Pooling Socks

I really do need to blog a little more often. Each time I create a new entry, I feel like I'm learning all over again. I have a lot of "how do I do that" moments!

Judy over at Patchwork Times challenged us to make a pair of socks from yarn that pools: 
http://www.patchworktimes.com/2013/03/18/pooling-sock-yarn-challenge/

I had just purchased my first handpainted yarn when I read about this, and I decided to accept the challenge! Here's a picture of the yarn I'm going to use:

I had a pattern picked out - it said it was perfect for handpainted yarns, so I thought I had it made. That was until I read that it was perfect for handpainted yarns because the pattern breaks up the pooling! So much for that. Thankfully I have a couple of other patterns I've been wanting to try, a new set of DPNs that are just waiting to go to work, and a couple of day trips planned for April (good knitting time). 

Wish me luck!

Thanks for stopping by My Pieceful Corner,

Louise

A Week's Worth of Scraps

Okay, so what does a week's worth of scraps look like? Sort of like this:

In my last blog entry I mentioned I was spending about 1/2 hour a day cutting up fabric from my scrap basket. This is what I've amassed after one week. Today they'll go into their respective tote bins and I'll start over with a clean cutting board.

When cutting scraps, I use Bonnie Hunter's Scrap User System. I haven't made anything from them yet, so I don't know how well it will work, but she's had a lot of experience, so I trust her! I've tried to limit my 2" strips to fabrics that are either solid or that read as a solid, because I think that will give the eye a place to rest once I do get around to making a scrappy top.

From My Pieceful Corner,

Louise

A Couple of Finishes!

Two more things are crossed off the "to-do list"! The first was a pair of socks I'd been working on for what seems like forever (but in all fairness, I only knit at night while watching TV or when I'm in the car - as a passenger - and I have finished several other projects since I started these). 

By the time I was finishing the second one, I was finally starting to memorize the pattern. You can find it here: Winter Frost Socks

I like socks that come up higher on my leg, so I added three pattern repeats to mine. The original also gave an option to add beads to the socks. I didn't do that, but I might try it next time.

The other project was the scrappy pinwheel quilt that I'll donate to our church bazaar in October.

It's the scrappiest quit I've ever made, so that was a new adventure for me. A friend passed away a while ago, and this quilt was made with some of the fabrics in her stash (with a few of mine added in). And yes, this one does have wavy borders. I tried something else new - because I didn't know how quickly I'd get it bound after quilting it and because of all the seams created by a piano key border, I decided to serge the edges to keep everything in place. I think I stretched it! I'll toss it in the washer and dryer later today to see if the fabric kind of shrinks up again. If not . . . well, babies don't really care about waving borders, do they?

At the beginning of 2012, I started the "to-do list" I mentioned earlier. In addition to quilting and knitting projects, I include books I want to read and any other little thing that I want to do but may not get to right away. I even break my quilting projects into smaller tasks - cutting the fabric, making the top, quilting, binding. I really did get quite a bit done in the first six months - I discovered it gave me a real feeling of accomplishment to cross something off the list - but then I got a little cocky and said I really didn't need that list any more. Ha! From about September on, I didn't finish much of anything. In January, I dug out the list again - I was amazed at what I had crossed off the list in 2012, but astounded at how much was still on it. I'm back to using the list again and finding it's still a lot of fun to cross things off! I even have 1/2 hour per day scheduled to cut scraps, and that basket is slowly getting emptied. Now that will be an accomplishment!

I hope you're having a pieceful day!

Louise

Super Bowl Sunday - Of Course It's About Quilts!

For quite a few years now, we've spent Super Bowl game time with my mom and her husband (except when they desert us to go to Arizona!), and we continued the tradition this year. Our granddaughter and a friend joined us for potato soup and chili, cornbread, salad and some realllllly good brownies for dessert (are you impressed that I was able to use the words "desert" and "dessert" in one paragraph and get them right?). 

I used the occasion to gift a couple of quilts that had been in the "waiting to be done" stack for quite a while. I decided to focus on a couple of my own projects during the month of January, and at the top of the list were quilts for Mom and Darrel. My goal was to be able to give them on Super Bowl Sunday, and I finished binding Darrel's Friday night. Woohoo!

Here's the one I made for Mom. She's a bridge player (thus the Card Tricks block) and loves a good cup of coffee, so when I saw this fabric line, I knew I wanted to use it in a quilt for her. By the way, the quilts are actually very flat, but the snow beneath them wasn't very smooth, so they look a little wonky in the pictures!

A few years ago I came across a line of Route 66 fabrics. One of the first trips I recall Mom and Darrel taking was along Route 66, and when I found that fabric . . . well, a quilt for Darrel was born (at least in my mind - the actual construction took a while!). I was able to find a star block for each state that Route 66 passes through, and that was the basis of the quilt. You might want to shade your eyes before looking any farther - this one's pretty colorful! The bottom picture is the backing fabric - I left it original size so you could see the design of the fabric a little better, because it was just perfect for the quilt.

They were both very surprised to be going home with quilts last night. And while they were both very appreciative, there's nothing quite like the satisfaction of giving a gift that is admired and loved, so I think I came out the real winner.

I also finished another project this month. In a previous post I had shown you some fabric and a pattern I purchased during our trip to northern Michigan. Since that time, we bought a new dining room table, so by early January I figured I had procrastinated long enough and decided to make the placemats and runner from the pattern I bought in September. 

My original plan was to make just the runner, so when I decided to add placemats to the mix, I had to add some fabric from my stash. 

Today's project is to quilt a baby quilt to be donated to our annual church bazaar this fall. Tomorrow my latest batting order will be arriving, and that will allow me to get back to work on client quilts - I have six waiting in the queue, so that'll keep me busy and out of trouble for a while. 

Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have my current knitting project finished and I can share that with you as well. I've discovered that I love wearing hand-knitted socks, and can't wait to finish this pair.

Until then, thanks for taking time to read today.

From My Pieceful Corner,

Louise