Showing my Socks

Today I'm sporting a lovely pair of socks in my favorite color - yellow... a pretty lemon-y yellow. This is to compensate for the gray, cold, gray, windy, gray, snow spitting, kinda rainy, did I mention gray day?

The pattern is Serendipity and you can find it here on Ravelry. If you login to Vogue Knitting/Martingale you can get the pattern for free. I got my pattern from the book Sock Club: Join the Knitting Adventure by Charlene Schurch. You can see it here on Amazon. I used a solid lemony yellow Regia yarn. The pattern was hyped to be a good choice for a more variegated yarn and there are lots of examples of that on Ravelry but I think the pattern showed up better in the solid color.

You can check out the socks that others are wearing today here on the Patchwork Times - another fun link up from Judy L.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Whatcha reading?

Judy L of Patchwork Times is starting a new link-up on Tuesdays called Whatcha reading? You can find it here.

Currently I am re-reading one of my favorite books that I can highly recommend to anyone - Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg.

Here is a great summary I copied from Amazon.

Combining southern warmth with unabashed emotion and side-splitting hilarity, Fannie Flagg takes readers back to Elmwood Springs, Missouri, where the most unlikely and surprising experiences of a high-spirited octogenarian inspire a town to ponder the age-old question: Why are we here?

Life is the strangest thing. One minute, Mrs. Elner Shimfissle is up in her tree, picking figs, and the next thing she knows, she is off on an adventure she never dreamed of, running into people she never in a million years expected to meet. Meanwhile, back home, Elner’s nervous, high-strung niece Norma faints and winds up in bed with a cold rag on her head; Elner’s neighbor Verbena rushes immediately to the Bible; her truck driver friend, Luther Griggs, runs his eighteen-wheeler into a ditch–and the entire town is thrown for a loop and left wondering, “What is life all about, anyway?” Except for Tot Whooten, who owns Tot’s Tell It Like It Is Beauty Shop. Her main concern is that the end of the world might come before she can collect her social security.

In this comedy-mystery, those near and dear to Elner discover something wonderful: Heaven is actually right here, right now, with people you love, neighbors you help, friendships you keep. Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven is proof once more that Fannie Flagg “was put on this earth to write” (Southern Living), spinning tales as sweet and refreshing as iced tea on a summer day, with a little extra kick thrown in.

I have read all of Fannie Flagg's books starting with Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe to her most recent release, I Still Dream About You and none of them has disappointed. Great characters that you can't help but love and when you read the last page you wish the story would go on. Elner Shimfissle is one of my favorite characters Fannie has created and she has appeared in several of her books - she's totally unforgettable.

Now off to fire up my Kindle and visit Elmwood Springs!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Big Plaid Star quilt

Remember the Big Plaid Star quilt that was on my design wall a couple of weeks ago? Well I had it quilted and was able to give it to my brother for his birthday last Saturday. I am very happy with how it turned out and my brother really seemed to like it. He was cozied up under it the entire evening.

Here's a pic of the front - it is laying on the floor on my family room and yes that is a dish on the floor in the upper right corner. I didn't notice it till I went to crop the picture.

I used a new to me long arm quilter for this one, Terry Finnerty of The Walking Needle in Mason Ohio. I really like this swirly pantograph. The quilt had great texture after I laundered it.

And here is the back - it turned into a 2-sided quilt with my "arty" pieced back. Not bad for just trying to avoid buying any more flannel - LOL! (Oh I just noticed that it looks like those birds are perched on top of the quilt - they are actually sitting on a shelf about 8 ft behind where my son was standing and patiently holding the quilt up for me to take the picture.)

And that swirly pantograph looks great on this side too.

Terry really helped me out of a tight spot by finishing this quilt for me in less than a day. Thank you so much Terry! I was so happy to give this to my brother at his birthday celebration - it made my day and his too!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Slow but steady progress on Design Wall Monday

Life has been a blur since last Thursday. Lots of family activities to attend that were mostly unplanned but lots of fun. However, it left no time to stitch or knit or sew during the weekend. I definitely hope to change that pattern this week.

I did achieve a little progress earlier in the week on my Scrappy Trip quilt - 4 more blocks for a total of 12. If I make 36, I'm 1/3 of the way complete. I know its not much. but I'm looking for some level of achievement here - LOL!

I have to say I am loving it! Now this is the 3rd week I've worked on this and the 3rd different design pattern I've tried. I think 3rd time is the charm. I really like the concentric rings of color. There is a bit of variety because while the yellow, orange and black/white rings stick with different tones the one color family, for the reds I sometimes substituted pink and for the blue I've sometimes used purple and for the greens sometimes I used aqua. This has allowed me to paw through even more of my stash which is a lot of fun.

This week I added scissors and some polka dot chickens...

and some dancing ducks and a funky pig...

and some happy pigs!

Now the duck and pigs are from an old line of fabric from KP Kids by Kari Pearson for SSI Fabrics. Does anyone else remember KP Kids? I love her style - lots of cute animals wearing clothes. I don't know what there is about an animal all dressed up but I can't resist them. I have a couple of pieces that have pigs dressed as farmers and another with ballerina pigs. I recently saw a new collection of KP Kids fabric which featured cute bugs but it is the pigs that really make me smile.

Don't forget to check out Patchwork Times for more great looking design walls.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Show Us Your Socks

Judy L is linking us up again for Show Us Your Socks - check it out here. Thanks for doing this Judy!


Today I'm sporting a pair that is an oldie but goodie...

I love the colors (yellow is my favorite) and I LOVE the pooling and flashing. Now I know some people go out of their way to avoid yarns like this but I will buy them every chance I get. If anyone knows of a line of yarn like this that pools let me know. I think of these kind of yarns as consistently inconsistent. I'm not positive but I think this was Sunshine Yarn.

Anyway here is a pic of the right sock...

and here's the left sock...

Even the pooling and flashing is totally inconsistent. Having knit with yarns like this a bit I have an idea of how to get this effect. It involves making the undyed skein very long and then dyeing short bursts that will end up on top of each other as you knit them. I'm going to try and see if I can make my own pooling/flashing sock yarn. I've got dyes, now I'm waiting for some nicer weather. It probably won't be until this spring that I get a chance to try this. Forecast for tomorrow is 2" of snow... soooooooo... I'm off to get in a little retail therapy and lunch.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

OMG.... I almost missed National Polka Dot Day

Did you know that January 22 is National Polka Dot Day? Neither did I till about a hour ago when I read about it on Barbara Brackman's blog. You can read her post here.

To celebrate this auspicious day I would like to share a quilt I made about 10 years ago. It is called "Somewhere over the Rainbow maybe I'll find Dot"... get it Dot - Dorothy... I crack myself up. LOL!

Every single piece of fabric in this quilt is dotted, even the binding and the back. When I buy into an idea I buy in BIG!

Here are a couple of close ups of some of my favorite blocks. Dots and circles...

and more dots and circles and cherries (they're dots too)...

and more dots and cat circles because chickens aren't round enough, dontcha know.

So it is clear to see that I have been besotted or bedotted with polka dots for a long long long time. I think polka dots are the happiest pattern in the world!

Enjoy what's left of this lovely polka dotty day!

carol fun

I wanted to share some beautiful cross stitch that my friend sent me pictures of. I think you'll enjoy them.

First is the mind blowing fractal piece - WOW are those colors stunning! And that is all solid stitching -- so many color changes!

This piece was a gift and hangs in a place of honor in the recipients' home.

And these same lucky people received this sampler as wedding gift.

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Beautiful stitching, soft colors and hardanger work!

I did hardanger years ago... I wonder what I did with that piece.

Seeing these is motivating me to get some work done on my many WIPs. I've been doing more knitting than cross stitch the last couple of weeks but I think that is going to change real soon.

Happy stitching-
carol fun