Visit a Bit, Do a Lot

My sister was here visiting this week and we had a blast.  We yarn shopped.  We spent hours drooling over baby knit books and scanning stuff for each other to share.  We Babies R Us'd, she a five times experienced grandma and me a first timer, come October. We went to the county fair and admired quilted, knitted, and crocheted items.  We also watched the Alaskan Pig Races and "rooted" on our favorite.  We laughed a lot at the musical Xanadu. So, did I produce many crafty items while she was here?  Not a lot but we did inspire each other and started some projects for my first grandchild. My sister started knitting the bonnet from a hat and sweater set for my daughter (who is also her godchild).  Pink, of course.

We sat at the kitchen table and talked and knitted away.  I knitted a pair of infant socks.  Yes, I know you can buy them much cheaper but there is something tactilely attractive about a soft cotton bamboo fluffy pair of socks for a baby girl that just urges me on.  Here they are.  Can other colors be far in the future?  I dare say there will be more.

Admittedly dealing with four double pointed needles in size three for such a small item took a bit of finger gymnastics but I prevailed.  I intend to try a circular cable technique to knit two at once for my next pair.  If anyone has experience with this, let me know. The book I plan to consult is

Then I bought these three colors for a baby afghan.  Don't they just go together is a luscious sherbet-y way?  More on this project in the future, once I have started it.

My daughter reminded me to take some pictures of my newly upgraded sewing room. We took out the carpet and it now has lovely hickory hardwood floors so I can roll my chair my in and out more easily to get up from my sewing machine. Also I wanted to be able to sweep rather than vacuum up thread and scraps.

I might note that like most projects there was a definite scope creep.  I want to expand to the adjacent bedroom in case I get a quilting machine.  So of course the two rooms should have the same flooring.  And of course, you do not want to have to deal with a threshhold to pick up and sweep over, so the hall connecting the two rooms should also change to hardwood.  To make a long story short, we ripped up carpet in four bedrooms and the hallway and put in hardwood.  Of course this made the bathroom look shabby so we replace the old linoleum in there with vinyl planking that looks like hardwood.  Disassembling the rooms, emptying all the closets, and reassembling the rooms all took place the week before my sister arrived.  Whew! What an undertaking!  But the results are sure worth it.  See the pictures of my sewing room.

My newly refurbished sewing room did get a quick workout.  About 10 pm the night before my sister is to fly home (last night), I decided she needed a pillowcase.  At the fair she bought a super-duper fancy pillow that is absolutely positively touted (and guaranteed!) to cure all your sore neck and spine nerve frazzled ailments and keep you in REM sleep for all the  nights for the next ten years of your life.  Something that awesome needs a pillowcase, of course, so while she was packing I set out to make one. I do not have a picture of the finished product. After all, when you go to bed at 1 am to get up at 5 am, the lighting is not the best and the completed item does still need to be packed.  But here is the source fabric combo in my sister's favorite colors.

This is WIP Wednesday and I feel pretty silly re-listing things I have not worked on but here it is none-the less.  Seems like other wanna-do's keeping cutting in line to the head of the list.

Completed projects:

1. Turquoise baby socks
2. Completed yarn purchases for next 3+ projects
3. Had a great time with my sister
4. Quilting of doll quilt by MaryAnn is complete

Ongoing projects:

1. Little witch girl quilt to be
2. Duck, Duck, Goose - completed binding- change mind, will quilt by self
3. Doll quilt - attach binding

No progress (but re-listed here so I do not forget and leave buried in closet):

• Hexagon Mask Quilt - layout begun but overwhelming
• Fire and Ice Quilt- sitting in closet awaiting decision on backing
• Grinch Quilt - ripening on the design wall
• Pumpkin/Iris/Blossom square wall hanging- needs backing and binding

I want to start:

• Presents with Bows quilt kit
• The Ghastlies- strip quilt
• Peach/lilac/pink baby blanket
• More baby socks
• Baby crocheted dress

This week's stats:

     Completed  projects - 4 (I count generously)

     New projects - 1 ( doubled counted as completed socks) 

     Currently in progress - too many to count

I Wish That I Had Duck Feet

I wish that I had duck feet.

And I can tell you why.

You can splash around in duck feet.

You don't have to keep them dry.

Do you remember that children's book?  It was one of my favorites ( and the kids', too.) That is what comes to mind each time I pick up the strip pieced Duck, Duck, Goose quilt to work on.  Well, I just found the perfect accompaniment to that quilt... knitted duck feet booties from this book. See them hanging there, third from the left? I plan to make them just as soon as I find some bright yellow yarn of the right weight.  My sister is here visiting from North Carolina and we spent most of yesterday at fabric and craft and yarn stores but that yellow yarn was not on our radar then.  We saw it in the newly purchased book after getting home (along with at least another half-dozen projects in the book that just elicited one Awwww or Ooooooh after another).

 

Here is an update on the status of Duck, Duck, Goose. The piecing, as I said in my previous post for this quilt, went quickly.  Then I tried FMQ and chickened out of quilting it myself.  I have become braver but plan to be less ambitious and do sections of it in straight line quilting that I can do with the pressure foot down and not need to worry about uniform stitch size.

Adventures with BOM

In my last blog entry I showed my attempts at recalling how to free motion quilt.  I used a leftover scrap block and thought I should show the quilt from which it was an extra block and tell the story behind that quilt.  Here is that quilt.

The quilt top is made entirely from Jo-Ann Fabric's 2006 QuiltBlocks Collection titled Rhythm & Blues. Finished, the JoAnn version is designed to be 78"x90" and looks like this.

Mine finished 70"x"94. The challenge was that I had no finishing kit and not all of the twelve blocks. A fun part was collecting the blocks from the bargain bin at a bunch of Jo-Ann's stores for $1 each. I visited three Jo-Ann stores within my area on a Saturday road trip with my husband, the farthest being a 50 mile roundtrip.  (Gas costs were not then what they are now!) My sister in North Carolina and my daughter in Oklahoma checked the bargain bins in their local stores too. Some of the blocks, ones that I had two or four of, I made as is, but others I raided for the precut fabric pieces and made flying geese or bar inserts such as in the middle of the four edges along the border.

Here the the individual blocks I had to build from.

I had no block 2 (strange, because I could get block 1's) and I had one block 6, the center block with applique petals, which I raided for some last bits of dark navy.  Since the pieces were all pre-cut I could just pick up and sew a few minutes at a time, no design planning nor possibility of messing up the cutting out part.  My youngest son was stabilizing after some pretty serious heart health issues at the time I worked on this quilt (he is doing great, now) so it was a good sewing outlet and stress reliever.  Tracking and finding the blocks were a good bonding mini-adventure and distraction for my husband and me, too. I finished my quilt in 2008, finding time to back and bind it as critical issues with my son diminished. It is so true, "Every quilt has a story..." and I associate each quilt with what was going on in my life at the time I worked on it.  This one has fond associations since Alex was getting better throughout its making.

New memories are being made now.  My daughter is expecting a baby girl in October so here is a sneak peek at a quilt in the making for my first grandchild.  Just a peek though, since my daughter reads my blog.

Completed projects:

1. Restocked closets and reassembled four bedrooms after emptying for new flooring- Whew... what a job!!!
2. Attending middle son's MBA graduation from UC Irvine
3. Took youngest son to special needs camp and back
4. Nothing quilty this week- unless you count the quilt finished in 2008.

Ongoing projects:

1. Little witch girl quilt to be
2. Duck, Duck, Goose - completed binding- will send out to quilt I think
3. Doll quilt - with free-motion quilter, binding is made

No progress (but re-listed here so I do not forget and leave buried in closet):

• Hexagon Mask Quilt - layout begun but overwhelming
• Fire and Ice Quilt- sitting in closet awaiting decision on backing
• Grinch Quilt - ripening on the design wall
• Pumpkin/Iris/Blossom square wall hanging- needs backing and binding
• Bug baby quilt - not started - decided to do little witch girl instead
• Chicken quilt - planning to spray baste with 505

I want to start:

• Presents with Bows quilt kit
• The Ghastlies- strip quilt

This week's stats:

     Completed  projects - 0 

     New projects - 0 

     Currently in progress - too many to count