A few more birds

I've been taking a little break from craftiness this week, knitting in particular. The red pest continues to harass me with it's refusal to cooperate in the joining of the button bands. Seems to me it would have been easier to just knit the whole thing in one piece, rather than two pieces in need of joining....and then right away seeming intent on a divorce. So I'm having a short cooling-off period.

In the meantime, I've been using silliness as blog filler. I've been walking each day, around the condo complex, for exercise....and it's amazing what's out there in the neighborhood that deserves reporting. As I was walking this morning, more silliness occurred to me, so if you've had enough, just skip tomorrow's post altogether.

While working on my cleaning out the clutter project here in the condo, I came across some placemats I appliqued a while ago for dear ol' dad.

This is one of four. I made them during my machine-applique phase, which was soon after I purchased a new sewing machine that is now quite elderly--but continues, fortunately, to be recognized by the folks who service it. During that particular crafty phase, I made banners, and decorated sweatshirts, aprons, placemats, and tote bags. A doll-making friend noticed my creative frenzy, I mean my sewing efforts, and invited me to share a table with her at a craft fair. Well......customers new and old clamored for her dolls, and I sold one measly sweatshirt. That's when my doll-making phase began.

Remember the birds I made a couple of weeks ago?

I really intended to put legs on them, but couldn't quite get the hang of it. It may have been my choice of wire, or my ineptness with needle-nosed pliers. But the muse must have heard my frustration because just the other day I came across this. Isn't it cute? And such nice legs. I'm going to print out the directions and make some after I've returned to my treehouse fabric stash.

Thanks for the comments on uses for the roasting pan. My friend Claudia of lurkdom emailed and suggested I use it to make spaghetti sauce. She must think I'm Italian or something. I'm strictly a sauce-outta-the-jar gal. And other Marcia says there are fiber lovers everywhere who would clamor (have I over-used clamor yet?) for a pot like that to dye wool.

Mr. Gadget agreed that we should plug it in, and sure enough, it got hot. So maybe I'll keep it afterall. If I use it for nothing else, I could probably crank it up to 150 degrees or so and enjoy a nice foot soak....