Happy Hearts

Time to spread some love...the universe needs some balance after that last post!

I made this in 2004...it was my third quilt ever, and the first one I quilted myself.

Darn Postal Workers!

I am anxiously waiting for 2 packages:

1) My One Skein Secret Pal yarn for June. This was not a partner swap, instead, person A sends to person B, who sends to person C, etc. I sent off a skein of Noro on about June 7th, plus some cards in the mail since then. My partner is a happy camper. However, the Golden Rule has not worked in my favor on this yet. Luckily (??) my partner is not-so-secret, and about 10 days ago I emailed her a nicely worded, "How's it going" note. She did write back saying life was crazy and my package would be on the way soon. Please, yarn swap fairy, speed up the mail routes so my yarn gets here this week!!! [ I know, swaps are a gamble, especially on the internet, so it's not a big deal if I don't get anything. But it does kinda feel like Valentine's Day in First Grade when everyone else has more Valentines in their pink paper covered shoe box!]

2) Wedding pictures from my best friend's son's wedding back in December. I ordered three prints online, oh, back in March I think. April rolled aorund, and I thought, hey, where are those prints? May rolled aorund, I came across the photographer's address and my invoice number, and I thought, I'll give them a call when school lets out and I have more time. June rolls around, and whaddaya know, I got a call from the photographer! She has my prints, but oh dear, I didn't include tax for the order, so could I please send them another check? [ helloooo, how about you get someone to help with your website to either A - accept credit card payments, or B - TELL ME TO INCLUDE TAX] So, I subdued my irritation and wrote a check for the tax ($1.22) plus, a few dollars for postage since she first asked me to pay for shipping then decided to eat that cost. (My mom's a small business owner...those little things add up!) Anyway, it's now been several weeks and NO PHOTOS. We're in the same suburban area, I get mail from across town in 4 days, tops. Time for another phone call.

3) And while I'm venting...I am supposed to have a light bar for my longarm! The dealer said a month ago that she'd set up delivery next week. I called her shop last week and they just got a new phone system and couldn't figure out how to transfer me to her extension so I was cut off - TWICE. grrrrrrr.

Sock Progress

You can kind of see the eyelet pattern in the photo. The leg is done and I have started the heel flap. You would think that k1, s1 would be easy, but I have noticed in jsut two rows that I like to k2 occasionally. OOPS. I have put other projects on hold while I get through this sock. I figure if I make one sock, then I know how to handle all the parts and then I can relax on the second one and bounce around among all my projects! (We're all unfaithful yarn harlots at heart!)


I *really* need to be sewing right now. I have the strips ready for the July Strip Club project at the shop, and only three weeks to get the top completed and quilted! In those same three weeks, I have to finish painting the nursery and get the house cleaned up for the nerve-wracking Home Study which will certify us to adopt. AAACK, where are the instructions for altering the time-space continuum? I just saw them in the pile on my desk...

Really, really, really good news from the General Convention of the Episcopal Church: we elected a FEMALE Presiding Bishop! Head Honcho for the whole American Church is a WOMAN! You go, girlfriend! I have to giggle...three years ago, the Episcopal Church ordained an openly gay man as the Bishop of New Hampshire and the conservative branches of the church around the world had a fit. I bet they are really P.O'd now! Get over it, dude, it's the 21st century!

Progress

I talked to my mom at about 11am today and mentioned we were enjoying the World Cup. She was outraged! She thought we had too much to do getting ready for baby that we shouldn't be wasting time in front of the TV. Relax Mom, we'll be ready...by the time the child goes to college it will all be sorted out :-)

So, feeling rather industrious, we turned off the TV and trudged up to the extra bedroom/storage room/soon-to-be-nursery. It made me a little crazy to see all the mess we had to deal with, but B. convinced me his methods would work. These methods include piling every box in the center of the room (there were about 6 in the closet when we started) unpacking them all, and sorting, just like you see on Clean Sweep: keep, charity, and trash. In just three hours, voila! 2 boxes back in the closet, 2 in the garage and lots of stuff for charity and the trash.

This is a big deal, people of the internets...I have boxes that I have not unpacked in TEN YEARS because I cannot handle the mess and the inner turmoil of sorting out what bits to keep from my past! But, B. is ruthless and it must be done. The pregnancy is in week 32, which gives us about 6 weeks (we're hoping for an early delivery.) The race for organization is on! Say a prayer for the reformed packrats...

All American

Ugh. It is so hard to show quilting details in pictures! Especially when I use lots of prints and same-color thread. Oh well...at least I tried???

This is the first quilt I actually got paid for! It's a sample my mom made for her shop, pretty simple blocks, but she used the fun baseball and hot dog prints. I quilted diamonds in the squares, meandered around the hot dogs, and sewed baseball words in the yellow parts, words like strike, run, out, pitch, catch, etc. Since the blocks were small, I had to keep the words short, LOL. My original list had things like umpire, outfield, fly ball, etc. Ain't gonna happen in 3 inches!

Quiet Sunday

I have been enjoying my summer vacation IMMENSELY. Sleeping late is wonderful :-) No progress to report on the socks. I went to the Friday Knitting Club at the store and we decided my gauge was off, so I frogged the whole thing and started over on US size 1 needles. This time, I was a good doobie and knit a swatch so I could check my gauge BEFORE I had three rounds of eyelets done!

Yesterday was Worldwide Knit in Public Day. I wore my t-shirt, but that was the extent of my participation :-( I had to teach a class in the morning, then we went to a wedding in the afternoon. I was tempted to make B. take me to the mall afterwards, since the socks were in my purse, but no, we just went home.

Our new addiction is "24." Yes, the TV show. Yes, I know I am behind the times if I am just now getting into it. About two years ago, I was able to watch about 4 episodes. But, my life is really busy during the school year on weeknights, and meetings came up and I just couldn't plan my life around a TV show. Yes, we do own a VCR, but that is like, soooo 1990s. Plus, it's a nice back-pocket guilt inducer because at the time (note: TWO YEARS AGO) I told my husband the ONLY thing I wanted for my birthday in October was Tivo. Somehow, he couldn't figure that one out. So I said, the ONLY thing I want for Christmas is Tivo. Not even Santa came through on that one! Here it is, what, season five??? And I finally went to Blockbuster for season one and we are up to 8am. Hubby is addicted too. (Hey this might be the year for Tivo!) But, he said we have other projects to get done around the house (say, painting the nursery before baby arrives in August? Good Plan!) so, we can only watch one season a month. I am crossing my fingers that the video store has Disk 4 in stock tomorrow!

Juggling Toothpicks

Trying to get my first sock started on DPNs jsut made me laugh. I felt like an octopus! But, as you can see, I managed to get the feel for it and my first-ever sock is taking shape. Yay me!

Yarn: Regia Cotton Color #4075
Needles: Crystal Palace Bamboo DPN, US #2
Pattern: Summer Solstice (June) from The Sock Calendar (c) 2002 by Catherine Wingate and Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer.

I finished the 1-1/4" ribbing, and I have completed the first full pattern round, which entailed yarn overs and SSK for the first time. Another YAY ME!

Bringing me to the thoughts I have had recently about learning new skills, knitting and otherwise. Apparently, I am blessed with healthy self-confidence. Knitting looked interesting, so I picked up some needles and started doing it. I ask for help when I am confused by a pattern. I grab a book, or look on the internet for instructions. Basically, I just try it! Same thing with quilting. I sat down with some fabric and a pattern, and started stitching. A few months later, I went to Quilt Camp and signed up for any class that looked interesting. (Curves were a little frustrating, so the Double Wedding Ring is still at the bottom of the UFO pile.)

We have had a woman in our local knitting group who is at the opposite end of the confidence scale, and it makes me sad. She was trying to decide on yarn for a next project, and she had a book of baby patterns in front of her. Reading through, she came to a description of an increase stitch. It was a little confusing, so she put everything back, saying it was too hard. She cast on another scarf. I am baffled. It's just some string wound around two sticks! Try it! It will make more sense when you have the stitches in your hands! If it looks horrible, rip it out and try again! But, to each her own. I hope she finds a patient tutor who can gently lead her along the knitted way...I will be far ahead with my basket of projects: sweaters and knitted animals and socks, and whatever else catches my fancy.

Workin' on the Weekend

My latest longarm effort is a quilt from the book "9-patch Pizzazz." (It's a great book for interesting settings of large prints.) I used a varigated thread called "Woodland" which has tan, reds and a dark brown. It looks really good on the floral prints, but I wish I had used a coordinating thread on the light green squares, or else stitched across all the floral prints. Oh well, I'm not going to rip it out!

Home Improvement

Meet my dear hubby (B)...Home Depot's most loyal customer this week! He is very handy...one of the things that attracted me to him ;-)

I need a place to display my quilts, and also (eventually) to hang customer quilts while waiting for inspiration and time on the machine, LOL. We fashioned this display bar from copper tubing. It sort-of matches the mission style furniture throughout our house. It was a good day for B - he got to use power tools! The giraffe picture may have to relocate someday, after I find the clip/hangers that I will use to hang quilts.

I got the idea for hanging quilts this way from my mom's store. She installed rebar around the store near the ceiling, and hangs her displays that way. She even has a nifty pole with a hook on the top to aid the putting up and taking down of quilts!

The Princess

A longarm quilting machine is an expensive piece of equipment, used to sew intricate designs on the top layer of a quilt. In my case, it has become a kitty hammock.

Since the longarm is about 4 feet by 112 feet, the only space in our house to put it is the loft. Lofts, by nature, are large open spaces...meaning no doors. It is impossible to keep cats off furniture without doors. (The bathroom doors are always closed in our house because a certain calico likes to play with toilet paper.)

The lovely blue sheet at least keeps the cat hair off of the quilt!

Christmas in May

Here is a little something to get you through the long hot days of summer...start thinking about Christmas! This bargello went together VERY quickly. The fabrics are some of the strips from my Cotton Rainbow project. I was trying to think of another project for our Strip Club, and Marilyn Doheny just gave a lecture on bargello. Perfect for strips and strata!

Charity Blocks

Number 1 of 3. This bear paw variation will be part of a charity quilt. My local guild does 4 charity quilts per year...3 go to outside organizations and one is donated to the church whose facilities we use for meetings. We saw a really neat quilt in the book "Hidden Blocks" and we used that for inspiration. A quilt appraiser told us that two-color quilts, such as blue and white, or red and white, are the most popular/valuable, so that influenced our color scheme.

If you ever get the chance to hear a quilt appraiser talk about her work, take advantage! It was fascinating to learn about color techniques and fabric dating, all the way to pattern development and how that influences future market value of a quilt.

Feelin' the Blues

You are Ocean Blue

You're both warm and practical. You're very driven, but you're also very well rounded. You tend to see both sides to every issue, and people consider you a natural diplomat.

What Color Blue Are You?

Deb at Red Shoe Ramblings shares fun quizzes about once a week. This one fits me pretty well, being a Libra and all ;-)

The secret sweater

In previous posts, I have mentioned this sweater, my current knitting project. It's not really a secret, I just never got around to taking a picture! Here, you can see that I am almost done with section 2 - right back. I have already finished section 1 - left front and I am looking forward to repeating the process with left back and right front.
I am using a DK weight alpaca yarn from Royal Fiber, in blue, heather and multi-colors, on US #3s. It should be just right for winter in Phoenix, layered over a t-shirt! Hopefully, I will have it complete by November, but considering it took me almost a year to get to this point, don't hold your breath.
This is my second sweater project. The first was a t-shirt sweater pattern, knit in Butterfly Super 10 cotton. It is sitting in the closet, waiting for blocking. I have procrastinated on that so long, that now it is probably too hot to wear for another six months. I'll have to set a reminder for September, block the sweater, then I can wear it the week before the vest! (Here in the desert, we only have a small window of sweater-wearing temperatures, so it's good to plan ahead.)

Quilt Camp Challenge

Shortly after discovering quilting, I learned about Quilt Camp. Each year, they issue a challenge, based on the year's color. Last year was the color Purple...several stories come to mind, but I'll save those for another post!

This year is teal. I took a class with Ricky Tims and learned his Caveman Quilting techniques. I am planning to embellish the "Teal Magnolia" and enter it in the annual challenge. It's basically a popularity contest, which I've never had any luck with, but I keep trying :-)

Knotty, Knotty

I am getting low on the blue yarn in my multi-color vest, so I brought a new skein to wind at the shop tonight.

Problem #1 - hank is too long for the swift. No big deal, I just try to lay it loosely above and below the supports. Fine, we're winding along and then I notice strands are wound around the center post of the swift. Yikes! Not great, but totally fixable.

Solution #1 - Take hank off swift and hang it from my shoulder. Kind of awkward to wind, but I sort of get a rhythmic wrist shake to keep things moving.

Problem #2 - Big knot is developing as the winding end get tangled with loose end of hank. Temporary fix as I get a long enough strand to wind a couple turns before stopping to untangle.

Solution #2 - Stop and fight with huge knot. Slowly untangle from both ends, remembering to breathe deeply. Wish for camera as I start mentally drafting blog entry.

Problem #3 - Notice a spot where the yarn seems to be felting itself together. Darn alpaca wool!!!

Solution #3 - Untangle from both ends so the felt-y knot has only about 4 inches of yarn wasted. Cut off and tie remaining ends back together. Ahhhhh, back to knitting!

Alex is dreamy

This was the inspiration for my first quilt (except I used the turquoise background). I love giraffes, and this fabric was fun to match things with! I used the Lasagna pattern, which just has you sew strips together in random order. I love playing with color! It was quilted by my longarm mentor, Barbara Harrell. I was thrilled when she brought my ideas to life...squiggly lines in the center, to give you the feeling of wavy lasagna noodles, and free-form animals in the borders. It is spectacular!

Secret Pal Survey

1. Which yarn is most like your personality (you can be specific or general with your answer- brand, type, color, fiber, whatever)?
Noro...I like the varigated colors and you can use it in so many things, sweaters, felting. I go in many different directions in real life!

2. What is your favorite color yarn to knit/crochet with?
I enjoy the full spectrum of colors. It generally depends on the project and recipient.

3. Have you ever used variegated, or magic, yarns?
Yes. I made a striped felted bag and I am making a vest with varigated yarn.

4. Do you tend to favor certain fibers when choosing yarns?
Again, depends on the project. Acrylic/washables for baby items, cotton or lightweight wool for clothing for me, and novelty for other stuff! Currently I am in an "alpaca" phase.

5. Do you prefer to work with center-pull or traditionally wound balls of yarn?
No preference.

6. Have you ever worked with organic yarns or are you interested in trying them?
I'm not sure what constitutes "organic." I'd like to try some of the more unusual yarns, like bamboo.

7. How many and what projects have you made in the last year?
A sweater for me, several scarves, and a prayer shawl for a friend.

8. Will you be knitting any gifts this year?
Oh probably! I'd like to have a baby blanket on hand if the need arises for a quick gift. My husband mentioned that I could knit him some socks.

9. What is your favorite one skein project?
From the book, I want to try the tank top, the baby bolero, a clutch, some cupcakes.... Maybe I should just start at the front and make one of everything!

10. How much yarn do you have in your stash and how do you store it?
My stash is rather pitiful...just leftovers from other projects! I have a zippered tote bag by the sofa to store it, away from my cats.

11. Do you have a yarn in your stash that you love so much you can never use it or part with it?
No, I have only purchased yarn for specific projects that get started right away. I do my fondling and coveting of fancy yarn at my mom's yarn store!

12. Do you knit less or differently in the summer?
Actually, I will probably knit more this summer! I teach high school, so I can use the summer vacation as 100% craft time...split between quilting during the day and knitting in front of the TV.

13. Do you belong to any knitting groups (online or offline)?
I only manage to attend my local SnB once a month. But I work Saturdays at a yarn store, so that's like a knittting group! I have a selection of favorite knitting blogs that I visit almost daily, but I'm not an official member of any webrings.

She crosses the finish line...

with about an hour to spare before the deadline.

This is the quilt that will be "unveiled" at our LQS Strip Club meeting tomorrow. I am having lots of fun with these strip quilt patterns. (I'll post the publisher info later) They are made from 2.5" strips. They go together quickly and they are contemporary designs.

Although, I think my next quilt will be soft pastels or neutrals...I am on overload after my last three quilts having bright colors!

If I could live long enough to make all these quilts...

Last night I went to a lecture at Cotton Fields and met Marilyn Doheny. She talked about using her 9-degree wedge ruler to make fans. WOW. The basic technique is to make strata of at least 3 different fabrics, then use the ruler to make a variety of cuts, which will give you different fan patterns. She uses the fans to make butterflys, flowers and abstract spirals, in all different sizes. You could spend the rest of your life making quilts with this one technique. I totally understand how artists create a "series"...an idea is so intriguing that you come back to it over and over again.

Another pattern I've had that feeling about is Crazy Eights, by Mary Sue Suit. Tropical Screamer has a sample on her blog. (I'll try to post a picture of my version this weekend!) Mary Ellen developed a special ruler (I'm sensing a trend here about breaking into the quilting world with tools...) to make the eight-pointed stars. Her blocks end up pretty big, 16 inches. I'd like to make a smaller version, but I haven't figured the math out yet. (I take more of a sew-first-measure-later track when I'm designing something!)