A Hat Trick and An Hourglass on Design Wall Monday

All in all I did get a lot done this last week. I was determined to get things sewn together and not just take the blocks off the design wall and put them in a ziploc bag where I knew they would languish for a long long time. I kept telling myself that if I got these two tops done I could play with my Kaffe fabrics with no guilt. And hopefully that will happen later this week.

PB&J Hat Trick

Okay this is my entry for the Vintage Schnibble parade. It is Hat Trick pattern and I used the Basic Grey PB&J collection from Moda. Now mine is square instead of the rectangle the pattern called for, but I always prefer square quilts, no matter what the size.

I love all the patterns in this collection and the colors. I used a brighter yellow Grunge fabric than the one in the collection and I think it coordinates well.

This border print is what really hooked me. I LOVE any fabric that has the alphabet on it. For me it combines two things I love - samplers and quilts. A perfect combination.

After dinner last night I got my butt in gear and got the border on my Hourglass quilt. This is the pattern on the cover of Kim Brackett's new book Scrap Basket Beauties.

I ended up using an olive Grunge for that inner border and the cornerstones, instead of the rust one I originally picked. The top measures about 74" square. I love how it ended up having a bit of an I Spy quality.

There is a bunny or two...

And a pink squirrel too!

And I love the birds and the little mushrooms that are in the border! Notice this quilt also features a border fabric with an alphabet. I told you I couldn't resist them - LOL!

So I should be able to sew with the Kaffe fabrics totally guilt free this week....if I actually have some sewing time.  College classes are over for this semester for my youngest son so I'm freed up from that schedule, but we are starting his "vacation" time off with an early morning appointment at the doctor, then breakfast, a trip to drop off his laptop to get rid of the virus it picked up, a noon appointment with a contractor and some grocery shopping and laundry. And Tuesday is looking just as busy. I'm looking forward to maybe Wednesday or Thursday being a free day for me. After I get my hair cut and drop off a load of quilts for a quilt show and take a top or two to get quilted.  Arrghh..... the days just fill up so fast.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Some slow stitching on a rainy Sunday

It is gray. It is rainy. It is a good day to stay indoors and stitch. And that is my plan! Last night I got another house finishes from my Blackbird Designs Anniversaries of the Heart.

That was a big house to "paint". It took longer than I expected (but then they all take longer than I expected - LOL) to fill in all the gray green. I changed the design a bit here and there. I only put in 3 birds - one for me and one for each of my boys. And since I don't have any family birthdays in this month. I left out the initials and added more hearts. I love hearts on a piece!

And then I started the first block on the LAST row!!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE that big pumpkin. It is going to be one of those white pumpkins - isnt' that cool? I'm hoping to get the house framed out today so I'll be left with the mindless fill in part for later in the week.

Here is a wide shot of the entire piece.

I feel like I'm in the home stretch. And right now I'm jazzed about getting this one DONE! I pawed through my stash of UFOs the other day and found several other BIG projects that I would like to release from their ziploc bag repositories. I will NEVER EVER EVER EVER run out of projects.....and I think that is a VERY GOOD thing!

Today is my youngest son's 23rd birthday - Happy Birthday Nick! He requested one of his favorite meals for dinner tonight. Marinated grilled chicken over penne pasta with alfredo -yummy! I got the chicken chilling and marinating and we have a cake all ready to go. Just gotta find the candles.

Hope there is some stitching in your Sunday!

carol fun

On, well actually off, the Needles Friday

Remember when I said I had lots of waiting around time in my week, well here is the proof. I got an entire pair of socks knit! These are another skein of Opal Antonia Hand Dyed. I think this is the most consistently pooling yarn I have ever knit. Every single skein I've knit (and I've done 4 now) has pooled spectacularly - I LOVE IT!

Opal Antonia Hand Dyed yarn

And this pair is also the most "matching" of the pooling yarns I've knit, which surprised me. I didn't do anything to manipulate the yarn. I started the second sock at the end of the yarn from the first sock. Same number of stitches on the leg as the foot. And yes that orange still reminds me of the double yellow line on a road. It almost glows! LOL

Right profile

Left profile

I hadn't planned to get both of these done but when I finished the first sock it was the only yarn I had with me. It is nice that I have another pair done. This is my 2nd pair for Judy L's Pooling Sock Yarn Challenge. I cast on the second sock for what will be my third entry for this challenge the other night. And I think that may be enough for now. I have some cool striping yarn that is calling my name. Again it will be plain stockinette socks but there is just something special about striping and pooling yarns that elevates this simple pattern -- in my humble opinion.

So do you have any plans for the weekend? I hope to sew a bit on my Hourglass Quilt and I need to fix a special birthday dinner for my youngest son. He will be 23. How did that happen??? I don't remember getting any older. However I do clearly remember that turning 40 was difficult for me, not because of the decade but because I was turning 40 and had a extremely active 2 year old. OMG-it was probably a good thing that I had some maturity with him or one of us might have been dead.

Have a great weekend- happy stitching and knitting and sewing and crafting!

carol fun

A Scrappy Trips Finish

I am so very  happy with this quilt! This is my second Scrappy Trips - I'm calling it Scrappy Trips 2.0.

Scrappy Trips 2.0

Lots and lots of dots and brights. This one is an 8 X 8 square block, so 64 squares per block. And the squares are bigger - they finished 2 1/2". The quilt is 84" square and I can't wait to sleep under it.

Lots of dots and brights!

Here's a close-up of the quilting. My friend, Terry Finnerty quilted this one. I talked her into purchasing variegated thread and she liked how it came out as much as I do. The pattern looks like a spring - and thought the curved lines were a nice complement to the all those squares.

Now I know I haven't shown the first Scrappy Trips I did, but I don't have it back from Cass yet. She's been very very busy. Stay tuned. I hope to get it next week
.

Okay I have a little sewing time today and then some important business to take care of.

Happy stitching-

carol fun 

It was a magnificent Monday!

It was a magnificent Monday!!! It began with breakfast with my quilty lady friends and a truly tasty coconut waffle -- with a yummy side of bacon. And then I said "I'm thinking of going up to the Fabric Shack. Want to join me?" And my partner in crime shopping, Stephie responded "Sure I'll go." So off we went. Now I'm lucky to live only 30 minutes or so from Fabric Shack . If you haven't checked them out in person or online, you should. They have a fabulous selection of fabrics and great prices. And they didn't pay me to say that - the people in the store are just as nice as their fabric!

So after a lovely drive, blue skies and sunshine, we arrive. Stephie urged me to ask if the new Kaffe Fasset collection had arrived. We are both BIG fans of his fabric and the buzz was there would be new fabrics this week. So I asked and they said "Wait a minute, Mandy will bring it over from the warehouse." In a flash, Mandy back up her BIG SUV and opened the back hatch and oh my goodness!!! It was absolutely stuffed with bolts of the new Collective by Kaffe Fasset, Brandon Mably and Phillip Jacobs. There were EIGHTY TWO bolts of gorgeous fabric! (If you want to check them out I put links on each of the designer's names and you can click on them. I'm not responsible for any damage to your keyboard from drool- LOL!)

So I know stop with the yammering and show me the fabric.... here it is...

Group photo!

I was GOOD, very very GOOD. There were 82 bolts and I only got a 1/3 yard cut from 24 of them. Such restraint! (Again with the disclaimer, I'm not responsible for your spewing your coffee on your keyboard from the absurdity of my statement regarding restraint.)

Here are the cool blues...

the hot pinks and reds...

and the wonderful wonderful yellows....

I was thrilled with how many yellows were in this collection. Now I can't wait to cut into these beauties and sew sew sew.

Getting these fabrics was a total surprise. My main intent when I decided to go to Fabric Shack yesterday was to get a yard of the rusty Moda Grunge that I need for my Hourglass quilt -- never fear, I did get it and 3 yds of the buttery yellow Moda Grunge too!

It was a magnificent Monday!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Like sand through the hourglass on Design Wall Monday

Well it does appear I have made enough units for the blocks of this Hourglass quilt on the cover of Kim Brackett's new book Scrap Basket Beauties. And thinking about the name of this quilt called to mind that opening line from the soap opera "Days of our Lives"...like sands through the hourglass. Oh I just had a flashback to my childhood... I remember my Mom watching that show... in black and white. That was a long time ago - LOL!

I like how it is looking. It takes 324 units to make 81 blocks. I've only got one row sewn together so far. Eight more to go! Before the borders it will measure about 55" square. I want to add a narrow inner border and then a wider swath of that Moda Alphabet print.

I like this rusty Moda Grunge fabric but I don't have enough. I see another trip to Fabric Shack in Waynesville in my future. I was there last week and purchased a half yard for my Vintage Schnibble, Hat Trick. I'll show it later this week. I got the top done but I haven't decided how I want to quilt it yet.

Okay, lots of running around this week. My youngest son has exams and I have a couple of appointments too. Hope we all get some sewing time in.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

On and off the Needles

So the last couple of weeks have provided me with a decent amount of knitting time and here is what I have to show for it. Both of the socks are candidates for the Pooling Sock Yarn Challenge over on Judy L's blog Patchwork Times.

This first sock is done with Schoppel Cat Prints Hand Dyed Collection. It comes packaged as two discs of yarn with the idea that you would be able to knit similar pooling socks.

Notice it started out with some nice pooling action but separated into stripes before I got to the heel turn and then after the heel turn it is just a mush of colors. HUH?? I got no clue why it knit like this. I used the exact same number of stitches on the leg as I did on the foot.

Next is another one of those Opal Antonia Hand Dyed yarn that I've had lots of pooling success with.

And this one is looking fine. Now when I posted this yarn on Wednesday I mentioned my son said it looked like the colors on a road construction project - the orange is the shade of the double yellow line and there are hints of that fluorescent lime green that all the outdoor workers wear these days. Some how I conjured up a mental image of a big burly guy with a scraggly beard leaning on a shovel. Sorry I don't mean to offend anyone but that is the look of the guys I see working around here. Anyway Catherine commented that she pictured "a sunset over a tropical sea, while sipping on a refreshing beverage brought to me by cabana boys!" Oh I like this image... I think I need to find my little stash of paper drink umbrellas - LOL!

So I'm not real happy with the pooling action on the first sock, but I will say I love the colors - reminds me of raspberry sorbet (hmmm... I seem to have lots of food references today). And the second sock is really in your face bright. We'll have to see which one gets its mate knit first, or if I abandon both of them for another flashy sock yarn.

Have a great weekend-
carol fun

Another pooling sock yarn candidate

I took this picture last week before I cast on my next candidate in the Pooling Sock yarn challenge you can see here on Judy's blog the Patchwork Times. This is another Opal Antonia Hand Dyes - colorway 3170. They still have it here on WEBS. All the other colorways of this yarn have pooled and flashed wonderfully so I have high hopes for this one too.

Here's what it looked like before I wound. My son said they look like the colors you see on a road construction project. That orange is the color of the double yellow stripe down the middle of the road and there is a touch of that fluorescent green that outdoor workers are always sporting.  Maybe I'll call these my construction socks!

Check back on Friday. I have a lot of sitting around waiting time in my schedule this week so I should be able to make some good progress on this one.

Happy knitting!

carol fun

My haul from the International Quilt Festival

One of the many engagements I had last week was to attend the Preview Party Wednesday night at the International Quilt Festival in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio - my home town! I went with a group of my quilty lady friends and we had a nice time.

Now before I went I thought about what my stash needs. The little angel on my right shoulder said "your stash needs NOTHING", the little devil on my left shoulder said "BUY IT ALL!" My purchases were more in line with the little guy on my left shoulder -- just saying.

So first I found some more black & white novelty prints and some colorful ones too. I LOVE those googly eyed gold fish!

Novelties

And then there were dots... LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of DOTS... and I was powerless to resist! I did feel that when I made my last Scrappy Trips quilt that I was running out of some of my favorite dotty fabrics so an infusion of new dots was absolutely necessary - wasn't it? (nod your head up and down, up and down - very good!)

Lots of dots!

And I'm blaming this next pile on Stephie. She found this vendor when she was working the show on Tuesday night and WOW did she have some wonderful new and old Kaffe Fassett fabrics. These will come in handy as I work on my new Scrappy Trips quilt and I have a couple more Kaffe quilt ideas percolating.

I LOVE Kaffe fabrics!

In looking over my haul it is clear what I like - bright and bold. And here's a thought that will leave you scratching your head - I actually have entertained the idea of making a "low-volume" quilt. They look so sweet and peaceful. But.... I don't think I'm genetically able to do "low-volume".... I think I'm more the "screaming decibels, make your ears bleed" volume kinda quilter - oh well - we all have dreams! LOL

 As for the show, I would have liked more vendors but then I always want more vendors. This is the third year for this show in Ohio and the gossip said it would be the last year, but the gossip was wrong.  The IQF has already posted dates for 2014 - April 3 -5.  That makes it earlier in the month and puts more time between it and the AQS show in Paducah.  This could definitely be bad for the budget but lots of fun! A good quilt show is so inspiring - new fabrics and gadgets and patterns and great quilts to look at and bumping into old friends and making new friends. Oh how I love a quilt show!

Okay off to sew  - happy stitching!
carol fun

Bouncing around.... on Design Wall Monday

As my dear father use to say, "you're bouncing around like a BB in a box car"... and I am. I couldn't focus on just one project this weekend. I have so many ideas I want to play with and my design wall shows it.

Design Wall for 4/15/13

The upper left corner is my first 4 nine patch blocks for this month's Vintage Schnibbles, Hat Trick. I'm using a new line from Moda, PB&J from Basic Grey. I'm using the same background for the whole quilt... a nice buttery yellow that is a Basic Grey Grunge fabric. I LOVE all the fabrics in this collection.

And those 3 blocks on the upper right are the start of another Scrappy Trips quilt. I know, I know... I've made this before but I can't get enough of it. This will be my 3rd quilts with this fabulous design from Bonnie Hunter. I'm using lots of fabrics from Westminster Fabrics - Kaffe Fassett, Philip Jacobs, Brandon Mabley - such wonderful colors and patterns. In order to keep some semblance of order in this version I'm using an almost solid looking fabric for the center diagonal. It is a new littler jelly roll Moda Marble Ombre Dots. The colors on these 2 1/2" strips shade from dark to light.

Moda Marble Ombre Dots

I was inspired to do this version by this quilt -- click here. I'm making mine a bit larger. My blocks are 7 X 7 squares versus 6 X 6 squares and should measure about 84" square.

And the last quilt in progress on my design wall is more rows of the Hourglass quilt from Kim Brackett's new book Scrap Basket Beauties. I have all the pieces cut out for this one... at least I think I do... but then you know my math skills aren't the sharpest so we'll have to see how it all turns out.

Well I didn't mean to be gone all week from the blog but boy what a crazy week it was. I had more appointments crammed into last week than I usually have in a month. I don't look forward to having another week like that one for a long long time. So here's hoping that your upcoming week and mine have lots of sewing time, since I obviously NEED lots of time to get these projects done!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Some stitching for Sunday

I was going to show my progress on my BBD Anniversaries of the Heart, but there wasn't any last week. And then I remembered that I hadn't shown this sampler since I got it back from Bev at Joanns.

True Love by Stacy Nash Primitives

I really love how this one turned out. The chart is entitled True Love Sampler Bag & Pinkeep by Stacy Nash Primitives. Now I pretty much changed everything on this design except the graph. The fabric is an evenweave that I hand-dyed about a year ago. I call it "rosewood" - a very mottled shade I got using s mix of Rit dyes. I wonder it I can recreate it. And using different fabric resulted in changing all of the flosses. I think it has a sort of Valentine quality with that mother of pearl heart shaped button.

I personalized it by changing floss colors for my sons' intials - C and N - which fell right next to each other in this piece -- serendipity!


In looking for the info on this piece I shuffled through a bunch of charts in my stash. Oh I want to start something new, but then I also want to get my Anniversaries of the Heart finished, which isn't going to happen if I keep moving other projects in front of it. What I really need is a 36 hour day that doesn't include additional cooking, cleaning or laundry - that would be wonderful!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

A new start on Design Wall Monday

I had a little time last week to sew and started a new quilt. I only got 2 rows on my design wall but I'm very happy with this.

The pattern is Hourglass from the new book by Kim Brackett called Scrap-Basket Beauties. You can see it here.

The patterns in the book are designed for Jelly Rolls and the fabric I had was a layer cake, but I was able to get my pieces out of it. Here are two close ups of some of my blocks.

Here are some of the little animals that are hidden in the fabric.
This is an older collection from Moda called Wee Woodland by Keiki. I'm feeling virtuous because this came from my stash.

This is the fabric I'm going to use for the border. I love sampler feel of this collection.

Did you notice that while the letters appear to be randomly arranged, they aren't? Do you see where it says "MODA"? I didn't see it at all until I was cutting out some extra pieces for the blocks.

And I love this little bird and how the letters are C and U - see you! I have to believe that was intentional. How cute is that?

So I think this has all the makings of quite a fun quilt. Now to find some more sewing time... maybe next weekend... big sigh... I already miss my sewing machine.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Slow Stitching on Sunday

I will say that stitching is the only thing that is slow around here. Last week just blew by me and the upcoming week has me running from appointment to appointment every day. How does this happen? I really just want to stay home and stitch.

I got started on another house for the BBD Anniversaries of the Heart last week. Its coming along nicely.

BBD AoH   Farm House Pattern 5

And when I finish this one I will be starting on the last row on this piece. It will measure about 27" wide and 18" deep when it is all done.

BBD Anniversaries of the Heart

Hope your week is less crazy than mine.
Happy stitching-
carol fun

On and off the needles

First I want to give a great big THANK YOU to all who left me a comment and send positive thoughts and prayers my way in my post on Tuesday. I truly appreciate them and it certainly lifts my spirits. The blogsphere is filled with wonderful people!!


I have been knitting a bit. Just plain vanilla stockinette socks but with pooling sock yarn for the challenge on Patchwork Times. You can read about it here.  This is my first pair for the challenge.

Pooling Opal sock yarn 

This is Opal Antonia Hand Dyes yarn. I can't find this colorway anymore but you can see what is left here. Now I've knit with this yarn before, but I have never gotten the mirror image on the leg that I got this time. And it just happened. I didn't manipulate the yarn in any way. Isn't that cool?

Front view

And here is what it looks like from the front. The legs are kinda mirror image but the feet are more similar.  Again, I have no idea why it knits up this way but I sure do LOVE it! (Note - I did 62 stitches on 2.75mm needles)

And this is my second start with pooling sock yarn. I'm not so sure about this one. I'm again doing 62 stitches on 2.75mm needles.

Schoppel Wolle Single Disk Cat Print yarn

This is Schoppel Wolle Single Disk Cat Print yarn. You can see it here. The yarn comes wound in 2 disks. Each disk is suppose to give you similar pooling socks. You can see that it started with a nice pool but changed to stripes before I got to the heel. My first impression was that blob at the top looked like the inside of a lava lamp which would be cool. However, if this continues to stripe on the foot I will probably drop this pair for a while and start another pair with a yarn I think has more pooling possibilities.

Well baseball season started this week and my beloved Cincinnati Reds opened with a winning series. I have high hopes for them this year.  One of their starting pitchers has a home in my neighborhood and I saw him jogging the other morning - I'm kinda star struck - LOL!  Now we just need some real baseball weather - not cold and spitting snow!!!  It is suppose to get into the 60's this weekend. I can't wait.

Have a great weekend - happy stitching and knitting!
carol fun

Claiming by blog on Bloglovin

Okay I hope I doing this correctly....

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I'm claiming my blog on Bloglovin so you can follow me...

thanks!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Meanwhile back at the blog...

So the last 2 weeks have been quite eventful and stressful, and little crafty productivity has occurred. I've been pondering how much I want to share here as I consider my crafty pursuits and my blogging to be part of the "happy place" of my life and I want to keep them that way. That said, I will tell you that I have made some major life changing decisions that will impact the time I have available to spend in my happy place for the next several months... perhaps longer. I am determined not to totally abandon the crafty stuff because it does keep me from going crazy... or at least keep me at a level of craziness that isn't considered grounds for an institutional stay. So if you so inclined ,a little prayer or positive thought send my way will be greatly appreciated.

Now onto things that resides in the happy place - ideas for new projects!!! Okay I saw on Sinta's blog, Pink Pincushion,  that the year of "Vintage Schnibbles" is starting. Oh I love doing Schnibbles! I already own the pattern for this month, Hat Trick.

 Now the hard part... deciding which charm packs to choose... and I'm not sure it is going to be any of these, but there are more to choose from in my stash and some new ones calling from Moda's website!

And I need to do another row of my Wiggly Whimsey project for the QAL on Terry's blog, Terry's Treasures.

I really like all the novelties I'm using in this one and I need to add the spacer row that goes in between - it really looks more "wiggly" that way.

On the knitting front, I'm shopping by stash for another pooling sock yarn for the Pooling Sock Yarn Challenge at Judy's blog, Patchwork Times. 

I think this one has great possibilities.

In the cross stitch arena, I did get some stitches put in my BBD Anniversaries of the Heart.

This is Pattern 6, called Happy Birthday. I'm planning on stitching "Home Sweet Home" or "There's No Place Like Home" in that empty frame area.

And I really really want to start this new BBD piece from the Maria Selby Humphrey -1831 booklet.

It has special meaning for me right now as I am in the process of getting a new home as part of my recent life decisions.

So with all of this on my plate and a heaping helping of life decisions, I think I'm going to have to give up cooking, and cleaning and maybe sleeping to get everything done. Wish me luck!

Happy stitching-
carol fun