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

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I love this time of the year - at least I do by the time we reach Christmas Eve Day! Sometimes the stress of the holidays feels like it's piling on between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but by today I have everything done, and it's time to relax and enjoy family. My brother and his family have arrived safely, and the only ones we're waiting for are my niece and her family. 

Speaking of family, we spent the weekend in the Twin Cities so DH could watch our nephew play in the All-American Bowl. We had a blizzard in Iowa on Thursday, and our plan was to leave on Friday morning. We went ahead as scheduled, and the roads were treacherous for the first hour or more of driving! The only reason I didn't insist on going back home was that the roads were just as bad going the other direction. 

They did improve as we went north, so we made it to our destination safely - only to find out I had booked us into the wrong Hilton Hotel! The staff was very nice about it, though, and we were able to get a room at the right hotel, so all was well. 

By the time we came home yesterday, the roads had improved to normal driving conditions, so it was a much less stressful trip.

Now, back to quilting! My friend, Joyce, is one of the most prolific quilters I know, and I love to work on her quilts. She has an excellent eye for putting fabrics together - I told her I should hire her next time I go shopping for my next quilt fabric! This is one she made for her daughter, and she is finishing it for her for Christmas:

I love the middle picture, because it really shows the design created by the star blocks. For this one, I did an edge-to-edge design called Sakura, but I thought the borders needed something special, so I did some light custom there. I really had fun with this one, because it's in "my" colors.

This is Sara's first-ever quilt:

Sara is a college student, and her grandma helped her put this one together. Sara picked out the fabrics herself - and I think Grandma questioned some of her choices at the time! But they worked, and it turned out great. I quilted this one with Swirls, and it really gave some nice movement to all those squares and rectangles. I don't know if her grandma is going to bind it for her or let Sara do it, but it will be bound in black and is going to be a really great quilt.

Now I'm taking the month of January off so I can finish some of my own projects that have been patiently waiting for some attention. Some are "just because" gifts (no special reason) and some are just for fun, but I'll be glad to cross a few of them off my to-do list.

Merry Christmas to all from My Pieceful Corner! 

Louise

Cover Them With Love

Admittedly, these aren't my typical quilt projects, but hopefully they'll be just as loved and used:

Next week these two Cover Them With Love quilts will be delivered to Midwest Mission Distribution Center in Chatham, Illinois, along with 13 others made by two other ladies from our church. Eventually, they will make their way to Haiti.

My husband and I have volunteered at MMDC a couple of times over the past several years and are amazed by the work such a small facility accomplishes. When we're there, we generally work on putting together school kits or health kits (and recently they were putting together flood buckets to be utilized by victims of Hurricane Sandy), but during our last visit, I saw some of these quilts. Now, I love to pick up fabric at garage sales, but sometimes I get it home and realize that it isn't 100% cotton or it just isn't suitable for a quilt for one reason or another. I set it aside in my "Haiti quilt" pile of fabrics to be used later. 

The quilts are completely reversible and can be made of virtually any fabric (although I try to stick with polyester, cotton, and/or flannel) and they don't require batting. You could use any pattern you'd like as long as they measure about 40" x 60", but this is the pattern provided on MMDC's Web site, so it's the one I used this time.

Now that these are done, it's back to sewing and quilting. I have two client quilts to finish in the next couple of weeks, and then I think I'll take a month or so to work on my own stack of tops that are patiently waiting to be tended to! Hopefully I'll have pictures for you soon.

In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you're surrounded by family and/or friends and have a lot to be thankful for. I know I will (be with family) and do (have a lot to be thankful for). 

Thanks for stopping by.

Louise

Fall in the Midwest

Aaaaaah! There's nothing quite like fall in the Midwest. It's cool, the leaves are turning colors (wish I had thought to take a camera with me yesterday when I was out), and today the sun is shining. It's my favorite time of the year - but wait until spring gets here, and I'll probably say the same thing about it!

We took a trip to northern Michigan a couple of weeks ago. I'd never been to Michigan at all, and I fell in love with that part of the state. The weather was less than desirable the week we were there, but we were with friends and had a great time in spite of the rain and cold. Of course, as soon as we left, the weather improved. Never fails!

I have a Christmas-themed quilt on the longarm and will share it when the time is right. It's pretty much occupying all my time right now, but I did buy some fabric when I was up north, so some new table runners are in my future:

The Rainforest Rings pattern is one I bought during our Alaskan cruise a couple of years ago, but I've never found the right fabric. On our first full day in Michigan, hubby was playing golf, and I made it my "visit the quilt shops" day. My first stop was Renee's House of Quilting. It was a great shop with super friendly staff. I could have spent a bundle, but I behaved myself.
I bought the floral and dark fabrics while I was there:

I didn't have the pattern with me, so I wasn't sure on the yardage needed. I decided I'd better wait on the background/backing fabric until I was back home and could see how much I truly needed.

I also went to Interquilten  in Interlochen. It's a really cute little shop with some fantastic fabrics. That's where I picked up the Easy Curves pattern pictured above. It takes just three FQs and some yardage:

Want to put bets on whether I finish these by the end of the year?

On the drive up north, I finished up a prayer shawl, and on the way back I started a sock. It was really easy - just a tube-style sock - and I finished it this week. That's what I do while watching TV at night.

And someday I might make the other one!

Last, but not least, I've been looking for a more portable sewing machine to take to sewing days, classes, etc. I went to an estate sale last week and found this:

It really isn't lightweight by any stretch of the imagination, but it was so clean and worked so beautifully, I couldn't pass it up. It's a Domestic machine, manufactured in Cleveland in the 1940s/50s. I'll continue my search for an older Singer of some kind (that's what I think I really want), but I'll be using this one quite a bit in the meantime.

Okay, enough about me! Time to get back to quilting!

From My Pieceful Corner,

Louise