A very productive day

Today was very productive.  I made a mug rug out of scraps for next months guild meeting.  I'm very happy with the result.



I also FINALLY sewed the binding on my little quilt that I finished piecing a few years ago.  Now I just need to finish up the other five quilt tops laying around.

And my flower finally bloomed!!

Happy Holidays!!

Happy Holidays!!!

A Spot of Green

I just finished piecing another quilt top (at some point I need to get them all quilted).  The pattern is "Spot" from the Schnibbles by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.  I picked up the pattern a few weeks ago at my LQS, StitchCraft.  I used the charm pack "Classics" in green from the Kaffe Fassett line.  I picked up a few extra fat quarters because the charm pack only had 30 squares and I made 42 squares.  I love the quilt!!! (crappy photo's, I'll have to post better ones)

I found the most adorable fabric online from Bug Fabric.  They have so many cute novelty fabrics.  I bought these cute sheep fat quarters for what else?!?!  Project bags!

And couldn't resist getting this drag racing fabric for my DH.  I plan on making him a pillowcase.



I've also been a bit busy with my knitting this weekend too.  Friday night I finished up the Mary Jane baby booties.

I started a new shawl.  The pattern is Snowflakes & Flowers by Sandra Alice.  I'm using Noro Kureyon Sock yarn in a beautiful colorway that reminds me of fall.

And finally, I just had to share this picture of Ricky.  I guess watching his Mom quilt is just too exhausting for the little man.  He was passed out cold on the couch, snuggled under a blanket.

Project bags!

I've been doing a little sewing the past two days making new project bags for my knitting (you can never have too many!).  I found  a great tutorial online from A Quilting Life blog for a patchwork gift bag.  For the first bag I followed the tutorial step by step.  I used charm squares in my stash and picked up a coordinating fabric at my LQS.  I even quilted the front and back. 



It's very cute, but a little on the small side for most of my knitting projects.  It would probably be great for a sock knitter.  So I made another one with a few modifications.  I made the bag a little wider by doing a 4x5 grid of patchwork and adjusted the measurements on the rest of the pieces.  I didn't add fleece to this one or quilt it so it wouldn't so stiff.  The fabric is from a Robert Kaufman scrap bag with a coordinating fabric picked up at the LQS.  I love how this one turned out and it is the perfect size for my shawl knitting projects.





My new project bag is home to my recent knitting project.  The pattern is Snowflakes and Flowers by Sandra Alice.  I'm knitting it in Noro Kureyon Sock yarn.  I'll post pictures when I'm farther along.

Yesterday morning I also finished my block for the South Florida Modern Quilt Guild block swap next week.  We were to make a holiday themed nine patch block.  I choose Halloween and used the fat quarter that I received in last month's fat quarter swap.

My new knitting bag

This weekend I worked on making myself a new knitting bag as one can never have too many knitting bags.  I used the Jumbo Drawstring Quilted Bag pattern by Carlene Westberg Designs.  I had a charm pack of Terrain fabric from the Kate Spain collection by Moda.  After purchasing some extra from from my favorite LQS I finally started it this past Friday.



I spent the day Friday at the weekly Sit n Sew at Stitch Craft in Boca (my favorite LQS) and worked on piecing the front and back of the bag.  I met a wonderful group of ladies and hope to join them again when I have another Friday off from work.

I decided to quilt the bag with simple straight lines.



I absolutely LOVE this fabric line and am so happy with my finished bag.  I can't wait to start using it as my new knitting bag.





End of week 2:



If you haven't already, please take a moment to help me decide on a quilt block.  Decisions, decisions

Now it's time to work on decorating my Christmas tree.

2011 Cookie Exchange

Last night was the annual cookie exchange with my knit group.  They are such a wonderful group of ladies (and one guy).  They are smart, funny, beautiful and most of all talented.  There was a fabulous spread of cookies, even potato chip cookies!



I went a different route this year and instead of making cookies, I made Mocha Truffles.  I doubled the batch and thought I added extra espresso to really give it that extra punch but I don't think I added enough.  Oh well, they are still really yummy and will definitely give you a sugar high.



It was a fabulous night.  Our host was gracious and her home lovely.  I made some mug rugs from my Celebrate Christmas QAL blocks and gave them out as party favors.



However, the highlight of the night was when Charity presented her party favors.  She brought over a dozen of her beautiful knitted lace shawls for us to choose from.  Thank you, thank you, thank you Charity!!!  It was so generous of you and I'm looking forward to wearing it this winter.

Another DOH!!! moment

For the past couple of weeks I have been working on the Clockwise Crochet Cap by Jennifer Hagan.  I started the hat and was happily crocheting along.  When I was almost to the end I realized there was no way this would ever be a hat.  I thought perhaps my gauge was way off so I ripped it out and started again.  On try number two I was once again happily crocheting along, almost to the end of my yarn thinking if I just stick with it, it will become a hat.  No such luck, it looked like a frisbee and I thought the best I could hope for was to stiffen it and turn it into a bowl.



I sat down last night and really started to look at the hat and slowly go back through the pattern.  I finally realized that I had seven spokes coming out from the center instead of the six called for in the pattern.  I have no idea how I didn't catch this the first two times I made the pattern.  So I ripped it out again and started over carefully.  I'm happy to say that I now see a hat starting to form.  I'm glad I stuck with it, I only hope that when it's finished it will actually fit cause as always, I didn't bother with a gauge swatch.

Decisions, decisions

I can't decide which block I like better.

Option #1:



Option #2:



Please help me decide.  For option #1 click the "funny" button below.  For option #2 click the "interesting" button below.

Soaking up some vitamin D

My little guy loves to sleep in the sunniest spots.  You'd think he was working on his tan.







End of week 1:

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I stayed up last night making pies.  They look so yummy and as happens every year they need to be guarded from my DH.  He always threatens that a piece of pie may go missing overnight.



While the pies were baking last night I finished crocheting a little cap, Boyfriend Beanieby Melissa Horozewski.  I used Universal Yarn Bamboo Sock.  I read that the cap tended to run on the small side, so I made the larger size and went up a hook size but it still turned out too small.  I'm hoping it will fit my youngest niece.  The ssc (shallow/split single crochet stitch) is a bit of pain to do, I can't crochet as fast as I normally do when making this stitch because it's hard to insert the hook into the stitch if your gauge is a little tight.  If I was to make it again I would use an even larger hook and try to crochet very loose.  But I do love the look of the stitch.



On a different note I purchased an Amaryllis bulb at the store last weekend for the holidays.  It's already started sprouting and I can't wait until it fully blooms.

Day 1:

Doing a little crafting

I finished up the Helena sweater I was working on.  It is so gosh, darn cute!



I also finished a little Christmas ornament kit I purchased months ago. 

World Quilt Show 2011 in Palm Beach

Had a blast today at the World Quilt Show in Palm Beach!!

My $1.50 Mini Quilt

A few months ago I purchased a bag of scraps from my LQS.  The bag only cost $3 and was full of scraps from the Kaffe Fassett fabric line.  It was such a fabulous bag of scraps that I only used half of them to make this mini quilt from the book "Paper Pieced Mini Quilts" by Wendy Vosters.  I pieced the top this morning (before breakfast!).  I was going to pick up a fat quarter from the Kaffe Fassett line for the backing, but decided instead to piece the back of the quilt.  I just finished sewing the binding down and my fingers hurt from being poked with the needle.

I'm so loving the bright colors and still have enough fabrics left to do another little quilt!





On the knitting front, I finally finished up a major project I've been working on for a few months.  I'll be posting all the details about it as soon as it's done blocking and I've gifted it to the recipient.  In the meantime, I'm ready to bind off on my Baby Surprise Jacket.  It was a fun knit and I'm probably going to be making a few more.  It doesn't look like much of anything right now, but that's the fun part.  Once I bind off and do the little origami fold on it, sew two seams and viola! a sweater.  I just need to find the perfect buttons for it - I'm hoping to find little watermelons.



And since there are so many babies being born this year, I have more baby items on the needles.  I just started the Helena sweater.  It's a top down raglan with a lace bottom.  Loving it so far.

Need a Medic - STAT!

My machine is officially on the injured list.  The motor just froze up on it, so time to arrange for it to visit the sewing machine doctor.  I'm a bit sad because this means no sewing for awhile, but after speaking to my lovely Mother tonight, she reminded me that I have a serger and I could always drop the knives and fiddle with it to see if I can get a 1/4" seam, it will work to finish sewing all the strips together for my next project until my machine is fixed.

Here's the project that I was working on when my machine crapped out.  It's the Let's Strip It, Majestic Mountain Quilt from 3 Dudes Quilting.  I saw a project that a fellow Raveler posted on a forum and thought it looked pretty cool.  I've had this jelly roll of heart themed fabrics in my stash for awhile so I decided to use that.



The first set of strips is sewn, but then the machine pooped out.



I was lucky though to finish a few projects before machine meltdown.  I finished the next block in the Celebrate Christmas QAL.  I was up early this morning and it took me about 3 hours to complete.



I also sewed the border on my blue batik quilt.



And finally, I made a little Halloween themed project bag for my knitting.  My friend Charity was kind enough to share her pattern with me.  Overall I'm happy with how it turned out.

No better way to spend a rainy day...

...then starting the morning knitting with my friends and the rest of the day quilting.

I almost finished piecing the top of my next quilt:



And I made the next block in the Celebrate Christmas QAL.  These are getting harder to scale down.  Tomorrow I'm going to attempt the next block which is paper-pieced.

Two Needle Socks

I'm not fond of making socks as I don't particularly like DPN's (I always end up with ladders).  I was excited to find a pattern for Two Needle Socks on Ravelry.  The socks are knit flat and there are just three seams to sew up.  I finished knitting sock #1 last night and after watching a few video tutorials on seaming, I seamed up the back of the sock this morning.  I'm very happy with how it turned out.  Now I just need to finish the side seams and start sock #2.





I also started a new quilt project today.  I purchased the fabric a few years ago (original post).  I'm very happy with it so far.