Japanese Flower Scarf

There's a cute crochet pattern that's recently caught fire with the crochet crowd.  It's been around for awhile, but you know how it is.  A couple of key people catch wind and suddenly there's a buzz.

Awhile back I was in the fabric store looking for small sharp scissors for applique work.  I know, I can't understand why I didn't have any either.  My small scissors have the rounded ends of children's safety scissors.  Great for cutting thread and yarn ends but not much else.

Anyhoo, the store had a yarn section so I thought I would do a quick tour.  I mean, just you never know.

Buying yarn is a tactile thing for me.  It must be soft.  Most wool is itchy to me, even merino.  I lean toward silk, alpaca, mohair, cashmere blends.  I'm a huge natural fibers fan when it comes to yarn.  I try to avoid acrylics and stuff like that.  Odd really, considering the amount of fleece we wear in our house, which is about a unnatural as you can get. 

So there I am, wandering through the couple isles, touching yarns that have promise and I find it.  Debbie Bliss Andes.  An alpaca, mulberry silk blend. Oh my gosh.  It was so soft I rubbed it against my cheek.  Oh my gosh it felt good.  Oops I already said that. I just had to have it.  So I bought a few skeins.  No project in mind.  Just to add to my stash.  Just in case.  Something might just come along.  Just sayin'.

Later I am wasting time in blog land and I find these gorgeous images on the Attic 24 site.  Lucy had found a fabulous pattern using the same yarn I had purchased.  I love  her stuff although our color palette is very different.  There it was. I had a project.  Me and about a million other people on Ravelry.

Oh wait, I already have a couple of crochet projects in the works.  I had intended to finish those up first.  I work a little on weaving in the ends on a purple scarf - that's all that remains on that project.  And I work on the mohair scarf project for awhile.  And I work on some quilts.

When I run low on the white mohair, I head to my go-to yarn shop, Acorn Street Shop.  They have Debbie Bliss in different colors.  I pick up a few more to add to my stash.  When I get home I start playing around with color combinations.  Before you know it I am off to the races with my newest project. 

Here's the name of the book where the pattern can be found:  MOTIF BOOK VOL 4 - Japanese Crochet Book, which can be found on eBay and Esty sites.  It's in Japanese, but if you can read crochet diagrams you will be on your way in no time.  In my opinion (like noses, everybody has one) diagrams are easier to follow than the crochet shorthand and abbreviations found in most crochet patterns. 

The pattern works up very quickly.  Especially the first two colors.  The image is in focus, it's just a soft, fuzzy yarn, with a beautiful sheen.

 I also found some tutorials on something called the Magic Circle, which eliminates the donut hole in the very center of the project.  It's easy and super cool.  Love this tutorial.

The third color takes a little longer, but you connect the flowers as you go so there won't be a big project at the end.  I've also tried to be better about weaving in the ends as I go.

I hope to be able to show the finished project soon.  I have added considerably to the length since I began the project a couple of evenings ago.

City Tracks Quilt

The City Tracks quilt is coming along.  I laid it out yesterday and man alive it's bright.  Much brighter than I anticipated.  Don't know why really - especially since I have a coat in the same color which I love.  Perhaps it's a scale thing.  My coat does not take up as much real estate on the living room floor.  Yes, I vacuumed first - grudgingly.

I like the layout.  I walked around it.  Squinted my eyes looking for color gaps.  Looked at it upside down and sideways.  I walked away and revisited it again.  Did I tell you how bright it is?  Once I settle on the layout I use little bits of painters tape to label the columns with a little arrow indicating which way is up.  I have screwed up the piece directions in the past.  This is followed by long sessions ripping out seams, muttering under my breath the entire time.  Best not to repeat that fabulous experience if it can be avoided.  Just sayin'.

It's trimming time.  No matter how carefully I cut the original pieces or stitch them together I need to true them back up before I run them into long rows.  I made a quilt for the Kidlet's birthday recently and didn't trim.  What a big mistake.  Nothing matched up - no nice seams coming together (wait for it) seamlessly.  By my original calculations it should have worked out perfectly.  D'oh!  I did figure out a solution but it resulted in a different quilt than what I originally had in mind.  Still all good, just different.  The Kidlet said he liked it and it matches his sheets at school.  Whew!

The City Tracks quilt is designed to result in 6.5" pieced blocks.  I wished I had cut my strips a smidge larger so I would have room to trim.   I am now trimming to 6" which will result in 5.5" finished blocks (see above paragraph).

I have my fingers crossed that there will be a finished quilt top by the end of the weekend.  In the back of my mind though, I know I am completely delusional.  It always takes longer than anticipated. 

Changing topics.  The snow 'event' turned out to be a non-event.  Great news really - at least in the Seattle area.  A couple inches of snow, no wind storm, no thundersnow (bummer).  Once the snow finished falling, a blast of cold air came through and it has been really cold (from a Seattle perspective anyway) for the last couple of days. 

I have my fingers crossed that all those new shoots and flowers I photographed last week have not been nipped by the cold.

Thunder Snow

Here's an excerpt from our local weather forecast (http://www.komonews.com/weather/) for today:

"...there will be roaming heavy snow showers as the air becomes unstable and thus we could see some thundersnow-showers as well. And any kind of thundersnow would likely have very heavy snow and gusty winds -- again making for poor visibility."

The Puget Sound is under a Winter Storm warning through tomorrow morning, with high winds, snow, and apparently thundersnow on tap.  Yup, thundersnow.  I just love that word.    Or rather the two word mash up.  Love it.  


It's weird when it happens, though.  Somehow thunder seems to 'go' better with showers or rain.


Most of bad weather is anticipated to hit around the evening commute.   Sounds super unpleasant. 


I think I will heat up my tea and worry about other things.  It could be much ado about nothing... who knows?

So Close

Sometimes the karma gods do not smile in your direction.  Ever have days like that?

I was zooming along on my free motion quilting project.  I had just over a quarter or so yet to go when Kablamo!  My shiny new free motion quilting foot broke - the one I had purchased just a couple of days ago.  The little metal thingy that rests on the needle screw broke in half.

So I take it back to the store.  Wouldn't you know it, that was the only one they had in stock.   Karma.  They need to email other stores in the area to see if one is available.

The nice young women assisting me asks if I brought in my machine.  Karma whammo.  No I did not.  "Well,' she says, 'if you bring in your machine we can see if another foot might fit."

Back home.  Pack up the machine.  Back to the store.  The same young women helps me again, trying on a number of different shanks, feet, and what nots.  Alas, the only one that fits is the one that broke.  It's special order time (karma), if none of the other stores has one in stock.  They will call me.

I have a Husqvarna 150E.  Not known to be a high powered quilting machine.  It is nearly 22 years old and has seen it's share of use.  I'm not ready to give it up just yet.  I'd need to research and test drive new machines and figure out a way to justify the expense to the Sweetie (who is beginning to think this is a very expensive hobby).  Also, this one was a wedding present.  It has sentimental value and works reliably much of the time.  I guess though, it is becoming increasingly difficult to locate parts and accessories 'for these older machines'.

"Older!?  What does that make me!?", she says is her most outraged, indignant voice.

Arrgghh!  I was so close to finishing.  And now I am so disappointed.  Karma.

The silver lining is I had cut out pieces for the City Tracks quilt, by Cherri House, yesterday.  This quilt in her new book, City Quilts, is variations on red, black and some purples.  My fabric selection is more in the blues.  I love the simple almost Amish quality to a number of quilts in her book.  For me the blues fit into that aesthetic.

I'm not sure if the apple green or yellow work just yet.  (I just love apple green.)  I'll just have to see how it plays out.  I think I might have lunch and test the patience of the karma gods with this new project....

A New Free Motion Quilting Foot

I have a new toy!  I am so excited - a new darning foot for my sewing machine.  No big deal, except that my machine was a wedding present oh so long ago and some accessories can be a little challenging to hunt down.

This was my third attempt.  I'm not a huge Internet shopper for stuff like this.  One, I want instant gratification - I had a top all sandwiched together and ready to go after all.  And two, I wanted to know it would fit, and work.  I finally had to take my machine into the shop and try on various accessories.  Almost as good as shoe shopping.  Almost.

I also purchased a walking foot, but need to see if we can track down a longer shank screw.  No instant gratification there, but I already had one new toy that I quickly put to good use.

A half dozen You Tube videos and some practice pieces - which look awful and I was on my way. 

Some observations: 

• Free motion quilting uses a lot of thread - and bobbin.  I learned I cannot wind the bobbin with the darning foot on.  I have to switch to a 'regular' foot first.  I now wind several bobbins at once to save time.

• Walk away when I become tired or it will be do-over time.  My stitch quality and stitch length becomes erratic when I become even a little fatigued.  It's then time to get up and do something else for a few minutes.  I had to rip out quilting three times using the "Oh, I'll just sew a few minutes more" approach.  This almost never works out for me.  You'd think I'd have figured this out by now.  Seriously.

• Breathe and don't hunch.  As with anything new, it is harder and takes longer until I become proficient.  Duh, I knew that.  But while I know this intellectually, in practice I had my nose inches away from the darning foot, holding my breathe and all hunched up.  Between that and yard work, I am a bit stiff this morning. 

Free motion quilting is pretty fun.  It seems to take longer than straight line machine quilting, but I think that will improve with practice.  I'm liking how it looks.  I hope to be able to try (practice) other stitch patterns soon!

Max, one of my Unusually Helpful Helpers decided the sewing table was a nice place to sit this morning.  Right on the piece I am working on!



It was sunny yesterday - on a weekend.  How cool it that!?  It is time to get into the garden before it warms up too much and everything explodes.  My garden is a bit junglely (my Sweetie will snort at the gross understatement when he reads this post!) so I need to get out and whack stuff back before new growth takes off.  I have only a small window of opportunity to get ahead of the game.  It takes almost no time to fill up the yard waste bin to the very brim this time of year.  Here are a few photos from this week:

Hellebore - they are in full bloom right now, with great big flowers. Isn't this gorgeous?

Spirea sending out tiny new leaves

 King Edward VII Flowering Currant.  This is supposed to be slow growing, but has zoomed to full height in only 3 years! (I can't believe I took this photo!)

Another hellebore, white, green and a tiny bit of pink.

Think Spring!

Vacumming

My latest quilt is pinned and ready to be stitched together.  This weekend most likely.

Blah, blah, blah.  Why should you, gentle reader, care?  Because the process of making the quilt sandwich requires taking allergy medicine.

Huh?

Well, the only space large enough to spread out a quilt in our house is on the floor.  Either in the Sweetie's office or in the living room.  I had contemplated the Sweetie's office but I am afraid I am wearing out my welcome in that area.

I've been asking 'does this outfit make my butt look big?' questions.  In quilt speak, of course.  I would never really  ask if my butt were too big.

"What do you think of these colors?" 

"Isn't this block cute?"

"Can you hold this corner, please?" 

"Can you hold this end of the steel tape, please?"

"How come I can't get the color purple to register correctly on my photos?"

So you can see how my recent activities might be testing his patience a wee bit.  Then, taking over his office floor for a couple of hours, or longer, if I get distracted...  It just seemed like that might push him over the edge.  Not a good plan.

Plan B: the living room floor.   Hmmm.  It could really use some vacuuming.  Especially before I lay down my soon-to-be masterpiece.

We are not Shoes In The House people.  But between the Unusually Helpful Helpers, thread, yarn bits, a house that's been closed up tight for the winter, and gray days, the dust bunnies have become the size of wharf rats.  Living in a coastal city, for those of you who might not know, wharf rats can be the size of a small raccoon.  They can scare the living daylights out of a person.  I'm surprised our dust bunnies haven't started to nip at our heels - they are that big.  Really.

Vacuuming is a necessary evil to me.  Unlike laundry, which I tackle with fervent regularity, vacuuming just doesn't have the same appeal.  Sorry, I know there are some crazed vacuumers out there -  and you are cringing in horror and disgust as you read this.  I am just not one of them.  I've tried... and failed  Besides, you have piles and piles of laundry and I don't.  So there. 

Besides, vacuuming requires moving furniture.  Furniture wrasseling.  It should be an Olympic sport.  Then, after the floor looks clean I realize the cushions on the chairs and sofa could use a good once over.  I have to lift the cushions only to discover, loose change, popcorn and cat toys.  I claim the loose change as mine but the rest?  Yuck.  Gosh, maybe I should vacuum the top of the pictures on the walls. And what about the cobwebs in the corner. I could just touch up the curtains....  Before you know it I have vacuumed for something like two hours and have kicked up enough dust that I'll have to dust... don't get me going on that one.

Dust.  Aah Chooo!! See how that comes around to allergy medicine. You knew eventually I'd get there.

So today, I vacuumed.  And somehow, I managed to limit the task to only the floor.   It took great restraint I might add. Which means I will have to tackle everything else on another day. 

Maybe I can wait until the dust bunnies are nipping at our heels again and asking when dinner's going to be ready. 

Procrastination Quilt - Finished!

I can't wait any longer!  I finished the Procrastination Quilt over the weekend!  Whoo Hoo!  I was so happy that I couldn't wait to tell you about it.

Hey, wait a minute... hmmm... If the quilt was finished on Sunday, why wait three days to tell everyone?  I will blame it on the weather.  Really. 

It has been raining for days.  If it did clear up (read, stop raining) even for a moment, the quilt, me, and the camera were not in the same place at the same time.  Really.

I tried to take some photos, but didn't care for them.  I made the bed.  Spread it out.  Opened the curtains, turned on the over head, and table lamps.  The lighting just wasn't great.  I moved it to the living room, in front of the largest window.  The grey outside just washed out the colors.  Duh. 

I just can't wait any longer.  So I'm going with the photos on the bed.  OK.  Maybe some from the living room too.

This quilt is not an original pattern.  It's become commonly known as Wonky Squares.  The underlying pattern is a variation of the Courthouse Steps or Log Cabin.  I followed the Tutorial offered on the Tall Grass Prairie Studio blog.  If you know me personally, this is a stretch as I tend like the world all lined up and orderly.  (I imaging my mom laughing so hard tears have come to her eyes as she reads that last observation.)  Chaos is not my natural inclination.  This project was and exercise in 'Lighten Up, Kid'.

I chose to limit my colors to three.  This is designed as a throw for my office/guest room which is light blue, and white, with grey and chartreuse accents.  I've seen beautiful Wonky quilts with broader color palettes, but this was an exercise in editing.  Seriously.  It was so difficult to narrow my choices in the fabric store as there were so many fabulous options.

I used a Gees Bend teal fabric.  I was warned that this fabric bleeds like crazy on the first washing as it is hand dyed, so washed and dried it separately.  The lightest fabric is Spa by Rosemarie Lavin (Wyndham Fabrics) and the grey is from Kona Bay.

Next I decided to do the quilting myself.  I wrote about my first experience which involved ripping it all out.  When it doubt, rip it out.  Glad I did.  My main issue was that my machine does not have a walking foot.  I borrowed my friend Lisa's machine (as she picked up a shiny new one just the other day), and presto, much better results.  Finding a walking foot for my 21 year old machine is proving to be a little tricky - I'll double check eBay.

I used straight line quilting for my first time out - nothing fancy.  Again I followed a tutorial from Tall Grass Prairie Studio where you use painters tape - yup, that blue or green stuff - as a line marker.  Pretty slick.

Once I let the walking foot do most of the work, rather than me wrestling (and losing) with the fabric it all became much easier. 

Last but not least, I applied the binding by machine.  No hand hemming the second side.  I enjoy hand work, but I just wanted this baby in the Finished pile, not the Work In Progress (WIP), or Unfinished Object (UFO) piles.  Hand hemming was an opportunity to procrastinate - again.  I just looked Procrastination in the face and said - not today, fella. 

I did notice that my stitch in the ditch technique could use some improvement.  While the pattern is Wonky, the stitching, perhaps, should not be. 

Once finished I washed the quilt.  It had been on the floor for basting and the Overly Helpful Helpers had napped and walked on it.  I had prewashed the fabric before starting and had used a fleece styled batting so wasn't sure I would get a puckery, quilty result.  But it did - super excited about that part.

Overall I am very pleased with the result.  I could write a longer piece on it's imperfections and things I would do differently, but will spare you, gentle reader, from that particular torture.  Let's lock that perfectionist into a dark closet and throw away the key.

Now onto the next Procrastination Project - tucking in the tails of my nearly finished scarf.  Tomorrow is another day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am a bit of a kook when it comes to laundry.  One day each week I like to have it all done.  For me, working full time, that day is often Sunday. 

When I say done I mean done, done.  Everything washed, dried, folded, and put away.  No socks lurking under the bed.  No damp towels hiding.  Done. 

It has also meant bedding changed and remade.  To me, freshly washed sheets and a nicely made bed is heaven.  Especially when you need to get up early for work the next day.  There's just something about fresh sheets.

As I wax poetic about laundry, you might think it's something I enjoy.  Hah!  Not so much.  It's a chore, I've turned into a game - at least in my own mind.  The game is to have it all Done before the sweetie and kidlet sneak another dirty item into the laundry basket.  I am pleased to announce, in a perverse way, that I win more often than I lose.  I get to wear an imaginary tiara and the unofficial title of Laundry Princess for the rest of the day.  It's certainly easier now that the kidlet is in college, but I still don't always win. 

So what has laundry to do with Valentine's Day?  I was cold.  It is winter after all even here in the NW.  I was in the laundry room waiting to transfer a load of laundry - ah, yes, such a glamorous life.  In the dryer was a fleece jacket.  We have a lot of fleece around here.  Anyway, I took the jacket out of the dryer, put it on and zipped it up.  It was wonderful.  Warm and soft.

And I really thought it felt like a warm hug from the sweetie.  Happy Valentine's Day, Sweetie!

To get ready for the day I made some felt valentines filled with lavender from last summer's garden:

They are super fun to make and cute, cute, cute.  I drew up some valentines on graph paper, cut out some felt and stitched them up with a blanket stitch.  I also added a ribbon to hang them  - leaving my options open.  

Some of the felt came from earlier projects, some was left over from a pool table, some I purchased at Nancy's Sewing Basket in the Queen Ann neighborhood.  If you in the area you should plan to visit.  They have amazing fabrics.  Including cashmere on the bolt.  Why they don't wrap themselves up in cashmere all day I will never know.  Don't even get me going on the Ribbon Room.  It is one of my favorite Seattle stores.  Love, love, love it.

The valentines could be stuffed with something else or left flat if you wished.

I like that each valentine can be different.  This one reminds me of the Button Blankets made by the Northwest Coastal tribes.

A quick little project.  And they make people smile, which is a great feeling. 

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Almost finished

I began working on a crocheted scarf toward the end of 2010 and while it has taken much longer than anticipated I am pleased to say it is nearly complete! 
I love the colors in this project because they remind me of this hardy fuchsia - magenta, purple, and green.  I would show you one from the garden, but alas, it is too early.

The last of the stitching was finished in the wee hours this morning.  All that remains are tucking in the tails of which there are many.  The body of the scarf is one color but there are 36 rows at each end where colors were alternated each row.  Like I was saying... a lot of tails. 

So having a short attention span, I've decided to update my blog instead.  I caught moments of the Unusually Helpful Helpers being very helpful.  Really... they were asleep, staying out of my yarn stash. 

Max - my most unhelpful helper, looking very sweet and helpful.

Jupiter, a.k.a. Butter Boy, due to the copious amounts of butter he sneaks into.  Yuck!



Puttering along on the Mohair Granny Square project.  Aren't the colors yummy?

And making progress on the latest quilt top.  It is officially half completed - well, the top anyway.

OK.  Enough doodling around.  Back to weaving in yarn tails.  Ta ta for now.



Signs of Life in the Universe

I recently went back to Wisconsin to visit the folks.  Around the 20th of January for a surprise birthday celebration.  Good golly it was cold.  -22 one morning without windchill.  Makes me shiver again just at the thought.  The snow pile at the end of the driveway was as tall as my Mom - and we are not known to be height challenged. 

I was there only a few days and was grateful to return to Seattle where it was in the mid 40's and raining.  Oh my gosh, our version of winter felt so good.  Unfortunately for folks back east, even more snow has fallen since.  Per my mom, the pile is now taller than she.  That's a lot of snow.

This next batch of photos is for family back east.  Spring will come.  I have seen the signs.

Snow drops,

Evergreen clematis sending out new growth,

Lenten Rose (one of the overly helpful helpers helped with the focus),

Day lilies sending up new shoots,

Magnolia buds (kinda looks like Woosie Pillows),

and Sweet Box which smell heavenly when brought indoors.



Think Spring!

Grandmas

 Around the holidays the Kidlet was home from college.  Somehow we were on the topic of a quilt I'd made for him when he was very young.  I believe it was a double irish chain of two colors.  A cream and navy with a blood red binding and back.  It was hand quilted.  Took forever it seemed.  He mentioned that the binding was starting to fall apart from wear.  I thought I had some extra fabric so I said I would repair it if he could find a way to bring it home.

So I set the Sweetie on a mission to find "the fabric".  He rooted around in the basement and attic and came up with a box with fabric.  While the box didn't have what I was looking for it had some other things.  A double wedding ring top hand pieced by my Great Grandma and some dresses that had belonged to 'Big Grandma'.

I came to have the quilt top and dresses following a visit to Wisconsin to visit the folks several years ago.  The quilt top had been pieced by great grandma toward the end of her life.  It was made of scraps and a thick muslin.  The plan was to make needed repairs and hand quilt and bind to finish.  But then I got stuck...

She was getting old and her sight was not great so some of the piecing isn't as carefully handled as when she was younger.  There are puckers and a number of the pieces don't lay flat.  In some cases the fabrics, which may have been clothes, had started to fall apart. 

The dresses were made by "Big Grandma", my maternal grandmother.  They were generally of the same vintage as the quilt top.  Grandma was called "Big Grandma", well, because she was big.  She came from a German family and quite a number of them were tall and solidly built.  Back in the day there weren't plus sizes readily available for women therefore all of her clothes were made by hand from hand drawn patterns.

Even the button holes were stitched by hand.  This dress matches the fabric of one of the quilt squares in the photos above.

I was given 4 dresses to use to repair the worn fabric on Great Grandma's quilt.  This lavender dress was also hand pieced.

The next two are a little newer as they were stiched by machine.  The buttonholes were still made by hand.

On the hanger on the back of the bathroom door these don't look like much.  Washed and pressed, but stored in a box for a long time.  But they weren't shapeless on Big Grandma.  We lived with her and Grandpa for some time when I was growing up, so my sister, and brothers saw her in these dresses or some very similar nearly everyday. For me, these still have a suprising amount of meaning.  She passed away when I was 14.

Now you know why I'm stuck. And have been for a long, long, time.  Should I cut up the "Big Grandma" dresses to make repairs to Great Grandma's quilt top, keeping the fabric all of the same era?  Or should I purchase reproduction fabric to make the needed repairs?  I would love your comments offering suggestions.

A New Quilt

Awhile back I purchases two charm packs from Moda - called Punctuation.  At the same time I purchased two yards solid cream colored cotton.  I had no specific plan but I knew I would use it someday. 

I love modern fabrics and patterns, but am also drawn to vintage pieces as well.  I have two vintage tops to quilt - stories for another day.  One was picked up in an antique mall in Wisconsin and the other belongs to my great grandma.  They are bright and both use muslin as the background fabric.

Inspiration struck a couple of weeks ago.  I saw a super easy way to make triangles from squares on the Internet.  I had never worked with triangles before and it looked like fun.  Each charm pack had 42 - 5" squares.  By making triangles with the cream colored fabric I had 84 triangle sets.  Times two made 164 sets, with a little bit of cream squares left over.  Certainly that should be enough for something, right?  Then the project sat.

Yesterday, I began to play around with pattern layouts.  No real plan in mind as usual.  Just fiddling around until inspiration struck. I stumbled upon a pattern that I liked on the first try.  I mean really, how often does that happen?  The result was something like Trip Around the World, but with triangles.  I really liked it, but of course working without a plan, realized I was a bit short in certain colors - red and and black. 

At this point I could have reconfigured the pattern to something else, but no.  Back to the store.  Two more charm packs and two more yards of cream fabric... and here's the result.

This project had taken over much of the floor space in my sweetie's home office for two days.  I knew I was pushing my luck as he had to tip toe around all of my carefully laid out pieces each time he went to his desk.  One's patience for that sort of thing is generally short lived.  Now the rows have been numbered with painters tape as not to lose the order and picked up.  They are now waiting in a pile for their turn to be pieced - once I finish the procrastination project.

Different topic:  It was a rainy, foggy, drizzly morning here in Seattle.  Pretty typical of winter here.  Not quite real rain and more than fog.  Locally we call this 'Seattle Mist'.  Umbrella's are not overly effective as the fog-like qualities cause it to swirl around under umbrellas.  Skipping the umbrella is not a great idea either.  One can get soaked to the skin in pretty short order without fisherman or mountaineering styled rain gear.

  Good day to stay inside and work putter around on 'stuff'.

 

Procrastination

Once I admitted procrastination about fixing my quilt, I felt bad.  How would it look if I continued to leave this project behind in favor of others?  Would it would begin to feel left out - perhaps develop self confidence issues?  Would it move to the bottom of the pile, literally, as other more current projects stack on top of it...?

Did you ever notice that quilt and guilt are only one letter apart? 

So, I started picking out the original quilting.  It wasn't nearly as bad as I had made it out to be in the earlier post.  Certainly time consuming but there is a rhythm to it after awhile.  Almost meditative... almost.  It is certainly more satisfying to add stitches than to take them out.

I also had an 'overly helpful helper' who was fascinated by the thread - aka Mad Max.  So there was pouncing and attacking by the 'overly helpful helper' to ensure I didn't become too zen in the process. 

I laid the quilt out again, taking out the old basting stitches in favor of quilting pins.  The 'overly helpful helpers' - both of them this time, were on hand to assist.  Ripping out long sections of thread was just too irresistible to ignore.  They were on hand to observe the pinning process but that was not nearly as much fun. They since have found their favorite places to nap.  Hmmm.  I am using quilting pins from now on.

Now I am ready to quilt.  But, alas, procrastination (or perhaps responsibility) strikes again.  This time in the shape of household chores - folding laundry, a trip to the grocery store, vacuuming, etc. 

Perhaps quilting can be my reward at the end of my domestic diva stint today.

Do Overs

I began a quilt a little before Christmas and I am still fussing with it.  The original intent was that it was for my office.  Well, it's my office part-time.  It's also a guest room with a Murphy Bed built into the wall.  When guests or the kidlet returns from college on break a big switcheroo takes place and presto chango, it's a guest room.  The rest of the time, there is fabric, thread, yard, and whatnots on most flat surfaces. 

The quilt was planned as a twin sized throw for the queen-sized Murphy bed.  You know, large enough to cover a tallish person (which accounts for nearly everyone in the family) during a quick snooze.

Then I got bored with the front and it magically transformed into a throw which at last measurement is 50" x 60", or 60" by 50".  Whatever.  The extra fabric went into a pattern on the back.  

Over the weekend I sandwiched it together and decided to machine quilt it myself - for the very first time.  Nothing fancy, just straight line stuff.  I've done a few lines and found it's not laying as flat as I'd like.  Especially as I worked toward the edges.  One would hardy notice from the front but it is bugging me when I look at it from the back... a little loose and puckery.  Looks like I need to spend some quality time with the seam ripper and start again.  Drat!  Though, I must say, it is toasty and warm on my lap as I type this.

Which means I have procrastinated by working on my little mohair granny squares instead.  I worked up a few and decided to see how they fit together from a size perspective.  Hmm.

Looks like some of my squares might need to an extra row or two and become granny rectangles.  I like the texture difference between the different yarns, but they do not work up the same size over the same number of rows.  No biggie for this project, but I will need to figure something out before I piece it.

The white, orange, and light blue are Kid Seta, which is 70% super kid mohair and 30% silk.  It is light as air.  If one could crochet fairy wings this is the yarn I would choose.  The dark purple is Giselle, 64% kid mohair, 25% wool, and 11% nylon.  It is a bit heavier and super duper fuzzy.

Both are quite nice to work with, unless you let your concentration lapse for even a moment (say howling at the American Idol auditions, or half watching the big play in the Super Bowl, or rescuing balls of yarn from an overly helpful cat) and you find you need to rip some stitches out. 

Don't even think of giving it a quick yank like most other yarns or it will reward you with a furry, fuzzy, knotty mess.  The trick is to go s-l-o-w.  It you think you are going slow, you need to go even more slowly.  Still, I think it's worth it for the cloud-like effect you get on a finished piece.

New Project

One of the things I enjoy most about crocheting is its portability.  I mean unless you are making a afghan it is pretty easy to drop a ball of yarn or two along with a hook into your bag and off you go.  I loved to bring projects with me when I travel, pre-WiFi, on airplanes.  A crochet project, and iPod and I was rocking happily along for a couple of hours.

I began a new project today.  The idea has been rattling around for a little while.  Inspiration came from a couple of images on the Purl Bee Blog.  I love that I can go to NY without leaving the comfort of my living room. 

But I digress.  The first image was of a granny square.  Yup, the old crochet standby.  Only this one was made out of what appeared to be orange mohair.  It was lacy, fuzzy, and well, just lovely.  Not like the acrylic clunkers I recall seeing on the back of everyone's sofa while growing up.  Then there was an image of a small blanket called Babette.  It was made of different sized granny squares puzzled together like a mosaic.

Finally the last inspiration came from a crepe scarf I already own.  It looks fabulous with a light grey suit, lavender belt, and dark purple suede pumps I own.  I really like the color scheme and it is outside the palette I am usually drawn to (code: no apple green).  Then I realized I already had some of the yarns.  A skein of purple Giselle, a mohair blend, and a skein of lavender Zephyr, a silk and wool blend.  Just how lucky can a girl be?

I made up a square with the Zephyr yarn with a G hook.  I flattened it out a bit and looked at it.  Hmmm.  Not to bad - especially when I consider that I never crochet anything loosely.  I liked it more because I was out of my usual comfort zone.  (Mom, you must be proud!)

So, perhaps a pattern might be a good idea.  For good or bad, I often work without a pattern.  And the results are mixed, as you might expect.  Duh.  I am by nature a planner, at least at work, and have no idea why I launch into projectsat home with so little planning.  Perhaps rebellion or more likely a personality quirk.  Anyhoo, today I pulled out a piece of graph paper and penciled a little something out.  Ta dah!

Now, don't go thinkin' that I have this planning thing in the bag.  While the pattern is narrow and could easily be a scarf, it could morph into a small throw, or pashmina type wrap.  And a real planner, might have used colored pencils to lock down the color placement

Just need to round out the rest of the color palette and it's off to the races.  I'll keep you posted on my progress.