I excell at the creation of UFOs...yes I do!

It has been a productive week in knitting department and I have excelled in the creation of new UFOs. As a further riff on my post of July 11 explaining my philosophy of UFO's, it is clear that you can't have UFO's to revisit, and get that feeling of satisfaction that you are almost done with a project, unless you create it to begin with, right? Oh I am brilliant - LOL!

Anyway I started out by completing this pair of vanilla socks done in Crystal Palace Sausalito, colorway 8101. You can find it here.

So I cast on another pair of socks. This is a free pattern called Sunday Swing and you can find it here. The yarn is Deborah Norville Serenity in the Hot Lime colorway. I got it at either Joann's or Michael's.

And I felt that I needed to have another pair of vanilla socks cast on to keep with me when I'm out and about. Do you knit in public? I knit EVERYWHERE I go. I knit when I'm waiting to pick up my son, I knit when I'm sitting in a drive thru line in the car, I knit when I'm waiting for my food to come at a restaurant, I knit when I'm waiting for a concert to begin and at intermission, I knit when I'm standing in line where ever I may be. And this kind of knitting requires a non-thinking pattern so stockinette it is! The yarn for this one is a DROPS Fabel colorway 677p. You can find it here.

And then there was this Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn that crossed my path last weekend. I LOVE the color changes in a Nor0 yarn,they are gorgeous. Yet somehow I forget how I HATE knitting with Noro until I purchase the yarn and cast it on. My mind is going! I would never use this stuff for socks - it is thick, it is thin and then all of a sudden you'll get a knot and the colorway jumps without rhyme or reason. Sheesh - it must give off some sort of fumes that clouds your judgement till you get it home. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Anyway this is colorway S349 and it just screams Fall doesn't it? I'm knitting the shawl pattern Pamuya. You can see it here.

It has some lovely stitch patterns interspersed with stockinette and garter bands. So far a very easy pattern to follow and it gives you the stitch count for every row. I like that, it makes it harder to get too far off.

Soooooo, one project done and three started. I am a UFO creating machine! LOL

have a great weekend-
happy knitting!

carol fun

Finished ... but on the fence

I finished my Batik Paint Chips quilt and hung it in my living room. As you probably remember this one is based on the cover quilt of Karla Alexander's book Stack, Shuffle and Slide.

I have run through several phases in this construction of this quilt - I like it, I don't like it, I kinda like it, oooohhh I LIKE it and now I'm at the "I'm not sure what I think of it" phase. It is very different than most of my quilts. Not as bright in color, not traditional. I don't see myself as a modern quilter or an art quilter and I think I've made a modern art quilt - hmmmmm.

I quilted this one myself and about 2 hours in I wished I had given it to my long arm quilter. I completely positive that I don't like to machine quilt. I can do it, I just don't want to. I'd much rather piece. I quilted a wavy rectangular grid pattern using a variegated thread. If you click on the picture below you can see it a bit clearer.

And here is a view from the back side.

It could probably benefit from more quilting but I just don't have it in me at the moment.

This is my view of the quilt from my stitching chair.

It is growing on me. I'm spending more time on the "I like it" side of the fence than I was yesterday.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Playing with Paper

I decided to put away the 4th of July decor and freshen up my decorating for the rest of the summer. I really liked the patriotic banner I had made and the bookcase looked naked without it so I decided to play with paper and make a summer-y one.

Now this is a totally free banner because I have had this paper in my stash for quite some time, and if you can't remember what you paid for it, it's free, right?  It is a line from K & Company by Brenda Walton called Olivia Rose. So much wonderfulness - birds, and sewing stuff and vintage patterns - big sigh!!!

I cut the banner shapes with die from PaperTreyInk you can see it here. And I added a different topper on each banner shape with this die which you can see here.

This collection of papers from Brenda Walton had extra accessory packs you could buy (which of course I did!) and they included little bits and bobs like extra trees and birds.

banners and words of inspiration - and I was inspired! LOL

I stamped the word "happy" on this one and while my theme was birds I could not resist including some sewing stuff!

I changed out the plates and broke out my sunflower and GIANT leaf platter (hmmm... it seems like my love of GIANT mutant fruit in cross stitch pieces extends to other GIANT mutant pieces of nature.)

The sampler is an old one from Drawn Threads called "For the Birds". I love how the alphabet wraps around and forms the border. Have you seen some of the new stuff from Drawn Thread? You can view them here. I've done a couple of her designs and a couple are in their dormant UFO stage. I may have to wake them up soon.

happy stitching-
carol fun

One Finish and Two Starts for Slow Stitching Sunday

I have bounced around from project to project this week - not that it is really any different any week, now that I think of it - but I did find some time to concentrate on a bit of cross stitching.

First I finished BBD Forget-Me-Not. A lovely little piece with such pretty blue flosses.

I thought about starting another one of of the Loose Feathers Abecedarian series, and while I was rummaging through my stash looking at all my choices, this little bit of fabric and a ratty skein of floss fell out of a box.

I also discovered a graph I had printed off of Pinterest eons ago and it was serendipity. There is still a bit to stitch on this one and  I want to finish this as a small. I'm thinking a collection of birds would be lovely.

And while I was looking at all the BBD stash I had I rediscovered this graph. OH how I LOVE this one! Look at that BIG blue house and that mutant bowl of fruit and that  GREAT pumpkin! Simply irresistible!

I got this far on Friday night. I'm thinking that the alternate squares for the roof would look great in a diagonal satin stitch - a nice bit of extra texture.

I like how the shutters have that extra little stitch for the hinge and I can't wait to break out the blue floss. You know I have a weakness for stitching yellow houses but blue house are a close second. Every house I've ever owned up to the one I live in now have been blue to one degree or another. I've had houses with blue shutters and two houses that were ALL blue. One was a little Tudor style house that was painted blue with yellow and red accents when it was purchased. Could have been a cute gingerbread color scheme but it hadn't been a good choice of colors. Eventually it was repainted in a more traditional Tudor color palette which was enthusiastically received by the neighbors. And in California I lived in a stucco house. Most of the houses were painted shades of cream with yellow or peach undertones - very classy. However my house was painted blue and not a pretty shade either - blue to the gray side - yuck. I didn't live there long enough make it worthwhile to repaint it but the next residents did repaint. I'm sure the neighbors were happy about that too.

Well our lovely cool weather is being replaced by the typical hot and humid Midwest summer. It was so nice while it lasted.

Hope you have a great week!
happy stitching-
carol fun

I got more mail for WIP Wednesday

Happy middle of the week! On Monday I showed the beginning of this quilt and speculated that it needed to be a bit bigger... and today it is! I added two rows to the width and two rows to the length. I like the proportions better this way.

This is from the Post Card QAL on A Quilter's Table blog. You can find the instructions here. It is a super simple sew. I've spent more time folding and re-folding fabric than I have spent sewing. I got all the "fronts" of the postcards cut and arranged and I'm happy with the flow of the color. They are all Kaffe Fasset, Brandon Mably or Philip Jacobs.

I LOVE text fabrics - it goes along with my love of samplers. And some of the postcards talk to me. See the one that says "need"? And the two above it with the script writing and the math equations?

And the one that tells me "sew" and reminds me I need a new "spool" of thread - I told you the fabric talks to me - LOL!!

All I need to do is sew the rows together and this one is off the the long arm quilter. Oh go check this out on Missouri Star's Facebook page - it made me laugh!

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday. Lots of eye candy there!

happy stitching-
carol fun

New Stuff around the House

It is a glorious day here in southwestern Ohio. The "Polar Vortex" is paying us a visit and it is sunny and low 70's. Oh it could stay like this for a long long time, but the forecast says just a couple of days. I'm airing out my house and enjoying a lovely breeze.

Well there are a couple of new things here. First, have you noticed that there are new blogs listed on my Blog List? Several of my friends told me that they visit the blogs that are posted on the list but they are always looking for new ones. Now in my Bloglovin'/Feedly/Blogger accounts I follow about 500 blogs on lots of different subjects. I try to keep the ones on the blog to the crafty ones. I've been thinking about updating the list for a while but over the weekend the decision was made for me when I tried to delete on duplicate listing and instead I deleted the entire Blog List - whoosh! poof! GONE GONE GONE!!! arrrrrggggghhhhh!!!! It took me a couple of hours to recreate the list and while I was at it I added some new ones. There are over 200 listed and the latest updates appear at the top of the list. If there is a blog I don't have listed and you'd like to see it on this list let me know and I will add it. I have gotten very adept at adding, deleting is still a problem - LOL!

And then these sandals appeared on my front porch. Aren't they cute? A kinda hippie chick vibe!

I'd been have a bit of heel pain - plantar fasciitis - and knew some Birkenstocks would help. I went shopping online and was considering a navy suede pair when these appeared and I was powerless to resist. You can find them here at Zappos! Oh, they also come in a purple-y paisley. Not trying to enable,just sharing!


I've done a little gardening around the house too. These pots sit on my front porch steps.

I was totally smitten with this purple leaf plant. I think it is called Persian Shield. My future DIL bought one at a local garden center and I popped over and snagged a couple. The marigolds are even more orange in real life than in the picture and the pots have a bit of a Halloween vibe. Fingers crossed that they last that long!

Hope you are having a wonderful day!
happy stitching-
carol fun

Postcards from Kaffe, Brandon, Philip and Mary

Again, another quilt has appeared on my design wall that was no where on my list of things I need to do... I really don't know how this happens..oh yeah, I do know... I saw something shiny and I HAD to make it RIGHT NOW! Look a squirrel! But such a colorful squirrel, don'tcha think?

This is my start on the Postcard QAL I found on the blog A Quilter's Table. You can find the directions here... and the Flickr group is here. Most people are making smaller versions but you know how hard that is for me to do. It took no time at all to put together the postcard blocks. I think I have about a dozen different text prints along with the black/white polka dot divider. In looking at the picture I can see where I need to rearrange a couple of the postcards. All of the prints are from Kaffe Fassett, Brandon Mably and Philip Jacobs - love their stuff!

As I was admiring this on my wall last night it occurred to me that it would be even better if I made it a little bit bigger - add two rows across and two more down. It would be almost square then and I really like square quilts. Hmmm... lets see I would need 22 more of each block. I still have all the Kaffe, Brandon, Philip fabric out on my cutting table...I think it is gonna happen -LOL!


Oh you may be wondering who is the Mary I referred to in the title of this post. Well, it is Mary Engelbreit. I think this is my favorite postcard!

Happy stitching-
carol fun