Back to the old sewing room

I've been a on a bit of a sewing kick, partly because of my latest bout of tendonitis. I'm not positive that knitting aggravates it, but why take chances? So off the sewing room I went.  After several test layouts, I put together the Christmas sampler.

It wasn't easy.  I had trouble deciding on the alternate block design, and none of the neutrals in the stash looked right with the background fabric. The blocks were made in 2004, so the local shops didn't have it and I couldn't find it online.  Luckily, I'm a member of the biggest quilt guild in northeast Ohio.  I send a picture out the guild members and someone forwarded it the second biggest guild in the area. I actually heard from a couple of people who had enough for my purposes.

 In hindsight, I think I should have put a small border of the background around each of the blocks, so that they didn't run into the alternate blocks like some of them do.  Also, looking at the picture, I think I should have put triangles of the print in the outer corners, since those big open places look kind of weird to me.  But as the Dear Jane motto goes, "Finished is better than perfect," and it's only a Christmas quilt after all.  I'll only have to look at it a few weeks a year.

All quilts need a backing and I had 10 Christmas blocks that I got from an online block exchange in 1994 (!) that needed to be used.  There were supposed to be 12 of them, but a couple of people were slackers and didn't send theirs.  They sat in my sewing room all these years because I didn't know what to do with them.  Here's what I came up with: 

Most of the fabrics I used on the back were in my stash.  The only one I bought was the peppermint candy print in the middle. I just didn't have a red-on-white print that I liked for that section. 

I could have made two quilts, but who needs two Christmas quilts, really? At any rate, it's off to the quilter and should be back sometime next month, I think.


When the Christmas quilt was done, I turned my attention to these little guys. 

There are 500 of these units here

I pulled a bunch blue, green, purple and white fabrics from my scrap and fat quarter bins and started cutting.  When I was sewing, trimming and pressing them, I thought I'd gone a little overboard.  There are enough pieces there to make a full size quilt without borders.  If I put borders on it, I could make bed quilt and a baby quilt.  There are about a dozen ways to arrange these units, but I'm thinking of a pinwheel design.  I'll probably take this to quilt camp with me next month.

I made  this cute little reversible project bag for a knitter friend of mine, in part for her birthday and part as a token of my appreciation for an "above and beyond" kindness she showed me earlier this year.  She seemed to like it, which made me happy.

One side...

...and the other

Last, but not least, I spent some quality time with these, but more on that next time.

What did I do with a stack of feed bags?

 Blue helped me with the quilt back.

Everyone's a critic.

The knitting....

I mentioned last time that there has been some knitting, so here goes.  I've made progress on two pairs of socks.

Stepping Stones in Sensations Bamboo & Ewe, for Mom

Plain socks in Destination Yarn, Vancouver Five Rings colorway

I just started the heel flaps on Mom's socks, and finished the heel turn and started on the gussets of the plain socks.

If you recall, February was for Finishing, so I finished a sweater.

Shalom Cardigan, in Bernat Natural Alpaca Blends

The back

Close-up of the front

The pattern just calls for one color, but I had to add the extra challenge of using two. It was my first sweater, so why make it easy?  It really wasn't that much more difficult and took just under a month to make, which was pretty amazing to me. It seems to take forever to make a pair of socks but using bulky yarn on big needles makes a difference.

 

 

"It's not quite big enough yet, Mama."

"I think I look pretty good on this."

 The girls helped a lot with the sweater while I was making it.

Oooo, pretty!

I entered the project in the contest over at Life in Cleveland, and I won a prize! This is a lovely fused glass necklace, and along with it came a buy-one-get-one-free coupon for classes at Crafty Goodness in Lakewood.  I haven't decided what to take, but I'm sure it will be fun.






I think I've been bitten by the sweater bug.  I cast on this one on March 1st.  It's another knit along with some of my friends.  We were supposed to start on Leap Day, but it didn't quite work out.  I'm up to the second button hole, despite not spending much time on it.

February Lady Sweater, in Berroco Vintage, Juniper colorway

And since this is the first day of spring, I plan to start a sweater to go with the socks I started last year on the first day of spring.  The lace pattern looks the same as the socks.

Petal, in Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Tonos Pima Silk

And finally, Emma decided my knitting bag, with my Shalom sweater in it, makes an excellent kitty bed.

"Cozy!"

Now I'm off to swatch for the new sweater....

Quilt camp, February 2012

I went to quilt camp last month.  On the way there, we stopped at Calla Lily for some yarn shopping, because we are multi-craftual.  I had decided beforehand that I needed to make a sweater to go with my Spring Fern socks, and I think I found the perfect yarn for it. 

The colors look closer in real life

From there, we went to Somewhere Sewing, because we all need more fabric.  Hey, "need" is a subjective term, right?  Anyway, the shop has a great selection of fabric and tools and they sell sewing machines, but I think my favorite thing about it is the remnant bin.  Anything you can stuff into a quart size freezer bag for $5.  The owners say they have almost as fun watching us try to fill the bags as we have doing it.  You can fit a LOT of fabric in a quart size bag, if you fold it right.

That's about 3 yards total!

Once we got our retail fix, we settled in to sew.  First, I put together a few pillow cases for my guild. I didn't take a picture of them and kind of wish I'd left at them home, to be honest.  I wish I'd spent more time on other things.

Since February was for finishing, I decided it was finally time to finish up some blocks I made years ago.  They are from a $5 quilt program at Quilts & Kreations. The idea is, you pay $5 for the first block kit. If you bring back the finished block the next month, and sit through a sort presentation about a quilting notion, you get the next kit at no charge.  If you make it every month, you get twelve blocks for five dollars.  If you miss a month, you have to pay for the next kit.  There were three different colorways to choose from, and I picked both the Christmas and batiks. 

I'd done all the blocks, but managed to lose a the two star blocks shown here.  I put together new ones using bits and pieces leftover from the Christmas kits, and some batiks I had in the stash.  I made the little teardrop pieces for the blocks on the left and got the white ones sewn on. Then I partly re-did the Dutchman's Puzzle block on the right.  I had cut the yellow fabric from the kit wrong and replaced it with something I had in my stash at the time.  It was too bright, so I swapped it for this one.



Here are all the blocks. They're in the same locations, so you can see what a difference the colors make. If you look closely, you can see the old yellow in the top left corner of the yellow and green block.  I had the old piece sitting on top to make sure I liked the new one.

I think I know how I'm going to set the Christmas blocks, but I'm hoping to find some of the background fabric to use in the alternate blocks.  There are 180 people in my quilt guild, so I'm hoping someone has some they're willing to part with.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the batiks yet, but I have a couple of ideas.  I have lots of that background fabric, if I decide to use it.



After those were done, I pulled out some community service blocks for the guild and made an extra block to two. That will give me enough to make a two lap-sized quilts.  They will have white sashing and scrappy corner stones, when I get around to putting them together.



And finally, I made a couple of Sister's Choice blocks. They took longer to put together than you might think, since I was making them one at a time. There's lots of  stopping and cutting and pressing involved.  I think next time I work on them, I'll try to do more of an assembly line thing.

I've been doing quite a bit of knitting lately, but this is getting long, so I think I'll save the knitting for the next post.

It's been almost three weeks since I lost Ripley. Thank you to everyone who sent their condolences, in whatever form.  I do appreciate it.

I had the vet's office make an impression of her paw for me.  It was unbaked when I got it, and I thought it would be nice to put her name and dates on it.  So I pulled out my rubber stamps, stamped and baked it.  There's only one problem....

She was born in 1992, not '93.  Thoughts on how to fix this??

I haven't decided what to do with her ashes, but for now they're in the canister they came in, on a shelf in the room where I feed Blue.  Several times since I picked them up, I've found him here when I've gone in to get him.

Not sure I've seen him on that shelf before.  Coincidence??

Half a lifetime....

Half a lifetime ago, I was a young newlywed, living in my first apartment. Our cat, Lucky seemed lonely, so we'd been thinking of getting another kitty to keep her company. One day my DH called and said one of his coworkers had brought in a litter of kittens that needed homes.  After some discussion, he came home with this tiny little thing:



She wasn't very well socialized and spent most of her first night hiding behind the dryer shivering.  :-(  We got her into the second bedroom and she spent a lot of time under the bed.  She'd come out, but wouldn't let us get too close to her.

We couldn't agree on what to name her - I liked "Ripley", the DH wanted "Psycho".  We decided to pull a name out of a hat and got as far as writing the names on slips of paper one night before we had to leave for somewhere.  When we got home, she was chewing on one of the pieces of paper, and we decided she'd chosen her name.  Ripley it was (thank goodness!).

She slowly settled in, watching the wild life:

"I can see them, why can't I grab them?!"

 Mountain climbing:

Coffee table -> entertainment center -> air conditioner

Helping with my quilt projects:

"Looking good, Mama!"

And generally tearing up the place.  I don't know how many times I had to re-pot my spider plant, and I picked up one of the table lamps off the floor every night when I got home.  She did know how to kick back and relax, though.

Don't you just want to rub that tummy?

As the years passed, I got divorced, changed jobs and moved a couple of times.  Relationships came and went. We lost Lucky along the way, and added new furry family members.  But through it all, Ripley was there.  She mellowed a lot as she got older.  Back in they day, I had friends who would cat sit for me and never see her.  If you tried to pick up her up, you'd lose skin.  In the last few years, though, she became a regular lap kitty and would actually come and greet visitors, instead of hiding under the bed. 

Not completely antisocial

For a long time, she was my healthiest cat, even as old as she was.  She started getting recurring urinary tract infections about six months ago.  We suspected a tumor in her bladder, but couldn't actually see it. The vets told me there wasn't really much we could do about it anyway. She was too old for surgery and chemo doesn't work well on those kinds of tumors, especially in cats.  So we fought the good fight, giving her antibiotics to control the infections and generally trying to make her as comfortable as possible.

She was pretty happy, still eating, drinking, snuggling with me at night, etc. until a couple of days ago.  I took her to the vet yesterday and we were finally able to see the tumor, blocking her bladder.  We could have done things to give her a little more time, but it wouldn't have been quality time, so I decided it was time to let her go.  It  was so hard, but I think it was the right thing to do for her. I miss her already.  I hope she and Lucky are playing with catnip mice and napping together again somewhere.

This is the picture on the vet's calendar for March....

I love you, Ripley.

February is for Finishing

Really short post today.  Lots to do.

I almost finished this little quilt in time to be entered in the first contest but I still had some of the binding to stitch down.



It was a kit I bought at a NEORQC Getaway several years ago.  The fabrics are all batiks and the outer border is a very dark blue/black.  I happened to have a spool of thread with all the colors in it, so I used that to quilt it.  I didn't take a picture of the back.  It's a pinkish purple batik, but for some reason, they added some red/brown splashes on it.  It looks like it's been crumpled up in rust water.  But it came with the kit, and it's the back, so you won't see it much.

Before I get back to my finishing, I'd like to say that cats like grass.

They don't digest it very well, though. Ask me how I know.  Better yet, don't.

Finish in February

One of my knitting friends decided that February is for Finishing. I took a look at the list of of my projects on the right and decided that might not be a bad idea.  Especially since I have a Quilt Camp weekend coming up in a couple of weeks.  The idea is that we work on the projects we already have going and not start anything new. 

I already had plans for a couple of new Knit-Alongs, including starting a pair of Christmas socks at a Super Bowl party and a February Lady sweater on Leap Day. But despite wanting to cast on at least three more sweaters and a pair of socks, I'm not going to start any new projects (other than those two) during the month of February.  And after the Super Bowl, I'll put the new socks in timeout for the rest of the month.

I plan to concentrate on these knitting projects:


A Shalom sweater that I conveniently started last night, purple Stepping Stones socks for my mom, and a pair of plain socks in Destination Yarn's limited edition Vancouver Five Rings yarn.

I'm almost to the heel on the plain socks, so I'm pretty sure I can finish them this month, if I work on them regularly. 

The purple socks are pretty quick knits and I would like to get them done before Mom's birthday in April.  That's definitely doable, if not the end of February.

The sweater is short-sleeved and knit in bulky yarn, so it should go quickly and be a nice change from socks.

I plan to take these quilting projects with me to quilt camp:


The pile on the left is enough blue/green/purple scrap quilt parts to make at least one bed-sized quilt, if not two.  On the right is a small blue/black and bright batik quilt. And of course, there's the neverending Dear Jane quilt.

The only one of these projects I actually think I can finish is the batik quilt top, but I hope to get at least a couple of Dear Jane blocks done and get all of the scrap units sewn, if not squared up.





Meanwhile, I've finished a couple of things.  I was asked to make a sketch pad case and this is what I came up with:

Closed - the ties might need to be shortened a bit

Imagine a sketch book on the right.

I layered the brown fabric over a piece of stiff interfacing that was cut to size and stitched the elastic across it.  I marked the elastic at 1" intervals, but sewed them 3/4" apart, so it would hold the pencils without distorting the case.  The mesh pocket was a bit of a challenge.  I stuck the mesh onto a piece of water soluble stabilizer to keep it from stretching and sewed in the zipper.  Then I drew a rectangle the size I wanted on a piece of tear-away stabilizer (thank goodness for my machine embroidery supplies).  I stitched the mesh to that, with little side puckers to make it roomier.  Then I added pieces of hem tape along the sides to cover the mesh.  Once that was done, I got rid of the stabilizers and stitched it to the inside case.  I double-folded some strips of the brown fabric for the ties and pinned them to the sides.  Then I layered another piece of fabric and interfacing on top of the inner piece and sewed most of the way around, leaving an opening at the bottom to turn it right side out.  Once it was trimmed and turned right side out, I hand stitched the opening closed, and sewed the two lines to mark the spine.  The interfacing was a little wavy from being folded, so I ironed it a bit, then laid it out flat and weighed it down for a few days.  It's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it.  I hope the recipient is.

I also finished my gold mystery socks.

They're pretty comfy

I love the beads in the center of the cables on top

 

And I started another pair of socks.  These are a knit-along,too, but they won't be getting much attention for a while.



In other news, Max has a thing for the alpaca/acrylic blend yarn I'm using for my Shalom Sweater.

"Mmmm..... alpaca......"

I bought an alpaca's worth of yarn from my favorite farm's Fiber CSA.  I have a feeling I'm going to have to keep it locked up.

Miss me?

Did you notice I was gone?  I won't make excuses for the absence - I've been a lazy blogger. I have been crafting, though.

Ethan's Star pattern, from Quiltmaker magazine

First up, I made this quilt for my friend Dawn who's expecting twins any day now.  Jenny, standing behind Dawn, is holding the matching burp cloths that I didn't get a picture of. They're cloth diapers with fabric that matches the quilts sewn down the center.

Wait, did I say quilts, plural?  Well, of course.  Two babies, two quilts.  My friend Michelle made this one.

We found out later that she was going to have monkeys in the babies' room

I think it's upside down, but whatever....

Next, I made this little shrug to go with a dress I bought, but I didn't get a picture the one time I wore them together.  So I took it to the farm and had Andrea take a picture for me.











At the beginning of December, there was a Christmas party with the knitters.  My friend Pretty Knitty Jewelry is a better blogger than I am, so you can check out her blog post about the party here. She and I are the ones with matching socks in the big sock picture.  She couldn't show you the stocking stuffers in her post, but I can.

Lots of wonderful goodies!

Ooooo, shiny!

I made these as my stocking stuffers. They're etched glass ornaments stuffed with wool roving mixed with a little angelina fiber for sparkle. I used six different snowflake stencils for the etching and made several different colors.  I tried to match the color to the recipient and these were the ones I had left over.

A crappy picture in general, but you can see the snowflake.

I whipped up about a dozen of these little pocket pack tissue holders for the doctors and staff at the vet's office.  They all had different dog and cat fabrics, all from my stash.

These two are mine.

There has been knitting, of course.  After I finished the Christmas socks, I cast on these:

Plain sock in Destination Yarn's in Vancouver 2010 Five Rings

When I finished these...

Spring Fern Socks in Knit Picks Stroll Tonals, Springtime

...I started these for my Mom.  Not much to show, yet, I know. But they should go pretty fast. I hope.

Stepping Stones in Sensations Bamboo and Ewe

Falling Leaves in Knit Picks Stroll Tonals in Foliage

Earlier today, I went to the farm again and cast  on these as a new knit-along with my friends, Julie and Ann. I had to rip mine out because I didn't knitting the first couple of rounds tight enough.  I plan to start over as soon as I post this.

While we were together, we took a picture of our last knit-along.  Look familiar?  That yarn is pretty popular this year, I guess.

Plain sock pattern, Wisdom Marathon North Pole yarn in Merry Merry

Well, that about wraps up my year.  I'm off to cast on those socks and drink a toast to the new year. Here's to a happy and healthy 2012.

Blue and Emma say....

Happy New Year!