Socks and Books

Christmas socks done! I will put a few beads and names or initials on them as time permits. They are the same, but different. The cuffs are all different - experimenting with configurations. And the second from the left has one of the wonky trees in it. I did use the other trees - one's on the backside cuff of another sock - and one (oops!) I managed to get upside down - so it's an upside down tree on the other side of a cuff.

Here are the backs - Plain Jane, but they will go against the fireplace or wall where they get hung (and I actually remembered to put hanging loops - an important feature!).

I used Harley to quilt the fronts, more for practice than anything - it would have been faster to just do these little things on the regular machine. But - I'm learning with each thing I do, so not a wasted exercise.

I ordered a few more books from Amazon last week - surprisingly (given that I just had them sent regular post and it's getting to Xmas season), they arrived yesterday while we were at work so I picked them up this morning at the post office. I ordered them sight unseen, but after a quick look, think they all look good. They are all for longarm quilting:

1) The Ultimate Guide to Longarm Machine Quilting by Linda V. Taylor

2) ABCs of Longarm Quilting by Patricia C. Barry (smart ass Joe asks - "so what happens when you want to do the D, E, Fs......?") and

3) Mindful Meandering - 132 Original Continuous-Line Quilting Designs by Laura Lee Fritz

I'm looking forward to being able to spend some quality time with these - and all my other - new books. The opportunity cost of sewing is not reading and vice versa. I need several of me - one for work, one for sewing, one for reading, etc.