Strictly for the Birds and other free patterns group

Since I started the blog, many people have emailed suggesting or asking that I add a Mr Linky sort of widget so they can share photos of projects made from my patterns.   WordPress.com does not support Mr. Linky.   People would email me photos to load to my blog but (1) most times they forgot to reduce the size of their images and 2 MB or larger photos take too long to download on dial up and I’m simply not patient enough to sit and twiddle my thumbs waiting for them to download or (2) if I load them to my blog, it sucks up my alotted space for uploads and (3) uploading photos for others just sucks up more of my time.  So there hasn’t been a good way for you to share photos of projects you’ve made from my designs unless you include a link to your blog – but not everyone has a blog.

So, when friend Judy mentioned setting up a Flickr group for one of her projects, I thought hmmm perhaps I should set one up for this.  I used to use Webshots for storing photos on line and in the past when I thought about setting up a Flickr group, I just simply didn’t want to have to use yet another site.  But since Webshots is now gone,  Flickr makes sense.

If you’ve never used Flickr – it’s easy to set up a free account for yourself.  Your photos are saved to your computer, you browse to find the one you want to upload, etc.  You need to join the group I set up to share photos of my patterns, and then you chose from your Flickr account which photos you want visible in that group.   The link may let you join right away, but if not and it tells you you need an  invitation, email me privately (rather than leaving  a comment) and I’ll email you the invite link.   Click the link above to join the group and there should be a place for you to request to join – which will generate an automatic notification to me that I will then need to approve.

This way – whether you have a blog or not – it will be easy to see all the photos at any time, rather than having to go comment by comment to check out links.  And, it will make it lots easier for me to do giveaways.  🙂   For instance, I could decide that the 6th image someone posts of their finished top for Livin’ The Tweet Life would win one of the highly coveted Strictly for the Birds mouse pads….. I could, or maybe the 10th photo no matter what pattern it is receives the very rare (since I only ordered two and one is for me) Stitchin with Justquiltin tote bags.  You just never know when a give away may happen.

Feel free to upload photos of any of my patterns you have made, whether they are current ones or past free ones or  BOMs, TQP only patterns,  patterns I’ve designed for Hoffman California Fabrics, patterns sold at EQ Boutique or my designs that were published.  I’d love to see your interpretation of them.

And it makes it much more satisfying to see actual images and know that some is actually MAKING the free patterns, etc  I offer and that I’m not just wasting my time writing them up cause I clearly have many things I could be doing instead. LOL     For instance,  Livin’ the Tweet Life was downloaded close to 800 times but if at the end of the year I see only 3 people have actually posted photos of it, then I will probably reconsider whether or not or now often I offer free patterns.  Clearly not every pattern is for every person but it will give me an idea of what kind of pattern people generally like etc too.  800 downloads is great, but I’m not really interested in how many people are saving them to make “someday” – since for many people that “someday” pile only grows. LOL  So seeing photos that people are actually making some of the projects offered will help keep the free patterns coming. 🙂 but mostly it’s just fun to see the fabrics people chose, if they decided to make changes to the design etc.  Like are you one of those people who  when making a pattern usually chooses colors similar to what is shown in the pattern or do you march to the beat of your own drummer.   So share those photos please!  I started it off by loading the original EQ image of Livin’ the Tweet Life, along with my versions I made of it — The Spotted Crow  and Beady Eye.

Stashbusting, Silent Goal KAL and quilting progress

The stashbusting report — there IS a finished project to add into the totals FINALLY!!!  I’ve been procrastinating and had less than a quarter of this quilt to finish the meander quilting on. It’s sat weeks but I finally decided today was the day.   The quitling is done!.  There are threads to be clipped, pins to be removed and I need to figure out just what the heck I’m making binding out of since I don’t think I have enough of any of those fabrics left. LOL  But “Madison Square Gardens”  is finally done!  Now if I could only find the EQ fie to figure out how much yardage I used!    A search has not turned it up so I think I must have dumped it off onto a disk – that search will continue later so I’ll just have to wait to add my totals in next week.  But fabric has been used and none has been bought – so things are moving in the right direction!

I think I didn’t rename the EQ file to the name I gave this quilt and that’s why I can’t easily find it. Duh.  I do need to find it so I can finish writing up the pattern.  This is one that is headed to EQ Boutique.  It’s an easy pattern and it’s great for using those larger prints that you don’t want to chop up a lot.   I’m hoping to get the binding made and attached so I can hand sew it down this week.  This particular quilt may end up as my Komen Fund donation quilt this year but I do have some other fabrics I bought with that auction in mind so I’ll have to wait and see.
Silent Goal Mystery KAL spoiler alert!

 

 

I was cruising along last night.  Once I got the yarn wound for the Silent Goal KAL and started over with my new color choices, I made great progress.  Clue 1 – the multicolored part is complete.  I started on clue 2 — you can see the solidy looking gold down the left hand side — this clue adds on to just that side of the project I’ve got a couple more rows and then it switches to a different color.   The shawl info says it’s a striped shawl and the stripes will be starting in this clue.    I’m am loving these yarns together so am glad I decided to restart – twice no less – to get the right combination.

 

Smushed!

First there were these yummy, albeit a bit large, buns fresh out of the oven. They smell wonderful. I think I said previously I was making half wheat bread — if so wrong. I’m making half rye (half white bread flour/half rye flour).  Once those were out of the oven, time to put the loaf of bread in.

I was moving something by the stove and there’s a candle that sits there that was in my way. As I was moving it to the other side of the stove…… butterfingers (literally) Whoops!!

I did say a few bad words. So now that loaf is reshaped  again and rising once again. So this messes up my dinner timing since the oven temp for the bread is higher than what I had planned for dinner so I think rather than making the chicken (which isn’t actually totally thawed out anyway) I’ll save that for tomorrow night and tonight I’ll be making me a hamburger to go on one of those great smelling buns. Have you ever tried cream cheese and black olives on top of your burger? — my favorite.

Now to go wind that yarn and wait for that bread to rise!

Rip Rip Rip

Third time is a charm right?  I started the Silent Goal KAL Mystery shawl with one multicolored yarn but then didn’t find any good choices in the stash for the other colors I needed to go with it.  So, I changed the multicolored yarn I was using.  The mailman just brought my Box of Fun from TLE and I like the colors I ordered but the goldy color is more gold than yellow and the multicolor – although it looks sort of goldy in this particular photo – is actually more light yellow — think baby pastel yellow.   I know it would bug me if I continued on with these colors so, since I’m only halfway through clue 1, I’ll be pulling that back off the needles again. LOL    I’m in no hurry and I’d rather fix it now than hate it later.

I am thinking I may need to set that multicolor aside — wouldn’t it make a pretty baby “something”.  I don’t know anyone having a baby right now but there’s nieces in the family so  I can put away whatever I make for one of them.

Anyway …. back to the stash I went to find a multicolor that would go with the blues and gold.  I think I found the perfect one.  The color combination in the new multicolored hank wasn’t really thrilling me to make a pair of socks out of. It’s got alpaca in it and it looks “fuzzier” than my other sock yarns and it needs to be hand washed.  I figured it would continue to look fuzzier  and I don’t hand wash my socks so using it for the shawl will be much better than socks.

Here’s the FINAL color combination — I’m sticking with these!!  It’s got several shades of gold and both shades of blue in it so I think it will be perfect (tho I’ve said that before) LOL

So now hopefully I can get an hour or so of knitting in before I start dinner.  I have a loaf of half whole wheat bread nearly finished rising and a pan of six very large  buns now baking in the oven.    Made some homemade lime and honey salad dressing – pretty tasty if I do say so myself and have done a couple loads of laundry and I had gone to the grocery store.  I think that’s more than enough work for one day!

Snowbirds – Winter Wishes Collection

  If you like my bird designs, you may want to check out the Hoffman California Fabrics website for my Snowbirds design I created for their Winter Wishes fabric collection.  The pattern is now available for download. The Winter Wishes collection starts arriving in quilt shops in May.

I have a glut of wintery/christmas fabrics in the stash – some gorgeous larger prints (several the Hoffman Cardinals from past years similar to the new ones here) that just don’t look as good chopped up so this would be a great pattern for those types of fabrics – to let the larger prints be showcased in the simple blocks.  I think I may have to set aside a weekend next month to work on this one.

A finish, a start, and a trip to the store

I spent last evening knitting.    A pair of socks finished…..  these are just my basic sock pattern –  in Berroco Sox, 75% superwash and 25% nylon and the color is #1477.

and a new pair started……… I decided to use the Basket Weave Rib Socks by Sara Ronchetti .   If you look at the pattern you can see the stitch texture better  – it doesn’t show up well in the photo with my more mottled yarn but a true solid would really show it off.  It’s a super simple stitch pattern to remember – just two different rows and each row is repeated twice before switching to the other one.  After a couple rows, I could easily tell what I should be doing next by looking at my stitches. I love patterns like that for those times you just don’t want to have to be marking off rows and constantly checking a pattern.  I did alter it just a bit — adding a few more stitches to get it to the size sock I want.

Now what to work on next — a weekend when I really had nothing I needed to do for a change.  I think I may get some bread started and then go back to the mystery shawl.  I timed it right when I ordered the additional yarn I needed.  When I order from The Loopy Ewe – I order one day and normally two days later it’s here like clockwork.  So when I changed it to have it delivered to me at home rather than work since it “should” come that day if all went well.  Just checked the USPS site and yes indeed, it’s out for delivery.  So I need to get that first mystery shawl clue finished so I’ll be ready to start the second clue when the yarn I’m waiting on arrives.

 I did make a quick trip to the grocery store this a.m. since “someone”  used the emergency supply of soda and hadn’t replaced it yet.  I need my soda as much as I need my coffee so I had to rectify that situation.  And it is a “nice” winter day – according to my perspective .  The sun is shining – blindingly against the snow – and it’s got to be somewhere between 25 and 30 degrees. And the ice has melted off the sidewalks so it’s not treacherous to venture out to the bus stop.

And bonus at the grocery store- I’ve been very jealous of some of my southern friends who have been picking fresh asparagus from their gardens — my all time favorite vegetable.  And for the two months or more, asparagus has been $3.99 a pound at the store.  Highway robbery and as much as I love it I definitely boycott it at that price.  Today $1.88 a pound, that’s about as cheap as it ever gets here so it was well worth the trip to the store and I can eat fresh asparagus all week. Yummm so tonight for dinner (yes I’m actually going to cook, and cook enough to have leftovers that I can put in the freezer) fresh asparagus, Chabis Chicken – a recipe from a friend that sounds delicious, perhaps some roasted potatoes (yams and regular potatoes mixed) or maybe a salad since I’ve been wanting to make a lime dressing that my brother had made when I was there which was delicious.  My mouth is watering already.  We won’t mention the other “bonus” at the grocery store…. those oreo cookies with the yellow “spring” colored filling in them…………and we won’t mention them because it’s impolite to talk with your mouth full of cookie. 😉

Now to decide what kind of bread to make.

Batik swap update

Blocks did not get in the mail this week.  It was too dang cold and snowy and I was not trudging to the post office when it was 20 below. 🙂  But a heat wave is arriving — at least 30 degrees above zero this coming week — whoopee!!  Yes I know it’s all relative – there are those of you shivering when I say it’s going to be 30 and I’m thinking how warm it will be — after all, that’s a 50 degree difference compared to earlier this week!  LOL  So I’ll get the packages back out to you before the end of the upcoming week.

What’s On the Needles – Feb. 22, 2013

 Here’s my plain jane socks — this is the second  of the pair and I’m on the final toe decreases so it will get finished off tonight.   The blue yarn next to it is going to be my next pair of socks.  It’s Caper Sock, a yarn that Judy introduced me to, which is wonderful and the color is actually more dark aqua than it appears.  It’s called Laguna.  So I need to decide what pattern I want to use – something new that I haven’t made before I think.

 

I started over on the mystery shawl KAL I started on earlier this week.  It’s called Silent Goal Shawl.  I discovered I was making my M1R (make 1 right) wrong! LOL  But the KAL group had a link to a video and I figured out what I was doing wrong and now am back on track.  I also decided to switch the yarn I was using.

 

   Here’s one of the colors I’m using — very pale.  I’m making the 4 color shawl – there are several options as to how many different colors you can use.  I couldn’t find anything with enough yardage in the stash for the other colors so yesterday I did place an order to TLE – a Box of Fun is headed my way.    The other colors will be a pretty yellow and then a blue about the shade in the multicolored yarn and then a darker shade of blue in the same color family.   I’m still on clue 1 and am about half way to the final stitch count I need for the first clue but it’s simply easy knitting.  The second clue came out today but I need to wait for my yarn to arrive.

See what everyone else has on or off their needles over at Judy’s.

A bit of knitting

I grabbed my knitting bag this morning with the latest sock so I had it to work on during my bus ride to work and home.  I got on the bus, opened my tote bag — dang, no knitting bag.  I remembered picking it up and grabbing the sock from where I had been knitting last night.  So all day I’ve been wondering, did I set it back down before I left the house?  Did I lose it after I walked out of the house? I didn’t think so.  WHEW – there it was laying on the floor beneath where my tote bag had been sitting.  I remembered grabbing my keys as I was dropping the knitting in the tote and clearly I missed the mark and didn’t notice.  Crisis averted.  I would have been very sad to lose a sock and a half plus the fun bag that a friend had made for me.

So here’s the sock (which I didn’t get to work on today – man was that bus ride boring!)  I’m halfway through the foot on the second sock which is good since that skein of yarn is dwindling.  I just love the colors in these.

The second photo started out as mittens.  I was making the Cruiser pattern by Cailyn Meyer (Ravelry).    I really like the way the cable travels to make inverted vees.  They are really intuitive once you do the first cable.    They have an unusal thumb – check out the pattern.  It’s very interesting and easy to do but as I started knitting a few rows of the thumb I decided I really do like the fit of mittens that have a true thumb gussett — I’m picky about my mittens and since I wear mittens 5-6 months out of a year, I know what I like.  So I changed them to fingerless mitts instead.    I pulled this one out of the UFO bin to finish and somewhere the other one is already completed so I need to track it down.  But they are done and I even remembered to put the thumb on the correct side of the other one. LOL  Most of the mittens I make are plain so you don’t have to reverse the thumb so I was really afraid I’d mess these up but managed not to.  I may have to use the cable design on my “usual” plain jane mitten pattern with a thumb gussett. It’s just such a pretty texture.

So another item to add to my Sticks ‘n Strings page — must be time to do a bit of updating there since I think there’ a couple finishes I haven’t added.  So far I think I’m doing okay with the “finish an item before starting an item” challenge I gave myself.  I don’t think I have too many “new items” on the needles.  I have a pretty good pile of “finished” items — once I spend part of a day blocking them all.  How are you doing with your Sticks ‘n Strings challenge?  I will admit I have had yarn in several carts recently but, whew, came to my senses and deleted the cart.   Oh the pressure ….. a month and a half and no new yarn!   and that dang Judy – she keeps getting all those Boxes of Fun!  ROFLOL

There was a shawl mystery KAL I was going to do about two months ago — I still plan to make that one (now that I have seen the mystery unveiled I think I may change my yarn choices tho — it has knit fringe and I wasn’t sure I’d like it but the finished shawls are lovely) but I did just join a new shawl mystery KAL that started today.  It will be interesting — the designer is German so the message board comments (which is mostly showing what yarns people are using and commenting on them) is mostly in German but there are several who try to post in both German and English so those of us who don’t speak German don’t feel left out. :-).  Anyway, I’m headed to the yarn stash to see what colors I want to use.  It’s offered in three sizes and I think I’m going to make the largest, which is definitely large, but big shawls are the best when you can wrap yourself all up in them.  I think I’ll be using some of the yarns I originally chose for the first KAL — that was a striped shawl and this one will be too so I just need to see if the yardage is right.

And the winner is…..

Susan a/k/a Patchkat with her name suggestion for the stained glass looking quilt.   Congratulations!

patchkat

Given my nature and the battle with the big “C” stuff…this pattern just glows

with hope and promise. My official entry is “Let it Shine”……

 

“Let It Shine”  the perfect name I was looking for.   Of course then she also wondered what it would look like without the black background – since she clearly realized her request that I make it up in black and send it to her fell on deaf ears. ROFLOL.  Well no I won’t recolor every design just cause someone asks to see it in a different color but there are a few good friends I will do it for. 🙂 So here you go – the design in some lighter colors rather than the black background.  I like the look with the black but I have made so many black quilts over the years and now have the Lifesaver one to put together, that starting a new black quilt doesn’t really appeal to me so I’d probably make mine in some lighter background too which will really make all those batiks “shine”.   I just did a quick swap of colors so some of them inside the quilt changed too but these are just to show you how the lighter backgrounds might look.