Not exactly according to plan.

3 Comments

This is my year of WIPs. One part of that has been to focus more on WIPs than on starting new projects and don’t get me wrong, I have done that. Mostly. I’ve completed 11/19 so far and then…

You know I started a few things. A gift, a shawl, some socks… and I’ve finished all those things! The gift is obviously not popping up here and I still need to weave in the ends on the shawl but the socks! I finished the socks!

These are Harriet’s socks, made for my mom’s dear friend Harriet. I used some long-hoarded lolodidit in the colorway “Don’t Stop Believin'” – I hear she likes them. I also finished the pink and yellow pair I was knitting back in the summer, but I didn’t take a picture of them… I’ll pop them on here some time.

Happily we had a lot of fun over the summer. We kind of turned over a new leaf – we went swimming a bunch and went kayaking a lot – it was great. My little brother and his wife came up and we took them out on the lake complete with coffee and cool breezes.

While the sibs were in town, I got out my crochet blanket and had a good think with my SIL. In the above shot, the bottom strip is my old WIP. One challenge with that pattern was that I struggled to get in a good rhythm with it as a newbie crocheter. We looked for a pattern that a bit more simple than that, but still different than my granny stripe blanket. I went with the Easy Eyelet Ripple Blanket by Attic24.

I’ve put a bunch more rows on and am now a good fifth of the way in or so. I’m not rushing on this one but I know I’ve picked a good pattern when it’s tempting to just pick it up and add one more row.

I’m thrilled to share this little beauty – a dear friend had a baby this fall and I sent this along for baby snuggles. This is the Trippy Quilt pattern by Southern Charm Quilts. I had never made a trip around the world quilt and this was a fun way to dip my toes in. I have to tell y’all, Melanie of Southern Charm has an online class for this pattern all about accuracy and I found it so helpful! This is certainly not my first quilt but her tips and tricks are amazing! I highly recommend trying it out to learn about quiltmaking or just to brush up on your skills.

I machine quilted it myself and really love how that came out. And last, but not least at all, I tried big stitch quilting for the first time.

How sweet is that? Once I got going this was a joy. I used a perle cotton #8 and just went for it. I am really looking forward to adding this detail to other projects.

Speaking of binding, I picked up the Granny’s Garden quilt and bound exactly one corner of it and put it back down. If you’ve been around here for any amount of time, you know that binding tends to languish for me even though I like the finishing process. I’ve got a stack of four quilts (with two at the long-armer) to bind before the end of the year – I really don’t want them laying around after that. Send motivation!

One thing I’ve really learned this year is how much I enjoy a leader/ender project. If you’re unfamiliar, some quilters, including yours truly, have a practice to “sew over scraps” at the end of a line of sewing. This helps keep your thread from nesting and tangling when you start the next line. These scraps are often called leaders and enders and since you’re already taking the time to sew a few more inches, it’s a good opportunity to make that a real seam for a real block. I did this for my Split 9 Patch quilt over a few months and now I’ve moved on to using my Betsy 9 Patch pieces in the same way. I went on a tear a couple of weeks ago and cut all the pieces and finished up my in-progress blocks.

Pleased as punch that I went with pink – these are coming out great.

I have discovered a terrifying trend… my socks are really starting to wear out. Mine apparently wear most at the ball of the foot and now I have a big pile of darning. I’m thinking of having a little bit of cozy darning weekend over the holidays or in the new year, but in the meantime I’ve decided to start to cast on some socks. These were the first on that list and are first for me – worsted weight socks! I’m using Knit Picks Felici Worsted in the Aquarium colorway.

So all of that brings us to the current state of affairs. I was very inspired by an outfit post on instagram with a floral skirt and handknit sweater that just spoke to me. Around the same time, my craft friends were all talking about knitting the Zweig sweater and I had been resisting but this combination was too much for me to resist. I went to my stash…

I was so excited by this pull that I immediately swatched and cast on the next day.

Now about a week and a half later we’re really cooking with gas.

Can you stand it? This is the Zweig sweater by Caitlin Hunter. I’m using Woolberry Fiber Co in Deepest Ocean for the main color (dark green) and Farmhaus Fibres in Glacier (light blue). I haven’t picked anything up for a moment since.

Well, there you have it. Not as much #yearofwips progress as I’d have been expecting here in November, but the heart wants what the heart wants. And mine wants a new outfit for Thanksgiving.

Happy making!

In a galaxy far, far away.

5 Comments

A long time ago… I cut over 1000 little squares.

Back in 2008, I had wanted to dip my toes into quilting and so I started a hand-pieced quilt (more on that soon). In short order, mom convinced me to give machine piecing a try. I quickly sewed up a Turning Twenty quilt top and was over-excited about my new hobby. (I know, hard to imagine) I went right out and purchased fabric for my next quilt and cut all the fabric

I got discouraged on the Turning Twenty quilt soon after which left me packing all of my quilting supplies up and not touching any of it again for years and years.

Fast forward to 2016 – I happened upon all of my old quilting stuff at mom’s and decided to finish up that old quilt top. You can read its full story here, but we’re here to talk about all those squares. I was just getting back into sewing at that point, so I sewed up a few squares in what I thought the pattern had been.

Now, for some of my first sewing in nearly a decade that’s pretty darned good. I wanted to practice more before I tackled this one and honestly, I was pretty daunted by all those squares. I still think it’s a bit intimidating – I’ve made a nine patch quilt. So I packed it up again.

Now we’re in present day and you may recall that I found this quilt again a few months back. Now seemed like the perfect time to tackle this monster. I’ve got a good number of quilts under my belt and it is the year of wips, after all. The big problem here was that I was reasonably sure that the sample blocks I had made in 2016 weren’t the right pattern.

I do have vague memories of what the pattern book looked like but it seems to be long gone from mine or mom’s possession. So I turned to a bit of math influenced brainstorming. I had conveniently written the quantities of each size square: 560 dark 2.5″ squares, 420 light 2.5″ squares, and 140 each light and dark 2 7/8″ squares. After figuring out that the 2 7/8″ squares would be used for two-at-a-time HSTS, we were on our way.

I brainstormed, I mathed, I looked up countless nine-patch variations until finally, I had it! This is called a split nine patch, though that is also conveniently what the other, wrong sample block is called but that’s quilt patterns for you. With that sorted, I decided to use these squares as leaders and enders for my sewing projects.

I sorted all the squares in a serious effort to have the fabrics well distributed. Whenever I was sewing a quarter inch seam, I sewed two 2.5″ squares together. When I was doing anything else, like snowballing or flying geese, I did the HSTs. I made quite a bit of progress that way.

Last weekend, I decided to to just get cracking and try to get the top finished. The first step was to deconstruct those old blocks so my seam ripper and I had a nice little party. With that done, I really got moving – chain piecing is so satisfying when you have a good audiobook, a hot cup of coffee, and endless seams to sew.

Now, I’m a big fan of nesting seams so I’ve divided everything into two sets of blocks – “in” and “out.” I press all the in-block seams toward the middle and the out-block seams toward the external squares. Since the piecing is all identical, all you have to do is alternate ins and outs and voila! Nested seams. I made 70 in blocks first:

And then I made 70 more…

Finally, I was ready to start laying them out. I think the original pattern I picked out was set in furrows, but I decided to try something with a bit more pizazz.

It took me forever to lay this out! I also got the in’s and out’s confused more times than I’d like to admit. I honestly didn’t worry too much about fabrics being next to one another. The only swaps I made in the layout were to distribute that gold a little bit. I really don’t love assembling quilts, so it took me a few more weeks to get it done, but now it’s a quilt top!

I can’t believe it’s done! I have to say, I don’t think I’d choose these fabrics today, but the finished top is pretty amazing. I’m so proud of myself for getting this one done finally! This is finish 11 of 19 for my year of WIPs (#10 is a gift, so you’ll see it way later) – we’re over halfway there!

All in all, I’m very proud of how well this one came out. One of the biggest things I think I’ve learned over the last 13 years is that, for me, finished is better than perfect. I do my best and in the end my quilts always look good enough to snuggle under.

#yearofwips projects finished: 11 of 19

Happy making!

Eye of the tiger, anyone?

2 Comments

Well friends, it finally happened. I got COVID. I’m staying tucked away in the house, nice and isolated, which isn’t the worst thing since we’re smack dab in the middle of this east coast heat wave. 99 degrees F outside? No thank you. Thankfully, I’m vaxed and boosted so even though I feel poorly, it’s like a bad cold.

As I sit here on the couch all day, I’ve realized that I’ve hardly posted to the blog at all! You know what that means – less text, more pictures! Cue up your 80s music, it’s montage time!

First off, I finished up my travel socks – these are in Stress Knits Yarn in the Sunflower colorway.

I finished my other travel socks – these are in A Homespun House in the Sugared Sweeties colorway

Last sock finish – Mom’s Mother’s Day socks. I knit these out of some Norah George Yarns in Apple Blossom – pretty deep stash from at least 4 years ago.

Kevin and I went up to Boston for a concert and I cast on another pair of travel socks. This is their current state, but it’s been a bit since I’ve worked on them. The yarn is A Homespun House again – main color is Pastel Paint Princess and the contrast is Marigold.

In early June, I took a little trip with my Mom. I had planned to make us both dresses, but only hers were successful. And really only one of hers was successful. This is the Popover Dress from the book Gertie Sews Jiffy Dresses. I just didn’t love the finished product on me and I made one of mom’s dresses a bit too small. Anyway, the green and purple one turned out great and mom loved it! She’s such a cutie patootie!

We really had a blast. We took walks, had port in the library every evening, and generally enjoyed just having lots of time together. Oh, and we went yarn shopping.

We went to A Likely Yarn in Abingdon, VA where they were having a Red Stag Fibre trunk show. One of the samples was Exploration Station (pattern by Stephen West) – a long time to-knit of mine – and mom just loved it! We decided to get yarn and cast them on together!

That’s about how far we got on the trip. Once we got home, I became obsessed. I have loved knitting this shawl. I made one yarn substitution, switching out the beige. All my current colorways are listed on my Ravelry project page.

This is the current state of the shawl, about halfway through the third section – so enjoyable.

I tried to balance shawl knitting with hand quilting my Norah Quilt, but it really didn’t last.

Continuing in the world of log cabins, I put together another month’s worth of blocks for my Avonlea quilt.

Next, I took a quick interlude to bind these two beauties, which you can read about here and here.

Looking for another quick finish on the #yearofwips, I finished hand piecing one final block for this ancient (oldest WIP I own) log cabin project. I hand pieced the blocks together and voila!

It’s a mini quit top! It’s currently sitting all basted and ready to go for some hand-quilting, which I just haven’t gotten to. Quick finish, right.

Not feeling like hand quilting, I picked up some this WIP. Needle turn applique is still pretty slow for me and I haven’t gotten any momentum going on this project, either.

Last but not least in this little train of get out the project and promptly put it down – we have Fairytale Forest. I finally decided to trim and assemble all the blocks I had done – a whopping 6 of 25.

They are pretty, though aren’t they? I am looking forward to getting back into this one.

You may be wondering what on earth I’ve been really been doing with all this a little bit here and a little bit there. Well, I have been working on these socks – they’re a secret gift so I can’t spill who they’re for – in some mega deep stash (dare I say 6 or 7 years old?) from lolodidit in the colorway Don’t Stop Believing.

I’ve also been obsessed with this quilt I’m making for mom. She knows I’m making it and has even picked out some of the fabrics, but that’s it so this is about all I can show you. Cosi really likes how the quilt is turning out and he’s helped a lot.

And there you have it folks – months of making in a flurry of pictures. I hope you are having a great weekend and until next time!

Happy making!

Scrappiest and happiest.

3 Comments

I love scrap quilts. I’ve long been fascinated by the many fabrics and interesting visuals that scrappy quilts include. Though I love the look, the process seemed daunting for the longest time. I’ve often used curated bundles for my quilts or kits – now I’m working on branching out on my own.

My scrappy Homespun Quilt is all done! I finished the top back in May last year, right as we were really gearing up the house hunting. This might be my favorite quilt of mine – I just love how all the fabrics play and that scrappy background was the best decision.

Here’s a close-up of the finish. The quilting is from Tera of The Quilting Smith – it’s pink thread and the whimsy of it just sends me. The pattern is by Modernly Morgan and I couldn’t recommend it enough, such a great little block. This came out to 48″ by 63″ – I did 12 blocks to get an in-between sizes in the pattern. Go back and take a look at this post from last May to see a close up of all the blocks, they’re pretty great.

I had this green print hoarded for quite a while and just seemed to fit somehow. Add to that some pretty pink striped binding and it’s just the finish of my dreams.

I could just gush and gush and gush. It feels great to get another wip off the list and onto the couch!

#yearofwips projects finished: 9 of 19

Happy {scrappy} making!

Simple, yet effective.

2 Comments

Among a number of more intricate pieces I’ve worked on yet, this next finish is the utmost in easy and simple. Ironically, it was going to be quite a bit more complex, but ended as one of my favorite finished is better than not projects.

Rainbow quilt of wonders, I love you. I started this project back in… 2019 I think. I had 2 jelly rolls of the Kona rainbow and had planned to make a bargello quilt. I started sewing strips together one day and just didn’t start back on any day after.

When we were planning to move, I had a look around the sewing room and this WIP jumped out. I decided to just finish it one way or another. I trimmed each side even and matched up the seams and colors to get a pretty large quilt. I lost quite a bit in the trimming, but it still wound up 67″ x 82″. I had also been wanting to try minky for a backing and this seemed like a great time to give it a whirl. I sent it off to Tera at The Quilting Smith – she’s a joy to work with, by the way – and we went with baptist fans. Let me tell you the quilting is just perfect.

That green minky – this is the texture dream we’ve all been waiting for…

I machine bound the quilt with some raspberry colored solid – I think it’s Kona but I’m not positive. Still practicing the machine binding, but it’s pretty good, I think. All in all, it came together so well.

This is project 8 of 19 finished this year for my year of wips. Y’all, I couldn’t be happier that I took the easy way out on this one. I love a long project – hello appliqué? – but sometimes something simple can be so very satisfying. And you know I’m a fan of crossing things off my list.

#yearofwips projects finished: 8 of 19

Happy making!

Travel socks and other fun.

Leave a comment

Happy spring! I am writing from my hotel room in New York City, I’ve got some downtime during my work trip and thought I’d better write before I finish all my trip knitting in one go.

You may recall that I cast on a new pair of socks for my trip to Charlotte back in February. I’ve kept them solidly to travel knitting since, but they are coming along. I just adore that color – Sunflower by Stress Knits Yarn.

After I finished my Habitation Throw, I had a craving for more knitting. I decided to just pick out something happy and speckly and here we are. This is Sugared Sweeties by A Homespun House. I powered through that first sock before I decided it was time to pick back up on one of my year of wips projects. Since the last two were pretty easy wins, it felt like the right time to go back to a project that’s a bit bigger and more challenging.

That’s right, I’m back to hand quilting. I’ve finally started to get my rhythm going with hand quilting on this full size quilt. It’s been a real struggle in the past, I’ve tried a bunch of different techniques and none have really felt right. It is definitely not perfect, not even particularly neat, but it’s coming along and that’s what counts in my book. I do want to try to get the stitches a bit smaller but no bother. I’ve got a fair chunk done now!

Isn’t it great? Speaking of quilting, I have a sneak peek for you! Just before I left for this trip, I got my Granny’s Garden quilt back from the long armer – it’s so amazing!

That’s pretty much it for today. I’ve made a good bit of sock progress since I took those pictures last weekend so how about one more update before we go?

Nothing like a rainy evening in the big apple to cuddle up with some cozy sock knitting.

Happy making!

I guess you can technically throw it.

3 Comments

One thing I’ve learned in quilting is that I like a pretty specific size when it comes to throw size. Some patterns come in quite small and some quite large. I’d go large if I had to, but for me, the perfect size is around my wingspan wide and around my height long. Just right for snuggling under. My latest finished object is not exactly that big.

This is the Habitation Throw – a pattern by Helen Steward of Curious Handmade. Now, please don’t get me wrong – I knew going in that this would be small and let’s be honest, I have no interest in knitting a blanket that’s any bigger. I really enjoyed this project but I did have a bit of an existential crisis somewhere around the halfway point. I started thinking about my blanket preferences and contemplated making it double size to get to full on throw blanket status.

But then I thought about how chilly my shoulders get sometimes when I’m snuggled up with a quilt but working on something with my hands – and there was the answer. It’s a Throw (around your shoulders) Blanket. Do you have these internal battles with yourself? Sometimes I wind up scrapping a project like this when it’s not meeting my expectations, but sometimes I can reframe and get to a happy place.

I’m glad we made it to a happy place because this guy is pretty sweet. I used the Stress Knits Yarns 2021 advent calendar minis and the Christmas day full skein. I weighed each mini before I attached it and used about 10g before ending with a wrong side row and switching colors. I used a bit extra of the last skien of yarn but I had planned it that way.

This completes another Year of WIPs finish! I’m feeling well on track with this goal and really loving getting things completed. Finishing things really is just as fun as starting them… almost.

#yearofwips projects finished: 7 of 19

Happy making!

I changed my mind.

2 Comments

My Dad always used to tell a story about me as a very small child, ordering ice cream. I switched my order while we were waiting in line and then was all surprised – “I changed my mind!” – as though it hadn’t occurred to me that I could do such a thing. Many years later and I’ve just had a similar experience. I changed my mind.

I’ve been stitching away on my first cross stitch project for the year of WIPs. As I’ve gotten closer to finishing one, of course I started thinking about the others. Of the four projects, two happen to be Halloween themed. I used to just love Halloween but I’ve moved away from that these days. I’ve been worrying quite a lot about what I’d do with two sizeable Halloween cross stitch pieces that are hardly started.

And then it dawned on me… I can change my mind! Thinking back a few years ago, I challenged myself to a WIP wipeout – I made a big list of projects and either finished or frogged them all. Things change and you fall out of love and that’s ok. I’ve decided to frog the Halloween cross-stitches. I can reclaim the fabric for another project down the line and devote that time to something I do love.

I’ve been worrying about what this means for the year of WIPs but it’s my year, right? Crossing off is crossing off. These guys won’t be taking up brain or drawer space anymore. Speaking of crossing off…

I finished it! This was much faster than expected, especially after I got started. I felt like it was going so slowly. It only took 11 days of working on this in the evenings and we’re all done. This pattern is from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I purchased this kit back in 2017-ish and started it soon after purchase. It’s hard to see in pictures, but the linen is actually sparkly – so sweet.

I stitched in hand back in the day, so I finished this one in the same fashion. I don’t know how I feel about that method, I think I’ll try my next project with a hoop. It was all crinkly so I gave it a good press today and voila! ready to go the framer.

I suppose this is technically 3 projects off the list, but I’m going to adjust the total (AGAIN). We’re really moving along! I’ve done a lot of hand stitching of late so I think I’ll pick up some knitting next. Can’t stray too far from my first love, can I?

I encourage you to put your energy into projects that you love. It’s ok to frog something, reclaim the materials for yourself or a friend or even to donate. Sometimes it feels great to change your mind!

#yearofwips projects finished: 6 of 19

Happy making!

Because of course I did.

2 Comments

Hi friends, it’s been a while. February felt like a bit of a blur – I always feel like I’m going to hunker down and get a lot done in February, but it doesn’t always pan out. This year, I’ve been making slow and steady progress on lots of things (most of them WIPs). Once I finished the Granny’s Garden quilt – it felt like a whole new world had opened up! First off, I didn’t have much to go so I just powered through the socks I had on the needles.

They turned out pretty cute! These socks are plain old vanilla, my regular go to. The yarn is Opal in the Juniper Height (9851) colorway. They’re cute and comfy. I cast these on back in October so it’s nice to have them finished. They are WIP 5/20 for my year of wips.

I finished those right before I took a quick flight down to NC to go to a concert with my brother and sister-in-law. I was only there for about 22 hours, but I knew the flights would need a sock. I wasn’t really ready to take a blanket or cross stitch, so I just had to pick out yarn for a new sock cast on.

I picked Stress Knits yarn in the Sunflower colorway because the yarn was wound up (can’t remember why) and I thought socks in this color will just be amazing. I spent that day with the sibs in Charlotte where we wound up checking out the NASCAR museum first…

and then hit the concert at the end of the day…

I had such a good time just escaping for a day to hang out with these two. I was up the next morning at 5 to catch the plane home, so I didn’t knit quite so much as usual. This sock is tucked back away waiting for next weekend – my first work trip in two years!

After all of this, I was tooling around my sewing room, putting away some scraps when I suddenly came across a plastic baggie labled, you guesed it, “projects.” Luckily there was just one in there, but still…

This isn’t too bad, just a wee clamshell panel. I fancy I’ll do a bit better on it now that I’ve got so much more applique experience under my belt, but needle turn is still a bit of magic to me. I started this project back in 2019 and this makes 21 total projects on the list. I really really think that’s it.

With this project added, I saw I have 10 hand projects (hand-sewing, knitting, and crochet) on the list and 10 months left. Not too bad, just need to finish one a month and I’ll be golden. I decided to pull out a cross stitch project for March.

And this is my progress to date. I’ve added the sheep, barn, and grass so far. It’s slower going than I expected, but that’s the way it goes. This is a pattern from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I started this back in 2017 – I spent a solid 6 or 7 months enamoured with cross stitch and then never picked it up again. I’m not in love with the process, but I’m finding my rhythm.

At the sewing machine, I’ve been working on catching up with my Avonlea quilt. I’ve completed January and am working on February now. These four blocks are the very center of the quilt. I just love how log cabin blocks come together.

And then… I saw some quilters on instagram talking about pulling out their Betsy stashes and so I just had to pull mine…

It’s so pretty. Y’all know I have a love affair with the Betsy pattern by Liberty. Last year, I made a Betsy mini quilt last year and so when Bec of Sew.Be put out the idea of a Betsy nine patch quilt, I just haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. Going through my stash, I pulled out a few solid pink fabrics that I thought might work for the background.

After a lot of hemming and hawing, I went with the middle color here. The sewalong aims to make four blocks a week. I’m starting with two blocks from each fabric and the results are pretty snazzy.

Well that’s it for now. How long do you think it will be before I discover another latent WIP? Start another project? Inspiration seems to be everywhere, year in and year out, so I’m not mad.

#yearofwips projects finished: 5 of 21

Happy making!

Granny’s Garden.

5 Comments

Is this my Everest? Perhaps. It feels like I’ve slayed the beast.

Cosi feels the same way, we’ve been revelling in our victory. My Granny’s Garden quilt top is finished.

Can you believe it? Two and a half years in the making, a solid 60 hours of prep, and probably around 150 hours of hand sewing – this was a lot of work but the so very worth it. I just love it.

This was an insta-love pattern for me. The pattern and all the fabrics are by Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet. This is called Granny’s Garden and I used the full quilt kit with all fabrics from Lori’s Granny Chic line. I hand appliqued all the flowers and the scalloped border. I used Lori’s suggested interfaced applique technique – you can read all her advice on her blog. I had never never never appliqued a thing when I started this project. I learned a lot and this method really did work well. My one gripe is that prep took a long long time – but sometimes that’s just the way.

The execution took some time, but once I buckled down and focused primarily on prepping in the mornings before work and appliquing in the evenings after supper it just started to flow. It took the better part of six weeks once I got rolling again this year. It’s finish 4/20 for my year of WIPs and what a finish it is! I’m shipping it off for quilting this week. I had toyed around with thoughts of machine or hand quilting it myself, but y’all – this sucker is heavy.

I love you, Granny’s Garden.

#yearofwips projects finished: 4 of 20

Happy making!