Need Your Organizational Words of Wisdom

First up, my progress on Quakers and Quilts. Half way through chart #4.
I think of Heidi every time I pick up my scissors!

My favorite LQS is closing due to the owners retirement. The shop had been up for sale but a buyer was not found to fit within the required time line. A small section of the shop is devoted to stitching supplies. Everything was half off so I loaded up on Weeks Dye Works and Gentle Arts.

As you can see, I got quite a bit. I know what I'm going to organize it in. But do I do it by name or by color? And what if it's a grey green? Where would that go? So I'm probably going to "file it" by brand and then by name. But if I need a lilac, how do I know where to find one? Or if I have one? Do you keep some kind of master list of your inventory?

I'm trying to have good organizational habits. So help me out. How do you organize your floss/thread/silks? What works for you? What doesn't work for you? Share your words of wisdom with me....I'd really appreciate it!

Mail Call

This past week brought the mail man back to my house with a gift from Simone de Klerk from the Netherlands. She made me this sweet sewing mat! I had not realized how handy it would be to have a thread catcher exactly where you need one! Excuse the poor quality of my photos as they were taken at night. Also, make sure you check out Simone's blog. She is a very talented quilter and stitcher.

I love this!

I've not seen many sewing mats but I love the way Simone made this all one piece. The no slip part is sewn right in.

Simone, thank you so much! I'll think of you every time I sew!

I also received my Quilts for Kids kit. As you can see, the kit comes with the fabric cut out as much as it can be at this point. Some sub-cutting will be required later. All of the fabric is included along with the pattern. This is a wonderful charitable organization. If you're interested, you can request a kit here.

I hope you all have a great week. Happy Stitches!

Another Dyeing Adventure!

Last weekend at Midnight Knit at my LYS, Jane put together another yarn dyeing workshop for us. This time, we painted the yarn. You can find what we did last time here. Here is the table Jane had set up outside for us to work on. Buckets for yarn to soak in, plastic wrap, gloves, dye stock and squeeze bottles. There is also a microwave to cook the yarn so the dye sets.

Here is Jane demonstrating the method.

Ellyse hamming it up for the camera. Not only is she a knitter, she is a wonderful quilter!

Wrapped up and ready to be nuked in the micro. This is my yarn.

Cooling down.

This is my yarn. Since it reminds me of a bruise (the pink is more vibrant in real life), I'm calling it "You Should See the Other Guy".

Everyone had a great time but I neglected to get photos of the other yarns. I find it a lot of fun to learn new ways to do things. It's good for the soul to expand yourself creatively. And time with friends is always good!

Special Delivery

Tuesday the mailman brought me a special delivery all the way from The Netherlands. A few weeks ago, Heidi asked her readers what project we thought she would start next. I happened to guess correctly. Heidi made me this scissor fob for guessing correctly. Isn't it adorable?! I'm a new stitcher and I didn't have a scissor fob. I attached it to my scissors immediately! Check out Heidi's blog - she is a very talented stitcher and quilter.

I love the dragonfly!

Thank you so much Heidi. It's just beautiful!

I'm finally feeling better. After recovering from bronchitis, etc I had a bad reaction to a medication that left me feeling dizzy and nauseous for a couple of days. I finally figured out what could be causing it, stopped taking the medication and felt fine yesterday. I'm hoping to feel like sewing, stitching or knitting a bit tonight. I've missed it!

Mud Anyone?

Yesterday my son and his friend participated in the MS Mud Run. It's a 6 mile military/boot camp style obstacle course run through...you guessed it...mud! Not my idea of fun but Chris and Kristi were game. Here is their "before" shot:

And the after. A bit muddy but they made it!

And a couple of pictures along the way. There were very limited opportunities to see them.

It was fun watching the other participants. The pictures below show some of the obstacles.

This was the scariest to me. Crawling through a mud filled drainage ditch under a road.

On the way back to my car, I had the pleasure of walking with and talking to someone who was living with MS. His daughter, aged 12, was with him and hopes to run in his honor next year. He told me he was 40 years old and his goal was to live as healthily as he could so he would be healthy and strong when a cure was discovered. It was a very touching and emotional conversation. This fun day had a very significant purpose behind it - to raise funds for a cure. I sure hope they find one. And soon.

Saturday I had my second Stitcher's Garden class. We worked on block 2 and I finished it up at home. This months lesson was was edge/top stitching. We top stitched the semi-circles. This block also used some of our decorative stitches to for the applique. I used more blanket stitching that most of the other quilters but that is what I happen to like the best.

I'm still extremely tired and not 100% so there has been very little in the way of other activities. I did win another Advanced Reader Copy on Goodreads. The book I won is Hearts on a String by Kris Radish and it will be offered for sale in May. I hope to start this one soon. If you're on Goodreads, let me know as I'd love to send you a friend request.

I have a busy Saturday planned but I'm looking forward to the weekend! Happy Stitches!

Derailed

I now know why I had the blahs last weekend. I was getting sick with bronchitis, a sinus infection and an ear infection. I missed several days of work and probably should have stayed home Friday as well. I didn't touch my computer for days but I did do a lot of reading when I wasn't sleeping. I'm feeling better but still very tired. The little I've done this weekend has totally worn me out so today is going to be a lazy day! Over a week ago, I did finish my 2nd applique block for the $5 Quilt one of my LQSs is offering. I'm enjoying it.

I'm behind on my sweater class progress but most everyone is. Hopefully I'll get far enough in the next week or so to take a picture of the pattern I selected to go next to the button band. I haven't picked up stitching in almost 2 weeks. I've frogged the area that needed to be frogged and had restitched the lettering but didn't get completely caught up. I'm really behind in my blog reading and hope to get that caught up this afternoon. I know all you guys have been up to some wonderful stuff!

We've entered one of my favorite times of the year. It's warm enough to have the windows open, the sun is shining, and the time has changed so we have long light filled days. This spring season in Florida is short and I enjoy second of it. We actually had to turn our A/C on Thursday because the humidity was so high it was making me cough so much. I'm hoping that since we had a much cooler than normal winter that we have a longer than normal spring. A girl can hope!

A Finish and a New Beginning!

It's not been a productive week or weekend but I did manage to finally finish sewing down the binding on this table runner. It has sat for weeks months waiting for this final bit of attention. I'm glad it's completed and soon to be hanging up waiting for the 2010 fall season. I'm also glad to get to cross this off my WIP list! Whoot!

Pattern: Jingle Jolly Runner by The Happy Zombie
Fabric: Gobble Gobble by Sandy Gervais for Moda

I've started my classes on the Knit to Fit top down raglan sweater. Now I don't begin to think that taking a pattern out of a stitch dictionary and putting it into a project is designing. What it is though is HARD. I pulled out my trusty Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara G. Walker and tried to figure out a motif to go along the button band. My challenge is that I'm using dark yarn and I don't want it to be too big or too small (yes, I'm Goldilocks, I'd like it to be just right). I think I finally figured it out after many experiments. Then I had to restart as my neckline was coming out a bit small and I wanted to change its shape. For this class, you take your measurements so you'll end up with a sweater that is to fit you well. Let's hope that is the case for me!

My manager is on vacation this week so it's going to be hectic/crazy/insane. Combine that with a case of what appears to be a lack of interest in just about anything and I'm guessing there won't be much in the way of fun stuff this week. The only thing that interests me right now is reading. I'm going to go with the flow because I'm the kind of girl that doesn't like to force things. I hope you've had a good weekend. Happy Stitches!

I finished another block in my $5 quilt this past weekend. I did the brown portion of this block first and it was off slightly so it's a bit wavy. I starched the heck out of it and that helped some. Don't you just love starch? I certainly do!

Mary in New York City had a contest on her blog and I won! I won The Knitters Book of Wool which is a great resource and it has some wonderful knitting patterns in it. I'm going to learn a lot more about yarn from this book.

Mary also sent 2 skeins of this wonderful Italian yarn which I've never seen before. The colors are classic "me" - ones that I wear a lot. I'm not sure if this is going to become socks or a scarf.

Mary, thank you so much!

I found a miscount on my Quakers and Quilt. I found it after I took out about 30 stitches and then realized the mistake was in the motif below. UGH! I haven't ripped that out yet. I did give SERIOUS thought to leaving it there but I thought it would take me off track elsewhere. So out it comes...but not tonight. I'm going to leave it for another day.