Fabric!

 No, I didn't go buy fabric on Saturday, but some fabric I won arrived in the mail! I won these 11 fat quarters from Penny at Sew Take a Hike. They are more beautiful in person. I am so happy that I won. Thanks Penny! The giveaway also included her skillet handle pattern, which you can find here.

 And since I haven't had any new fabric to show off in the past 8 weeks (besides some fabric I received from my mom in January) you will have to put up with a few fabric pictures. Here are all 11 fat quarters.

 Here are 3 I really like.

 This one might be my favourite. I love them all though. I haven't decided what I am going to do with them. Right now I am enjoying looking at them.

And I haven't completely forgotten that I need to have my February UFO done by tomorrow. Leaves and stems were attached to the quilt top on Saturday. Flowers, stems, leaves and fence were quilted yesterday, so all I have left for today is to quilt the blue sky and do the binding. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to post a picture of the finished quilt. Don't know why it took me so long to finish this one.

Thursday night quilting

My husband was able to go out again last night with work friends, and after I finally got my son to stay in his bed and not the couch, I got a little bit of quilting done.

I finished quilting this wallhanging, all vintage fabric. Hope to do the binding and hanging sleeve this weekend.

I wasn't sure what to do in the middle. I ended up free-motioning some flowers.

I did free-motion stippling in the white borders and followed the lines of the cheater fabric. 

I also finished the pebbles (or dinosaur eggs as my husband calls them) in the blue blocks on the boy quilt. I started the stippling in the borders until all my bobbins were empty. By then it was 12:30 and time for bed.

Fabric Diet is over and I survived! I didn't buy any fabric for 8 weeks and I have decided to extend the challenge until Mother's Day. I have so many projects to finish up and a big enough stash to complete them that I am going to try really, really hard not to buy anything until May. Thanks to Angela for hosting the fabric diet challenge. Go here, to see how everyone else did the past 8 weeks.

I'm in love.

After casting on this sock pattern 5 or 6 times, I have finally finished it. I tried at least 3 times with yarn from my sister before I switched to this yarn. I had to start from the beginning on this sock after making a mistake Saturday. I don't have much experience (yet) in fixing mistakes in knitting and I ended up having to restart on Sunday evening. But today, I conquered the sock demons that have been bothering me and completed this sock. 

I'm so in love with it, I want to knit its partner right now.  Unfortunately I need to finish my UFO for February first.

This is all I have done since my last update. Got these leaves cut out last night. I am not allowing myself to cast on the next sock until I finish my February UFO.

 I also organized the little shelf beside my rocking chair this weekend. I am in love with the green basket. It holds all my circular knitting needles, needle case and maybe some treats in the back. Double pointed knitting needles, scissors and yarn needles are in the front  right cubby, while pens and pencils are on the left. This basket will do until I can make a holder similar to the one I made for my straight knitting needles and crochet hooks, which I posted about here. The blue containers on the top shelf are also new. One holds all the little knitting accessories like cable needle, measuring tape and row counter. The other one holds my ipod and it's power cord. All that stuff use to be in one big basket and it drove me and my husband crazy. It's nice to have it all organized, finally.

 Luckily, I grabbed another green basket (at dollar tree) to help organize my quilt desk. It is nice to have my scissors and rotary cutter in their own little spot and to have a pen handy when I need it. We'll see how long this organization lasts.

FNSI - a few starts

 Stitch-in-the-ditch quilting completed on this wallhanging. I started adding some free motion but I don't like it, so I will be ripping it out this weekend.

 Stitch-in-the-ditch quilting completed on this quilt, as well.

 Started doing some free-motion pebbles in the blue squares. I did 10 of the 17 blue blocks before my hands needed to take a break. I would really like to complete this quilt this weekend.

Started another pair of socks. I had been working on a pair for my sister (see picture below) but I'm not sure if I am going to finish them (the yarn has been causing me a little trouble). This pair will either be for her to replace the ones I am not going to finish, or I will keep them and make her another pair.

Edit: This is the yarn I was using for my sister's socks that have been causing me all the problems. The socks I started last night are made from a different yarn that I am loving.

Go here to see what everyone else did last night. Thanks to Bobbi and Heidi for hosting.

Count'em, 1,2,3!

There they are... 3 finishes!Don't they look nice all stacked together?

 First up is the quilt my sister designed. Unfortunately, until she decides to make the design public, I can't show you the whole thing. Here is part of the middle. I free-motioned evergreen trees in the background. Most of the fabrics in this quilt are from the "Greetings from Canada" line that came out a couple years ago. I have been hoarding them and finally decided to use them for this quilt. I am the tree in the middle (alone with my immediate family in the U.S.) while the rest of my family back home in Canada are the trees around me - although you can't really see them, I know they are always there for me. (Yes, I miss them all very much).

 Here is the back. More Canada fabric. You can see the quilting I did on the big tree in the middle. Although the tree has rounded edges, I quilted it to look more like the evergreens in the background. Thanks Sarah for a great pattern.

 Finish #2 is this baby quilt for my etsy shop. I completed it last night, but it took at least an hour longer than I had planned. I broke 2 needles. It's been awhile since I broke any. Of course by the end I was using the wrong needle but all I had left was the binding so I went for it. Hope to run out tonight for some more needles. The reason for the broken needles? I had started a new thread and for some reason it kept getting caught when it got to the bottom of the spool.

 Close-up of the quilting. Free-motioned flowers in the border. It is the grey thread I used for these flowers that was causing all the trouble.

 Finish #3. Custom crocheted blanket. A woman's granddaughter requested my pattern but made with Granny Apple green and a hot pink border.  I hope she likes it.

 Finally got it outside this afternoon for some pictures. I think the green is perfect.

The back.

 Oh, and this is what is waiting for me. There are 4 quilts piled waiting to be finished. Plan is to baste them tonight and perhaps start one. The rest of the pile will be tackled tomorrow for Friday night Sew-in, and finished up next week (fingers crossed).

Haven't signed up yet? Head on over, Friday Night Sew-In is tomorrow night!

Where did the week go?

I lost this weekend. Friday evening I came down with a sinus cold and I spent most of the weekend reading (read about 300 pages of 3 different novels - finished one of them). Didn't touch the sewing machine or any knitting. Did a little crocheting on Sunday. The cold is pretty much gone, but now I have a sore throat and almost no voice.

Monday, my son and I made these yummy cookies for Valentine's day. They have peanut butter in them and are delicious. I made these at Christmas with chocolate kisses on top. Thanks to my parents for sending the chocolate hearts. Wish I could share these with you:)

I did get back to quilting yesterday (partly because we had no internet) and even finished one wallhanging but I didn't get any pictures taken. Today was full, with dentist appointments for the kids and errands (ran out of yarn for the crocheted baby blanket). Home for an hour before I head out to get my daughter from school.  At least I found out this morning that I won a giveaway over at Sew Take A Hike. Thanks Penny. Can hardly wait to receive the fabric in the mail!

Now, it's time to grab 2 cookies (without my son seeing?) and get ready to go. Maybe I'll take some pictures later this afternoon, or maybe not til tomorrow.  I am almost finished a couple other things so hopefully tomorrows post will have 3 finishes!

Link Land

I don't have much to show you, so I thought I would send you off to a few different places.

 Voting has begun for the Love Nest Quilt Contest at Gen X Quilters! Click here and go vote for your favourite (mine is #30 - no pressure to vote for me, vote for the one you like best:)

Next Friday is February's Friday Night Sew-In. Click here to sign-up. 

Another week and I still haven't bought any fabric. My husband has challenged me to go the whole year. I know this just isn't possible and suggested Mother's Day. We'll see how long I can last. Click here to read how everyone else is doing on their diets.

Hopefully I'll get something done this weekend so I'll have something to post Monday.

Wednesday is a work in progress

Of all the things I take pictures of, the most difficult to get right is anything with yarn. It never seems to turn out the right colour.

 Here is a blanket I am working on. A custom blanket, requested to be Granny Smith Apple green. And it is, in real life. This is close, but kind of dull. No flash.

 Here is the same blanket taken with the flash. Way too bright. For every good yarn picture I get, I must take at least 5. I've tried taking pictures at different times of day and different places - although I don't take them outside until they are completely finished. I would hate for the yarn to fall in some dirt or for the piece to come off the needles/hook.

 Here are the socks for my sister. I finished the heel to the first sock last night. This picture was taken with the flash and is close to the right colour, a little dull but close.

 Here they are with out the flash. Hard to see the stitches and the colours look blah. Oh well, I guess taking pictures of yarn is a work in progress.

 My quilt table overloaded with 5 projects waiting to be quilted and some other projects that I am playing with instead. Maybe I'll tackle this tonight.

But I think I will just look at this.

Batting practice?

My son enjoying some packaged batting.

Love Nest!

After seeing Annemarie's post on January 24th, about the Love Nest Quilt Contest, I knew I wanted to enter the quilt I finished last fall for our bed. Since I posted about it more than 2 months ago, I need to create a new post. Now we all get to enjoy looking at it again. The original post can be found here.

Here is the huge quilt. We only have a full size bed but I made it extra wide so we have plenty of quilt to cuddle up under. The pattern name is Twiggy (found here) and I have kept the name even though I changed it up a little. I added the borders and the appliqued birds. I also used just my most favourite fabrics and not a layer cake as suggested.

 Here it is on our bed. The main Twiggy pattern covers the top and the extra borders go down the sides.

 Close up of the borders. I only outlined the blue triangle and center square when I quilted.

 Close-up of the top. I outlined the green stems, birds and added details to the leaves. I free-motioned on all the cream fabric.

The back. My then 4 year old son, helped me by taking the outside pictures. My husband and I are holding up the quilt. I still love this quilt and it is nice to finally be sleeping under one of my own quilts every night.

Thanks to Annemarie for hosting this contest. Go and check out the other quilts - they are all so beautiful. Voting goes from February 10th to 16th at Annemarie's blog Gen X Quilters.

A few finishes and a Thursday night sew-in

First, a couple of finishes for this week.

 Baby boy blanket #1, bound and pictured.

 Baby boy blanket #2, also bound and pictured. This one will end up in the etsy shop by this weekend. The first one... probably won't. I messed up on the back. I didn't think the backing fabric was directional but it is. Deciding whether it is worth fixing, or if I should just save it for the next giveaway. It's not a big deal, a baby isn't going to care which way the trucks go, but I do. Oh well. Guess I need to triple check next time.

 Last night was a busy night. My husband was out hanging with work friends so I spent over 3 hours at my sewing machine. It was nice. Finished my daughter's doll quilt. Just did stitch-in-the-ditch around the blocks.

 She picked this flannel for the back from my stash.

 Off to school this morning to show it off. Had to use flash for these pictures as there wasn't enough daylight here that early. She seems very happy with it, although she thought it was going to be bigger.

 Also finished this Laundry Day quilt last night. It will also get posted in the shop this weekend. I have the fabrics ready to make some more of these, just need to finish some other projects first.

 Borders ironed, cut and sewn on last night. Now it is ready to be quilted.

 Also got the borders on my February UFO. Terrible light this morning. It looks great in person. Maybe I'll have to hang it on the line outside for a better picture. I think what stopped me from finishing this quilt before was that I wasn't sure how I wanted to attach the leaves and stems. Thought about it last night as I was sewing and think I have decided so I am looking forward to adding them very soon.

I also got 2 quilts basted and the backs for 2 other quilts completed last night. Looks like I have a busy weekend ahead of me.

5 weeks, no fabric bought! I am so proud of myself! Only 3 weeks left. Go see if everyone else stayed on their diets this week.