A Few Happy Endings

The "Madison Romance" cardigan is finished:

I worked on the button loops at Diane's during Vintage Stitchers. Here is the link to my Ravelry page for the project.

Julie has been making progress on her Ladybug pullover for her granddaughter. She worked on it at Vintage Stitchers.

Rebecca picked up a new quilt idea from a friend who had seen it and showed her how. It's from a book called Quick and Easy Hexie Quilts by Peggy Rhodes and Julia C. Wood.

The Hexigons are made by folding the fabric, sort of like origami. It takes a lot of fabric, but you don't need to stuff and quilt it if you don't want to, making a nice coverlet or counterpane.

Brenda had come back from a quilt retreat in Idaho and showed us this quilt top she made:

Diane has started a new wall hanging to replace the one in her entry that she feels is too Christmassy.:

The blocks represent signs of the zodiac and were from a sampler class she took with some friends. 

Friday we had a UFO session at Joanie's. There were four of us, and Kasha enjoyed the company and extra attention.

Joanie and I were going to work on our Yei Figures Bag. 

I worked on mine, but Joanie worked on her James Bond baby sweater. (I found out that "James Bond" is just the name she gave the sweater.) It's from this book. I think the real name of the pattern is "'50s Lounge Jacket."

Joanie brought out some pf her finished and almost-finished baby projects. There was this baby hat:

And a matching baby sweater:

The photo was before Julie crocheted around the neck for Joanie. (Joanie doesn't crochet. I think she should learn. Don't you?)

Also this white baby sweater with a hat to match, somewhat redundant with e hood:

Here's a closeup of the felted flower detail on white sweater:

Joanie is known for her creative embellishments.

Janet has almost finished her Sipalu Bag. Here it is, blocking:

She's working on a strap for it using the same pattern as the top border, which is what I did with mine, instead of the I-cord handle. She changed some of the colors for her bag from the colorway she bought, one of the nice things about having a stash of Palette.

My Yei Figures Bag will be done soon, and I'm working on my "Delectable Pathways" quilt. When these are done and I have time, I plan to bring out some really old UFOs! (But the Mary Tudor Cardigan is calling, calling….)

What's on my needles: "Green Tea" socks, a few rounds done this week. The Yei Figures Bag, just more I-cord to do for the handles. Soon I plan to start the BSJ for BS2, a little brother or sister for Soren, due in August. 

What's on my loom: Waffle scarf, not much progress this week, 

What's on my Featherweight: Soren's I-spy quilt, sashing cut and ready to piece.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Georgette Heyer's The Nonesuch and now reading Mercedes Lackey's Arrows of the Queen. I'm still watching "Top-Down Icelandic Sweater" with Ragga Eiriksdótir and Joe Cunningham's "Pattern-Free Quiltmaking," both classes from Craftsy.

What's my app of the week: I'm getting a lot of use out of the Craftsy app. You can watch the lessons right in the app and do most of the same things you can do with the platform on your computer.   

What's in my wine glass: Two-buck Chuck (Charles Shaw) Shiraz. One of my favorites.

What's my tip of the week: If you don't already have health insurance, you can still sign up by midnight today here and be covered for 2014. (I have heard that anyone who has attempted to log on by the midnight deadline will have a chance to finish signing up in the following days.) I have several friends with pre-existing conditions who have been able to sign up for plans that are reasonably priced, including my friend Julie, who is a cancer survivor and not yet old enough for Medicare.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Spring Has Sprung

It has been another crazy week. Besides my spring cleaning, Ellen and I got together to watch Mary Sorensen's hand-appliqué DVD.

I got out my almost-finished block. This is the cardinal design she uses in this wonderful instructional DVD. I took her class a few years ago, and had already finished this one, so now I'm making a female cardinal facing the other way. We don't get cardinals here, and I miss seeing their bright plumage. Ellen will be going back to Florida soon, and I'll miss her, so it was fun to get together to work on appliqué. 

Of course, Common Threads met on Thursday. Susan is back in town. She was working on some boot toppers.

Karan is also finishing up some boot toppers, almost the same pattern. 

Kay is working on one of those ruffled scarves. 

Georgette, our needlepoint queen, was working on her needlepoint. 

Julie has been making progress on the ladybug sweater for her granddaughter. (More pattern details are in my blog from two weeks ago.)

Karan brought her finished shawlette to show. She has made two of these.

Joanie was continuing to work on her James Bond Baby Sweater. (I couldn't find this patten online. I'll try to get information next time I see her.)

Susan always has a new kind of project to show us. This is a scarf made with Hot Spots. 

You iron on the little glue dots, using a stencil to get the shape you want. Then you rub on colored foil, and it comes off as little dots on the fabric.

Susan has also been experimenting with Eco-colour. 

You place plants and flowers on special fabric already prepared for dyeing, fold the fabric over and hammer it until the juices color the fabric. I think I've seen something similar on Simply Quilts a few years ago.

My Madison cardigan is coming along. The body is finished and one sleeve is done. While working on the sleeves, I blocked the body. I don't have enough blocking mats to do the whole thing at once, but it will take some time for the sleeves anyway.

The yarn is Knit Picks' City Tweed HW in "Romance." It's lovely, soft yarn, with merino and alpaca. When I took the pieces out of the wash water, I realized they had grown quite a bit, as sometimes happens with certain yarns and knitted patterns. After rolling them up in a towel to get rid of the excess moisture, I put the pieces down on my blocking mats and pinned them to the size and shape in the diagram that came with the pattern, patting the knitted fabric in place to fit. The pieces went right back into size and shape.

We had more snow, but between storms, we found time to hike with the pups. There isn't enough snow on the ground to snowshoe without walking or driving a long way, but our local trails have only a little snow, and not much mud, and the weather has been warm in the daytime. 

On Sunday we went to the opera in Salt Lake City. We saw Turandot. It was good, as usual.

I've been lamenting the lack of a good photo of Zachary. His parents finally found a way to "hamper" his constant motion to get this photo.

What's on my needles: Madison cardigan, working on the second sleeve. "Green Tea" socks, no progress this week, because the Madison is so portable. When I finish the Madison, I plan to start the BSJ for BS2, a little brother or sister for Soren, due in August. 

What's on my loom: Waffle scarf, no progress this week, but I'll have to get on it so I can get the warp off and make some rugs. I'm inspired to weave again.

What's on my Featherweight: Soren's I-spy quilt, no progress this week. I also want to get this finished, so I can start another quilt. I have several planned and one to finish that's already started. I have the Lincoln's Log Cabin quilt kit from Connecting Threads, recently added to my pipeline, but I have others to finish first.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Listening to Debbie Macomber's 1105 Yakima Street. It has a lot of characters and is more like a soap opera than her "Blossom Street" series, not my favorite kind of book, and having to learn all the characters after not reading the previous books has been a challenge, but I'll finish it. I have to find out how it comes out. I'm still watching "Top-Down Icelandic Sweater" with Ragga Eiriksdótir and Joe Cunningham's "Pattern-Free Quiltmaking," both classes from Craftsy. I also picked up the weaving video download from Interweave, "Weave a Good Rug" by Tom Knisely. (The link goes to the DVD, but I got the downloaded version.) The Interweave downloaded videos are good. You can't ask questions or make notes in the video, as with the Craftsy classes, but you can stop and go back or repeat something, and you have lifetime access to them.

What's my app of the week: Public Radio Player from Public Radio Exchange.   

What's in my wine glass: Alice White Shiraz 2012. Good value 

What's my tip of the week: As described above, when you block knitted garments that need to fit, don't just block to shape. You have to block to size as well. The Christmas Waffle sweater could have fit a tall man with a 50" chest when it came out of the water, but it blocked to a perfect fit for my DH' more petite 40" chest. 

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Kiss Me, I'm a Quilter and a Knitter, and….

Vintage Stitchers met at Ellen's on Thursday. Rebecca is working on a new appliqué, of course. 

Carol brought her finished quilt to sew on binding. Here's the front.

The back is as lovely as the front:

Two weeks ago, I called the top a version of the "1600" quilt. It is, sort of. I have more information on it now. It came from the Missouri Star Block magazine, winter Vol. 1, Issue 1. 

This is an incredible deal. The "magazine" is book-quality, with fantastic photos and sturdy pages. It comes out every other month for $6 an issue. If you subscribe, the shipping is free. You pay only for the current issue each time and can skip an issue if you need to.

Barbara's appliqué, inherited from a friend who passed away a few months ago. The background and leaves are cotton flannel, and the flowers and berries are cotton corduroy. The pattern is Apricot Preserves by Ann Danzig's Granny's Attic. I was unable to find this pattern online, but the designer is (or was) with Mormon Handicraft. 

Since I couldn't find a link that showed a photo of the finished quilt, here's a photo of the pattern. This will give you an idea. 

Brenda is working on the orange slice for the cover quilt from Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting by Natalia Bonner. 

Janet brought some books she wanted to remove from her quilt/fiber studio to make room for more books. We all looked though them and picked what we wanted. Rebecca selected Vintage Blooms by Pat Sloan. Remember this appliqué of hers?

She had purchased it as a kit. It was originally a set of seasonal pieces. This one and the rest of the quilts are in this book. Now she can make them all, thanks to Janet. 

Joanie, Georgette and I got together for a UFO-finishing session. Georgette is making another pair of booties. I finished half of the third Yei figure on the Yei Figures Bag, then went on to the fourth. I'm not sure I have enough of the orange color (Jamieson's DK "Amber"), so I'm going to wait until I've used it in the border to find out if I need to substitute another color. Or maybe I'll see if I can find it online somewhere.

The Madison is coming along famously, and I got another leaf appliquéd onto the last panel of my "Delectable Pathways" quilt. 

What's on my needles: Madison cardigan, back and most of the front done. "Green Tea" socks, no progress this week. 

What's on my loom: Waffle scarf, inching along. 

What's on my Featherweight: Soren's I-spy quilt, working on the sashing and cornerstones. The blocks are done. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished listening to Georgette Heyer's The Foundling from Audible. It had me in stitches at times. One of her funniest. Now watching "Top-Down Icelandic Sweater" with Ragga Eiriksdótir and Joe Cunningham's "Pattern-Free Quiltmaking," both classes from Craftsy.

What's my app of the week: Craftsy. I love that I can watch the videos and download the materials, even away from home or lying on the couch.  

What's in my wine glass: Woodbridge Zinfandel, 2012 vintage. Nice! (It had better be, since I have up my second glass of wine each evening for Lent! If I can only have one glass, I want it to be nice.) 

What's my tip of the week: Whether it's quilting or knitting, don't let anyone tell you there's only one way to do something. What works for one person may not be as comfortable or as much fun…or even as successful…for you as another method. It's good to try new methods, though, so you can find out what suits you.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Adorableness

Get ready for adorableness.

Georgette made these booties using a kit she bought during their recent trip to New Zealand. 

We met for Common Threads at Margareth's new place. She has moved in with her fiancée. The house is really nice. 

Margareth has a nice room for her looms. Here's the big loom:

Here's the little loom:

She has a nice place for her thread supply:

She showed off her Finished Blanket, woven on the big loom using the double-weaving technique to make the fabric twice as wide.

She's making socks for her fiancée using Zauberball yarn. 

Margareth has also made progress on her pullover:

She's pretty adorable, and she sparkles more than that ring on her finger, and that's saying something!

Julie's making a pullover for her granddaughter. The pattern is  Dale Baby Ull 21011 from Dale of Norway's booklet NR 201. I couldn't find this booklet on Ravelry, but the sweater was there, having appeared in several other booklets. 

Friday several of us went to Joanie's to work on UFOs. Joanie and I worked on our Yei Figures Bag (Nicky Epstein pattern), which we started in 2009. We both found the duplicate stitch tedious and hard to do on the dark navy wool. I had two figures finished when I put it aside. It feels good to be making progress again!

Janet brought her languishing Sipalu Bag to work on. She's so close to finishing it! We're going to meet again next week and whenever we can to keep each other working on these knitting UFOs. (Now I need a quilting UFO group!)

The Madison cardigan is coming along. This is what I had done by Saturday afternoon. 

Sunday was Ellen's birthday, so friends from Common Threads met at Ruby Tuesday for lunch. She'll be leaving in another week, so this was the last chance for some of her local friends to say goodbye.  

What? No photos of quilts? My readers who are quilters need some eye candy, too, so here you go: The great Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show 18-month Calendar, "The Men Behind the Quilts."

I definitely need this calendar...for the quilts, of course!

Maybe this isn't really adorable, depending on your taste. Laika's latest movie, The BoxTrolls will be out in September. Please go and see it, so you can enjoy the hard work put in by our DS2 and the rest of the Laika team.

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-news/the-boxtrolls-exclusive-trailer-premiere-cee-lo-green-172204722.html?vp=1

OK, here's something really adorable. Soren enjoying his dinner...

...and Daphne at dance class.

I'm trying to get photos of Zachy, but I guess he doesn't stay still long enough! He's adorable, too, of course!

What's on my needles: Madison cardigan, back done and progress on the front. "Green Tea" socks, second sock, working on the foot. 

What's on my loom: Waffle scarf, a few more inches done. 

What's on my Featherweight: Piecing the second I-spy quilt, this one for Soren. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished listening to Audible's Sheepfarmer's Daughter by Elizabeth Moon, another fantasy. It was good, but there was a lot of gruesomeness. Then I listened to David Baldacci's Innocent, checked out from the library using the Overdrive app. I finished that on Saturday. Spellbinding! Just started Georgette Heyer's The Foundling from Audible, for a definite change of pace. Finished reading Dragonseye by Anne McCaffrey from the library on the Kindle app.

What's my app of the week: iBooks. I keep all my patterns, instruction manuals and PDFs organized on it, as well as books to read. 

What's in my wine glass: Corbett Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon, another big bottle. 

What's my tip of the week: If your yarn is in a round ball, instead of a center-pull ball, put it in a bag or a bowl, so it doesn't roll all other the floor. Unless you like to entertain the cat while you knit. 

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

What's "Housework?"

I’m finally wearing my Dogwood Blossoms cardigan!

Details of my version of this cardigan are here.

Not to be outdone, Rocky is wearing his new Norwegian pullover:

I CO for the sweater on Monday and worked steadily on it, finishing it on Saturday. Knitting for little “people” sure goes fast! The pattern and yarn details are here.

Diane has been working on this block for the "Bertie All Through the Year Quilt."

Here's a link to a closeup of Diane's block.

Carol is working on her 10th Mother Bear Project bear! Go Carol!

Barbara finished her "Sparkling Gemstones" quilt. 

The pattern is from the book by Pam Lintott and Nicky Lintott, Jelly Roll Quilts.

I recommended piecing the background differently from the instructions. She says it worked out much better. (I had followed the directions when I made mine and had a terrible time matching up the seams.)

Here's the backing for Barbara's "Sparkling Gemstones":

Barbara has also made another I-spy quilt. 

Ellen has been busy, too. She's working on the "Home Sweet Home" quilt, her first block:

This is the same pattern I used for the three blocks over my mantle. The book is Home Sweet Home by Barb Adams and Alma Allen. 

Barbara has started on the Poinsettia Wreath, one of the quilts Carol has made:

Snow has returned to the mountains of Utah, although its very wet at our 7200' elevation.

Snowshoeing in the back country is out of the question, due to avalanche danger, but we've found some places to walk with the pups.

I really should clean my house. Maybe tomorrow….

What's on my needles: Finished Rocky's Norwegian sweater. CO the Madison cardigan. "Green Tea" socks, second sock coming along, working on the foot. 

What's on my loom: Waffle scarf, a few more inches done. 

What's on my Featherweight: Piecing Soren's I-spy quilt. No sewing this week, again.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished listening to Audible's Shadow of Night, by Deborah Harkness, the second book in the All Souls Trilogy, which started with A Discovery of Witches.  The final book in the trilogy, The Book of Life, is coming out July 15, 2014. Now listening to Sheepfarmer's Daughter by Elizabeth Moon, another fantasy, also from Audible.  

Still reading Dragonseye by Anne McCaffrey, from the library on the Kindle app.

What's my app of the week: Azumio's free Heart Rate monitor app. This comes in handy during my Silver Sneakers class, because I can never find my pulse! You don't need another device to work with it. You just hold your finger over the light on the back of your iPhone.

What's in my wine glass: Parducci Wine Cellars' Small Lot Blend Petite Sirah, 2008 vintage. 

What's my tip of the week: If you keep your dog's toothpaste next to your own, be sure you get the right one. (Actually, it didn't taste that bad, but their toothpaste is more expensive.)

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.