Fun With Photos

I took a knitting class, my first ever on Monday. Currently I have a 10" by 2 1/2" piece. It was supposed to be a scarf, but it's grown a bit to much the wrong way. So I'm going to let this one be a baby doll blanket for my daughter for Christmas. I've learned so much already (including what I was doing wrong to make it get so long!!!) And I went to the thrift store with my mom yesterday and she bought me a longer set of knitting needles, so instead of using the short 8's I'm now using the long 8's, it's working so much better for being able to see what I'm doing and thereby correct my mistakes. :) We also went and looked at yarn at Joann's, did you know most yarn is acrylic? I didn't know that. Mom and I also found some amazing alternatives, they had wool, but I'll allergic so I don't think I'll be using that kind, but they also had 100% cotton that was nice, and 100% bamboo that was simply amazing to touch. I even found one that was 60% or so cotton and 30% corn! Who knew right? Let me guess all my wonderful readers knew all of this already, well I didn't. I'm planning on making a scarf to send overseas to Soldier's Angels, there are so many amazing colors and choices! I keep practicing so that my stitches will be good enough to give to someone else. My little Stash Swap Angel Doll is done, Rob my DH added her halo two days ago now and she looks just amazing. She is a bit older than I thought she would be, but all that watching out for people must wear on her.
Winter has Sprung, and all my kitties are up for any and all stunts. I couldn't resist snapping this shot of Sunny with his Winter Maine Coon Fur Coat coming back in, funny how much smaller he looked in photos I took over the Summer! Even mom said he looks huge the other day. Oh for the Record Sunny only tips the scale to 12 pounds, and he turned four this past Summer so we're not expecting anymore growth from him.

I'm working on a Row Robin. Where each member adds one row to the quilt. Instead of going around and around as with Round Robins for a Row Robin you only have to make one row for each member in your group. I'm planning each group to have 6 people, and starting right after the Christmas Holiday, so everyone can take advantage of super holiday fabric savings. This is mainly based out of the Quilting forum, but since I'm running it I'm willing to open it up a bit to others I know if they're interested. There's lots more writing about it, and I currently have one big quilt group and one small quilt group open. The deadline for sign up is Dec. 24th. If your interested contact me and I can share the rest of the details for you. I'm considering the fabric behind my daughter which was bought for a completely different purpose for one of my Row Robins. Me? Oh I'm planning on throwing in for whatever size needs another person to balance it.

The best UFO Ever

This time of the year makes me want to reach back through the curtain of time and pull forward things that are important to me. Perhaps it's the chill in the air. I know that's certainly what did it this time.
This is the quilt my mom started working on when I was little. I have memories of all of her files with fabrics in each one. Every time she would work on her quilt I would beg her to make one for me. So she did. Mine was patchwork animals done on the sewing machine. Backed with my mom's favorite bed sheet when she was a child. Talk about a higher quality of fabrics back then. It has since been through me and then my youngest sister, who somewhere along the way decided it was hers I don't know how. That seemed to happen with many quilts in our home, and eventually it was loved unto death. Sad but sometimes children do this.

Now back to the quilt my mom was working on. The technique you see on the leaves I now know to be hand turned needle point. Pretty isn't it? Trust me if you could see the tiny little stitches you'd be amazed much as I was when I pulled it out. Fresh with my newly acquired quilting knowledge. The stems of the leaves are hand embroidered. She began hand quilting this on a quilting frame my Grandfather made out of Cherry Wood, just for my mom. Life happened and she was remarried and things sort of slipped past. The quilt remained a UFO (unfinished object) for many years, but then I announced my engagement in at the end of 2002, and my mom pulled out this quilt. She had the name of an Amish lady who would finish quilts for you. The Amish lady set aside her other quilts to have my quilt done in the Spring when my mom came down here to help with the last of the planning. She wrapped up the quilt and gave it to me as a bridal shower gift.

That was such a moving day. I was beside myself that she would give me something she worked so hard on for so long. It was her special quilt, and now it's my special quilt. It's one of our winter quilts because the batting it a bit heavier than you'd like on the bed in the summer time. This year was the first year it was put on the bed with my special Christmas Flannel Sheets. Just in time for our little bout of cold. I did work on the free standing lace, but I only took one photo, I guess it didn't occur to me to take anymore. Boohoo I know. Last but not least is an update on the rag rug. You can see it here. I've run out of rope and need to get more. It would be fine as a play rug in front of a doll house but as you can see it needs a bit more to really work for a runner next to the bed. Jessica thought she was being so silly like that crowding into the photo. Oh what would I do without my little snot?

And now I'm off to an online baby shower. I've never attended one before, so hopefully it will be wonderful. The mommy to be received my gifts earlier in the week and has been waiting to open them till today. I sent her a whole bunch of stuff, if only because I changed my mind after I bought some stuff and then made different stuff, and ended up sending it all to her anyway. I know silly me, but it makes for a nice plump box. :)

Isn't my baby getting so big?

Butterfly Bouquet Done! (flimsy)

Butterfly Bouquet Quilt Top is done! I think it looks so pretty, and quite a bit like I measured for the drop, (that's the part that hangs off the bed) but I didn't it just turned out that way. Those are indeed rosebud blocks that traverse around the center, I used the measurements I remembered from Eleanor Burns "Quilt in a Day -Egg Money Quilts", but somehow they weren't the correct measurements so one bud is a bit more "bud-like" than the other. Ah well, I bet you wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't pointed it out. Here you can see the the Redwork I did along the sides, yes my redwork is blue, but since this is the "blue quilt" I thought it would look just fine. Each corner has a butterfly, just as the butterflies appear over the center of the quilt. You can just see this one here on the bottom corner.

The center says it's made for my sister for Christmas so she can have flowers everyday. If you've been reading about this quilt, you know I've had various pitfalls along it's creation, just think how happy I am to see it laid out this way for the first time. Now the Butterfly Bouquet Quilt was intended to be a two sided quilt, from the moment I started the second side, so here is a reminder of what the first side looks like. It's so pretty in it's own right I hate to call it a back. I saw a wall hanging using this style of charms and lattice, and I really do like it. It creates an amazingly quick quilt, with the longest efforts going into selecting the fabric and cutting, which since the pieces are 17.5" is no big deal. I would be more than willing to say that this side of the Butterfly Bouquet Quilt would be perfect for a beginner.

I wrapped up this morning after I spilled my coffee all over the sewing machine case for the Brother, of course the foot pedal, disks, the manual - all sorts of important things were inside, the coffee managed to run into the storage compartment as well, but I'm here to tell you I'm so very glad the sewing machine WASN'T in it's case! I'm not sure what the rest of the day holds, hopefully the creation of some FSL (free standing lace) is in the cards.

Advent

I've made another advent calender. I'm not certain if I'll be keeping this one. I really didn't like it when I was working on the Old English font, but I stuck with it, and I'm pretty happy with the results. This first one is how it looks on December first. All those pretty prairie points sticking out are reclaimed denim from Jessica's baby Jeans. Reduce and Reuse! Of course the one below is what it looks like on Christmas day. I suppose they could be swapped and done the other way around. I'm planning on putting good quality chocolate in each of the little pockets, one for everyday. I'm certain Jessica will really love something like that. Every time she walks past this one she talks about how pretty it is. The background is natural muslin and the red is leftovers from the red star quilt. Of course I put a label on the back.


I hope everyone is doing well. We're keeping things quiet here, it was a good sized weekend for my mom's birthday, I do hope she had a good time, it certainly seemed okay.

Tonight DH is cooking, his garlic smells just like onions, not certain if I should complain or just enjoy the fact that I'm not cooking... HHMMM the later for now.

Just Keep Sewin'

Good Morning! At least it's morning here. Hopefully your day is as pretty outside as mine is.
I've been working on my first rag rug. It will be a present for my husband for his side of the bed. I'm planning it to be a nice little runner size. Already our cat Kitty thinks it's wonderful, she tried to sleep on it last night and when she found it full of pins she slept on the unpinned ropes instead.
Since the Red Star Quilt wont be ready for this weekend, I went ahead and made a little matching pillow. It was leftover baby clothing from Jessica's Gift from the Heart Quilt, so all I had to do was sew it together. No cutting to make my rib yelp. :) The inspiration for the entire red star quilt and pillow is shown there next to the pillow. This is the one and only time they will be together. These were my first machine sewed buttons and button holes. I really like the contrast. The backing material is the same mini roses white on white of the big quilt and I think they will look great on a bed together.

The Red quilt is currently rolled up into a tub waiting to be basted, so I can't show you them together right now. The good news is as long as I don't have to lie down I'm not feeling awful.

So the sewing project for today is to make a bit more progress on the rag rug and tomorrow I'm off to see about finding a Color Wonder Paint Brush Set for Jessica for Christmas. Hey of all the commercials she might see and want something from I'm not up for denying her a paint set. Currently they are buy one get one free at Toys R Us, but they couldn't seem to find any on the shelves when I called about it yesterday. Time will tell.