The blustery night and day

Gosh -have you had the high winds yesterday and today like we have.  Amazing.  I normally don’t hear the wind howling because of the location of my apartment but last night it was so loud and when I came home from work it was amazing how windy it was.

It started out looking like this

 The photo makes it look a bit nicer than it was – since the day started out very overcast and cold and it looked like it could snow….. (did I say snow – well it was in the forecast but I think we have avoided it).  Day before yesterday 75 and I wore sandals to work; yesterday and today – 30’s – I think the sandals have seen their last day of wear for the year but as it was November 17 – it’s still hard to believe it was warm for so long.

A friend came over late morning and we spent several hours in my sewing room working on our projects.

I pulled out my fabrics for one of The Loopy Ewe Monthly Mixer projects.  The one I was working on is for the monthly of August where the challenge is to make something either Olympic related/themed or representing the colors of Rio (in honor of the summer Olympics).

This was my inspiration photo for Rio where I pulled the colors from to choose fabrics.

These are the fabrics I chose to use.

I’m just doing a simple sashed 4-patch block in a positive / negative type style to make a lap quilt.

 

I managed to get twenty-two blocks cut and sewn so far today and need to figure out how many more I want to make.

Here’s the blocks I made today — they are not in their final arrangement — just stuck up on the design wall for the time being until I get the rest of my blocks made.

Happy Saturday Morning!

The sun is shining and even tho it’s a bit chilly out, at least it is brightening up my sewing room.  Could it actually be the days of snow and ice are behind us for a few months? 🙂

Despite the fact that I wasted most of yesterday afternoon looking at Ravelry patterns, I did actually get busy after dinner and knit thru the entire first hank of the handspun for my Quaker Yarn Stretcher.  By then it was 11:00 p.m. or so and I wasn’t in the mood to go pull out the yarn swift and winder to wind the other hank so instead got started on this month’s Knitter’s Gifts blocks.  After debating and changing my mind several times on fabric combinations, I managed to get everything cut and three of my four winter caps are completed; the pieces for the other one are ready and waiting.

There’s something about very simple blocks done in gorgeous batiks that just make me smile when I see them.  The simplicity of the block lets the color-drenched batiks really shine and I love that.

 Ignore the fact that some of them look too close or not centered — that’s just the crop of the photo.

Final reminder about loading your photos of your finished Knitter’s Gifts blocks to the Flickr group.  Later today I’ll do the drawing for the giveaway and if you don’t have photos you won’t be eligible for this month’s drawing 😦 and you know you want one of these totebags. LOL

Life Saver Block Swap update

I updated the LSBS page with the packages received as of last night (mail doesn’t arrive until later  in the day on Saturdays).  Five packages received so far. 

Remember,  if you haven’t already – mail that swap package today! 🙂

I was playing a bit more in EQ with the swap block design.  The first image is the original one I designed for these swap blocks and if you completed this swap, you will be receiving the information on how to complete this quilt design with your swap blocks.

But I haven’t decided if that’s how I’ll actually finish putting together my own swap blocks.  Here’s a couple more ideas I’ve been playing with that I also like.  Then again, there’s probably enough batik fabrics aroud here that I could probably make all three!

City Streets!

It’s design wall monday over at Judy’s blog – such great eye candy so check them all out.    CTS is still on the big design wall. I will get back to that one of these days. But I’ve been busy yesterday and will continue working on today – the Batik Lifesaver swap blocks. These are the ones I had done yesterday – I’ve got about 27 more in various stages and hope to get them all sewn this morning.

  I posted several different colorways of this quilt design, which will be the March quilt for the Stitchin with Justquiltin 2013 project.  The stitch along will be March 16-17, 2013.

I also asked for name suggestions and much thanks and congratulations go to Glenna for coming up with an absolutley perfect name for it — “Reminds me of a taxi in the city. I’d call it “City Streets” cause my eyes just keep moving when I look at it.”

If you take a look at this map of the Capitol Square area here in Madison, you will see why I think it’s so perfect.  (Okay, you need to tilt your head to the left when looking at the map to get the right alignment.  But that pieced block square in the very middle of the quilt  is like where the capitol building is.  It has main roads going out like a “plus” sign in each direction  and it also has roads traveling out on the diagonals.  The next block out (the large square formed by all the dark brown squares) — on the map you will see those roads too – for those who live in Madison, we  refer to it as the “outer square”.  

So I hope you’ll join me in March to make this project named by Glenna.  And as a thank you Glenna – please email me (justquiltin@peoplepc.com) with your full mailing address and I will send you some of my Justquiltin goodies — the mousepad and pen with the Stitchin with Justquiltin 2013 logos on them. 🙂  Sure to be a collectors item some day! ROFLOL

Thanks to all for playing “name that quilt.” 🙂

Are you Stitchin along?

I uploaded the pattern late last evening for Starshine – the first Stitchin with Justquiltin 2013 pattern.  Go to the button for this project.

As promised (and as you will see from the instructions) although it looks like tons of pinwheels that would normally be made with HST, there are actually only about 30 of them.  I don’t mind making HSTs but may people moan over them.  They can be tedious.  But in this design most of what looks like HSTs are actually stitch and flip corners. 

  But how frugal are you with your fabric scraps?  Some days I am and some days they hit the trash.   Since you are stitching and flipping all those corners, once you trim away those two extra layers, you will end up with a bunch of triangles.   Trash them or keep them that is the question.   

In this particular instance, with the size of the pieces being used, I kept them.  I went back later and stitched the diagonal seam and pressed them open and squared them up to 2.5″ HSTs.   If the pieces are smaller than this, I usually just trash them but if I can get a 2.5″ HST, then I’ll usually keep them and stitch them up.

So if you are stitching along on this project, that’s something you may want to think about — do you make the extra HSTs or not.   

Here’s the stack of them that I ended up with.   There are 144 HSts in different fabric combinations but remember, the quilt top I made and posted a photo of a couple days ago was half the size of the original quilt pattern ( only 6 large colored stars).   So if you make the quilt as written, you will end up with twice that many HSts.

What will I do with mine? I haven’t decided.  I may do something with them on the back of the quilt or they may be used in a totally different project.  I want to get them up on the design wall to play with them and the color combinations a bit.

 

On the Needles – Friday, Jan. 18

Many things are on many needles – I still haven’t gathered them all together to figure out my plan of attack for getting the Unfinished Knitty Objects (UKOs) finished.  But the three that I am currently working on are the Drifted Pearls scarf – Camp Loopy 1st Quarter project which you can see HERE in yesterday’s blog post.

Although it doesn’t look like much all scrunched up on the circular needle, here’s how far I am on the Greta vest.

 Both those patterns can be found on Ravelry.

There’s also a pair of SKYP socks I’ve been working on – just another 2″ or so on the foot of the first sock and I’ll be ready to finish that one off.

See what others have on their needles over at Judy’s.

Today, the first day of my 4 day weekend, is off to a slow lazy start.  I got up early, turned on the coffee pot, snuggled up in a chair with a quilt and have been knitting and looking around me thinking what a mess!   But you never want to jump right into that cleaning – you must plan your attack, right? LOL

Spent some time perusing the Hancocks of Paducah catalog – there are too many fabrics that I think — that would be perfect for this project, or that project or……… put down the catalog lady and step away!!  ROFLOL

 No I did not immediately (or as of yet) place an order. LOL  I’m not saying I’m out of the woods yet tho since my current fabric combination love is yellow and gray and there are some oh so pretty shades that I keep thinking wouldn’t one of my bid blocks look so pretty and springy in those  (we’re headed toward single digits next week so I’m trying to think ahead to spring!).   It was a bit disappointing tho that inside the catalog, where they show the fabric line that I designed the quilt pattern for, someone goofed and they gave credit for the “quilt design” (mine) to the “fabric line designer.”  But I’ll get over it – mistakes happen.

So several cups of coffee later, and many more rows knit, I’m still contemplating my plan of attack for the day.  The maid has not come to make me breakfast so I may have to find something myself to eat and  Mother Hubbard has not restocked the pantry so there’s not much to choose from.  (Thank goodness there was coffee!).    So I think another cup of coffee while I figure out a grocery list and then I may actually get dressed and get busy around here.   The only really true plans around here today are to go out to dinner with a friend and then to the grocery store – it’s a vacation day so I don’t want to work toooo hard. 😉

                                                                                                                                                                        

Don’t forget that tomorrow is the first Stitchin with Justquiltin 2013 free project.   Button in the sidebar is the place to find all info on this project.

I haven’t decided yet if I’ll go pull more fabrics for this one in this size or if I’ll just concentrate on getting the smaller version I made last weekend quilted.  I’ve got so many tops waiting to be quilted and I generally don’t repeat making a quilt design even in a different size. 

But remember — in order to qualify for drawings for some of the “Justquiltin swag”, you need to actually stitch along , since at some point in the future I’ll ask you to post comments on a particular blog post with a link to share your progress on a project so we can see some eye candy and what fabrics you are using.

Tote bag, mouse pads, pens — just little goodies to give away.   Okay -time to get seriously busy around here. 

Stashbusting Report 1/13/13

Well it could be worse I suppose. My first stashbusting report had me at 5.5 yards busted. I wasn’t going to add in the fabric that I had ordered before the end of the year but arrived after the beginning of the year – but what the heck. So I added 5 yards into the stash (and there’s another box with Kona black fabric I needed for a block swap and perhaps another piece or two ordered with it coming in the mail this week). So for the 2nd week of 2013 — I’m back down to 1/2 yard busted. Guess that’s better than none! LOL
I have been sewing the last two days but just don’t have the project done yet. But next week I’ll be able to add in the yardage for this small Starshine.

  I need to sew the stars to each other and cut out the border sections and get those pieced but it was really quick to put together.  I should also be able to add in the yardage for the larger Starshine pattern for next weekend’s sew along – if I ever make a decision on what fabric to pull from the stash for it.

As I was looking for something in the sewing room, I opened a little storage drawer that I thought only had fabric scraps organized in it.  Nope — there was knitty stuff on top.

I did not get that red/gold shawl blocked yet — it’s just not a blocking sort of day to me today — too damp, and mostly I haven’t cleaned up the sewing room to give me floor space to work on.  I did however, move that shawl just a bit toward completion since now all the ends are finally buried.  I also pulled the Honey Cowl out of my knitting  basket and buried the ends on that — I don’t think that one needs blocking so it’s ready to wear now and marked DONE!  My second finish of UFK projects – hey it counts even if it as a quick and easy one to finish off.  VBG  And I also found this in that drawer.

   I had totally forgotten about this shawl.  It was made from leftover sock yarns from other projects.  It of course needs a whole bunch of ends woven in (yes I truly hate doing that part) and needs a good blocking.  It’s actually a since large size and very stretchy so it will be interesting to see how big it is once I block it.  So I’ll get the ends done this week some night and perhaps get both those shawls blocked next weekend.

Hmmm wonder how many other started knit projects I have stuct in places I’ve forgotten about….

First Stitchin’ with Justquiltin’ 2013 Project Revealed

Well I’ve made up my mind which project I want to do for the first Stitchin With Justquiltin 2013 project. It will be Starshine. Below are a couple different colorings.  Lite background, dark background, brights, batiks, small prints, patriotic colors, more scrappy or just a two color quilt with a neutral background – they will all look good in this design.  I’d stay away from large prints and also one way designs if you don’t want them upside down.  And for those of you who have an aversion to Half Square Triangles, there are only 32 in the entire quilt so that’s not bad.

This project measures 60″ x 78″ and is definitely beginner friendly.   More info will be coming later this week as to exactly which weekend this one will be done and I may even have some yardage info in advance for you.

Whoooo Are You???

First – I just remembered it’s the first Stashbusting Reporting day on Judy’s blog. And yes!! I actually have something to report!  5.5 Yards busted for the Coloring Outside the Lines quilt top.  Now to get it layered so I can count backing too but that may have to wait until next weekend.  Need to clear off the table so there’s actually room to layer a quilt. 😉  And Yes — waving hand madly in the air — I was one of those people trying to entice her into buy fabric but I found the most perfect fabric for the backing of one of the bird quilts so my telling her about it was just a “public service announcement.” ROFLOL  She stayed strong tho, even when I told her I don’t think any fabric purchased and paid for in 2012, even tho it doesn’t arrive until 2013, does not have to be counted as an addition to the stash since it was paid for last year. 😉  

Whoooo Are You????

One of the bird designs I’ve had floating around in my brain was an Owl.  Remember the Owl from the Tootsie Pop commercials who tried to figure out how many licks to get to the chocolatey center? I suffered from his same weakness — loved the chocolate tootsie pops and never made it to the center without biting them to get there quicker.

Anyway – enough rambling – I woke up this morning with the Owl in my head and decided to see if I could get him drawn up.  I don’t know that he’s finished yet but here he is so far.  I think his name is Egbert – he’s shaped like an egg.

 I never did really get to the laundry yesterday (I did throw one load in around midnight but there’s more to do).  Instead I managed to get the first draft of a pattern for Hoffman Fabrics written — it too, uses one of my bird designs which goes great with the lovely cardinal prints that they do for the holidays (and next year’s holiday fabrics will be no exception).

Just need to double check all that pattern info before sending it off and once that job is done, I can concentrate on writing up one of the blog projects,  either a Strictly for the Birds design or Stitchin with Justquiltin project, so we can get started.

I did get several hours of knitting in late last night so there has been progress on the Greta vest.  It doesn’t look like much right now but it’s progressing.  In addition to the socks I’m also working on, I did a bit of knitting yesterday afternoon on the red linen stitch cowl in my UFK basket.   I love the way it looks like it’s woven rather than knit but it takes longer to make progress since the stitches are more compact.

I picked up fresh blueberries at the store yesterday so I think some blueberry muffins and scrambled eggs would be just about perfect for brunch and while they are baking, a bit of laundry and cleaning and then my plan is to spend the rest of the day sewing or knitting.

 

Which border fabric?

  My original EQ7 drawing had two borders added before the pieced border in basically the colors shown on the right of the quilt — hence the reason I bought those fabrics.  The green IN the quilt  drawing was more lime green and not the darker green I used. 

If you scroll down 4 or so blog posts you’ll see the EQ drawing of the whole quilt.

The fabrics on the right are all from the same fabric line used in the crayons but those specfic fabrics haven’t been used in the quilt.

As I was looking at all of these I decided the first border would actually be the background fabric.  So I cut the strips then hopped back on the computer to see how long they needed to be.  In the meantime I colored in the quilt image with the background fabric replacing the color I had in the first border strip.  It just didn’t look right.  It needs to be the black fabric to sort of rein in all those crayons — back to the cutting table.

So, the next border added will be black – which fabric would you use  for the next plain border, keeping in mind that there will be a pieced border added after that with colors from the center of the quilt.  I think I have already made my decision, but what color would you pick — the bright blue on the left, lime green, raspberry, toast, or blueberry?