Getting Your Goat

Photo A Day Challenge: January 26 & 27

2012-01-27T15:00:00.002-05:00

"Color"

Another Japanese + & X block

"Lunch"

At the Waffle Shop. Notice Erin giving my fruit salad some bunny ears.

Photo A Day Challenge: Jan 24 "Guilty Pleasure"

2012-01-26T19:36:00.002-05:00

The movie Airplane.
"Surely you can't be serious?
"I am serious...and don't call me Shirley."

Also, 80's hair bands

Combos

Singing loudly along with Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) & songs by the Cranberries, especially Dreams.

Okay, I think that is good for now.

Photo A Day Challenge: January 23 & 25

2012-01-25T17:07:00.002-05:00

Yes, I am skipping 24 until I figure out what it is and get a photo of it. Do you want to know the theme? Guilty Pleasure. Yarn? Chocolate? What if I don't feel guilty about it? :) You'll be the first to know when I figure it out!

January 23 "Something Old"

I think my Singer Featherweight is one of the oldest things I own--it is from 1938.

January 25 "Something You Made"

I made my bed and I made the quilt on it. :) People, I finally bound this quilt! I had it quilted about a year ago by Deb Kerr of Stone Valley Quilting and she did a fabulous job. I don't really know what took me so long to get motivated to do the last simple steps of cutting off the excess fabric and binding the quilt. This quilt is huge and heavy. It is beautiful and I love it!

Photo A Day Challenge: January 21 & 22

2012-01-22T16:23:00.001-05:00

January 21 "Reflection"

January 22 "Your Shoes" (slippers) :)

Photo A Day Challenge: January 20 "Someone You Love"

2012-01-21T16:45:00.003-05:00

My Sweetie and I went out to dinner last night after I had a mini-breakdown when I pulled my freshly bound and washed quilt out of the dryer and discovered the colors had run (yes, I prewashed my fabrics). I threw it back in the wash with some color catchers and Synthropol and it is better. I think the only person who can see the color transfer now is me and I have to look for it. Next time I am double washing my batiks and throwing in color catchers with the quilt on the first wash. Sometimes quilting really stresses me out. It's a good thing he took me out to dinner!

Photo A Day Challenge: January 19 "Sweet"

2012-01-19T17:00:00.001-05:00

Photo A Day Challenge: January 18 "Something You Bought"

2012-01-18T17:23:00.003-05:00

Now, I just need time to sit down and enjoy it! It looks like it will be a great book. At first glance, I like that it shows a project and then a swatch of the motif joined together. It is interesting to see how different something might look just based on the yarn that was chosen. I also like that it uses both charts and written directions.

Photo A Day Challenge: January 17 "Water"

2012-01-17T18:10:00.001-05:00

Photo A Day Challenge: January 16, Morning

2012-01-16T10:58:00.003-05:00

A cup of tea and my first go at origami--cat bookmarks. I couldn't resist trying these. They are a bit challenging. There are parts of the video on YouTube that I couldn't quite follow but eventually managed them, though I don't feel confident replicating them yet. Don't worry, I have 47 sheets of origami paper left and I'm nowhere near done making these! :)

Origami Neko You Tube Video

January Photo A Day: Jan. 15, Happiness

2012-01-15T10:31:00.000-05:00

Photo A Day Challenge Jan 14: Something You're Reading

2012-01-14T19:03:00.002-05:00

I heard about this book, The Greater Journey, on the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast. They did a really interesting interview with the author, David McCullough, about his book on Americans traveling to France in the first part of the 19th century and why they were going there (many went to study medicine because the education in Paris was so much better for doctors). Writers and artists were going, as well, to study/ get a different perspective.

Photo A Day Challenge: January 13: In Your Bag

2012-01-13T09:32:00.002-05:00

I came across this challenge to take a photo each day in January (there will be more challenges each month) with a different theme on the blog Fat Mum Slim using the instagram camera app. I am sure you can participate without the app, but I just got an iPhone and thought it would be a fun thing to try.

Today's theme: In Your Bag

Finding Balance in Crafting in 2012

2012-01-11T14:34:00.004-05:00

Well before the New Year came along, I was already brooding (yes, brooding) over what I would work on in the New Year. What were my goals? What did I need to finish? I started making a plan of the techniques I wanted to learn and all of the quilts, knitted sweaters, etc., I felt I should finally complete. After a couple of weeks of thinking about it, I can't say I was very inspired. It was a to-do list.

Then I was reading Janet, the Twisted Knitter's blog, on a post about choices and I saw "...knitting is not my job." and I realized that I had truly turned all of my crochet, knitting and quilting into work. On some level, I already knew this but seeing her post hit home for me that I had turned what I do for fun into more work. I try to make myself "responsible" for finishing what I start and learning new things, as if I might become some out of control person who never finishes anything or tries anything new. Janet went on to say in her post "I can knit what I want, whenever I want, without explanation whenever the mood strikes me." I want to be like that! I had an epiphany right there and I knew that I had to ditch my goals for 2012. I mean, I was maybe even a little too productive in 2011. I want 2012 to be about slowing down, doing things for fun and actually having fun while doing them. And I confess that I want it to be more about me--what I want to do or make, not what I should do.

Finding balance is going to be hard. I make rules and then try to bend them. Whenever I try to give myself a break, I find some way to fill that break up with work. I need to let go of this drive to press forward and accomplish, or hand make gifts for everyone I know. Knitting (or quilting or crochet) is not my job!

So how can I go about finding balance in my crafting for 2012? I don't quite know but I think it involves letting myself be moved by what inspires me. And it includes embracing imperfection, which I learned when I was reading Kim's blog post about her word of the year to guide her creative process. I'll ignore that list of goals I made. If I don't finish something or several things, it is not the end of the world. Sometimes, the value comes in trying something out, not necessarily making it into something finished.

How about you? Is there an imbalance in your outlook on crafting? Have you thought of ways to change that?

Happy New Year and What I did in 2011

2012-01-02T10:47:00.003-05:00

I'm not going to lie. I did a lot of crafting in 2011 and it was awesome!

A few things escaped photos and blogging, but here is most of what I managed in 2011:

Crochet

Sewing & Quilting

Knitting

In 2011 I...

Knitted 5 hats
Finished 9 pairs of mittens/fingerless gloves
Made 4 shawls
Sewed 7 bags
Made 10 toys/amigurumi
Finished 10 ornaments
Completed 13 potholders
Finished knitting 2 sweaters
Finished 1 quilt (oops!)

I'm really pleased with what I made and the only thing I would like to change is to make more progress on my quilts because I can feel the weight of so many unfinished projects starting to burden me. I want to try new things but I need to get at least a few quilts done this year.

Next, I'll share my last FO of 2011, a cowl finished on New Year's Eve, and my first new project of 2012: a striped shawl. I've been wanting to start one for months and told myself I had to wait until the New Year. I cast on right away on New Year's Day. :)

Holiday Knit and Crochet 2011 Pt 1.

2011-12-25T17:29:00.006-05:00

I got really excited about knitting and crocheting decorations for winter/Christmas this year. It was so much fun and got me in the holiday spirit! I think I will have to make it a tradition that I make an ornament of some kind each year.

My first project was Oatmeal the snowman, a pattern by Rachel Borello Carroll. I fell in love with him the moment I saw him! I finished him on Halloween. As you can see, there was snow on Halloween, which I find ironic, as today is a snowless Christmas Day.

I used worsted weight instead of super bulky, so my snowman is probably about 7 inches high.

I had to make more of these (Knitted Mini Christmas Stockings from Little Cotton Rabbits) this year but added bells instead of buttons and tried some different fair isle patterns. My favorite is the heart in the middle--I think I might have to make a few more. Visit my Ravelry Project Page for details on the charts and mods to knit in the round.

I used a knitted star pattern from Interweave to make an ornament. The color is off-white, though it looks a bit yellow in the photo. I really like stars and will try other patterns in the future. The only thing I disliked in this pattern is that there is a hole in the center.

I'm not sure when I officially finished crocheting these snowflakes, but I began them three years ago and thought I could quick crochet, block and stiffen them before we left to go home for Christmas that year. I was wrong. I made more snowflakes and tried a few different stiffeners until I found one I liked (Stiffy) and hurried to finish blocking them so that I could finally give them to my mom for Christmas this year (she has no idea I've been making them). The snowflakes are from the book 99 Snowflakes.

I finally got brave enough to try knitting a Christmas ball. I figured that if I could knit tiny stockings, this was probably manageable. This ball was a gift for my friend Joan. The pattern is Balls Up! I used fingering weight yarn, size 1 needles and a 2.5 inch styrofoam ball. I'll definitely make more of these next year!

Then I saw the cutest owl ornament in my life knit by Susan on Ravelry using the Owl Puffs pattern. Since Susan was so kind in sharing her modifications to make her version of the Owl Puff, I had to follow them. Yet another thing I will knit more of next year. And wouldn't this be cool as a Halloween ornament, too? Maybe in orange and black?

Stay tuned for the rest of the handmade holiday decor.

Oh, man, it's been a long time

2011-12-24T15:50:00.002-05:00

I am so behind in all the things I want to blog about! I think I'll just work on it bit by bit to catch you up on all the fun projects I've been working on this fall. Fall is by far the busiest time of year for me, so it is hard to find time to knit, crochet, quilt, etc. as much as I'd like and it's even harder to find time to blog about it.

Today I present to you the quilt, Trick or Treat Baskets. I think this may be the only quilt I've finished this year. *blushes*

I took some great classes on working with diamonds and Y-Seams this summer. The first set of classes focused on the Lemoyne Star and the second set was about subdividing diamonds and making these diamond baskets. The instructor, Barbara Lenox, was fantastic and I had a blast!

I thought it would be fun to use a bit of my small stash of Halloween fabrics and it was! I really love the way the fabrics play together and the prints are awesome. This only makes me want to collect more of them. :)

This was the first time I made a quilt with blocks on point. I decided to quilt spider webs into the purple setting triangles/square. I drew them out on paper and traced them onto Solvy, which I intended to adhere to the fabric and then I would quilt without marking the fabric. No matter how I tried, I couldn't get the Solvy to adhere. Depending on the setting of my iron, it did nothing or melted. When all else fails, just use pins.

I love how this quilt turned out! Thanks to Barbara for the great class and to Cynthia for her sound advice regarding my fabric choices. I finished this the day after Halloween and didn't get to hang it on the wall this year. I'm really looking forward to putting it up next year!

Springtime Bandit Shawl in Autumn Colors

2011-09-19T11:02:00.003-05:00

I am entering my Springtime Bandit Shawl in the Stitched In Color Celebrate Color Contest for September. Fall colors are the focus and the yarn in this shawl is the perfect mix of fall colors in my mind.

I tried knitting the Springtime Bandit Shawl once before in Louet Gems sport weight yarn a couple of years ago. It didn't go well. I kept messing up the stitch count and ripping back. Finally, I frogged it. But I still really wanted a Springtime Bandit. I just knew I had to knit it in worsted weight yarn next time.

Enter Interlacements Shepherd's Worsted yarn (sadly, this yarn isn't being made any longer). It's a lovely hand-dyed merino with a nice spring to it. The moment I saw it at Stitch Your Art Out, I knew I needed to come up with a project for it and it wasn't long before I settled on the Springtime Bandit. A while later, I worried that the yarn's color changes might not work well with the lace pattern. Joan suggested I swatch it and swatching with the yarn turned into casting on and knitting the shawl.

It's always helpful to read the directions carefully or you might not notice that you need to repeat a section a few times before moving on to the next chart. Ask me how I know. :) Despite that minor setback, I knit this up pretty quickly!

Stats:
Start date: August 14
Finish date: September 2
Needles: size 9

Marie II and I posing with my shawl and my Boteh Scarf (crocheted). Many thanks to Joan for her wonderful photography!

Caught Up!

2011-08-08T11:14:00.002-05:00

Yay! I finished the last four blocks of the Summer Sampler Series quilt along on flickr!

Block 9, Minnesota. I like this block--it went together pretty easily.

Week 3 blocks complete.

Week 4: Monday's block, Block 10, Evening Star. The corner pieces were a little small for the shape on the paper but I didn't realize it until I was far enough along that I didn't want to stop and fix it.

Wednesday's block, Block 11, Union Squares. The original block was a paper-pieced string block. I was tiring of paper piecing and very tired of strings. I looked through one of my books to find something I thought would suit me better. I'm not too sure about all that yellow, but the block itself I really like. I also managed to turn some of the half-square triangles the wrong direction and had to bust out my seam ripper.

Friday's block, Block 12, Kansas Dust Storm. I really like this block! Very pretty.

Here are all 12 blocks finished! I also went back and fixed the one in the center row, second from the left, which I had pieced incorrectly. The blocks just ran straight up and down like lightning bolts, which, although it is a cool effect, it was really bugging me and it stood out too much.

Sashing and setting auditions are next!

July 2011 Crafting Recap

2011-08-05T11:43:00.007-05:00

In July I...

finished up my Potholder Pass 8 items and sent them out..

I did a lot of piecing...

and practiced my hand quilting...

I kept knitting on Cerisara and made it onto the sleeves...

I started a sweater for Lucas (sleeves!)...

I knitted fingerless gloves for family members for Christmas...

and a teeny tiny snowman...

and I did a bit of crochet (sorry, no photo this time).

Summer Sampler Series Week 3 & Houses

2011-08-01T15:31:00.004-05:00

If you are like me, you are wondering where July went!

I have two blocks done for the Summer Sampler Series. I couldn't make Friday's block or today's block because my printer ran out of ink and they're both paper pieced. :) So here are Monday and Wednesday of Week 3:

Six Pointed String Block. Heh.

Yes, there are 8 points. I looked at the original and couldn't convince myself to make that many equilateral triangles. I browsed my quilting books and the Internet and finally decided that I'd do a lemoyne star instead. I think I don't like string blocks. I tried making a couple before and it seemed really tedious, even though they look very cool. I've been saving strings and now I'm considering throwing them out.

Lucky Pieces

This one was pretty basic--just half square triangles.

Progress so far

I also finished two more houses and realized I set myself an absurd goal last week when I declared I would make 5 houses per week. They are really time consuming and I am doing a lot of things at the same time. I should just give myself a break! :)

Houses 5 & 6 of 20

Have you set any goals for yourself and then realized you were not being realistic?

Summer Sampler Series Week 2 and Current Projects

2011-07-26T11:19:00.003-05:00

I've finished my blocks for week 2 of the Summer Sampler Series quilt along on flickr.

Summer Garden Path

I quite like this block and I tried really hard to be accurate with my piecing. I would have preferred to piece the path (yellow) as a square but my brain couldn't handle the math and the alternate tutorial for that method wasn't posted yet when I worked on the block. I made sure not to use a print for the path because it broke up the appearance of the square.

Star

Some blocks don't need fancy names and this is one of them. "Star" says it all. :) This was paper pieced.

Arkansas Traveler

This is my favorite block so far. I decided to add the green floral in because I am trying to challenge myself to see other possibilities for these blocks than what we are given in the tutorials. The tutorials are fantastic, I just tend not to think about other ways I might attempt a block--different placements of lights and darks, etc., so I want to work on that. The diamonds in the center are pieced and then the outer sections are paper pieced to the diamonds. I liked doing this combination.

Sampler Blocks so far

I also made a couple more house blocks for my Cracked Pots quilt border. The blue house is my current favorite. I think I need to crank up my house building if I want to get this quilt top done any time soon. I am setting myself a goal of 4 houses per week for the next four weeks. Then, I will need to make four log cabin-style stars and hopefully, the top will be finished.

Currently, here is what I have going (or not going):

Knitting:
Noro Fingerless Gloves: Finished. Christmas gift. Photos to come
One Cable Mitts: One Fingerless Glove Finished. Christmas gift.

Crochet:
Shark Mitts: I stated mitt number 2. Mitt #1 has a body but no teeth or fins or eyes. Once I get the second one crocheted, I'll add them.

Quilty Updates

2011-07-17T08:32:00.003-05:00

I've been making lots of progress on my quilts lately. I am happy to say that I finally finished the top of my One Block Wonder quilt!

I'm very happy with how it has turned out! This is my second time doing mitered borders and I still don't really feel like my method is precise enough--I find it difficult to get the accent strips to line up neatly at the corners and it seems to be magic or luck when they do. I have been searching the Internet and books for more accurate ways to do this next time. If you have recommendations, please leave a comment!

So I'm going to take a little vacation from it while I think about how I want to quilt it. I'd really like to have this finished before classes start again in late August. I've got a few larger Christmas gifts I'm working on, including this one, and having them mostly finished before I go back to teaching would be wonderful!

I've also finally gotten the first border on my Cracked Pots quilt.

This quilt really stalled for a while because my quarter square triangles were not precise enough--the points didn't match up and three of the four border strips were half an inch too long! I tried doing square in a square blocks instead and that was worse! I spent hours pouring over Harriet Hargrave's series of quilting books (Freshman Year, Sophomore Year, Junior Year, etc.) trying to improve my technique (and she doesn't get to triangles until the junior year!). I considered eliminating this border altogether.

I let this sit for quite a while and then decided I was ready to deal with it. Kim suggested I just sew some of the seams a bit deeper to shorten the too long borders. She's a genius!

Now I've started the borders for round two: houses.

I was considering just doing a house in each corner instead of all around, but my quilting buddies on flickr gently suggested that this was perhaps not the best option.

Here's a view of what the pattern is supposed to look like. I guess I'm thinking that I'll follow the pattern for this second border but I think I'll skip the third pieced border. This quilt is another Christmas gift.

I joined the Summer Sampler Series Quilt Along on flickr run by three very nice quilters: Katie of Swim, Bike, Quilt, Faith of Fresh Lemons Quilts, and Lee of Freshly Pieced. Each week, each of them posts one block with a tutorial on how to make the block.

I started with this photo as my color palette inspiration and worked from there. Kim, again so helpful, helped me choose some fabrics. They're a little out of my comfort zone but I really needed some bright, bold colors after working with all that black on the One Block Wonder.

Here are the blocks from week one of the series (they are huge, 12.5"!)

So that's pretty much what I've been up to lately. The only other thing is a class I've been taking on making lemoyne stars. I'll have to post a photo once I get a star finished. I'm thinking of maybe making a Christmas table runner or wall hanging out of it.

Potholder Pass 8 Projects Finished

2011-07-05T18:47:00.002-05:00

One thing I've recently realized is that I'm not so good at following up on projects I've mentioned on the blog. Eventually I post when I finish something but I don't really keep people up to date as I'm working on them. This is an element of my blog that I'd like to improve on, as I think progress/process is an interesting part of crafting.

I finished my Potholder Pass 8 projects, which I mentioned I was working on in my last post. For the partner receiving potholders, I had make a circle of geese block but hadn't made the other potholder. The other potholder was inspired by this beautiful pillow (photo below) from the Pillow Talk Swap.

Wasn't Randi (i have to say) a lucky swap recipient?

Here's my version of the square in a square and the finished circle of geese potholder, too.

I decided to keep the rainbow theme for both potholders and used some lemon/orange fabric for the center square and backing.

Some thoughts:
Quilting these potholders is really difficult because a layer of Insulbrite and a layer of batting make for a thick quilt sandwich. I used a walking foot and reduced the presser foot pressure to the lowest amount possible and I still find it really challenging. I don't know if anyone else has this problem in the swap or if it is just me?

I had to redo the binding twice on one of the potholders because I misjudged how wide the binding would need to be to accommodate the thickness of the batting.

Grommets/Eyelets--they don't explain very well on the Dritz kit package how the two pieces of the long shaft-thingy fit around the eyelets. After a few failed attempts, we finally figured it out. We? I had to ask my husband to help me hammer them in place. Oh well, I suppose Dritz can't do anything about my meager upper body strength. I'm really happy with how the eyelets look and I'll definitely use them again.

I was swapping a bag with my other partner and I showed a photo previously of the completed Jane Market Bag. Here it is with a potholder I included in the package.

The heart potholder comes from Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts and can be found on the Purl Bee blog. I noticed my partner had this favorited in her flickr stream so I thought it would be fun to try it and surprise her. The front is patchwork squares with her initial in the middle. I'll post a photo after I know she's received it. This time, I didn't quilt the potholder and I was much happier. :)

I've also been a lucky recipient in Potholder Pass 8. My potholders came in the mail and I was so excited when I opened the package!

Isn't this fabulous! I love everything--the colors, the prints on the fabrics, the happy strawberries with faces (you know how much I like cute stuff), the pincushion, hexie and the cute little paper clips. And crocheted cloths with flowers? Seriously! I'm feeling so lucky and like I just had a second birthday. chloeandme is the best! Now I'm anxiously waiting for the grocery bag from my other partner to arrive!

In future posts, look for updates on the One Block Wonder Quilt, my Lotus Tile Quilt, my green Cerisara cardigan and more!

Sewing and a Bit of Quilting

2011-06-17T16:51:00.003-05:00

I joined the Potholder Pass 8 swap recently (Last year, I did PP3, they've done quite a few since I last participated!). I joined to swap potholders and a reusable grocery bag. The bags people were making in round 7 were so cute that I couldn't not participate in round 8. I've started working on my projects already.

For my potholder partner who likes flying geese, bright colors and modern quilting, I am working on a flying geese potholder. I've got a cool print with lemons on it for the backing. I'm not sure if I'll just quilt in the ditch or do something else. I'm going to think about it a bit. The other potholder (we need to make a pair) will be square in a square blocks with white in the center square and rainbow colors as the corner triangles (I think). For both potholders I want to use metal grommets or eyelets this time instead of a hanging tab.

My partner also likes linen so I thought I'd make her a little something extra--a bag. I've been wanting to work through my bag book, The Bag Making Bible, so I started with the easiest bag and added a lining to it. Not surprisingly, linen can be a bit challenging to sew with! Zigzagging the edges of a stretchy shifting fabric=frustrating.

As I mentioned, I'm also swapping reusable grocery bags. I decided to make the Jane Market Bag by Alicia Paulson because every review of the pattern was so glowing, and the bag is super cute. I can concur that it is a great pattern with clear instructions and it's a pretty fast bag to make. I enjoyed this a lot and will be making more. I decided to use a featherweight fusible interfacing on the sides (the blue floral) to give the bag a bit more stability.

And a bit of Quilting!

I completed another block for my Lotus tile quilt. Five of nine blocks are now done and it finally feels like I'm getting somewhere. My needleturn applique skills still have quite a ways to go (especially when it comes to corners), but I feel like I'm improving.

I've learned that I really need to use a heavy-weight vinyl overlay to help me with piece placement. I tried a clear vinyl shower curtain (I was trying to be cheap) and cutting apart plastic protector sheets but neither of them worked well. I finally broke down and bought a yard of furniture vinyl and it's MUCH better because it is flat and doesn't stretch or shift about as easily.

The One Block Wonder quilt is temporarily on hold until I get these swap projects done. It feels good to be nearing the point of having the sections all pieced together! I'm looking forward to border auditions soon!

Quilting Mode

2011-06-11T08:57:00.003-05:00

I've noticed that I can never fully give my energy all at once to the three crafts I love doing most: knitting, quilting/sewing, and crochet. One or two of them always get more attention while the others are sort of neglected. For a long time, knitting was taking precedence but since spring began, I've been wanting to quilt. I cleared off my design wall and put this One Block Wonder quilt on it, which I started back in November of 2008.

Then:

Now:

I just finished piecing the blocks into rows, so now I need to put the rows together. I'm toying with using a black border with an accent strip running down the middle that would be blue, pink, etc.

I told myself I couldn't start any more quilts until I finished this one. Then I rationalized that it was okay to try out a block I wanted to experiment with that I was admiring in the Japanese + and x quilt along on flickr.

Then I made another, and another...

Hmm.

May 2011 Crafting

2011-05-31T09:49:00.001-05:00

Lots of crochet, quilting and sewing going on!

Sewing Machines and Timing

2011-05-27T05:12:00.003-05:00

I don't think I've ever mentioned before that I have three sewing machines. It's a long story but basically, I have my primary machine that I do all of my sewing and quilting on, a back-up, and a sort of frivolous purchase: a featherweight. Why did I buy a featherweight? I kept reading wonderful, glowing reviews of it on blogs. Everyone who had one loved how beautifully it sewed a straight stitch. I was really tired of pieces getting sucked down into the feed dogs on my regular machine (which has a larger hole for zig zag stitching). I decided it would improve my piecing and the experience if I bought one. Buying a featherweight on Ebay was educational. I had to bid in a lot of auctions and it took me a while to realize what type of machine I would actually be able to afford (nothing in perfect condition).

I bought my machine about three years ago but only recently have brought it into working order! Actually, there weren't many things wrong with it, but I had to buy a repair guide, take things apart, oil and clean them, etc. I am not mechanically inclined, so I had to work up the courage to do this. My machine was sewing too fast and when I took the foot pedal apart to adjust the speed, I discovered parts were missing. :) More time passed before I ordered the last bits I needed. They just arrived yesterday.

The timing was very good because my primary sewing machine just went into the shop, the back-up machine is lent to a friend, and I was left with nothing to sew on, which seemed to me rather ironic. I got the machine all set up with the new pedal and pieced a row of my One Block Wonder quilt. It sews really well! While there were some set backs and the passing of years, the great thing about this machine is that I feel empowered because I can actually perform minor repairs by referring to my repair manual.

So was the investment worth it? I think so! It is a bit of an adjustment to go back to not having a "needle up/down" option and I have to pay more attention to how much pressure I put on the foot pedal. I really like how smoothly it sews and the stitches are nice and even. I love having a straight stitch throat plate! It is a beautiful machine, too. I'll keep putting it through its paces as I work on some quilting and sewing projects.

Happy Sewing!

Let the Summer Sewing Begin!

2011-05-22T06:19:00.002-05:00

In my last post, I mentioned that I have been hankering to do some sewing, especially sewing bags. I came across a tutorial on the Sew Mama Sew blog, Wallet to tote on the Go that looked fun and gave it a try. The project is a small tote that can fold in on itself and zip up into a wallet.

I really love this owl fabric!

I acquired some new skills while making this bag: sewing a zipper around a curve, working with nylon (the lining), and making a welt cutout for a small zipper. After I sewed the first one, I decided to leave out the wallet part and just make it a convertible tote. I assumed I could remember the steps reasonably well (hah) but I didn't and I had to resew and rip a few times. Oops!

I think I'll be making more of these as Christmas gifts. They're a fun little project to make. Next week, I'll be sewing something new. Maybe a roll up grocery bag?

Have you run across any fun tutorials lately that you're excited to try? I really want to make the Buttercup Bag sometime soon.

What's on My Couch is What's on My Mind

2011-05-12T13:51:00.000-05:00

An intriguing title, no?

I have a tendency to get lots of ideas and projects going and they pile up on my couch! Today, I thought I would show you my (very old) couch and give you a peek into the workings of my mind.

Item 1.: My knitting bag which contains this lovely sweater, Cerisara.

I have ripped and re-knit parts of this sweater so many times, I can't even say for sure--maybe 5? But I love it and I think I now know what's going on with the pattern and I am finally cooking along! So I want to make one or two button holes for the front of this sweater which leads me to...

Item 2. Knitting books. Okay, I think I've reached a point in my knitting where the average knitting book is not helpful with more advanced techniques, like how to decide how big to make your button hole and how far in to place it from the edge of the button band. Hmm. Maybe I should go consult Elizabeth Zimmerman. Somehow, I forgot about her!

Item 3. I've been bitten by the sewing bug. I think this is an annual summer occurrence. By the way, I really like this book, Stitch by Stitch, because it is thorough, walks you through a series of skill-building projects, and the author has a good sense of humor. What I really want to make is a bunch of project bags for my knitting and crochet. I think I'll be sewing lots of bags this summer.

Item 4. Reuse! I'm on a mission to make reusable produce bags. I really hate using all of those plastic bags at the grocery store and throwing them away. This one is probably 3/4 completed and sort of looks like a pretty doily right now.

Item 5. Potholders! If you've seen my flickr stream or Ravelry page, you'll have noticed a sudden output of crocheted potholders. I was really inspired by the 2011 potholder swap and decided to make more. It's been really fun and satisfying to work on projects that I can finish relatively quickly. Here's a closer look at that pile.

Star Cloth

Okay, technically this is a dishcloth, but I considered using the pattern for a potholder.

Grandma's Heart Square (with modifications, as you can see, it is not square)

I was inspired by SummerMelody on Ravelry to try this after seeing her potholders for the swap.

Fanciful Flower

I joined the crochet along for this flower in the Good Things Together Group on Ravelry. It's been fun seeing all the different details and color choices people have been adding to their own versions.

Who Cooks for You?

This was another one I spied in the Potholder Swap that I really wanted to make. A very fun and clever pattern!

So, that's what's on my couch and on my mind! How about you? What is filling your crafty spaces and thoughts these days?

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T18:48:00.004-05:00

I hope you have had a wonderful Easter Sunday! Ours was a bit gloomy but the sun eventually peeped out at us and we had warmer weather.

I've been doing a bit of sewing to have a little Easter decor. I have had my eye on this bunny pattern, Betsy and Basil Bunny softies, by Retro Mama and when she had a sale, I could no longer resist.

This was a fun project that took about 3-4 hours to complete. I made the dark brown one to keep and gifted the light brown one to friends.

Just a week left of teaching classes and then summer break begins and the crafting goes into high gear (I hope!). I've made a list of UFOs that really need attention. I've got big plans!

Can My Knitting Control the Weather?

2011-04-19T08:36:00.003-05:00

The irony was not lost on me that when I casted on for the Reversible Biking Hat, the weather started to warm up. I really needed a hat to keep my ears warm under my helmet, so it would make sense that mother nature would negate my efforts by making the hat unnecessary. You know how if you carry an umbrella, it probably won't rain. I was pretty convinced of this theory of my knitting but then it cooled and rained most of last week. So, I guess I was wrong. :)

This is a block I finished yesterday. I saw it on Poppyprint and became obsessed with it. It took me a while to finish because I couldn't make up my mind as to which colors I wanted to use for the areas that are dark blue with the brown print. The pattern is from Quilter's Cache and is called Snowblossoms. I really like the block and now I'm trying to decide if I just want to make a pillow, a wall hanging or something bigger. Any thoughts? I'm leaning towards a wall hanging of four blocks right now. It's been a long time since I've done paper piecing and I consistently had trouble cutting the pieces to an appropriate size to fit the block. :)

How are your projects going? Have you tried something new lately that you're really liked?

April Pattern Pact

2011-04-10T17:04:00.002-05:00

Do you ever have a period of time where it seems like none of your crafting projects are going well and you are constantly ripping seams or ripping back? That's how things have been going for me lately. I've lost a bit of confidence in my abilities and feel like a bad knitter. I think it was wise to pick some low intensity projects for April's Pattern Pact projects.

Behold my proposed projects:

Yes, a hat. That's about all I can handle right now. :) I made this hat in the fall for Lucas. He wears it all the time and it is particularly good for wearing under a bike helmet (it's called a biking hat). I've been meaning to make one for myself because I want to avoid the misery of cold ears while biking. I'll be making this second version in Rowan Felted Tweed, too. I can't say enough about how wonderful this yarn is to work with!

Once I've knit my hat and regained some confidence in my skills, I would like to knit one of these cute kitties. They're from a Japanese craft book I own and I've looked over the pattern enough times that I think I'm ready to do it (I don't speak Japanese). My kitty will be pink and brown, the colors of strawberry and chocolate.

How is your crafting going? Do you have any specific goals for April?

The Knit and Crochet Blog Week!

2011-04-03T14:28:00.002-05:00

Have you heard about the Second Annual Knit and Crochet Blog week? The topics this week have included how you manage your yarn and what you surround yourself with when you're crafting. I've been posting about the topics over on my new crochet blog, www.crochetyourway.com.

A Sweater for My Feet

2011-02-28T09:59:00.003-05:00

I finally finished the French Press Felted Slippers as February's project for the Pattern Pact 2011 group on flickr.

Pattern: French Press Felted Slippers by French Press Knits, Melynda Bernardi (Ravelry Link)
Yarn: Cascade 220. The yarn is a beautiful red-orange and has some golden highlights.
Needles: size 15 circs

This pattern is really well written and I had no trouble making up the slippers. also has a couple of helpful videos on youtube about seaming up the slippers. The felting was actually the hardest part. I think I needed to create more friction in the washer. I only had a pair of tennis shoes in the washer with the pillowcase containing the slippers and it took four or five cycles before they were the correct size. Next time, I'll put some clothing in there with them.

I don't know about you but the end of February really snuck up on me. I haven't made as much progress on my projects as I would like but I will be on spring break in one week! I am so looking forward to it! Hopefully, I will have some finished projects to share.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T09:05:00.003-05:00

I made my sweetie a little gift for Valentine's Day. I hope he likes it!

Stats:

Pattern: from Hello My Name Is Amineko (English Version of Japanese Crochet Book, Amineko Life)
Yarn: Oasis Aussi Wool Worsted, Orange
Hook: Tulip Etimo, F 3.75 mm

In honor of the holiday, I also had to knit a couple of hearts!

I learned the figure 8 cast on, which was interesting to try. I also gave felting by hand a try and lightly felted my hearts. Next time, I'll probably try throwing them in the machine to get a more felted look.

Stats:

Pattern: Little Hearts by Theresa Fox
www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/little-hearts
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lanaloft Worsted
Needles: Size 8 Dpns

I hope you have a lovely Valentine's Day, too!

February Project for Pattern Pact 2011

2011-02-03T09:34:00.002-05:00

modernjax is hosting Pattern Pact 2011 and has created a flickr group where you can post the pattern that has been hanging around in your stash that you would finally like to work on for a given month. It starts now and goes through October. I thought this would be a good way to encourage myself to work on smaller patterns that I've been meaning to try for a long time.

For February, I'll be knitting the French Press Felted Slippers in Cascade 220. I've been wanting to make these for well over a year and I am glad I to finally do it!

I have only tried felting sweaters to use for sewing projects, so it should be interesting to try to felt something that I want to get to a certain size (my feet). If all goes well, I think some other people might be getting these for Christmas.

I am also wondering how I will handle the soles of the shoes. The pattern instructions suggest using puffy paint to add grips to the bottoms but I would like to try actually sewing a leather sole to the bottom of the slippers. I think my LYS has some slipper soles, so I will have to look at them and see if I can figure it out.

Do you have any special projects planned for February?

Quilty Monday

2011-01-31T15:47:00.003-05:00

In January on Monday mornings (and other spare moments) I have been working on a quilt using this pattern from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co., Cracked Pots. I decided to give this quilt a try after several beginning quilting students asked about taking a log cabin quilt class. I am not sure if it will become a class eventually or not, but I really liked this pattern and I'm having a good time working on it.

I decided to use my scraps and I am amazed by how long it took me to cut them up and how many I still have left! :) Revisiting fabrics from other projects has been fun. I'm especially fond of a few blocks with small bits of Peter Rabbit or Paris Cats fabric in them.

This is hanging out on the design wall while I contemplate what colors to use for the first border. It is narrow and the pattern uses red (and cream) quarter square triangles. I am not sure I want red. I am leaning more toward coral. I'll keep staring at it and see what I think. Do you have any suggestions?

While perusing my scraps, I discovered that I have a much wider selection of colors in my quilting than I used to, except I still don't have much red, brown, black or gray. I'd like to have a few more solids. I have a lot of batiks and I love them and want more! I also want more Asian and Japanese style fabrics. I love seeing reproduction fabrics and modern fabrics all mixed together in this project.

I finally got around to making another block on my Lotus tile quilt (top left block). The problem was that I forgot I wasn't following the book instructions exactly, I tried to follow them, and ended up with pieces a bit larger than they are supposed to be. I think it turned out fine anyway, with a few modifications for my mistake. I have to say, this is one of the things I love about hand applique. As long as everything fits okay on the block and doesn't look odd, you don't have to follow the pattern exactly.

What are you working on right now? Thanks for stopping by!

Looking back on 2010 and ahead to 2011

2010-12-30T21:54:00.008-05:00

I thought I accomplished a lot this year but when I looked at my finished projects in flickr, the number was smaller than I expected. No matter; quality over quantity, right?

Stuff I did in 2010:
Knitting:
I learned to knit entrelac, bobbles (just today!), crochet provisonal cast on, and continental knitting.
I started 3 sweaters and finished 3 sweaters (one still needs to appear on the blog).

Crochet:
I tried bobbles, filet, foundation single & double crochet, and double treble.
More amigurumi (of course!)

Quilting:
I finally committed to needle turn applique!
I started several quilts and finished a lap quilt, wall hanging, and a queen-sized top.

One thing that worked really well for me this year was "quilting Fridays." I didn't work on Fridays in the spring & summer so I devoted at least a couple of hours each Friday morning to quilting and finishing other projects. I'll be doing this again.

What's coming in 2011?
I have lots of ideas of things I'd like to do this coming year. For knitting, I plan to make more sweaters, my first shawl and lots of fingerless gloves. And more fair isle knitting,
I want to crochet with finer weight thread (20 & 30 wt thread) and more sock yarn. A shawl, pillows and other small accessories are on my list.
In quilting, I plan to do more applique, work on hand quilting and finish some tops. Hopefully, I can get back to work on some crazy quilting and I'd really like to try a couple of schnibbles patterns.

Although I probably am already doing too many crafts, I plan to try punch needle and sashiko embroidery.

What are your goals for 2011? Are there any techniques you'd like to try?

Happy New Year! Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Gift Crafting

2010-12-19T07:54:00.004-05:00

I can't believe I actually finished making all of my Christmas gifts the week of Thanksgiving. I don't quite know how I did it, but I hope I can repeat it next year! I think the two factors that made this happen were: I bought about half of the gifts this year, and I made less time-involved projects than last year. I still had a goal of a handmade Christmas, so many of the gifts I did buy were made by others or were gifts to encourage craftyness, like drawing pads and a cross stitch kit.

First up are a pair of Noro Camp Out Fingerless Gloves for Debby.

I really loved these gloves but did make a few mods. I used kitchener stitch to join the garter stitch tube, rather than a three needle bind off. I also added some ribbing around the upper arm because it seemed a little tight to me. I think I might make them just a bit shorter next time.

Yarn: Noro Kureyon 219
Needles: Sz 8 dpns
Pattern: Camp out Fingerless Mitts

I've been long wanting to make an art case for one of my nieces and nephews. I only made this one this year but I think next year, the rest of them will receive one.

I came across this great little pattern on Sew Mama Sew and really liked it. The only change I made was to knit an icord loop for the button. If I were to use this pattern again, I think I'd make the case a bit larger (it doesn't fit an average drawing pad) and eliminate the top little pocket (on the left) because I'm not sure how functional it is, given that it is shallow.

Pattern: Art Bag Tutorial by From an Igloo

My nephew, Anderson, asked me to make him a cardinal when I saw him this summer.

Pattern: Chicken Amigurumi Pattern
Yarn: Dalegarn Falk

My niece, Madison, is finally old enough that I can use safety eyes on her toys! I try not to give her anything with too many parts--my brother hates having little pieces lying around (I've heard he has been known to throw out board games!). :)

Pattern: Little Snail and His Pear Home from Amigurumi World 2

I've been wanting to try the Jacques Cousteau hat for a long time and thought my brother-in-law would be the perfect recipient.

Pattern: Jacques Cousteau Hat
Yarn: Ella Rae Classic
I followed the mods by quirkygranolagirl for a worsted weight yarn.

Finally, a pair of soap socks for my step sisters. My mom and one of my sisters both make fabulous homemade goat milk soap and I thought that with all of the soap going around in the family, my sisters could use these.

Yarn: Sublime Organic Cotton DK
Pattern: Little Dragonflies Soap Sock

Thanks for stopping by! Best of luck with your holiday gift making!

Tiny Knit Christmas Stockings

2010-11-28T15:19:00.002-05:00

These guys deserve a post of their own because they are that awesome.

I've wanted to knit these tiny Christmas stockings by Little Cotton Rabbits for the last two years but I was too intimidated and I only learned stranded knitting about a year ago.

Yarn: Harrisville New England Shetland
Needles: 3mm dpns

I followed the pattern to knit these flat but wasn't entirely happy with how my stranded knitting was turning out. I decided to learn to purl continental and that improved their appearance to some degree but the stitches near the edge still weren't uniform. I decided to look for some instructions on knitting these in the round and found some modifications by gooseknits on Ravelry that were very helpful. I think I prefer the look of them in the round.

My only change to her modifications was to knit 25 stitches instead of 24 (eliminating the left and right columns) then decreasing by two after the chart is completed.

You need to knit these! Watch out because they are addictive.

Oh, Crochet Christmas Tree!

2010-11-25T19:51:00.004-05:00

I hope you have had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know I have!

I've been in the Christmas mood for a couple of weeks now. Although I usually consider the day after Thanksgiving to be the start of the Christmas season, I just needed it to start a bit earlier this year. I confess I've watched A Charlie Brown Christmas while crocheting and knitting away on gifts. Here's one recent FO I'm keeping for myself that has definitely got me in the holiday mood:

Pattern: Christmas Trees by June Gilbank
Yarn: Harrisville New England Shetland, Seagreen
Hook: 3.5mm

June is having a crochetalong which was just the push I needed to get to work on this pattern! I really love how the tree turned out. I decided to make two stars instead of one and sewed them together so that they would stand up straighter atop the tree. I liked June's idea of putting a garland on the tree so I bought a few different kinds of beads and strung them onto nylon thread.

Incidentally, if you are considering doing this, I recommend knotting the nylon thread and pulling it through from the inside of the tree at the top, then start stringing the beads. If you start with your knot at the bottom and work up, it will be really hard to reach in at the top when you're finished to knot the thread because the top is narrow.

Also, if you stop crocheting after the first several rounds, you can have adorable little 2-3 inch tall mini trees. I'm seriously thinking about making some tiny ones--so cute!

Knitting to Christmas

2010-11-06T12:01:00.003-05:00

Hello! The holidays are quickly approaching and I've been trying to keep up! I've been slowly working my way through this scarf since March and finally finished it.

Pattern: Shifting Sands Scarf
Yarn: Berroco Comfort, Aegean Sea
Needle: Size 8

For non-natural fibers, Berroco Comfort is a pretty awesome yarn. Great stitch definition, nice colors, soft to the touch.

This project makes its appearance yet again, after having knit two pairs last year as gifts. I just can't not love it. I decided to see what it was like to knit with a bamboo yarn blend. I thought it was okay but I prefer it in 100% wool.

Pattern: Irish Hiking Wristwarmers modified to knit in the round per knitterinthekitchen's instructions
Yarn: Bamboo Ewe
Needles: size 8

I am in love with Crystal Palace's Mini Mochi yarn. It's a soft and beautiful merino wool/nylon blend. I've been crocheting a granny square shawl out of it in a different colorway and had one ball in Jungle that I had to make into something awesome, hence this cowl. Incidentally, CPY is having a knit along of this very cowl in their Raverly group and there's still time to join in!

Pattern: Topsy Turvy Cowl
Yarn: Crystal Palace Mini Mochi, Jungle
Needles: size 7

Have you started making Christmas gifts yet? What's on your list?

Three Lotus Blocks Complete

2010-10-30T07:54:00.002-05:00

I've been working on my tile quilt and I've learned a lot about applique in the process. Here is the bottom row of the quilt completed. I have six more to go.

I'm still using the Piece O' Cake method but I decided to also buy the video because I couldn't tell from the book how exactly to turn the edges under with my needle. The video was really helpful with this. It seems that there are two ways to do it, depending on whether you're at a point/corner, or just working along the length of the piece. I'm still having problems turning under the narrow points.

I also invested in a sand paper board to pin my shapes to my background fabric and I really like using it a lot. It was difficult to make the shapes lay flat without the board to grip the background fabric and the shape.

The instructions said that the pattern should be enlarged for needleturn applique but I didn't want my blocks larger. Once I got to the block on the left, I could see why they would suggest that--some of the edge pieces are very thin in places and have sharp points. I just modified the shapes a bit and continued on.

I'm enjoying this quilt a lot and I'm so glad I finally made the time to try applique!

Applique Finishes!

2010-09-13T09:41:00.003-05:00

I posted about my first applique block recently. I finished it and put the top together a couple of weeks ago. Here it is:

This little quilt is from the book, Fat Quarter Quilting. Honestly, after having spent a few months making a giant queen-sized quilt, I was SO happy to make something small and finish it. I plan to practice my hand quilting a bit and then give it a try on this project. I'd like to have the top quilted and bound before Christmas. I'll let you know how that goes. :)

I am also pleased to say that I finished one of the nine blocks from the Lotus tile quilt from the book, Tile Quilt Revival. Sorry, the photo isn't great.

I would have liked the spacing between the pieces to be a bit more accurate 1/4 inch, but it does vary, at times (my fault, not the book's).

My thoughts so far on this technique:
1. I need to draw myself an outline of the final size of each piece on the piece itself. You are simply to cut out the piece you need and then needleturn it down to the correct size. I can't eyeball it well enough.
2. I like the idea of thread basting the pieces in place, but I don't like having all of the pieces on the block at once, as is suggested in the instructions. The other pieces fray a bit and feel like they are in my way.
3. I'm using the Piece O'Cake applique techniques and that seems to be working well for me. I'm so glad to have their book!

I think this project is really fun and I'm enjoying it a lot. I've started on my second block, making changes to the technique and I'm hoping that it will go a little more smoothly.

I meant to go over my list of summer goals previously. Here is what my list looked like:

~~Finish Prairie Moons Quilt Top~~
Make PM Quilt Backing
~~Start Que Sera Cardigan~~
Finish A Scarf (Gift)
~~Crochet 10 Snowflakes (Gift)~~
Finish knitting a fair isle chicken
~~Sew 2 skirts~~
~~Finish Crocheting Dahlia Bag~~
~~Crochet Snail & Pear (Gift)~~
~~Finish Knitting Entrelac Scarf~~
Sew Coloring Kit (Gift)
Crochet a Cardinal (Gift)
Design a Crochet Owl
~~Knit a Soap Sock~~
~~Finish Knitting Baby Surprise Jacket~~
~~Sew Hanging Sleeve to Halloween Quilt~~
~~Sew Buttons on 2 Cardigans~~
~~Crochet Boteh Scarf~~

I think I did pretty well! Other than trying to finish some Christmas gifts and make some Halloween decorations, I don't really have any goals for autumn. I feel like I'm a little too busy to pressure myself, so I'm trying to take it easy for now.

Thinking About Tile Quilts

2010-09-04T16:58:00.002-05:00

Have you heard of the book, Tile Quilt Revival?

This book has been on my wish list for a while and I finally acquired it the other day. I love the idea of tile quilts. I'm just starting to learn applique and I like that all of the shapes feel more free form than your typical applique. I could draw up a block and plan my pieces or just start with a piece and work out from the middle--completely unplanned. The piecing is like crazy quilting, in a sense. That's how it's described, as a cross between applique and crazy quilting. You can read a bit more about it on Barbara Brackman's blog, Material Culture.

Some inspiration from Flickr:

1. New pillow with mates
2. Tile quilt
3. Lotus
4. Tile Quilts Class with Diane Rode Schneck
5. tile quilt

I've got my first piece of fabric with a beautiful floral design on it. I'm ready to give it a try! My goal for September with this project is to get started on a tile block.

Hmm, that was longer than I expected

2010-08-28T11:36:00.007-05:00

I didn't really intend to skip out on my blog for the whole summer but I ended up doing a fair amount of traveling and crafting and never got around to posting.

School is back in session which means I'm settling into the hectic fall routine again. But I had lots of fun on my summer vacation!

I saw a couple of houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

I went to Maine.

I quilted.

The borders are actually on this quilt now. This photo is of the border fabric auditions, plus my messy workspace.

I started a hand applique project! This is from the book Fat Quarter Quilting. I'm working on my needleturn applique skills, although the stems were made using the Clover bias tape maker.

I knitted. And knitted.

I tried Entrelac knitting using Noro Silk Garden. Details on my Ravelry page here.

I finished the cardigan I started in January. I really loved knitting this pattern and the yarn was gorgeous. Pattern: Miss BB by Chic Knits. Yarn: Debbie Bliss Luxury Tweed. More details on my Ravelry Page.

I knitted the ubiquitous BSJ (Baby Surprise Jacket) by Elizabeth Zimmerman. This is going to be a Christmas gift for my niece who just gave birth earlier this month to her first baby. Details here.

I crocheted.

Larger Than Life Bag from Interweave Crochet Spring 2008. I changed the Willow square to another square in the 200 Crochet Blocks book called "Dahlia." Yarn for the Dahlias is Lamb's Pride Worsted and Harrisville Highland is the green on the sides. Details.

I just finished this awesome project this morning. It's a cute little Jack-O-Lantern filet pattern from Cozyhomelife. This was really fun to make and it kicks off my autumn/Halloween crafting season! Details.

I made a list of projects to complete during the summer. My next post will look at how I fared and my fall plans. Thanks for stopping by!

My Prairie Moons Quilt

2010-06-20T12:24:00.003-05:00

Inspired by my reading of the Piece O' Cake books, I came across a gorgeous blue-green-orange batik and that become the foundation for the quilt I'm currently working on. I pulled some of the same colors from the border to make up the blocks and then went searching through my patterns for something that I thought would work well with my fabrics. Finally, I settled on Prairie Moons (below) by Pam's Piece By Piece.

I'm a sucker for star blocks. I recently celebrated my 30th birthday and decided this quilt was going to be my birthday present to myself. It was such a fun quilt to make that I had a hard time not working on it.

The pattern calls for using the Tri-Recs rulers to make the eight-point stars and I had fun learning to use them. I will say that I feel like I never quite figured out how to line them up perfectly when sewing the light smaller triangles to the dark center triangle. In the photo below, you can see my early layout, when I (finally!) put up a design wall.

Oops, I forgot this was supposed to be 9x11 blocks, not 9x9, in order to fit a queen-sized bed. Here's a photo where I try again.

After looking at this on the wall for a while, I worried that I didn't have enough different fabrics and purchased a few more. I think if I had followed the original pattern (7x7) or my accidental 9x9, I could have just used those fabrics without adding any others. I haven't taken a photo of the quilt yet with the new fabrics in, but I've got all the (99!) blocks made and am in the process of sewing the blocks into rows. This may be a new record for me, as I started this in early April and I might just finish piecing the top around the end of June.

I had a few extra star blocks left over and lots of cut pieces of fabric so I decided to make a pillow for my step-dad for Father's Day. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I hope he likes it!

Colors Catching My Eye

2010-06-20T12:23:00.001-05:00

Tulips in the Park by Piece O' Cake
Originally uploaded by Penny Sanford Porcelains

Within the last year, I've come across gorgeous quilts and blocks like these from Piece O' Cake Designs and I fell in love with them. They are so vibrant and I realized that vibrancy of color was lacking in my own quilting. Inspired, I bought a couple of their books and I'm now working on a quilt with brighter, clearer colors than I typically use. I still love my muddy, muted colors, but I need some sparkle in my life, too. See the next post for my work in progress.

Potholder Pass 3 Swap

2010-05-30T08:08:00.002-05:00

When I saw that Amy was hosting another potholder swap, I jumped at the chance to join in. Have a look at the gorgeous potholders people have been sending and receiving in the flickr pool here!

I received these beauties all the way from Scotland! Lochside Quilter sent me two lovely potholders, this adorable strawberry needlebook, ribbons and bits of fabric.

Her piecing and stippling is so impressive! Check out all those little 1 inch squares. Beautiful! My only instruction for her was that I wanted something bright and these are so perfect. :) They're so nice that I'm afraid to use them.

Amy, our swap host, was my swap recipient. I confess, I was a little intimidated to come up with something for her. She's made such fantastic potholders (owl and leaves) for others and sews really nice clothes for her kids. She didn't really have any specific requests so I decided to experiment with blocks I had not made before.

I found a tutorial for the block on the left, Love in a Mist, on the Modify Tradition blog. The block on the right I modified a bit from this tutorial at The Bloomin Workshop blog. I felt a bit silly for not realizing I could use the Easy Angle and Companion Angle to make flying geese blocks, so I'm glad to have come across the tutorial.

Things went pretty well until I needed to quilt the potholders. I used two layers of Insulbrite and it was difficult to get my walking foot on top of all that batting, even after I decreased the presser foot pressure. Let's just say they are a bit wonky. When I was attaching the two ends of the binding together on the last potholder, I accidentally cut one end a bit too short! I was thinking I was beyond that stage in my quilting career, but it seems that I am able to make such mistakes at any time. :)

I also wanted to make a pincushion for Amy and there's one that I had long wanted to crochet in the book, Kyuuto Japanese Lacy Crochet. I used Online Linie 164 Java, a cotton-rayon blend, and found a cute vintage button from my stash to embellish it.

If you are looking for a good thread crochet book, I can't recommend this one enough. It has gorgeous photography, as you would expect from a Japanese craft book, along with lots of charts paired with some word explanations and photos showing how to make the stitches for each crochet symbol. The patterns are really beautiful and I think if you are wanting to learn to read charts, this book can help ease you into it.

I'm nearing the end of piecing together 99 blocks for a queen-sized quilt! I will share more about this soon. Thanks for stopping by!

Processing & Serendipity

2010-05-19T22:16:00.004-05:00

I was very fortunate to be the winner of a recent blog giveaway by The Sometimes Crafter for the book, The Gentle Art of Quiltmaking. I've been reading and poring over the gorgeous photos! One thing that really struck me about this book is Jane Brockett's description of how her quilts came about. She explains how fabrics and things around her inspired her and the process she went through to choose fabrics and a design for each quilt.

It was really nice to learn how someone else thinks about putting quilts together and makes decisions about what does and doesn't work in a quilt and why. It made me realize how much I would like to see this in other books and in my own blog (and the blogs of other quilters, knitters, crocheters). One of the problems I have when making just about anything is that part of me wants to rush through it and get the finished product and this really takes away from enjoying the process for me. So I had been thinking about changing my blogging to include more of my actual thought process and then I came across a link to this post by Rossie and I was inspired to commit to talking more about process on my blog. I've joined the other quilters making a "process pledge" and I look forward to seeing where this leads me.

A funny thing happened with winning that book. That same morning, I received an email from Artquiltmaker saying that I had also won her giveaway of a package of tie silks. Just let me say that I have never won a blog giveaway, so to win two at the same time was a thrill! Here's the package of silks that she so generously sent to me.

Aren't they gorgeous? I love the dots!

Now here's where I figure I'm receiving some kind of message from above: in the book is a great pattern for a quilt made out of tie silks! I think I had better make this quilt! Here's a close-up of the quilt:

I'm on the look-out for wool suiting fabric for the alternate squares. This quilt won't materialize any time soon, as I'm working on a queen size quilt at the moment, but I'll post my slow progress.

What Should I Choose Next?

2010-04-09T09:39:00.003-05:00

There are a lot of great spring/summer knitting and crochet patterns out there for tops and cardigans. I'm trying to decide what I'll work on next after I finish my current winter cardigan.

Here is what I'm considering:

Que Sera
Flame Scallop Cardi

Cerisara

Beachcomber Tunic

Poplar & Elm
Any thoughts as to what should be next?

Two Big Finishes

2010-04-08T05:53:00.004-05:00

Hello!

I'm pleased to share with you the completion of a couple of things that have been in progress for a while.

I started this cardigan last July in a sweater class and I'm so glad to have it finished!

While I was seaming it up, I told myself that if it didn't fit, I was going to hang it on my wall! It felt like I completed a masterpiece and I wasn't even the one who designed it. :)

The pattern is Flutter Sleeve Cardigan by Pam Allen and is from a past issue of Interweave Knits. I used Sublime Organic Cotton DK and I loved knitting with it. I won't bore you with the details of my modifications but you can read about them on my Ravelry project page here, if you like.

My other big sigh of relief came from finishing a quilt. Yes, a quilt!

I can honestly say that my quilting mojo disappeared over the last year or more and I just wasn't excited to sit down at my machine like I used to be. This quilt didn't make things any easier for me--it fought me every step of the way. I started this last May or June as a graduation gift for my friend, Brittany. She graduated in August. I just gave it to her a couple of weeks ago. *blush* Luckily, she didn't know she was going to be receiving it.

The pattern for the quilt comes from American Patchwork and Quilting. Appropriately enough, Brittany gave me the subscription as a graduation gift! The pattern is called Pink Lemonade. Obviously, I altered the color selection, as there is no pink in this quilt. I quilted the center in the ditch and did free motion swirls in the outer border.

I've been feeling my desire to quilt coming back after I completed this one and have started a new quilt in bright colors and I am really enjoying it. I have a few other finishes to share but will save them for an upcoming post.

Enjoy the spring weather!

In Which I Meet Susan B. Anderson!

2010-03-29T08:27:00.003-05:00

The stars must have aligned. Susan B. Anderson was having a book signing at Loop in Philadelphia during our spring break week! Have you seen her charming designs? Here are some photos of toys from her most recent book, Itty Bitty Toys.

Have you seen these charming toys?

Or how about this giraffe? My favorite!

I started reading Susan's blog several months ago and always enjoy her posts and her patterns. She was just as sweet in person as she is on her blog. She even gave me a hug before I left for the evening and thanked me for coming out there.

The people at Loop were really great, too, and hosted a lovely party. I had a chance to chat with some other knitters and crocheters and Craig even demonstrated Portuguese knitting for us! They have some lovely yarns there and 2 skeins of Spud & Chloe Sweater, among other things, came home with me. I'm going to use the Spud & Chloe for this gorgeous scarf.

If you hop on over to Susan's blog, you can even spy me in a few of the photos she posted. :)

Nyan Nyan Nyanko!

2010-02-05T09:36:00.002-05:00

When I went to visit Lucas in Taiwan about four years ago, I had my first encounter with Nyanko--a Japanese toy. It's a little white kitty that disguises itself as food because it is shy. I was smitten--I love kitties--and kitties dressed as food are surprisingly cute. I bought a couple packs of stickers and a little figurine of a kitten dressed as onigiri (pictured below).

Last week a free pattern for Nyanko dressed as a tangerine and as shrimp tempura appeared on Ravelry by designer, Katy Yellen (Catzilla Crafts). I was so excited that I started right in on crocheting one. I had so much fun making it! Here she is:

Here is the Ravelry Link.

Here is a brief ad for Nyanko in Japanese.

It is cute and somewhat creepy. I think what makes it disturbing is the thought that someone might mistake one of these kitties for food and actually eat it. Not that they are very well disguised--perhaps they are just fooling themselves that they are hiding successfully?

The Last of 2009...I think

2010-01-31T16:20:00.003-05:00

So I think I've managed to round up the last of the finished projects from 2009 that never made it to the blog. Which is good, because we really need to move on! Without further ado, I give you:

1. Socks
The pair of socks I started knitting almost two years ago and finally finished just after Christmas. It was high time I got over my fears and just knit the darn heel. I kept having holes appear on the sides of the heel around where I joined it with the rest of the sock. One sock I tried to sew the hole up and the other I managed to fix with a bit of concentration. I don't see myself knitting many socks but I'm glad I know how!

2. Robin's Egg Blue Hat With Stripey Button.
I've been wanting to knit this for a couple of years but couldn't find the right yarn in the right shade until I came across it in Shepherd's Shades. I knit this right around Thanksgiving. I will say that the hat wants to slide up a bit but otherwise, it is a good fit.

3. A Halloween wall hanging
Technically this is not finished because I didn't put the hanging sleeve on it yet. And that is why, although it was done before Halloween, I never got to hang it up.

4. Snail Amigurumi
My production of amigurumi decreased quite a bit in 2009. Most of the time, I just didn't feel very motivated and I don't really know why. But in the fall I got a copy of Amigurumi World 2 and over the holidays I needed a small project to make me smile.

2009 Stragglers

2010-01-01T09:37:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year!

I made a lot of things that I couldn't post on my blog because they were gifts (or I forgot to photograph them). So here are more Finished Objects from 2009.

"Turn a Square" hat by Jared Flood. I knit this for Lucas just as the weather turned cool this fall. My first time using Noro! The yarns are Ella Rae Classic and Noro Silk Garden. I had a lot of fun knitting this hat and will probably make another this coming year.

Here is a cross stitch project that I finished at the end of 2008 but did not have framed until fall of this year. I am slow! I forgot that the floss was not colorfast and made the mistake of rinsing it in water before taking it be framed. It drove me kind of crazy but Lucas says it is not that noticeable and I should not stitch it a second time. Considering all of the things I want to stitch but haven't gotten to yet, I suppose he is right. The chart is "Acorn Hill" by Little House Needleworks.

On thing I wanted to learn how to do this year was to knit cables. I finally got a chance to try it out on this scarf I knit for my mom. It's the Cabled Neck Cozy by Kate Lemmers in Misti Alpaca Chunky Solids. I have never knit with this yarn before and it was so soft and wonderful. I will definitely be buying more. I didn't add the buttons called for in the pattern because I didn't have quite enough yarn to reach the desired length. I suggested to my mom that she use one of her brooches to pin it closed.

I finally got up the nerve to knit this little bear by Little Cotton Rabbits. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be and I wanted to make a whole collection of them but ran out of time. She was gifted to a lovely lady named Jan, who has been so helpful to me this fall and loves bears.

At some point in the spring, I thought it would be really fun to teach a class on crazy quilting and I decided to try my hand at making a Christmas stocking. This is actually my first finished crazy quilting project and I'm really happy with how it turned out! It was fun to finally work with dupioni silk and beads, vintage buttons and lace. I crocheted the holly in the upper corner and I think that is one of the things I love about crazy quilting--you can draw on a wide range of your knowledge/skills.

It turned out to be such a fun class and we had a great time playing around with different embroidery stitches and poring over books for ideas.

I bought some sweaters at Goodwill last year because I wanted to try felting them and making some of the projects in Betz White's book, Warm Fuzzies. After we moved this summer and actually had our own washer and dryer, I decided it was time to give it a try. The project that most appealed to me was the Christmas stockings--I've seen some of them that she made to sell on her etsy page and they were gorgeous! I decided to make one for my niece, Jennifer, and my nephew, Jacob. The stockings were easy to make and the most difficult thing for me was sewing the cuff in properly so that the correct side was exposed when opened up! I had to resew the cuff on Jacob's stocking three times!

For my nieces, Alysaa and Alexis, I wanted to try another project that had been on my mind since last Christmas. UK lass in the U.S. has a brilliant tutorial for a small fabric house or barn that children can play with and carry their toys in. I made one of each. They were a bit time consuming but worth the effort. I wish I'd had a bit more time to decorate them but it just wasn't possible. There is also a flickr pool if you are looking for more inspiration.

This is also the year I finally made cross stitch Christmas ornaments. These four were gifts for our parents this year at Christmas. Now that Christmas has passed, I would like to make a few for myself! Prairie Schooler is the designer and I believe the chart is called Holiday Homestead.

I have a few more FOs that need to be photographed. Hopefully, I can enlist my "photographer" to help me finish those up soon! I hope you have a wonderful new year!

Gift Crafting is Done!

2009-12-14T19:21:00.003-05:00

I am more than a little relieved to be done making Christmas gifts for the year. I've been working on them steadily since early autumn and I need some selfish crafting again.

I did a bit of toy knitting for a niece and a nephew.

This is a Fuzzy Mitten pattern knit in Berroco Comfort.

And this is Boo. I've been wanting to knit Boo for myself for a long time so I had a hard time convincing myself to part with him. Now that the gift crafting is done, I'll be knitting myself a Boo for Christmas.

Boo comes from a Mochimochi Land pattern. His favorite word is Yahtzee!

The Crochet Finishes

2009-10-10T09:23:00.007-05:00

Many thanks to all of you for your good wishes for our move and kind comments on Miss Marple! We are enjoying our new place quite a lot and the sewing room, which I sometimes like to call "The Stitchery", is fantastic! It is so nice to have everything easily accessible and have space to leave a project out if I wish.

I have managed several small finishes over the past few months and am almost done with another quilt. I can hardly believe it--two in one year! :) I'll be posting photos of the projects here and there as I am able.

Today's finishes are of the crochet kind. Sadly, I've not done much in the way of amigurumi lately but I hope to change that soon!

Here is one recent finish--actually, I think I crocheted him up in May but didn't have glue to attach the stick!
Lemon Lollypop Bear is from a pattern by Berrysprite who makes some of the most adorable amis I have seen.

The final three photos are all from patterns in the book Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts: Lacy Crochet. I love this book and I recommend it for anyone interested in lace crochet.

These first two doilies were a birthday gift for my mom. I used DMC Cebelia crochet cotton size 10 in peach and off-white.

The final doily is also DMC Cebelia in a minty green shade and the off-white. I made it as a gift for my mother-in-law.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

A Year's Worth of Quilt

2009-08-01T07:53:00.004-05:00

I am happy to report that I finished my quilt this week (the one I've been working on for close to a year)! There hasn't been much quilting content to post on the blog, as I've just been piecing and quilting and I live in an apartment with cave-like lighting--so photography of large projects is often not worthwhile.

I used the Moda U pattern for Chelsea's Boutique because it was love at first sight. I used stash fabric rather than the Chelsea's Boutique fabric and this is my first stash quilt! And it's all mine. :)

We'll be moving next Thursday a few miles down the road. I am so excited because I will have a sewing room with a sky light! I keep dreaming about the space I will have for all of my quilting supplies. Sigh. :)

I've decided to name the quilt "Miss Marple" in honor of the pleasant hours I spent watching her solve mysteries while I worked on my quilt. Very enjoyable!

Now I must get back to packing. Have a nice weekend!

Safely at its destination

2009-07-14T11:42:00.003-05:00

The package I sent to my partner for the Flickr amigurumi group swap finally arrived! Here are the three amis I made for her. The mouse I had made before for Lucas and it was so cute that I had to make another. The kitty is from a pattern I bought from stripeyblue on etsy, called Alley Cats. The acorn with removable top came from a Japanese crochet book (ISBN 9784834726374).

I also made a crochet hook case for her. Since I knew she liked cats, I had to go buy some of the London Cats fabric! The tutorial for the case is here.

She has a very nice photo of the whole package in her flickr photostream.

Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts 2009

2009-07-11T10:07:00.003-05:00

Here are some photos I took yesterday at this year's Arts Fest in State College.

Italian Street Painting:

Some of the vendors:

The booth with the tree image contained all framed batiks. The tree was my favorite.

Garden Art Sculptures:

Temporary landscaping on Allen Street:

I can't stop starting

2009-07-11T09:17:00.003-05:00

I thought I was doing a pretty good job of finishing up some UFOs earlier in the year. I don't know quite when it happened, but I stopped finishing projects because I was dazzled by all of the fun new projects out there.

A few things I started:
1. a series of the 12 Days of Christmas ornaments. I've stitched: 4 (but not the first four).
2. a dishcloth. Finished.

Wheatfields dishcloth knit in Sugar & Cream.

3. Two quilts! That is in addition to the one I've been working on for almost a year and the two that I started last year but have not touched for a while. Of the newest quilts, one is a gift and the other is the Christmas Lights Mystery by Bonnie Hunter. I've always wanted to join one of her mysteries!

4. I've started three wearable knitting projects. I finished: 1.

The Springtime Bandit scarf in Gems green merino sportweight. I love it and I will be done knitting by next spring (hopefully sooner).

I took a fair isle knitting class at Stitch Your Art Out. I made a headband! This was my first time knitting fair isle and I loved it. The yarn is Berroco Ultra Alpaca & Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted. Knit on size 8 needles.

I'm also working on a spring/summer cardigan in cotton. It happens to be green. I keep knitting the wrong size.

Back when I was crocheting my flower garland, I also made these oval center roses but never remembered to take a photo. You could probably do various projects with this pattern and I think it may be my favorite from the book. Suzann Thompson, the author/designer, made a gorgeous shawl out of these roses.

Oval Center Rose from Crochet Bouquet

I participated in a swap this summer in the Flickr Amigurumi Group. My swap partner has not received her package but I received mine from Nidia in Argentina (Tarja^Gurumi). I love it! There's nothing better than a happy pudding. :)

That's all for now!

A Brand New Bag

2009-06-13T07:52:00.004-05:00

A bit of sewing has been going on around here. May I present to you my take on the Amy Butler Nappy Bag. It is the perfect size for larger knit or crochet projects! The fabric has been on my mind since the first time I saw it at the shop and the wheels have been turning while I tried to come up with the perfect project for it.

Sorry for the poor photos. I'll get some nicer ones later this summer.

This pattern is ideal for any skill level and would be a great project for beginning sewers or for quilters who have not sewn before. I was really impressed with how clear the instructions were and there were several helpful illustrations included. All of the steps were presented in a logical order.

A few reflections on my experience:
1. The particular type of interfacing I happened to have on hand required a damp pressing. This shrunk my fabric and made fitting pieces together a bit of a chore. I'll be throwing this interfacing out with the garbage.
2. There are three pockets each on the front and rear interior of the bag, which I really like; however, I did not care for the placement of the bottle pockets (for the baby bottles). In sewing them to each end of the interior (they are centered across the side seams inside the bag), I felt as though I was loosing the use of the pockets they were attached to because they would be stitched partially closed. I opted to leave the bottle pockets off.
3. I also added a strip of fabric attached to the center back of the bag with a magnetic closure and added the other half to the front. Had I been thinking ahead, I would have added a magnetic closure to the exterior of the fabric before attaching the lining, thereby eliminating the need for the strip of fabric across the top.
4. Sometimes, the layers of fabric become quite thick. It's a good idea to have a walking foot and a size 14 needle handy near the end.
5. This bag was a bit bigger than I anticipated (apparently, I didn't pay attention to the dimensions). I think it would be fun to make it a little smaller or even a purse size.

I would highly recommend this pattern. It makes a fabulous bag and you'll learn a lot in the process! I'll be teaching a class to make the Nappy Bag this summer at Stitch Your Art Out.

This must be a record!

2009-05-30T09:33:00.004-05:00

I'm posting again! And so soon!

I wanted to share another recent finish--a little knit purse decorated with flowers. The knit flowers are for a class I'll be teaching this summer from Nicky Epstein's book, Knitted Flowers. In this case, I chose to make just a few varieties of flowers. I think my favorite is the rose. I love the pattern and especially liked using it with the yarn, Lamb's Pride Worsted, in two-tone pink. The other two flowers were made using Berroco Comfort and I added some buttons for their centers. There are a lot of other lovely flower patterns in this book that I will be trying out this summer. Definitely a fun and fast project!

The bag was really just a means to display the flowers, but I loved knitting it! I used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK (1 ball) and the pattern came from the book, Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders. It was easy to follow and knit up in no time.

A garland of flowers

2009-05-23T08:01:00.005-05:00

I'm looking forward to teaching some fun classes this summer. I had long been wanting to try some of the lovely flowers from Suzann Thompson's book, Crochet Bouquet. The flowers and designs are wonderful. Another bonus is that Suzann Thompson has posted a few photo tutorials when people have had questions about her techniques.

Here is the shop sample I made for the class. I wasn't sure quite how to combine the variety of flowers into some sort of logical grouping. Ultimately, I settled on a floral garland to feature them.

These flowers were a lot of fun to make!

Things Are Still Happening Around Here!

2009-05-19T10:57:00.004-05:00

Not that you'd know, given my lack of posting since March.

I made a few more amigurumi. A bunny for Easter.

A mouse with a beret for a friend who teaches French (the beret was specifically requested).

Having seen all of the beautiful hemlock ring blankets out there, I had to knit up my own. I had a lot of fun making it and although the start was a bit tricky for me, it went much smoother than I expected. The yarn, Ella Rae Classic, turned out to be just right for this project. Please excuse the poor quality photos.

Summer vacation is upon us and, as I have no students to teach, I have begun some summer temp work. I'll also be teaching summer crafty classes. I am looking forward to lots of crafting!

Checking Things Off The List

2009-03-21T09:51:00.004-05:00

I have been busily working on various projects. Some have been sitting unfinished for quite some time and others were in the queue. Here are a few things I've been working on lately:

I have long wanted to make this bunny from a pattern I bought by Barbara Prime (Fuzzy Mitten) but was too intimidated to try it until recently. Perfect timing for spring!

Here's another photo:

Another project picked up from my queue was a pair of removable throw pillowcases. I found a very nice tutorial some time ago at Cottage Magpie. Again, I had to overcome some fears about inexperience (I bought the fabric for the pillows about 2 years ago!) and gave it a whirl. Everything went well except for inserting the braided cording around the outer edge of the pillow. Eventually, I realized that the zipper foot was not going to work for me and I serendipitously came across a blog where this problem was discussed and the blog owner mentioned using cording or welting feet. I ordered both and it was smooth sailing after that!

As for long lingering UFOs, I finally finished my vest that I began in the summer! Many thanks to Cynthia for all of her help!

Back to School U-Neck Vest from Fitted Knits
Yarn: Queensland Kathmandu Aran, 4.5 balls
Size 10 Needles

I also knit some fast pop-top mitten/gloves. My class began in mid-January and I was finished by the end of the month.

Pop-up Paws by Mary Dockman
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca
Size 4 & 6 dpns

My last couple of finished projects are amigurumi, of course. I saw a cute free pattern for a mushroom with a top that opens and worked on it last month. Sadly, it's a little deflated.

Lucas also spied a cute mouse on the cover of one of my Japanese amigurumi books and requested one of his own. I couldn't turn him down! Here is his mousie:

And, if you combine the mouse and mushroom: problem solved.

Looks a bit like he is riding in a space ship, no?

Plenty more projects are in the works. Hopefully I'll have more to share soon!

More Ways to Keep Warm

2009-01-12T12:44:00.002-05:00

I am happy that I have some new finishes to share!

First up is the wall hanging that I started working on in a class about a 1.5 years ago, I think. I've shown bits and pieces and here it is finished and hanging on my wall.

I decided to call it Birds of Paradise after Ming mentioned to me that it reminded her of the flowers. Many thanks to her for the inspiration.

Another project that was on hold for some time was my fingerless gloves that I planned to make for myself. I started them this summer, finished one glove over Thanksgiving break and put the rest on hold until after the holidays.

And finally, I completed a cowl (thankfully, it only took a couple of days rather than months or years!). I love this!

Hurray for finishes!

Looking back at 2008

2009-01-05T17:35:00.003-05:00

Here are most of the finished projects of 2008! I made a lot of amigurumi. I didn't make very many quilts. Looking over these photos makes me happy and fuels my goal to finish projects in 2009!

A couple finishes at the end of 2008

2009-01-05T17:01:00.002-05:00

I managed to finish up a couple more projects in time for Christmas gift-giving. I was inspired by some very cute snowballs I saw for sale on etsy.com and decided I had to try making a couple for myself and my mom.

I also wanted to try making up amigurumi completely on my own without following someone else's pattern. I started making the head of a bunny and just tried to keep everything proportional. I didn't have an idea of what the bunny would look like when finished, she just sort of came together. I'm very glad I tried this because I've been intimidated by trying to come up with my own designs. After I made a prototype bunny, I decided to make two more for my nieces for Christmas. I was already giving them Peter Rabbit pillowcases I had made and I picked up copies of Peter Rabbit books for them--making them a bunny was the obvious choice.

Here is my bunny:

Alyssa's bunny:

And Alexis's bunny on the right:

I'm looking forward to finishing several projects and starting a few new ones in 2009!

Fingerless Beaded Gloves 3

2008-12-11T07:34:00.002-05:00

Fingerless Beaded Gloves 3
Originally uploaded by la_mañosa

Another of my recent finishes is a pair of fingerless beaded gloves for my friend Brittany. The pattern is from the book One Skein and the yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK. I love this blue color! It took me a week to knit these up and I have an unfinished pair for myself in a different shade of blue that I'll be working on over winter break.

I'm very excited as today is my last day of teaching for the semester. One thing I've realized over the last couple of years is that students have no idea that their teachers are just as excited as they are about vacations!

Handmade Ornaments!

2008-12-09T21:10:00.002-05:00

It's strange that I used to be very embarrassed of the handmade ornaments I made because I thought that they didn't look very well done. Now that I've returned to my crafty origins over the last couple of years, I can't help but find them charming! With that thought in mind, I knew that I wanted to have a Christmas tree eventually that would be dedicated solely to handmade ornaments. This year that seems to have worked out. We decided to purchase a small tree because the large artificial tree that we've had since before I was born was handed down to me but it's really too big for our small apartment. The small tree is pre-lit. I've never had a pre-lit tree and I was amazed at how easy it is to assemble! The great thing about small trees is that you don't need to hang as many ornaments either. All around, this was the perfect solution.

I wanted to make some ornaments to hang on our tree this year and I ran across a great tutorial on Skip to my Lou blog. If you're looking for a fast and fun, satisfying project, you should really check this tutorial out! The pattern is actually for a Bird Advent Calendar but I decided to just make ornaments. Here are my first two ornaments:

I've got plans to make a couple more for my mom and maybe a few others.

I keep finishing things (I feel like I haven't said that phrase in an extremely long time) so I'll have plenty more to post!

NYOBE Blocks made by me Mosaic

2008-12-08T10:50:00.002-05:00

NYOBE Blocks made by me Mosaic
Originally uploaded by la_mañosa

I've been long absent from this poor blog! I'm busy crafting and teaching and then when I'm done, I usually don't feel motivated to post; however, lately I've felt the blog calling me back to it again.

I finished all of the blocks for my Not Your Ordinary Block Exchange on Ravelry and sent the last six blocks out last week. Most of my crafting time and energy over the last couple of months has been devoted to this and it feels like an accomplishment and a huge relief to be finished.

Now I'm finishing up a few gifts and then it's back to regular crafting. I really enjoy making things for others, but I confess that I'm looking forward to working on some projects for myself again.

More posts to come soon!

It's Been a Long Time

2008-11-05T14:02:00.003-05:00

I haven't meant to be absent so long but I have been so busy and working on so many projects that it doesn't seem like I've had much to share (little progress has been made on any one thing). First, I have to say that this has been an exciting election! I've not seen anything like it in my lifetime and it has been moving to see how excited people, including myself, have become about the future of the country. I've only voted in one presidential election and it was quite different. Last night we waited outside for two hours to vote! It was cold and dark. People were handing out apples, bottled water, pizza (Yes, I am serious), baked pretzels, sudoku puzzles--all for free to those of us waiting in line at the polling site. After voting, we were so exhausted that we came home and fell asleep. I'm still exhausted today but I am certainly happy and feel lucky to have had this experience.

I've just a few photos at the moment to share of what I have been working on most recently. I'm participating in the Not Your Ordinary Block Exchange on Ravelry and have finished and blocked 2 of my squares. I sent them out today.

The first is a crochet square from a pattern by Chris Simon called Flower Burst. I have learned after making a few different squares that I am not getting gauge and my squares which are supposed to turn out 12" square end up at 10. I added a little border to this one to achieve the correct size. I really like the colors together and hope the recipient will enjoy it.

The second square is knitted using Lacy Zigzag pattern from Love2Knit Dischcloths. Yep, it's a pattern for a dishcloth. I miscalculated the number of stitches I would need to cast on for a 12" square and had to add a border to this one, too. The border is crocheted. I love this yarn--the color and feel are wonderful. Ella Rae Amity, especially the heathers, are fun to work with.

I've also been crocheting snowflakes--no photos to post yet, but I've blocked one and have several more to block. I love it!

In the quilting portion of my life, I have been very busy. The lap quilt I was working on for myself has been put on hold while I took a couple of classes. One class I took at my LQS is the One Block Wonder. I used an Asian print and actually cut my hexagons a little smaller than the directions called for but it seems to be turning out well, regardless of my error. I have found this quilt to be incredibly challenging for me. I was totally excited for the class, I love how it is starting to look when I get the blocks together and hang them on a sheet, but sewing them drove me crazy. It took forever and I hated it. I can't remember hating piecing so much as I have on this occasion and I don't quite know why it bothered me so much. I think the result is going to be quite exciting but the process was definitely sticky. Here's a photo of my first attempt at arranging the blocks together. I haven't got many of the darker, emptier blocks on yet and I'm still not certain of how I will arrange things in the end--I think this will take me a while.

Also, I recently took a day workshop making a pumpkin seed quilt. I absolutely love the fabrics and how my blocks are turning out. I've only finished four so far, but I will be sure to post some photos soon, as I make a few more. Thankfully, working on this quilt makes me very happy and was the much needed antidote to the One Block Wonder!

I guess that is all for now. I'm looking forward to teaching my first amigurumi class tomorrow evening! I'm very excited to see how everyone in the class will personalize their projects.

Surfacing

2008-09-24T12:39:00.010-05:00

I often experience a desire to post on my blog which is overwhelmed by my desire not to post. I think that most of the time, I feel like I have nothing to say or that the things I want to say/share are not interesting to other people. I realize that this is silly because it is my blog, after all, however, I find it difficult to get past this problem much of the time. Today must be my lucky day because here I am!

I've been busy trying to work on about 10 projects all at once. This means, of course, that I make little progress on any of them and I was finally forced to prioritize according to some deadlines.

What I've been up to...

I took a needle felting class, had a lot of fun and made a cute little bear. I see a pumpkin in my future, too.

I'm working away diligently at knitting my sweater vest. I keep having little things go wrong with it that make me wonder if I have some sort of mental block with knitting. I really want to finish this soon!

I finally got an autumn cross stitch to the framer's and I'm enjoying having it around because I love fall. Also, it's cute. The Pattern is from BritterCup Designs, if I remember correctly. This inspired me to start yet another fall cross stitch project that I shouldn't be working on right now, Acorn Hill by Little House Needle Works.

I decided to start crocheting a baby blanket for some friends. The yarn was from my friend, Lori, who wanted to do a bit of destashing before moving to North Carolina. I somehow thought she had given me more of this yarn but it turned out that I needed to order more balls to keep moving. I've got a ways to go on this and I'm fairly certain the baby is going to be born and go home with its parents before the blanket does.

I've always wanted to join some sort of exchange and found one on Ravelry that appealed to me called Not Your Ordinary Block Exchange. I joined the fall colors group and we are each knitting or crocheting (or both) 11 blocks to send to the others in the group. I'm both very excited and somewhat intimidated by this project. Last night I sat down to play with the yarn and begin to get an idea of what I'd like to make. Just a couple of small squares so far and most people weren't interested in green, so I'm thinking I'm probably keeping this for myself once I finish it.

I finally started quilting on a quilt that has been languishing since last fall. It was a paper piecing class and I'd been avoiding the quilting because I was afraid I might somehow ruin the quilt. Finally, with some encouragement from others and the fact that we moved some of our things into storage (and I could no longer hide the quilt under something else), I sat down and quilted it. Now it needs a binding. I better not take another year to get that taken care of! Here's a view of the back side quilted.

Oh, and I almost forgot that I took a fantastic thread crochet snowflake class! I LOVE it. I've made three or four snowflakes so far but I'm waiting for the next class to block them. I'll definitely post some pictures then.

I'm looking forward to being able to post some pictures of my finished projects soon. Take care!

Crafty Progress

2008-09-01T18:55:00.008-05:00

I've been setting myself some crafty goals and I'm happy to say that I'm making progress with my to-do list. For the latter half of August, I wanted to start piecing a quilt I've been intending to make for myself for some time now. I'm using the Chelsea's Boutique pattern from Moda with some fabrics I've collected here and there over the last year or so. Right now, I don't have much exciting to show--just a few four patch blocks that I've ironed. I'm so glad to be working on this finally and I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

I've also made progress on the Back to School U-Neck Vest from Fitted Knits that I'm working on in a sweater knitting class. I'm almost done with the ribbing and I think it looks like it might just fit me (fingers crossed!). I really love the color and feel of the yarn and I'm hoping to finish it at the end of September--just in time to wear it a bit this fall.

I finished the samples for the Amigurumi class I'm teaching, as I mentioned in my previous post. I also set myself the goal of finishing a couple of unfinished amigurumi projects--a doll named Eva from the Sarita pattern that Owlishly so generously gave me earlier this summer, and a cat that I had finished but needed an outfit.

Finally, I whipped up an amigurumi cactus for my friend Germán, who has been anxiously waiting for one since he paged through Amigurumi World and laid eyes on the pattern.

What's ahead for me in September? Lots!

1. Finish embroidering a tea mat for Lucas. I'm using Navy Kona cotton and white embroidery thread to stitch Asian designs I found on the hoop love flickr group.
2. Finish the vest!
3. Make a tablerunner as practice for a class I'll be teaching. I chose fall colors and I'm planning to give it as a gift to a friend who will be getting married in October.
4. Finish piecing my quilt top.
5. Crochet some snowflakes. I'm taking a class and I'm really excited to make them--they look like fun and I think the teacher, Laura, is great!
6. I'm taking a needle felting class, because really, why should I stop at crocheting cute animals when there are so many methods for creating cuteness? If you don't know what I mean, check out some of the Japanese needle felting books. The cuteness is killing me.

So, if I manage to get all of this done in the next 29 days, I'll work on crocheting a baby blanket for some friends who are expecting their third child. Gotta make sure the younger kids get a few things made especially for them.

The Army

2008-08-23T18:47:00.007-05:00

I was asked recently if I might like to teach a class on making amigurumi at Stitch Your Art Out (my LYS/LQS) and I was totally excited! I'm really looking forward to sharing my obsession with cute crochet toys with other people. I just finished four samples for the class over the past week or two. Here they are in no particular order:

Perry the pear.

Owly the owl.

Leal the Lion.

Pipoca the puppy.

The Army of Amis relaxing in a rocking chair on my balcony. All patterns are from Amigurumi World, by Ana Paula Rimoli, the book we will be working out of for the class. I love this book and I think it truly has to be the best English-language amigurumi book out there (or, at least until Ana Paula releases her next book).

I want my Internet!

2008-08-22T15:39:00.005-05:00

I certainly didn't intend to disappear from my blog (or the Internet in general) for so long! We lost our Internet more than a week ago and have been waiting impatiently until today when someone could come and look at our modem. I think that I knew I was Internet-dependent before this, but it became all too clear to me just how attached I am to it, whether it is to feel part of a crafting community, keep in touch by email, or just look things up. Lucas and I even resorted to driving to the grocery store so that we could use the free wireless Internet there and at least keep track of any urgent emails.

Now that I'm "plugged in" again, I thought I'd share some of what I've been doing of late. I had a couple of finishes from earlier this summer that I could not mention because they were gifts. Here we have our friend, Blue, the beagle I made for my father-in-law on the occasion of his birthday. The pattern is from PlanetJune and I have to say that I love her designs.

This is a little lamb I made using a free pattern.

I just finished my ESL teaching and now I start back teaching Spanish at the university next week. I'm looking forward to settling into a routine and getting back to my crafting--there hasn't been much time for it the past several weeks.

I had planned to get several projects completed over the last two months, but I just seem to keep starting them and not finishing any of the quilts and other things that are languishing around here. I guess I'll have to extend my goal to September as well!

A Cup of Tea and More of D.C.

2008-08-09T08:21:00.012-05:00

Here is my cute cup of tea from Sewing Stars at the craft fair in Silver Spring, MD. I love that he looks both happy and like he is so hot that he is about to explode!

After my adventure Saturday morning, we went to lunch with our friend Alison at Ching Ching Cha, a tea house that we love in the Georgetown part of D.C.

As always, the tea was lovely and so was the teaware. I love this teapot and cup.

These little bento boxes had delicious food in them: tofu, greens, peas, carrots, cabbage and rice. All in all, it was a lovely meal that made for a perfect day.

On Sunday, we walked down to the Eastern Market for lunch and shopping.

I loved this mural that we saw on the way. The leaves are made out of mirrors.

Charming colorful houses.

I did a lot of admiring.

I'm sure no one would be surprised that I was drawn in by all of the beautiful things we saw there. I confess that I could not resist buying a tea set (because, really, you can never have enough) and a sake serving set.

The Eastern Market was great and I would recommend it highly. You can purchase a variety of things outdoors and indoors, including enticing fruits, vegetables and other foods. There are also fruit and vegetable stands outdoors and unusual booths selling things like magic lantern slides, furniture from China, old cookware and bicycles.

Caught in the busy-ness of life

2008-08-05T05:32:00.010-05:00

I didn't really imagine it would take me several weeks to have time to post on my blog! Teaching continues to keep me quite busy and I'm taking a few knitting classes here and there as well.

It feels like a long time since we took the trip I've been trying to share with you! After we traveled to Baltimore, we headed down to Washington, D.C. to visit a friend and stayed the weekend with her.We spied a very earnest segway tour as we were driving to dinner. Notice the guide in the red poncho. After seeing this, an animated discussion ensued about how serious you should be (or not!) when riding a segway.

Alison told us we would be a little disappointed by Chinatown but she drove us there to see it anyway. Chinatown in D.C. has no Chinese people and few Chinese restaurants, but it does have lots of signs in Chinese. Every store/restaurant has its name in English and Chinese (look just above the golden fish).

Starbucks!

We had a lovely dinner that evening at an Ethiopian restaurant. The next morning, I drove out to Silver Springs, MD to see the Crafty Bastards fair. I love the cute plush that Sewing Stars makes and for some time, I had admired her cute plush tea cups. I read her blog and knew that she would be there so I thought that this was my chance: I went there in hopes of finding a tea cup to come home with me and I was not disappointed!

I wasn't able to get a good picture of the teacup so I will try again soon when I have sunlight. Also, more photos to come in my next post, including additional views of the sights around D.C.

The Daily Grind & Baltimore

2008-07-19T07:48:00.012-05:00

I started my new summer job last week and my life has been crazy ever since. Lucas and I are teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) to girls age 11-17. I really enjoy the kids and teaching English is much easier than teaching Spanish, but it is still fairly challenging to try and plan for the classes. Anyway, I think I'm beginning to get the hang of it now.

I've been meaning to show some photos of our trip to Baltimore a few weeks ago.

I managed to eat a lot of food, especially ice cream. This is Pitango's gelato and it was AMAZING.
Moxley's ice cream...also fantastic! Have you noticed I have a thing for ice cream?

Greek tapas at a restaurant called Mezze.

Dinner at a rotating sushi bar

Paddle boats at the Inner Harbor

Mysterious-looking butterflies around Towson, where we stayed.

Baltimore definitely felt like a nice vacation! Our hotel was great, I got to drive around and see the city and even crocheted during open knitting with some nice ladies at a nearby yarn shop, Black Sheep Yarn Shop.

Finally Back--And a Quilt!

2008-07-10T20:07:00.008-05:00

Sorry I've been away so long! We've been out of town for most of the last two and a half weeks. We spent five days in Baltimore, 2 1/2 in D.C., and a week in Michigan. I have lots of photos to share and will be posting about them soon.

What I do want to show are a couple of recent finishes. Although I've said little about quilting over the last several months, I was actually working on a quilt. Our friends had their first baby in March and I just finished their quilt and gave it to them a couple of days ago.

I saw the Peter Rabbit fabric at my local quilt shop and fell in love with it. While I waited for (an excuse to buy it) some one of my friends to tell me they were having a baby (and I didn't have to wait long!) I thought of patterns I might use. I finally found what I was looking for in The Thimbleberries Guide for Weekend Quilters.

Here are close-ups of two of Beatrix Potter's beautiful illustrations that repeat on the fabric:

I used a complementary striped homespun on the back and it is really soft. Chiara wasted no time breaking her quilt in and rolled around on it a bit for us.

But before Chiara got to use her quilt, this little guy was finished and decided to take a rest on it and see how it was.

This little penguin I've named Paul and he is a gift for a friend in the Comparative Literature Department. I heard a rumor that she's a fan of penguins and I thought he might make a good companion for her while she's slaving away on writing papers in her office.

That's all for now...back with more soon!

Still More Amigurumi

2008-06-20T22:02:00.002-05:00

Echo
Originally uploaded by la_mañosa

Today I finished this little guy, Echo. While I was putting him together, he looked like an insect for a while (big eyes and a long snout) but I've slowly been forming him from insect-looking to Elephant. I was a little worried, though, when I took him out to show a friend today and he asked me what Echo was.

This is about the millionth pattern I've made from Amigurumi World. I love this book! I don't think I've ever made so many crafts from one pattern book before.

Soon I'll be giving crocheting with thread a try. Can't wait!

Disarmed by Cuteness

2008-06-19T18:33:00.004-05:00

I can't stop crocheting cute toys!

On Saturday, I went with my friend, Lori, to the World Wide Knit in Public Day being held at a local park. It was nice to meet some of the other local knitters, spinners, and crocheters who are in the community and the knitting guild. I crocheted, of course! Too bad the rain kept threatening us all day--after a small bit of rain, Lori and I packed up and headed to the creamery to eat lunch, have ice cream, and a photo shoot with my newest creation: Leonardo.

I've got a few secret projects going right now, but not anything I can show. Lucas and I are heading out of town to go to Baltimore for about 5 days. He has business (a training event) while I have pleasure: hours and hours of craft time and sight seeing without the bother of dishes, laundry, etc. I plan to bring lots of projects to work on and I hope to have lots of finished objects to show for it! I'm not quite sure what places I ought to visit in Baltimore. Right now, the art museum is on the top of my list, as is the harbor area.

After Baltimore, we'll be in D.C. for two days and then back home for a couple of days before heading out to Michigan for a week.

Meet Magellan & Our Civil War Trip

2008-06-11T18:09:00.015-05:00

I love Magellan the Jellyfish; however, his is destined for my brother-in-law as a birthday gift. Magellan enjoys drifting and swimming slowly about the ocean, eating small fish, and hanging out with other jellies in a "smack". Although Wikipedia says that jellyfish have no brains, I can see the intelligence in his eyes, can't you?

I'm working on a couple other amis: a lion I've named Leonardo and an Elephant whose name I haven't decided on yet. I'm having such fun making them! I confess I've neglected my quilting so that I can obsessively make, read about, and drool over flickr photos of amigurumis.

Harrisburg

We had a really nice trip to four Civil War sites last week. We started out at the National Civil War museum in Harrisburg on Sunday. It was fascinating looking at the displays and reading about the war there. It is just amazing that those men were able to travel such long distances on little food, carrying heavy equipment and then go right into battle. We spent an hour or so at the museum and then traveled to Antietam and drove around the park, seeing the battlefields, farmland and monuments. We also visited Burnside's bridge where Union soldiers attempted to cross and were fired on by Confederate soldiers. It's hard to imagine anyone making it across the bridge, but eventually, they managed to (I can't remember if that was because the Confederate army ran out of ammunition).

At Antietam

Burnside's Bridge

We left for Manassas on Monday and visited the welcome center, some portions of the battlefield, the Stonewall Jackson monument, and "Deep Cut" where a number of Union soldiers were killed as Confederate soldiers fired upon them from a deep indentation in the ground (hence the name, Deep Cut). We also explored Old Town Manassas and had a pretty nice meal at an Italian restaurant. My father-in-law was served pineapple sorbet in a baby pineapple and I had the best tiramisu! Most of the employees there, including the chef/owner were Mexican but some of them also knew some Italian and so there was a lot of Spanish and Italian flying back and forth, which I enjoyed listening to. I had hoped we could eat lunch at a Portuguese/Italian restaurant but unfortunately, they didn't serve lunch on the particular day we were there.

At Manassas (Bull Run)

(You can't see the actual deep cut in this photo but this is the battlefield. They have recently removed a number of trees that have grown up since the war but were not there during the battle. The sign says that the intent is to give people a better idea of what the battlefield looked like at that time)

After Manassas, we drove on to Fredericksburg (VA) to see the battlefield there. Another battle in which the Confederate army was concealed, this time by a stone wall and the Union army tried to advance and suffered heavy losses. The area is called sunken road and Marye's Heights, which is where the stone wall extends. We saw a house there that still had the bullet holes in it (both inside and on the exterior)! We also saw the Kirkland Monument, for a young soldier, Kirkland, who went out to give water to wounded and dying soldiers who were desperately thirsty and lying on the battlefield. He carried canteens of water, as shots were being fired, until the Union army realized what he was doing, and there was an hour and a half cease-fire while he gave water to men on both sides. He was called "The Angel of Marye's Heights".

We also enjoyed shopping in Old Town Fredericksburg. They have ghost tours and trolley rides, among other attractions. I spied a cute cross stitch shop and picked up a newer Prairie Schooler design that happens to have a goat on it. :) We had lunch at the most wonderful French restaurant, called La Petite Auberge. I had ratatouille, black beans and seasoned rice with a side of steamed broccoli. And I couldn't resist a little dessert--key lime pie with chocolate crust. Sigh, I miss that place already. Right before we left, I also located a nearby yarn shop where I searched for some "flesh" colored yarn to make a couple of amis I've been wanting to start.

Downtown on Caroline Street

Fine French Dining

We had beautiful weather throughout the trip; however, our last day (Wednesday) was very hot and we traveled north to Harper's Ferry. Harper's Ferry was a small bustling town that was devastated by a combination of the Civil War and a flood in the 1930s, I think it was. It has been preserved and is relatively isolated. You take a bus shuttle from the visitor center down to the town, which is along the Potomac River. The only residents from the town, as far as I could tell, were the shop and restaurant owners there and perhaps the people who were informational guides. The armory there was destroyed but there is a sort of replica of the one that was captured by John Brown prior to the war.

We visited some shops, bought a bit of hand-crafted pottery, shopped in the bookstore (where, of course, I found a quilt book I had to have) and checked out some of the historical places in the town. The bakery, if I remember correctly, was in the home of a man who was a union sympathizer and widower with many children who was one of the first people killed in the town by a stray union bullet. Later, I think the Union occupied the house and used the bakery.

View of the bakery

Bad weather was coming so we decided to head out of town. We got delayed a bit by a strong storm with heavy rain but managed to get back home safe and sound. It was a great trip and it was so good to get out of town!

Since then, I've been filling in at my local quilt/yarn shop, Stitch Your Art Out. I love getting to meet so many people who are passionate about the same things I am!

A Collage

2008-06-06T18:05:00.004-05:00

I've seen a few people doing this new meme and I thought I would join in, as it is a pretty creative idea.

1. Misty Road, 2. Scallops on the tomato risotto, 3. Canadian serviceberry at Fort Custer, 4. oh... the blues, 5. 7 Days - Winter 07 - Day 4, 6. heart top matcha latte :D, 7. "La mia casa è il mare e con un fiume no, non la posso cambiare", 8. Cinnamon Ice Cream & Raspberry Sorbet, 9. path, 10. Happy Easter!!! (^o^), 11. APPLE & ICE, 12. Café matutino

Here are the questions:
1. What is your first name? Misty
2. What is your favorite food? Risotto
3. What high school did you go to?
Galesburg-Augusta
4. What is your favorite color? Blue
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
I used to adore David Duchovny when the X-Files was on TV
6. Favorite drink? Milk Tea/Matcha
7. Dream vacation? Italy
8. Favorite dessert? Ice cream
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Unafraid
10. What do you love most in life?
Family & Friends
11. One Word to describe you. Creative
12. Your Flickr name. la_mañosa

If you'd like to try it for yourself, you can find the instructions at this lovely blog, Bella Dia.

By the way, World Wide Knit in Public Day is Saturday, June 14th. You can find out if there is someone hosting it in your area at the web page. There is one in my area and I'm planning to get out and meet other knitters, spinners and crocheters.

I've got lots of pictures to post from the Civil War trip. I'm working the next couple of days but should have time to share about our trip soon.

And The Amis Go Rolling Along

2008-05-29T08:20:00.006-05:00

I think I am in love with amigurumis. I can't stop making them! That is good, as I seem to be avoiding some of my other crafts--at least I'm still inspired to work on something. Here are the latest additions:

Here is "Accidental Acorn." I was making another pear but somehow forgot how to decrease properly and what resulted was something like a diseased pear! I was pretty disappointed and, not realizing that it was a human error that could be ripped a bit and corrected (at the time, I thought maybe I'd chosen a crochet hook too small for the yarn), I tried to devise a way to cover up the top of the pear. I like acorns a lot and so I fashioned a top for my pear. I guess the acorn top is my first attempt to improvise and make something without a pattern. I'm quite pleased with the result. Lately, I've been trying to embrace the idea that accidents in creative projects can be pleasant surprises rather than problems. I like to think of "mistakes" as challenges for my creativity. I've even begun to think this way with cooking and it is doing me some good and hopefully combating my perfectionism a bit.

I also completed a jellyfish named Squiggly. This was actually the first amigurumi project I ever attempted. My crochet teacher, Laura, helped me work through the pattern and was generous enough to meet a couple of times beyond the crochet class in order to help me and another student with our projects. I had almost finished the jellyfish without stuffing or putting the face on and realized later that it would be impossible to finish unless I ripped it back a bit. When I finally got up the courage to do it, I realized that the tension wasn't very good at the beginning (it being my first project and all) so I frogged it and started again. I'm pleased with the result and so is Lucas--it is his favorite. The Jellyfish pattern is free on Ana Paula Rimoli's web page.

I am overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness of many people whose blogs I visit. Recently, Mia of Owlishy just left me speechless when she sent me two of her patterns as a gift to celebrate my graduation. I'm very excited to start working on them and have only been held up by the lack in my stash of certain colors I will need. I'll be sure to remedy that soon because Laura Beth and Sarita are just adorable. Please visit her Etsy page, as she has so many beautiful pattern designs full of pictures and accompanied by great detailed instructions.

I'm very much enjoying my new found free time. When I'm not crocheting away, I've been working on organizing and tidying up our apartment and finally dealing with things that have been neglected for a long time around here. I've watched more movies in the last two months than I have in years and have been catching up on Lost. I have also been doing more cooking and trying new recipes. If you haven't been to the Smitten Kitchen, I highly suggest that you check it out. Not only is the writing witty and entertaining, the recipes are lovely and the photos are gorgeous. I think I've tried four or five recipes so far and have found them all to be fantastic. My favorite is the spring panzanella.

Lucas and I will be leaving on Sunday for our Civil War trip with my father-in-law. I'll be sure to bring my camera and hopefully the weather will cooperate. I'm currently reading through Gods and Generals to prepare myself for the trip (I read Killer Angels last summer after we traveled to Gettysburg).

I probably won't have much time to post for about a week, as we will be out of town and then I will be working at my LQS/LYS for a few days after we return. I forgot to mention it but the owners asked me a few months back if I would like to fill in for them every so often and I was very excited. It's great to be there surrounded by beautiful fabric, yarn, and people who are enthused about quilting, knitting and crochet as much as I am.

More Happy Fruits

2008-05-19T17:20:00.005-05:00

Here is Manzanita ("little apple") for my Mom. I sent her along with the rolled brim hat and some neat goat decals from Artsnacker on Etsy for my mom's Mother's Day gift. The pattern comes from Amigurumi World.

And my most recent finish today--"Pera 2". I decided to give the first pear (see previous post) as a gift to a friend who graduated yesterday with her PhD. I hope the smiling fruit cheers her now that she has recently moved to Detroit. I'm feeling rather attached to this second version of the pear and may have to keep it for myself. I bought a basket to put my ami fruits in and now it only needs to be filled. I'm planning to make several fruits and toys for friends of mine in a grad student group I belonged to this year. Now that I've graduated (as of yesterday!), I won't be able to continue on in the group and I wanted to make something to show how much I appreciate the wonderful women I've gotten to know over the past two years.

I've been drooling more over the Babette Blanket from Interweave Crochet and finally decided to purchase the pattern. I've been agonizing and scanning the Internet for the right yarns that won't break the bank. I'm thinking I'll use merino wool or a merino blend and I would like to have warmer colors dominate. Hopefully, I will make a decision soon because I suspect it will take me a while to complete it.

Despite all of my crochet talk, I am still quilting! I'm working on quilting a small project right now but can't show it until it's finished. After that, I have plenty more quilts in the queue, believe me.

Back!

2008-05-12T07:38:00.006-05:00

Hello!

Sorry to have disappeared for two months. After spring break, I was feeling rather overwhelmed by school and I couldn't bring myself to post anything on my blog. I just finished classes last week and turned in the last paper on Friday--I am now free!

In March, Lucas and I traveled to Lancaster, PA and had a fantastic time. The weather was beautiful as were the quilt shops. We stopped at Burkholder's Fabrics and I was completely overwhelmed by all of the gorgeous fabric. As you may imagine, it was difficult to decide what to bring home with me, but despite the difficulty, I did finally make a decision. From Burkholder's, we drove to Sauder's. We found both lovely fabric and great snacks there. If you go, I highly recommend the Blueberry bars. We had planned to visit a couple of additional shops, but as I had managed to stay just within the budget at the first two and tired myself out looking fabric, we decided to call it a day. I was going to take pictures but realized that I would have the same photos as everyone who has traveled there and...I was lazy. Lancaster was a really interesting area and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope we might go back again later this summer.

Since my last post, I took a crochet class and absolutely loved it. Although it completely confused me at first, I began to get the hang of it and now I feel as though I understand crochet a great deal better than I do knitting. I was allowed to choose a pattern to make in the class and chose an amigurumi pattern of a jellyfish from Ana Paula Rimoli's web page. (If you happen to make this pattern, please note that there is an error in the instructions for R3 &4). Unfortunately, I haven't quite finished the jellyfish but I will soon (because the last thing I need is another UFO!).

I don't remember exactly how I found out about amigurumi, but ever since that time, I have had a strong desire to learn crochet. After my crochet class, I bought Ana Paula Rimoli's book Amigurumi World and I'm having a fantastic time making happy fruits from the patterns in the book. Currently, I am making an apple and last night I finished a pear, named "Pera". Hopefully you can see it at the top of this entry--blogger is acting up and I can't see the picture myself.

Apart from my fun crochet class, I also took a landscape quilt class. Instead of land, I chose to do water and I'm working on a scene of Koi fish swimming in a stream under a lychee branch. I believe I am perhaps halfway through the project and hope to finish it this month.

Well, I am so glad to be finished with school and back to crafting and blogging again. I'll have a few adventures to share during the summer as well. We're traveling to the Civil War Museum in Harrisburg and a few battlefields in Maryland and Virginia in June. We'll also be going to Baltimore for a five days, then Washington D.C., followed by a trip home to Michigan.

I'll also be sharing my work on the Take it Further Challenge. Sharon B was kind enough to allow me to take a hiatus while I was finishing up my degree, so it is time to pick it back up.

Take it Futher February-2

2008-03-07T06:40:00.004-05:00

Not surprisingly, it is no longer February and yet I am still plodding away at my February block. I mentioned previously that I was going for something resembling my memory of the story of the animals on a cruise ship. I couldn't figure out how to embroider a cruise ship so instead I have a sailboat. :)

I need to add a little bit more to this block and then I think I'll let it set for a while because I'm stumped by what else to do to it (and I ought to start on the block for March!). I'd rather like a treasure chest somewhere but I need to think about how I might attempt it.

I find myself frustrated lately because I have so many projects (and school) going at once that I feel like I rarely accomplish anything. I come home from school, anxious to start on a project and then can't bring myself to work on anything. I wonder if I narrowed my focus to one or two things if that would help me? Or do I need to give myself some deadlines? I'm totally stumped by the way my motivation is fine while I'm at school thinking about working on projects but disappears the moment I can actually get to them. The other problem I have is that I often feel guilty doing things for myself because school work is always (!) on my mind. So even when I have a whole day to craft without pressing schoolwork deadlines, I feel bad about it because I know that I'll have papers to write at the end of the semester and it is weighing on me. School is really putting a damper on my fun! Thank goodness for spring break!

Take it Further February-1...Finally!

2008-02-23T09:47:00.006-05:00

I spent half of February thinking about the Take it Further Challenge colors and theme (what are you old enough to remember?). I figured that everyone participating in the challenge is around my age or older which left me feeling that there was nothing I could remember that would be particularly interesting or unusual if everyone else could remember it, too. I tried to look at it from a more personal angle--something from my childhood and came up with Richard Scarry (children's book author/illustrator) and Carol Channing!

The reason for the unusual pairing is that, as a child, I used to go to the library to borrow records, mostly stories rather than music. One of my favorites was a story by Richard Scarry about animals on a cruise ship and something (a pearl necklace?) turns up missing and an investigation ensues. Carol Channing narrated the story and her voice used to drive my poor mother crazy. I loved it, of course.

From this memory, I thought that I could try to somehow represent the story on my crazy quilt block but I can't find the story. I think it is in a book of mysteries, but my local library doesn't carry it and I decided I could just go for something more vague, ocean imagery and maybe a boat? Once I started working on the CQ block, I realized that this was not going to work very well and decided to go with the color challenge only (although I may still embroider a little ocean and a boat in the center.

To make life easier on myself this month, I have a new tactic. 1. Use a smaller block (half the size of January's block). 2. Use the stitches I learned last month and learn only a few new ones each successive month. I was getting so overwhelmed by having to learn so many new things at one time that it made me dread working on this challenge. The new arrangement has made my life much easier and I actually look forward to working on my block now. Also, I found a book on embroidery at the library that gives some very detailed instructions of various stitches that had confused me before and it has been inspiring me to try new things and play with the stitches I already know.

I'll check back in at the end of the month with my progress (and hopefully a finish?).

Also, good news: My MA paper was accepted without the need for revision! Now all I need to do is finish out my classes this semester and I'll be done! Only about 2 and a half months left. And, in a few weeks I'll be on spring (though it looks like winter to me) break. I hope very much to make a trip with Lucas to Lancaster, PA and maybe Washington, D.C.

Progress Report

2008-02-16T09:03:00.008-05:00

It's finished!

I've been working away at projects, despite the attempts of grad school to get in the way. I finished the baby quilt and added the label today. I'm determined to send the quilt to its future owner (Finally!).

Stressing about making the label made me realize that I have a strange relationship to labeling quilts. I feel like I should do it because other people expect me to, but not that I necessarily want to do it. I had decided not to make a label for my niece's quilt but changed my mind this morning because I know I won't see her often as she grows up and I realized that it might mean a lot to her to know that I made it for her (in case no one remembers to tell her). I feel like my aversion to labeling is difficult even for me to understand.

I've noticed that I have an autumn/Halloween decoration fetish and have picked up a number of cross stitch patterns recently with these themes. I'm having a great time making progress on this one, by Brittercup, called "Haunt the Night Away." While stitching it, I've been enjoying several episodes of Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett), and my old stand by, Pride and Prejudice.

And...the toe-up sock has a toe! I love this yarn! I can't believe such a cute sock is going to be on my foot one day soon. The next class meets this Wednesday and I'll learn how to make the heel then.

It's been nice seeing what everyone else is quilting, knitting and cross stitching on their blogs. I am so inspired by what I see other people making!

Long Time, No Post

2008-02-08T07:37:00.002-05:00

School!
It feels like it has been forever since I last posted, probably because I've been wanting to post every day for the last week. I got caught up in the tornado that is school and only recently have come back to earth (yesterday). I've been busy revising a paper that will be submitted as my MA Thesis and have handed in the first draft. I can't tell you what a relief it is to have made some progress with it. I have to complete any additional revisions by the end of this month so that I can turn in to the university. The light at the end of the tunnel (graduation) is getting a little larger. I saw a number of people had widgets of little Christmas trees on their blogs with a countdown. I started thinking to myself that I should look into seeing if there is a personalized widget I could make to count down my graduation. But then again, maybe that would just drive me insane. :)

So I have quilted Madison's quilt and have about 1/3 of the binding hand sewn down on the back. Here is a shot of it before I started on the binding.

I decided to do free motion with a curly-Q design that I had been wanting to practice, anyway. I could stand to work on my free motion quilting, most definitely, but I didn't think it turned out too bad, in the end.

I've been reading the Sew Mama Sew blog for some time now and am enjoying their feature of quilts and quilting techniques this month for Quilting Month. They had some information about hand quilting and hand piecing that really made me think about reconsidering them. I've always sworn off hand piecing because it seems really intimidating, but one bonus is that you have more control with pieces that would be difficult to sew together by machine. Also, I had started the hand quilting already and had put it aside because I didn't think my stitches were very good. But after doing the free motion quilting on Madison's quilt and feeling like I was operating a jack hammer (that machine can really get going and Lucas said he could feel the vibration in the floor), I could see how hand quilting would be a much more relaxing way to go. Machine quilting really stresses me out, although I am sure it will get better with time. All of this is simply to say that I am going to keep working at the little hand quilting practice project I have and then give it a go on one of the quilts I make in the future. And I'm now going to give hand piecing a chance, someday...when I have some time. :)

Knitting
I've been knitting away on my toe-up socks. Twice, I managed to knit a hole in them! Since I am an expert at wearing holes into my socks, I decided I didn't need to start out with one. I seem to have gotten around the problem, finally. Although it's a bit challenging, I must say, sock knitting is a blast! I'll post a picture of the toe, soon. I've got some fantastic self striping yarn and the sock is so adorable.

On SuperBowl Sunday I headed over to the LYS/LQS to pick the winning team during the annual sale, buy some yarn and fabric at a great price and enter a drawing. I won the drawing! I am now the happy owner of a nice new knitting bag. I didn't pick the winning team but still got a discount for participating, so I bought some fabric for a top secret project which I cannot reveal until it is completed.

A new knitting group was started by a graduate student in the French Dept. Last night was the second get together at a local cafe. It was great! I was so happy to meet a few people with similar interests who also love knitting/stitching. We knitted by the fireplace and chatted about the ups and downs of graduate student life. I hope the group keeps going throughout the semester because it was so nice to feel like I had a bit of community, something that has been scarce for me in a lot of ways since I moved here.

I'll try not to be such a stranger and post again soon. Thanks, everyone, for all of your very nice comments, particularly on my CQ block.

Take it Further Challenge January-3

2008-02-01T10:55:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the poor lighting in the photo, it's a gloomy day here and it was difficult to get a good shot of it. Well, I had hoped to have accomplished much more on this block; however, this was all the progress I managed to make in January. I plan to keep working on it but I need to get a little more time to learn some stitches and SRE. My violets at the top didn't turn out quite as I expected so I gave up on trying to fill them in. Really, the main challenge for me has been finding the time and patience to sit down and learn so many new things at once.

I think I've probably taken on a bit more than I can manage well so I've tried to think of ways to make the challenge more manageable. I think that what I will do from this point on is make smaller blocks (4 in. as opposed to 8). January will be the center block and I'll sew the smaller ones around the outside of it. This way, hopefully I can actually finish my block each month and not feel so pressured to learn embroidery so quickly.

When my mom heard that I was working on a crazy quilt block, she set out to assist me by looking for old lace and searching ebay for silk ribbon. They should be arriving soon. Thanks, Mom!

I have starting sock knitting. I'll share more about that in my next post.

The Winter Blahs

2008-01-21T13:59:00.001-05:00

I'm definitely feeling blah today. Maybe it is because I started out the morning doing homework, which was a not so thrilling reading of Jacques Lacan's "The Mirror Stage" for a class on cultural studies. I have to prepare a guide to Lacan's essay but I have difficulty understanding it myself, so that makes for a bit of work.

I looked up more embroidery stitches and managed to embroider two silk roses on my TIF challenge block and decided that was all the challenge I could handle for the moment. Yesterday, I finished Pot Purri, designed by Margaret Sherry.

I was contemplating framing this but I have another of the cat designs completed with many more waiting to be begun and now I am thinking I could make them into a wall hanging once I've completed several more. At the rate I'm going, that should only take me another eight years or so. I recently joined a Margaret Sherry stitching group on Yahoo and found out that she will no longer be working with Heritage Stitchcraft. They have discontinued her designs, as they state on their website. It sounds as though she will continue to design, just not with HS. I keep wishing she would design some roly-poly goats for cross stitch.

Take it Further Challenge January-2

2008-01-20T11:14:00.001-05:00

I've made slow progress embellishing my CQ block. This is due, in part, to having minimal embroidery skills upon joining this challenge (i.e. only the cross stitch and French knot). I've been looking at Sharon B's Stitch Dictionary and it has been a great help in adding to my abilities and knowledge. I have to say that I'm really enjoying learning embroidery and feel quite satisfied with myself each time I master a new stitch.

I added a bit of lace and embroidered some daisies in the lower left corner and then the block sat there for quite some time as I tried to figure out how to transfer the goat design I drew to the center block and how to stitch it. I finally decided to use a transfer pencil and ironed my design onto the fabric. This worked quite well. I then (finally!) mastered the stem stitch enough to be able to embroider the design. I don't know why but stem stitch was boggling my mind for a while.

About the block:
My block is meant to represent someone I admire, my mother, and I chose the goat as her emblem. She has been raising goats for about 26 years now and originally acquired them because I had a sensitivity to cow's milk but no problems with goat milk. Since then, goats have become her life. She lead 4-H programs I was involved in which were related to goats. She has taken them to shows, she has them registered, has a careful breeding program, records their milk production, makes cheese and soap, and is the go-to woman whenever someone has a question about their goat(s). This particular goat is a Nubian which is her preferred breed for their personality and milk production.

I am also focusing on embroidering flowers on the block because 1. she is an avid flower gardener and 2. no CQ block is complete without them. She receives compliments every year from friends, family and even complete strangers who stop by to tell her how lovely her garden looks.

I bought some silk ribbon and hope to learn a little about it so that I can begin to add that embroidery to the block as well.

Thanks to everyone for your comments and encouragement, I've really appreciated them!

Back to the Grind

2008-01-16T11:34:00.002-05:00

We managed to cook dinner for friends from Mexico over the weekend and had a really nice time. They've offered to help me practice my Spanish. I also took a trip to a very nice little cross stitch shop I discovered by the school Lucas teaches at! It is called Moore Stitches and it had everything and more than I could want. I walked away with a few charts (Brittercup, By the Bay Needleart, and Prairie Schooler), some silk embroidery ribbon for my CQ block, and a bit of lovely thread. I will definitely be returning (especially since it completely escaped my mind to buy any fabric to stitch on!). I also took an intarsia class and made a (lopsided) heart.

I definitely need to practice before I take on any intarsia projects I've been planning. I am thinking that I'll keep making these squares with hearts in them and maybe sew them into a baby block or a teddy bear sweater. Then, of course, I'd have to learn to make the bear.

I also had a friend and colleague, Yuka, over for some knitting. I rarely get to knit with friends and don't have any quilting friends in the area, so it is very exciting to me when I get to share my passions with friends! I got her started on the rolled brim hat but she didn't have the right needles so we'll have to try again soon. While we knitted, I finished the rolled brim hat I'll be giving my mom for her birthday in September.

Yuka was very generous and brought me a gift when she came to knit, a gift I had been wishing for...a mold to make onigiri.

Onigiri has been a favorite of mine ever since one of my college roommates returned from her year abroad in Japan and started making it for us. It is rice with a filling inside (tuna, salmon, chicken, etc) and the rice triangle or circle is then wrapped up with a bit of seaweed. When Lucas was studying in Taiwan, I went to visit him for a week and I wanted to eat onigiri at the 7-11 everyday. By the way, 7-11 is way better in Asia than in the U.S.! I wish we had their 7-11's.

I finally got the baby quilt top put together! I debated for quite a while about adding the red borders but in the end, decided I liked it better this way. I'm excited to get quilting on it.

I have intended to work on my crazy quilt block and did manage to get a little embroidery done. I was really excited about how easy it was to learn some of the stitches. Now I need to get brave and put some serious work into it!

In Reference to Previous Post

2008-01-12T09:29:00.001-05:00

I realized that the links I provided in my previous post did not appear as links nor were they fully viewable. Here they are again in case anyone wants to learn more about crazy quilting. I am sure there are other great resources on the Internet on CQ. If anyone wants to leave a comment with recommendations, I'd love to hear about them.

I know there is at least one Yahoo group on Crazy Quilting which I belong to, though I have not had much time to use it or post on it (blush).

Sharon B's stitch dictionary which links to her blog
Annie Whitsead's tutorial
Leslie Levison's online class is here

Take It Further Challenge Unembellished CQ Block 1

2008-01-07T22:50:00.001-05:00

Here is my first crazy quilt block ever. It was more difficult to make than I anticipated because I didn't line up the seams well. I had a really nice pattern drawn on the back of the muslin but it was not easy to follow. There are a few uncovered spots of muslin but I'm not terribly concerned about them...I know I can find something to cover them up with. I spent some time reminding myself to give me a break, this is my first block, after all. And this is a challenge!

I've used the challenge colors as my fabric choices and now I have to determine what to cover them with. I'm still contemplating trying to embroider a goat that I drew and place it in the center. I spent some time today looking in my ribbon and embroidery books but neither of them explained precisely how one transfers an embroidered design after it has been cut from the original fabric to another piece of fabric. I browsed through some of the other challenge participants' blogs to see if other embroiderers posted on this subject and found Cheryl's Chatelaine. She describes using quilting paper in this post, which I just happen to have purchased while back in Michigan. I may consider her technique for this project or an upcoming CQ block for the challenge.

The Big Bad Baby Quilt

2008-01-06T15:28:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I discovered that I had not understood the directions for the quilt I was making. The pinwheel quilt turned into a bunch of rather uninteresting squares inside of squares that I have laboriously sewn together over the past two days. I'm pretty disappointed with how it has turned out and wonder how I went to all this trouble only to end up with a rather uninteresting quilt. I also have a lot of left over blocks to throw into a bin until something can be done with them. My options at this point are

1. Sew all the squares together as seen here. I don't have a design wall, so instead, I guess I have a design floor.

2. Add this red fabric border. I went fabric shopping today to find something to spruce it up. I don't really love the color combination but I having the contrast might be better.
My husband, Lucas, votes for the red borders. Any thoughts?

I guess I am just a little discouraged about how this whole project has turned out and I really want my brother and sister-in-law to like it, as well as my niece, someday. The other thing that is bothering me is that I only have a week of break left, precious little time, and I really want to be working on quilts that I actually feel good about.

On a happier note, I got my fabrics together today for the Take it Further challenge. Tomorrow I plan to get them sewn up and will hopefully have a picture to post. I'm still debating as to what to actually do with my block. One option in the challenge is to somehow render someone you look up to. I'd like to do something with my mom and was thinking about different symbols that represent things I admire about her (she's very creative, has taught herself how to do a number of things, she always encourages creativity in other people, she raises goats and takes very good care of them, and she raised and took good care of me!). For me, the biggest part of this challenge may not be skills, though I could certainly work on that area of my life, but rather, it is letting myself have a good time without worrying about whether what I am doing is "good enough." I have read a few other blogs and other people taking part in the challenge seem to have similar concerns about their skill level compared to others. I hope we can all be challenged to not let our worries keep us from enjoying ourselves and being creative.