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Sunday, November 30, 2014

The Fifteenth Pair

If you'd told me that I'd hit the point where I didn't think a finished pair of socks deserved its own post, I wouldn't have believed you. But I think I've hit that point. There's no story to the yarn, nothing interesting about the process.... 

They're just a pair of socks. 


I really do like this pair, but the foot is just a hair too short, so they're going to Teenage Daughter. The yarn is Patons Kroy Denim Jacquard. Same needles and non-pattern as the other fourteen pairs I've knit this year....

Weekly Stash Report 

Instead of venturing out early on Black Friday, I stayed home with my fabric stash and did some cutting and sewing. Nothing in, something out. Not a bad week at all for fabric numbers!

Fabric Used this Week: 9 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 37 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 102 3/4 yards
Net Added for 2014: 65 yards

Yarn Used this Week:  0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 7075 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 4210 yards
Net Used for 2014: 2865 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Saturday, November 29, 2014

My Second Attempt at Furniture

Look what I made! It's for the dollhouse. I probably should have put a quarter or something there for scale to make it more obvious, but I was too busy figuring out how to position it in a box so that I could get a picture of my nifty little table without everything else I'm working on in the way. 


My first attempt at furniture went badly, for a lot of different reasons. I'm much happier with this one, but all I did was stain (sort of) the precut pieces and glue them together.

While Hubby was recovering his surgery last spring, I spent a lot of time browsing Pinterest and a bunch of different miniature blogs. I kept coming across references to House of Miniatures kits and how wonderful they were and how people kept finding them for dirt cheap.  I found a bunch of affordable ones in an ad on Craigslist, but they were too far from home to seriously consider.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I found another ad for an antique mall that had (according to the ad) lots of dollhouse kits and furniture. Teenage Daughter was invited to a sleepover in that neck of the woods, so we made a detour and got lost and I found out that "antique mall" really meant dusty storefront where you have to squeeze in between industrial shelving and dig through plastic bins.

But looks what I got, for close enough to dirt cheap. I would up paying around three bucks a kit.


The little table was easy enough, but these may be over my head. Look at those working drawers and hinges and all of the little details!

My hope is that if I can manage these with their precut pieces, I'll have the gluing and finishing part figured out and better luck next time I try making furniture from scratch.

Friday, November 28, 2014

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {11/28/14}




Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture 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.








Thursday, November 27, 2014

Meet Ansel!



I wanted to name this quilt after a photographer, and Ansel Adams was the first one to come to mind. Actually, the only other one who came to mind was Matthew Brady, and his subject matter was pretty grim, so Ansel it is!


The pattern is Click! and it's in the August 2013 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. I bought the magazine because I loved the quilt, then decided that even though I wanted to make it, it probably wasn't a quilt I needed to have in my house forever.

As written, the pattern alternates light and dark cameras. I made all of mine dark and added sashing to separate them. The camera prints are raided from my other projects. The backing is a polka dot print that Mary Ellen sent me earlier this year. All of the grey for the lenses and camera buttons is leftover bits from the backing of Dashes in the Woods, because I never throw good fabric away. It may take a while before I figure out where it belongs, but there's almost always something I can do with it.

For more finishes, check out Sew Much AdoFinish it Up FridayCan I get a Whoop Whoop?,  and Freedom FridaysWonderful at Home, Make it Monday and Inspired Friday.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

{Yarn Along} The Perfect Mother

More self-striping sock yarn, this time Knitpicks Simple Stripes in Vineyard. I think this will be my 16th pair for 2014. 






The Perfect Mother by Nina Darnton begins with a late night phone call that shatters Jennifer Lewis's perfect existence. Her daughter, a college student studying abroad, has been arrested for murder. As quickly as she can, Jennifer makes arrangements for her her two younger children and books a plane ticket, determined to help her daughter unravel what is obviously some kind of terrible mistake.

Except most of what Jennifer believed about Emma's life in Spain turns out to be false. And it starts to seem like what the reader knows about Jennifer and her daughter and their relationship might be a little too perfect to be true. Jennifer doesn't understand the foreign legal system that she's dealing with and is starting to fear that she doesn't understand her own daughter. I enjoyed the book until the very end, which didn't quite work for me.



Every year, there's a string of murders in the small town of Apple, Massachusetts. It's been happening for decades and the murderer has never been caught. Stumbling across grisly murder scenes is just as predictable as the changing seasons. Jackson Gill and his best friends find this year's first body and hope that they won't be next.  Bloody Bloody Apple by Howard Odentz is rich with atmosphere and suspense.


For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times.



Disclosure -- the publishers provided me with ARCs

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

So Close!

Jo from Jo's Country Junction has challenged the rest of us to finish up some of our Bonnie Hunter projects before the challenge starts. I'm going to sit out this mystery, but it was just the motivation I needed to pull out one of my favorite WIPs. 


I've got everything done but the binding. It's a little smaller than I'd originally planned, but I've fallen in love with another pattern that uses 2" bow tie blocks and finishing this one means I can get started on that one. 

Monday, November 24, 2014

Gingham Dog

I've been wanting to try this cute little gingham dog that I found over at Moda Lissa a while back. It's just a handful of 2 1/2" squares, but it's sure cute!  


I'm thinking I can use the leftovers from my drab postage stamps to do a little 32" square postage stamp quilt to back it with.

This post is linked to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

The Most Productive Week I've Had in Ages

It came as a complete and total shock to realize how much I can get done when I've got two or three hours to spend at the sewing machine.


This is Saturday morning -- a pin-basted quilt and freshly wound bobbins, in a color that I'd probably never ever need for any other quilt I plan on making. But the thread, supposedly good stuff, came in a sampler with the purchase of my sewing machine and I'm happily using it.

Wednesday, I was up in Salem quilting a bigger quilt on Mom's longarm. Thursday I was quilting a baby quilt here on my Janome....

Please don't remind me how quickly the holidays are looming -- I've got some projects to play with before I realize that I should be counting down!

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 11 1/4 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 28 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 102 3/4 yards
Net Added for 2014: 74 yards

Yarn Used this Week:  400 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 7075 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 4210 yards
Net Used for 2014: 2865 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Washtubs & Bubbles

This week, it's been bath time embroidery. 


I don't know if this guy will wind up in the  finished quilt or not, but he was too silly to resist.


Friday, November 21, 2014

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {11/21/14}


For the first time in months, I've got a baby quilt of my own to show off. Meet Levi! All of the details can be found here.


Last week, Dee Dee linked up to pictures of her 48th, 49th and 50th baby quilts for the year. Woohoo!

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture 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.








Thursday, November 20, 2014

Meet Levi!

Most of my baby quilts start with the question "What if?"


This time, I was wondering what would happen if I took that pieced border that I'm loving so much from Jo's Chocolate covered Cherries pattern and made a two color baby quilt. I used 2 1/2" cut squares instead of the 2" squares the pattern calls for and left out the alternate blocks.

I couldn't be happier with the results!

The solid blue is from a sheet that we bought for Teenage Daughter's Halloween costume after she'd stolen one sheet from my stash and decided that one was too purply. This one was almost the right shade....but not as good as another stash sheet that I'd set aside to back her brother's quilt.  The backing is one of the lovely baby prints that Mary Ellen sent me earlier this year.


For more finishes, check out Sew Much AdoFinish it Up FridayCan I get a Whoop Whoop?,  and Freedom FridaysWonderful at Home, Make it Monday and Inspired Friday.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

{Guest Post} Making Memories by Sybil Johnson


Today I'm happy to have Sybil Johnson, the author of Fatal Brushstroke,  guest posting here on my blog. All I really know about tole painting is that my mother and grandmother used to do a lot of it. Sybil has kindly offered to fill in the details for us...



I started tole painting (or decorative painting as it’s usually called these days) in the early 90s when a group of us at work gathered in a conference room once a week or so, ate lunch, and worked on various projects. The experienced painter in the group taught us newbies the basics. During the period we were active, we painted many different designs, starting simple and getting more complex as we gained experience. Here’s our first project.



Every time I look at this wooden house, it reminds me of those first steps we took. How we learned to read a pattern, prepare the wood, transfer the design using a stylus and graphite paper, basecoat and paint the project and, finally, varnish the finished piece.

Over several years, we painted Christmas ornaments, cookie jar lids, sweatshirts, and a host of other projects. We practiced floating and comma strokes. We learned the difference between painting on wood, tin, and fabric. Some projects took longer than others, stretching out over several weeks or even months. (Because of deadlines at work we weren’t always able to paint every week, but we persisted.) This was one of our longer projects, a wooden box with a heart-shaped top I use today as a container for my sewing supplies.



The composition of the group ebbed and flowed as people left and joined the company, stopped painting or, in one sad case, passed away. These classes served as a solid basis for my later painting projects.

I no longer have all of the projects the group painted, but I do have something I consider far more important—the memories of those classes. How we talked and laughed as we worked on a project, helping each other out as we went. I never really thought about it at the time I started working on Fatal Brushstroke, but I think that camaraderie is one of the reasons I decided to set my mystery series in the world of decorative painting.

Now, I largely paint by myself, but every year my sister and I attend a painting convention together. Here’s a Christmas-themed tray we painted in a class a few years back. Every time I look at this tray, it reminds me of the fun time we had together.




So for me, painting is not only about creating something special, but also about making memories, memories that will stay with me forever and remind me of the friends I’ve made along the way.

You can find Sybil on Facebook or at her website.

{Yarn Along} The Socks and the Squid

Same two projects as last week, and not a whole lot of progress on either. Nothing that would show in a picture, at least.








I grew up in a family of tole painters, so of course I was going to read Fatal Brushstroke, the first book in the Aurora Anderson mystery series by Sybil Johnson. It opens with the discovery of a body in Aurora's garden, one that she recognizes by the ring and paint spatters on its exposed hand. There are a few people who might have wished tole painting instructor Hester Bouquet dead, but Aurora wasn't one of them.  She is a suspect, though, and she's anxious to clear her own name.

I love cozy crafting mysteries and this one has me wanting to buy some paint and wood and try out tole painting myself. (It doesn't hurt that we saw a booth of gorgeous traditionally painted furniture and boxes at the local Scandinavian Festival this summer.)  Even if you aren't sure quite what tole painting is, that won't stop you from enjoying the book. The main focus is on the mystery and who had reasons to do what.

Author Sybil Johnson will be guest posting here tomorrow as part of her promotional blog hop.

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times.

Disclosure -- the publisher provided me with an ARC.

{Kindle Freebie} Harry and the Hot Lava

If you've got a Kindle and someone to read picture books to, scoot over to Amazon and download Harry and the Hot Lava while it's still a freebie.


Remember playing hot lava on the monkey bars and the couch and anything else you could use for climbing a hopping? This book captures that feeling so perfectly, with wonderful vivid illustrations of lava bubbling and boiling through every room of the house.

Disclosure - I found this one all on my own. :-)


Quiltville Challenge Update

Jo from Jo's Country Junction has challenged the rest of us to finish up some of our Bonnie Hunter WIPs before the challenge starts.  

Now that my cheddar bow ties are assembled into a top, I've turned my attention back to the lozenges.



Lots of dark and light rectangles cut, a few of them pieced together....nothing dramatic, but it's progress. 


I'm using smaller rectangles than Bonnie suggested, and I'm still not sure what size I want the finished quilt to be, so there might be some more cutting to be done. It all depends on what turns up as I'm digging through my stash. 

Monday, November 17, 2014

Design Wall Monday

Chocolate Covered Cherries is just the pattern I needed to use up some stash. Or it would be, if I hadn't had plans for all of my brown fabric already.... 


But when I can get giddy over a project and make it entirely from my stash, I'm not about to complain!  I'm loving the way the design stretches into the pieced border.


I haven't made any new letters, but after seeing how NeedledMom is sashing hers as she goes, I decided to start putting mine into rows. The hope is that this will make me more likely to wind up with a finished quilt top than a stack of random letters. We'll see what happens.

This post is linked to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Remember My Drab Postage Stamps?

I got the top together! 


I've still got plenty of squares, but I was starting to fuss about the mix of light and dark prints and -- at 82" square -- this is probably as big as I need it to be.

Teenage Daughter is giving away a set of Old Factory Candles over on her blog. She's been burning the Coffee Shop trio and they're pretty yummy.

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 17 1/2 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 102 3/4 yards
Net Added for 2014: 85 1/4 yards

Yarn Used this Week:  0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 6675 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 4210 yards
Net Used for 2014: 2465 yards

Saturday, November 15, 2014

I'm loving market day and irons...

At least when it comes to vintage embroidery. I have a harder time getting excited about actual trips to the grocery store. Is it possible that all of these snails and puppies are quilters? Maybe that's why they're so happy about their irons! 


I knew as soon as I saw these two that I wanted them in my quilt, but the pattern was unopened and so old that I felt bad about actually using it. My experience with the lamp pattern convinced me that I might as well open it up and see if there was even any ink left on the transfer sheet. The images were there, but the transfer seemed to have lost some of its oomph.


This set of transfers has me wondering what the artist was thinking. I love this gal with her steaming iron, but why does she look like she's just realized that someone is watching her?


In most of the images she looks blissfully unaware, but in the one with the pie she looks downright ticked off.


Friday, November 14, 2014

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {11/14/14}


Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture 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.









Wednesday, November 12, 2014

{Guest Post} The Thrifty Miniaturist by Joanna Campbell Slan


Those who’ve followed my career as a scrapbooker know I’m always on the look-out for thrifty ways to enjoy my hobby. (Translation: I’m cheap.) Although hobbies are much less expensive than therapy, the costs can add up. Besides, I feel virtuous when I use a coupon to buy supplies or snag something I want on sale.

I wondered if I could transfer my thrifty habits to miniatures. You see, there are two types of miniaturists. One type demands that every item in miniature works like its RL (real life) partner. Another type doesn’t care as long so the item looks like its RL counterpart. Count me in the second category. My goal is to create verisimilitude, the appearance of a shrunken reality. With that in mind, I can use el-cheapo materials with abandon.

Once I decided on this course, the next question was…how low could I go? How far was I willing to stoop to get my raw materials? And where would they come from?

I’ve been writing a new series about The Treasure Chest, a store that specializes in upcycling, recycling, and repurposed goods. My research has resulted in tons of ideas. In fact, I’ve begun looking at all my trash, every single piece of it, with an eye toward turning it into something useful. Could I do the same with miniatures? Yes, ma’am!

For example, the bottle of lavender bath lotion seemed to cry out, “Make me into a bathtub!” So I did. By cutting the bottle down to size, by painting the sides with gesso and nail polish, by adding feet and spigots, I think I produced a creditable tub.



The tiny table was a no-brainer. I cut down an empty toilet paper tube, strengthened it with masking tape, covered with it layers of silk, and finally attached a skirt of black tulle.



The fireplace was a quinoa box. I shortened it and covered it with paperclay.



In fact, I’ve pretty much decorated this whole house in trash. I did buy a dh (dollhouse) furniture kit. It cost about $40 for six rooms of furnishings. I knew I wouldn’t get much in the way of quality for so little money, but I did get a lot of raw materials. Using the wood in the kit, I was able to create the sink in the bathroom, the medicine cabinet, the armoire, the kitchen counter, and a mirror.

My biggest expenditures have been for raw supplies, paints, glues, a nice saw, sandpaper, and paperclay. But I’ll get more use out of those things as time goes on, because I’m already considering what to do for my next project! In fact, I had so much fun with this idea that I created a character, Honora McAfee, to be a miniaturist who works at The Treasure Chest. And as you might have guessed, Honora just loves crafting dollhouse items out of trash.

About the book—


In Kicked to the Curb, Cara Mia Delgatto’s cup runneth over with worries. Her ex-husband is refusing to pay their son’s college tuition, her evil sister is pulling mean pranks, and her old boyfriend has broken her heart. And that’s just the personal stuff. She’s also concerned about keeping the cash register ringing at The Treasure Chest, her retail store specializing in upcycled, recycled, and repurposed décor items with a coastal theme. The media event that Cara plans turns nasty when reporter Kathy Simmons threatens to share unsavory details from the shopkeeper’s past. Things get really dicey when Kathy mysteriously disappears. Cara’s other problems seem trivial in comparison to…a murder investigation!

Get Your Copy--

Kicked to the Curb is the newest book in the Cara Mia Delgatto Mystery Series by Joanna Campbell Slan.  You can get your copy at http://tinyurl.com/KickedTTCurb. The first book in the series—Tear Down and Die—has been discounted to only 99 cents. You can buy your copy at http://tinyurl.com/TearDD To see all of Joanna’s books, go to http://tinyurl.com/JoannaSlan or visit her website at www.JoannaSlan.com or join her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/JoannaCampbellSlan


A FREE offer!

Author Joanna Campbell Slan is offering a special free gift for readers who join her newsletter list. You’ll receive two recipes, two craft tutorials, and an outtake scene from Kicked to the Curb automatically when you send an email to KTTCBonus@JoannaSlan.com  Once you’re on her newsletter list, you’ll be notified about free reads and other special offers.