Trip to Houston Festival

Well, where should I begin?

Scott and I went back and forth weighing our options for taking the bus to Texas during the Houston Festival Quilt Show. The original plan was for me to take the truck and the booth and do the show myself and then come back to North Carolina. We then decided to take the bus, truck and trailer to Dallas where Scott could stay during the show and fill our eBay orders while I went down to Houston with the truck and booth to do the show. We have a wi/fi connection in Tool at mom and David's house so Scott's work would not be disrupted too much.

Then the price of gasoline and diesel started climbing.

So, we returned to the original plan until mom and David called us and told us that they had purchased a piece of property and would be purchasing a tractor to use there. Scott couldn't stand the thought of being in North Carolina, doing his job and mine, while I was gone for two weeks. He also really wanted to see the land and drive the tractor. So, a week before the show the plans have changed again.

We left North Carolina on Tuesday the 26th of October and headed for Dallas. We drove approximately 350 miles per day, staying at Flying J's three nights and arrived here yesterday, Saturday, October 30.

Today, we attended our church, Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano where we worshiped and got on our knees to pray for God's will to be done in the upcoming election. We truly feel that this election is a choice for America between good and evil. The election takes place on Tuesday, the day I drive to Houston.

Peaceful Sunday

I love Sundays here at the park. All the weekend campers head out for home and the wildlife returns for another week of calm living. The day was just beautiful today. We took the motorboat down the Pamlico river to the maina where our sailboat is and then returned. All the crabpot bouys that are normally dotting the surface of the water were gone and the seagulls have taken their place. The nights here are turning cooler, mid 50's, and the days are glorious.

I will be leaving on November 1 for the Houston Quilt Festival where we are vendors. Hopefully I can find some purse frames for my new knitted bags and perhaps a few more patterns, threads, and beads. Tonight I am starting on the Sister Dahlia pattern that I charted after having spent all of last night and part of today loading the beads on the thread. If the count is wrong I am not sure what to do.

The Purple Crocheted Lariat is now complete and looks great. It is my first attempt at crochet ropes and I really like how it turned out. The picture of the finished Lariat is below.



I used #30 weight crochet thread and 60 grams of Black Opal beads (80204-30) from Wal-mart. The thread I used was white and if I had to do this one again I would use a dark color.

Sister Dahlia

The Sister Dahlia pattern by Theresa Williams, a.k.a. The Bag Lady, is the middle size of knitted bead purse in the Dahlia series. Today I took the pattern and charted it in an Excel spreadsheet. This took a few hours, but now I think I can load the beads on the thread in a specific pattern and also incorporate crystals and other beads in place of a grouping of seed beads. I am going to attempt to knit the first one and will post a picture here when finished or screaming whichever happens.

Knitting Thread Info

This site has a lot of wonderful information about stitching, like cross stitch and needlepoint.
The Sophisticated Stitcher It has several color charts for various types and brands of thread and information on ground fabrics, conversion charts, etc.

There is a color chart for DMC Perle Cotton size 8 that is used for the knitted bead bags.

Purly Girl

I found a fairly easy triangle shawl today that I may try to make at Purly Girl . I am thinking it would be nice knitted with unique (alpaca, etc.) yarn and perhaps a few beads incorporated.

I completed the back section of the Baby Dahlia last night after many frustrating tries. I knitted two rows with the wrong bead count and had to back out of those rows one stitch at a time.

Lesson: Don't knit while watching a Presidential debate!!!

Baby Dahlia

We have been here at Twin Lakes RV Resort (http://www.twinlakesnc.com) for about 8 months now. It is a very pretty park with 500/800 sites and is located at the beginning of the Pamlico Sound where the Tar and the Pamlico Rivers meet. We arrived here in March and decided to stay stationary for a while.

While we have been here I have been able to learn many new techniques using beads, as well as complete a few other unfinished projects.

I hope to finish my first knitted-beaded amulet bag tonight. It is from a pattern by Theresa Williams, a.k.a. The Bag Lady, (http://www.baglady.com) and is called Baby Dahlia. This bag has been fun to do and I am looking forward to doing many more in various styles.

I learned to knit over the last month or two using yarn and size 8 needles. Once I was comfortable with the knit stitch, I moved on to this pattern. For this first attempt I chose to use DMC size 8 Perle Cotton in Ecru color and #227, size 11 seed beads, a denim color purchased from http://www.indiandreamstrading.com.

Photo to follow