I've found the strangest things at garage sales...

This platypus is probably one of my first garage sale finds. I don't know how old I was when I bought it -- nine or ten, maybe younger. Definitely not much older. It was either a quarter or fifty cents.

The neighbor girl told me that it was from Australia and real kangaroo fur. The tag on his belly reads "Made in Queensland, Australia Koala & Joey Toys Pty. Ltd." I've Googled everything I can think of and the closest thing I can find is this ebay listing. The eyes and little rubber claws look the same as mine, but that one looks either much newer (my guess) or much more carefully preserved.

Some of the hair has rubbed away and he's stuffed so tightly that those stitches make me nervous. I can easily imagine a seam failing. But considering it's a toy I bought during my own childhood and it might not have been very new then, I suppose I can't complain too much.

This post is linked to Thrifter Share, Ivy & Elephants, Knick of Time, Thriftasaurus,

Dingbats!

I spent Saturday morning at quilt guild, learning how to make Dingbats!  The pattern is meant to be done in striped fabric, but I'm trying to stick to the fabric I already own. "Dingbat" is a printer's term, so I decided to go with this inky grey and do mine without the accent bits.  (My first choice was the same grey I used for Little Letters, but I couldn't lay my hands on it at the last minute.)

Mine didn't look anything like the others, but I like it. Once the quilt is done, I think it'll be great for the boys' room.

I've got to admit that I wouldn't have picked this pattern up on my own. Those colors and stripes aren't my style (although now that I know how this works I think there are some garish stripes in my sewing room that may become one block baby quilts.)  It looks like it has curved seams, but it doesn't...and I'm a quilter who goes out of my way to look for curves.

But I'm glad I gave it a try. I really like the way my quilt is coming out and this is such a neat technique.  If you get a change, I definitely recommend taking this class from Sam Hunter. It's all kinds of fun.

Oh, and she's got a book, Quilt Talk: Paper-Pieced Alphabet with Symbols & Numbers 12 Chatty Projects. I bought a copy and I'll be gushing about it just as soon as I get a chance.

I'm Giddy Again

You know, it's kind of ridiculous how giddy I can get about old hot iron transfers...but Mom found more in a drawer and they came home with me last week and I've been happily sorting through them and planning which ones should go in the quilt.

I've seen these big landscapes on Pinterest, but I didn't have any in my own stash. I don't think they're going to fit into this quilt....but I know I'm going to stitch one sooner or later.

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 2 1/2 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 36 yards
Net Added for 2015: 33 1/2 yards

Yarn Used this Week:  400 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 2400 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 665 yards
Net Used for 2015:  1735 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Doodling and Practice

I absolutely love the quilting that Lori over at The Inbox Jaunt does. Last week, she posted a tutorial for the cutest free motion sewing machine.

I pulled out pen and paper and started to practice.... 

I think I might be getting worse instead of better, but at least I've memorized the steps.  And I'm going to keep trying. Maybe it's time to take a deep breath and doodle on fabric.

In Friday's post, she started a series of Doodle Lessons. I couldn't keep up with her Quilt Notebook series, but hopefully life is going to stay calmer than it was last year.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {3/27/15}

If you haven't seen it already, check out how one of Bonnie's readers used her Grand Illusion pieces to make SIX baby quilts! 

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.

{Yarn Along} Yarn Over Cable Socks

The Lemon Drop socks are almost done and it was time to find another  stitch pattern that I could keep in my head while watching TV with the  family. 

I've learned from experience that it's best to cast on a new project while I've got time to figure it out and deal with false starts. That was a good idea with this project, because the first line of the chart has an error and I misread it in the written instructions.

I've never slipped one, knit two, then passed the slipped stitch over the two knitted ones before, so my brain saw "slip on, knit two together, pass slipped stitch over" because isn't that how it's always done?  (And because that was the symbol in the chart.)

Now that I've got it figured out, I'm loving this stitch pattern, the Yarn Over Cable from Sensational Knitted Socks.




I love haunted house stories. The Haunting of Sunshine Girl by Paige McKenzie has some seriously creepy moments and does a great job of handling the whole issue of "if there's enough going on in the house to make the book scary, why on are they still living there?" It's based on a YouTube channel that I'd never heard of until I picked up the book. After I was done reading, I watched season one while I was casting on the new socks. It was fun and I hope I'll have time for another season soon -- and I'll be watching  for the next book.

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


Disclosure - The publishers provided me with a review copy. 

A Revelation

For almost twenty-four years now, my husband and I have been in a debate about which day of April our wedding anniversary falls on. He's set on one date, I'm set on another, and if I pull out our wedding album to find the answer, we'll both have forgotten by the following year and be back to debating it again. 

I've thought of solving the problem, which isn't really much of a problem at all, by stitching a wedding sampler and hanging it where we'll walk past it all day long, but that led to another problem. I kept my maiden name when we got married. For the fifteen years I've been stitching, that's been keeping me from following through on the idea. 

Then I saw this, which Grandma had tucked away in one of her bedroom drawers:  

There is no last name on that wedding sampler. After I realized that, I searched Pinterest for wedding samplers -- no last names.

Where did I get the idea that those things had last names on them?

It's been a long time since I pulled out the wedding album to check the date. We look at Hubby's work schedule, find a day that he's got free, and designate that as our anniversary for the year.

119 Spools

While I was sorting fabrics for the nail polish quilt, I cut 1 1/2" strips of anything that looked like it would make good spools. It's working  out well. When I've got time to spend at the sewing machine, I cut the 3 1/2" and 1 1/2" pieces and get them assembled.

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

Found 'em!

Since I started work on my quilt with all of the vintage embroidery, I've been looking for the Aunt Martha's mermaids. I remembered buying them years ago, but that copy was hiding so well that I gave up ever finding it and have been checking every Walmart in the area for the past few months. 

Friday, I went up to the sewing room to grab a different pattern that I knew was in the box I used to use for my cross-stitching. At some point over the past eight years, though, I must have moved it. But the mermaids were there, along with the other transfers I bought that day.  (Do I need  to mention that I'd already checked that box for the mermaids and come up empty?)

I also found this chart, which I thought for an instant was the Goblin Market  chart I mentioned in this post. It's not...but it is all kitted up with hand dyed linen and all of the floss. 

I also found this chart, which has me wondering what on earth I was thinking. It's designed to be worked on 40 count silk gauze...and the gauze is in the package, so that's obviously what I had planned -- Yikes!  The finished piece would measure something like 2" x 1 1/2." It's going right back in the sewing box, but part of me wants to tackle it now just to see if I can pull something like this off.

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 2 1/2 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 36 yards
Net Added for 2015: 33 1/2 yards

Yarn Used this Week:  0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 2000 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 665 yards
Net Used for 2015:  1335 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

A Wilder Rose

Years ago, I read The Ghost in the Little House: A Life of Rose Wilder Lane... and then I forgot all about it until I read Pioneer Girl by Bich Minh Nguyen last winter.  I'm not sure why I keep reading the same story over and over, but it fascinates me.

A Wilder Rose is a novel, based on the letters and journals of Rose Wilder Lane.  It tells the story of Rose and her involvement with the books. Laura is there too, but the focus definitely isn't on her. This is about Rose and her constant struggle for "cash cash cash," as she works to support herself, her parents, and her adopted sons. Trust me, it's not half as mercenary as I just made her sound. But it did leave me wondering whether the books would have been written if it wasn't for the stock market crash.

Can you imagine life without those books? How would we have ever learned about butchering pigs and making cheese and all the rest of it?  My great-grandmother lived in a sod house and made her own soap, but I never knew about it until I was an adult and it was too late to ask for details. So I'm very glad we have the stories of someone's childhood to learn from.

It also fascinated me to read about the world that Rose was living in and how much it had changed from her mother's day.

I definitely recommend this one. If you've got Kindle Unlimited, it's free to read.


Disclosure - the publisher provided me with an ARC.

Meet and Greet Stitchers from Around the World

Mdm Samm is hosting a Meet and Greet with stitchers from around the world - doesn't that sound like fun? I started cross-stitching about fifteen years ago and, although I haven't done much of it since my younger two were born, floss still makes my heart go pitty-pat. 

Years ago, I worked nights in a call center. There was lots of downtime, waiting for something important to happen...and then there was no time to breathe. While I waited for alarms and radio calls, I read. And read some more. After six or seven years, I realized that no matter how much you love books, there's a limit to how much time you can spend staring at a printed page. 

A friend was heavily into needlepoint, the serious kind with expensive hand painted canvases, and it looked like fun. So when my husband asked what I wanted for Christmas, I told him I'd like a needlepoint kit. He bought me a counted cross stitch desert scene. Maybe he knew something I didn't - it turns out that I like counted cross-stitch much better.  

Hole in the Barn Door by Diane Phalen was one of the first big projects I finished. It was her designs that led me, in a very round about way, to quilting.  

But before that, I spent a few years eating and sleeping and breathing and dreaming cross-stitch. By that point, I was working very part time (opposite shifts from my husband a couple of days a week) and had two little ones. While they napped, I stitched. And stitched. And stitched.  

My thing was landscapes, the bigger and more completely covered in stitches, the better.

Two babies later, I moved on to knitting and then to quilting and the stitching fell by the wayside, at least until I started seeing things like Hocuspocusville. With four kids stampeding through the house, embroidery is a lot easier to manage than counted cross stitch over 32 count linen.

As much as I love Hocuspocusville (and all of the other patterns from Crabapple Hill Studio that I've got in my to-stitch pile), I got distracted when I saw the Garden Party quilt in The Gentle Art of Stitching. That one used vintage embroidery cut into even squares. At the time, I couldn't get out to even look for embroidered pieces at estate sales so I did the sensible thing and started stitching my own.

This may be like a jigsaw puzzle without a solution, but I've been having a lot of fun raiding my mom's stash of tole painting patterns (because there were hot iron transfers in there) and finding others online. I'm in no hurry to finish...although it would be a good thing to get back to the witch's houses....

And I got a gorgeous cross-stitch kit for Christmas last year that's calling to me. 

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {3/20/15}

Just look at this quilt that Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing linked up last week! Click through to her post so that you can get a better look at the free motion quilting -- it's amazing. 

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.

Unexpected Vintage

If it's a sewing notion, I save it. Now and then I need an upholstery needle. I didn't even realize what I had here until I was sorting through a box of random stuff. 

These needles are actually kind of neat. And obviously old...

Telephone numbers like that were way before my time.  I'm guessing by the street names that this came from a business in Portland.

I like having things like this around. They're a reminder that things weren't always the way they are today, and they provide lots of opportunities for my kids to find that out.

{Yarn Along} Owlie Socks

Charts and sticky notes and carefully slowing down to pay attention...that works. Especially now that I've  got enough knitting done to follow the pattern and keep things where they belong.



I've been in the mood for thrillers lately and Lacy Eye by Jessica Treadway seemed to fit the bill, telling the story of Hanna, who can't remember the details of the night that she and her husband were savagely beaten with a croquet mallet by her daughter's boyfriend. Rud has been granted a new trial and Dawn has returned home. Hanna hopes to remember some detail from the night that her husband died, something that will keep Rud in jail and put to rest her fears that their daughter was somehow involved. I didn't love this one.  While Hanna wasn't blind to the fact that there was something off about her daughter, I couldn't figure out why she'd let her move into the house.



Forsaken by J. D. Barker is a fast-paced horror novel.  Horror author Thad McAlister wrote his latest novel in the old journal his wife bought him, telling the story of a powerful witch, never suspecting that the story came so easily because he wasn't making it up.  The description compares the book to works by Stephen King (and one of his characters does make a cameo appearance, which is still puzzling me a bit.)  There are some chilling scenes, but the characters seemed a bit two-dimensional.


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


Disclosure - The publishers provided me with review copies.

Just a Little Bit of Embroidery

That's about all I had the energy and enthusiasm for, but it's going to be adorable when it's done!

It's Going to be Gorgeous ... At Some Point....

Isn't it amazing how we can fail to see things that are right in front of us -- and then a little boy who's not even paying attention, just walking through the room, will ask why one of the polish bottles is wrong?

Looking at the picture now, I can see that FOUR of the bottles are wrong. I added sashing to them. I pressed them. Teenage Daughter laid them out in the order she wanted, and she didn't notice it either.

I can't tell you how much I don't want to take this quilt top apart to fix them. It's got to be done. Later. When I'm feeling healthier and less mad at myself.

The worst part? I messed up those bottles while I was still healthy.

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Weekly Stash Report

It's been a week and a half and I am so tired of being sick! The fevers are .gone (this time for good, I hope) and I'm a lot less achy and a little more energetic, but I'm still not myself. 

I had to pull out my planner to remind myself what I'd been working on. 

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 2 1/2 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 36 yards
Net Added for 2015: 33 1/2 yards

Yarn Used this Week:  0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 2000 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 665 yards
Net Used for 2015: 1350 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Recycled Hexie Quilts

Hexagon quilts are popular and have been for a long time. That's the idea behind Recycled Hexie Quilts: Using Vintage Hexagons in Today's Quilts by Mary W. Kerr. She's combined fragments from unfinished quilts with vintage embroidery (or newly pieced blocks) to make a whole selection of quilts, giving new life to long abandoned projects. 

There are no patterns here, but there are plenty of tips for using what you've got and dealing with frayed seams, poor quality fabric, stains. If you've got a partially pieced family heirloom (or nifty thrift store find) this could be just what you need to turn it into a finished quilt.

The book includes a timeline of finished hexagon quilts that is absolutely breathtaking. I didn't realize that there were so many possible layouts!

My favorite line from this book -- "Ignore the quilt police -- they are not invited to your party."

Disclosure - the publisher provided me with an electronic ARC.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {3/13/15}

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.

{Yarn Along} The Witch of Napoli

Same picture as last week. I've made some progress between bouts of coughing. And read a stack of books, most of them not worth writing about, except for this one.




Ever since I  read The Ghost of Blackwood Hall as a little girl, I've been intrigued by spiritualism and seances. The Witch of Napoli was inspired by a real-life medium from the 19th century and it's a fascinating read. There are levitating tables and ghostly apparitions and bells rung by no human hand...but it's the life that Alessandra finds herself trapped in that really fascinated me. I highly recommend this one, especially since the Kindle download is only ninety-nine cents. It packs a lot of bang for your buck.

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


Disclosure - The publishers provided me with a review copy.