Not So Scary!

I'm so excited to show you these zipped pouches that I made - my very first ones!  To be honest, zippers have always intimidated me.  Seriously intimidated me.  I decided long ago that Michelle's Dumpling Bag tutorial would be a good beginner project.   So I sat down and read the directions thoroughly and followed them carefully.  And I did it!!!  It didn't kill me either!

These are both the smaller version of the Dumpling Bag.  Not perfect but I'm happy with this first attempt!

And what's any girl who sews zippers supposed to do?  Start a zipper stash (from ZipIt) of course!

Now I'm going to go dance around the house while opening and closing the zippers that work perfectly!  Happy Stitches to you all!

Weekending

I had a chance to spend some time in my sewing room this weekend.   I was supposed to go on retreat but felt that my foot (with achilles tendonitis) probably wouldn't do well with so many hours of being on the foot pedal.  I was right.  I had a good time on my own though - just not as much of it.  I was able to get this block sewn together this afternoon.  This is a large block - 22" or 24" from a BOM from 2012 from the Michael Miller Clubhouse BOM.

In the past week, I've also spent some time cutting out the monthly blocks and labeling the segments. This has taken a lot of time but I'll be happy it's done later.  I'm up to month 9.  The quilt shown to the far right (the red and white version) in the photo is the version I'm making. 

I'm glad that there are a lot of scraps left over!  I have mis-cut a couple of times.  The fabric included is generally either a WOF cut or a fat quarter so my mis-cuts haven't been a problem thankfully.  My scraps drawers are going to welcome this red polka dot!  The white fabric is a white on white polka dot.  I love a nice dotted fabric!

I've also been knitting - primarily on The Follow Your Arrow Mystery Knit Along project hosted by Ysolda Teague.  Week 4 clue is out tomorrow morning and I have just 2 rows left on Clue 3.  I'm surprised I'm keeping up!  The yarn is MadelineTosh Tosh Merino Light in the Venetian colorway which is a deeper purple than shown in this photo.

On my last post, I offered up some HST's...they'll be going out to Dortha this week!

While I've not posted (Blogger has been fighting me with photos) lately, I have been doing better about using my free time more wisely.  That's mainly showing up in my knitting.  I also spent some time this weekend searching for a Blackbird Designs Stocking that I had stitched.  Clearly it's in a really safe place.  Ugh!  

What did you do this weekend?  I hope you had a chance to do something fun.  Thank you for your visits, your comments, and your inspiration!  Happy Stitches!

I Said I Was Knitting!

On New Years Eve, I finished this Monster Cowl.  I knit it as part of The Suburban's Stitcher's KAL on Ravelry.  It's really much prettier than it looks.  You can get the details on the yarn in this post.  Though looking back at that post I am reminded that I decided that I didn't like the gray.  Not the color, but the fabric.  So I pulled everything out and started with a new gray.  This time the same type of yarn in the gold and the garnet stripes.  It'll be cold enough tomorrow for me to wear this.  It will be appropriate since there is the day of a certain big game!  Go Noles!

I also started a new cowl, this one is the Duotone Cowl.  The cowl is knit as a tube then joined in the round when completed via the kitchner stitch.  The striping sequence reverses itself half way around too.  I watched the Craftsy Class Ins and Outs of Grafting.  It's FREE right now and was super helpful in understanding what is actually happening.  I am not a Craftsy affiliate, just passing along the info.  

 

Duotone Cowl by Orange Flower Yarn

MadelineTosh Tosh DK in the Dirty Panther and Dove Colorways

I've not sewn a stitch in weeks - before Thanksgiving.  I did, however, go into my sewing room to clean up a bit today.  Anyone interested in these HST's?  There are 144 of them and they're 2.5".  If more than one person is interested, I'll draw for it.  I got them in a swap and time to give them a home that can use them!

Have a great week, stay warm, and may all your stitches be happy!

From a Friend

So sorry to have been absent from blogland for the past few weeks.  The short holiday prep season has kept us busy.  

I was so touched a week or so ago to receive a surprise in the mail from Annette at California Stitcher.  If you don't know Annette, she is such a sweetie and very creative.

When I opened up the package I was seriously tickled to see the tag "Joy" that she made.  Last month, she posted about her and her sister making these.  I fell in love with them. This one is currently residing on my tree and I'll think of Annette every time I see it.

Inside were a bunch of goodies to include a handmade card - again seriously gorgeous!

And a beautiful needlebook that I'm currently using.

I love the little special bits inside!

The patchwork back is simply darling!

Thank you Annette!  I really appreciate and value our friendship!

Here is a rather washed out picture of the placemats I sent my brother.  The colors are much more saturated.  His home is full of earth tones so they'll work for them.  I've already heard from him (I just tied a ribbon around them) and he mentioned that they must have taken a lot of thread.  That tells me that he really did look at them and think about them being made for him.  I quilted straight lines 1/2" apart so they would hold up well to frequent washing.

Wishing you all a safe and happy holiday!  As 2013 closes, I want to let you all know how much your  visits, your comments, your creativity and your friendship means to me.  I am inspired by you daily.  I never expected to form friendships when I began this little venture.  It's been an unexpected and  very appreciated gift.  Looking forward to 2014! 

Last Quilt of the Year and Possibly Starting Over

I've been working to finish a couple of quilting projects this year.  A few weeks ago, I received a quilt back from the quilter so it was time to do some binding.  I have an AccuQuilt Go that I haven't used a whole lot.  So as I've had projects I can use it on, I've been pulling out this book I won from Gene and am getting to know how to use this machine.  This book has been a wonderful resource in getting over my fear of trying something new.

My least favorite part of quilting is cutting out fabric.  For the binding, I used the 2.25" strip die which made short work of cutting the fabric.  I like using this size for binding.  It helps with getting a full binding.

Literally within minutes I had accurately cut all the binding strips at 2.25".  I only had to sub-cut sections to run through the cutter and I didn't need to be accurate.   I also cut off the selvedge before using the cutter.  I was very pleased with the results.   The strips in the photo below were spot on accurate.  They just look a little wonky because they shifted when I took off the cutting mat.  Very little waste as well - maybe a total of 2" which is probably less than I would have wasted cutting with a rotary cutter.

A short while later I had a roll of binding.  Isn't there something cute about binding rolled up?

You may remember this quilt - it took me forever to assemble the top!  It was quilted by Mary at Quilt Hollow.  Mary refers to the quilting as Frosting - which I think is so cute and very appropriate.  She was SUPER fast, easy to work with and extremely reasonable in pricing.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any close ups of the quilting but you can see here that she used a swirly type quilting. I didn't want anything holiday themed or flowers.  I told her I wanted something resembling wind.  She did a great job and I'd certainly use her again!

On the knitting front, I think I'm going to rip out my Monster Cowl and start over.  The light gray yarn I was using is a slightly different weight than the gold and garnet colored yarn.  It's hard to tell in this photo but there is some puckering in this project.  I think because the light gray yarn is a lighter weight.  So I bought the darker gray yarn and knit a few rows.  See how the projects starts to bow out?  I think that confirms my thoughts.  I don't want to have to aggressively block this to get it to lay flat.  Any knitters have any opinions about this?

I did push a few buttons at Eat Sleep Knit on Black Friday.  They have the BEST customer service ever.  With over 1000 online orders on Friday,  they still got my yarn to me Monday.  I definitely want to visit this shop in person and should be able to do so next year.

Bottom row left to right:
Cephalopod Yarns - Beastie - The Hound of Bonacville
Madelinetosh - Tosh DK Yarn - Dirty Panther
Madelinetosh - Tosh DK Yarn - Dove/Subtle (discontinued)
Top row Left to right:
Madelinetosh - Tosh Lace Yarn - Cobalt
SweetGeorgia Yarns - Tough Love Sock - Spruce

There may or may not be some Plucky and Wollmeise on its way to me too.  

In stitching news, I have planned out and received the supplies for two New Years starts.  I took care of that last month.  I figured if I didn't that it would get pushed back to far with the activities surrounding getting ready for the holiday.  Have you planned any new projects for the new year?  

I hope that in the flurry of getting ready for the holiday that each of you have some time to do the things that we love to do.  Thank you for your visits and for the inspiration!