I have been working hard these last two weeks. Hard for me that is, with my mobility problems I can't be on feet too long. Anyway, here is my Dear Jane top finished at last!

Including the marking of the borders for the scallops. It is not perfect, but then neither am I so we match! It was a lot of fun, and will I ever make another one? Possibly sometime in the future. This one will get quilted sometime in May. I started it June 22 of last year so 11 months isn't bad. I have heard of one person who has been on it for 8 years! I didn't work on it steadily since I have so many other irons in the fire and sewing for clients.

So have I got my next project planned? No, I think I should go through my UFO tub and see what's there, I have forgotten and I really should see if I can eliminate the tub by finishing everything that's in it. There is nothing to beat going through the UFO tub to get fresh ideas, it puts off doing projects I am not so much in love with.

This is one-half pound of wool roving I bought so I could dye it before I spin it. I have a full pound but will have to dye it in two batches.

I am using food coloring since it is readily available and I don't have a lot of money for dyes that I have to order online. It's for me so if it isn't colorfast over a long period of time I won't have any complaints.

Would I prefer to use acid dyes? Definitely, but we do what we can. I enjoyed it tremendously and am pleased with the results. It's the joy of doing anyway. I am just happy I can do it in my own modest way.

It turned out so pretty, like rainbow sherbet and I can't wait to spin it.

The counter in the laundry room, my new dye kitchen, isn't done yet, but I used the top of the washer and dryer. I am supposed to get cupboards in there too and I am looking forward to being able to put my stuff away. It's sort of messy storing everything in the dye pots.

So that's what's going on these last two weeks, only momentous to me, but it's a good life!

Now that it's off the niddy-noddy and relaxed a bit I am more than ever in love with this yarn and it is so soft. Still haven't decided what to knit with it but I have time for that, I am only halfway through the hat and scarf sets that I need to get done.

Now that the remodel is done I was able to bring Sweetheart in from the garage and she is a pleasure to spin on. My other wheel, Big Girl, is a good wheel but she doesn't work well for a fine yarn and she is also a pretty stiff wheel. I like her for plying, but for just a straight spin of fine yarn Sweetheart is the best.

I divided the roving in half lengthwise, I am doing a sort of fractal spin. I don't think that the color of the roving has enough difference to make a real fractal spin show the color variations. I am spinning across the top of the roving to keep the color variations true, but it is mostly yellows and yellow greens. This is not a combination of colors that I work with much. I tend to go for reds and pinks with my yellows. Green is not a flattering color for me so this is pretty much outside my usual color schemes, but I fell in love with this roving, probably because it has so much yellow in it, and I also love yellow.

The bobbin on Sweetheart is small unlike Big Girl's. However, Sweetheart was originally made to spin flax, which is spun fine. I don't spin with flax, I have no source, not that I wouldn't mind trying it, but she works just as well with a fine fiber like merino wool, which is what I am working with.

I am hoping my sister will send me some more wool to work with, I am determined to always have something on one of the wheels.

I haven't resumed weaving yet, but I have mostly everything unpacked I am almost done putting everything away. My sewing corner upstairs is mostly sorted out and I putting stuff up there away to. I had let it get pretty bad while I was working on my Dear Jane.

Still cold and snowing but it's supposed to end soon. Meanwhile I can dream of warm weather and coffee on the porch when I get up, soon to happen, I hope!

So here they are at last! The last three Dear Jane blocks. Yippiee!

 M-11 Rickshaw

 M-12 Hopscotch

M-13 Lynette's Dogwood, I really like this one, it was fun and easy.

So all 225 blocks are done, I will probably put the top together next week. I worked on cleaning out my corner this morning and I have some other sewing that really needs to be done. I will finish my dress soon. After that and the Dear Jane top is done then I will get backs ready, then baste and quilt.

It is so easy to say that, and yet it takes a lot longer to do, the time commitment in just those simple statements is days, if not weeks.

I started my next spin. It is on the small wheel upstairs and I didn't have my camera up there so I will try to get a picture for tomorrow. The spirit is willing, but the memory is weak, to paraphrase.

So with that I am still quite a way from planning the next project.

It is freezing and we have a couple of inches of snow with a winter storm warning. Spring is not yet!

I am on the countdown.

 L-12 Sally's Pride

 M-1 Dogwood Days

 L-13 Harvest Moon

 M-3 Fireweed Flower This one was deceptively difficult. I don't usually have a problem with y seams, but for some reason this one was hard. You can tell the center is off, and it doesn't really lie as flat as I prefer. I am so close to finishing I decided to leave it.

 M-2 Duff's Bluff

M-5 Mother's Point, the small squares are going the wrong directions, they should be pointing towards the center. I only just noticed it and I will fix it tomorrow.

 M-3 Enchanted Square

 M-9 Fan Dance, this is one of my favorite fabrics, by the way.

 M-7 Junko's Rose Garden

 M-10 Simple Simon

M-6 Simplicity, this one doesn't lie as flat as I would prefer either, oh well.

M-4 Stepping Stones. I got the pictures a little out of order, sorry. The thing is, I only have three blocks to go before the blocks are all done. I am pleased and it looks as if I will get them done tomorrow morning! Then I will take a few days off before I start putting it together, I need to get some other sewing done and it will be nice to take a rest.

In other news, I finished the spin I had on the big wheel. I think this yarn turned out beautiful.

 There is what some people call 'barber poling' which shows the contrast of the plies. I love it myself although not everyone does. There are several different things I would like to use this yarn, for so I will have to decide. I've got time to decide because I am only about half done with the hat and scarf sets I am making for next fall, and since this yarn is wool no one but me wants it,

It looks like I will get several things wrapped up this week. That always makes me happy.

We are expecting a winter storm, a serious winter storm. I think it's name is Wesley, something starting with a W anyway. We are supposed to get blizzard, ice storms and T storms. It's supposed to last three days. I know it is very cloudy and David just came in and said it's getting cold outside. We had two lovely nice days in a row. I hope that is not all the spring we are going to get. David is taking a nap right now, maybe I will too. I do feel awfully sleepy.

I also have to plan the next sewing project. Maybe the planning is the best part?

And here is the latest of the Dear Jane installments:

 L-9 Walter's Place

 L-10 Nan's Naiad

L-11 Caitlin's Rose

There is another on almost done, all that it requires is a little hand applique which I will do this afternoon. Which makes only fourteen to finish after that, I must have miscounted yesterday. So row L is almost done and then there is only row M. I feel good about that because it is time this project is done!

I even took a little time to spin today, although it isn't actually spinning but plying which is faster and easier. It's time that project is done too.

 This came yesterday from Amazon. Ambrosina does not like me dyeing in her kitchen so I will use this hot plate down here in the laundry room on top of the washer and dryer, thus I have a dye kitchen. the counter isn't done yet but I am going to get David on that next week. He doesn't know it yet I will save the happy tidings until after he has his coffee sometime this weekend. He will enjoy working on it once he gets started. Starting him is the hard part and he doesn't have an electronic starter. Or a remote one for that matter.

 These are some food colorings I picked up on Wednesday. There is no source of dye here in Sioux Falls but I have seen some wonderful results with food coloring, especially this kind and I am looking forward to trying the different colors. I have done a little with them but since the veto on dying in the kitchen I have had to wait until the work down here was finished. Now I haven't the time until I get Dear Jane done. I will really need a change of pace by then.

I am really looking forward to it, I have always enjoyed the dyeing process and have never been able to get enough of it. Using food coloring is more expensive in the long run, buying acid dyes would be cheaper, the initial outlay however, to get a variety of colors, would take more money that I would be able to come up with at any given time. We do what we can, I refuse to complain and I am just happy to have what I do have.

So this is for next week, meanwhile I work on Dear Jane.

Here I am a few days closer to finishing my Dear Jane. It takes some pretty intensive concentration on some of these blocks with tiny pieces. I can even mess up the blocks with bigger pieces. Yesterday I put on a couple rows of one block backwards and had to rip out. All in a day's work.

 K-11 Columbine

 K-12 Doris's Diamond

K-13 Brandon's Star

 L-1 Widow's Pane. This is one of my favorite fabrics. I bought it to re-cover Ambrosina's dining room chairs when she was married in 2001. I am down to just bits and pieces of it and it is time to re-cover the chairs again. Boys are hard on things!

 L-2 Stephanie's Snowflake

 L-3 Reflections Abound

 St. George's Cross

 L-5 Chattanooga Charlie (seems like a strange name to me)

 L-6 Maze of Madness. The little squares finish at a quarter of an inch and this was one of the more time consuming ones. I think this one was aptly named.

 L-7 Town Square

This makes the count down to nineteen remaining blocks. Yesterday I picked up the white to use for sashing to join the blocks together. I have to admit I am getting a little "Dear Jane fatigue", but I am determined to finish the blocks within the next couple of weeks, take a morning to clean out my sewing corner and finish my dress, then put it together ready to quilt. I intend to baste as soon after that as I can and get this thing done! It's been fun but I am ready to go on to something else, as yet undecided.

It's been cold and we had a little snow yesterday, but nothing like the past winter has been and I can live with that. We have a car again and I am enjoying that. We don't know how long she is going to last but I speak encouragingly to her every time I take her somewhere.

There are some other things going on and I will have an update on those tomorrow because it is time for me to get busy on some other things. I am almost tempted to take a nap but I am trying to get some handwork done this week that also has been running on too long. Basting hexagons. I have had several Ziploc bags full of cut ones and once those are basted then I can start putting them together. If I got the quilt tops done it would empty two tubs that are fast turning into UFO tubs. I want the space for other things so I have to keep at them. As of now.