Meet "Noel"

A good friend of mine

LOVES sock monkeys

and has for years...

long before sock monkeys were everywhere.

Last year I found this kit for "Noel"....

a Christmas sock monkey

and knew I had to make her for this friend.

 Here she is, all dressed in her Christmas finery!

I have to say...
I don't really enjoy making these,
but my friend will love it.
Getting these long, skinny tubes stuffed is a challenge!
She will be given soon, so my friend can enjoy her this Christmas.


My knitting needles have been busy lately.
 
 One pair of socks are done and ready for gifting.

This pair will be given to my daughters' piano teacher for Christmas.

I made this sock, not realizing that I had only one skein of this yarn.
The second skein has been shipped!


In the mean time, I started another sock with a similar yarn.

 






I do have another skein of this yarn, so I can make a pair.

:)

Happy Friday and Happy Creating!!

Playing with Leftovers

The other day I finished a

Cathedral Window table topper

that I had made with a batik charm pack and some

cut yardage.

I had some 5" squares left over,

so decided to use one of my

"stand by" patterns and made some

Disappearing Four Patch blocks.

I have to say,

this is one of my favorite blocks to make.

These blocks will be sewn together

and will, most likely,

need a border or two.

Once it's finished,

it will go to the

"To be donated" pile of

Baby quilts.

A bright and happy quilt for a little one!

Happy Quilting!!

October/November 350 Blocks Project report

Somehow I missed reporting the blocks I made in the

month of October in the

350 Blocks Project.

It might have been because I made only four!

I have a few more to report for November

and will put them together here.

In October I made four sections of the

Gravity Quilt.. the last four!

In November I made the mini Amish Style Quilt.

I'll count this as 12 blocks.

And this week I finished this quilt:

49 blocks.

My October/November total is 65 blocks!  

I'm hoping to have many more blocks finished this month.

Happy Quilting!!

A November Finish!!

Yay!

I have a finished quilt to share this month!

My sewing machine has been busy the last couple of days

and I am so happy.

AND a Christmas gift is checked off of my list.

My goddaughter asked me for a table topper for Christmas.

She has a new antique kitchen table and wanted something

bright to put on it.

Bright I can do!

Following this tutorial,
I used a charm pack of bright batiks
 and also cut 5" squares
of the turquoise and pastel swirl batiks
and began piecing.

I used straight pins to baste the "windows" to the base
and this made the quilting so much easier.

It surprised me at how easy it was to stitch the bias edges
over the windows to make the design.
I sometimes put one pin in the bottom of the curve
and just kept stitching and moving around the quilt.
Quilt as you go projects are wonderful!

The finished table topper!
This went together so quickly and really is striking.

This is such a fun pattern to make.
I see more of these in my future!

Please visit Patchwork Times to see what others are creating.

Happy Quilting!!

Sewing Soon...

 Wow!

I don't think I have ever gone this long without

creating something in my Hidey Hole.

My shoulder has been injected again

and will hopefully behave itself so I can sew.

In preparation,

I have begun laying a project out on my 

Design Wall.

This is going to be a Cathedral Window

quilt as I go project.

 

I just love these fabrics.

The "window" fabric has so much movement

and beautiful swirling colors.

 

These fabrics sure brighten up my Design Wall!

I'm itching to get sewing again!

Happy Quilting!!

Amish Style Quilts

The History of Quilting club I belong to just finished a session on

Amish Quilting.

Amish quilts have always interested me.

The simplicity and starkness of the style are beautiful.

For this session we were asked to make an

Amish style quilt measuring no more than 24".

Let me just say,

I have a new appreciation for those who make Amish quilts.

Working with dark solid fabrics was a lot more difficult than I imagined,

especially when it came to the quilting.

We had our "reveal" today of the quilts we made and they were all

Beautiful!

(Once again I didn't get pictures of all of the quilts!)

It was so neat to see the colors and designs we all chose.

No two were alike... even a little!

I will confess that I made two, but no one will see the first one

unless I rip out some of the quilting and do it again.

Solid fabrics show Every Single Stitch!!

There is no hiding mediocre quilting.

So...

a second quilt was made and I hand quilted this one.

I learned that I need to do more hand quilting!

It leaves a bit to be desired.

 The pink isn't as bright as the picture shows,

but it does give a pop of color.

One challenge for me was to put colors together

that don't "match" in my book,

but it works here.

I really enjoy making nine patches

and love this design.

 

I don't see myself making too many Amish style quilts,

but I did learn a lot while making this one.

The best part of today was the quilt exchange.

We drew names to see whose quilt we would get to bring home.

I would have been thrilled with any of the quilts made by

this talented group of women.

This is my new treasure.

 (This quilt is square... It's the photographer who is crooked!)

This was pieced and hand quilted by Diane.

Isn't it gorgeous?

 

It's "Amish Modern" to me and

perfect for me with all of the bright colors!

 

Her hand quilting is wonderful and

I just love her design, too.

 

It will be exciting to begin our next session of History Club in January.

Linda, our leader, is planning a mystery!

Hopefully solid fabrics won't be needed. 

:)

Happy Quilting!!

Not a Knitting Blog!

Sewing and quilting have come to a 

screeching halt at my house.

My shoulder is aggravated again,

enough that I'm having an injection on Monday.

I come in my Hidey Hole

and just look at all that I want to be working on,

but it's too painful. 

Knitting, however, doesn't bother me.

I first thought that was the cause of my shoulder pain,

but found that it's the sewing.

I decided to begin knitting another sweater

and have chosen an easier pattern then 

my first sweater. 

At least I think it will be easier.

Here is what I have done so far...

This will be a cardigan made from this pattern

 Blue Sand.

It's hard to see anything but the color of the yarn at this point,

but I'll keep plugging away at it.

You know I always have a sock or two going as well.

 Here is my latest...

This is a new  yarn to me and is knitting up nicely.

The purple and blues in with the oranges

really give it a pretty stripe.

 

Hopefully there will be more quilty things on here soon!

Have a great weekend everyone.

It's COLLEGE BASKETBALL SEASON!!

Woohoo!!

Happy Friday!

 

A little sewing...

Except when I've been out of town,

it's been a long time since I have done so

little sewing.

I'm continuing to work on this secret project

and I'm not having the best of time making it.

It's coming together and will be finished soon.

This week I did pull these blocks out and have

half of them sewn together.

I love the pinwheels within the bars in this design.
In making these blocks, I made a HUGE error
and had to do A LOT of ripping.
It's all better now!

Hopefully the rest of these blocks will be sewn
together in the next few days.

These fabrics are
Minick and Simpson's new line.
I don't usually purchase fabric lines,
but love their fabrics and am a sucker for
Polka Dots and Paisley!

Please visit Patchwork Times to see what others are creating.

Happy quilting!

No Quilting To Show...

I have been working on a small quilt project,

but can't show it quite yet.
It's a secret and one I hope to have finished soon!

:)

I do have a complete knitting finish though!

My very first sweater is completed....

buttons and all...

I wanted some fancy ceramic buttons,

but saw these plain brushed silver buttons

and knew they would look nice on the sweater.

It's finished just in time for cooler weather!

I ordered yarn to knit another sweater and am hoping

this next sweater is a bit easier and won't take

a year and a half!

Another sock is finished and it's mate is half done.

 This yarn is wonderful to knit.

I need to knit the short row heel and then will finish the foot.

Hopefully soon I will have more quiltiness to show here!

Please visit Patchwork Times to see other knitted creations.

Happy Friday!

Knitting

A new sock is on my needles this week.

It's a plain vanilla sock,

but I love the yarn.

Mindless knitting is so wonderful!

I started knitting a "fancy" sock with this yarn,

but the pattern didn't show up at all.

Out it came and a plain sock was started.

The colors in this yarn are so random.

The yellow really sparkles.

This yarn is being knitted on size 2 needles.

I cast on 60 stitches

and used the short row heel.

Please visit Patchwork Times to see what others are knitting.

Happy Friday!

Gravity

For nine months I have been receiving 

Squishy packages in the mail

containing two sets of solid fabrics.

With these packets of solid fabrics I have been making the blocks for

the quilt "Gravity."

As of this week,

all of the bright, colorful blocks are finished!

These are the last two blocks that needed to be made.

The next steps will be to make the gray background...

and there will be a lot of that!


In the meantime,
I am playing with the finished colored blocks.

I placed all of the blocks on my

Design Wall.

It's amazing how many different colors are in this quilt....
over 100 according to the quilt shop website.

They look like jewels shimmering in the light.

Next month the different shades of gray fabric will arrive

in a squishy envelope.

I will be busy cutting diamond gray shapes for the background

and finishing this top.

I'm excited!
:)

Happy quilting!

"Tell Me About It"

The text quilt is finished!

And Named!

(But not labeled yet.)

I just love this quilt...

all of the words and letters and pictures

really move my eye around it.

This orange fabric was found on the half price rack!

 The little surprises found in this quilt are wonderful.

I didn't fussy cut anything.... they just happened.

I couldn't get a photo of the quilt straight on...

I'm too short and had to stand on a stool,

so it looks a bit wonky.

This quilt is about 60" square.

The pattern for this is found here.

Playing with the text fabrics was so much fun;

I'm ready to make something else with them. 

"Tell Me About It"

will be put aside until it tells me where it belongs.

:) 

Happy Quilting!

 

Back Home

These past couple of weeks have had me on the road.

I have done a lot of driving and very little sewing!

I'm back home for a while and I'm looking forward

to getting back into my "Hidey Hole"

and getting some things accomplished.

Before I left last week,

I picked up my

"Text" quilt from my new LAQ

and I love the quilting!

I hope to get the binding sewn on this one this week.

 

Isn't it amazing how many "text" fabrics there are out there?

 

Such fun little surprises.

This past weekend my husband and I were at a wedding in

Highlands, NC.

Let me just say...

It was gorgeous!!

Please visit Patchwork Times to see what others are working on this week.

Happy Quilting!!