All Ready to Quilt

I finally finished piecing this quilt the other night.  It is a good sized Double.  I don't have a name for it, or a pattern, I came up with it after seeing a few similar quilts in photos and did my own thing.  I have decided to hand quilt this one....new and different.  It is all basted and ready to go, I am just finishing up this sweater I'm knitting that is sooooo close to being finished before I start with the quilting.  I was not thrilled with sewing all of the strips together, but a few movies on Netflix and it was done.  And I really do love the effect.  This quilt top is pieced with 200 thread count Moda Unbleached muslin and a "The Morris Apprentice" Jelly roll by Barbara Brackman. 

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.


(This is a dark picture, I know, but it was really sweet to watch them and I didn't want to turn on a bunch of lights and ruin it.)

And So It Begins!

The Scrappy Trip around the world has begun!  And the crazy thing is....all my points have matched up.   It is a miracle or something! 
Tomorrow night I am basting my strip quilt so I can start hand quilting it, I will be sure to get a photo of it when it is all basted, I really like the effect.
Happy Sewing!

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Winter Wonderland

We closed the shop early today because of the weather and I got to eat lunch with Patrick.  After, we had a little snowball fight in the parking lot.  The view from the hospital was just gorgeous today. I even got to spend some time in my sewing room this afternoon making my Thank you cards for Christmas presents (I know, I'm so late.)  I'll be showing those off late...

Placemats

These are the simple place mats I made as part of a guild project to benefit Meals on Wheels.  They are going to hand all the collected place mats out the meals on wheels recipients so they have something nice to eat their dinner on.   I totally took the easy way out and used some double sided quilted fabric and some binding I had left over from quilts past.  I think they came out pretty nice. 

this moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Rice Bags

Backaches suck, what can I say. I don't get them very often but occasionally I do something just wrong and wham, here we go again.  Well, I don't know if it was washing the kitchen floor or doing the dishes yesterday (either way I blame housework) but I woke up this morning with a bit of a pull.  And I have found the best way to get over a back strain is to hang out with a rice bag, heated nice and toasty and knit.  Oh and a little Tylenol doesn't hurt. My kids also like these rice bags, Fynn always steals mine and takes them to bed with him in the winter.  We don't heat them very much, for fear of burns, but I think they make him nice and cozy in bed.  Anyway, I went hunting for my rice bag tonight and low and behold I could not find a single one.  So I had to make one. 
This is not a tricky project, at all.  I decided I wanted a nice big one so I took a fat quarter (fabric by Denyse Schmidt) and folded it in half, right sides together.  And sewed around the 3 open sides leaving a 4" opening in the middle of the long side to add the rice.  Then, I turned it right side out, added enough rice to fill it about half way, and edge stitched the opening closed.  I know, I could have and sewn it closed for a neater finish but I was impatient.  A few minutes in the microwave to get it nice and hot and...ahhhhh, I'm sitting here writing this post in comfort.  And next I'm going to do some work on a little sweater for my niece for her birthday. 

The Last Finished Project of 2012

I made mitten and hat sets for the boys.  Sure they were supposed to be for Christmas, and they were all knit in time.  But I just today finished weaving in all the ends.  They were both very excited to try them out.  I love that they love it when I make them something. And Fynn is very vocal about telling people his mama made his xxx (insert whatever I made).  I hope they never lose their appreciation for handmade.  Fynn's set is "Hulk Green" as requested and made out of a bulky from knitpicks called biggo.  Liam's is a blue tweed, also from knitpicks.  I think they came out nicely, myself. 

2013 What I Want to Accomplish

I have a sort of list of things I want to accomplish in the next year.  Mostly I want to make things, learn new skills while I'm at it...I want to broaden my skill set and my horizons.
So, I have a list of criteria that I want to fulfill each month.  Something I make/do can very easily meet more than one qualification....I think.  I also want to repeat the 52 in 52 challenge I did this year.  I want to finish 52 things in the next 52 weeks.   I also want to do a better job of taking pictures of thing that I finish and publishing them on here.  Give me a little accountability and a better way to keep track of what I'm doing.  
So here is the list.  Each month I want to make...

• 1 sewing project
• 1 knitting project
• 1 hand work project 
• 1 spinning project
• 1 clothing item for a kid
• 1 adult clothing item
• 1 quilt
• 1 quilted item
• 1 bag
• 1 item to be donated
• 1 thing just from stash
• 1 Christmas present
• 1 birthday present
• Something from one of the books/patterns I already own. 
• Something completely of my own design.

I think this about covers it.  Let's see how I do!