Waste Not, Want Not

It was nice to get back to Vintage Stitchers.

One of the highlights was Carol's Falling Charms Quilt. As often happens, the back is almost as interesting.

Carol has been playing (for more than 15 minutes) with 15 Minutes of Play by Victoria Findlay Wolfe. She's using tiny scraps of fabric most people would throw away to make larger pieces of fabric for quilts and other projects.

She had made some hot pads and mats to go under hot dishes and appliances, such as her blender. She says it makes it easier to slide toward her when she needs to use it.

Barbara has been busy, too.

She used the Missouri Star Half-Hexi Ruler to make this hexagon quilt. 

She also showed us this amazing cross-stitch project she has finished.

I worked on my "Sistine Chapel" appliqué quilt and am making some progress. It's from Mary Sorensen's "Delectable Pathways" pattern. I'm quilting the third panel. When I finish that, I need to quilt the last border of Delectable Mountain blocks, then put on the binding.

Now that I'm home from our trip, I can block projects, like Vroni's cardigan.

DD's birthday was while we were gone. I made her one of my iPhone pouches. (She wanted it without the logo.)

I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Worsted and lined it with a batik fabric (I think from Connecting Threads).

I started on my Frozen Skies Shawl using my birthday yarn. I'm not completely happy with the border, though, so I may frog it and start over.

We had a bit of sunshine on Saturday, so we took the pups to Run-A-Muk Dog Park. (They should rename it "Run-A-Muck," because there were a lot of muddy places.) They had a great time, though, and Dusty especially likes it, because there are always other dogs there, sometimes even young ones like him.

We used the Walk for a Dog app. I really should attach my iPhone to Dusty, because he covers a lot more ground than I do.

What's on my needles: Frozen Skies Shawl.

What's on my Featherweight: Waiting for possibly more doll clothes.

What's on my hoop: Peggy's Sistine Chapel from Mary Sorensen's "Delectable Pathways."

What's on my loom: Scarf to use up last of the warp.

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is still awaiting her next task. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished listening to the book everyone is talking about, then finished Between Black and White by Robert Bailey (if you like Grisham, you’ll like this author). Then listened to A Bachelor’s Establishment by Jodi Taylor, not her usual, but very enjoyable. Now I'm listening to The Sixth Window by Rachel Abbott. Still waiting for something on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Liberty Creek Pinot Noir. Not fantasic, but acceptable..

What's my tip of the week: This week's tip is for hand-quilters. When you come to a stopping place in your quilting, you can turn the needle around, insert it in line with the quilting just past where the needle came out and run it through the batting in the opposite direction past several stitches. You can "slalom" between the stitches if you like, or go around the last one and head back in the other direction. This can be accomplished by pushing on the tip end of the needle so the eye end moves through the batting and out through the fabric. 

Pull to the outside and snip off close to the surface. No knots to make or to pop through to the surface if someone sits on your quilt.

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 or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Quilt Show and Cuteness

Vintage Stitchers met at Barbara's.

Carol was working on a charity quilt. She's trying to use up her '30s reproduction fabrics. Still. I have the same problem. I just found another box of these fun fabrics while working on cleaning up my fiber studio. I think I've figured out why they're called "reproduction" fabrics. 

Brenda show us this fun top:

Marilyn has had her "Goodnight Irene" quilt top quilted.

Here's a closeup of the quilting.

Barbara has this fun quilt finished.

Carol says she's disappointed in how this quilt looks, but I like it. 

I worked on quilting my Delectable Pathways quilt. It will get done someday.
In knitting news, all the doll clothes are off the needles and I'm back to my "So-not-my-palette Cardigan." The second sleeve is coming along.

DH was too lazy to make me a fire, but he was willing to turn on the electric heater.

Friday was a nice day, so we took the pups hiking above Gorgoza Park, where there is already snow on the ground, as they have been making snow every night for the tubing park.

I think Dusty covered three times the distance of nearly two miles. Both pups slept well after we got back.

Speaking of sleeping well, here are two of the grandkids and our grandpup sleeping in the car during a family vacation.

What's on my needles: The “So-not-my-palette Cardigan” second sleeve is coming along. 

What's on my Featherweight: Done for now. I ordered some poodle PJs for Hannah, so I won't have to make any. I'm working on my fiber studio, trying to get it cleaned up. so I can sew in there.

What's on my wheel: Still put away for now.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to music for Park City Singers. Davenport House by Marie Silk is in my Kindle app on my iPad. I still haven't read enough of it yet to know how good it is.

What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec, one of our regulars.

What's my tip of the week: If you want to make all your fat quarters and other small fabric pieces the same size, cut a piece of shirt cardboard (or cereal box) to the size you want. Fold the fabric to fit, leaving at least one end open, so you can slide the cardboard out and reuse it. I made mine to fit my cabinets.

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.

New Life

Here’s Rebecca’s version of a wool appliqué design Julie recently finished.

This was a week to contemplate death, but also resurrection. I see some parallels to my life, even if on a smaller scale. True to our theme, Rebecca has added a butterfly, long considered a symbol of resurrection and new life because it “dies” as a caterpillar and emerges from a tomb in a new form.

Here’s Julie’s wool appliqué wall hanging based on the same design. You may recognize it, as I included it in a blog several weeks ago.

Rebecca also had finished this lovely cross stitch for her daughter’s new house (I believe).

Another project you might remember: Barbara’s appliqué quilt. Marilyn redrafted the block so they would come out the right size, and Barbara managed to get the pieces out of the fabric she had left.

She was not happy with the directions, so it’s just as well the pattern is out of print. If you wanted to make one like it, you would have to reverse-engineer it. It's a very nice design, thought, and lovely fabrics in the kit. Here are the border fabrics that came in the kit.

The pattern was Apricot Preserves by Ann Danzig’s Granny's Attic. If you remember, this kit was left to Barbara by a dear friend who passed away some time back. She had started the appliqué, so some of her work is in it. See how this quilt fits into the resurrection theme?

Brenda has been busy. She finished her Ribbon Quilt, but packed it away, as they are moving to a new (local) location. She was happy to send me this photo for my blog, though.

The pattern is from “Strip Your Stash.”

She also had been working on this quilt, pattern by Sweetwater and fabrics from the “Noteworthy” line.

After eating and having show-and-tell, we sat around and worked on various projects.

A minigroup is a good place to share ideas about how to do things. We all learn from each other.

I’ve been hand-quilting my Delectable Pathways (AKA “Peggy’s Sistine Chapel”) quilt. Just to jog your memory, here’s the finished quilt top on my design wall:

I hope to get it up on the wall over my stairs this spring, but don’t hold your breath. The final knitted doll outfit (for now) is finished. The pattern, sort of spun off from the simple "Everyday Play" dress I designed, is now available as a free download on Ravelry.

Some of you may be aware that our DGD1 moved in with us January 2015. She has been driving my car ever since, first to look for work and then to get to her job, putting a crimp in my independence, as DH and I have had to coordinate our use of his car. Thursday evening DGD and DH went to a Salt Lake City car dealership and they found her a nice, high-mileage, pre-owned Nissan. (Hers is the one in front, and she's paying for it.) So I finally get my car back.

I'm checking into getting my car detailed. It deserves it. Again, fitting the theme of new life. One step toward getting my fiber studio back. Not exactly new life, but it feels like it.

Finally, you may remember my lament from last week regarding the impending loss of the Knit Picks Knitting Community. I can announce (for those of you who don’t know yet) the grand opening of the Ravelry group: "The Frog Prince and His Knitting Community Orphans."

We already have more than 30 members, as of the time I'm writing and scheduling this post, and it has been great to “see” some of our Knitting Community friends who haven’t been as active lately in the Community. One of the nice things is, some orphans of the Knitting Community have also been active on Quilt With Us, and we can have a quilting thread in our Ravelry group, because our group is mostly knitting, etc.

What's on my needles: Remember the Trickle Brick socks? Also back to hand-quilting.

What's on my Featherweight: Still working on cleaning fiber studio.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Listening to No Time Like the Past by Jodi Taylor Also reading A Lady of High Regard by Tracie Peterson on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Corbett Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon. I couldn’t find a vintage on the bottle, but it’s nice, and a good value.

What's my tip of the week: If you’re hand-quilting and get too many stitches loaded onto your needle, a hemostat comes in handy for pulling it through. Just be sure when you pull, you don’t twist your wrist--just pull out in the direction the needle is pointing, so you don’t break your needle.

 

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.

New Inspirations

Vintage Stitchers met at Barbara’s on Thursday. She showed us this great Dresden Plate quilt top:

She had a quilt pattern that had big, empty squares in it. She substituted the Dresden Plate blocks for the big squares. What an interesting setting! Carol also had a finished quilt top:

This is a fairly simple design, starting with a snowball block, but Carol’s pairings of fabrics (some of them from Kaffe Fassett’s collection) makes it stunning.

Barbara had also finished this appliqué for a quilt she had inherited from a friend who passed on.

No truer friend can be had than one who will finish your UFO when you're no longer able. The pattern was “Apricot Preserves” by Ann Danzig's Granny's Attic. She found some mistakes in the instructions that led to making the blocks too small. She'll have to buy more fabric. Oh, darn!

I’m still knitting Doll clothes. The second “Kiltie Combo” outfit is done, this one in blue. It will go to Daphne Jr. in May.

You may remember from last week's post that the inspiration for this outfit came from the shoes, sent to me by mistake instead of the pink and gray shoes. (I ended up buying them anyway, because they're so cute, but the store sent me the correct pair, seen on Dolly, below.) Here is the Ravelry page for the project.

I snapped a photo of both “girls” together, so you can see them with the hats:

I caught them discussing where they could get their hands on a jumprope.

The blue version is from machine-washable yarn, just in case it ends up in the laundry hamper. This is the pattern I’m using for a pullover to go with it.

Here’s my progress:

I’m not crazy about the yarn, although it’s soft and machine-washable. The strands cling together with static electricity, making the colorwork difficult. (I had no trouble with it during the making of the rest of the outfit, though.)

In other doll-knitting news, someone else on Ravelry used my Everyday Play pattern to make this cute dress. I love the creative changes she made to my simple little design.

Rehearsals for The Messiah Project continue. We expect to have Maestro Griffith back again to help us rehearse beginning on Thursday. I’ll try to get some photos.

What's on my needles: The Argyle Pullover for Daphne Jr.

What's on my Featherweight: Fiber studio is under construction. Can we say, “Spring Cleaning?”

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Listened to "The Silent Girls" by Eric Rickstad (fascinating and creepy) and now listening to "Magnificent Devices" by Shelley Adina and narrated by Fiona Hardingham, a continuation of the series from the Steampunk genre, which I find interesting. Also reading "A Lady of High Regard" by Tracie Peterson on the Kindle app. I think I would have liked this one as an audiobook. 

What's in my wine glass: Fisheye Pinot Noir. Always nice.

What's my tip of the week: A little late for this, but the time change isn't as bad if you gradually move your sleep and eating schedules over to the new time. Better yet, just keep them at the time you normally do these things if you can. For instance, if you normally eat lunch at noon during the winter, wait until 1:00 PM after the time change. It works for the pups. Even better would be if they would leave Daylight Savings Time all year.

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.

High Fiber—Doing Dishes and Other Chores

My life is in pieces:

The Kaleidoscope Quilt is coming along. Here are four blocks on the design wall:

All of the centers are done, and half of the blocks are completely finished.

I started some dishcloths using Knit Picks Dishie. This project is easier to work on when I'm riding in the car for quick trips. The colors are, from left, Pomegranate, Azure, Mulberry. (Azure is also the one I'm currently knitting.) The pattern is Grandmother's Favorite, free on Ravelry.

For Joanie's birthday, I promised to finish piecing her Pine Tree Quilt top. I spent an afternoon at her house. Here's a photo of the layout she chose. The sashing is the fabric under the blocks, and the fabric to the right will be a 3" border. (For scale, the blocks will be 7" finished and the sashing 1" finished.) The fabric at the bottom is the backing.

I had to leave about 4:00 PM, so I'll have to have another session, but I have the top two rows of blocks sewn together and the rows sewn. The bottom two rows of blocks are sewn together, and the other two sashing rows are sew. The cornerstones will be the same fabric as the sashing, and Joanie plans to embroider wild grasses over the cornerstones.

Vintage Stitchers met on Thursday at Rebecca's. Brenda has been busy since we saw her last. She has finished several quilt tops. This is her machine-embroidered Halloween Quilt.

She pieced this top at a quilt retreat recently.

Brenda has had these fabrics for some time.

Here is another machine-embroidery project, this one using patterns from Bird Brain Designs.

Rebecca had finished this cross-stitch for her daughter.

Remember her Christmas quilt? She inherited most of the blocks from a friend who passed away a few years ago. She finished the quilt, adding her own special touches. Now it's done, and what a great tribute to her friend.

She has several quilts to piece for gifts, so she's making 1600 quilts. Here's the first one, ready to have quilted.

Janet had finished piecing this quilt top, which was part of a "Route 66" BOM. She will probably add borders.

As for life at home, the first real snow of the season has arrived. This was just the beginning.

Stay warm, everyone, and watch out for ice.

What's on my needles:  Hand-quilting the Delectable Pathways, knitting the Trickle Brick Socks and dishcloths.

What's on my Featherweight: Kaleidoscope Quilt. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Darken the Stars. Now listening to Georgette Heyer's Beauvallet. (I love her books. They're so full of humor, adventure and romance.) Still reading Three Silver Doves by Deborah Garn on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Glen Ellen's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 vintage. Nice and fruity.

What's my tip of the week: For hand-quilting, thread your needle before cutting it from the spool. Let that end be the short one, and your thread won't tangle. No thread treatment (such as beeswax) needed.

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.