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Pacific Northwest, United States

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I've been crafting things for myself and others since my teen years. Designing and creating is not just what I do.....it's Who I Am. Thanks for stopping by.

Friday, November 30, 2012

On The Needles - Nov 30, 2012

Over this past week I've worked on a couple of knitting projects.  The first project was a pair of footie socks for myself.   I love my handmade socks and don't want to wear them out.  My regular slippers make my feet sweat, so I generally just wear socks around the house.  

Last winter I made some felted slippers and I love them.   Unfortunately they are showing wear on the sole and I've done some reinforcing with more yarn (darning, sort of).  I have more 100% wool to make additional slippers, but the pattern I made (and love) is knit on straight needles and sewn up creating a seam from toe to heel on the sole.  For some reason I keep putting it off.

Funky Footies
A few days ago I took some of my old, funky acrylic yarn, which is probably 25 years old, and made a couple of footies.  I started at the cuff/ribbing and made a heel flap and gusset.  Gosh, it's been a few years since I made any socks from the cuff down.  Now I have a pair of what I call my "Funky Footies" to wear over my good socks.  I can even take them along in my purse when I visit my friends who have those really nice, expensive wood floors and request that guests take their shoes off.  It won't matter if I have holy socks on, because I will cover them with my footies.  

The second project for me has been fingerless gloves.  I have a friend that I want to make a pair for as a Christmas gift.  I found a really simple pattern on line and worked up one glove.  The pattern was written for straight needles which I didn't figure out until I had knitted a purl row above the cuff.  I then made sure to knit any future purl rows since I was knitting in the round.  For the test glove I used some WoolEase and (2) size 6 US 29-inch circular needles and double pointed needles for the thumb.  It would be less cumbersome to use shorter circular needles (if I had some).  

Knitting the thumb was a first for me.  It wasn't as hard as I had imagined although I ended up with a gap at the bottom of the thumb which I closed when weaving in the yarn tails. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Be sure to visit Patchwork Times and see what others have on their needles this week.




Monday, November 19, 2012

Design Wall Monday - Nov 19, 2012

Gosh, this week has gone by fast.  It seems like yesterday I was creating my Design Wall post.

Anyway, I was able to make up the flying geese units for the border of the log cabin throw quilt.  The green with beige leaves fabric next to the geese is auditioning for the inner border.  

Unlike some quilters, I have not made hundreds of flying geese units so I wasn't quite sure which method to use.  I dug through my binder labeled "Techniques" where I keep the instruction sheets that come with rulers and other sewing accessories as well as printouts from the internet.  I used the "No Waste Method for Making Flying Geese Units" by Patti R. Anderson at patchpieces.com.  

I found this method worked really well for me.  It didn't take long to create the 45 geese units I needed.  I was also pleased that they turned out the correct size.  In the past, using other methods, my geese would end up slightly smaller that the size I needed.  

Our little quilt group met this past Saturday.  It was fun getting together with the gals.  It dawned on me that, since I had missed our October meeting and was at the lake all summer, it had been about seven months since I had joined them.  I had very little to show and tell but enjoyed seeing what others had accomplished.  

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Quilting!!!
I'm linked up with Patchwork Times so be sure to head over there to see other design walls.   


Friday, November 16, 2012

On The Needles - Nov 16, 2012

Progress on these socks has taken a couple of back steps.  In the past week I completed the foot on both socks and worked the heel on one sock.  

Instead of reviewing my notes on doing the short-rows I just plowed ahead and made a few mistakes along the way.  At first I didn't think that it would matter, but half-way through I did check my notes and realized that I had been doing the sssp (slip, slip, slip, purl) wrong and that's why it just didn't look right.  In the end I decided to go back to the beginning of the heel shaping and do it right.

I managed to insert a spare needle at the beginning of the heel and ripped out all the heel.  Unfortunately, I did drop some stitches in the process, so I have those to pick up before proceeding.  I think I'll set this aside for a bit and plan our Thanksgiving dinner menu and grocery list.

Thanks for stopping by.  If you're curious as to what others have on their needles this week, check out Patchwork Times blog post.  



Monday, November 12, 2012

Design Wall Monday - Nov 12, 2012

I found some 12-inch log cabin blocks in my orphan block box and decided to get them sewn into a quilt.  I chose a 3 x 4 layout and have three blocks left over.  The spare blocks will be incorporated into the quilt back.  

Original LC Block
I want the finished size to be 60"x72" so the next step was to design the border.  My first choice was to add some plain strips but in order to achieve the size I want I'd have to add 12" of strips all around the quilt center.
 
EQ7 to the rescue!  It's been weeks since I played with the software and this is a perfect time to enlist help.  For some reason I thought flying geese would compliment the log cabin blocks, so I designed 12-inch blocks for the border and corners.

Border Block


Corner Block
 Here's the design I ended up with. 


Do you think I should move the geese outward, centering them in the middle of the border block or leave them as is?

Thanks for stopping by.  Be sure to visit Patchwork Times and check out the links to other design walls. 

Design Wall Monday - Nov 5, 2012

I just realized that I did not do a blog post last week to show my progress on the baby trip around the world quilt I'm making.  So....here's what I should have posted last Monday, November 5:

It took a while for me to decided on the border after completing the quilt interior.  I really like the skinny little yellow strip, especially next to the purple.  It really makes the colors pop. 

I sewed the yellow and purple strips together before attaching to the quilt.  Because I wasn't very accurate with my start and stops when I added the border, the process of mitering the corners was more challenging than it needed to be. 

Thanks for stopping by.  
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