Friday Update with a Finish!

 Another week, no fabric bought. Yes, my mother gave me some but I didn't buy any. Yeah me! Check here to see how everyone else did this week.

 Getting ready for Friday Night Sew-In tonight. Basket quilt still not finished. The pattern I am testing for my sister is sitting to the left. Pieces are cut and ready to be put together.

 And a finish. Another pair of socks for me. Nice and bright to cheer me up with a house full of sick people (I am the only one to escape so far) and pouring rain outside, these socks definitely make me smile.

 Leg part of the sock. It is my first pair out of a book I got for my birthday. Not sure if I like the way the heel and gusset were done, but I still love them. The book did have the best explanation on how to do the Kitchener stitch at the toe

So what do you do when you have a finish? Start something else of course. I figure if I have one knitting project for me on the go and one for someone else I should be able to get a few things done this year. It's hard to do just knitting for others, so it is nice to work on something I get to keep. I also like to have one project using small needles (such as socks) and something on bigger needles to give my hands a break. This cardigan is done on circular needles and it's been awhile since I used them. Getting used to it though and enjoying how quickly this is working up. Also made my first knitted buttonhole last night and it wasn't difficult at all.

Come back tomorrow to see what I get done tonight. Still time to link up for FNSI!

I love my mom!

My mom knows I am on a fabric diet so when she mailed the birthday presents for my son (turning 5 on Sunday!), she included some fabric for me.

 The tree fabric on the right has been a favourite of mine for awhile. I only had a little square of it and now I have almost a full yard! Love the other 2 fabrics as well.

My mom had already sent me a yard of each of these already at Christmas. I liked them so much, she sent some more. She also sent along some Canadian chocolate. I love my Coffee Crisp!

Thanks mom! I love you, too!

Weekend Wrap-Up and a Challenge

 Jumper is finished! Everything turned out the right size except the neck, which was a little too wide. I used some decreases with the single crochet edging and was able to make it a bit smaller.

 I also decided to get rid of the little "v" that was in the middle of the front and made it a little "o" instead. I think this helped make it a little smaller. You can find the pattern for this jumper, here.

 I finally got around to putting the buttons on the tree quilt this weekend.  There are almost 40 buttons.

 Some of my favourites are these 2 snowman buttons that my mother gave me a few years ago. There is one on each side of the trunk.

 The cardinals. There are 7 of these at points on the tree, including the very top.

 Ribbon trees! I finished the 2 little ones on Christmas Eve, but ran out of ribbon for the big one. I bought some more ribbon on holiday clearance after Christmas and finally got them pinned in Saturday night. You can find out how to make your own, here. I might make some of these for gifts next year.

It's that time again! Go to Amy's blog and sign up. My challenge for this week is to finish quilting my UFO challenge basket quilt that got ignored this weekend while I finished other things. I have also challenged myself to test a pattern for my sister.

Here's a sneak peek of the pattern.

And the fabrics I picked to make it. I am finally using some of my "Greetings from Canada" fabrics that I have hoarded the last couple years. I think it will look great.

And if I don't get anything done the next few days, Friday Night Sew-In is this Friday! I've signed up, have you?

Friday Update

 My UFO Challenge quilt is under the needle. About half is quilted. Hope to find some time this weekend to finish it.

Second week of the Fabric Diet Challenge is over and I STILL haven't bought any fabric! My husband is so proud.

Next week should hopefully see some finishes because Amy is planning another One thing, One Week challenge and next Friday is another Friday Night Sew-In. I should be able to finish something, right?

Oh, and I finished knitting my niece's jumper last night. Just need to do the crochet edging and it will be ready to go. Good thing since her birthday is today, but they are out of town, so I knew I had a couple extra days to finish it. Hope to take pictures and mail it out tomorrow as they get home next Wednesday.

Design Table Monday?

I finished the front  of the jumper for my niece last night. I got the back cast on and a few rows done before it was time to head for bed.

This is what my quilt table looked like this morning. 5 quilt tops, some batting and backings, loosely piled, waiting to be finished. I have since basted the laundry day quilt and the baskets quilt and even started quilting the laundry day quilt. I wonder what my table will look like by the end of the week.

My husband's out of town tonight , so I am having  a date night. With a chick flick and my knitting. Maybe some chocolate, too.

There's progress, and then there's PROGRESS!

I was going to do a post last night to show the progress I had made this week. I took pictures Friday morning planning to post in the evening when I had more uninterrupted time. Instead of posting on Friday evening, I did some more work. Now you can really see the Progress I made.

Here's what I was going to post yesterday. All the fabrics for my UFO challenge (basket quilt), all ironed and pieces cut. Now this is what I did last night...

I sewed the blocks together and then ended up piecing the whole top! Love it. The fabrics I had planned changed as I was cutting. I hadn't planned on using the brown squares but nothing else seemed to go. Now to decided on the quilting.

I love the baskets. I was forced on size by the center fabric. I only had a small piece of it and the biggest square I could cut from it was 7 inches, finished, so my baskets had to fit in a 7 inch square too. So, that is what I started with. I really like how the handle turned out. I think it looks a lot like the baskets my sister designed, which you can check out here (I swear I designed this before looking at hers). She gave me the center fabric, the background fabric for the baskets and the above brown basket fabric for my 30th birthday and I have been saving them for a special project.

The other basket. This basket fabric is from my stash. The brown polka dot fabric is of course from the remnant bin at JoAnn's (what would I do without the remnant bin?) The outer green border is some of my favourite fabric which I used  in the Twiggy quilt I made for our bed last fall, which you can see in this post here.

Wednesday, I made a quick trip to JoAnn's to pick up needles for my niece's present. I knew I wouldn't get the scarf done in time. Here's what I completed between Wednesday evening and Friday morning.

I was able to get a bit more done Friday during the day and during our family movie Friday evening.

So, with a trip to JoAnn's on Wednesday, was I able to resist and stay on my Fabric Diet this week? YES! I didn't go on the fabric side of the store, even though the remnant bin was calling my name. I resisted, bought the knitting needles and left.  Maybe it's because my husband was with me. Head over to Cut to Pieces to read how others did this week. Thanks Angela for this great challenge.

After I pieced the basket top Friday night, I kept going on my "Little stack of things I need to finish and get off my quilt table". First, was adding borders to this laundry day quilt. The borders have been cut and waiting for a couple months. Not sure why I kept moving this project around. Now I just need to quilt it. And iron it.

All this table runner needed was the binding. Done!

I know.  It's a Christmas table runner. It will be a present next Christmas or go in the etsy shop in October or maybe a Christmas in July. There will be more Christmas themed finishes over the next couple weeks as there are a couple things I didn't finish in December.

Here's to Progress!

Knitting into the New Year

Happy 2011!

I spent a lot of time this weekend knitting.

Made a lot of progress on the scarf. About halfway done. I need to finish it as I need the needles to knit a gift for my niece. Trying to decide if I should just go buy myself a second set of needles or just hurry up and finish the scarf. Right now, I'm trying to finish the scarf... but we'll see what I think at the end of the week. This was going to be for me but now I think it is going to be a gift. This year I am trying to make all the Christmas presents (starting early, really early, for a change).

Started another pair of socks for myself. Nice and colourful.

Yarn for my niece, waiting for the knitting needles.

I do still quilt. The tree quilt is still waiting for its buttons to be put on. My UFO challenge quilt is waiting to be ironed.

Some mug rugs waiting to be quilted and some other little projects that need to be finished, including a Christmas table runner. 

I guess I should stop reading blogs and get to all my waiting projects.