Happy Feet!

Happy feet in the hallway.

Happy feet in the dining room.

Happy feet in the kitchen doing dishes.

Happy feet outside feeding the birds.

Happy feet at the sewing machine.

Happy feet resting.

I am officially done my first pair of knitted socks and I love them. I can't help but smile in them. They feel wonderful. I keep humming "Happy Feet" by Kermit the Frog in my head. I tried to link a video of him singing it but didn't work. It's funny, because you don't see his feet at all during the song.

What's this? I am almost done my first sock of my second pair. Not specifically sock yarn (but super soft) so they are knitting up quicker. Different pattern too. I already love them.

Another challenge?

 Now that I finished my big quilt (see previous post), I spent the past two days going through my stash wondering what to tackle next. I pulled lots of fabrics and projects out covering my quilt table. I finally decided on a few projects for family members (Christmas gifts) and some more baby blankets for etsy. Above is my stack of ironed fabrics, waiting to be cut.

 3 of my projects for family members come from these magazines. They all require some applique (you can see the fusible cut and ready to be ironed onto the fabrics sticking out.

 One of the projects involves this piece of fabric. My sister gave it to me. She has a piece herself (I wonder if she's forgotten about it?) and challenged each of us to make something with it. I am making her Christmas gift with this, adding only one other fabric for a border. I'm really excited to see it finished. She'll have to wait a few months.

And to reward myself for finishing the Twiggy quilt, I bought some fabric from Cottonthreads on etsy. She was having a sale on yardage and I couldn't resist.
Now it's time to colour with my son, before heading back to the quilt table and cutting some fabrics.

It's Finished!

I finished the quilt this morning. Here is the front (photo taken my my 4 year old son).

My son also took this picture of the back.

I used some of my favourite fabrics on the back and the front. It is the "Twiggy" pattern. It used to be available on the Fat Quarter Shop free pattern page but not anymore. I got it from the Sewn website (it's at the bottom).

In its new home. it fits perfectly. 

I designed and added these borders so we had enough to cuddle up in.

I also added the birds. 

The quilt top was ready over a year ago and has been waiting to be finished. I had planned on finishing it for my birthday last September, but that didn't happen. After we moved to Idaho last month I refound it and decided to finish it for my birthday this year. Again it didn't happen but I did get the borders created, and pinned the leaves and birds in place. When Amy put up her one thing one week challenge I decided to finish it. It seemed rather daunting but I did it. One thing I did differently with this quilt, was when it came time to applique the leaves and birds on, I did so with the batting and quilt top together. When I had to make the final quilt sandwich to quilt the whole quilt, it made it easier to put 2 layers together, instead of making sure all 3 layers were flat. I don't plan on making another big bed quilt anytime soon and it was nice to make something to keep. Tonight will be the first time I will sleep under one of my own quilts. I can hardly wait.

Go check out Amy's blog and take a look at all the other completed challenges.

Another quilt delivered

The quilt I made my niece arrived. She seems happy with it. Enjoy!

Friday Finish

I was able to finish the other baby quilt this week. Should be in the etsy shop by the end of the day.

Ended up doing loopy free motion in the solid squares. I was going to leave them but they needed a little something.

I used one of my favourite fabrics for the back. I only have a bit of it left now and will have to think carefully before I use it.

I had hoped to have my socks done for today but with about 2 inches left I have lost one of my needles. For those who don't know, stitches are on 3 needles and I use the fourth needle to knit. I usually keep the needles in the ball of yarn but since it is almost done, the fourth needle fell out and is now lost. We have looked everywhere and can't find it. Think I will have to go buy myself a second set of needles this weekend so I can finish my sock. I'll probably find the missing needle on Monday.

Tis the Season for Birthdays!

Well, just one birthday in this house. Mine was on Saturday. I received the wall hanging above from my sister. It fits perfectly where she wanted it to. I used thumb tacks to keep it in place.

Each house is a different season. Top is Winter.

Then Spring.

Summer.

And last, but not least, Fall.

The back. Thank you Sarah for a great gift. She used Nanette's cottage block and did a post about the wallhanging on her blog, SewJoy, as well.

My wonderful husband got me a signed picture of me with my favourite author, Margaret Atwood. She told me to "Keep on Truckin'".

There she is, hanging above my quilt table to inspire me.

Are you up for a "little" challenge?

Amy at Amy's Creative Side is challenging quilters to choose one thing to do this week and complete it. It can be something "easy", like pick fabrics for a quilt or "hard", like quilting a whole quilt.

I decided I would go for hard and finally finish this quilt top. I wanted this quilt done a year ago. I would like this quilt on our bed by the end of the month so it seemed like the perfect project for the challenge.

Are you signing up for the challenge?

Friday finishes and some other goodies!

Finished this baby quilt for the etsy shop this week.

After I did the stitch-in-the-ditch around the squares I knew it needed something more, but not free-motion. This is for a baby and I didn't want to weigh it down with heavy quilting. I decided to quilt roughly 1/4 on each side of each seam. I love it. It creates a neat little pattern and the quilt remains light.

The back looks really cool too.

I also made 2 tea wallets. One for me and one for a friend. What do you keep in a tea wallet?

Lady Grey of course.

I also made a tissue "wallet" for the same friend. This is the first time I had made one and it was so easy and quick, I'm thinking everyone might get one for Christmas. They're little and light to ship and who doesn't need a tissue every once in a while. I used the bright fabric so it would be easy to find in the bottom of a purse, hopefully.

Onto the goodies! This box overflowing with selvages is headed off to someone special. There are some other surprises underneath the selvages but she'll have to wait to see those.

String Theory

4 more string blocks done.

Put with the 3 from the other day, they make row 5.  I have plans to make another 5 rows, but now I'm not sure how big I want it to get and trying to decide where I want to use it - extra quilt for the bed or for cuddling on the couch?

Either way, I have  the remaining 35 foundation blocks ready to go.

My theory - this string quilt will look amazing no matter what size I make it. It's been a lot of fun to create.

Progress Report

This is what my sewing space looked like yesterday. String block quilt on the floor, string blocks being made at the machine. Oh, and my computer is sitting there so I could watch the men's final of the U.S. Open.

Close-up of the mess. Nadal won, of course. I'm going to have to look into watching hockey online this season.

I did finish the holiday trees quilt this weekend. Only a sneak peek as this is my sister's pattern, but the binding proves it is finished.

I started quilting the baby quilt for etsy and decided I no longer liked the quilt top or how I was quilting it, so I set it aside for now. Yesterday I got out 2 other baby quilt tops that I had put together in Michigan but didn't get quilted. They have been ironed, as well the backing fabric and binding is ready to go.

I did get 3 sting blocks done yesterday. I think this photo was meant to go the other way, sorry.

I tackled this pile of strings today. The bag contains all the long, wide pieces I use for the middle. I cut these into the correct sizes and set aside 35 for the next 5 rows (then I'll be done). I also went through and picked out long ones that I use for the strings beside the middle string.  I cut up some other pieces that were waiting to be trimmed into usable strings. Only have 7 foundation squares cut right now, so I need to cut another 28 of those. We'll see what the day brings.

Oh, and the backing for my birthday quilt was also pieced this weekend and the batting was laid out yesterday to "relax". Once I finish quilting the 2 baby quilts, the birthday quilt will be under the needle. I also finished my second sock but since I can tell the difference between the first and the second (tension is a little tight at the top and stitches not as nice at the heel and toe), I have started a third sock to be paired with the second sock. The first sock may be taken apart to help make the third one if I run out of yarn. I'm still pretty excited though that I knitted a pair of socks!

Weekend Plans

Quilt this baby blanket for the etsy shop.

Quilt this holiday wall hanging.

Sew these two pieces of fabric together to make a backing for...

... this quilt. This quilt was suppose to be a birthday present to myself last year but didn't get finished. Now my birthday for this year is a week away so I thought it was time to try and finish it again. I have made borders for it and the binding strips are piled on top. Batting is bought and if I get the first 2 projects finished, this quilt will be a quilt sandwich by Monday morning.  Plans for next week? To quilt it and have it done by next Saturday.

Oh, when I'm not at the sewing machine I will be finishing my second sock. Only 1 inch left to knit before I make the toe of the sock.