Bringing this Blog up to date! ! !

Love these clear clogs ! ! ! Sloggers ! ! ! Great way for me to show off my hand-knit socks.

[Look good with my workpants, huh ? ? ? ]
Sloggers were a little wide even with the knit sox so put inner soles in and now they're a real good fit.

Frogged my first pair of Magic Loop sox to use the yarn in this pair of Regia Kaffee Fassett Design using Melissa Morgan-Oakes' Twilight Pattern, but I knitted toe-up. I'm really glad I re-knit that first pair. The tension was way to loose and now that this new pair is finished, I'm really glad I decided to re-make the pair. These feel and fit soooo goooood.

Stopped at Hillcreek Yarn Shoppe after lunch at T.G.I.Friday's this week and fell in love with the yummy brown woo/bamboo yarn. Have already begun knitting a Toe-Up version of Melissa's Classic Sock pattern. They're to be for Ron. Yahoo ! ! !

Aside from listening to audiobooks and knitting, I've been working on my newest X-Block quilt top. It's really moving along in spite of the limited time I'm sitting at the Featherweight.

Have already begun planning another version of Mo's Basket pattern, my third.

Here's the Sugar Maple pair just as I've completed the heel and ready to begin the gusset.
Ron and I went to Columbia for lunch at The Cracker Barrel. Lots of people had the same destination for lunch. We had a delicious meal and ate to beyond full. Yummy grub for such a cold, cold day. Winter's showing the last of herself with a blustery and misty day.
Just north of Columbia woke this morning to a quarter-inch of snow. Some in Columbia lost power over night due to the fierce winds. Jeff had the wind, but no precip.

Dropped in both yarn stores while we were up there. The pair of Sloggers that I ordered over a month ago finally came in, so picked those up then went on to True Blue Fiber Friends where I found this lovely sock yarn for my stash. It's TOFUtsies [toe-foot-sies]. 50% superwash wool, 225% soysilk fibers, 22.5% cotton, and 2.5% Chitin. Ahhh, you want to know what the heck Chitin is, right? "Chitin is fiber from shrimp and crab shells! It's naturally antibacterial!"
Guess that sez it all.

So Comfy - and some WIPs

Well, here they are! ! ! I made the cuff a little short and very loose. I love the way they fit. Though I think casting on only eight stitches [toe-up] left them a little pointy and so I cast on sixteen on the pair I started with the Opal yarn.
Ahhh, another view of my feet, sox and the Socka Colori. Love this self-patterning yarn.
This pair made with the Opal [cast on 16 sts] was started so that I can knit-along with a dear friend who got me interested in Magic Loop knitting. We began these socks Monday and will meet again when we both get the the heel. We'll work that together and then we'll be home free.
The foot and cuff will be in a K1P1 ribbing. However, - - -

this pair of Regia cuff down] is Melissa's Sugar Maple pattern. Such delicate little twists. It's a fun [reads easy!] pattern with terrific results. I'm in love.

I know I have several WIPs going but it's hard to stay on one fabulous yarn when there are more waiting to slip through my fingers.

BTW, that's my Vintage Stitches Thimbleberries quilt. Daughter Debbie did the coloring with crayons and heat set them so the colors will stay.

Now that I've my X-Block demo for our Quiltin' Chicks Social given Thursday evening, and my X-Block Workshop project finished for show-n-tell at the quilt guild in Columbia this afternoon, I can relax for a bit. [I'll post pics of my workshop wallhanging in the next couple of days. It turned out great.]

Hurray for the Red, White & Blue

Red, White & Blue! ! ! ! 1776! ! ! ! Fourth of July! ! ! ! Stars and Stripes ! ! !

These are being knitted from the Toe-Up, what a hoot!

Can't wait to wear them on the up-coming holidays - Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day and of course whenever I feel especially patriotic ! !

I'm going to begin another pair of Toe-Up Sox soon with the Opal Yarn from the previous post. A multi-color yarn with a multitude of colors - lavender, yellow, mint, blue, etc., etc. They should look pretty darn good. I'm searching through Melissa Morgan-Oakes book "2-at-a-time Socks" for a pattern for the leg, there are so many to choose from.

Hey, did I tell you that I received my signed bookplate from Melissa and have stuck it right on the opening page. WoooHooo ! ! !

Establishing My Yarn Stash

Made a trip to Hillcreek Yarn Shoppe [Columbia] and picked these up.

The Regia is the Red-Violet-Pink Family and will result in a wonderful free-form design when knitted.

The Opal is a self-striping yarn that has fairly bright party colors.

And the Socka Color will self-pattern into a wonderful pair of Toe-Up sox in time for the Summer! ! !

All are Superwash Wool-Nylon mix sure to look and feel great and should be long-wearing.

Knit ! ! Purl ! !

Second Pair Finished ! ! !

View from the top !

Can you believe it? This pair was a fairly simple pattern as it was just a 1:1 ribbing, but boy, do I love 'em.

This is the hand-painted yarn, the coloring is going to look great with my new pair of Sloggers Clear Clogs once I get 'em. I'm just waiting for an e-mail from the yarn shop so we can drive up to pick the up and to shop for yarn for the next pair of socks.

I'm thinking about looking at yarn for the summer season, something in a lighter color than these first two pair.

Looking at the pics, it looks as though there's a stripe in the leg section and an entirely different look in the foot. Cool.

I ribbed the leg and the top knitting the sole in stockinette.

Time for New Shoes is Coming Closer . . . .

Just beginning the cuffs.
Am already dreaming about shoes to wear with my new sox.

Hand-Painted Yarn

Bought this at Hillcreek Yarn Shoppe [Columbia] and will use the ribbing pattern from a handout from the shop for Toe Up Socks even thou I'll be knitting them the conventional way - cuff down.

I enjoy using the 40" circular needle and knit these "Magic Loop" socks [two at a time].

Oh, shoes for showing off all my hard work . . . . .

Finished ! ! !

My first finished pair of 2-at-a-time socks.

The Berry Season pattern is taken from Melissa Morgan-Oakes' "2-at-a-time SOCKS" knitted on a Skacel AddiTurbo 40" circular needle. The self striping yarn is Regia 4-Fach Haltbar Designer Line by Kaffee Fassett in 'landscape fire'.

Don't they look Fine? Now, I must shop for a pair of shoe that will show 'em off just so ! ! !

Contrast = Value

Since the Quilt Guild program on the color wheel, I’ve been trying to make certain I’ve enough contrast in my projects. In doing my second X-Block quilt top I selected a trio of prints, placed them on the pressboard, walked across the room and and squinted at them - thought there was enough contrast and then before I cut I took the digital camera and shot a couple of pics. Used the regular color mode,

then black and white mode. I thought the b&w I was as much help as either.Went to Barnes & Noble for decaf and to browse the mags and knitting books. Only really interested in knitting sock and especially on a circular needle. Am beginning a pair knitted from the cuff down just to get into the knitting mode again. Really want to knit a pair from Toes-Up ! !

So many beautiful yarns available.

Results of My Organization Spree

My stash now resides in boxes labeled and arranged by color and by each category. I may not be able to see all the colors, but will have the satisfaction of uniformity.

And now that I have these labeled I can see the UFOs sitting right in front of me waiting their turn to come out of their box.

I hope to finish a number of these UFOs this year.

This closet holds my buttons, bias tapes/bindings, lace, elastic, stabilizer pieces, spray sizing, and my various hoops.

My pressboard and my design wall are convenient to each other. While I really love my pressboard that Ron and I made [24" x 48"] I know I do need to make a more permanent and larger design wall.

I hope to make more throw-sized quilt tops than queen so a 50" x 70" design wall would be more convenient than what's up on my wall now.

While we were in Columbia yesterday we stopped at the yarn store. So many luscious yarns.

Strip Clubbing

is the title of the book that Nancy C. told me about on her last visit. Just the thing for clearing out those 'stash' fabrics that have been hanging around for a while.

Easy to cut, easy to piece. Quick, quick, quick.

I love the geometric side of quilting. Look long enough and there are all sort of hidden treasures.

Even before I cut the inner border for this top, I'm going to nose around my stash for something interesting so that I can begin cutting for my second X-Block project.

Hmmmmm . . . . . .

Woke Up This Morning

and this was the scene out our windows.

We had gotten up about midnight and switched on the yard light and was the snow ever coming down. Large, large flakes of wet snow.

This afternoon the temp is close to forty degrees and the snow is melting and should be just about gone by tomorrow afternoon if the temp reaches the 54 degrees they forecast.

Here's a quick shot of Thimbleberries Vintages blocks set together with TB's Star Flower Pattern. I liked the diamonds going up and down the throw. Just the right size to cover up with these winter evenings while we listen to audiobooks.

I began this pattern a couple of days ago and this was the quick mock up before setting the top together. I think I'm going to like this quick way to use up all those Fall Floral fat quarters that have accumulated in my stash.
I'll have a photo of this finished by tomorrow, I hope.

Free-motion and Facing

Last Fall I played with some free-motion stitching. I stitched out the doorway and then attached it to the NYC skyline piece of fabric that was a leftover from a purse project and then free-motion stitched that.

It's been waiting around patiently 'til I had the time and reason for finishing it into something. Well, I've been wanting to try my hand at using a facing for the back of wallhangings and now that I've completed the big 'Re-Organization' the doorway to NYC found it's way to the top of the pile and was perfect for my facing attempt.

For the backing I used a fat quarter Hoffman Challenge sent me, and a cabbage fat quarter for the facing. [Perhaps the cabbage thought they'd land up kraut before I got around to using it.]

I like the way it turned out. Really quick and simple.

Sock Fest

The quartet of sox were knitted on my blue round loom. They are all in the same stage - - ready to close up the toe to the body of the sock.

I didn't like the way the instructions for this particular sox pattern closed the opening, so I unfinished them and found my very old directions on weaving. However, these directions will take some concentration and the past several evenings we've been listening to audiobook mysteries and they've taken my concentration.

The 'weaving' instructions were from a knitting class I took at a Sears store sometime in the sixties. You know it was some time ago when Sears sold fabric and yarn. The lone sock on the circular knitting needle is a project begun right around the same time. It doesn't look like it'll every be one of a pair. Sad, but true.

Renee will be at the Alaska Fiber Festival this Spring. The Festival is to be held in Anchorage. Is this gal going to be wide-traveler by the time she comes home to mid-Missouri.

My drawstring bag purse, Mid-Summer's Bloom, will be on display in Dade City, Florida at the Pioneer Museum this coming weekend. And then off to Tampa to be in the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo toward the end of February. The second weekend of March it'll be in the Atlanta Original Sewing and Quilt Expo.

I just attempted to 'Spell Check' this, however, doesn't appear Google is in the mood. So hope I caught my typos.

Miss Millie's Mystery Quilt

At long last, I can show off the mystery quilt that several of us tested prior to publication. The third and final part was published at the first of the month and this month's Thimbleberries Club was just the place to show it. Several of us brought our test quilts and we had a grand showing.

My first mystery quilt and I truly enjoyed the process as well as the finished project.

I tried to pick contrasting values so as to show off the design. I love the colors and just had to add the raw edge appliqué flowers and leaves. I love this throw and use it all the time. Thought it would be worn out by the time I got to show it.

Organizing

I'm happy to say that the project is just about finished ! ! !

The dining room/sewing area is still presentable - no overwhelming stacks of fabric or notions. Though I've not been doing much sewing, just a tad.

The 'Stash Room' is boxed and labeled. I couldn't think with all the clutter. So with many trips to Staples my stash is now boxed according to color, labeled clearly and placed on shelves in some kind of order. UFO's in one area, Orphans in another, Floral, Novelty, Geometrics and on and on are all neat and tidy. The obvious colors are placed on the shelves in 'color-wheel' order and easy to get to.

I can walk in the Stash Room door and not have to step over or move things to get access to my stash.

I'm a happy gal.

I enjoy hearing from all of you and am inspired to get down to the business of actually doing projects.

Since I will be doing a Doll Making Program at our Thimbleberries Club, I decided a couple of new gals to add to the mix is just the thing for my newest project. Just last night I was given some lovely violet lace [nice skirt for one of the new gals] as well as some interesting semi-vintage blanket binding that will do nicely for a dress or two. Can't wait.

Photos will be posted sometime this week so that you can see all that I've accomplished :)

Thimbleberries, too

This is the last of the four tabletoppers made the Cotton Theory method. At least for now.

This method is a pretty neat way to quilt-as-you-go. Works well for small projects now I'll have to plan a larger project, perhaps a throw, to see how it goes.

Love to explore all the ways of quilt-as-you-go! !

Am continuing to organize my 'stash/pressing' room, can at least walk from one side of the room to the other. The storage boxes have really made the room look organized, not as colorful as having all the fabric out, but at least more co-ordinated looking. Will post a pic before too long [that means just as soon as I work down to the top of my pressing board.

Butterflies and Surface Embellishment

After I free-motion stitched around the butterfiles in the center rectangle and the two border pieces, I turned the pieces over and saw that the yellow with the varigated thread were too stark. So I grated crayons onto each the yellow side of each piece. Then heat-set them by pressing with a hot iron several times. I kept the grated crayons off my pressboard pad by using parchment paper both beneath and atop the quilted pieces.

The tabletopper should be able to be laundered a number of times before there is any sign of fading.

I love the bright colors of this one!

Quilt-As-You-Go Tabletopper

The center of this topper I did free-motion stitching around the flowers then more or less straight stitching on the rectangles.