Starting the Center

I finally started the center square of See the Stars this week.  It was released in January, so as usual, I'm behind.  On the other hand, this square is going fairly quickly.

Name That Bird

We saw this bird at the sea wall a while back and have been unable to identify it.  Anyone know?  I've got a couple more pictures of it.

Two Petals

It's coming along; I now have two petals done.  Still behind, but I'll eventually get it done.  After all, if I weren't behind, would I be in a stitchalong?

Pretty Pink Flowers

A couple of weeks ago, trees began blooming with these beautiful pink flowers that somewhat resemble passionflowers.  I've never seen their like before.  Does anyone know what they are?  The trees are covered in them now and they're gorgeous.  I'll try to get a picture of one of the trees in full bloom this weekend.

Lady and the Skirt

Still working on the skirt!

Starting Four More Squares

I've started four more squares on the Kaleidoscope Mandala. 

What a Yarn

Yesterday I showed you the remnants I bought at the Manos del Uruguay outlet.  Here's the yarn I bought.  The green I will crochet with; the blue is perfect for weaving.  In the lower picture, you can see the big bag of yarn I bought for about ten dollars.  Not a bad deal at all.

A Silky Round Robin

I don't know how it happened, but I am now in four simultaneous round robins.  This is a block from the third one to start, silk ribbon embroidery.  It's Diane M's block, and she put a picture of a cottage in Scotland in the middle of it.  I was the first one to work on it, and this is the third block of hers I've worked on this month.  She's in three round robins with me, and this was my month to do her block in all three.

Anyway, here's what I did:

I added a cherry branch to the upper left corner and then a rose swag below it.  I also added a ruched and rickracked seam treatment, some rose beads, and a bead trim.  I left the middle for someone else to play with, and it's now on its way to Australia.

Fabric Stash

A good friend showed me a new place to get stash last Thursday.  I'd been in the store before, but didn't realize there was an upstairs.  Upstairs is where they keep their remnants of clothing unmade, the very last of their clearance items, and their unused cotton and wool yarns.  This was one of my purchases.  It's a bag of remnants, mainly knitted fabrics.  I'm planning on incorporating several in my crazy quilting.  All the fabrics are either handknit or handwoven, and the whole bag was about eight dollars.  I think it was a really good deal.

Mouthy

Still more progress.  I'm done with the mottling now and he has a mouth.

New Shawl

I found this shawl at the Gaucho Festival.  It's in my colors and handwoven of wool.  It's nice and thick and feels nice for the nights that are beginning to get chilly. 

Guess the Colors

Yup, that's right.  I added more black and red to this this week.  No other colors in the piece, so it'll always be red and black.

More Petals

Including one petal completely filled in, I've been adding petals to the piece.  I'm officially behind now, though.  The next page was released today.  On the other hand, I've got some stitches almost to the bottom of the first page and I like the way it's looking.

New Year's Fireworks

Fireworks in Montevideo are a frequent and unregulated thing.  You can buy huge ones on street corners around Christmas and New Year's.  Because of this, Montevideo has no organized fireworks show.  People just set them off whenever and where ever.  Back yards are popular.   These pictures are from the engineering school grounds.  It's by Parque Rodo and across the street from the summer theater.

Two More Buildings

I got two more buildings done this week and some work done on the rest, so hopefully it looks like a lot of progress this time.

Sociedad Anonima - Carnaval - February 20, 2010

Sociedad Anonima is a humorista group.  They won an award at the end of Carnaval, so we'll be seeing them again tonight.  If you saw the video of the trick drummers, this is the same group. 

Even without Spanish, this skit was cute and funny.  A poor guy trying to impress his lady love ended up with a mariachi band instead of something more romantic... and the band only knew one song.  The completely stereotypical song you think of when you think mariachi.

I never quite got the reason for the huge feet on this skit.  They had a guy doing great rope tricks during the middle, and it was about this group of what we in the US would call hicks or hillbillies.  Uruguay has them too.  But the big feet?  Absolutely no idea...

And here's a picture from their finale.

Graphic Sampler Done

I finished my graphic sampler this week.  Now to do some finishing around the edges and it'll make a nice little doily.

Orange, Black, and Asian

To me, this block had a lot of orange and black on it, with some Asian themes.  Here it is before my work.  The block is Diane M's.

And here it is after I finished.  I added a fan I crocheted from perle cotton I found here in Montevideo and used wooden beads for the tassel ends on the fan.  The block didn't have much in the way of seams done, so I did the one between the small fans and mine in half circles of straight stitches outlined with chain.  And, to cover pieces of seam between the fan and the flower, I did some whipped chain stitch swirls.  Lastly, I did some straight stitch seam work on the seam at the bottom.  I hope Diane likes it.  It's already been mailed to the next person.

Carnaval - February 20, 2010 - Senegal Part 2

More pretty pictures of Senegal, the lubolos.  The competition ended Monday night, but there are now three nights of encore performances starting tomorrow night.  Guess who's ending up going to two of those?  Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

Second Line Down

Real progress this week!  I finished the second line of the top border.  Now to decide if I start a second rectangle or work this one to completion first.  Thoughts?

On the Nose

This heart is now rather nosy, and I should get to the mouth soon!

Carnaval - 20 February - Senegal Part 1

I split this group's pictures into two because there are just so many of them.  The group is Senegal, a candombe band in the category lubolos.  They were good, but were completely straight candombe.  No story that I could find.  They had really good costumes, though.