jasmine Crochet Stitch

 

Today my purple flowers are made of yarn.

I am late adding my post for

I Like Thursday @ Not Afraid of Color

because I have spent all day making these

 five rows of crochet stitches.

This is the Jasmine stitch.

This is the most labor intensive

 and yarn consuming crochet stitch

crossing my hook in recent memories.

I like learning new things,

making new friends in the crochet along,

playing with the pretty yarns.

The first cluster row stitch was the most difficult,

in part because it had to be adapted to this row stitch along.

This stitch is normally starts with clusters instead of a chain.

I think I may have made a scarf with it many years ago,

but do not recall it being this tricky.

Maybe my fingers were just younger and more able.

 It was the young and able fingers of this 

Spring Crochet Along

 designer who did the adaptions.

Her excellent instruction video

may be found at 

Any Day Crochet on TikTok

There the trick to holding the loop of the working thread

as it feeds through the cluster can be learned.

For two rows, there were 19 loops on the hook for each cluster stitch.

I tried this stitch last night and could not get it started.

This morning I started with my morning coffee

and kept at it all day,

with occasional necessary rests for my hands.

My finished Jasmine Stitch row is far from perfect

but I am feeling very happy and accomplished tonight.

My Wordless Wednesday photo showed some of my crocuses,

the first flowers of spring in my yard.

Yesterday it was cold and gray and they were closed up tight.

Here are some more of my crocuses.

It was sunny today but very windy and bitterly cold.

My crocuses were closed up tight.

Hopefully it will be warmer soon so they may spring open.

Happy Spring to all,

whatever your weather or season of the year.

Wordless Wednesday

Just Sewing Along

 

Time to catch up with some blogging.

I have been sewing, just not taking lots of photos or posting. 

Here are my first six blocks for the

Made & Found Quilt Along

This sew along is from the fabric designers for

 Andover Fabrics

The free block patterns are available by email 

and are released on Thursdays.

I have been sewing every Friday.

This is Block 4.

I have been using some of the fabrics in my stash,

some solids, some prints by Alison Glass. who is one of the block designers ...

... and these lovelies by Anna Maria Horner. 

I finally found a selvage in this stash of smaller cuts.

These fabrics are from Folk Song, circa 2015.

I have used these to three other quilts,

two of which are in my WIP boxes.

I love her use of color and design. 

Here is my Block 5.

Last week they also released this Bonus Block 1.

The print in this one is from the Trinket collection by Alison Glass.

 I believe I read  somewhere that there will be 36 blocks, 

or maybe 36 weeks, in this sew along.

I have no thoughts  as to what these blocks might look like together in a quilt.

There may be layout suggestions in the end

which I may or may not follow.

I am just sewing along each week,

playing with the fabric,

using up some of my stash

and that is all good by me. 

Do you ever make blocks just for fun?