Nancy Drew camera strap cover

The neck strap that came with the camera I got for Christmas has got to be one of the most uncomfortable things ever -- and I wasn't even hot or sunburned!  Tromping through the desert, which we all know is in my near future, is going to require something quilted. And cute, because I'm a quilter and we don't make ugly things on purpose.

I thought I was going to do something pieced, then I took a look at that yardage I bought at Greenbaum's a couple of weeks ago. It's got cute little pictures on it, which is just perfect for a camera strap. And it's Nancy Drew!

In hindsight, I wish I'd looked at some tutorials before I made this one. I didn't realize that some camera straps come with pockets for the lens cover. I might need to make myself a second camera strap. Anyone want this one if/when I do?

Only six more sleeps 'til the Nancy Drew blog hop starts.... I can't wait to show off my new project! If you're getting impatient too, you might want to check out Nancy's Mysterious Quilt, or my Nancy Drew Kindle sleeve, or the baby quilt.

I'm linking this post to Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, Freedom Friday,  Link a Finish Friday.

these socks look cuter than they actually are

I really like the colors of these socks. And I like that they're worsted weight. But they squeak. As much as I've heard about acrylic having that plastic, squeaky quality, Red Heart Strata is the only newer yarn I've knit with that actually does it.



But sometimes the yarn is fifty cents a skein and it's four days before Christmas and you just want to knit something easy and watch the yarn do the work. If you want the full story of these socks, it's here. The socks are still kicking around the house and occasionally wind up on a pair of feet when it's really cold and there isn't a wool pair handy.

All of Judy's talk about sock yarn pooling and flashing reminded me of this pair, which I knit seven years ago in KnitPicks Dancing.

 

There are perfect two row stripes in the pools. How does that possibly work?

 

This is the last week for Show Us Your Socks until Fall. By the time Judy starts it up again, I'm definitely going to have some new pairs to show off. They probably won't be those fingering weight pink ones I was working on a couple of months ago.

{What's Cooking?} Cinnamon Monkey Bread

This week, Judy challenged us to make something with cinnamon. In this house, that'd be hard not to do. The jar of cinnamon lives on the counter beside the stove because I'm always using it in oatmeal and French toast. 

But saying I made breakfast for the kids wasn't going to cut it. I had to find something I hadn't made before...or something I hadn't made in a long time.

Monkey Bread!

This is the easiest desert ever. Take two tubes of biscuits, whatever type is cheap or on sale. Tear the unbaked biscuits into little bite-sized pieces. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar and cinnamon (I used about one cup of brown sugar and two tablespoons of cinnamon for this batch.) Coat the pieces of biscuit in the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture so that all sides are covered. Pile in a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for forty five minutes, until the whole thing is gooey and the biscuits are more or less cooked. 

Next week is orange juice -- I need to start looking for recipes because I've never done anything with orange juice except drink it.

{yarn along} Crafty Girls Talk

I haven't even picked up my shawl since last week.  But all's not lost -- I did knit a stocking cap for the NICU,  and work on some fabric stuff I'll be able to show you later.  As much as I adore the Rose Ribbons Shawl, I haven't had the quiet or concentration that it requires.  Hopefully this week will be different, but if not, the shawl will be there when I've got time to devote to it again.

Lucky for me, reading doesn't have the same requirements as shawl knitting. I managed to read Spin a Wicked Web, the next book in the Home Crafting mystery series. That one was really good -- you can follow the link if you want my detailed opinion. I also read a couple of less-than-exciting Kindle freebies and now I'm starting Crafty Girls Talk by Jennifer Forest.

So far, I'm enjoying this one. I've only read three of the interviews, but they held my interest. I do disagree with the knitter who encourages new knitters to have someone write the pattern out for them "in full English" instead of learning the abbreviations. Yes, knitting patterns are written in another language, but once you learn to read it, life is much easier. I'd hate to have to wade through a whole row's worth of "knit three, yarn over, slip one stitch, knit two stitches together, pass the slipped stitch over..." My eyes would hurt. Maybe she doesn't do lace or complicated cables.

And yes, I do remember when I was complaining about that shawl pattern setup a few weeks ago. But I needed to re-learn how how shawl charts are written, not find a translator to figure it all out for me. And I did.




For more fun projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis. 

the suspense is killing me

 

There are only eight more sleeps until the Nancy Drew blog hop starts!  Technically seven, since my post goes up at 9pm my time Tuesday night. I can't wait to show off my new projects -- there are at least two ones, maybe three if I can pull it off -- and see what everyone else has come up with.

 

To tide you over, here's a little clue....

 

I did find four vintage Nancy Drew books at Goodwill last week. Maybe I should read those to pass the time.

{Whatcha Reading?} Spin a Wicked Web

I just finished Spin a Wicked Web, third in the Home Crafting Mystery series by Cricket McRae, and I'm ready to plunge right into the next book in the series.  That's one of the benefits of reading a series that's been out for a while -- you don't have to wait a year for the next book!

In this one, Sophie Mae is learning how to spin and she's horrified to find a member of the artists' co-op strangled with her very first skein of handspun yarn. Compared to the botulism poisoning in the second book and the lye drank by the victim in the first book, this one was a relatively peaceful death. But the mystery is just as intriguing.

When I started this series, I wondered how it was going to work, with the main character tackling a new craft in every book. It does work, and works well. The first book is about soap making, Sophie's career. The second book revolves around a preserves exchange. Everyone cans and makes jam, right? And in this book, she's just learning to how to spin. I can absolutely believe that she's got this many interests. According to the description for book four, she's learning about artisan cheeses while planning her wedding.  It really does feel like she's living a full life, not hopping from project to project.

To see what everyone else is reading, head over to Patchwork Times.

I'm working on things I can't show you. Some because they're secret, at least for the next couple of weeks.  Some because they're in no condition to show off. And some because I showed them to you so recently that there's no point showing it again.

To see more design walls, head over to Patchwork Times.

What did you do this weekend?

After working so hard to try to civilize my little boys, it's going to sound just great if they announce that they had Big Ass Sandwiches this weekend. Next time (and there will be a next time because they were out of Béchamel sauce and if the sandwiches were that good without the cheese sauce, I can only imagine how yummy they'd be with it), maybe we'll put the address for the place next door into the GPS so she doesn't loudly announce our destination!  Hopefully the boys weren't paying enough attention to remember the name of the place.

This little stocking cap for the NICU was my only finish this week. I was meaning to try this pattern as soon as I got done knitting the Halloween hats, but by that point, I was tired of dpns and worsted weight and felt like knitting anything that wasn't a baby hat.

The pattern is from Warm Hats for Wee Noggins. I left the stuffing out of the pom pom on the end, which I think I like better. It looks cute without the bulk. Or maybe I overstuffed the one in the orange bat hat... But I'm glad to know it works without it. That's one less thing to keep track of in my knitting bag.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 18.5 yards
Sheets Added Year to Date: 2
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 14.5 yards
Net Used for 2012: 4 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 30 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 230 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 3400 yards
Net Added for 2013: 3170 yards

To see more weekly stash reports, click over to Patchwork Times.

Scrappy Triangle Quilts at Quilter's Gallery

The theme for Quilter's Show and Tell this week is "scrappy triangle quilts" and there are some gorgeous entries. I submitted Strawberry Stars, a quilt I wrote a tutorial for a while back when I was playing with red and green scraps.

Let's Make Baby Quilts {week 8}

How are your baby quilts coming? I didn't finish one this week, which has me reminding myself that my goal is fifty quilts for the year, not one every single week. Sooner or later, I'll free up some time for another of my baby quilt binges and I'll be ahead of schedule again.


I was sure I'd have this quilt done with plenty of time to spare. I cut the green squares and triangles last week when I was cutting pieces for the border of the turtle quilt.

That's one of my tricks for the controlled scrappy baby quilts -- I cut fabric for them when I'm cutting my own quilts. The turtle quilt has a limited number of greens and I'm being extra choosy about which ones make it in. This little quilt is more "anything goes as long as it's green!"

When I start the big girl version of Annabelle that Teenage Daughter wants, I'll also be cutting pieces for a rail fence baby quilt.  Then, when I've got time to sit down and do some piecing, I'll have projects ready to go.

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:

I don't want to overwhelm everyone with a huge list of rules, but I do want this linky party to stay on the topic of baby quilts. They can be for donation, or for your own baby, or just because you think they're cute and want them in your sewing room, but they've got to be baby quilts. Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt related posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

my favorite vintage treasures

I started writing vintage posts seven or eight years ago, back before anyone was actually reading my blog. Once I realized that I was starting to run out of fun vintage things to write about, I started wondering if I could get away with writing those posts over again. But I've told the stories, and after rereading them, I think I told them right the first time around. (I do reserve the right to take better pictures with my new camera, someday when I've got those extra hours I've been pursuing.)

So, in case you missed them the first time around, here are my favorite vintage treasures....

The Tiki painting that used to hang in Grandma Marr's living room --



Grandma Marr's honey jar that didn't turn out quite right.




















Aunt Molly's steamer trunk --



Great Grandma's painting --

 

The scary Red Riding Hood doll --

The sock monkey she made me --













Evil Santa




















You can find the rest of my vintage posts here. I'm sure there are some things that should be on this page that I'm missing, but I'll add them as I find them.

{What's Cooking?} Sour Cream Blueberry Pie

This week, Judy told us to use berries -- strawberries or blackberries or raspberries or blueberries or whatever we had... Does that include cranberries? Cranberry cheddar bread sounds really good right about now and I'm sure that I could find a recipe online since the one I used when I made it more than a decade ago is long gone.

The more I thought about it, the more cranberries seemed like cheating, or at least severely twisting the rules.

Then I remembered the the Sour Cream Blueberry Pie recipe from Jo's Country Junction.  I've been wanting to make it for the past year and a half. I've bought the ingredients more than once and the berries have gone into waffles and pancakes and everything except for Sour Cream Blueberry Pie.

I planned on using store bought crust until Teenage Daughter found out what I was up to. So she made the  crust and I made the filling and I think this might be one of my favorite pie recipes ever!

{yarn along} Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

 

The book is Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I can't remember exactly how I wound up reading this one -- if I saw it at the library, or Teenage Daughter recommended it, or if I saw it somewhere online. However I got my hands on it, I spent last week toting this book around with me, hoping for snatches of time to read just a few more pages. I loved the writing, and the vintage photographs -- which are real. The girl in the giant glass jar and the girl standing alone by a cemetery pool with a second girl reflected in the water beside her were wonderfully creepy. But not the boy with the bees. (I liked the character in the book, but the picture didn't impress me. He's got a queen on him somewhere, and the bees are swarming, and it's no big deal....do I spend too much time worrying about bees?)

The plot is dark and intriguing. Jacob grew up hearing his grandfather's stories about childhood on a mysterious island with Miss Peregrine and the children she sheltered, keeping them hidden from the monsters who would destroy them because they were peculiar. As Jacob grew older and learned about the horrors of the second world war, he thought he had finally figured out the truth -- it was all a fairytale his grandfather had dreamed up and the the old photographs his grandfather had used as evidence of his stories were poorly executed fakes. Then his grandfather was killed -- by a pack of dogs, according to the authorities -- and he learned that the stories were true....

 

The Ribbons and Roses shawl is still slowly growing. I had to knit half of the stitches onto a second needle to spead it all out for a picture. There should only be about twenty rows lef to knit, but I just finished my first skein of yarn and I'm sure I've got enough in the other two skeins for a few extra repeats.  I don't usually make things bigger, but I want this shawl as big as I can make it with the yarn I've got.

For more fun projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis. 

a glimpse of this week's baby quilt

The phrase "running around like a chicken with her head comes off" comes to mind... I didn't get quite as much done yesterday as I'd hoped to. But I did get the first block of this week's baby quilt done --

 

{Whatcha Reading?} Heaven Preserve Us

About a month ago, Heaven Preserve Us was being offered as a free Kindle download.  I'm on a huge cozy mystery kick lately, and the idea of murder by botulism was just too intriguing to pass up.

Botulism scares me, probably more than any of the other lurking household dangers. (Carbon Monoxide might be a close second. At least they make detectors for Carbon Monoxide.)

When I took a food preservation class about a decade ago, they had us listen to a taped interview with a woman who had survived a series case of botulism that she got from a baked potato at a buffet in Winnemucca. She didn't even eat the whole thing, just poked at it with her fork and took a little bit to determine that it was cold and nasty. Listening to her talk about her experience spooked me like nothing else.

The victim in Heaven Preserve Us isn't that lucky -- he dies shortly after being rushed to the hospital, but not before telling Sophie Mae Reynolds about the threats against him. Unfortunately there were a lot of people who had good reasons to wish the man dead.  After the recent preserves exchange at Heaven House, there's no shortage of sources for the deadly canned beets.

Barr Ambrose, Sophie's boyfriend shared the deadly salad. He was lucky and only contracted a mild case of botulism, but he's not able to help Sophie -- or to keep her out of trouble.  And Sophie has a stalker, a caller from the Heaven House help line.

Poor Sophie Mae! In the first book, she found her handyman in her workroom, dead after drinking lye. The victims in this series don't die peaceful deaths.

 

I can't wait to start the next book in the series, partly to see how the author deals with strangulation, and partly because I want to see what develops next in the romance growing between Sophie and Barr.

 

This post is linked to Whatcha Reading? at Patchwork Times.

my turtles are growing

I thought I'd get the top for the turtle quilt together Sunday afternoon, but I underestimated those pieced borders and how much extra pinning and pressing and making sure everything fit together just right would be involved.


Taking my time and doing it right is a good thing. That's what I keep telling myself, but I'm so impatient to see how this all fits together! And I'm wondering how I'm going to quilt it because it's now a lot larger than I'd originally planned for it to be.

I'm thinking of renaming it Gamera, in honor of its new size. And because Hubby and the boys might appreciate it.

To see more design walls, head over to Patchwork Times.

that gorgeous sinking quilt

I love, love, love this image of a quilt sinking beneath the wheels of a covered wagon. It captured my imagination like you wouldn't believe the first time I saw it on display at the Sisters Quilt Show, and every year since then, it's had the same effect on me.

I really should buy myself a poster!


This morning, I read over on !Sew WE Quilt! that the artist has written a children's book and is considering this for the cover. Go over there and vote for it -- I just know I'm going to wind up buying the book so I can read the story, and I really want it to have this cover.

The artist is giving away two of his gorgeous quilt show prints -- head over to !Sew WE Quilt! to see how to vote and enter.  And over on his blog, there's a post that shows how he actually dunked a quilt in a lake to create the image for the poster.

---

The winners of the Kiki Lowenstein Short Story Anthology I wrote about last week are Kelly Grace who wrote:

I'd love a chance to win a book for my kindle, always willing to try a new author.

And Vicki who wrote:

I would love to win a copy, always willing to try a new book! Thanks for the chance.

Look what I found!

Look what I stumbled across while playing around online last week --

   

It's my 30s Barn Raising pattern, done in 30s reproduction prints by Kathleen, who blogs at Quilting CPA.  She blogged about the quilt here.  I really like this version!

Weekly Stash Report

My fabric totals are moving in the right direction! I finished two baby quilts last week and stayed out of the fabric stores.

Fabric Used this Week: 4 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 18.5 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 14.5 yards
Net Used for 2012: 4 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 200 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 0 yards
Net Added for 2013: 3200 yards

To see more weekly stash reports, click over to Patchwork Times.

I thought I was going to have to use some bad words

When I cut the borders for the turtle quilt, my focus was on whether or not I had enough light blue sheet for the inner border and for the 240 squares that I needed for the snowball blocks. I decided to go with the narrowest strips I thought would work -- 2" wide.

I wasn't thinking about how I was going to mange the corners....not until I was lying awake at 2am and realized that if I'd cut those stupid inner borders 2 1/2" wide I could have snowball blocks around the entire outer edge and not worry about putting plain blue blocks in the corners.

It's the same exact math I used for the borders of Madder Snowballs -- so why couldn't I remember it until after I'd cut the strips?

The turtles distracted me. They finish at 14" and I was trying to figure out how to make snowballs that would go evenly into that....and the whole thing was starting to sound like that math problem where the two trains leave different cities at different times and meet at some point you're supposed to determine. I never did learn how to do that problem.....

And I didn't need to do all of those mental contortions. There are four turtles in each row.  If I make 4" snowballs, fourteen of them will fit alongside the four 14" turtles. Easy-peasy -- as long as you remember how to make the borders fit!

Luckily, there was enough sheet to recut the inner borders and it all should go together now. 

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {week 7}

I'm playing with pink quilts this week -- maybe it's the holiday that got me feeling girly!

The tutorial for Priscilla is all ready to go. This one looks good in blue scraps, too -- and now I'm playing with a green varation. Because every time I make a baby quilt, I seem to start wondering what would happen if I tweaked the idea just a little bit differently.

Do you make varations of the same quilt?


Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:

I don't want to overwhelm everyone with a huge list of rules, but I do want this linky party to stay on the topic of baby quilts. They can be for donation, or for your own baby, or just because you think they're cute and want them in your sewing room, but they've got to be baby quilts. Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt related posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Priscilla {a baby quilt tutorial}

A handful of half square triangle units give this easy baby quilt a lot of pop!

For a 36" square quilt, you'll need:



36 - print half square triangles (4 per block) (cut them from 2 1/2" strips with an Easy Angle ruler, or use your own favorite method)

36 - white half square triangles (4 per block)

180 - 2 1/2" print squares (20 per block)

18 - 2 1/2 x 4 1/2" white strips (2 per block)

18 - 2 1/2 x 8 1/2" white strips (2 per block)

Sew a white half square triangle to each print half square triangle. Press.

Sew the print squares into eighteen strips of four squares each and  eighteen strips of six squares each.

Assemble half square triangles into nine pinwheels, one for each block.

Sew 2 1/2 x 4 1/2" strips to opposite edges of each pinwheel. Press, then sew 2 1/2 x 8 1/2" strips to the other edges. Press.

Sew four square long strips to opposite edges of the block. Press. Sew six square long strips to the other two edges. Press.

Make nine blocks and assemble into three rows of three. Quilt and bind. As always, if you make this quilt I'd love for you to send me a picture or link up to my weekly Let's Make Baby Quilts! linky party. There's a list of my free baby quilt tutorials over in the sidebar and you  can find out when new ones are added by either following my blog or liking the Let's Make Baby Quilts Facebook page.