First Leaf

I do still knit! As evidenced by the completion of my First Leaf Shawl! This project was one of my goals for this year so I'm happy to cross this one off the list.

Pattern: First Leaf by Brenda Patipa

Yarn Lisa Souza TImaru

Colorway: South Pacific

Needles: US6

I didn't get my points blocked uniformly but I'll do better next time and I don't expect it will be really noticeable when wearing. LOVED this yarn. The color repeats are so small that there wasn't any of the big pooling of colors that you sometimes see in hand knits. It didn't split at all either.

As far as that list I mentioned above, I think I may avoid a lot of what's left! There aren't any list police that I've seen lately so I think I'll be pretty safe. Happy Stitches!

My Design Wall...

A few weeks ago I mentioned that we (and I mean Greg) were going to put a design wall up in my sewing room. After a brief delay due to illness, it's up! We did it on the cheap.

We bought sheet insulation from the big box home improvement store. They'll cut it to size for you there. We bought 3 sheets because I wanted it a bit bigger than the size of one sheet and since we mounted it slightly off the wall I wanted two thicknesses for stability. I think they cost about $10 each.

Greg first laid the sheets out in our living room to get an idea how they'd stack together.

After using a bit of white duck tape, Greg glued the sheet insulation together with construction glue. He thinks it was $5-$6 a tube. It dried pretty quickly.

Then we wrapped the flannel around the sheet insulation. I ordered 108" flannel online becauseI didn't want to have to piece it. I think it was $25. The flannel was then taped to the back with duck tape. We could have pulled it a bit more taut.

Since I didn't want it glued directly to the wall, Greg screwed in a very thin piece of wood to the studs ($5) top and bottom and then screwed the design wall into the wood. We covered the screw heads with little pieces of flannel.

Design Wall Complete!

You can see a slight line where the two pieces come together in the bottom half but I didn't want to use duck tape on the top side as I might need to use pins.

I was really glad I went with the flannel (thanks Karen Dianne) as it's held everything I put up there very well, including a small quilt top (one of my Jo's projects that is less than 24" square) without pinning. It measures about 6'x6' so I should be able to keep a lot on it. Maybe I'll finish up some of these projects if they're not out of sight! Right?!

I do have the some sheet insulation left over from having some of the length cut off. It'll be enough for me to make a mini portable design board like Lori uses. Living in Florida, I always have the ceiling fan on and it blows my smaller pieces of fabric around when I have them laid out in block formation.

In stitching news, there isn't any. I haven't stitched in over 3 weeks. Not sure why but I never picked it back up after being sick. I am knitting more and hope to have a picture of a finished project soon. I'm even feeling like casting on for another shawl....see, I'm still a knitter!

Thank you for all your well wishes after being sick. I'm fully recovered now, thankfully, and back in the groove of every day life. I hope all your stitches are happy!

Unintended Hiatus

It's been a few weeks since I posted last. My hiatus was unintended. A couple of Fridays ago I caught some type of stomach virus necessitating an urgent care visit. It was most likely food poisoning and it's taken me some time to recover and to gather up energy for anything other than work.

I have not stitched in over 2 weeks. I just picked up my knitting needles Wednesday (where I immediately messed up my project so bad that I had to rip and rip and rip). I did some sewing last weekend which was my first foray back into my hobbies. When I don't feel well I read - and there hasn't been much of that either. I'm glad to get back to my various needles.

I did pick up my framed HallowEden. My camera settings must have been moved as these pictures are a bit grainy. The linen color is off here as it's a light green in real life. I really enjoyed stitching on this linen.

Not where this will stay but another picture.

A close up of the frame. I've found I enjoy selecting frames, it's fun!

I have been reading blogs posts, just not commenting quite so often. I'll get better at that this week. This weekend I've purposely spent at home - not that I've accomplished much but these days Saturdays seem to be spent on the go and away from my husband. It's been nice to have two whole days with him without any list of things to get accomplished. I hope you all had a great weekend and I hope to have something else to show you soon! Happy Stitches!

A Need and a Special Treat

As many of you know, my husband converted our spare bedroom to a sewing space for me at the end of 2009. It's a small room, after all we have a small house. The room has been more than sufficient for my needs. The one thing I've really wished I've had is a design wall. I've been having some trouble with a fabric choice for my current Jo's Little Women project. So I hammered in a nail, hung a hanger on it and attached a bit of batting creating a makeshift design wall so I could play around. Wow! I can't believe what I've been missing! I sent a quick email to Karen Dianne over at Living Life at LeehHaven about what fabric she uses for her design wall (she has 3 of them). Flannel is now on it's way and a 6x6" design wall will hopefully be part of my sewing space soon!

I decided to cut out 4 fabrics to audition for the center solid blocks. Having this up on the wall all week has helped! I didn't anticipate it, but I'll probably change the setting triangle fabric too. One day it would be nice to feel confident about fabric choices.

I finished the first bonus block of the Anniversaries of the Heart series yesterday at a stitching gathering. This was a quick block - even for me. I stitched most of the border twice. Ugh! Counting is not an over rated skill!

Our sampler guild, The Azalea Sampler Guild, had a special visitor at our last monthly meeting. This link will take you to our visitor's post about the visit. I'll post a couple of my photos later on in the month. Needless to say, it was a very special treat!

Wishing you all a good week and Happy Stitches!

Quick Post...

I finished the second block in the Blackbird Designs Anniversaries of the Heart series recently. I must say that the satin stitch and I are not friends. I stitched that part twice and am not completely pleased. Chain stitch was a first for me. I'm really enjoying this project. I have a feeling that I'll love each block more than the last one. As with the first block, I'm saving the personalization until I have time to sit down and really plan out the entire set of personalizations. I do have some ideas!

Valentine Rose by Blackbird Designs

36 Count Lakeside Linen Vintage Light Examplar

Called for threads - no substitutions