Grace's Knits N Stitches

Brioche Begins

2012-01-13T05:02:00.001-05:00

I finallly got my head wrapped around the brioche stitch, or got my head unstuffed enough to just TRY it! The attempt was ... interesting ... to say the least, but i frogged it and tried again. I also did a wee bit more clicking and research and found another pattern that made more sense to me. Don't get me wrong, the orginal pattern i had found was decent enough, but I think she went to far to explain things - and made it harder than it needed to be. This other pattern I found at Fireflower Knits made way more sense to me for some reason. Maybe because she laid out it with simple knit directions without the explanation. It was nice to be able to start the pattern without having to read a full page of explanations that came before they needed to. (Hmmm - maybe that's why i had such an issue with my Seafoam Flower sweater - it was over explained, and didn't have instructions where they needed to be ...food for thought there). This specific line was my personal lifesaver "Edited to add: Slip all stitches purlwise with yarn held in front throughout."

The stitch itself is pretty mindless and creates its own rhythym once you get going - granted i needed to keep my eyes on what i was doing because of the yarn overs. The brioche stitch itself is 3 stitches (sl 1, YO, K2TOG), and each row starts and ends with a K stitch. Easy Peasy!

As you can see in my pic (go ahead and click, it'll open in a new window), I got the first cable started - and also shifted my stitches over by one :( ... not even gonna try and tink (reverse knit) this, and i'll just frog it and start it again - this bit here took me less than an hour to do, so I'm thinking it's going to knit up pretty fast. Back to the cable part - she has you slip the stitches to your cable needle, then slip them back - not to sure WHY this needs to be done .. im thinking that's where i shifted my stitches over is doing that .. ah well .. I'm excited and pretty pleased so far, even though Im gonna have to frog it and start again ..

Im doing this with Red Heart Super Soft in Royal Purple with US 10s

Phase II

2012-01-09T12:45:00.001-05:00

The first attempt went well with using the medium sized shallow bowl, but it still wasn't quite big enough, so the next step was a dinner plate. Had to really sweet talk it to get it over the plate and the whole while i was saying, "Thank God I didn't drop any stitches' LOL ... if i had, I would've seen them then LOL ...
I put this on the dinner plate last nite, re-sprayed it with my spray bottle - this am it was damp on the underside that was resting on the towel, so its been flipped and just waiting for it to dry out totally before i try it again :) I think its gonna be okay :D woot woot woot .. now to decide on the scarf .. course you know i've changed my mind on it LOL

Blocked Salvage Attempt

2012-01-08T21:55:00.001-05:00

I've decided to try n salvage my poor beanie beret ... blocking should hopefully fix this. Granted it IS acrylic yarn, but should be able to be shaped regardless. I used a shallow bowl that we use for pasta or chicken caesar salads, force-fed it onto the bowl and wet the edges, and dampened the rest. I know i should prolly apply heat, but will battle that later. Let's see if this happens to work at all this way. Keep ur fingers crossed for me please <3

umm .. blech n yuck :(

2012-01-08T19:21:00.001-05:00

Nope, do NOT like how this turned out at all! Doesn't look like the pattern pic at all ... and of course i think to look at the project pictures that other members posted AFTER i finished. Seems that im not the only one that ended up with this funky shape :S This isn't a pattern that naturally shapes into a beret like the one i wrote does, but has to be blocked over a plate .. if this was done in a wool blend, then that would be an awesome idea .. but its 100% pure acrylic ..
So off to ravelry i go again to find an actual beret, i've enough of this yarn kicking round that i should be able to make up another one as this one used maybe ½ the skein. And worse comes to worse, i can ditch one of the scarf patterns i had picked. Maybe I won't need to do two scarves, if i manage to find another beret pattern i like that uses worsted / aran weight yarn.
im just so disappointed that this turned out this way. I know i followed the pattern exactly and i knit to gauge, so not an issue at my end .. // kicks desk and sulks a bit :'(

I'm going to block this and see how it turns out .. can't be any worse than it is now, right?? Off to find a bowl / plate i can use for this .. ahhh i know ...the shallow bowls we use for pasta should be perfect me thinks :D

Free Lush Lacy Mitts Pattern

2012-01-05T00:10:00.001-05:00

I just love this pattern from Sweaterbabe. Matter of fact i love most of her work .. absolutely amazing stuff and shes on ravelry too! I found her a few years ago while hunting for a unique sweater pattern - and all her stuff is unique! She works with a lot of texture and cables - which ya'll know i LOVE! I'm on her mailing list and just wanted to share these mitts with you. these are going into my queue on ravery :)

At any rate, here's the requirements for this pattern - please visit her site to download the pattern :)

Lush Lacy Mitts PDF Knitting Pattern
My Lovely Lace Fingerless Gloves were inspired by my love of vintage lace and desire to have a quick knit gift project!

I’ve always loved the elegance of fancy evening gloves that feature many pearl buttons running down the wrist and forearm. So chic and ladylike, but not wearable for every day.

I designed these with an opening at the back, so it could then be adorned with fancy beads or pretty buttons for the faux button closure. The bonus was that the first half of this project could be worked quickly and easily on straight needles before needing to switch to DPNs (which I tolerate, but aren’t my favorite, ha ha).

The lace pattern is a lovely double leaf lace that was the perfect number of stitches to achieve the all-over lace design. Limiting myself to one ball was also a fun challenge and a great way to attack my stash and make room for new yarns..

See the Web-Letter from Classic Elite yarns about this free pattern.

These photos taken by Meg Myers of Classic Elite yarns.

Finished Size(s): Adult M: approx 7" circumference unstretched, and 8" long.

Skill Level:

Yarn Used: Classic Elite Lush (50% Angora/50% Wool); 1.75 oz/50g (123 yd/112m) per hank: 1 hank in color #4407 Thistle

Gauge(s):
Pattern Gauge: 13 stitches = approx 3 1/2" [9 cm] in Lace Stitch patt on Size 9 [5.5mm] needles.
Yarn Label Gauge and Information: A medium, worsted weight yarn in a soft angora/wool blend with a gauge of 4 sts = 1" on size 8-9 needles.

Total Yardage Required: 123 yds [112 m].

Some suggested yarn substitutes to try:
If you have a yarn substitute to suggest for this project, email us!

Knitting Needles Used: Knitting needles and dpn in size US 9
(5.5 mm) or size to obtain gauge.

* * *
Please note: SweaterBabe.com patterns are authorized for home use only and are not to be knit/crocheted for resale. All pattern sales are final.

Decreases Started

2012-01-03T22:08:00.001-05:00

Cables Started

2011-12-31T02:04:00.001-05:00

Finally making some progress!! And im enjoying getting back to knitting too! I'm not as fond of this pattern as i thought i would be - i tend to like more detailed and textured patterns, but this isn't to bad ... most of my friends think im crazy because i like working cables :D Im thinking im going to have to do 3 repeats of the base pattern instead of 2, because of the amount of hair i have. Figure one cable set is 3" roughly and it twice it might be to snug of a fit ... just have to see when i get that far .. maybe later on today???

Fingers Twitching

2011-12-27T01:11:00.005-05:00

Forgive me blog, for i have sinned. It’s been 1 ¹/₂ years since my last post :| Hard to believe its been that long, but it has .. oi vay! Where has the time gone! It seems so much longer since my last post, but according to my blog - last post was june 8, 2010 - but before that it was Feb 1, 2010, so almost 2 years really .. now that feels right!
But i’m back .. bought some more yarn (I srsly need a scarf n hat) I saw my hat n scarf not that long ago, but of course when i go to use them ... they aren’t there :| So - I bought more yarn and have picked my patterns for a beret hat and a really nice lacy type scarf.
I've had both of these in my queue forever tho on ravelry. Beckett Beret Pattern and since i couldn’t decide on what scarf, im making both of these - Double Day Flower Scarf and Agave Scarf. I wished that the designer of the hat or scarf had made a pattern for its mate .. but course not, so i got to pick ones that were close enough to the other.

The yarn i got is soooo soft and of course its purple ;) i bought 3 100g skeins and each should take up 1 skein each :D i've a few other patterns in my queue that i would rather do, but they aren't the right weight (i swear i'm cursed LOL) but im thinking these are close enough in pattern that they should compliment each other nicely! I've pulled out my needles for the hat. I prefer to use circulars and to make sure i'm not pulling it to tight, i use 2 circs :) I could use DPNs, but meh ... i prefer the circs - just easier all around to use. I was hoping to start this tonite - i prolly still could, but would be up all night knitting if i did that .. heh ..not that I've never done THAT before! Im thinking with the YOs and the cabling it shouldn't take me more than a day or two to get the beret done once i get back into the groove of knitting again .. and the scarf shouldn't take much longer than that. i was gonna do mittens, but not sure bout the casting off at the fingers as i like the combination glove / mitten kind ... i find that extra bit tends to keep your fingers that wee bit warmer :) and i can have finger mobility when needed .. i'm telling you i suffered a bit last winter with having to take my gloves off while txting ...bloody touch screens LOL really dont want to have to live thru that again .. so gloves might take me a wee bit longer .. I think im gonna need another skein .. or i give up on one of the scarves .. hmmm .. naw .. another skein works for me

updated 12.29.11 - I've grabbed another skein and lucky me it was the same dye lot! Last one mind you, but i've got it at least .. so i'm hoping to make the beret, scarf (at least one) and a pair of mittens ;)

Time and my game plan has passed ...

2010-06-08T16:47:00.001-04:00

No matter what kind of notes you make for yourself, if you don't touch a project for 4 months, you essentially have to start from the beginning to figure out where exactly you are .. and even then you might not figure it out :| // sigh

Just after the New Year, life got busy for myself and my friends; one bought a house and moved, another was involved in a belly dancing show and i had my own personal health issues that were taking over aspects of my life. So the fun stuff gets put away for a while.

fast forward 4 months ...

Knatter is back!!!! W00t w00t w00t .. I'm just beyond tickled, seems like forever since i've seen my friends (and i work with one) Needless to say, the first knatter all we did was graze and talk all nite - i think i pulled my knitting out the bag, but can't say for sure ..

The following week, I pulled out my knitting, took a look at where i was, and started to scratch my head .. i knew where i was, but what was i supposed to do now?? Figured it out, did a row or two yes it took me almost all nite to figure it out .. , then had the same issue the following week, and the one after that .. so pfft .. i give up .. start again ..

If you remember this pattern has been having me scratch my head from day one! They say this pattern is written in american english, but not sure what america they are talking about .. some of the terminology ...

so a painful decision was reached .. frog the side and start again .. this time i'll be doing both sides together so I can do the same thing immediately on each side .. I normally do that, but I was afraid I would start going backwards or the wrong way with the cabling pattern. Boy did that get me far LOL

Anywho .. this is now frogged, and at tonite's knatter, I'll be casting on again - but with two sides!

Tinking Frogs ...

2010-02-01T14:11:00.005-05:00

Now that got your attention didn't it? And you're prolly thinking, knowing grace, this is going to make some sort of twisted sense .. and believe me .. it does .. honestly!!!

You've prolly guessed the frog part since I've been working on my sweater using recycled yarn, but the tinking you might not have figured out yet!

I've been working on my winter seafoam flower (ravelry project link) and while the left side when up in no time flat, the right was problematic-ish .. I got both the right side and left side, joined in the middle and one piece when I realized what they meant by ... work as follows from RS: 3 garter sts, M.1 ... on both the left and right back pieces .. when you join the pieces together you get ... 6 garter sts, M.4 ... // sigh .. ah well .. froggy went to market and I started both pieces again .. while prolly no one but me would have notice .. the fact that I noticed was enough ..

I got the left side all done with no incident and started on the right side .. noticed something I missed maybe 5 rows in ... rippit rippit rippit rippit again ... started again, got halfway thru when I noticed that I had added an extra cable twist .. AAAAAARRRRRHHHHHHGGGGGGG .. so rippit rippit rippit rippit again ..

FINALLY - the right side is done with a few missed garter st .. at this point .. i'll live with it me thinks .. and if someone is looking that closely at that location, it's not my knitting they are checking out // znerk!! ahem .. anywho ..

I got the sides down and joined up ... I've not sewn in the back flower yet, I'll wait for that, just in case I change my mind about ripping that ..

My latest quandry comes from this particular direction .. "AT THE SAME TIME ... inc 1 st each side by K 2 sts in the last but one st, and repeat the inc on .... " I understand that I need to increase each side .. but am totally wondering What K2 stitches???? The pattern link is here and this is the section titled BACK PIECE after the CROCHET FLOWER and LEFT and RIGHT SIDE sections .. section starts out with "BACK PIECE: Slip the 2 back pieces on the same needle with pattern towards pattern = 66-72-80-88-98-108 sts. Continue as follows: 1 edge st " .. oh and if you need to know . i'm making the XL size ... Any ideas? Help? Interpretations????

Now for the 'tinking' part .. i was reading an article in either knitting daily or interweave online .. not sure what one .. but the author was discussing her frogging skills, but also talked about reversed knitting which she coined as tink .. as that's knit spelt backwards .. how clever is that!

AHA ... found it!

I decided to read a bit further on and found this sentence in the FRONT instructions just a wee bit further down the page ...
DECREASES AND INCREASES: At the same time when piece measures 3 cm / 1 1/8'' dec at the side as described for back piece and when piece measures 22 cm / 8 3/4'' inc at the side as described for back piece. When all dec and inc are complete there are 42-46-50-54-58-64 sts on needle.

So I do my increases at the edges :D .. w00t w00t ..

Winter Seafoam Flower

2010-01-25T21:04:00.003-05:00

My previous post shared my adventures with recycled yarn - and this is the project that I'll be using it for .. this sweater is just soooo gorgeous and I've been drooling over it for the past few months waiting to be able to start this for Restitch 2010 (I've made a group on Ravelry for it that you are more than welcome to join - Ravelery members click here

Today I struggled with crochet, and I've not done any in 20 years since I made a blanket for my new born Godson ... then it was like 11 years before that that I crocheted .. oi vay! Talk about getting frustrated!! But I hit up the videos on Garn Studios and got the flower section on the back done in just a few hours .. I had a few back up and restarts (yes this means I frogged!!), I see a few spots where I'm like .. Hmmm??? .. but all in all, I'm very happy with it

The Drops Design patterns have always been a wee bit intimidating for me, but I'm biting the bullet and just forging ahead .. i'm a smart woman and I can figure this out ... taking my own advice of 'one line at a time' should be my mantra for this pattern.

I think once i get over the (**shudders) of charts and the not so simplistic language in the pattern, I'll be fine .. I made it thru the crochet flower back piece ..so the rest should be workable! It seems easier now than when I first started, so I can't see it getting any harder .. I know .. famous last words!! heh .... But if I have to frog - I frog .. only way to learn :)

Wish me luck!!

Recycling Yarn- continued :)

2010-01-25T19:25:00.015-05:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I would have pics and my adventure with recycling a thrift store sweater. Helpful tips n hints found here.

We left off with my yarn being BOTH DK and worsted weight and me trying this to see I could even the gauge out by using the above-mentioned tutorial. After unraveling the sweater I ended up with several balls of yarn ..

First thing I needed to do was get all this yarn into same size pieces .. using 2 chairs, that measure a yarn on one side, I wrapped it round the chairs 50 time to make up 100 yard hanks. Look like shrubs don't they? This was how they looked after I took them off the chairs. I ended up with 17 hanks of 100 yards each with a some left over that I hadn't frogged off the sweater.

So following the directions I did the soak for a bit with shampoo, then dried as best I could then do the fling about and hang .. one thing she neglected to mention that this flinging was an Olympic event .. ESH! .. I flung and flinged and flung and flinged for a good 15 - 20 mins and I didn't see any serious straightening out of my yarn .. so i gave up and just hung it up and weighted it down with soup cans..

Now I've a thought on why I didn't see any straightening .. in her tutorial she used a yarn that was 100% wool, I've not clue what the fibre content is in this yarn, but I'm betting it's acrylic 100%. So that could have a lot to do with why it didn't straighten out like hers did ..

BUT ever notice how there's always a BUT

It did go from super poodle curly, to just having a relaxed wave instead ... and I could live with that .. as my main goal for this experiment was to see if my yarn would go back to being worsted and it did!!!! So here I was with having worsted weight yarn, mildly wavey, but it was all worsted! It knitted up to gauge and I was able to start my sweater today .. got the crochet back done and have started the battle of the back and reading charts :D So far so good and only 3 frog sessions .. but that's okay .. it was only 4 rows over 28 stitches - heh

So here's 1 2oz ball of 100 yards of gorgeous worsted weight yarn. 11 more are still hanging in my shower waiting to totally dry so I can wind them up in my pull balls :D videos here for pull skein and more

Even tho they aren't straight, they are all worsted weight - I can certainly live with that! You can see in this picture here that all the strands are the same weight :D Mission Accomplished

Restitch - GO!!!

2010-01-24T16:04:00.003-05:00

Restitch 2010 is now underway! The official kick-off has started. If you've not hit your thrift shop of choice, dark closet corner, relative's closet - now's the time to head there :) ... I got a start with my Looping Chalices hat and the Dripping Chalices scarf using the cold weather and no decent stuff in my yarn stash as an excuse :D .. worked for me heh .. umm let me define decent .. nothing that wasn't marled, swirled or black .. marled / swirled yarns have the nasty habit of losing your decorative stitches and I really didn't want to use black ... it's so hard to see to work with. So i frogged the sweater I bought at Value Village and balled it up for my hat and scarf.

Quick chat on the scarf .. Popsicle Scarf pattern on ravelry written by Purple Sage - it had just the right look to nicely compliment my Looping Chalices hat. It was a quick and easy knit to do, even tho I found it tedious at times, it was still super easy and quick to make .. the M1 and then dropping that stitch 7 rows later is a perfect change. This scarf is actually taller than me and I'm 5' 3". It's nice and warm - and the pattern allows it to be almost a reversible scarf.

For my first (well second ... third!) project I picked this gorgeous sweater from Drops Design - DROPS Jacket with cable and lace pattern and crochet triangle on back piece. I've always been a wee bit intimidated by their patterns, but was definitely taking the plunge! I just fell in love with this pattern and am itching to try it! I think even if I supremely goof it, it'll still look stunning .. LOL

A friend from work gave me a sweater that doesn't fit her boyfriend - unless he was a gorilla, and this man is NOT a gorilla. AWESOME!! Ooodles n ooodles of yarn there .. Gorgeous seafoam green worsted weight. Got to Knatter on Wednesday nite and had my balls of yarn all ready to go, pattern printed .. just had to do my test swatch and I was off .. heh .. so I thought. I did my first swatch with the 8s that the pattern calls for .. it was small .. so i jumped up a needle size to 9s ..that was small too **scratches heads ... thinks a bit .. hmmmmm The pattern calls for 2 strands of DK yarn with it being 12 wpi (worsted) and 17 sts / 4 in (also worsted). I'm generally a gauge knitter .. I did NOT want to go up to 10s .. not with YO and cables being in this pattern .. I had visions of my hoodie or NOT sweater skitter across my brain .. so I looked at the yarn .. Gina had a skein of worsted on the couch so I compared the strands .. well geeze o pete .. bloodyhell .. ** kicks the table .. rolls eyes Bet you already know what I saw and quickly figured out. Since the yarn was kinked from being knitted, it was alternately DK and worsted weight. **bangs head So this yarn in essense wasn't DK or worsted .. it was technically both. When I did my hat and scarf, it didn't matter what the gauge was, so I took no notice of it so to speak .. but gauge matters in this pattern ..

BUT

You knew there was a but .. there always is .. heheheheheheheheh ... Helene had found this site on steps to take when you buy a sweater from a thrift shop and the best way to get it unraveled and unkinked. While I had already read it, I didn't do the soak, fling and hang part of it . ... So that's my current step in my project ..

Oh the link?? Recycle Yarn from Thrift Store Sweater I'm half way thru my yarn and have pics and an adventure with it .. like you would expect anything else .. I'll be posting about that one later with my observations and finished 'yarn' :D Talk to you soon!

Pattern Published

2010-01-06T18:15:00.002-05:00

I did it .. managed to get it typed out and it even still manages to make sense :D

You can find the pattern at Chalices Hat Pattern along with pdf links for your convenience ..

For Ravelry users it's been added to my designs .. G's Stitches

Looping Chalices

2010-01-05T16:17:00.009-05:00

After a false start and a really twitty error, I finally got my hat for ME finished. On the chunky cable beret I used the wrong weight. For some stooopid reason I thought that I had a worsted weight yarn while it was a double knit / sport weight. So I was lucky it was big enough to be considered a beanie LOL .. I'll do that one again, with the proper weight yarn.

Now back to the main topic .. my hat .. I wanted a hat that would hold the rat's nest that I call hair in a manageable fashion as well as a hat that wouldn't make me look like a total git .. me and hats .. ICK!! We just do NOT get along - They are not flattering to me in the least - not even ball hats .. So i was looking for a slouchy type beret hat that would cover all these requirements for me .. I sort of found one, but you know how that worked out, so I decided to flip thru a stitch dictionary I have 440 More Knitting Stitches and found a few all over lace patterns that I liked so a swatching I went.

Horseshoe

Chalice

Oriel

I really liked the horseshoe and the chalice .. the Oriel .. well that was wrong on so many different levels it wasn't funny . something with my yarn over or yarn over needle went wonky .. so that one was out for the time being .. But I opted for the Chalice pattern .. I found it to be delicate and with this specific yarn the details still stood out enough to make out ..

It only took a few day to do, even with some back stitching as i was easily distracted (Oh look, a shiny thing! plus contending with my back again .. But I really do like it and it looks pretty nice on me surprisingly enough!! I was worried that I would look like Toad from Super Mario Brothers, Princess Zelda, but I really don't! Reg rather giggles a bit when he sees it at first .. heartless bugger, but I think that he's more doing that to get under my skin than it looks really awful ..

it IS warm!! I've to write the pattern out to put on FiberBabble pattern Blog as well as make a scarf for me .. I can call this one a success :D

Re-stitch 2010 ...

2009-12-28T18:55:00.008-05:00

Just a wee bit early for me .. I was watching the mercury drop and drop and drop as it got colder and colder for that week before Christmas .. so i went digging for patterns .. found some beauties, then dove into my stash .. hmmmm - okay this isn't going to work .. i've stripes, marls, marbles - or black .. i do NOT want black .. grumbles ..what to do ... what to do ... AHA! I know it's only early December, but why can't I start my Recycle project a wee bit early .. find a sweater, frog it and then make a hat n scarf :D w00t w00t w00t .. i'm so clever!! heh

Let's take a few steps back here .. i've an issue with hats ... they look like garbage on me .. even ball hats look horrid .. so I don't wear them .. when we had a car, earwarmers were great .. but no car this year .. soooo - i have a choice .. freeze my kazots off, or buckle and find a hat .. what i decided on was a type of beret / slouch hat .. large enough to hold the rat's nest i call hair, and classy enough I might not look like a total git in it! Then I would make a scarf that matches .. found some really nice ones and added them to my scarf queue ..

So off to the local thrift shop .. I found 2 beauties to use .. and started with the plum coloured one since it matches the dark trim on my coat .. i've a lavender coat so this does look good .. only concern it's a fuzzy type yarn .. but that's cool .. makes life a wee bit tricky to knit with at times .. but I'll adapt :D First off I took off the collar and then started to work on the hood .. next victim was a sleeve ... Now I had more than enough to do a hat (I didn't frog the collar - just the hood and sleeve) at this point and that's all I needed to jump in both feet without looking.

I start working on a chunky cabled beret ... knitted up great .. now I did this double stranded and my cast on was too tight, so that made the ribbing band TIGHT .. easy enough to fix .. rung the needles thru the ribbing stitches, unravel it to the needles and do a ribbing w larger needles :D Awesome plan .. but for some reason it ended up small .. I put it on my husband goes .. you look like the Pope ... :O I put it on and show my friend helene and told her what reg said .. she laughed and said .. well you do! LMAO .. oi vay! I knit it to gauge CRAP!!!!! So froggy came visiting and took my Pope beanie away .. You do realize that's the second project that i've frogged at starbucks .. altho that would've been frogged regardless .. so while frogging I had my stitch dictionary with me and started to look thru the panels .. and then I had a nova thought ...

I decided that I would write my own pattern that would fit my rat's nest and go from there .. and it would have a matching scarf to go with it :D Since the yarn is fuzzy, I've opted to do test swatches of the panels I like the best and decide how they look in this yarn and see how they knit up with this weight yarn at this gauge ... So far - one is done .. the horseshoe panel - done over 2 panels and the pattern 3 times ..

Once I post this, I'll be starting on the next panel .. I hope to have even a quick pic and blurb to put up for both of them before the end of the week .. but please do not hold your breath .. time hits a warp around me lately and runs off at mach 9 .. seriously .. where does it bloody well go!?!?!

anywho .. wish me luck and I do plan to have fun on it .. we do have a community site ready to launch soon .. keep an eye on this page for future announcements ..

OMG .. I am such a freeeken twit! Yes I know .. you've heard this before .. well twit for brains here started to look at the yarn she was using .. now, while the swatch knitted up to gauge that was with me doing double stranded knitting for the first time AND my tension was rather wibbly .. so of course as I get used to it .. it evens out .. so of course the beret wouldn't fit .. i was using worsted and NOT bulky .. oi vay .. some days i should seriously lock myself away for sharp objects .. pfft

Bobbles Bibbled n Bammed!

2009-12-28T16:49:00.009-05:00

Wow it's been a bit since i've had the time to sit down and collect my thoughts for a blog post .. errr at least one that makes sense of sorts. :\ .. Well the GOOD thing about not posting in a bit is that I've a lot to share at least ..

BOBBLE CARDI:
is FINALLY done .. I didn't break any land speed records getting it there either .. Just took my time .. the 'slowest' part of finishing was thinking bout the zipper .. the one i bought was to long .. it matched perfectly, and was separating .. so I knew I had to fidge it somehow .. Now if mum was still alive, she would have been able to say .. oh do this .. but she isn't - so I had to dredge my memory (rather a deep scary place at times!!) and then ask my 96 yo grandmother if I was on the right track - she may be 96 but she's still sharp as a tack with a wicked sense of humour LMAO .. love my gma!!! She gave me the answer i needed in order to go ahead with confidence - (now i'm wishing i had taken pics of this .. :( )

Line up the bottom as usual; the take the excess at the top and fold it over and then cut. Then securely lock stitch / zig zag it into place .. now there could be an issue of the zipper tape unraveling with the cut .. I've cut it with pinking sheers .. if that proves to not work, the n I'll do some interfacing / zigzag stitching .. but it's all done .. a wee bit boob snug, but this hasn't been washed yet, and I know it will relax in the wash and over time with wear .. Ravelry members you can access my notes on the project page.

Just a few pics to show what it looks like .. doing this I broke 2 needles and refreshed my knowledge of profanity in several different languages .. stooopid thread ... it was a perfect match .. as well as a the main ingredient for frustration .. it's now in the trash and i changed threads / colours and the rest of it stitched up zippy quick ROFL ..

To see what else I've got bubbling in my brain .. I've sent up another post with my plots n plans ...

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and are looking forward to the coming year with joy and eagerness :)

zip zoom bang ...

2009-11-18T19:47:00.003-05:00

Heh ... that's what it feels like .. that I'm zooming along at mach 1 induced speeds doing the st st for the main part of the sweater! I knew that i was going to fly when I got the st st part of the sweater, which is 90% of it I'd say .. the 'ribbing' is the texture and bobbles, and there's a bit of that at the wrists and the button band .. i'm still saving that as my escape hatch for size considerations .. the pattern calls for buttons and a button band .. but I do have that zipper that I bought for the belated hoodie or NOT .. and it does match this just bout perfectly too! So I do have the option of turning this into a zipper cardi .. or doing the button and adding some 'room' if need be ..

Yes I'm all paranoid about the size on this .. can't say I blame me after the fiasco of the last one .. and my math was right! This time I'm just going to totally avoid it by following the pattern as close as I can with little or no modifications.

Once the back is done, then there's the front to do, then the sleeves .. and I'll do my normal trick of doing both sleeves at the same time .. that way I can copy my mistakes from sleeve to sleeve .. and no I'm not about to be stupid enough to ask .. what kind of a mistake can I make in just st st .. heh .. yeah right ..i am sooooo NOT going there ..

As for the recycled materials project, my friend Gina is developing an online community for it where we are going to have chat if I understood her correctly, email, photo albums and everything .. this is just going to be awesome! She's working like a fiend on it, has trashed it at least twice so far because she wasn't happy with it LOL .. poor gina ..

Just a recap .. we've expanded the challenge to include any project that you want to do .. the only requirement is that MUST be a recycled material - meaning got from the thrift store, dragged out of your husbands (or your) closet, attic, basement where ever you may find it - so have fun hunting and digging for your materials for the 2010 challenge .. and you can make as many projects as you want!

Thank you

2009-11-11T15:54:00.005-05:00

I want to say Thank You to all the men and women that have given their life for their country so that we can remain free. With special thanx to my great-grandfather, Gavin Lambie WWI (deceased), my grandfather, John Lambie WWII (deceased), my step-father Phillip Dmetroshko Viet Nam.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

2010 Challenge - Recycling

2009-11-09T13:45:00.004-05:00

I've a few other projects on the burner (the one i've plotted for my red yarn specifically - I'm really excited about that one, but that can wait ... for now ;) ), including a huge scheme for 2010. Now you've either run away screaming or are listening intently.

While i was hunting around for the rest of my costume for Hallowe'en, I saw sweaters at the thrift shop .. pretty nice shades of green that I liked .. and I thought .. I bet I could frog this and re-use this yarn for something that **I** like instead of someone's cast off .. (blinding nova light moment .. ) Well geeze why can't I?? so the mental plotting began .. but I didn't want to do this alone ... this seems like the perfect thing to do with your friends .. thrift shop shopping, frogging and knitting!! Yeah i was a wee bit pumped on it

I mentioned it to my one friend, Helene and she really likes the idea and is almost as excited as I am about it! Another friend of ours (Gina) was out of town and we've not had a chance to mention it to her yet, but I'm sure that she'll get kick out of it and be in full speed ahead .. (update .. Gina's in ;) )

I want to invite anyone that wants to recycle yarn for a knitted / crocheted project are more than welcome to join us .. we are all on ravelry, so it makes sense to do it there with postings to our blogs, web albums, etc etc etc .. Or if we opt not to do a ravelry group, we can use my blog here for links or even create a new one .. plenty of options to choose from!

Rules / Recommendations .. random thoughts ..

The basic plan is we start this in january 2010, you MUST use a recycled knitted garment garment / sheet / blanket etc.

Suggest frogging it from the collar down (thanx for the reminder T - who is joining us on the challenge ;))

This challenge is year-long - no rush for it .. something to pick and do when the urge pushes you

Yarn type, weight, colour, preferences are totally yours

You can do any pattern, but we are pushing for a sweater / jacket / cardigan type thing

For Yarn related projects, I recommend getting the largest size sweater to frog to ensure you have enough of that yarn colour - Men's sweaters can also be scooped for this

So this will be a recycled yarn knit a long (KAL) materials project for 2010 .. if you get it done before then, great .. start another if you'd like

I think this is going to be great - no group has been made on ravelry as yet - the logistics of it still have to be worked out, and of course there are ladies I want to invite personally before the group is active.

So welcome to the 2010 recycling challenge KAL .. If you're interested please drop me a line by email, here by leaving a comment (please include your return email addy so I can contact you) or send me a message thru my ravelry profile If your not a member of ravelry, you might want to join - if only for the pattern database. It seems to have the largest database in one spot for free patterns that I've found!

I look forward to hearing from everyone that wants to join us and sharing our projects and adventures while shopping for it!

One thing I should add .. if you don't knit / crochet, but want to do a recycle challenge .. then thrift shop clothing could be great for a quilt, new coat whatever .. as long as you use someone's castoff .. the whole idea of this challenge is to reduce / reuse / recycle ..

bobbling along ..

2009-11-09T13:35:00.003-05:00

Progress has been made And not frogged :D **knitterhappydance I've made it thru the chart .. what I get to do now is 3 rows of purl, then 2 more bobble sections .. then the straight stocking stitch .. how cool is THAT?? I'm relieved that I've gotten this far and not had to frog it again ..

I got a few pics, and sorry that they aren't all that great .. a wee bit fuzzy and the colour (of course) is off .. I've not been able to get a consistent colour in any picture with this yarn .. but you do get an idea of the texture and pattern - which is part of what I wanted to do ..

knitless ...

2009-11-08T01:41:00.004-05:00

This picture was taken on 27^th of October at our Knatter nite .. I meant to get this photo and a blog post up titled "Knitless since Tuesday", but it just didn't happen .. spending the next 2 days after this as a lump on the couch sick is reason enough .. I just didn't have the energy or inclination to hunt down a sweater that I wanted to do.

BUT

You knew there was a but .. heh .. I found one :D **knitterhappydance. And it is just wayyy to cute for words .. NOW .. I wasn't sure if I would use the purple still or try the cardinal red I have .. but I really do have that earmarked for a different project (I'll tell you about that one when I actually get to making it .. )

I found the Bobble-Edged Cardigan, a free pattern at unicornbooks.com. What I really like about this is that it's got texture, but a LOT of stocking stitch .. I've never done bobbles before so I really intrigued by it .. and of course the pattern ... what's rather unique about this is that it doesn't have traditional ribbing ... it uses bobbles for the ribbing .. how cool is THAT!

I've named this Bobble Cardi (ravelry project page) - for now .. until I can get more inventive with a name. The instructions are pretty straight forward - altho I did manage to have to frog it when I was at the 17^th row .. yeah i know .. you are NOT surprised ... What I had done, (even tho I made notes) reversed left front and right front on the chart .. I'm doing this pattern pretty much as written. Notice I said .. pretty much as written .. the one difference i'm doing here is that I'm doing the fronts and back as one-piece .. (no pics yet) and I'm doing the size 38 instead of the 40 since the last one I did was a 40. I still have the zipper that matches this yarn and I just might do a double bobble front ribbing instead of 1 row button band - the juries still out for now as I'm going to wait and see just how this fits me.

Gauge is "18 sts and 26 rows = 4" in st st using larger needles",larger needles being size 7. Well when I used the 7s for my swatch,I was like ½" smaller - so .. gauge for this yarn is same rows and stitches on size 8s .. and I tend to knit to gauge .. so I listened to my gut and we'll just have to see how right it is .. course I AM leaving wriggle room with the 'button' band :D

I just started the chart again and have hilighted my notes and specific points to remember lol .. I think that this one is going to work out .. I swear if I doesn't .. I'm going to trade off, throw out, sell, or burn this yarn!!

... crying ...

2009-10-26T23:01:00.007-04:00

One of these days, I'm going to listen to my gut! I had a bad feeling about using the 10s with that pattern! I knit to gauge for one .. my swatch using 8s or 9s came out a ½" to small on the swatch .. BUT, the swatch was on stockinette stitch - NOT the cable pattern .. and I've been knitting long enough to know better that when you use a cable pattern, you should actually use smaller needles as it does create a LOT of give to the pattern .. bloody hell .. sigh

I KNEW it was going to be big on me .. but thought it would be okay if I could get the right collar on it .. but when I got the front ribbing for the zipper on it .. I decided there's NO way in hell this is going to work .. the length is good (my math coming into play here), the sleeve length is good .. it's not to bad across the back .. but the armpits are large enough to fit my family in, and the front .. oi vay! Plus the width of the front .. crap!!!

So I'm frogging it .. at this time, I've 3 of 5 pieces frogged .. took me over ½ the day to find all my seams and take it apart .. wowsers but do I do a mean seam! On this one piece that I'm working to unravel .. the knot is in there pretty good .. so I might have to give up and do some snipping to free my yarn from it's current hostage situation ..

I've a few other sweaters that I can do in it's place .. there's this absolutely darling one that I'm looking at .. my friend wants one of this lady's patterns and we are going to see if she'll do a deal of sorts for 2 patterns .. if so I'm going to do Katje - this is going to knit up so quick it's not funny! stocking stitch and seed stitch!! w00t w00t I could be wearing this in no time at all since it's seamless :D .. waiting to see what the designer has to say ..

But there's no super rush as hallowe'en is coming and I'm doing a friends costume as well as my own .. thank God for straight seams! LOL .. the worst is cutting it out! He's going to be Obi Wan Kenobi and i'm looking at padme amidala - raiding closets for mine :D

Anywho .. the Hoodie or Not is officially - NOT and 75% frogged at this point and time.

Knit 1 Purl 1 Knit 1 Purl 2 ** repeat ...

2009-10-15T18:54:00.002-04:00

For almost ½ a year this sweater sat abandoned and neglected in my knitting bag and partially on my end table .. the cats didn't mind it as they had some soft yarn to kick around .. but i've hit overdrive with this in the past few months ... I'm sitting here trying to think of the time line and I'm pretty sure it was when I started the 10 - 7 shift over 2 months ago .. roughly .. so maybe mid august is when I actually picked this up again .. now at that time I only knitted a few rows once a week for our knatter .. but lately (you know it's getting colder here right?), I've been kicking it into gear so I can wear this at work :D .. I'm guessing (if and when I can actually get the time to work on it), that I've maybe a week of work left on it .. 3 if you include the math and me trying to avoid DOING said math :D heh

I brought my camera to knatter last week and had Helene take a pic of me front and back so I can show off what I've done so far .. I'm pretty pleased with it .. altho the shallow shoulders forced me to be creative with the collar now .. I wasn't going to do the hoodie that is with the pattern as there just isn't going to be enough yarn .. or there "MIGHT" be, but excuse me if I decided to chicken out on that experiment ..

I was going to use a taller standing collar to keep the back of my neck warm, but with how shallow the shoulders are, I thought that would look super funky .. so I'm doing a variation of a double folded shawl collar (or maybe a single .. depends on yarnage), I've already got the zipper and will be doing short ribbing for the edge as that follows the existing ribbing .. granted I could get away with even less as I do swim in this .. and I knit to gauge .. I KNEW I should have used 9s instead of 10s for this project .. ** sigh

I had almost reached this point when I found this pattern on Bernat .. I just about dropped a litter of kittens .. talk about exactly what I wanted .. WITHOUT the mental gymnastics with all that stoopid math .. ah well .. what can you do .. and I did look on Bernat when I was hunting for this pattern .. but hopefully I'll have this done in just over a week! I picked up the stitches the other nite and plan to do the ribbing, THEN battle the collar :D

striving for ... balance ....

2009-10-09T19:30:00.002-04:00

It's an amusing concept .. really it is .. what makes it so amusing?? Well dictionary.com states that balance:

–noun
1. a state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight, amount, etc.
3. mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgment, etc.
24. to serve as a counterpoise to; counterbalance; offset: The advantages more than balance the disadvantages.

Well there's more, but these suit my purpose just fine - striving for balance in my life. When i had the that (*&#$)(*#$ 2 - 11 shift, i had NO life whatsoever - all i did was sleep and work .. and eat. With the next shift, I did MUCH better .. that one was 10am - 7pm - kind of a blechy shift - but compared to the previous one .. it was nirvana!! I got to see my family and see my friends ... During that shift we started to do knatter again ... once a week, we would get together; drink starbucks, knit or whatever hand project of choice we wanted to work on :D.

I finished my kitty quilt at knatter and it's even been washed too! my idea of raw edging the appliquilted parts worked like a charm .. they could fray a wee bit more to suit me, but it's still fantabulous! No pics of it yet .. but soon .. and imitating a lump on the couch under it just perfect! It was great to get this 10 year plotted and planned quilt done and usable!!

I was mid-way thru my sleeves for my "Purple Hoodie or Not", and in the the past 2 months, with mostly working on this once a week - I am now stitching the seams together! Even bought the zipper for it .. All I have left to do is the sleeve and side seams on both sides .. and it's got some serious heft to it .. boy is this gonna be nice and toasty warm! I'm guessing with Reg being gone for 3 weeks farm sitting, I'm going to have a load of time to watch NCIS and get this done :D

I'm going to use the red I have in this yarn for my next sweater .. I just LOVE what I've picked out ... but it might be a serious challenge and a half based on comments I've read .. but again .. I'm not one to NOT do something b/c it gives ppl issues .. heh . .if anything that's a goad for me to actually do it .. and this in red is going to be just so awesome! - Check it out .. Pasandra - Berroco.com Knits. I want to read it over before i jump in and see what all the fuss is about .. it's gorgeous and it'll be GREAT for work!!

heh .. my new shift which I've only been doing a week is 8 - 5 - sunday mondays off again .. which was my second choice .. but getting up at 6:30am is an adventure and a half LOL ~ but, the 7:30am wake up time got easier and easier for me .. right about now I need a sleep-deprived coma to help me along ... I might just do that on Sunday :D

Pic of Mock Up

2009-02-23T17:28:00.000-05:00

As promised, here's a pic of the mocked up and basted hoodie sans sleeves. I had pics taken of the front too, but the edges were curled and just didn't look good at all! It was hard to get an idea of what it actually looked like with the edges curling like they are - I figured that would happen - only cure would have been to do a loose baste of the edges and draw them together like the old style hockey shirt necks. I figured I would pass .. afterall, this isn't the final piece - the purpose of doing the saddles was to work out how this was going to hang and how long my sleeves needed to be.

You can see how big this is going to be on me too ... i really could have done the small size, but I am NOT going to rip it apart now. The good side is that I can wear this over heavier shirts and I won't look like a stuff sausage :D Altho, I'm sure that the stitches will relax after the first two washings and it'll look bigger .. Let's hope not! Now I can start on the sleeves .. AFTER i get my quilting done on my Michigan Left quilt ;) If you're interested you can read about here in this post on my quilt blog ;)

Mock up Update

2009-02-23T01:17:00.001-05:00

Just a quick update on my progress on the shoulder mocks - I finally got them done enough tonite to hold them with provision yarn off the needles (I plan on frogging these and using the yarn for the sweater), and do a quick baste of the pieces I have ..

This is going to be a roomy hoodie .. I prolly could have done the small and it would have still fitted fine .. it's roomy without the ribbing being attached to the front ... but I'm not going to complain ;) I'll be doing the short sleeve length for these - 19½" at the same time on circs .. that way I can make sure what i do for one I do for the other .. Then the hood, putting it all together then the ribbing all the way around .. I'll have to decide on whether I'll be using a zipper for this or buttons .. I'm thinking zipper would be a more finished look to what I have in my mind - but buttons would be easier .. but me do the easy thing?? ROLFLMBO!!!!!!! yeah right ;)

Anywho - I'll post a pic tomorrow after Ky gets home from school - i'll have him take the picture

Hope you had a great weekend!!

Shoulder Mocks

2009-02-20T03:50:00.002-05:00

I did decide to do the shoulder saddle mock up - granted it's not going as quick as I would have liked, but I was rather dragging yesterday and I also finished (well tried to finish) a quilt top that was speaking (read - yelling) at me - so I'm not as far on this as I would like to be - I really am hoping that I'll get this finished in time to actually WEAR it this year LOL - this winter / spring actually.

I do think that once I get moving on this again, I'll fly. We were supposed to meet tonite to knit, but one lady canceled and the other forgot her knitting at home (which is totally on the other side of town - poor thing!!), so we are going to reschedule for this Saturday maybe ;)

What I'm doing is lining up my bind-offs on the mock and back to get correct rows needed etc .. I tripped over this dropped stitch when I used the front instead .. OI VAY!!!

I guess the plan here is to use a crochet hook to get the stitch back into the garment, and the bury it .. I'll be looking on line for just how to fix this, I've already bound off and I'm NOT about to unbind it just to pick up one bloody stitch .. This is in the same place where I had ripped back to - poor thing just happened to get missed is all .. Suggestions anyone? I've not fixed this sort of problem before - I guess this is definitely a learning experience for me LOL

Ah well back at it .. I should have the mocks done soon enough then will baste everything together and THEN get my accurate sleeve length .. If I followed the instructions there, I would have a sweater for a gorilla (!!) I think not!

Least I can't say I'm bored ;)

Front and Center

2009-02-17T03:21:00.003-05:00

Success!! It's a wonderful thing. Granted there were a few tense moments while I was putting the front sections back on the needles after ripping out 6 rows last nite - then getting all confused as my stitches weren't matching directions OR stitch.

I ended up having to drop several stitches near the end of the right panel (least I think it was the right one) to put the stitches back as knits or purls and then to follow the pattern. That took me a few hours and the language was 'interesting and highly inventive' to say the least.

Now the fun part begins .. this has a shoulder saddle and that means 'normal' arm length doesn't quite work .. i know I do not want my sleeves as long as they are in the pattern - near as I can figure (based on my stitch gauge), the 'saddle' part is actually 7½" long. So I'm trying to guesstimate where the neck actually lies on this (sans neck ribbing)

I did just have a thought here .. I could start from the neck and do it reverse - long as I do the same thing each row, I should be fine .. the first 7½" is over 30 stitches and that is going to work up quickly - from what I can remember (off the top of my head) I think that it's roughly 25 - 30 rows too .. that should work up in no time - I think I rather like that idea .. altho working the pattern backwards is going to send me .. oh wait .. that's just not going to work .. i'll not be sure what row the cable pattern will end on and it'll look hinky from the rest of sweater .. while that might not work, I could do that to do a mock up of the saddle itself and then baste it together and see just how long I really do want these sleeves based on the hang of the sweater itself :D :D :D I think that just might work - I rather like that idea .. T, what you think???

Like with the fronts, I'll be doing the sleeves at the same time - 2 skeins of yarn and on circs - it'll be a lot of hold up and measure as this gets close to 18 - 19 inches. I'm meeting with some friends on Thursday and maybe they can help me as it's hard to direct someone that's never knitted before where to put a tape measure (not that you can see it for the most part either) so maybe I'll have them measure me - Then again, I may be past that part and actually doing the hoodie itself or the ribbing around ... we'll just have to see ;)

Aw Crap!!

2009-02-16T04:24:00.002-05:00

I've been working sort of diligently at getting the front panels done for my hoodie or not .. and doing a pretty good job of it too if I should say so myself .. now I didn't work non-stop for the past few days, but I did a bit here and there .. worked on it friday and tonite and 'thought' I was all set to go ..

As I was working the front panels I was worried about getting confused on the decreases when I need to do the neck and shoulder saddle bind offs at the same time .. now I didn't mess that up - but if you look near the top here, you can see that I started my shoulder bind off to soon- the part that got me was here ..

Dec 1 st at neck edge [every row] 3 (4, 5, 5, 6) times. (28, 32, 34, 37, 41 shoulder sts rem)
At the same time, when front armhole length matches back, work shoulder shaping as for back.

When I looked back over my notes, I saw I had written "8 rows in pattern" ... well where I was at was actually 10 rows in so I started to do the shoulder shaping then .. I had already done 3 rows of neck decreases, so I just started to do it then .. Well then I ended up with it being about 4" short after I bound off .. I should have laid them out together like I did here before I started the bind off.

I should have known because I was at 5 full cable sets before I did the shoulder shaping for the back and I was only 10 rows into the 4^th set.

I basted the sections together just to get an idea of the size and it's going to be longer than I wanted because I wasn't aware at the time of the should saddle being roughly 6" wide - this will teach me to read ahead - you think??? bah ..

Ah well - at this point I'm going to try and do the needle trick at the row where I started the decreases (yes I did make note of that) and go forward from there .. I'm really hoping that I can get it correctly thru the cable pattern, but I'm pretty sure that there wasn't an actual cable twist there so that makes my life a whole hell of a lot easier ..

Wish me luck ;)

Slow progress

2009-02-12T23:29:00.004-05:00

I've not gotten as far as on this as I would like to be at this point. My hope / plan was to get to the armhold shaping last nite (2 cablesets + 9 rows), but I'm only at row 9 of the 2^nd cable set.

As you can see I've gotten around the 'blue' look of this yarn using a flash .. I just take it at an angle and have the flash skitter over it instead smack into it .. works for me ;)

I've been doing a quilt as well as this, so that sort of explains my lack of progress - as well as getting uniforms folded and reg's shirts pressed for the games etc .. basketball season is coming to playoffs for them and things are seriously heating up .. he's going at nite to scout out the games of his biggest competitors for the play offs :) Gotta love it ..

But if you are interested in seeing what's been eating up my time you can check out these posts on my quilt blog

2 Sections of 3

3 Sections Ready

1800s as ONE

Tonight's quilt work could have restarted the Civil War it was so trying for me .. but the 'hard' part is hopefully done for this quilt and I am so glad that to have that out of the way for now ...

At this point, I just want to have a some coffee and maybe done some list and blog reading, then see what's on tv (hopefully some good reruns) and knit - hopefully I'll get to the armholes tonite .. we'll have to see, I'm feeling pretty drained after the battle with my 1800s quilt

To the Front!!

2009-02-10T18:56:00.004-05:00

One of my cmas gifts was the Full Indian Jones Series, and with Reg not having to get up at 6am or work all nite due to lack of snow, we've been watching them. We watched The Last Crusade and I took advantage of that time to do start the front of my "Or Not" Hoodie. This was supposed to be a pullover, but I converted it to a full zippered front cardi.

The math was actually fairly easy on this one. The placket required 10 sts in the middle and I subtracted 10 from the cast on amount then divided that by 2 for each side. I wrote down each row in the pattern for armhold shaping etc, and will follow that where needed on the front. I figured that I would work both sides at the same time to ensure that I'm decreasing, shaping etc in the same exact spot. Figure that this will take the same amount of time as to do the full front.

I've not really done enough of the pattern yet for it to really show yet, but here's a closer shot of the left side (well right when wearing it) These pics were taken to late to take advantage of the daylight so I had to mess with them in photoshop. I've no clue why this particular purple shows up as blue with the camera flash, but it drives me nuts!

I'll be working on this again tonite and will hopefully get more done than I did last nite. After Reg went to bed, I had to press his shirt for his game tonite and fold the uniforms and warm-ups .. (that took me 1 ½ hrs!! I hate doing the warms ups .. you have to resnap the legs on the pants ** sigh), so there wasn't to much time left that I was 'alert' to knit., so that's as far as I got.

I read ahead to the shoulder part and it's going to be fun to do .. it's a true saddle shoulder where the bind offs for the front, back and sleeves all fit together like a jigsaw puzzle .. I had better get all my stitches right and to make my life easier, I'll be blocking the shapings and bind off areas ..

Here's the part I'm referring to and what's made this easy as you are picking up and knitting around the hood and placket, so I'll just extend the picking up all the way down to the bottom :D how cool is THAT!!?

From Casual Hooded Pullover

Finishing
Block pieces by pinning to size and covering with a damp cloth until dry. Do not press.
Insert sleeves into armholes, and sew edges of saddles to front and back shoulders. (Bound off edge of saddle
forms part of neck edge.)
Beg at top front, with RS tog, sew hood pieces tog along top and down back, using an invisible seam. Turn hood
right side out.
Pin hood in place, matching front edges with front neck opening, aligning back seam with center back of neck
edge, and easing shaped edges to ﬁt. Sew hood in place.

Hood and zipper band
With circular needle and RS facing, working from right to left, beg at right bottom of front opening, pick up and
knit 38 sts to top of neck, 88 (88, 93, 93, 98) sts up right hood edge to top center, 1 st in seam, 88 (88, 93, 93, 98)
sts down left hood edge to top of neck, then 38 sts to bottom of front opening. (253, 253, 263, 263, 273 sts)
Note: Be careful not to stretch bottom of zipper opening as you work.
Row 1 (WS): *P1, k1, p1, k2, rep from * to last 3 sts, p1, k1, p1.
Row 2: *K1, p1, k1, p2, rep from * to last 3 sts, k1, p1, k1.
Rows 3-6: Rep Rows 1 and 2.

Purple Hoodie "or not"

2009-02-09T18:04:00.007-05:00

I decided that I would use this blog for my knitting projects progress and do my best to keep my wordpress blog quilt related.

I've been working on a cabled hoodie pullover for myself. I had a few issues with the gauge at first and it was causing me no end of worry and concern as I was knitting it. My gauge is usually spot on, but this time I was actually ½" short with the required number of stitches. So I bumped up my needles a size and then my gauge was spot on.

I'm using Caron Wintuk yarn for this (discontinued) as I have it in my stash. I've vowed not to buy more yarn until I get my stash down. Only problem is, I've got a lot of onsie twosie skeins that are going to cause me no end of fits. I'm hoping that I'll be able to trade them for full amounts of what I need for sweaters and what not, but I'm not entirely sure that that's going to happen at all .. My username on ravelry is gquilts. If you are interested in picking up onsie twosie yarns, please check out my stash and maybe we can work something out.

Okay back to my purple hoodie 'or not' (ravelry link).

Here's a close up the cable pattern (please excuse the blue colour - this was a nite pic and I didn't feel like messing with it to make it the correct colour) This is one section of 26 rows for the pattern. Rather pretty. And the pattern has created some really nice movement up the sweater back .. It's going to be just as awesome up the front too! And I can't forget the sleeves of course ;)

I met with another Windsor knitter last Saturday (feb 7^th), and we were chatting and nattering away enjoying each other's company and our tazo chais. I KNEW I had made a mistake but couldn't figure out what I did ..it was really weird and only in that one spot .. the other cable didn't get dinged like this one. Oh there are 2 cable repeats per row. It wasn't until I got home that I found (saw) my goof and that entailed me back knitting stitch by stitch 6 rows to fix the error. Normally I would have just slide a needle across the piece, but with the cable pattern, my nerves just couldn't have handled it! What I had done was twist the cable the wrong way and repeat a row. You can see in the boxed section just where the mistake was. You can compare it with the cable below it. Since it's not all that noticeable and this is likely going to be under the hood, I left it at this point.

I finished the back last nite (temp pics - not blocked and looks blue due to flash) and did some math to have this be a full frontal zippered hoodie. I'm rather proud of myself that I worked the cable pattern right up the binding off for the saddle shaping too :D My plan is to do both front sections at the same time. I'm using circs for this so fitting both front sections on the them will be a piece of cake .. I'll just have to make sure that I don't tangle up the skeins ;) But I'm sure I'll adjust.

The hood part is pretty odd, (and I don't think that the cable pattern repeats on it either .. hmmmm) I was looking at the directions on Sat with my friend, and I'm tempted to do this as one piece instead of 2 as the pattern says ... if it doesn't work out, I can frog it - the nice thing about frogging yarn is it's MUCH easier than frogging quilting / sewing ;)

This is my first sweater for myself in over 8 years so I'm pretty pumped about this!!

am i actually unlocked??

2009-01-05T23:17:00.001-05:00

hmmm .. i don't see the nasty verification box .. does this mean that I'm finally unlocked now ..

Boxes packed .. truck is loading / gone ..

2008-09-12T00:59:00.001-04:00

A fter yesterday's 'scheduled' posting fiasco that I just caught in time - I've decided to try another blog service. I'm not sure if I'll stay there or come back here .. There are things about blogger that I just love - ability to use my own layout and change the fonts etc, widgets galore that work (for the most part), the beta blogger which is a lot of fun - but there are things I HATE - i'm still considered a spam blog, I've requested a review since day 1 and I've had several requests expire - no clue if I keep my spot in the queue or get bumped to the bottom, so I keep requesting reviews. I even joined google groups to find some answers on this .. and nope - no answers .. just more frustrated ppl like myself ..

pfft .. you ready for this .. I have to do that stupid word verification for each and every single post / edit that I do .. okay fine .. rather got into the habit of it .. but do you think that these ones are easily seeable .. oh HELL NO!!! bah .. blogger has this scheduled post feature which I used from time to time .. well this is the first time I used it since I got 'locked' .. well here we go with that blasted word verification .. i finally get it to go up .. hours later I check to see my most recent post .. I'm like WT???? where is it .. so i check my post listings .. the buggers have moved it into draft (!) so .. in order to get it out of draft and published .. are you ready for this??? i had to do that damn word verification again .. (*&#(*&^(#^$*#&&()@#$(#*& THAT'S IT! So i went hunting for a different service until blogger figures out what their bloody robots are doing ..

So in the meantime, I'm relocating for the time being .. I started a blog at wordpress.com and was able to import my whole blog over there, comments included .. but i have to use their templates or pay for the upgrade .. it's not a lot, but it's not the point .. at blogger i get free expression of my layout - and more widgets that suit me ..

Now I do love their dashboard interface .. but am frustrated by some widgets not working as expected - prolly b/c i'm not sure what the restrictions are for them .. but i'll figure it out eventually

I do like that wordpress enables you to create stand alone pages - so I could in reality move my kitty quilt, quilt gallery and other misc pics over there ..

at any rate, I'll leave a light on here with an arrow pointing to my new blog .. if you are on my rss feed here, I've set up the new blog for that as well .. just click on subscribe on the left when you get there .. gquilts.wordpress.com

Last 4 days in a quick blurb

2008-09-10T16:13:00.000-04:00

I 'm sitting here trying to organize my thoughts and set things in the proper order. It's been a bit since I posted, and while I don't always manage to post on the weekend, it's been a rather insane type of week beginning for me and my family.

Most of you know that my father was admitted to the hospital on Monday afternoon with a high fever, chills, extreme joint pain, inability to make a fist or turn his head. The rest of our adventure is long and I won't post it all here - but I can give you a shortened version of it.

Drive up to hospital .. There are like 2 empty spots in the ER parking lot .. I go "dad .. This doesn’t look good" .. Well get him out the car (refuses a wheel chair) go in and see that triage is PACKED and the waiting room is like standing room only .. Oh HELL NO!!

So off we go to the clinic and gets seen by a dr in the clinic and when she sees that I have to help my dad stand, she decides he’s going to ER .. We are like ??? :O .. She goes I’ll give you a note so you don’t have to wait and call over .. Oh yeah .. You don’t wait all right, but then you would be waiting in a room for the dr for HOURS .. One guy was saying there’s a 6 hr wait .. Not sure if it’s true . But I would put it at 4 or 5 easily without even trying ..

So my dad works at DMC (Detroit Medical Center) that is a sweet option as it’s right in downtown Detroit and he’s got awesome employee coverage. I stop at home to tell reg and kyle what’s up and over the border we go.

He was admitted to Detroit receiving hospital Monday evening due to high fever, dizziness, chills, nausea and a zoning out episode that he suffered while in ER – he spent the night in their observation unit having tests done and being monitored. He was also dehydrated and his sodium level was high. They put him on fluids with a pain killer (this is the really really really short form)

I left him at 2am to come home and get ‘sleep’ (which never happened) But I went there the following morning and he was bright alert and not feverish .. So I got to bring him home yesterday and he was quite his normal self again .. Altho there are days that I can do without that :)

so dad's home and is doing well now .. has tonite off and will return to work on Thursday nite. I managed to get some good sleep - i guess that getting 14hrs sleep over a 4 day period just isn't enough :\ .. I slept 14 hrs last nite and feel a bit groggy from it, but do not feel over taxed or tired out.

I'll be putting up some of what I've done quilty wise over the next few hours .. I have to take pictures and put some of this into the proper order :)

Death by borders ...

2008-09-05T06:57:00.000-04:00

I have bordered myself to DEATH! No more .. i just canNOT stand it anymore ..

Today & tonight, I've put 12 border strips on the 1800 quilt, and then 8 more on Carmen's mystery ... her quilt calls for 1 more outer border .. and I just do NOT think that I can do it :\ heh .. to take a break from it, I squared up 40 HST units .. so you know it was bad at that point.

But I did get the border strips on my 1800 quilt .. in the picture above that's 2 of the top 3 sections .. the far right and the middle. This is going to be awesome when together. I had a nice scare earlier .. I really wanted to use the black paisley for the border and binding .. good thing I did the math first (altho in the long run, it didn't mean anything ... ) and i realized I would not be able to do both .. so I fussed and fidged and did my darnedest to get that paisley in .. i could have done, but really didn't want a 1" border unfinished .. that would have been a skinny little thing that would be useless on this size quilt .. so I started to dig .. (I do that a lot don't I??) Found some light material - but naw .. I knew I didn't want that, I really didn't want to use the brown with the darker brown vines in it .. it's nice .. but not what I wanted .. it's not dark enough .. then I remembered my yard sale find :) .. it's a nice dark green with red (colours that are in the quilt already) and with only ¼" showing, it wouldn't be a HUGE stand out .. so that made me happy there that I had a solution that I was happy with :)

I finally got a chance to get back to my '97 swap quilt that I want to repair .. I've opted to have that as my hand work while watching TV and with football season starting yesterday, I get to work on it .. it took me an hour to pick out that one ooboo'd spot and then some more places, and cut out the old batting etc, etc, etc .. I was still finding bits n pieces of that cheap 36" muslin and it was just shredding like crazy as I was picking at it .. I've decided since I'm doing handwork, to just quilt it in as I fix it ... one fell swoop .. all the patches that need to be replaced are white and I am old school and press to dark so they would be flat under the seams anyways .. so I'm just slipping them in, pinning the buggers down and stitching away .. I'll likely get this done before footballs season ends, but i'm sure I'll have a TON of things to hand sew soon enough. I did have a spot (where the pin is - see the blue dot??) where I didn't get all the cheapy muslin out and I let it goof me when I putting in the patches .. so i'll be prolly tucking that under or smucking it down .. not sure .. I really don't feel like picking that whole patch apart, but if I have to, I have to ..

I'll be starting to quilt my 1800 quilt today I hope .. I've picked out my motifs, adjusted them for my block size, all I have to do is print them out and then layer up the sections .. I'll prolly pin these or use basting spray as they are a whole quilt just 33½" sections.

Sections - Onward ...

2008-09-04T03:08:00.000-04:00

E arlier tonite I was standing at my ironing board with a rather stunned look on my face .. and my mind was blank .. I'm thinking to myself .. that's it??? They're done?? ... oh my ... i had actually gotten all the sections of the 1800 quilt together - you could have heard a feather hit the carpeting! Then a HUGE grin spreads across my face .. borders .. all I needs to do is BORDERS!!!!!!!

Then I started to think .. (you so know that is NEVER a good thing with me) maybe I should do more dramatic type quilting for this .. I remember seeing all the beautiful handwork on the quilts I viewed online and in books ..

Sometime later ...

Hours pass and nothing hits me a "right", then it rather dawns on me .. those were on whole cloth quilts, applique, on-point or sashed quilts .. pfft .. bah .. So I head off to the quilt index to see what I can see .. What I saw was allover quilting, echo quilting and you ready for this - outline / ditch quilting .. so here I was searching for hours for the perfect motif and I already had it .. bah

BUT - I did find a site with some wonderful free motifs - Forest Quilting and she has 2 there that have definitely given me ideas for the larger blank spaces .. the points on my larger center Ohio Star, and the Double X Star in each corner .. I'm thinking of using the Cornice Motif or the Dreamy Motif in those larger blank spots (page 6) .. the Cornice motif appeals to me because it's middle is a circle and that will surround the sisters block and not interfer with it .. I'm not going to do allover quilting as this is quilt as you go and how much do you want to bet, the blasted lines will NOT line up .. I am sooo not gonna go there .. not in a million years .. so .. basic ditch / outline quilting it is .. no muss no fuss .. but for the corners and the middle :D :D :D

I want to do leaves or vines in the borders so I rather need them to be wide enough so the design doesn't get totally lost .. i'm thinking maybe 3" border .. I've not measured the fabric again so I'm not sure what there is .. worse case senario; 2" with meander / loopy quilting ..

So tomorrow, borders cut, do my first sandwich and quilting foot away :D

Sections 1 & 2 reporting for duty ..

2008-09-03T02:53:00.000-04:00

W ell this is a nice change .. it's 2:48am and I'm actually tired .. so here's a quick entry then I'm off ..

Here's my list of things that I would "LIKE" to get accomplished this week .. nothing on here is super critical to get done (cept email of course and I'm still working on that). I figure that repairing the swap quilt can be done while I am watching football :) starts on Thursday - WOO HOOO ..

last 2 Ohio Star blocks

piece 1800 sections - 4 sections done

September abstract challenge

catch up on mail / ppls blogs

gran's quilt

put rhododendrum wc together - have some great ideas for the quilt part

fix my 97 swap quilt - hand work for tv time

Here's a quick overview of the sections that still need to be pieced - the center section was done months ago, I've finished the double x sections tonite. The blocks are laid out in stitching order for the next 4 sections .. then it's a matter of finding what I did with the backing material (kyle's too while I'm at it) and then quilt as you go :)

I've rather made a decision that I hope I can keep .. I can see where I'll be not following thru wtih this, but oh well .. i'm going to finish up the various projects that are on the go, and TRY not to add anymore until I've quilted them ..they dont have to have the binding on - that's great for tv time, but i do want to get these quilted .. I've a ton of projects in various stages from PIGs to basted .. so time to stop adding and get these quilted .. I do know I'll be doing Carmen's mystery in a few weeks and there are of course the abstract challenges .. so we'll see how I do with trying to follow this ..

Time vanished? It's a Mystery

2008-09-01T23:56:00.001-04:00

I t's been a super crazy busy weekend - and I didn't go anywhere (!)

First of all I woke up late on Friday - I had an extra large tim Hortons (potent coffee) on thursday nite and was ZIIIIIIIIING BOINGGGGGGGG WIRED and didn't get to sleep until like 9am Friday AM .. woke up to Reg home from work at 3:30 - and it was one thing after another until later that nite.

After Kyle left with his dad, we went out to supper at Vang's for Thai food .. **slurp**, and then a stop at Fabricland :D :D :D They were having a pretty nice sale going on .. 50% discontinued fabrics, 33% off others, some notions were 50% - so I reconnoitered my battlefield and plotted my strategy .. I wanted to get some purples for the "All in the Family Colour Mystery that I and 4 other ladies were test driving for Carmen .. well that didn't work out to well there, but I did get some colours that I've not really used before .. This up coming year I really want to "force" myself to use colours other than my favourites .. each of these cuts is a metre and the bottom three on the left could actually be used for a quilt with the yellow as sashings or what not .. i honestly didn't even look for that! The solid red and black will be used for my discharge dyeing (when I can revisit that!)

After that it was back home and to the cutting table .. I found clue 1 in my inbox when I got home, so the race was on :) Since I didn't have full yardage for all 4 colours, I was using small cuts and scraps .. and as you all know, cutting the smaller pieces into 3" squares takes TIME! I think it was like 4 or 5am when I got done cutting and wasn't even about to start on the mystery.

I gets up Saturday (late due to stupid bed time) and got kidnapped for a '2 hour shopping trip" .. we booked out the house around 3 and didn't get back til 8 - i should soooo know better LOL .. but that's okay, we always manage to have fun together :) Get back and like a good detective, I start at clue 1. I worked all the clues until clue 7 when my brain just went pfft It just didn't want to think anymore - so I gave in .. off to bed I went and of course, it's like 5am or later again.

Before I started Carmen's mystery, I finished up the last cut Ohio Star block - knowing me I would have lost the pieces and would NOT have been a happy camper at all! I just have to cut two more blocks and then I start to piece the sections!!!!

Between the clues for Carmen's mystery I did the leaders n enders to get all the way to clue 4 for gran's quilt (QT summer mystery) I'm maybe 1/3 of the way thru that clue .. so this quilt will be done in no time with using this method .. the next project to get done with this will be my lady bug court wallhangings that I designed a million years ago ..

I did get the rest of the mystery tested and we had an absolute blast .. I just have to put borders on it - sorry no pictures until after we start the mystery on the group and only then it will be the current clue solutions - but I can show you my fabric choices as she's already uploaded that part to the group. I'm going to do the next one in blues .. I forgot my aunt had given me some fabric and there's blues in there - so blues the next one will be :)

Poor puppy has fleas again and gave them to the cats, so part of Sunday was spent giving her another bath, giving the cats flea 'shots' defleaing our house, sweeping, vacuuming, washing everything NOT nailed down .. now wasn't THAT fun pfft! and of course we'll be doing this at least twice a week (the house defleaing part - not medicating the animals)

I have a list of things that I want to get done this week

last 2 Ohio Star blocks

piece 1800 sections

September abstract challenge

catch up on mail / ppls blogs

gran's quilt

put this wc together - have some great ideas for the quilt part

fix my 97 swap quilt

quit n baste projects that are missing me

I'm sure that there are more, but these are the ones that I screamng to me right now .. I'm sure with just plodding along and doing what I do, it'll be done in no time :)

I hope you all had a great long weekend ..

Wanted, brain cell - apply within ..

2008-08-29T07:22:00.001-04:00

I' m using this entry as a draft for my acceptance speech for the "Twit of the Year" award. I swear that some days if I had operative brain cells I could be registered as a dangerous and offensive weapon .. pfft!! Notice how I didn't say lethal .. I only kill my stuff :\

By this time I'm sure you're wondering . what on God's green earth has she done THIS time .. oh this is a goody for sure!! I even amaze myself this time!!

Remember in my last post where my Ohio Star block was just zipping along sweet as can be and I discovered that it was the wrong size?? yeah well this is even better .. truly it is .. twit for brains here messed herself up royally - it WAS the right size .. I needed 11" unfinished and 10½ FINISHED .. "I would like to thank the members of the academy for .. blah blah blah .. FIDDLESTICKS!!!!!" See I told you it was a doozy even for me - heh not your average bear, eh boo boo .. &^%@#! **sigh** Ah well .. I have these 5 done now, one more already cut out from before and just 2 more to cut now .. bloody hell .. BUT on a good note; that is it for the blocks for this quilt .. i just need to put them into sections and then quilt as you go :D :D :D

I wanted to show you how great this combination looks even tho it is the mostly unlikely sounding combination on it's own .. It's really going to blend well together and add some interest to the corner-ish where it'll be ..

In my defense for my screw-up; things have been a wee bit interesting around here to say the least and I've been on an emotional roller coaster since I got back from up North - I guess I was more distracted and worried than I thought - granted I'm not perfect, but since I designed this damn thing, you'd think I would remember what size blocks I made for it; pfft .. ah well .. onward!!

On a good note tho .. I have half of Clue one done for gran's quilt - I even don't mind making mistakes at this point, as it gives me another chance to stitch up another seam :) .. Bonnie - thank you for your wonderful light bulb moment :)

I'll be busy stitching this weekend .. Myself and a few other ladies will be helping Carmen get ready for a mystery that she has plotted .. I think we were promoted to stitch detectives :D I am looking forward to altho that means I have to cut a mess of fabric up today as well as get those other 2 blocks made ..

Think I can be trusted with a rotary cutter?? I promise not to massacre any more defenseless fabric and I'm sure that there's not much left of my ego to shred at this point ..

Oh any operative brain cells, please fill out the application and leave it on the counter please .. I'm sure I'll find it later .. when I'm looking for my mind ..

I must have been due ....

2008-08-27T14:27:00.001-04:00

B ack in January I posted about fabric quality and how getting the thin / low thread count muslin could bite you on the nose in later years .. if not sooner.

This is one of the blocks from my swap quilt from 1997 that I used the cheap muslin for filler blocks for this swap. As you can see it shredded away. So I'm fixing it .. I have Guide to Vintage Quilting by Sandra L Hatch, where she shows you how to fix vintage quilts (I'm not sure I would go THAT far with THIS quilt) and also neat period patterns for the older vintage tops / quilts you may find in your travels. Because this was my first swap quilt and the blocks are signed, I really wanted to try and save / fix it.

I got all sorts of WOW, muslin and batting scraps ready to do this block first .. this is the only one where I have to replace all the white parts - the rest are just QSTs. I decided to quilt these pieces in one shot as they are all going under the other pieces as they are white and I was replacing the batting too.

I did really good with the first QST - cut away the shredded batting, frogged the quilting just ever so carefully and then took out the stitching from when they were pieced. The first part went just about perfect - that should have been my first clue .. It was rather tricky with the quilt stretched out of shape from over the years of these bits n pieces missing - this poor QST had more pins than a porcupine - but as you can see the QST worked just fine ..

So with more confidence I went to the square .. it was the square that did me in .. yes a stupid simple square! For some reason I just could NOT get all the material under the seam for this one .. and this was TWICE this did this to me .. YOu can see the two spots where it wouldn't tuck under. I had it all pinned in and it looked fine - but get it on the machine and start quilting it down and it goes all wiggly piggly on me .. okay nuff of that .. i'm going to lose my temper and I was getting tired. So I just might put them in all by hand then quilt them down .. I just wanted to keep the batting in place as all this shifting and moving was going on with this quilt .. I can use my Sullivan's basting spray for this I guess - or a glue stick :)

Two days ago I cut the greens out for the Ohio Star blocks for my 1800 quilt and yesterday I did the pink paisley for the background .. While i was sewing this I did the leaders n enders for Grans quilt and actually got 7 nickels stitched on one side .. I used Around the Block by Judy Hopkins for this block as these blocks are rotary cutting and she has 6 different sizes for each block

The Ohio Star went together just nicely .. I squared the QSTs after they were stitched to avoid any issues with it being out of kilter - I find that taking that extra step after doing a section construction helps to fix ooboos that would later have me on the endangered list for baldness and sanity .. well okay - not sanity .. baldness then ...

I press the block out and all my points line up (but one little corner - bet you can't find it!!), then I head over to the cutting table to square it up .. and it's a perfect .. 11" ?!?!?!?!?! My heart does the demon drop .. that can't be .. I didn't do a scant seam on this block! I did a flat out ¼" seam - bloody hell .. what the devil is going on .. So I grab the book from my bookshelf and see that it's for 10½" FINISHED block .. NOT unfinished .. oh jesusmaryjoseph I needed a 10" finished .. crap crap crap .. and I was soooo proud of myself that this block just zoooomed together quicker n all get out .. yeah it got out all right .. pfft!

Well I've figured out that I need to have 4½" squares for the QSTs and then 3¾" or 3⁷/8" for the squares .. not a big deal .. I'll just cut down what I've already cut .. but will do the 3¾ block first and test it for size ..

Bloody Hell . only me!

**Throws paws up in frustration, shuts the sewing room down and leaves while there still IS a sewing room .. which in this house is called the cat cave ..

Moving ahead; gran - 1800 quilt

2008-08-26T02:39:00.000-04:00

W ell I did have a more quilt-related day than yesterday .. I actually did quilt-related stuff ;) then again .. I didn't do anything quilt related yesterday, so there is definitely room for improvement ;)

Before I left for up north, I pulled out fabrics for Gran's quilt .. I got those cut out and will work on her quilt 'in-between' - i read on Bobbie's blog yesterday about Bonnie Hunters "leaders / enders" and thought it was a capital idea as I do the scrap leader / ender now .. **Hmm .. why does light green always looks yellow!?!?!?

Since I was cutting Gran's quilt, I figured I would cut out the greens for Ohio Star blocks in my 1800 quilt .. Since there is only 8 of them, it went rather quickly. I've laid the pieces out on the background fabric that i will be using .. I know this looks rather funky, but the greens are managing to work itth the blue/green in the paisley - AND, this was the one fabric that worked the best with the mauvey brown background colour that is being used throughout most of this quilt .. so tomorrow, I cut out the background fabric and maybe the muslin for the repairs I want to do on my swap quilt from 1997.

I know it's been forever and a day since I posted anything about my 1800 quilt so to help you visualize how this will look - voila! the final layout .. and this one has the background changed for these ohio star blocks ..

I am sooo close to getting this all put together .. I got the flannel now and just have to stitch up these last 8 blocks, then cut the border and it's time to quilt-as-you-go. So this quilt should make up pretty quick once I get it all pieced in sections .. heh .. just in time for the end of summer for our summer quilt (@@) ... that's okay .. I can start on our winter quilt right after this ;)

Day after ... blahs maybe??

2008-08-25T01:53:00.002-04:00

Still on the terror-list .. bah

W ith getting the laundry done while up north, there wasn't a whole mess of vacation 'clean-up' to do but put things away (done in fits in bursts thru the day) and go shopping .. Good thing as I am just flat out exhausted .. I'm thinking that this is due to overexposure to the sun 2 days last week .. once was when the boat died on us and the other was driving home (6 hours of sunlight on my arm) Both times I broke out in hives / blisters on my arms, hands (legs for the one on the boat) and while they don't really hurt or itch, I am aware of them and I was totally whacked out both times .. I even took a nap today and I don't ever do that!! This isn't the best picture (I'm right handed and so's my camera) but you can see the blisters / hives on my arm .. specially that big one ..

Reg thinks that I might be allergic to the sun as his mum gets this when she's out for too long - Carmen suggested that i have sun poisoning .. oh great .. I'm already susceptible to heat stroke .. I've not noticed this before as I usually don't spend a lot of time in the sun due to heat stroke danger ... mostly a few hours in the afternoon - but I'll get that checked out tomorrow maybe ...

I mentioned yesterday that I picked up some doilies while I was in Fenellon Falls at a flea market there .. heh .. you should have seen the one in Bobcaygeon .. it was like walking into a junk closet .. there's a sign at the door that even said - "this isn't a museum - this junk's for sale" LOL Gotta love it .. but at any rate .. I got these for $1 each, but the 3 small ones were $1 in total .. so with tax $4.52 .. not to bad me thinks :D I could make these myself, but I would have to get the crochet cotton and then spend the time doing them (!) This is better for me .. quicker AND likely cheaper too! Some of these patterns might be too tight to be really effective for the discharge dyeing, but they all have open areas to use .. if not, I can actually use them for what they were made for .. heh .. fancy that piece of work!

I did get some handwork done while watching TV at nite .. with the fullness of our days, and no puter - I spent most of the day outside doing this and that - so at nite after supper, we would watch the Olympics and I would quilt .. I got quite a bit done considering I might have put 12 hrs in total on this .. one thing my stitches were way to small at first so I had to really concentrate on making them longer .. I like the look of the longer stitches .. You might not be able to see it, but I am using a peachy pink thread for this and the fabric is tea-dyed muslin - I think that it's going to look quite nice when / (IF) it ever gets finished ;)

While I was gone, 2 packages showed up .. 1 I was waiting for, the other was a total surprise. Cheryl from one of my lists gave up tring to sell some flannel and just wanted us to pay for postage (Thank you again Cheryl!!) .. and with me wanting to use flannel for the 1800 quilt, this was just perfect. (I still have the Ohio Star blocks to do on this one) It is so soft an d pretty, it almost seems a crime to use it as batting ..

IF .. operative word here is "IF" my math is right, I should have just about enough to do our quilt .. I might have to buy ¼ yard of it, but need to get some flannel to do Gran's quilt - she doesn't like the heaviness of quilts, so I need to make her's as light as possible weightwise.

The unexpected one was from Darlene .. This picture doesn't even come close to doing this FQ justice .. it's a nice medium deep red with darker swirls on it .. I'm low on reds so this is just perfect timing for me :D I just think that is perfectly cute! I LOVE it .. Thank you again Darlene!!

So other than reading list mail and finishing my emails, I didn't do anything else quilt related .. just too bloody tired today ... maybe tomorrow I will have more energy .. I do NOT like feeling this .. blah .. I'd better feel better tomorrow .. I have some running around to do and with being a one car family, I get to use 2 wheels :S

Travel Notes from Bobcaygeon

2008-08-24T01:56:00.000-04:00

Would you believe that I had to request to get reviewed AGAIN bah! I checked my email and my junk mail and nothing from them, but to extend my stay on the terror list - Bloody Hell!

A fter 9 days, we are back .. it was absolutely GREAT and I had a total blast. I love vacations like this where you visit and veg and just piddle around and do whatever .. no schedules, no tearing off to this and that ... my parents used to like those types of vacations .. i swear you needed another week off to recover from those (!) ..

Friday
5:30am - alarms start ringing, eyes crack open and the fun begins .. making sure all gets into the car and we leave on time .. as reg and kyle were getting ready, I decided to put my bag into the trunk along with a few other bags .. as i'm stuffing this in, I crank my head right off the trunk .. oh Lordy did THAT smart and it raised a small bump .. then afterwards, I was putting the milk in the freezer (2-½ gallon jugs) so we could have it when we got back and I didn't know that a jam jar had stuck to the one gallon where I couldn't see it ... my darling son saw this and and of course said nothing (not sure he was awake or even 'thinking' yet) - well at any rate, I get the milk jug to the height of my eyes, when the jam jar decides it's NOT going to spend the next week in the freezer and unsticks itself .. that puppy landed right on the bones above my big toe (%^&*$) - I think I woke the bloody block up .. ohmyGod did that HURT!!!! Reg was in the bathroom and figured that we were going to be starting our vacation in ER with me and a broken foot .. I have no idea how i managed not to break it .. matter of fact, you really couldn't see the bruise all that well - and it really doesn't hurt anymore .. God does protect the foolish :D But I sure felt it for the next 4 days.

We get off at 6:05am and with 2 stops make it to Bobcaygeon around 2 pm .. heh .. Orion had her priorities straight .. she refused to go in the door, so Reg and Kyle took her around back .. all Gran saw of me and the dog was a black streak as she hauled me out the door and down the steps .. Orion made a beeline for the lake and just jumped in off the breakwall first and then off the dock .. so she was 'grounded' to the outside until she dried .. this of course was a daily thing .. heh .. she made a beeline for the lake every am and was tied up to dry off - after lunch we would do whatever and she headed for the lake again around 4 or so then was grounded to dry land and was generally dry enough for supper to become a speed bump in the pathway between the table and the kitchen ..

Saturday
Today was the day that the family came to visit and see Reg .. his Uncle David, Melissa (cousin), Misha (Mel DH), Josh (cousin), and Aunt Barb (not married to Uncle David) arrived around 9 am. The day was spent tubing, playing croquet that turned into the 'Or Not' game as we kept whiffing or shooting the balls off on a tangent, and whiffle baseball .. sandwiches for lunch and bbq chicken for dinner. Reg opted not to come on the boat so that left David, Melissa, Misha, Aunt Barb, Cricket, Kyle and myself to pile in and terrorize the fish in the lake ... The lake was rough that day and David maniacal with his "S" curves and whipping around .. but what a BLAST .. I forgot how much water can hurt when you are hurting at it at over 30 mph :D

Sunday
Like I was capable of movement after yesterday .. heh .. yeah right .. I spent Sunday recovering from the abuse that I put my body thru the day before .. and you know what??? I would do it again too :D Oh wait .. actually we did do something this day .. and it required no effort on my part but to sit and watch a movie .. Lindsay, ON has an honest to goodness real live drive-in theatre!!! When I first saw it two years ago, I thought it was deserted and closed down .. but nope .. it's open and showing movies 7 days a week :) .. we saw the Mummy - the second feature was Wanted, but we didn't stick around for that one as we weren't sure what it was about and were both pretty sure that it wasn't suitable for Kyle ..

Monday
Spent the day doing more tubing and swimming .. we weren't out long, not even close to as long as Saturday, but then again, today it was only Reg, Kyle and myself .. since i was sore and Reg's back was bothering him, and Kyle was being nervous, none of us was tossed around even a smidgeon as much as David did to me on Saturday .. did I get dumped?? Nope not this time .. just a nice fun ride .. the lake wasn't half as choppy either .. I did dump Reg tho .. he decided to get cheeky and take his hands off .. so of course I obliged with a quick S turn .. but then again, if he didn't want to get dumped, he wouldn't have let go - or he would have grabbed as he can react faster than the boat turns :)

Tuesday, Wednesday
We ran into carburetor problems on the way to Fenellon Falls on Tuesday and spent the rest of that day (when we finally got back in (!)) and part of Wednesday fussing with it .. of course this entailed trips into town (30 mins) away and poking around to find the right stuff .. we never did get it going again and I wasn't about to take off the carburetor and fix it .. I really didn't want that responsibility and Gran didn't have an issue with it .. she just felt bad, because the boat won't be fixed until sometime next week as the marina is really backed up on repairs right now .. ah well .. we got 3 days on the boat and there are other things to do ..

Thursday
I could have just kicked myself .. Reg mentioned going into town for lunch - I didn't bring my camera, but in my defense .. he didn't mention WHAT town!! We headed off to Fenellon Falls .. brat! that is a really impressive lock there .. that thing is roughly 50ft deep, has a waterfall and a twisting river canyon that is just breath taking to ride down .. the rates for the locks are pretty reasonable too .. I wish we had taken kyle into the locks when the boat was still running .. there'll be other years, but he would have been impressed to all get out with Fenellon Falls ..

Oh and to make this part quilt related - I bought some doilies for $1 each and will use them for bleaching discharging for patterns :D

Friday
Reg's Uncle David came up again and this time brought his other daughter Lindsey as she was unable to come the weekend before .. more swimming and croquet and cards at nite .. this time David didn't put a plastic spider in my bed .. he did that the last time I was up there .. LOL .. what a card!!

Saturday
After the dog's last swim in the lake around 11 and then our last swim we ate our hot lunch and headed off home .. we only made one stop this time in Waterloo and made some really awesome time .. it got busy in Toronto, but nothing serious .. we left at 1:50pm (yes I know .. it wasn't stupid o'clock in the am .. what were we thinking(?!?!) and got home around 7 - so just over 5 hours ..

It was sad to leave, but I am glad to be home .. Pixel hasn't really left me alone since I got in the door - he needs some serious attention from me .. poor shadow is half wild .. but she was always standoffish .. she'll come around ..

It was a wonderful week .. a lazy week but still a busy week ..

oh I did manage to get some handquilting done on my wholecloth quilt - I've not taken a picture of it and have just about had enough of editing pics for today .. I'll post that tomorrow or Monday

here is some pics from our week - not all of them mind you - but enough to get the idea :)

bobcaygeon 08

4 1/2 hrs and counting ... then we're off

2008-08-15T01:33:00.000-04:00

Still on the terror-list as a spam blog - ah well .. I should be unlocked by the time I get back from up north - I hope .. please blogger staff .. unlock me .. these verifications are murder

A s a good number of you already know, I'm leaving for up north in about 4½ hours from when I started this post. It's been a CRAZY day getting all the final things together and I've already almost forgotten my suit! Esh! Getting all the laundry done, stripping the beds, a quick wash over in the bathroom .. (already gave it a good cleaning on Monday), showed Dad where to find all the stuff for the cats if needed, re showed him how to work the satellite box .. (he'll mess it up and not being able to watch it LMAO - he always does!) Dropping off some paperwork downtown - (EEEEKKKKK I have library books .. let me renew them right now before I forget - gotta love being able to do this online .... ), grabbed our golf clubs, packed up a cooler of food to bring with us, cooked supper, Reg has the car mostly packed - still waiting for my stuff as I get to hold the toiletries hostage and of course there is my hand work stuff - and of course Kyle's busy bag (ipod, books)

I opted to bring a whole clothe quit to handquilt .. I have small hoop that I can use in the car if I want and my knitting to make dishcloths .. Also with just having one or two projects I wouldn't have to fuss and stress out about did I have enough fabric choices, threads, patterns. Doing the grandmother's flower garden hexagons is great for a few hours as a take along .. but not for a whole week. One of the things I did today was baste it up really quick .. I set it up on the table and of course the afternoon sun hits my kitchen table .. (western exposure) Pixel decides to he's going to take his nap right on my quilt!! the brat! LOL which was fine as i was all set up to do the first section .. but you sooo knew he would be having to move .. heh ..

But for the time being he was content to just lay in the sun and snoopervise my work .. you'd think he was an expert on quilting or something .. I tell him that shedding on the fabric and laying all over every project known to man in this house does NOT make him a quilting expert .. he just cocked his ear and gave me a look like .. "so you say" .. brat LOL. Needless to say he just sat there and continued to purr and soak of the sun as it is God given right - pfft! I did thread basting and it went very quickly .. and of course no killed back ..

I did manage to get a few packages out today; one to Joanne in NZ who's been sooo patient with my ineptitude regarding the customs form and some fabric for Judi too ... what will be really cool is that I'll have the flannel for my 1800 quilt when I get back (**remind dad to go to PO) and my red swap blocks should be here anytime!! **kittyhappydance** Heh I bet I forget a million things .. but my coffeemaker (Gran drinks instant - BLECH) and my quilting will NOT be forgotten ;)

The plan of action is leave at 6am EST and hopefully be back on Sat the 23rd to give reg a day to relax and do groceries then back to work on Monday - heh then one more week and Kyle is back to school **kittyhappydance** naw .. he's not driving me nuts at all .. ilovemyson ilovemyson ilovemyson ;)

Take care everyone and see you in about a week!! I'll have no computer or internet access up there, but I can still be reached by direct email to me or by comments on my blog .. I'll be going no mail on my lists shortly (self defense on THAT trust me!!) - I'm gonna miss you guys - any email I get I'll answer soonest :D

Bits of Quilty - Mostly packing for trip

2008-08-14T03:48:00.000-04:00

**Sigh** My blog is still locked .. current message from blogger on my poor blog's status - "We received your unlock request on August 11, 2008. On behalf of the robots, we apologize for locking your non-spam blog. Please be patient while we take a look at your blog and verify that it is not spam."

I 've been really really good about not starting any new projects the past few days .. It's been hard as I've been rather climbing the walls, but I am going a wee bit crazy getting ready for my trip too. You know, laundry, cleaning, triple checking things, arranging for mail pick up and cat checkings - Not that my dad will see Shadow much, but we want to be sure that their water is filled as they both drink a lot.

I've pulled out the fabrics for Gran's quilt - I'm making her a crib quilt size of the mystery quilt that we did last weekend .. her colours are pinks, mauve to purples, and blues .. so while it'll be scrappy like mine and with the same hues, it won't have as many colours .. I was rather hoping that i could have gotten it done before we left, but there was just no way with all the rest of the stuff that I had to do to get ready for this trip .. So when I get back, I'll get to work on this soonest so I can ship it to her .. I imagine it won't be too much to ship it with it being a small quilt. Only thing in the lights that one pink is going to give me issues .. I might just have to pull it and find another one - it IS a light, but doesn't look like it here .. even the grayscale it looks dark .. **sigh** ah well ..

We are going up to Bobcaygeon, ON in the Kawartha Lakes District .. reg was born in Lindsay (bout 25 mins away) and mostly grew up in that area .. I took a houseboat trip up the Trent-Severn Waterway with my family when I was in my early teens .. It was awesome and I really enjoyed our last visit up there 2 years ago .... so relaxing .. and it'll be good to see Gran and get descended upon by the rest of reg's family .. but there's 5 - 6 hrs in a 94 cavalier with reg, kyle and the dog :\

A while ago, I talked about the time I used cheap muslin in a quilt for filler blocks to make up for the fact that I didn't get enough blocks in the swap to make a whole lap quilt .. well I'm going to repair it. The book I have Guide to Vintage Quilting shows me how to repair quilts - mostly I'll need HSTs for 6 blocks, the corner squares on 1 and batting scraps big enough for them ... it looks like I'll have to cut some greens to as some of them have deteriorated since 1997 .. gee wonder why? LOL .. I use this quilt all the time .. and since it was from my first swap ever, I would love to keep it.

I was actually thinking that I wouldn't bring any handwork with me for trip .. the idea of having enough fabric pieces and patterns and thread varieties etc was rather daunting ... I was like Oh Hell NO! It would drive me nuts ... I would get overwhelmed with having enough fabric pieces, patterns and colour combinations and 2 prs of scissors .. oh I have table coasters that I make out of english paper piecing, really quick and simple to do, but man oh man ... I would overwhelm myself packing for that project .. so I was thinking about grabbing my yarn bag and making dishclothes ... but I'm not really in the mood for that .. bah .. I have no small projects that I can do handwork on and I'm not really motivated to do hand piecing .. Then I remembered that I have those 2 whole clothe quilts .. one's a wallhanging and the other's a throw .. and my plan was to handquilt them .. So I grabbed the smallest one, and cut out the batting for it tonite .. well on looking at them I should have grabbed the throw instead .. less detailed .. but this will keep my busy ... I just have to grab my little sewing bag (make up bag) with my handwork stuff in it and away I go .. I'll baste this tomorrow as I folded all the laundry tonite :D

esh attempt 4 for word verification .. oh I hate these things :(

Now to our regular scheduled program

2008-08-12T00:24:00.001-04:00

We now return to our regularly schedule program .. no the word verification isn't off, but the way I look at it, they didn't disable me, and I was missed in the "Spam Friday" where so many other bloggers got disabled for a few days - so I guess I'm 'lucky' (PFFT) and besides Tracy's comment for my post just about sent me of my chair giggling .. heh .. 'terrorist list' - LMAO - Thank You Tracy for the giggle and reality check - ahem .. at any rate .. Yesterday's post .. Today ..

R emember this??? Well I found a use for it, rather unexpectedly .. and it rather jumped out at me too! I had a vision for redoing my August abstract piece as sand dunes with grass and water in the background .. I have some awesome fabric that would be perfect for the sand, but it wasn't wide enough and the idea of piecing them didn't appeal to me at the time at all .. so I opened up my web album (why? I have no clue) and then I saw the small thumbnail of my discharge dyeing :D :D :D .. wheels started to turn, smoke came out my ears ... my brain super nova'd ;) and I was off and running ..

I grabbed two greens (dark and light) and some really neat light blue and started to lay them out on my fabric - i rearranged here and there and come up with an idea and then fused it down .. I put it up on my 'design wall' (flannel tacked to the wall) and walked out for a few . when I came back in I saw it and then saw that I had 'dunes' going all around in a horseshoe shape .. not just at the bottom ... so I cut a few more pieces of greens and fused them down too.

Now while this isn't totally abstract - it is minimalist which I can live with. It did match my vision and I am quite pleased with this one .. I opted to do a border on this one as I did a hanging sleeve for it and the border was rather necessary to hide the stitching for the sleeve :). And the green really does make the grass stand out more ..

For the quilting, I just did an outline around part of the blades and then 'zig zagged' my way back down .. waved thru the waves and did 'wind' blowing across the sand .. not sure if you can pick it up, but i added some depth with crayons by adding brown to the sand it's very understated. I was going to do the satin stitch around the border but then remembered that my zig zag machine is still not working and none of my other machines have zig zag (FW, 15, 99) I do have mum's touch n swear er I mean sew ... but it's a slant shank machine and while i have every foot known to man for mine, I only have the feet she had .. and she didn't quilt .. pfft .. I am glad that I remembered this BEFORE I dug out her machine from underneath current projects pile ..

Before I did the abstract, I also did a quick test with colouring on fabric with crayons .. while my drawing and shading leave a lot to be desired, I did get the gist of the test and learned what I needed to know ... I used freezer paper on the back to give it firmness while I coloured and used batting underneath to give it softness where needed .. I really used the wrong colour / angle for the dark part / shadow of the leaf .. but like i said .. I learned what I needed to know - Not sure I'll ever do a whole project with this, but for small bits here and there ... sure why not!

Oh and btw .. guess what Kyle found today .. you got it . crayons :S .. ESH!!

Do I look like spam to you????

2008-08-11T04:11:00.000-04:00

O h bloody hell .. Blogger things I'm spam for crying out loud .. Do I look like processed fake meat in a stupid can (*&#*&^(*&#($&(#*&*) - Oh bite my great aunt sally's big toe .. if i had one ... GRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What's a spam blog?) Since you're an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive.

Before we can turn off mandatory word verification on your posts we'll need to have a human review your blog and verify that it is not a spam blog. Please fill out the form below to get a review.

Spam blog: ... blogging services can be both used and abused. The ease of creating and updating webpages with Blogger has made it particularly prone to a form of behavior known as link spamming. Blogs engaged in this behavior are called spam blogs, and can be recognized by their irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site."

Okay so now i'm irrelevant, repetitive and nonsensical .. I think I'm offended (??!?!) - but I know for sure that I am bloody well pissed off! And what's worse is that I have to do that annoying word verification that is so bloody hard to read in the first place - oh BLOODY HELL

My original post will follow when i've calmed down or not until this stupid 'block' is off my posting .. I'm thinking swear words in about 4 different languages right now .. okay so I'm an active blogger .. isn't this what the damn service is for!?! I have a link list (used to the 'new' blog roll until it stopped working properly), I share other tutorials that I found .. I have a whole 3 pages pointing to my qzone site .. and those aren't even for the products i sell ..

jesusmaryjoseph .. get a bloody grip! this isn't a page of links, okay .. i might be "irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text" but hey .. that's ME!

2008 QT Summer Mystery

2008-08-10T01:47:00.003-04:00

W hat a blast!! I'm veering between total and utter exhaustion and super pumped LOL .. i LOVED it!! Today was mystery day .. Ann Smith designed "If I had a nickel..." for members of her mystery list and quilt-talk. This also ended up being a sew-in on One Stitch at a Time as well .. I think that's what made it the most fun. She gave us the fabric requirements back in late June I think. This mystery is composed of 5" squares - she did 4 sizes for us too! I've never done a mystery and wasn't totally sure about this one .. but since the crib size only needed roughly 2 yards of fabric, I figured I had nothing to loose and this was designed for a scrappy quilt - and I have scraps! So I dove into my scrap pile and came up with these guys .. i cut them up and put them in zip lock baggies so they couldn't attach to the cats and walk away ;)

First clue was at 8am EST .. well i did my darnedest to get up, but just couldn't keep my eyes open .. that'll teach me for staying up late the nite before .. I ended up getting up around 9 and was starting around 9:30 or so .. Good thing that I was doing the crib size as while I was checking and drinking my first coffee, clue 2 went up :| .. Ann's instructions were super simple and very clear. This is the end of Clue 2.

While I was selecting what lights to put with what darks, had the idea to sort of keep colour groups .. when I got to the dark green tho, I was going to put orange in and went pink instead .. I started to kick myself later, but Carmen said that I would be surprised how great it would look .. I was doubtful, but there wasn't to much I could do about it at this point ..

As you can see here, I ended up putting the orange with blues .. this is where I was like .. oh man .. the pinks would have looked SOOOOO much better here than these oranges ... and the orange would go very nicely with green .. but at this point I figured that there is going to be an opportunity to put these greens and oranges together. So at that point I was good with my choice .. at this time I was still running 2 clues behind .. Ann was uploading them roughly every 2 hours for us ..

AHA .. I KNEW I would be able to get those greens with the oranges somewhere down the line .. and it was looking really good at this point .. I've been told that I'm very intuitive when it comes to colour .. not sure if I entirely believe that, but picking colours does come easy for me and I don't have to agonize over my choices very often .. when I do end up struggling with them, that usually means that the colours I've picked just aren't going to work out .. Next time I do this pattern (and I will do it again), I'm going to make bloody sure that my 5" squares are 5" .. some of these nickels I got in swaps or from where ever .. I can't even tell you ..I had Aunt Gracie material in here, and I have never bought a strip of it in my life .. at this point, I was gauging everything off the HSTs as those were square as I had just done them .. what a grueling clue THAT was!

Here we are at the end of Clue 7 - while reading the clue, i had decided to take my 2 colour 'groups' that I did and use them in each block .. i figured that this would have a really neat affect when the final layout was done ... the HSTs are made up of a light and a medium fabric .. but since I did this scrappy, I knew that one would be darker than the other and I might end up with a neat colourwash affect .. wasn't sure it would work tho, but was willing to try it .. if anything it would be a nice break / contrast to the blocks and create some movement.

Off and on throughout the day, my speed bump decided to come for a visit .. she's laying in the 'path' from the computer chair to the sewing machine ...and of course she is right next to where I stand when I cut - so I got plenty of exercise stepping over her today :) Of course throughout the whole mystery time, the group mail was going NUTS .. not so much on quilt-talk, but on OST .. we had ourselves quite the gabfest during the mystery .. I'm amazed that we even got anything done :) heh poor Pix couldn't find the right seat to sleep on - he was constantly being moved so I could sit down .. he gave up and took my modem hostage instead :)

In Clue 8, Ann gave us about 4 layouts and challenged us to come up with a new one ... I did :D I really like this - and this wouldn't have looked so good if it wasn't scrappy .. while it doesn't have the colourwash affect, there is a great deal of movement in it - the TOTs really make this quilt sing too! This quilt has a few lumps in it, and as you can see some of my points don't meet .. I still have to do the borders, Ann's pattern didn't have one, but I'm sure that I can come up with something for this ..

Ann, thank you - I had an absolute blast doing this and look forward to your next mystery.

heh .. there's still the next abstract impression piece to do, crayon work, postcards, my 1800s quilt, basting kyle's quilt, quilting kitty quilt and a mess of other things .. I think I have a few things to keep me busy for a bit

But first I think I need some sleep ;) and lookie this . it's NOT 5am for a change :D

August Abstract Lesson One - Finished

2008-08-09T11:00:00.001-04:00

I t's done .. Not sure if I like it .. well I do like it, but it's not quite what it's supposed to be .. if that makes any sense .. I like what I've done with it .. but as for the 'assignment' it's not right .. but like i said in my previous post - I do have an idea and this one will be more abstract :).

This picture was taken after it was quilted - I decided to toss it into the washer to fray up those 'leaves' a bit to make them more realistic .. i think that this one was more a lesson in texture play .. but it was fun. I likely should have used another colour to quilt the moon and the reflection to play up the texture - maybe a nice light gray? I didn't do anything fancy with the quilting at all .. Just did illusions (I hope) of rippling water, leaves, bark texture, dock texture and the moon craters - not that you can see them .. I was going to try and get some better pics, but the batteries died in my camera and my other set wtih the charger has vanished .. I'll give you ONE guess where they went .. and if he's powering his Nintendo DS with my camera batteries, I'll rip a strip off him for that crime! Brat already lost like 4 sets of rechargeables .. he's NOT going to lose mine! Or if he does, he'll be using his bday money to replace them! PFFT .. KIDS - Mumfit over .. moving right along now ...

This one shows you the actual 'leaf' affect - that turned out so well!! You can also see the quilting that I did in the moon and the reflection here as well .. Also with this angle and lighting, you can see the tree trunk for the first time and the material i used for the dock .. One thing that disappointed me a bit with this is that i lost my 'wrinkles' in the trunk that I left (or tried to leave) to create bark .. it was there before it went into the washer. I guess not only is my washer a sock thief .. it's a wrinkle thief too .. nasty kenmore LOL

This one really shows how the hand-dyed fabric curled around the quilting to give me the colouring effect that I wanted for the tree .. you can't see the quilting in the moon or the reflection, but you can see al the rest of it .. I changed my lighting and level values to highlight those.

This does look good .. I do like it .. it's loaded with texture and depth - heh .. it's just not abstract .. but I AM learning and that's the whole purpose .. All in all, for my first attempt and having such a broad concept, I think I did okay .. I was having a hard time getting my head around impressionist abstract :\ .. no clue why that was so .. but it was ..

I found some beach dune images that are pretty close to the memory in my head .. Beach Dunes 1 and Beach Dunes 2. I can see this as an abstract (impressionist) very easily - I guess I just jumped before I looked - like this is new???? LOL yeah right ..

Well I'm doing the mystery and hopefully having fun with it .. gotta love how you can set up your posts to be published at a later time .. Okay it's like 5am and the first clue gets posted in 3 hours .. EKKKKKKKKKKKK

Chasing my tail .. what to do???

2008-08-08T23:23:00.003-04:00

W ell I wanted fru fru .. I got fru fru :D :D .. I hopped on my bike (almost 6 miles one way :O) and rode to Walmart to take advantage of the 50% off sale. I went by myself so I wouldn't feel pressured about keeping ppl waiting .. I ended up leaving around 1:15pm or so and got home at 4pm .. just like I told Kyle .. hehe .. I locked him out of the house so he would be OUTSIDE .. what is it with kids nowadays .. they allergic to fresh air??!?!! esh!!

I ended up getting 13.84 yards of various ribbon, sequins, beads, shiny stuff, (fru fru) for $13.61 - not to bad me thinks .. granted some of the pieces are just ¼ yard cuts, but those were also regular $5 or so .. I also grabbed another 3 yards of tulle ... granted this is red, but at 89¢ how can you beat that?? I also picked up a yard of this fabric too .. Judi had asked if they had purple and a few other things - well they did have this one purple, so I grabbed it on the off chance she would want some .. this purple almost was the background on my kitty quilt . but I wanted a softer more muted purple as the kitties are the stars of that quilt.

While there I also grabbed 2 boxes of 24 count Crayola crayons .. I got 2 boxes because they were 82¢ a box .. that's $1.00 off .. you can't beat that! I checked out their craft section and there wasn't any really neat sales going on .. altho they did have embroidery floss on sale there.. but it wasn't much off .. hind-sight says I should have grabbed some metallic ones .. oh well .. next time if there is any left.

Today was wayyy cool for me .. my dad went to the PO Box and there was a package from Mary containing 10 pieces of pre-cut 4x6" peltex for fabric postcards! Thank you Mary! I've not found it yet here, so that would be a Detroit trip for me.

I've another idea for my impressionist abstract .. Near here we have Point Pelee National park and the southwest beach has little dunes with long grass growing on it .. I'm thinking of taking that image in my head and seeing what I can do with it .. I didn't see any green lame today (and i was looking for just this reason) for the grass blades, but I can use some green fabric or even do some crayon work .. and do the beach (I have some brown that would be really perfect for this) and maybe the same blue that I used for the sky for the water .. we'll have to see .. as it's really blue and it's more blue green on Lake Erie here ..

So I chasing my tail here .. I want to do a postcard, I want to do some crayon work, I want to finish the first abstract, I want to get started on the second abstract .. EEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKK oh and tomorrow AM the Nickel Mystery starts .. Good thing my fabric was cut last week! :)

Okay .. I'm off to chase my tail some more and see what I decide to do ... prolly some crayon work .. that would be the quickest I think .. heh .. famous last words LMAO!!!!!!

Impression piece; Orion

2008-08-08T01:10:00.002-04:00

A fter looking up the guidelines for abstract challenge group, I saw that I didn't have to keep my progress a secret, so I've decided to post my progress with this.

I've used a lot of texture in this quiltlet to make up for the fact that this isn't abstract - I'm struggling with this being abstract as the brush strokes in impressionist art were the abstract part of it - I'm finding that part extremely challenging with what I have on hand - or I could just be overthinking it too.

I've used suit lining for the moon, it's got a slight sheen to it, sheer cotton for the reflection; corduroy for the dock, hand-dyed fabric for the trees to show changes in lighting with the moon and velveteen for the tree trunk. My sky and water fabric create the illusion of the depth of night sky and waves. To help create more texture for the tree, I've made little cuts in it and will try and fray the up a bit to create 'leaves / needles'. The 'leaves' are currently NOT laying flat and it's my intention to keep them that way. I was thinking about using crayons to create more ripples in the water, but will want to practice first to see if I can't get the effect I want.

My plan was to start stitching these parts down, but after a discussion with Deb, I wanted to try to create the ripples with crayons, but that could be overkill on this piece. All I was planning (for lack of a better idea / inspiration - my muse is silent on this regard or just is totally clueless (yup I believe the clueless part)), was to do meander stitching on each part of the piece with the appropriate colours. I'm not sure I totally have a grasp on abstract at this point. I'm looking thru galleries and getting a better idea .. But since I've started this one, I'm going to finish it :) .. There's nothing in the 'rules' that says you can't do more than one quiltlet.

If I've said it before, I'm going to say it again .. yup - I'm a twit .. what did I do this time you're wondering?? Simple, I was at Walmart yesterday looking for fru fru supplies and didn't take the time to think about it .. i was just so overwhelmed by my options, that I did nothing .. well the ribbons, lace etc are all 50% .. With the average price being $1/meter - I could easily get 20 yards of various fru fru for like $10 .. yup . .I'm a twit .. I'm heading to Walmart tomorrow to shop without reg .. I always feel a little pressured when I'm in the craft / fabric section when he's with me - prolly part of my twit moment there - Not that he says anything, just that I KNOW he's waiting and its not fair to him. So tomorrow .. I go off by myself. I plan on buying crayons too and seeing what they might have in their craft department that's on sale too. I do want to get more tulle as I learned that can be used for these quilts. heh .. you'd think that with a kid in the house, I **might** find some crayons, right?? wrong .. not a one .. talk about disappointing.

Orion got a bath early this AM and so far has a clean bill of health .. no critters crawling on her belly or armpits. All the animals have collars on them - so we are good to go .. Brenda on one of my lists sent off a train of thought with me on cleaning with Hartz Rid .. mix an ounce of it with a 32 ounce spray bottle & use it for cleaning where the dogs are. It leaves a nice scent & the residue kills bugs. so that prompted a thought that I could just wash my floors with said solution and see what drops dead :)

I'm off to look at more abstract art ..

Fabric n Fleas

2008-08-07T01:25:00.003-04:00

A nice quilty & fabric loaded day - and some running around too .. but that's part of the good thing today!!

After doing the discharge dyeing and just thinking about my results - a solution for my abstract challenge quiltlet hit my brain - it sucker punched me out of nowhere .. I can't even remember where it came from to tell you the truth - altho this painting by Van Gogh might have inspired me.

Initially, I was going to do a sunset scene from up at the cottage, but have 8" to work with .. well that won't work .. so I started to think on other things and kept running into my own tail. This month's concept is impressionist art or artists .. oh geeze louize! Talk about your broad-side of the barn .. I LOVE impressionist work, so this was sort of like drugs for an addict.

Impressionist art is a style in which the artist captures the image of an object as someone would see it if they just caught a glimpse of it. They paint the pictures with a lot of color and most of their pictures are outdoor scenes. Their pictures are very bright and vibrant. The artists like to capture their images without detail but with bold colors. Some of the greatest impressionist artists were Edouard Manet, Camille Pissaro, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot and Pierre Auguste Renoir.

This artform is soooooo expansive .. okay .. there were no restrictions placed on us - as a matter of fact the exact opposite .. drat .. just tripped over my own tail this time .. so I started to think about other parts of the yard up at the cottage .. I thought of the dock and a tree, and the way the sun reflected off the water .. hmmm .. let me twist that a bit as I have no red or orange or any fru fru type stuff that could make that work .. hmmmm .. moon and moonlight .. perfect! And I have just the stuff in my stash that will work very nice for what I have in mind .. cottons, corduroys, velveteens, rayon, sheer cotton type stuff ... design is all drawn up and I'm ready to go .. I think that I might start cutting my abstract out .. I really do like this .. if I want to I do have ribbons and buttons etc .. but not sure exactly how those will fit .. to do added texture to mimic the short brush strokes, I'm going to fray the fabric on the tree to make it look like leaves and maybe the moon as well - so it might look like it's glowing .. I have all the ideas in place for the layout, doing etc .. but the final finishing is still not set yet .. I'm sure that something will occurr to me ..

Poor Orion still has fleas .. so I went online to see if I could give her more of the Hartz OneShot .. well the horror stories about this stuff is unreal .. they aren't even supposed to be selling it (!) .. needless to say, she didn't suffer convulsions, seizures, lack of balance etc .. nor open sores .. just the bloody fleas (!) I called my vet and she said that they have had numerous clients who have lost their pets to this product .. well that killed that idea .. I was half thinking about getting Frontline from the vet, and I love my dog to pieces - but no, but we would have to bring her in to get examined ($31) because it's 'medicine' and then the 'script' is $75. Sargents has a competitive product out, but we were worried that the sargents oneshot version would have the same issues, even tho I only saw one of those when I googled that product. Nope .. let's try flea baths and collars. Well we went out shopping to see what we could get for her (and the cats - they are flealess so far ... ) and had to go to 4 stores before we could find flea shampoo AND collars for the cats .. guess there's an outbreak right now ..

The cats already have their collars on; Pix just purred and well Shadow is still deciding if she's going to talk to me .. She was fine until I cut off the excess on the collar and then the **snip** right behind her ear sent her off my lap like a rocket .. Tomorrow I get the bathe the dog and put her collar on .. why do I always get to do the grunt stuff for the animals .. **sigh** ah well

We hit walmart while we were out and this store is renovating and clearing out their fabric department .. the other store will have it still, but not this one . the good news .. fabric 50% off :D I ended up with 5¼ yards of fabric for $19.76 - that would have gotten me only 2 yards at regular price .. so a nice fabric full day :)

Discharge Dyeing

2008-08-06T03:09:00.003-04:00

Click on images to see enlarged version in a new window

Finally I got a chance to play with discharging fabrics - I've been seriously itching to do this and read a few sources (Quilting Arts Magazine & Fabric Art Workshop) as well as asking a ton of questions on Abstract Challenge Group and to my Dad.

Discharge dyeing is the method were you remove dye (colour) from fabric with bleach (or other various chemicals) - this can be done on several types of materials - but silk has it's own process to follow as bleach will eat away and ruin the silk. I opted to do simple bleach bath discharging.

In the June / July issue there was an article by Rose Hughes on how to do this, she recommended using a 1:5 solution of bleach to water - as well as 2 water baths for rinsing the bleach. In the magazine article she showed folding and pleating the fabric then wrapping it with string to prepare for it's bleach bath. In Fabric Art Workshop, the author showed another way to wrap up the fabric (altho this was for resistance painting) that I wanted to try as well. This method involved laying a string on dampened fabric diagonally, then folding it over; you then spun it around (remember snapping your friends with wet towels??) and pushed the twisted fabric to the middle and then tied the string together - this resembled a scrunchie when it was finished. So I took 3 pieces of fabric and had 2 different methods for binding up my little fabric rolls.

I found Quilting Arts to be over my head a bit when I first picked up the issue - and I still feel this way. What the author said was to put the fabric into your bleach solution and then to watch for colour change .. what she didn't mention is that the colour change would happen UNDER the strings (!?!) ... So here I am waiting for colour change that I couldn't see **groan**. One piece I pulled out in under 4 minutes or so because it looked like it was white - well it wasn't - I was seeing the backside of the fabric. So the one piece was underdeveloped as it were - and the rest were a bit overdeveloped. I got some unexpected and very cool results.

This piece here was done with the diagonal scrunchie method. This fabric was dampened first. You can see that this is one of the over developed pieces, but the results are very cool looking .. I still have some very usable parts on this - the larger white area was where the string had been directly touching the material. The other splotched areas are the inside parts of the scrunchie .. there was no colour change showing on this on the outside parts that were easily seen .. it wasn't until I pulled the fabric away that I saw the colour change ..

This is the other half of the same fabric - this was the fold and pleat method that turned this into a sausage shape .. for this one tho I started my folding and pleating in the corner and went diagonally instead of straight across .. you can see where the colour discharged under the strings .. again I saw no change on this until after I moved the strings. This material was not dampened before rolling.

This was the second piece of fabric. I wish I had taken a picture of the FQ before I rolled this one - this was the second piece that I did the scrunchie method on and the first one I pulled out under 4 minutes in. You can see that the purple really faded in spots, while it turned reddish in others .. this was a really deep dark purple piece. Again, dampened before folding. I'm not sure I like this at all .. got rather different results with the same method - I'm thnking that solid colours would be best, but thought this would be really neat looking with the pattern.

This was another fold n pleat method - you can see where the fabric is the really dark deep purple as I mentioned above .. but still more red than it was .. this was to long in the bath as well as the 2 blue ones were - I sort of like it, but am not sure on it - I didn't really want a blue piece :S I am rather disappointed in this one .. it was to long in the bath and I didn't get the results I was hoping for.

This one was the most disappointing of all .. there is no change what so ever in this fabric .. I'm not entirely sure why .. I'm suspecting that this material wasn't washed, but am thinking that bleach should have done "something" to it .. even it it lightened it a bit .. but no change at all .. another unexpected result - and this one was left in the longest.

I'm not entirely sure of the amount of time that these were floating around, but it was under 15 minutes .. when I do this next, I'll be sure to time it amd check UNDER the strings at 4 minute intervals me thinks

I did have fun with this and as usual I learned a LOT ... I'm glad that I didn't end up using the light pink I was thinking of - that would have ended up pure white ... I am disappointed in my purple, I was rather hoping for more dramatic results as it started out as such a deep colour .. but again, they floated to long ..

So word to new people wanting to try this .. look UNDER the bloody strings :S

Locked myself in ..

2008-08-05T02:42:00.002-04:00

Today I squirreled myself away in my sewing room and worked on the wc more until i was happier with it - got it to the point where it was pretty good, then started to change things .. made it more central single flower, and other smaller flowers scattered in the background - that's the part i'm working on and also getting the central flower more 'there' .. it's close, but not there yet. I need to take out the 'string' of background flowers that was originally there and develop smaller darker clusters of flowers .. I have maybe 3 of them just so .. I'm not sure about the inner border just at the edges now .. will have to think about that one some more ..

Well the sister's block's are finall done - all I have left is the 8 Ohio Star blocks, then I start to put the sections together and quilt (!) .. WOW! I have flannel on the way for the batting, have decided to just do a narrow strip (2½") for the one border and that will be it. Of course there's still the back stitching by hand when I have these sections together - but it will be a LOT better than trying to manhandle this beast in my 15-91 - I love this machine, but this quilt's a LOT bigger than we are ;)

I'm hoping tomorrow to get the Ohio Star blocks cut out and start to stitch, but I've a few things to do and might not get the chance .. I'm really hoping .. would hate to resort to locking myself in my sewing room again ;) Altho I rather do like it in here!

Stolen Time ...

2008-08-04T02:06:00.002-04:00

Shhhh - Don't tell anyone I made it in here ;) I managed to grab a few hours in here tonite to finally lay out the other half of this wc from the greyscale picture. it's not done, but a lot better starting point than the first version - it's not done by any stretch of the imagination, but there is a pulse there now :) And instead of jumping from one spot to the next, I can see a place where I need to move a few things around .. so the greyscale image was the way to go ..

I think what I need to stop doing is comparing this to my colour image .. that's just messing me up .. yes pick the part I want to really stand out as the flower, but the rest can just be supporting characters in the background ..

I do like this version MUCH better and feel more confident with this one.

Tomorrow - I'm going to try and spend some daylight hours in here .. move a few pieces around and maybe finish the last 4 sisters blocks :)

I might sew again some day ...

2008-08-03T01:18:00.007-04:00

What a busy few days!! Seems all I've been doing is running here and running there or being on the phone .. my sewing room misses me - the most I've done quilt-wise in the past 2 days is print off a greyscale version of my wc pic :S

We were finally able to pick up a cheap car so we now have transportation again - and I've been non-stop since then ... running here - running there .. doing a reverse daddy invasion with the dog :D - gotta love revenge ;) oh and course we got her all riled up like he does here :) It is NICE to have a car again .. VERY NICE!!!

I noticed that Orion had been snipping at her back end the past day, and mentioned it to reg and asked him to please check her out for fleas .. she's funny on who she lets do what to her ... his eyesight is also better than mine, so I'd like him find the itty bitty bugs on our black lab :) well he found them so off to petsmart to get the drops for the cats and the dog .. well they had the flea drops for the dog, but not the cats .. GRRRR .. the cats are all over the furniture - DRAT. So we'll keep an eye on the cats over the next few days and then maybe head to Walmart to buy the drops there for them .. When Reg got shadow (yes she used to be his cat), he got the flea stuff there. So nothing major, just a poor critter that's a wee bit out of sorts right now.

With all the heat we've been having I've been hard pressed to keep my cucumbers and tomatoes in the planter boxes properly wet .. they were either drowning or drying out .. so reg dug up the backyard for me this AM (before we went out), and I transplanted all my tomato and cucumber plants. I'm pretty sure that all my tomato plants will be fine. I've already lost one cuke plant, and another is questionable .. 2 I might be able to save .. let's see how they adjust to actually being in a garden with oodles of room to stretch their roots.

QUILT RELATED ALERT!
While reg was showing me where he worked (never been there as it's a 30 min drive away) I saw a yard sale where a lady had quilts hung up .. I said "I see QUILTS .. we gotta stop!!" heh .. I always hope for cutter quilts or tops or whatnot .. these were neither, but quilts she had made for sale .. but while I was talking quilting to her, reg found FABRIC!!! I got these two pieces here for 50¢!! The one on the left is 2 yards, 60" wide and has a sheen of sorts to it . .I'm thinking that this is home dec stuff .. but it's still cool looking. The one on the right is 2½ yards, 45" wide - nice little treasures me thinks :) I was hoping to find some fru fru stuff for the art quilts I'm hoping to make .. and figure a yard sale would be the best place to start.

I just realized that I spouted off bout a greyscale image and didn't go anywhere with it :S I was having difficulty with my wc and I figured out why (I hope), I was working from colours and not values .. so I'll be going back over this by picking out values .. I'm just not 'there' to do this by eye, so greyscale image here I come :)

I'm hoping that tomorrow can be more quilt related - after I pull weeds, do the lawn, the dishes, laundry .. esh .. or not quilt related ... **sigh**

Modern-ish Twist

2008-07-31T17:03:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I was busy! I started out the day with an itch to do another watercolour :D So I surfed the net and found this pic .. I thought it would be a nice wc when I got it done .. so I dived into my wc stash and found some nice pinks, reds, greens and colours between and started to sort and cut.

What I thought would look really neat, is putting a border just inside the edges of the picture. I'll do this either black, dark green dark blue or whatever dark colour I have kicking around. I've been putting squares up and down off this thing most of the afternoon .. I'm close, but not quite there yet .. I can almost see the flowers in this .. there are a few spots that are giving me issues, but it's just a matter of finding the right square to put there .. I do love working this medium and do have a lot of fun with it. I will quilt the flower to hopefully make it stand out more. I am struggling in a few places with this, but it's not going to perfect overnight .. this one is just going to have to be picked at off and on for a bit until it IS right .. because right now it's not.

I also picked up a book yesterday (Thank you Daddy!!) I'm interested in doing some abstract work - small little quiltlets, but I have NO idea what on God's green earth I am doing .. soooooo I needed a book that explained some of the techniques and tools used for this medium .. the magazine that my dad picked me up seemed to be more for more experienced fibre artists - i'm a pure rookie and well needed a abstract quilts for dummies :D They didn't have that, but what they did have was fabric art workshop by Susan Stein. She shows you how to do 27 different techniques and from reading them these are actually pretty simple .. I am much more confident now with trying this medium. This book is great and I'm going to have a blast with it!

I was rather disappointed in the bookstore we went to .. granted Windsor's not a HUGE city or metropolis, but our Chapters here is pretty big .. their section on quilting was a piddly 2 stacks - and these are the short stacks too .. I was taller than them! This book was the only one like it in the store. bah!

Lots of little stuff done ..

2008-07-30T04:35:00.005-04:00

Another day with stuff accomplished, but not a red letter day like yesterday ... but still a nice productive day.

While watching the Tigers play tonite, I decided to put that time to good use and finally frogged the Underground Railroad blocks .. so those are all done and ready for me.

All of the pieces for these blue Sister blocks was cut out, and I pieced 4 of them. I opted not to do the draw the line then sew, then cut. What i did do, was make sure that these squares measured 3" and then put them right sides together and then cut them in half for the HSTs. After they were stitched and pressed, I squared them up. Yes this took a bit longer, but I knew that my pieces were good to go and that sewing them together wouldn't be aggravating. I didn't have to spend as much time hiding wonky seams like I did yesterday - so it did go faster in that regard. Four more of these left - the the Ohio Star blocks :)

I changed my mind about the backing for the Ohio Stars - It was a yellow cream with red berries and blue flowers on it - quilt pro doesn't take these to size and it makes it tricky to figure exactly what the scale will be - and that is just way to much math for me to bother with .. so I did it the old fashioned way .. i pulled out my choices and then put the blue sisters block on top of it .. I showed it to reg and he goes .. well definitely not THAT one .. guess what "THAT" one was .. yup - the orginal fabric I had picked LOL .. so I pulled some paisleys that I have and one was all various shades of pink and just didn't look right ... I decided on this one because of the blue and cream in the pattern .. I have more than enough of it and it's a good compliment to the rest of the quilt . the Ohio Star blocks will be near the red Double X blocks and the Sisters Blocks .. so I needed something that would go well with those colours.

Last night I cut all the squares for the summer mystery quilt for August 9^th. I made a few changes in my fabrics and these are the final ones .. no going back now .. they are cut - my first mystery :D :D :D

I joined a new list a few days ago - this list is called abstract challenge .. there is a monthly challenge based on a concept, and you need to create an 8" quiltlet that shows this concept .. you can use any embellishment to help you do this .. paints, buttons, lace, ribbons, rickrack - whathaveyou .. I'm really looking forward to this and can't wait .. This is really going to stretch my creative muscles in a way I would like to grow them ..

So didn't get HUGE amounts of stuff done, but did get a lot done - little things that needed to be done - But I do have a few really neat things to look forward to - the challenge, the mystery, getting my blocks done for my quilt, then attaching the border - Not much longer till I have all the blocks done .. wow .. I need to think about my next project - heheheheheheh - Like that's ever been a problem

Do You Believe in the Fabric Fairy??

2008-07-29T01:28:00.005-04:00

This was a full long day. Full of good things (surprises) and frustrating things (previous post) - but it was a busy day :) .. Can't complain about days that are full of 'life'.

I had been taking breaks while sewing up the set of the sisters blocks and was checking email .. I suddenly hear this sound scrap swishy (?!?) I'm like what the devil is that .. I looked under my cutting table in case Shadow was into something again - (She was keeping me company today and had been checking out all sorts of things), but saw her looking under the dresser where I put my fabric .. I sit here and just watch her taking swipes at the cutting mat that I put under there to keep it out of the way .. You'd think it was a critter than she had never seen before and kept taking swipes at it LOL - I was actually surprised she didn't hiss at .. I would have totally lost it then - She has the the sweetest most delicate little hiss . I call her Princess Hiss .. Poor Baby .. (this was actually an action shot of her swiping it). Needless to say .. she did NOT like it one bit and after 5 minutes of taking swipes at it she got bored and walked away .. tail flicking like mad LOL

My dad stopped by as well today .. he and Kyle went to my aunt's while they were galavanting across the creek in Detroit yesterday and she sent a care package of fabric for me .. I was just saying something about the fabric fairy and voila! FABRIC :D .. It's some really nice stuff too .. and there's even a reproduction print in there - yeah me!! Also on one of my lists, another lady had some flannel that she wasn't going to use at all and gave up on selling it .. well she posted to the list that she had this and all we had to pay for was the postage .. again the fabric fairy heard me :D .. I was just saying that I'm getting to the point where I need to do something about finding some flannel for my 1800s quilt as I'm going to use that for batting. And here it is .. this is the only way I could get this flannel too .. The fabric fairy DOES exist!!

Later I opted to not cut the pieces out for the last 8 sisters blocks .. on another list I'm on, there is a summer mystery that starts on August 9^th and I hadn't picked out my fabric yet. So I spent this afternoon doing that and later on I cut out all the 5" squares that are needed for this. This is going to be my first mystery and I'm pretty excited about it .. August 9^th is still ohhh so very far away! But the fabrics are cut out, put in baggies to keep my velvet paw (shown above) from wandering off with my squares. Oh speaking of the velvet paw .. she's back and peering under the dresser again LMAO!!!!

So this was a busy and very good day! Kyle found my missing box of goodies; the fabric fairy blessed me twice; I got the tricky set of Sisters blocks done; picked out my fabric and cut it for the mystery; and got the basement cleaned up

Welp it's late (not as late as normal for me), and I've been up since 5am and it's almost 2am .. I'm whacked and heading to bed :)

Tomorrow .. the other 8 sisters and maybe the Ohio Star blocks :D wow this is getting close - *kittyhappydance*

I'm my own worst enemy somedays :S heh

2008-07-28T09:00:00.004-04:00

You know, I just couldn't figure out for the life of me why my rectangles in these sisters blocks were giving me so much grief .. my test block went off without a hitch .. so - I decided to get very extra steps .. with each star point that I did, I square up the pieces .. the squared pieces would be 4¾" square, so i squared them up and then realized immediately, that my rectangles were cut for 2⁵/8 x 4⁵/8 - Oh Bloody HELL!! NO freeping wonder - AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH - **deep breath** Okay .. no big deal, sew my seam an ¹/8" shorter - well that worked .. my block laid flat - whew!

I discovered another issue while doing this .. with my 'testing' my sewing and doing the speed piecing method, I did those HSTs at a spot-on ¼" seam, well my math / directions etc called for a smidge less .. so my HSTs aren't exactly 2⁵/8" when finished .. talk about being your own worst enemy. I'm going to end up with squished points on these stars, but some will be okay.

So these next 4 blocks with this blue, will be done VERY carefully .. but they will be a nice flat 11" unfinished block :D

Thank God I only have 8 more of these blocks to go after these 4 - the strips are cut out already so I can correct the rectangle for the next 8, and will do my smidge seam for the HSTs .. those blocks might actually be 'perfect' .. heh .. I certainly don't have to worry about this quilt being perfect .. it's well past that LOL

Good things do come :)

My son has been trying to get back into my good graces by doing some yuck work in the basement .. well in his workings yesterday he found a box that I've been crazy looking for - you know ... the one that is listed in my projects to find?? The one with my dyes, green pigma pen, pooh bear stamps, handing quilting thread and all those betweens?? I asked him this morning to please keep his eyes open for a box that had this stuff in it .. wouldn't you know, the little darling said, "Oh, I found that yesterday!" I dared not hope too hard - but he brings it up and voila! There's my missing stuff .. the box wasn't labelled so no wonder I couldn't find the blasted thing!! But I have my fabric dyes again - oh and novelty buttons that I forgot I had .. altho, I thought I had more of them - He's going to keeps his eyes open for other sewing related stuff .. this is just GREAT news!!!!

Blue Sisters in progress; piecing methods

2008-07-27T04:45:00.004-04:00

Tonite I tried a technique that I'd not done in a long time. My HSTs were a wee bit wonky, so I decided to try speed piecing to see if it was my cutting or stitching. I really am not fond of this method for several reasons;
1) It seems to take forever to get the lines drawn;
2) I am crouched over my cutting table longer than I wanted to be and
3) my smaller rulers are MIA at this point and time, I know that one is broken, I found it when I was packing up the basement before we moved (GRRR - KIDS).

I really do prefer chain piecing - for me that is the quickest and most accurate way to piece. You rather get into a groove with doing the pieces.

I just happened to be looking around when I spotted my corner marker ruler that I don't use anymore and saw my 11" cutting mat - light bulb went off ... I can sit at the machine and do my lines, stitching and cuts. Well that's what I did and I have discovered that it's not my cutting or sewing, it's my pressing .. I'm dragging the iron over these pieces and it puts them out of whack! Well there's that problem solved :D So in the meantime, I've my HSTs done for 8 of the blue Sister's blocks and only 3 sewn up .. it does take longer - or so it seems ... I'm not sure at this point, because even though I started later, I fully expected to have the 8 blocks put together tonite .. ah well .. there's the 5 to do tomorrow (later today actually :S) and then cut out the other 8 blue sisters blocks. I'm still moving forward - slowly but surely .. I'm sure the the rest of these will make up in no time at all

Moving along ...

2008-07-26T04:17:00.002-04:00

Today was productive :D Not HUGE productive, but definitely moving forward.

I finished the inner sisters blocks so those are all done now, and have cut the strips for the 16 outer blocks. I had 2, ½ yd pieces of blue that I really liked and wanted to use and happend to get lucky as these strips needed 16 ⁷/8" and I had 18" of each ;) **kittyhappydance**.

Please pray for no cutting mistakes .. because there is no room for error .. BUT if I do mess up, I have 2 other blues that will fit in nicely here .. matter of fact, if I didn't have enough of the two blues, then I would have used this other 2 FQs as fillers - so it works out.

My adjustments worked for these blocks .. I did ¼" seams instead of my smidge less, and my blocks were just about spot-on! Heh .. only 16 more to go (!)

Since I just have these blocks and the 8 Ohio Stars to make, I've been starting to think about my borders .. I played with a few tonite and I really like a few of the 9 patch and 4 patch variations - but this border is only 2 ½" wide .. so I think that either an alternating block border or just a strip would be better .. the quilt has it's own personality and a pieced border isn't going to be necessary ..

Now the other thing that I was thinking that since I am doing quilt as you go, then maybe i should just add my strip on when I put the pieces together .. this will just add the 2" or so at the one side. And they should (hopefully) be square-ish when they are put together. Oh this quilt measures 100½ x 100½", so a wide border will not be needed to finish it off - matter of fact, I think that it will pull away from the flow and design of the quilt top

Why write notes if you don't review them ...

2008-07-25T03:59:00.003-04:00

I thought I would try and save some time by reposting the previous pic of my inner Sister's block .. well i looked at it and it was the one that was all wonky .. Heh .. to bad I didn't look at it before I started to sew this one up. **Future Note to Self: Go back over your previous notes you twit!! (@@) Might have saved some frogging. Nothing to major though.

Lately my cutting seems to be off a bit, not sure why - the ruler's not moving - I might not have the fold lined up properly. So I've 'adjusted', I've gotten in the habit of making my seam a smidge - no not scant - smidge less than ¼" just to leave myself some wiggle room - well I'm also doing that when I cut .. just a few threads past the lines .. well combine the smidge with a few threads on a block that has a lot of pieces, and you are looking at ¼ - ½" of extra fabric sticking out the edges when you make a block that has this many pieces. With less pieces, it's not that much.

If I had looked at the block before i started to sew, I would have went - ahhhhh .. and not made the same mistake twice .. see what happens when you don't come back to something for a bit?? Creates all sorts of mischief with yourself LOL

At any rate, I fixed it as I went along, and while I'm going to lose the points on this block, I'll know what NOT to do for the other 3 inner Sisters and the 16 outer Sisters.

Well, it's after 4am (again) I'm off .. let's hope I can sleep .. was up til round 9am yesterday, then slept to 2pm I think .. I dragged all day with sleeping like that :\

You know .. I'm wondering why all the pics I take of my blocks look 'off' .. I KNOW they they are squared, but you sure wouldn't think so looking at this picture ...

Prairie Queen - Check (!)

2008-07-24T03:25:00.002-04:00

W ell i finally got them done .. I was so frustrated earlier today, i didn't think that I would get this far. But I did :D I have 8 of the pink background, 6 of the burgundy and 2 orphans which are twins but for the background fabrics.

Basically I had to go back and square up every single piece that I hadn't sewn .. and then the pieces that were wonky I had to think about what corner was going to be my outside corner - the wonky cut was hidden in an inside seam .. that way I could square the blocks .. some of my inside seams are ... "interesting" to say the least .. but my blocks are 99.99% square! And you can't ask for better than that .. I have more of the pink flowered background than originally planned, but with the wonky cuts I did, I'm glad that I had some background to use - Of course the worse ones had to be the burgundy ones .. can you guess .. I really liked that particular background fabric :S ... ah well .. these blocks can be said to be DONE and that's all that counts .. next ones .. Sisters ..

To err is human - but must I be so good at it?

2008-07-23T00:57:00.004-04:00

S ometimes I'm a total twit .. but of course you already know that - My cutting for the squares on the corner pieces for this block is off .. so no matter how i twitch, tweak, tug or pray .. they are not going to be perfectly square .. so all I can do know is minimize the mess the best I can - I have 9 blocks left to do and one is half-finished .. Not sure I'll do them tonite, we'll have to see .. it's almost 1am now

I had a busy-ish day with 4 hrs sleep, so yup .. I'm whacked .. as long as I don't get to frustrated, I should be okay .. I've realized what I did .. had an inkling when I did it - you know the .. "I just didn't do what I think I did, did I? "moment .. and hope for the best. Fabric shifted while I was cutting and I didn’t stop when it shifted .. And of course Miss Twit here was cutting a stack .. So this twitch affects a good chunk of the blocks. Well more than half the battle is the realization and acceptance that you screwed up .. Okay .. now to work with it ..

They are making up pretty quick - so we'll see .. I want to get at least ½ of the 9 done tonite.

Oh and I've already sewn one block upside-down lol

I'm seriously thinking of calling this quilt "Century of Progress?" yes question mark is intentional ..

Early evening Update:

I think I'm really going to be struggling with these blocks .. course having another headache doesn't help :S ... Plan of action is to square up each section as I go along - that way, it should be closer to being square and I'll know what pieces are good and use them as the guide for the ones that are really wonky .. wish me luck! I've been frogging a bit today

Meet the Orphans

2008-07-22T04:25:00.003-04:00

I figured this was going to happen - I ended up being 2 squares short of the dark green - and 4 squares short of the light green - how did I know .. for once, my wacky math was right .. but I kept hoping that I had measured wrong .. hey .. one can always hope ..

While I was able to match up the light green pretty close to tone, I wasn't so lucky with the dark green .. I probably should have done the olive green that I had ... but I thought this matched the lighter print well .. hmm for some reason the light green looks yellow in this picture .. but it's actually very close the lighter green calico print ... go figure :\

As you can see the background fabrics aren't exactly the same .. one is like a burgundy and the other a pink .. they do look well together and I am making 8 of each fabric - so there's a nice balance .. this background fabric is so delicate that I'm leery of giving a tug as i'm afraid that it will stretch all out of true .. Thank God for Speed Starch .. gives it the weight i need it to be and stops my fear of the odd tug. Another thing that I rather hate to do is I'm pressing away from the 4 patches .. the bulk of the seams created all sorts of havoc in the first block i did .. So instead of pressing towards the dark .. i'm pressing towards the light .. I hope it won't be to obvious when I finally get this quilted.

Prairie Queen ...

2008-07-21T03:01:00.002-04:00

One down .. 15 to go :D

This block is super simple to make .. strip-piecing on the 4 patch section - and the rest a 9 patch - and what's even better about this block .. no crazy 8^th inch measurements - whole inch or ½" cuts .. this is a nice treat.

These will make up in no time as the cutting is all done and I have the strips all stitched for the 4-patches. I just had to make one up to see how it looks. I rather like it and am pretty pleased with it and myself - The corners are off a wee bit, but i'm really not going to worry about it .. now if it was upside, okay - I'll start doing frog stitch .. but it's not, so I won't. My background for this is really soft and delicate, so the less ripping i do on these blocks, the happier I'll be

Well, it's only 3am tonite at this point - I'm tired so the one block is it for today - that way no mistakes (hopefully) and I can be fresh for it tomorrow

Oh I DO like this one!!

2008-07-20T03:54:00.002-04:00

Click on image to enlarge in new window

Sometimes when something just doesn't sit 'right', then you need to fiddle with it a bit - and the last few layouts I did .. they just didn't feel right.

I opted to go with the Prairie Queen block - this block will have the same blue, but the greens will be scrappy - I'm going to use as much of the dark and light green from the Big Ohio as possible and use other greens that are close to it to fill in the spaces.

I have another fabric that has red flowers, blue berries on a cream background - I think that that is a better choice for the smaller ohio blocks .. now i might not have quite enough, but I have a few other fabrics that I can use as well that will work very well with it.

I moved the Underground Railroad blocks inwards one 'ring' and moved the prairie queen blocks outward - that puts the light closer to the browns and seemed to make a huge difference .. it changed the whole look of the quilt. And now the browns seem to be more balanced ... I took the one set out with the red dots on a background that made it seem to blend in with the rest of the quilt .. I think that also made a huge difference .. i did NOT like that blending spot at all!

This is pretty close to how it's going to end up - of course the greens and some of the blues will be different fabrics, but they are very close in tone to what i have used here.

I'm giving a kudos to myself and a kick in the backside as well .. i discovered the reason that quilt pro wasn't taking my fabric scans .. twit for brains here, had the images to large - they are supposed to be no larger than 100k bah! :S **shakes head** So this layout was actually done in quilt pro and paws are crossed that the library holds this time .. I'm still upgrading when I can tho - this version is so old that my serial number wasn't accepted when I tried to upgrade before. I'll call them this time and see if I can't push it through that way.

Welp - it's late and I didn't want to be up at 4am ... but I am tired, so that's good news .. I'll be asleep shortly

**kittyhappydance**

Help Nancy celebrate ...

2008-07-19T23:55:00.000-04:00

Nancy who is Blogging, Near Philadelphia is celebrating her 500th blog post. To celebrate this, she has packaged up five little sets of goodies - each one celebrating 100 blog posts. If you want to enter the drawing for one of the give-aways, leave a comment and indicate by number which give-away you would like to win ...The time to Comment will end on Saturday, July 26, and winners will be announced shortly thereafter. Give-away items will be mailed early in the week of August 4.

Simple Works me thinks ...

2008-07-19T04:37:00.005-04:00

The more I think of it, the stronger I feel that the blocks that are needed should be more simplistic. The rest of the overall design is 'busy' enough .. not that it's too busy .. but could very easily end up that way .. So Quilt-Pro was booted again .. I really need to update my software for this program ...

I started plopping blocks in and again, it wasn't simplistic enough .. would have been nice to be able to implement the 54-40 or Fight block, but ah well .. just to busy for this. So running through my mind are the easy blocks to do (heh .. I can live with that!!) I thought of the split 9 patch, double 9 patch (Irish chain), steps to the altar (that didn't look good) and the Prairie Queen (patch variation).

None of these have the actual fabric scans in them, just used whatever was on 'hand' so to speak .. this was just a fishing expedition .. These will be made with all the greens and I think that I have some unbleached muslin kicking around that should work quite nicely .. if not, I'm sure I'll figure something out :D. So far the top two pictured here (Double 9 patch, Prairie Queen) are appealing the most to me ..

So - I'll let these sit for a day and see how they feel ... I am going to go with a more simplistic block here .. the other blocks past this part are complex enough that I really don't want to confuse everyone - including myself lol

Chimney Sweep Test Block

2008-07-18T12:30:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I would be doing a test block of the Chimney Sweep block. I really enjoyed piecing this one, much more than the Washington Sidewalk - but that could have been headache hangover at that point. I either need to make my squares for my HSTs and QSTs slightly larger, or do a narrower seam - both of these blocks are just a smidge to small - and i did do a spot-on ¼" seam - So, i'll cut one block slightly larger and go from there .. ten-to-one, I'll have it perfect by block 12 - oh wait .. I'm only doing 12 :S.

As you can see, while my edges are better on this block, they still aren't right and the block is smaller than 11"

This might be the block I end up using .. Seeing both side-by-side on my cutting table, I just like the look of the Chimney Sweep more and it has nothing to do with the dark green I used either.

I still need to make up my mind on whether this block will be to busy for the quilt at this time. While waiting for my book (**note to self .. nudge dad on this one ... ), I'll play with some other blocks - I might even do a log cabin .. we'll just have to see .. I did get a wealth of information on blocks from this period from Clues in the Calico - heh, but NOTHING compared to 4,000 blocks (!!)

Clues in the Calico; Washington Sidewalk test block

2008-07-17T23:25:00.003-04:00

I've spent the past few days suffering from the headache from Hell .. and a day with the infamous headache hangover .. Needless to say there's not been much accomplished, but I did do a few things...

I quickly read over everyone's comments and emails - thank you all for voting in my poll and giving me your opinion .. many of you said, it's my quilt and I should do what i want or like .. I needed everyone's feedback as I was at a brickwall - didn't know what i wanted, and your comments, thoughts, suggestions were what I needed to look at my quilt and these blocks with fresh eyes .. and that's what i needed .. a new perspective and way to think about this quilt .. Thank you everyone for taking the time to help me .. heh .. i'm still not any further along, but my thoughts are moving at least and I don't feel like I am brain dead .. well i am .. sometimes .. but you know what I mean ;)

My local library called me and said that the book I asked on interlibrary loan was in so I picked the up the book Clues in the Calico by Barbara Brackman and have found it very interesting .. if you are looking for a understandable way to date quilts or you have blocks in your possession and you think they are old, this is the book to use - she explains dating by threads, fabrics, blocks styles, quilting styles and there is a blank worksheet available in the book for you to plot your own timeline for discovery .. great book!! Also great for showing quilts with period blocks and fabrics in it too ;)

Doing the test block helped me move towards a decision at least ..Another thing accomplished is one test block - this block is Washington Sidewalk - nice block .. rather a pain to do with all those triangles .. and you put it together sideways :) - after doing the testblock, i'm not sure i want to do this block .. I do like it .. but i wanted a simpler block as a 'break' between all the other busy blocks - As you can see, this block isn't quite right . not sure if it was b/c of my headache hangover or what .. but I really do not want to struggle with this block - I might do more of this block later as a quilt .. but not sure right now .. will do the chimney sweep (album) block and see how that one goes. The colours I picked for this weren't the greatest, but they were closest to the colours in my smaller pieces. That blue and green rather cancel each other out, but you do get the gist of the block - which was part of the intention.

I'm going to be doing the Chimney Sweep block next (tonight) .. worst case senario, I take the easy way out and do a double nine patch, disappearing nine patch or nine patch .. we'll just have to see ..

Decisions?? ya right .. pfft

2008-07-13T00:52:00.003-04:00

Here I sit, staring at my puter screen - looking from one image to the other - and just not being able to make up my mind .. I like the first one .. then I don't .. then the next one .. then I don't .. **sigh** I just canNOT make up my mind .. it would prolly be easier if I did the test blocks first or did the math to see what one fits with what i have ...

On a good note .. Since yesterday was my bday, I decided to ask my dad if he would buy me a book. He goes what book is that .. I replied with Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns .. We were just on the way home from going out to supper and were going past Chapters and pulled in .. did a quick search and none of the stores in windsor have that book .. grrr .. so when he heads to the states (preferably BEFORE his next day of work - Tuesday), he'll grab it for me :D I sent him the link for it, and also there was a review about pages being repeated .. so also asked him to be sure that he wasn't a victim of duplicate pages - it appears that one of the printings had an issue with that - one of the reviews on amazon.com listed the pages that were duplicated and I sent that to him and suggested he print it out and bring it with him ... I'm sooo hoping he goes tomorrow :D heh .. who knows .. i might find OTHER blocks to use instead :D

I think I'm going to set up a poll and see what YOU think .. my decision process has totally stalled. :S

a	b
c	d

Simplex Block History revealed

2008-07-11T17:44:00.007-04:00

I've been meaning to write out this post for the past few days - but something always managed to come up .. not that it's been bad .. just busy :)

Update on the Simplex Star search .. I emailed Babara Brackman asking her if she could tell me what she knows about when this block came around .. " .. it says Simplex Star is a name from the Hearth & Home magazine probably between 1900-1925. Other names come from the KC Star in 1939 and 1953. I cannot recall seeing it as a 19th century quilt but maybe you have.". This is good news, because now I know .. altho I didn't ask her about the previous names, but she did have a picture to work from. This is also bad news because i had **just** cut the strips for those blocks :S .. BUT I didn't cut all pieces so I still have the strips :D.

I did an on-line search of our library database for Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns and of course they didn't have it - BUT - they did have Clues in the Calico, but at another branch. But that's okay .. i just had them do an interlibrary loan - our library really doesn't have much there quilt-wise at all - **sigh**. That might help me as well even tho this book is more for identifying vintage quilts - I need the block histories.

While I was at the library digging thru the shelves, I did find something useful .. actually I took out 3 books, but the most important (to me) was Quilt-As-You-Go by Sandra Millet. This book shows you how to build a little frame for it .. granted it's mostly for handquilting, but it should give me a good jump on this method. As much as I use the internet etc, I still like to stick my thumb between pages and haunt an index :D .. so this was a super nice find me thinks!

Of course that sent me off on another search for a block - I've got it down to 2 from that period .. Washington Sidewalks and Chimney Sweep .. Now amazingly enough those two blocks at one point in time had the same name, but don't look alike at all .. I think that Washington Sidewalk will be easier to implement both colours into as it was designed for 3 colours not 2 .. I'll just have to rework the patterns for 10 ½" blocks and plop them in and see what one looks better .. I know what way I'm leaning, but if anything I've learned from this quilt, it makes it's own decisions. The Washington Sidewalk would be an easier block for two greens. BUT for the Chimney Sweep, I can use either green for the inner and outer colour, then blue for the dark colour. **chases tail ...

Kyle's definition of wet; 1800 quilt :)

2008-07-07T06:46:00.006-04:00

We had a rather quiet but eventful long weekend here. Last week Kyle tells me that the basement is wet .. okay .. we know we have there is an issue of water leakage in the basement .. we noticed it during spring thaw, but it wasn't bad .. nothing to worry about. So i tell Kyle, just wipe up the water and things should be fine - heh .. what he neglected to tell me is that the basement was bloody well flooded .. Reg went downstairs to get the broom and all of a sudden I hear all sorts of aggravated sounds from the basement .. I'm like utoh . this can't be good .. next thing I know I see that the lake that usually happened in my backyard was in my basement (@@). Bloody Hell!!!!

We ended up tossing out 2 bags of stuff immediately as it was getting fuzzy .. blasted kid! That would explain my headaches for the past few weeks .. I'm sure I'll have a few more things to toss out, but am trying to salvage some stuff .. it wasn't to bad .. but of course the water was where the tv and game systems are .. well they won't be there to much longer .. we'll be moving them to the other side of the basement .. which means moving the whole bloody place around .. **grumbles**

I was going to start cutting out fabric for the simplex star section of my quilt, but had the good sense that God gave me to scan in the fabric and play with it first .. good thing I did!! What I was planning on doing, wouldn't have looked good at all! So I made a few adjustments and at that point decided, what the heck .. scan in the rest of the fabrics I want to use and lay it all out.

Thank you Cecilia for the suggestion to "switch the brown RR blocks with the blue sisters blocks or maybe the pinwheel type blocks" - I really do like the way this has worked out - altho, I did end up moving my double x sections ... it just flows better.

i'm sure this will change a million more times before I finally settle on it - and i'm likely to change the colours too :)

I really like the look of the white / brown-ish background that I've used for the Ohio Star blocks, but i'm sure I don't have enough of that .. I could do the outer sisters blocks in greens or even the ohio star blocks in greens .. Hmmm .. won't have enough green for the sisters blocks .. maybe the ohio stars as there is only 8 of them. I have other colours, but don't want to go to crazy .. I think I have enough in it now as it is .. Maybe do the sisters blocks all purple??? I LIKE purple :D

Heh .. I get to have more fun playing .. but I will do the Simplex Star blocks as I show them here .. I should have enough material to do that - I think .. only need ³/₈ of yard for each HST colour (light green / dark green) and almost ¾ yard for the blue squares - and if I'm a wee bit short, I'm sure that I can figure out something ;)

Watercolour Quickie

2008-07-04T01:24:00.001-04:00

Taking a break from my 1800 quilt was the right thing to do .. I hate admitting 'defeat' even for a short while - but i know my limits and frustration level .. and I was definitely reaching it .. well the 1800 quilt is my first King size, so that is going to make a difference on where I thought I should be progress-wise .. but i'm 'refreshed' so to speak and have a completed project under my belt and I feel pretty darn good about it!!

I found this little darling at Whims, and it was a free watercolour pattern .. I have books here, but the smallest pattern in my book is like a 24 x 24 - this without borders was just over 9" unfinished .. I figured it was the perfect little quick project to jump start my creative juices in a direction I've not gone in a long time.

I did much better with my fabric choices than i did with my first one; 1) My feel for colour has improved over time and I have learned to listen to myself; 2) I have a larger wc stash than I did :D Gotta love the net for swapping fabrics :D.

For the rose, I did the same 'applique' method that I used for reg's quilt and learned something that should have dawned on me, (but I'll forgive myself as I've only done this twice now) from now on, I'm going to reverse the pattern and do my machine applique on the BACK (or wrong side) of my fabric .. that way I won't have the paper stuck in my stitching lines and showing - harumph .. ah well .. I guess i won't be selling this one :D

My border colour approach was different that I normally do - normally I have a narrow dark inner border, then a wider light outer border with a dark binding .. I reversed it this time and rather do like the affect ..

This is freemotion quilted with butterflies, flowers, hearts and meander quilting. Not bad for a two-day project. I had it all pieced and the first borders put on last nite - today i did the outer border, quilting, hanging sleeve andd binding. Oh and it finished up at 17 x 17"

No clue on a name .. I might call it the 'no name rose' as it is YELLOW lololol

Double X blocks done

2008-07-02T05:22:00.006-04:00

That was easier-ish than I expected .. oh you caught that 'ish' did you??? All in all, it went pretty good .. there was a few cutting "oops" and a few sewing "What did I do now?" But all in all they went together well. A few of the points are off, but that's okay .. I'm not to worried about it .. and I only managed to sew 2 sections together backwards :) .. I must be improving .. or else it's a deep reluctance and avoidance of wanting to do frog stitch?

Well so far for this quilt, I've a number of blocks / sections done:

Underground RR blocks - however they will be used

Center section - Ohio Star; Sisters Blocks

Double X sections

I stlll need to do:

Ohio star blocks - 8 blocks

sisters Blocks - 16 blue; 4 purple

Simplex Star - 12 blocks

I'm feeling a need to do a quick project .. not sure why, but I find myself thinking of doing a little quiltlet while I'm piecing blocks together. Maybe it's because I've had to go back to the beginning on this quilt so many times already?? I just NEED to do something and 'finish' it - I'm either thinking of a small watercolour or a scene using appliquilt .. if you can believe it, I'm thinking swimming fishies .. no clue why ... but i am :S .. ah well .. we'll have to see where I'm sitting with this later.

I think that I got a bit of what bit Kyle the other day .. just didn't sleep well at all the other night and wasn't feel good yesterday evening at all .. ended up NOT eating the chicken that I bbq'd for supper and instead had scrambled eggs and toast around 10m or so .. feeling better now .. but esh .. I really do not like feeling icky!!

Kyle's Bday; colour plots n schemes

2008-06-30T01:49:00.003-04:00

Today, Kyle turned 13 years old .. wow .. it just seems like yesterday that he was born - where does the bloody time go ..

My dad came over and we grilled burgers on the grill and then had cake for his bday .. he was still feeling a bit off today so no ice cream as I keep him off dairy when he's like this, but then we opened his presents .. he LOVED his boom box and his game .. Reg and him put his box together then he vanished for a bit to listen to CDs .. we need to get the adaptor for his iPod still - we forgot that in the running around yesterday and then he played his game for a bit .. this one is harder than last years .. the pitching is different .. but he's going to have fun with it and the look on his face when he opened his presents was priceless :) .. he even said to me "mum I had a really good day today .. Thank you .. " .. l was like .. you're welcome .. with my mouth was hanging open ..

So far not a lot done quilt-wise .. did quality family time instead and consider myself coming out ahead ..

I'm going to cut the rest of the fabric for the Double X blocks and get those sections together .. then I might work on the simplex stars .. I've ideas / plots n plans in my head for colours, but it might be a good idea to continue working from the middle out block / colour wise - that way I can make the necessary colour adjustments as needed .. I KNOW that I want the simplex stars to be greens and blues .. the middle sisters will be purple; I and doing the Double X in reds .. now the outer sisters will be blue .. the blocks that i will have to be careful with colourwise will be the Ohio Stars and the outer sisters ..

I would really like the outer sisters to be blue and if I go that route, i have a paisley that is blue on pink that would work very well for the Ohio Star .. heh .. this quilt is very much flying by the seat of my pants ..

I'm not sure if I'm going to leave the corners as the solid Underground RR or use the other ones that have the split background .. I'll just have to put them next to the blocks and make my mind up then.

Well off to cut then - will post pics later maybe ....

I've a teenager GASP; sisters; gutters

2008-06-28T23:53:00.001-04:00

It's been a quiet few days .. quilt wise .. I've let this layout take seed in my mind and I do rather like it .. It has been suggested"switching the brown RR blocks with the blue sisters blocks or maybe the pinwheel type blocks?" - I rather like the idea of maybe doing a double frame with the Underground RR blocks surrounding the purple sisters blocks tho .. altho this does push the blue sisters blocks off the edge of the quilt and will be draping off the edges of the quilt .. this one I have to think about .. Reg really liked the sisters blocks .. that's the only block he picked. BUT I do have the whole center of the quilt for that block .. **thinks n plots**

Tomorrow is Kyle's bday Oh my Lord .. my baby's going to be 13(!!) I'm to bloody young for this LOL. We got him MLB 2K8 for the Xbox 360 and a boombox that will allow his mp3 player to be attached and he can use it for speakers. I think he's going to like it .. he's not feeling too well today at all but is not running a fever .. so here's hoping that he'll throw off what's ailing him and can enjoy tomorrow .. wow 13

I've spent the past few days battling Mother Nature and my rain gutters .. I'm thinking that this gutter system originally had a downspout in the middle of the gutter - which is no longer there .. I unearthed the hole when I cleaned the gutters and plugged it. But cleaning the gutters didn't stop the waterfall going into my flowering shrub. I fixed the waterfall spot by using a hammer and a piece of board to whack it back into shape - the drainage went back to going to the middle spout which isn't there anymore. The water then decided to go over the top of the gutter as it's not meant to be side draining. I ended up with a nasty waterfall hitting my flower beds during the deluge of yesterday and was absolutely besides myself with watching. In the afternoon after i had 'fixed' the gutter, i was balancing on the rail with the hammer and board trying to bang them up so they would drain down the sides during the worst deluge we've had all summer .. i was beyond soaked by the time i gave up. Again it rained and at 1am i'm having kittens on my porch watching my flowers swim underwater - my poor neighbour has been helping me plot with ways to correct this and she pounced on me when we got home from shopping with an idea and we just fine-tuned it from there and i think it's going to work!!

We took a 45° tubing joint and a piece of pvc to have it drain but not into my garden, but over the garden into the grass ... I can always get a decorative stone to put there or a birdbath if it creates a hole in my lawn .. now I really do need new gutters, but since I rent, I'm not likely to pay for this myself and I know my landlord won't do it .. so a stop-gap measure will work :) I've already placed bricks there as it had dripped there already.

Underground RR ... again :S; updated layout

2008-06-27T00:36:00.001-04:00

Not sure how i feel about all that brown .. it looks to me like there's going to be a brown blob in the middle edges of my quilt - while the rest of it will be more colourful ..

After I finished the middle section the other day, I brought all the sections to my bedroom and laid them out on the bed .. nope I just didn't like it .. just tooo much ... brown splat - framing this bright center .. the design of the Underground RR block is great - I just love that look I got, but not with that ..

I've been looking at it and looking at it and I'm just not sure I want to keep the Underground RR sections like they are - I am thinking of frogging the sections apart and using them instead for the outer blocks around the quilt - more like a frame and keep the rest of the colours more in the middle .. I'm just not liking it as it looks right now ..

Again, picking colours is my clue .. can't decide on red or blue and both would work just fine - but it's not a matter of it looking fine or okay . .but do **I** like it .. and i'm not sure i do .. it's a GREAT design and look for those blocks, but does it really fit well with the look i want?? I'm thinking not more and more .. might be part of the reason that I've been dragging my feet on this .. (besides batting issues :D) - batting issues wouldn't stop me from putting the top together .. i'm just hemming and hawing at it ..

So, i'll boot up quiltpro again and fiddle around with it some more .. the more i think about it, the more I like the idea of having this quilt framed by these blocks at the edges .. and these edges are the ones that will be part of my drape off the bed .. and use more sisters blocks, ohio star, simplex star and the double X blocks .. yup - I think I like that better .. and if I need more of the Underground, I do have more of the brown vines fabric that I can make it with and use reds for the inner colours :D or creams or lighter browns that i have :D

Update

With fidding a few things around - I came up with one layout with 2 different looks dependng on if i 'spread' the colours out that I used for the center section - For the Simplex Star I would use a darker / different background so that creates a frame .. I like this so much better .. only question would be if I wanted to keep the outer sisters blocks with the same background as the inner blocks.

Comments, suggestions, praises, criticisms?? Please comment and let me know :) And if you want a response back from me, please do not leave it as no-reply@blogger.com .. rather hard to reply back to that address ;) Thanx

Crippled Internet

2008-06-26T11:53:00.002-04:00

I've been totally beside myself without my internet .. amazing how much that becomes part of your day-to-day life .. been restless and prowling around bouncing off the walls ... unable to settle long enough to work on anything for any length of time - I've driven myself to total distraction.

While my internet was gone, I took a vaca from my 1800 quilt - I was rather disgusted with myself for flipping that row around and also for the way the other block finished up.

I'm not sure what I thought I was doing / thinking (??), but my cuts on that one block were ¹/₈ - ½" larger than they needed to be :S .. bah .. so what this meant was, I needed to check and square up those HSTs :S - well it could be worse .. this could have been 12 blocks instead of the 5 blocks for the inner section. Actually they weren't all that bad .. just the little bit that i normally leave extra to allow me 'flubbing' during sewing. My machine pulls a wee bit and I've found that cutting a smidge more gives me some leeway .. boty did I have lee way

I did manage to get them squared and my block ended up - are you ready for this 11 x 11½" - bah .. so squaring that one up made things interesting .. I'm not going to have sharp points on part of that block, but I'm not sure I want to cut more pieces out .. I'm just going to be super careful doing the rest of the blocks :D

I've two whole cloth quilts and I'm half entertaining the idea of basting them to do and have some hand work to do .. There's a LOT of work to do there and I'm sure it'll keep my busy for a LONG time. I have 2 kits by American Heritage Quilt Collection - a wallhanging; 40 x 40" (left image - Victorian Garden), and a throw; 54 x 69" (right image - Grape Wreath) .. what's nice about these is that the top, backing and pre-cut bias are included and the quilting design is stamped, washes out in cold water .. so all i have to do is supply the batting, thread and the quilting :) When I got these, my plan was to use coloured thread, and i'm still going to use coloured .. just what colour and exactly how much thread to one of these use?? would hate to run out of thread while i'm doing and not being able to get close to the colour - we all know about dye lots :S

This looks much better in person - I'm still thinking i got wayyy to much brown .. but ah well - I'm sure I won't be using brown for a while - a LONG WHILE ..

I would have preferred to do the star points in darker greens .. I just didn't have any that were large enough without having to use 3 or 4 different colours - this quilt is going to be 'colourful' enough as it is :)

I've managed to get the 5 sisters blocks done and my center section. :) I'm thinking the Double X blocks next .. :)

No Internet To-do

Center Section

Fix upsdown section in Underground RR

Double X's Section

start quilting kitty quilt

baste wall hanging - maybe

WOOT WOOT .. i'm back ... but bloody well crippled .. blasted dial-up GRRRRRRRRRRR

Sister; meet froggy .. Then things in gutters

2008-06-19T23:09:00.001-04:00

I wish I knew what I did wrong here .. the only thing that would make sense is that my HSTs weren't the right size .. I've not done a block like this since I was a rookie quilter

So needless to say, this one gets frogged, and the blocks trimmed down to the right size ..

Esh .. what a mess .. I did this last nite and was just to bloody tired to try and figure it out .. or even mess with it .. and totally disgusted with myself too ..

Got up today with a headache and went promptly back to sleep ... then up again to clean out my gutters - well the weight and crap that had been up there bent the gutters down so that when it rained, i still have a waterfall coming down .. but at least the 3" x 2" hole that I covered with metal tape worked .. so up i go again tomorrow to try and bend the gutters back with pliers, a board and a hammer ..

Would you believe that I pulled out from the gutter

a shoe

3 balls

patio torch

hose nozzle

monkey wrench

all in the one gutter .. esh!!!

Underground RR revisited, berries

2008-06-18T07:07:00.007-04:00

You know what i just noticed .. I flipped a row on that last underground RR section .. (groan) .. that I have to take out .. no choice in the matter .. I was just looking at it and my fabrics last nite when I noticed it .. I'm like .. are you kidding me .. for crying out loud!!!! bah!!! On a good note .. all I have to do is frog stitch just that section, flip it over and re-sew it .. so it's not like it's the whole section and lucky (yeah right) for me, it was at the edges .. holybiblebatman! twittwittwit - I am TRYING to be positive about this .. yeah right .. **grumbling .. **

I'm working on the centerpiece now .. I pulled out my green (pathetic amount that I have) and started to measure them for the Ohio Star points .. the two dark colours that I wanted to use were only 11½, and I needed 11¾ - course it's short .. soooo I'm using a light green and medium green .. I'll use the darker green in the smaller Ohio star blocks .. will be using purple foregrounds for the sisters star blocks for the middle .. I have the Ohio Star points done and am going to start cutting the sisters blocks just after I post this or find something else to stall with :D

On a GOOD note, I did get my kitty quilt basted and it did take less time that I actually thought to finish it .. cat hork not withstanding .. I was invaded by my dad .. (yup AGAIN - well it didn't turn into a visit, more like a drive by and he did bring milk :D) while I was basting it and he was looking at it and oh that's pretty .. I'm like ... pretty?? (@@) .. thanx .. (dry sarcastic tone) .. he goes .. why's it all wet .. I'm like wet??? where .. and I look .. my darling little Shadow(Pixel leaves bigger offerings) decided to leave a soggy splotch on the quilt .. I'm like .. the truth comes out on how she really feels about it .. good thing it wasn't food or a hairball .. quick dabbing with paper towels and then a damp cloth cleaned it right up .. I think I would have rather had her chase my thimble around the house .. **sigh**

It's a mulberry tree :D .. Thanx to all the ladies that sent me emails telling me what tree this is .. Thank you everyone!!

What are these berries???
I noticed the other day that there were squirrels and birds having a feast in my tree in the back yard .. and then I look closer and see .. berries ..does anyone have any idea what these are .. I thought this was the same tree that my dad had, but his doesn't produce fruit .. then again, he scalps his every year and it just doesn't .. I tasted it, not overly sweet nor tart .. just mild .. can you leave a comment in my blog (as that's emailed to me) or email me directly if you have my email address - thanx .. I really do appreciate it .. I know they aren't poisonous as the birds and squirrels don't fall out the tree and the dogs even eating them .. crazy dog!

Now as for the dog .. I'm going to tie her tail to her whiskers she starts digging again in the backyard .. she started to go to town yesterday just under this tree, and then again this AM ..

You know .. my animals are going to look really funny with them all running around with their whiskers and tails tied together .. and yes even Pix ..

Quilts n Grass n Bagels!!

2008-06-17T12:43:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a busy day for me .. I had gotten no sleep overnite ..I hate when that happens .. and was waiting on a few phone calls that I didn't want to miss, so I decided to stay up as I was afraid I would not hear the phone .. course they called .. in the afternoon :S

I had a whack of things to do yesterday .. cutting the backyard, making bagels, doing the laundry and I needed a break from all the browns in the repro quilt, so I decided to baste my kitty quilt.

The backyard looks GREAT .. maybe one more cutting and Kyle can do that one .. he's gonna love that lol .. I just want to be sure that the latest seed I laid catches and it looks like it's doing just that .. just have to combat all the weeds back there .. they are all on one side of the yard heheh .. I'll pull them slowly and surely .. by labour day they should all be gone - heheheheh

I did that early in the AM so that I could do the bagels, laundry and basting at the same time .. breadmakers are wonderful things :D .. it does all the mixing and all i have to do is shape them, proof them, boil them (secrets in the boiling time .. the longer they boil, the larger and lighter they get), and then bake them .. voila!!! bagels .. I'm doing better at them too .. this is likely my 4^th batch and I've finally got the knack of them .. reg actually said he thought they were store bought :D. I like the recipe I found, it uses both whole wheat and white flour - anything with whole wheat is good in this house. I had tested a few and this one won.

I'm still using Sharon Schambers method and like everything - practice practice practice .. i'm about ²/₃ done and it shouldn't take me more than 2 hours to finish it .. baring interruptions. I could have finished yesterday, but I wanted to spend time with Reg and I was WHACKED!

Normally I don't leave stuff like that out .. i use the kitchen table for this and it's right under a HUGE window - and any window in a house with cats is THEIR territory .. it wasn't so much them sitting on it ... - they do that all the time .. I was more worried about the needle and my thimble - My darling Shadow loves to bat things around .. (remember my seam ripper - that was her work) Pix is more likely to go after fabric and batting strips. But it's all there .. first thing I checked when I got up this AM.

I'm still trying to decide what sections to do next for my repro quilt .. i've not heard back from the people i had emailed about the calico fabric or the simplex star block. I might just do the middle Ohio with the sisters blocks, or work on the Double X sections .. I am thinking I might want a quick section to finish and that would likely be the Ohio / Sisters - I'm also rather stuck on colours .. what to use .. The Double X uses more yardage and would like to have them as close as possible .. so I might have to do them next to ensure that .. I'm not worried about the background fabric .. I have enough of that .. but the foreground .. I would like to do greens and purples in the middle (Reg and I's favourite colours) and they do compliment each other nicely - hen maybe reds and blues for the Double X .. (will only combine those if I don't have enough of one colour) .. heh .. will have to check my math I guess .. :)

I WAS almost finished ...

2008-06-16T06:57:00.008-04:00

On Saturday I was invaded by my dad .. no call no nothing .. AGAIN .. that made 5 days running .. must have been Father's Week - not Father's Day .. ah well .. I didn't quite trust myself to sew, but I did cut the rest of my sections out .. good thing too .. as I was looking at the fabric i had left for the background .. i'm thinking to myself .. there is no way that's enough .. well you know what .. it wasn't .. i would hav been ¹/₈" short for the width on the final strip and i would have been short on the other piece one (you're reading this right) ONE - 4 ³/₈" square for the HST .. short ONE .. i'm like .. are you bloody well kidding me!?!?!?!?!? I triple checked and yup i was short .. not a big deal, I have the brown vines which I could swap with .. well I'm wishing i had done this way all through .. all my squares were the vine fabric and then my HSTs were the chocolate brown .. it really looks NICE. Rather makes the path through the blocks pop more - but i am not going to rip the rest of them apart to do that to them .. nope - not gonna happen!

Here I was thinking I was being slick .. and I WAS rather pleased with myself too .. until I saw that I had flipped my middle squares .. I had caught it everytime up until NOW - and wouldn't you figure .. it's the LAST section .. bah .. I'm glad that I have an old seam ripper, but it really isn't very good .. mine is still MIA .. I guess with all this ripping to do (3 blocks have to be totally undone - and not it's not all together .. 3 seams away from it), I would rather use my good one .. so I'll tear the living room apart to see is Shadow batted it under the couch or table or something .. I can only pray .. yeah i think I would rather do that then frog stitch all that - UGH .. twittwittwit ..

Ah well it will get done today .. Good thing too .. I'm getting tired of brown .. I think the next section will be the middle section that's a sisters star in an Ohio Star ..

Seam Ripper Update

AHA .. found my seam ripper .. I had it on the table next to the couch when I was doing the english paper piecing .. Good thing .. now my frog stitch will go that much faster now :D :D :D

Finished!!
Finally got it done .. feels GREAT to finish this part .. mind you .. i ended up flipping a 4 patch the wrong way again .. and course this was on the last block and i just said to heck with it .. I knew if I messed with it anymore, I would end up wrecking it or hating it .. so it stays .. who knows .. it might end up making the quilt??? **shrug .. never know ;)

I think that i'm going to take a wee bit of a break from this .. I've been wanting to work on my kitty quilt and baste it .. maybe i'll get that done today .. and in the back of my mind ... plot my next steps ...

Pix is a LOLCAT

2008-06-14T09:14:00.002-04:00

I can't remember if I posted this when it happened, and it's not findable by search - but I submitted two pics of Pixel to LOLCATS back when i was at the old house .. they finally approved him about 2 months ago .. these are the pics that I used:

Yup, it was Friday the 13th

2008-06-14T03:08:00.011-04:00

That's not to say it was a totally horrific day .. just a challenging one .. I slept late for one, then when I got up there was a whole whack of stuff that had to be done RIGHT THEN .. I didn't even have an uninterrupted cup of coffee all day ..

Things finally settle down a bit and I go over my math to see what i need to finish cutting for this section, then the kid wants attention :S .. Just get him calmed down then my dad stops by .. no reason .. just stopped by - when i realized there was nothing life threatening, I start to go over my math again .. then my dad leaves - 3 mins later - reg is home :\ ... we walk to the store .. (which I had already been to with Kyle earlier .. )

Okay .. things settle again .. and I finally get to go over the figures again ... one strip is a smidge off after all is said and done and there's not a bloody thing I can do about it but deal with it and stretch and smidge .. which rather did turn out alright .. I can see the places - but I know they're there ....

The actual time spent wasn't long at all .. and if it wasn't 3:15am - i would likely do another section .. tomorrow's another day :D

I figure that with the size of this quilt, I'm going to do quilt as you go .. I found 2 places that have great tutorials for them .. one is at Quilters Cache (Quilt as you Go) and another one that has no hand sewing for the back .. Quilt as you go - No hand sewing. The idea of no hand sewing really appeals to me, but with the size of this, it would be just as bad and quiltling the thing whole .. So I'll do the quilter's cache method for this and save the other for double size quilts and smaller.

My seam ripper is missing in action .. i think that my 10lb four legged black furry wonder is the culprit (Shadow) - these sort of antics are her specialty

But on a good note - all my cherry tomato plants have flowers on them :D

The Research cat QUITS!

2008-06-13T01:09:00.005-04:00

If I've not lost my mind .. I'm sure it's a short matter of time .. i wanted to confirm that all of the blocks I am using were in existence and USED in the 1800s .. I found all of them but one .. the simplex star (or ... friendship star, milkyway variation, windmill (bout 4 variations of this name). I KNOW I found it one .. on an antique quilt that someone had someWHERE .. chances are, it was at a quilt brokers or online store and it was sold ..

The blocks these ladies made were pretty elaborate and I am just stunned .. some of these were made with just needle and thread. . none of the modern conveniences we have .. least the ones that have made from the 1800s .. most utilitarian quilts I'm sure are dust .. i did run over a reference to it (this one was for the version name friendship star - but it was the same) "This is a very old pattern; definitely easy to stitch, and able to be interpreted in many different fabrics. It's appeared in quilts for hundreds of years...I know I've seen it featured in some quilts said to date from the 1700s. But it was also one of those blocks (like Album or Chimney Sweep) that people made up for 'farewell' quilts to friends or relatives moving."

I wish I could find this history of this block .. even showing in a quilt that is confirmed to have been made prior to 1900 - i might not touch this subject for a few days .. altho there are barns in Ohio (Clothesline of Quilts) that feature quilt blocks on them .. and this block was confirmed to have been from the 1800s "An 1885-1930 periodical identified this pattern as Simplex Star. In 1939 it was published as Lost Goslin." Those two references along with me knowing i've seen it will just have to be enough .. I've lost my patience with this . it's not very often that I have such issues searching for AND finding what I want ..

On anther note .. I did mention that I would put the pics of my yard :) .. well today I went out with the camera and took some pics to get away from the puter ..

The bush on the right and the 3 lily plants I rescued from my plant murdering dad .. well I rescued the lilies and after I gave him whatfor for just digging them out . when he dug out the bush (Goldmound speria) he put it in a bucket and brought it here for me to keep .. heh .. mine's thriving and flourishing .. and his is anemic .. I told him it's because yours thinks you killed it's brother LOLOLOL .. My lilies (well mum's lilies actually) are going to bloom soon .. I see flower stalks coming up .. I have 2 types of flowers in there also that I started from seed - 1 type didn't even peek it's head out ... but since it looks like a weed that is very common here, I might have actually pulled them ..

And of course my grass :) .. Orion is enjoying it ..

My dwarf asters have barely grown here too .. but out of 12 4'oclocks that I planted, 5 came up and there are 4 or 5 in the front already ..

1800s Reproduction Quilt .. Plans / Thoughts

2008-06-12T11:15:00.005-04:00

I love reproduction fabric from the 1800s ... always have since I first saw it about 10 years ago .. I've wanted to do a quilt with just these fabrics and also with blocks that were popular at the time .. My first fabric that I purchased for this was 4 yards and that would have been sufficient for a lap quilt .. I was very new to quilting at the time and anything larger was just to overwhelming for me .. by the time I decided that I wanted to do a bed quilt, the fabric was discontinuted. So I have to make do with 4 yards. And I no longer have a double bed, but a king :O

My only requirements for this quilt .. Reproduction fabrics from the 1800s .. (that's why that one calico question is so important to me), and popular blocks of the time as well .. oh and it has to fit our bed.

Over the years I've picked up a yard here and yard there .. FQs - quite a few of them .. and then I got lucky and did a HUGE fabric trade with Judi Kern for a whole whack of fabric .. this trade enabled me to maybe have enough fabric to get moving on this quilt .. with the size of our bed, it might have been ready for our retirement ;)

In keeping with the way quilts were made in the 1800s, his quilt is going to be scrappy ... I am going to try and have each 'section' have as much of the same fabric as possible - if that doesn't happen .. at least the same colour family or as close as possible. I've already started that with the Underground Railroad Block Sections . the first one was made with 2 different FQs for the foreground colour, but the background is going to be the same for all sections. If not, I did have a backup of monochrome brown vines ..

The next section after the underground RR is the Double X blocks (16 of them) that will have the same background, but will be in various fabrics of whatever I have that fits the bill yardage wise. None of it will be the same, but it will be all purples or blues or greens or reds .. you see where I'm going here. Then the sisters block - the center one will have the same background and again, the same color family for the foreground .. I've not even decided what colours the big Ohio Star will be yet .. it's all going to depend on what looks good with the chocolate brown and the rusty reds that I have.

I'm not 100% sure on the Ohio Star, but it is a traditional block, that one is iffy on the time frame .. Might have been early 1900s .. But not positive .. But the rest are from then :) Short of buying a book, online references mostly talk about 8 blocks; basic 9 patch, chimney sweep (not even sure what that one is), churn dash, Georgetown circle, underground railroad, jacob's lader, North Star and Slave chain (no clue about this one either). I've managed to view a few antique quilts online that have these other blocks in them - and i've patterned them off the way they looked at the time. I found some actual blocks (so they say) from that time period in a webshots album .. these pictures allowed me to cut a LOT of my research down and move forward from there. Civil War blocks. Now I did read that finding stacks of blocks not put into a quilt was common .. as the ladies didn't have the pattern books that we do or even current newspapers if they were in the back country, they would quickly stitch up a block when they visit (trading patterns .. so things never change) and THAT would be their pattern ... One can easily see how this is how so many blocks would have been found in this condition .. hid away for years somewhere ..

AHA - I've found my proof at The Quilt Index - specifically this search page - Ohio Star Search - the first quilt is from 1850 - 1875 - I do have to be careful as the Ohio Star and variable star were two names given to the same block .. **wonder if I can see any calico print in these images .... **

So basically this quilt with the exception of the actual layout isn't really planned .. I've never done a quilt like this before .. usually I have it planned down to the inch .. heh .. can we say STRESS .. lol .. just kidding ..

it's definitely going to be big enough .. 94½ x 94½ before borders. An idea that has tripped across my mind is to have one smaller border - the outer blocks will be a nice 'border' for the center designs already .. and I can likely do alternating darks and lights for background or what have you .. I've not even really looked at what the borders looked like on the quilts I did find online .. I was to interested in the blocks.

But it is going to be fun to put together and plot and plan as I go along . I've never quite done this with a quilt before .. I usually have the colours picked right to the binding .. I still have some research to do and more plotting than I can even think straight about .. but it'll all come together .. it's rather fun to have no 'plan' or instructions and just go with what i have ..

I did this to my blog ;)

2008-06-11T22:36:00.001-04:00

Today as you can see I was busy with the look of my blog .. I was tired of the templates that blogger offers .. they have a good selection, but it's limited .. They idea actually came to me when I saw, I think it was Cissy's Quilts blog, and really liked it .. well i had been wanting to do play with the layout and look to make it more "ME" .. but with this that and the other thing .. plus I'm not all that conversant on xml .. but it's a LOT like CSS so that part was okay .. just no clue on how to structure a document .. So I googled blogger templates and got a mess of hits .. well after frittering thru the results for about 2 hours I was getting frustrated .. all I wanted was a clean simple design that reflected me in some way .. cats, purple, blue, quilting, whatever .. nothing .. then I did find one that I really liked .. it was a reversed shadow of a lily - all i had to do was use their generator to change the text and colours and boom, copy and paste it .. well I generated it, previewed and copy and pasted it over .. then I get a message that it's going to delete all my widgets .. (those are those neat lists and links that i have off to the side .. ) I'm like NO way .. so I try to alter the code .. well it didn't like what i was doing, which was basically replacing one sidebar coding with another .. tried for a few more times and started to search again .. I was about to give up when I found this one .. :D :D :D

I spent the next several hours learning to read the code so I could change it more to my tastes - bullets on the side, blockquotes standing out from regular text, the post footers more of a definitive separator between my posts, the text colour and size and the actual text itself ..

So I learned a lot today .. next attempt (when I'm sick enough of this one) is to make my own :D

I ended up going over to my dad's to deadhead his roses, grab the other hanger for my box planter, borrow a saw to take off a tree limb - etc etc etc etc ..

On a quilty note, I cut out the strips and hsts for the next underground rr block .. I might even sew that one up tonite .. but if I have to start .. I will have to keep going .. Pix has been taking to attacking fabric and batting pieces left 'lying around' .. yeah right .. he pulls the scrap batting out of the bags, and my strips for string quilts out of bags .. and pulls fabric strips off the cutting table .. I swear I'm going to tie his whiskers to tail one of these days .. crazy cat!!

During daylight I will HAVE to remember to take picks of my front flower bed, and the GRASS in my backyard as well as the planting that I have done .. You've all heard about it .. but not seen it ;) soon ..