Tuesday, September 30, 2014

What a Whit of a table runner!

This is my entry for this month AYOS using the Whit pattern from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. that you can see here. Instead of a little quilt I made 60 different teeny tiny flying geese and turned them  into a table runner. I fussy cut these little guys just like I fussy cut the bigger ones I working on for my bed size Halloween quilt that I showed yesterday. If you click on the picture and make it bigger you can see spiders, eyeballs, bats, ghosts, an owl, candy corn, a mummy and even the date of Halloween - October 31 - so I don't ever forget - LOL!

Here it is from two different angles -




I wasn't sure how to quilt it as it is quite busy and then I got the idea to quilt a spider web over teeny tiny flying geese. I didn't want to mark on the front so I turned it over and sketched some lines on the back and quilted it on the back with my variegated thread in the bobbin.


It isn't real noticeable on the front but I know it is there and that's enough for me. I can't wait to put this on my dining room table. I think the polka dot pumpkin my son gave me will be the perfect topper, don 't you?


happy stitching-
carol fun

Monday, September 29, 2014

My geese have changed direction on Design Wall Monday

I've had this Halloween quilt on my design wall for over a week and while I LOVE the individual geese the whole gaggle of them just left me feeling - meeeeeehhhh.... but then I was cruising Pinterest and saw a quilt with the open blocks on point and I knew that is the direction my geese should be flying in!


I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me, because I've done lots of quilts with blocks set on point and think it adds a lot to a simple design. I also decided that a little structure with the colors might add another facet... so orange geese are pointed into the orange cornerstones and black geese have nestled up to the orange cornerstones. Now I'm not certain that these are the orange cornerstones that will be in the final design. They are the best of what I have in my stash but I'm hoping a trip to Fabric Shack later today may yield a better candidate.

I'm going to use this Deb Strain Happy Howl-o-ween  text fabric for the border and there may be a little inner border too when all is said and done.


Right now I have it all on the design wall but there is a lot more sewing to do.



I like the dancing skeleton with the top hat... very dapper!


And I found Snoopy chilling on the Great Pumpkin... a great addition to the Peanuts gang.


So now I'm happy with the design, just need to tweak the fabrics here and there. I had no intention of making a Halloween quilt this year. I told myself I should make a nice Fall quilt for my bed... and I should...right after I finish this one!

happy stitching-
carol fun

Friday, September 26, 2014

Oh look... another shiny ball of yarn!

As I've confessed before I have crafty ADHD. So many projects I want to work on, and so many new shiny things that catch my eye - it is hard to stay focused. Which is my excuse for why I have 2 half knitted pairs of socks when I could have one finished pair and one half knit pair.

This is my start on the second sock for the one I showed last Friday. I love this Regia yarn and the lumpy bumpy texture of the pattern. A 4 row repeat -  Row 1, 2, 3 Knit. When you get to Row 4 K1, P1 all the way around - easy peasy.


Suddenly I spied this ball of yarn and I had to cast it on - RIGHT NOW!


Plain vanilla sock but oh do I LOVE the scrappiness of this yarn. Its another Regia. I got both of the yarns here on ebay. The multi color one I showed first is Istanbul Mosaic 5560, and the hot pink, yellow, navy scrappy one is Avenue Passion 1116.

And somehow these four skeins of Malabrigo Rios sneaked into the house when I wasn't looking. I think they squeezed themselves through the mail slot as I found them on the floor right inside my front door, making themselves at home.


I assume they came to live with me because they knew I want to a knit this shawl called Jimi -
 you can see it here. I love that it has stripes and it is suppose to be a quick knit for a beginner. I'm more than a beginner, but my recent trouble with shawls has led me to think an easy project would be good idea. Now to find time to cast one one. And yes, there is enough yarn there for 2 shawls...making choices can be hard when you are crafty ADHD, dontcha know?

happy knitting-
carol fun

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

The Gaggle is Growing on WIP Wednesday

The week is off it a great start - I've been able to sew everyday! I hope this continues as my gaggle of Halloweenie flying geese is growing.


I'm not sure this will be the final layout of the geese. I want to play around with the directions they are heading. Right now whatever way you view the top from, some geese are right side up, and some are wrong side up, and some are sideways. I like that but I think the design could be more balanced.  I would like to put this quilt on my bed during October. My plan is to get all the flying geese sewn and then assemble them in groups of 4 and play with the layout a bit more.

I did find my Peanuts Halloween fabrics and was able to include Charlie Brown, Schroeder, a bit of Snoopy, and Lucy.


These images come from some new fabric I just got. I love the tags on the bottles - Eye of Newt and Dragon's Fire Breath.


And what would Halloween be without the appearance of Dracula and the Wolfman?


I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced and want to thank Lee for the wonderful giveaway she has every week on her blog. I was the lucky recipient of a $50 gift certificate from LiMa Sews - you can see there website here. Lots of pretty fabrics and they do long arm quilting. I haven't decided what goodies to get yet but there sure are a lot of wonderful choices.

happy stitching-
carol fun

Monday, September 22, 2014

A Gaggle of Geese on Design Wall Monday

Well last Monday I told you I enjoyed making the flying geese blocks for Whit... and I did...so I made more flying geese blocks... a bunch more. First I put together my version of Whit for this month's AYOS entry.


I decided to make a table runner out of 60 different teeny tiny Halloweenie flying geese. I love the fabric at the ends with all the Halloweenie words too. Now to get it quilted.

As I was making the teeny tiny Halloweenie flying geese I knew I wanted to make bigger ones so I could showcase more of my Halloweenie fabrics. This is the start of another quilt I have no business starting but I could not resist. I told myself it would be a good use of my time as I already had both bins of fabrics strewn all over my sewing room. So before I picked them up and folded them I cut more flying geese. These will finish 2 1/2" X 5".


I hope to have enough of that yellow spider web fabric. According to my calculations, and anyone who has read this blog knows my math skills are quite rudimentary, I will have just enough fabric to make 180 different flying geese and the spacer squares. Cross your fingers and maybe say a novena that I got the math right this time.

So far here are some of my favorite blocks...I love this little mummy, he has heart!


I've always loved Charlie Brown and I think I have some fabric with the Peanuts characters dressed up for Halloween. I need to look through the piles on the floor for it today.


And the night has a thousand eyes... spooky!


But this one really cracks me up... its a skeleton...which you can plainly see, but look closely at his hand... he was knitting before his demise - LOL -this could be me someday!


I'm not sure how many more geese I need to cut out. I just pick a piece of fabric up off the floor and find a motif I like and cut it out and then fold the fabric up and put it back in the bin. I'm not sure I have 180 totally different Halloweenie fabrics but I figure lots of them have several different motifs in the same piece and I can cut different images to give me 180 different geese. Yes, I am crazy... I've told you that before...but its a good kinda crazy... that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

happy stitching-
carol fun

Saturday, September 20, 2014

What a lovely birthday week it was!

Today is the official end of my birthday week and it has been lovely. I had dinner with my family last Sunday - a yummy meal from my favorite Italian restaurant, followed by cupcakes and cake pops... and this one was just too cute to eat!


It a flying pig and its a big deal here in Cincinnati. The local marathon race is called the Flying Pig and some people run it dressed as pigs, and we even have flying pigs in our parks.


Close up shot...


And all over our downtown...

This one is dedicated to the Cincinnati Ballet Company.

And Queen Porktunia pays homage to several city landmarks and our heritage as  the Queen City and Porkopolis.

This guy is a nod to our German roots, so appropriate for this weekend when we celebrate Oktoberfest Zinzinnati.

Sorry - I got carried away there...anyway I received some lovely cards and that beautiful pot of mums.


Here is Big Dude protecting them.


And this is the card I received from Big Dude... I think this is his first cousin, once removed.


So now I need to get to the winner of my birthday giveaway that I posted last Sunday, drum roll please. The winner of a $25 gift card to the crafty store of their choice is Barb from Wicked Stitcher. Thank you to all who left wonderful comments on what the best age would be. I think we can all agree that we want our health and our families and our crafty pursuits as part of the total package.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend...




and remember sometimes pigs do fly!

carol fun

Friday, September 19, 2014

Back to socks

After putting two shawls in knitting time out, I picked up my needles and went back to my socks. I finished the mate for this yarn, DROPS Fabel 677p - you can see it here.


Plain vanilla socks where I reversed the stripes so they'd be fraternal mates.

Then I picked up this Regia yarn. The colorway is called Istanbul Mosaic and I purchased it here.


I love all the colors in this yarn and wanted to do something a bit more than a vanilla sock and found this pattern on Ravelry - you can see it here.



I tried and tried to get a picture that captured the pattern without success. Look at the pattern link for a clearer look. The pattern is a 4 row repeat. Row 1 - K Row 2 -K Row 3- K Row 4 - K1, P1 repeat till end of round. The link on Ravelry calls andalucian stitch. It makes a wonderfully bumpy texture which reminds me of an alligator's skin. Yeah... my mind wanders off in strange directions - LOL

I'm happy that I went back to my sock knitting. It feels great to knit a successful project and the weather is changing. I even wore a pair of hand knit socks the other evening and they felt sooooo good.

happy knitting-
carol fun

Monday, September 15, 2014

A Whit of work on Design Wall Monday

Have you seen the Another Year of Schnibbles on Pink Pincushion and A Quilting Life? This month they are doing the Little Bites pattern Whit which uses 2 1/2" squares. I decided I wanted to use some Halloween fabrics and here is what I have so far.


There are 60 different Halloween fabrics most of which I fussy cut... yes I am nuts...and I am soooo good at making a project as complicated as it possibly can be - LOL!



Here is a close-up of some of my favorites - bats and candy corn and spiders and spider webs and that mummy make me smile!

Now for this project I cut into my special Halloween fabric that I've been saving for a very special project ... I have about 4 yards of this spider web fabric on yellow and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!


This fabric was a gift from my BFF Stephie and I've been thinking for over a year about how to best use it and I think I've come up with a plan. I like making these flying geese but not this small - the ones for Whit will finish 1" X 2".  I think flying geese that finish about 2 1/2" by 5" would be perfect... like these.


I have no business working on this project as I have several other projects that are half finished. Well, it will be in good company when it ends up in a plastic bin.

happy stitching-
carol fun

Sunday, September 14, 2014

I'm not as old as the Star-Spangled Banner!



I am NOT as old as the Star-Spangled Banner - it is celebrating its 200th birthday - but it is my birthday too! I don't think we need to go into how old I am, now do we? Old enough to know better but don't really care!

So to celebrate my birthday I want to give you a gift - a $25 gift certificate to the crafty store of your choice- fabric, yarn, cross stitch, paper - whatever! Leave me a comment and tell me what age do you think is the perfect age to be- it doesn't have to be the age you are now, but it could be. I figure the best age to be is at least 5 years older than I am now - wanna plan that future -LOL!

If you have problems leaving a comment on this post,  you can email me at CFUN53@gmail.com. No matter how you leave a comment be sure I have an email to contact you at - if you are on Google + please put your email in the comment as I can't for the life of me figure out how to get back to you.

I will leave this giveaway open until Friday September 19th at 11:59 pm. I will put all your names in a hat or some other receptacle and pick one randomly and announce the winner on Saturday September 20.

happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear Polka Dot Chicken, happy birthday to me!

has a catchy ring to it, doesn't it?

happy stitching too!

carol fun

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Fall Decor 2014

I know it isn't officially Fall, but it is Fall in my house! The kick off to Fall for me is a piece of pumpkin pie from Frisch's which I had yesterday, and there will be many, many  more before the season is over. I have a Spiced Pumpkin Yankee candle burning and my Fall decorations have been liberated from their plastic storage bins and placed around the house.

Now this is a new display - my youngest son assembled this cabinet from Target for me - you can see it here. I LOVE it! I LOVE the color and I LOVE that I have another surface to decorate and it has shelves which I decorated with pumpkins and quilts! The cross stitch is my finished Blackbird Designs Anniversaries of the Heart which was a 3 year project.


Here is that tiny disappearing 4 patch table runner I finished last week along with a cute wagon (from Michael's) filled with fabric apples I made eons ago and the latest additions to my pumpkin collection - a POLKA DOT pumpkin!


Isn't it wonderful? My youngest son purchased it for me at Meijers. He said when he saw it he knew it belonged to me... and it does. Now I'll have my eyes peeled for other polka dot Fall items.

This is pretty much the same display as last year...a little cross stitch, some pumpkins, some squirrels and acorns.


And this too is much like is was last year... more pumpkins ,more quilts... do you detect a theme? LOL


And here is a picture of Big Dude surveying his domain with a backdrop of my Butterscotch Scrap Jar Stars on the back of the couch. I don't have the space to hang a large quilt anymore so the back of the couch has become a large quilt rack.


Well the weather is positively Fall like today - temperatures only in the upper 60's, a bit of a breeze and lots of sunshine - simply perfect if you ask me!

hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

carol fun

Friday, September 12, 2014

My knitting is in time out ~

I haven't posted any knitting for a couple of weeks because my knitting has been in time out as witnessed by this giant ball of Noro Kureyon yarn.


Now it didn't start as this giant ball, in fact it began as 3 separate skeins of Noro Kureyon
colorway  170 and it was knitted into this shawl, a free pattern called Be Simple that can be seen here.


However after knitting these 3 skeins I couldn't convince myself that I really liked this shawl. I didn't like how wide it was getting and it was very dense, which is my fault because I used Noro Kureyon when I should have used Noro Kureyon SOCK - a much lighter weight yarn. Oh well, at least with yarn you can re-knit it. I had purchased this yarn with this pattern in mind - The Original Half Granny Square Shawl - another free pattern you can see here. I think I'll try this pattern instead.

And then there is my Pamuya shawl - here's a link to that pattern but it isn't a free one.


This one is also in time out as I need to frog several rows to get back on track. I haven't been in the mood to do that so it has been sitting in a basket next to my chair for weeks. It isn't the shawl's fault, it is mine. Bad knitter!

I really should just stick to socks like this pair I knit with Opal yarn. I forget which line it was, sorry.


A lovely pair of fraternal twin socks, my favorite kind to knit... mindless... but always come out great.
I think I'll go cast on another pair of socks. I need a project that I know will work out.

happy knitting -
carol fun

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Oh my its Fall on WIP Wednesday

Oh a couple of cooler days and I am so into FALL!!! I had started these disappearing 4 patch blocks a while ago but I just got the idea for this design layout the other day. Just two more rows to sew together.


The print fabrics are from a collection by Sanae called Oh My! and that golden yellow is my favorite Grunge fabric from Moda. Originally I thought I would set these blocks one right next to the other but that was almost vertigo inducing - way way way too busy, even for me. Adding the alternate blocks calmed this down and gave me a much larger quilt. This should be about 58" square when I'm finished. A nice size to throw over the back of the couch.



The next time I do a disappearing 4 patch I will use a constant fabric in every block. I really like how disappearing 4 patch  blocks look set right next to each other but in all the examples I looked at there was a constant fabric which gave your eye a chance to rest and I think it needs that.

And speaking of rest, isn't this the life?


Big Dude  head on his favorite pillow, napping in the sun, maybe I'll have some time this afternoon to join him.

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced again today - enjoy all the pretty WIPs on that blog.

happy stitching-
carol fun