Sunday, March 20, 2016

March 20, 2016

Happy First day of Spring

We had 8 inches of snow this week and it was beautiful.  The sun is shinning bright and it is a beautiful day.


Sock Madness

It is official, I am on Team Folo Foxglove.  The pattern for round 2 should be released in the next 48 hours.  Beads and cable needle were mentioned in the supply list.

Round one - Slip Stripe Spiral 
Cascade and yarn that I dyed at SSK


Made a wee mini sweater for a Starfleet project using leftovers from a sock.  I LOVE String Theory Colorworks Continuum Self Striping yarn.



There is a new toy in the house.  A Schacht Mini Loom.


I absolutely love Aplaca with a Twist.  Bought this yarn YEARS ago and made a cable mitten  LOVE how the yarn shows cables.  This is White Dwarf by Amy Miller


A few of us have decided to dig out our "Precious" yarn and finally use it.  So here is my selection of Precious.

I am thinking of making Pretty Thing by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee with the Qiviuk and a Brioche pattern with the grey/blue mink.  With the lace mink, thinking an Orenburg lace pattern.  The green fingering is so pretty but I have not been able to find a pattern that is worthy.



There was a quilt show.  It was the 30th anniversary and in honor several of the members made Dear Jane quilts.  They never really interested me much before, primarily due to the dull colors that are typically used.  There were at least 20 Dear Jane quilts at the show.  My two favorite are below.  Both were made with bright colors.  The rainbow batik is so bright and happy to me and I love the bright with the brown background and the multiple size blocks.  After seeing the show, must admit to the crazy and a desire to make one now.



Went to a quilting retreat.  It was great because it was in the store, so there was no hotel or flight which was nice.  The first project I made was smaller, but wanted to make sure I had at least one finished object.  So I made this little basket.



Spent the rest of the time working on Jelly Stars (Amish Stars)  They took much longer than I expected, but were so much fun.  Now I am trying decide if I want to do a border / with or without cornerstones (thinking of pinwheels from the left overs from making the stars).  So I am putting it in time out while I think about it.



Finished the first and second Block for the Midwest Trail Barn Quilt Block of the Month




Justquiltin is hosting a Quilt Along - Barn Dance.  Finished the first part.


Put the Moda blocks back up on my design wall and was working on that.  It is going to be so big.  WAY too big for my design wall.    I have been taking pictures of the blocks (most of them) and adding them to the placement diagram.  I have all the blocks that are larger than 6" complete and sewn together  So I folded everything up and put it away.  There are 30 of the 6" blocks left to make.  Now that all the big pieces are done and sewn together, I am just going to chip away at the rest.







Sunday, February 21, 2016

February 21, 2016

It’s another beautiful day.  It has been in the 70’s the last few days. 

Feels so great to complete projects. 
This week has been very productive

First up….
Mad Mix Socks by Virpi Tarvo using DEEP stash.  Sheepy Time Knits Panda Feet in the Foggy Dew color way.  The pattern is a mix of many things. It combines carefully chosen pieces of Sock Madness patterns from previous years and joins them into a pair of Mad Mix Socks.


 

Next up....
Circle Mitts by Sybil R using left overs from a pair of socks.  String Theory Colorworks Continuum Self Stripping in the Atmosphere color way.

So they were finished and sitting on the desk and I kept looking at them.  Went back and added ribbing to the top.  I really enjoyed the pattern.  The first one took forever.  Ahemmm, I recommend that you at least skim the entire pattern before casting on.  LOL  The second was very fast.  





On the quilting front....

This was a fast project in honor of Valentines day.  Made it over the weekend.  The pattern is Blended Hearts by Judy Dohrman.  The kit included 16 red fat eights and 16 cream fat eights. Had the white in the stash for the snowballs.  The pattern calls for borders, but since the fabric was not included in the kit, I haven't completed them yet.  The hearts are reversible and I think the beige are difficult to notice.  So, I went ahead and went scrappy on the red hearts but matched up the fabrics on the beige hearts.  I think I spent more time laying out the fabric then actually sewing.  And one tip..... read the pattern to the end.  (Are you finding the theme here)  I was surprised that I was having a bit of a challenge matching up the seams when sewing the rows together.  The half square triangles should be trimmed down after sewing. Didn't catch that until the majority of the rows were put together.




I am trying to be good and not add to the stash, but The Fat Quarter Shop had a great sale that I 
couldn't pass up.  


White and Off-White Solids 12 Pound Grab Bag. 

Turned out to be such a great deal.  It was over 30 yards with the largest cut at 52".  There was one 12" cut, the rest were at least a half-yard.



I am working on The Splendid Sampler
It is 100 blocks that finish to 6" and the QAL is free until March 2017.
The first two blocks were completed with stash. Block 1 used the left overs from Blended Hearts and Block 2 used left overs from Grand Illusion.  Still need to add the embroidery antenna to the little butterflies.





The Local Quilt Shop, Quilter's Stash, is doing a block of the month.   Block 1 completed