Grace's Knits N Stitches

2010 Challenge - Recycling

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:45:00 +0000

I've a few other projects on the burner (the one i've plotted for my red yarn specifically - I'm really excited about that one, but that can wait ... for now ;) ), including a huge scheme for 2010. Now you've either run away screaming or are listening intently.

While i was hunting around for the rest of my costume for Hallowe'en, I saw sweaters at the thrift shop .. pretty nice shades of green that I liked .. and I thought .. I bet I could frog this and re-use this yarn for something that **I** like instead of someone's cast off .. (blinding nova light moment .. ) Well geeze why can't I?? so the mental plotting began .. but I didn't want to do this alone ... this seems like the perfect thing to do with your friends .. thrift shop shopping, frogging and knitting!! Yeah i was a wee bit pumped on it

I mentioned it to my one friend, Helene and she really likes the idea and is almost as excited as I am about it! Another friend of ours (Gina) was out of town and we've not had a chance to mention it to her yet, but I'm sure that she'll get kick out of it and be in full speed ahead .. (update .. Gina's in ;) )

I want to invite anyone that wants to recycle yarn for a knitted / crocheted project are more than welcome to join us .. we are all on ravelry, so it makes sense to do it there with postings to our blogs, web albums, etc etc etc .. Or if we opt not to do a ravelry group, we can use my blog here for links or even create a new one .. plenty of options to choose from!

Rules / Recommendations .. random thoughts ..

The basic plan is we start this in january 2010, you MUST use a recycled knitted garment garment / sheet / blanket etc.

Suggest frogging it from the collar down (thanx for the reminder T - who is joining us on the challenge ;))

This challenge is year-long - no rush for it .. something to pick and do when the urge pushes you

Yarn type, weight, colour, preferences are totally yours

You can do any pattern, but we are pushing for a sweater / jacket / cardigan type thing

For Yarn related projects, I recommend getting the largest size sweater to frog to ensure you have enough of that yarn colour - Men's sweaters can also be scooped for this

So this will be a recycled yarn knit a long (KAL) materials project for 2010 .. if you get it done before then, great .. start another if you'd like

I think this is going to be great - no group has been made on ravelry as yet - the logistics of it still have to be worked out, and of course there are ladies I want to invite personally before the group is active.

So welcome to the 2010 recycling challenge KAL .. If you're interested please drop me a line by email, here by leaving a comment (please include your return email addy so I can contact you) or send me a message thru my ravelry profile If your not a member of ravelry, you might want to join - if only for the pattern database. It seems to have the largest database in one spot for free patterns that I've found!

I look forward to hearing from everyone that wants to join us and sharing our projects and adventures while shopping for it!

One thing I should add .. if you don't knit / crochet, but want to do a recycle challenge .. then thrift shop clothing could be great for a quilt, new coat whatever .. as long as you use someone's castoff .. the whole idea of this challenge is to reduce / reuse / recycle ..

bobbling along ..

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:35:00 +0000

Progress has been made And not frogged :D **knitterhappydance I've made it thru the chart .. what I get to do now is 3 rows of purl, then 2 more bobble sections .. then the straight stocking stitch .. how cool is THAT?? I'm relieved that I've gotten this far and not had to frog it again ..

I got a few pics, and sorry that they aren't all that great .. a wee bit fuzzy and the colour (of course) is off .. I've not been able to get a consistent colour in any picture with this yarn .. but you do get an idea of the texture and pattern - which is part of what I wanted to do ..

knitless ...

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:41:00 +0000

This picture was taken on 27^th of October at our Knatter nite .. I meant to get this photo and a blog post up titled "Knitless since Tuesday", but it just didn't happen .. spending the next 2 days after this as a lump on the couch sick is reason enough .. I just didn't have the energy or inclination to hunt down a sweater that I wanted to do.

BUT

You knew there was a but .. heh .. I found one :D **knitterhappydance. And it is just wayyy to cute for words .. NOW .. I wasn't sure if I would use the purple still or try the cardinal red I have .. but I really do have that earmarked for a different project (I'll tell you about that one when I actually get to making it .. )

I found the Bobble-Edged Cardigan, a free pattern at unicornbooks.com. What I really like about this is that it's got texture, but a LOT of stocking stitch .. I've never done bobbles before so I really intrigued by it .. and of course the pattern ... what's rather unique about this is that it doesn't have traditional ribbing ... it uses bobbles for the ribbing .. how cool is THAT!

I've named this Bobble Cardi (ravelry project page) - for now .. until I can get more inventive with a name. The instructions are pretty straight forward - altho I did manage to have to frog it when I was at the 17^th row .. yeah i know .. you are NOT surprised ... What I had done, (even tho I made notes) reversed left front and right front on the chart .. I'm doing this pattern pretty much as written. Notice I said .. pretty much as written .. the one difference i'm doing here is that I'm doing the fronts and back as one-piece .. (no pics yet) and I'm doing the size 38 instead of the 40 since the last one I did was a 40. I still have the zipper that matches this yarn and I just might do a double bobble front ribbing instead of 1 row button band - the juries still out for now as I'm going to wait and see just how this fits me.

Gauge is "18 sts and 26 rows = 4" in st st using larger needles",larger needles being size 7. Well when I used the 7s for my swatch,I was like ½" smaller - so .. gauge for this yarn is same rows and stitches on size 8s .. and I tend to knit to gauge .. so I listened to my gut and we'll just have to see how right it is .. course I AM leaving wriggle room with the 'button' band :D

I just started the chart again and have hilighted my notes and specific points to remember lol .. I think that this one is going to work out .. I swear if I doesn't .. I'm going to trade off, throw out, sell, or burn this yarn!!

... crying ...

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:01:00 +0000

One of these days, I'm going to listen to my gut! I had a bad feeling about using the 10s with that pattern! I knit to gauge for one .. my swatch using 8s or 9s came out a ½" to small on the swatch .. BUT, the swatch was on stockinette stitch - NOT the cable pattern .. and I've been knitting long enough to know better that when you use a cable pattern, you should actually use smaller needles as it does create a LOT of give to the pattern .. bloody hell .. sigh

I KNEW it was going to be big on me .. but thought it would be okay if I could get the right collar on it .. but when I got the front ribbing for the zipper on it .. I decided there's NO way in hell this is going to work .. the length is good (my math coming into play here), the sleeve length is good .. it's not to bad across the back .. but the armpits are large enough to fit my family in, and the front .. oi vay! Plus the width of the front .. crap!!!

So I'm frogging it .. at this time, I've 3 of 5 pieces frogged .. took me over ½ the day to find all my seams and take it apart .. wowsers but do I do a mean seam! On this one piece that I'm working to unravel .. the knot is in there pretty good .. so I might have to give up and do some snipping to free my yarn from it's current hostage situation ..

I've a few other sweaters that I can do in it's place .. there's this absolutely darling one that I'm looking at .. my friend wants one of this lady's patterns and we are going to see if she'll do a deal of sorts for 2 patterns .. if so I'm going to do Katje - this is going to knit up so quick it's not funny! stocking stitch and seed stitch!! w00t w00t I could be wearing this in no time at all since it's seamless :D .. waiting to see what the designer has to say ..

But there's no super rush as hallowe'en is coming and I'm doing a friends costume as well as my own .. thank God for straight seams! LOL .. the worst is cutting it out! He's going to be Obi Wan Kenobi and i'm looking at padme amidala - raiding closets for mine :D

Anywho .. the Hoodie or Not is officially - NOT and 75% frogged at this point and time.

Knit 1 Purl 1 Knit 1 Purl 2 ** repeat ...

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:54:00 +0000

For almost ½ a year this sweater sat abandoned and neglected in my knitting bag and partially on my end table .. the cats didn't mind it as they had some soft yarn to kick around .. but i've hit overdrive with this in the past few months ... I'm sitting here trying to think of the time line and I'm pretty sure it was when I started the 10 - 7 shift over 2 months ago .. roughly .. so maybe mid august is when I actually picked this up again .. now at that time I only knitted a few rows once a week for our knatter .. but lately (you know it's getting colder here right?), I've been kicking it into gear so I can wear this at work :D .. I'm guessing (if and when I can actually get the time to work on it), that I've maybe a week of work left on it .. 3 if you include the math and me trying to avoid DOING said math :D heh

I brought my camera to knatter last week and had Helene take a pic of me front and back so I can show off what I've done so far .. I'm pretty pleased with it .. altho the shallow shoulders forced me to be creative with the collar now .. I wasn't going to do the hoodie that is with the pattern as there just isn't going to be enough yarn .. or there "MIGHT" be, but excuse me if I decided to chicken out on that experiment ..

I was going to use a taller standing collar to keep the back of my neck warm, but with how shallow the shoulders are, I thought that would look super funky .. so I'm doing a variation of a double folded shawl collar (or maybe a single .. depends on yarnage), I've already got the zipper and will be doing short ribbing for the edge as that follows the existing ribbing .. granted I could get away with even less as I do swim in this .. and I knit to gauge .. I KNEW I should have used 9s instead of 10s for this project .. ** sigh

I had almost reached this point when I found this pattern on Bernat .. I just about dropped a litter of kittens .. talk about exactly what I wanted .. WITHOUT the mental gymnastics with all that stoopid math .. ah well .. what can you do .. and I did look on Bernat when I was hunting for this pattern .. but hopefully I'll have this done in just over a week! I picked up the stitches the other nite and plan to do the ribbing, THEN battle the collar :D

striving for ... balance ....

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:30:00 +0000

It's an amusing concept .. really it is .. what makes it so amusing?? Well dictionary.com states that balance:

–noun
1. a state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight, amount, etc.
3. mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgment, etc.
24. to serve as a counterpoise to; counterbalance; offset: The advantages more than balance the disadvantages.

Well there's more, but these suit my purpose just fine - striving for balance in my life. When i had the that (*&#$)(*#$ 2 - 11 shift, i had NO life whatsoever - all i did was sleep and work .. and eat. With the next shift, I did MUCH better .. that one was 10am - 7pm - kind of a blechy shift - but compared to the previous one .. it was nirvana!! I got to see my family and see my friends ... During that shift we started to do knatter again ... once a week, we would get together; drink starbucks, knit or whatever hand project of choice we wanted to work on :D.

I finished my kitty quilt at knatter and it's even been washed too! my idea of raw edging the appliquilted parts worked like a charm .. they could fray a wee bit more to suit me, but it's still fantabulous! No pics of it yet .. but soon .. and imitating a lump on the couch under it just perfect! It was great to get this 10 year plotted and planned quilt done and usable!!

I was mid-way thru my sleeves for my "Purple Hoodie or Not", and in the the past 2 months, with mostly working on this once a week - I am now stitching the seams together! Even bought the zipper for it .. All I have left to do is the sleeve and side seams on both sides .. and it's got some serious heft to it .. boy is this gonna be nice and toasty warm! I'm guessing with Reg being gone for 3 weeks farm sitting, I'm going to have a load of time to watch NCIS and get this done :D

I'm going to use the red I have in this yarn for my next sweater .. I just LOVE what I've picked out ... but it might be a serious challenge and a half based on comments I've read .. but again .. I'm not one to NOT do something b/c it gives ppl issues .. heh . .if anything that's a goad for me to actually do it .. and this in red is going to be just so awesome! - Check it out .. Pasandra - Berroco.com Knits. I want to read it over before i jump in and see what all the fuss is about .. it's gorgeous and it'll be GREAT for work!!

heh .. my new shift which I've only been doing a week is 8 - 5 - sunday mondays off again .. which was my second choice .. but getting up at 6:30am is an adventure and a half LOL ~ but, the 7:30am wake up time got easier and easier for me .. right about now I need a sleep-deprived coma to help me along ... I might just do that on Sunday :D

Pic of Mock Up

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:28:00 +0000

As promised, here's a pic of the mocked up and basted hoodie sans sleeves. I had pics taken of the front too, but the edges were curled and just didn't look good at all! It was hard to get an idea of what it actually looked like with the edges curling like they are - I figured that would happen - only cure would have been to do a loose baste of the edges and draw them together like the old style hockey shirt necks. I figured I would pass .. afterall, this isn't the final piece - the purpose of doing the saddles was to work out how this was going to hang and how long my sleeves needed to be.

You can see how big this is going to be on me too ... i really could have done the small size, but I am NOT going to rip it apart now. The good side is that I can wear this over heavier shirts and I won't look like a stuff sausage :D Altho, I'm sure that the stitches will relax after the first two washings and it'll look bigger .. Let's hope not! Now I can start on the sleeves .. AFTER i get my quilting done on my Michigan Left quilt ;) If you're interested you can read about here in this post on my quilt blog ;)

Mock up Update

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:17:00 +0000

Just a quick update on my progress on the shoulder mocks - I finally got them done enough tonite to hold them with provision yarn off the needles (I plan on frogging these and using the yarn for the sweater), and do a quick baste of the pieces I have ..

This is going to be a roomy hoodie .. I prolly could have done the small and it would have still fitted fine .. it's roomy without the ribbing being attached to the front ... but I'm not going to complain ;) I'll be doing the short sleeve length for these - 19½" at the same time on circs .. that way I can make sure what i do for one I do for the other .. Then the hood, putting it all together then the ribbing all the way around .. I'll have to decide on whether I'll be using a zipper for this or buttons .. I'm thinking zipper would be a more finished look to what I have in my mind - but buttons would be easier .. but me do the easy thing?? ROLFLMBO!!!!!!! yeah right ;)

Anywho - I'll post a pic tomorrow after Ky gets home from school - i'll have him take the picture

Hope you had a great weekend!!

Shoulder Mocks

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:50:00 +0000

I did decide to do the shoulder saddle mock up - granted it's not going as quick as I would have liked, but I was rather dragging yesterday and I also finished (well tried to finish) a quilt top that was speaking (read - yelling) at me - so I'm not as far on this as I would like to be - I really am hoping that I'll get this finished in time to actually WEAR it this year LOL - this winter / spring actually.

I do think that once I get moving on this again, I'll fly. We were supposed to meet tonite to knit, but one lady canceled and the other forgot her knitting at home (which is totally on the other side of town - poor thing!!), so we are going to reschedule for this Saturday maybe ;)

What I'm doing is lining up my bind-offs on the mock and back to get correct rows needed etc .. I tripped over this dropped stitch when I used the front instead .. OI VAY!!!

I guess the plan here is to use a crochet hook to get the stitch back into the garment, and the bury it .. I'll be looking on line for just how to fix this, I've already bound off and I'm NOT about to unbind it just to pick up one bloody stitch .. This is in the same place where I had ripped back to - poor thing just happened to get missed is all .. Suggestions anyone? I've not fixed this sort of problem before - I guess this is definitely a learning experience for me LOL

Ah well back at it .. I should have the mocks done soon enough then will baste everything together and THEN get my accurate sleeve length .. If I followed the instructions there, I would have a sweater for a gorilla (!!) I think not!

Least I can't say I'm bored ;)

Front and Center

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:21:00 +0000

Success!! It's a wonderful thing. Granted there were a few tense moments while I was putting the front sections back on the needles after ripping out 6 rows last nite - then getting all confused as my stitches weren't matching directions OR stitch.

I ended up having to drop several stitches near the end of the right panel (least I think it was the right one) to put the stitches back as knits or purls and then to follow the pattern. That took me a few hours and the language was 'interesting and highly inventive' to say the least.

Now the fun part begins .. this has a shoulder saddle and that means 'normal' arm length doesn't quite work .. i know I do not want my sleeves as long as they are in the pattern - near as I can figure (based on my stitch gauge), the 'saddle' part is actually 7½" long. So I'm trying to guesstimate where the neck actually lies on this (sans neck ribbing)

I did just have a thought here .. I could start from the neck and do it reverse - long as I do the same thing each row, I should be fine .. the first 7½" is over 30 stitches and that is going to work up quickly - from what I can remember (off the top of my head) I think that it's roughly 25 - 30 rows too .. that should work up in no time - I think I rather like that idea .. altho working the pattern backwards is going to send me .. oh wait .. that's just not going to work .. i'll not be sure what row the cable pattern will end on and it'll look hinky from the rest of sweater .. while that might not work, I could do that to do a mock up of the saddle itself and then baste it together and see just how long I really do want these sleeves based on the hang of the sweater itself :D :D :D I think that just might work - I rather like that idea .. T, what you think???

Like with the fronts, I'll be doing the sleeves at the same time - 2 skeins of yarn and on circs - it'll be a lot of hold up and measure as this gets close to 18 - 19 inches. I'm meeting with some friends on Thursday and maybe they can help me as it's hard to direct someone that's never knitted before where to put a tape measure (not that you can see it for the most part either) so maybe I'll have them measure me - Then again, I may be past that part and actually doing the hoodie itself or the ribbing around ... we'll just have to see ;)

Aw Crap!!

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:24:00 +0000

I've been working sort of diligently at getting the front panels done for my hoodie or not .. and doing a pretty good job of it too if I should say so myself .. now I didn't work non-stop for the past few days, but I did a bit here and there .. worked on it friday and tonite and 'thought' I was all set to go ..

As I was working the front panels I was worried about getting confused on the decreases when I need to do the neck and shoulder saddle bind offs at the same time .. now I didn't mess that up - but if you look near the top here, you can see that I started my shoulder bind off to soon- the part that got me was here ..

Dec 1 st at neck edge [every row] 3 (4, 5, 5, 6) times. (28, 32, 34, 37, 41 shoulder sts rem)
At the same time, when front armhole length matches back, work shoulder shaping as for back.

When I looked back over my notes, I saw I had written "8 rows in pattern" ... well where I was at was actually 10 rows in so I started to do the shoulder shaping then .. I had already done 3 rows of neck decreases, so I just started to do it then .. Well then I ended up with it being about 4" short after I bound off .. I should have laid them out together like I did here before I started the bind off.

I should have known because I was at 5 full cable sets before I did the shoulder shaping for the back and I was only 10 rows into the 4^th set.

I basted the sections together just to get an idea of the size and it's going to be longer than I wanted because I wasn't aware at the time of the should saddle being roughly 6" wide - this will teach me to read ahead - you think??? bah ..

Ah well - at this point I'm going to try and do the needle trick at the row where I started the decreases (yes I did make note of that) and go forward from there .. I'm really hoping that I can get it correctly thru the cable pattern, but I'm pretty sure that there wasn't an actual cable twist there so that makes my life a whole hell of a lot easier ..

Wish me luck ;)

Slow progress

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:29:00 +0000

I've not gotten as far as on this as I would like to be at this point. My hope / plan was to get to the armhold shaping last nite (2 cablesets + 9 rows), but I'm only at row 9 of the 2^nd cable set.

As you can see I've gotten around the 'blue' look of this yarn using a flash .. I just take it at an angle and have the flash skitter over it instead smack into it .. works for me ;)

I've been doing a quilt as well as this, so that sort of explains my lack of progress - as well as getting uniforms folded and reg's shirts pressed for the games etc .. basketball season is coming to playoffs for them and things are seriously heating up .. he's going at nite to scout out the games of his biggest competitors for the play offs :) Gotta love it ..

But if you are interested in seeing what's been eating up my time you can check out these posts on my quilt blog

2 Sections of 3

3 Sections Ready

1800s as ONE

Tonight's quilt work could have restarted the Civil War it was so trying for me .. but the 'hard' part is hopefully done for this quilt and I am so glad that to have that out of the way for now ...

At this point, I just want to have a some coffee and maybe done some list and blog reading, then see what's on tv (hopefully some good reruns) and knit - hopefully I'll get to the armholes tonite .. we'll have to see, I'm feeling pretty drained after the battle with my 1800s quilt

To the Front!!

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:56:00 +0000

One of my cmas gifts was the Full Indian Jones Series, and with Reg not having to get up at 6am or work all nite due to lack of snow, we've been watching them. We watched The Last Crusade and I took advantage of that time to do start the front of my "Or Not" Hoodie. This was supposed to be a pullover, but I converted it to a full zippered front cardi.

The math was actually fairly easy on this one. The placket required 10 sts in the middle and I subtracted 10 from the cast on amount then divided that by 2 for each side. I wrote down each row in the pattern for armhold shaping etc, and will follow that where needed on the front. I figured that I would work both sides at the same time to ensure that I'm decreasing, shaping etc in the same exact spot. Figure that this will take the same amount of time as to do the full front.

I've not really done enough of the pattern yet for it to really show yet, but here's a closer shot of the left side (well right when wearing it) These pics were taken to late to take advantage of the daylight so I had to mess with them in photoshop. I've no clue why this particular purple shows up as blue with the camera flash, but it drives me nuts!

I'll be working on this again tonite and will hopefully get more done than I did last nite. After Reg went to bed, I had to press his shirt for his game tonite and fold the uniforms and warm-ups .. (that took me 1 ½ hrs!! I hate doing the warms ups .. you have to resnap the legs on the pants ** sigh), so there wasn't to much time left that I was 'alert' to knit., so that's as far as I got.

I read ahead to the shoulder part and it's going to be fun to do .. it's a true saddle shoulder where the bind offs for the front, back and sleeves all fit together like a jigsaw puzzle .. I had better get all my stitches right and to make my life easier, I'll be blocking the shapings and bind off areas ..

Here's the part I'm referring to and what's made this easy as you are picking up and knitting around the hood and placket, so I'll just extend the picking up all the way down to the bottom :D how cool is THAT!!?

From Casual Hooded Pullover

Finishing
Block pieces by pinning to size and covering with a damp cloth until dry. Do not press.
Insert sleeves into armholes, and sew edges of saddles to front and back shoulders. (Bound off edge of saddle
forms part of neck edge.)
Beg at top front, with RS tog, sew hood pieces tog along top and down back, using an invisible seam. Turn hood
right side out.
Pin hood in place, matching front edges with front neck opening, aligning back seam with center back of neck
edge, and easing shaped edges to ﬁt. Sew hood in place.

Hood and zipper band
With circular needle and RS facing, working from right to left, beg at right bottom of front opening, pick up and
knit 38 sts to top of neck, 88 (88, 93, 93, 98) sts up right hood edge to top center, 1 st in seam, 88 (88, 93, 93, 98)
sts down left hood edge to top of neck, then 38 sts to bottom of front opening. (253, 253, 263, 263, 273 sts)
Note: Be careful not to stretch bottom of zipper opening as you work.
Row 1 (WS): *P1, k1, p1, k2, rep from * to last 3 sts, p1, k1, p1.
Row 2: *K1, p1, k1, p2, rep from * to last 3 sts, k1, p1, k1.
Rows 3-6: Rep Rows 1 and 2.

Purple Hoodie "or not"

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:04:00 +0000

I decided that I would use this blog for my knitting projects progress and do my best to keep my wordpress blog quilt related.

I've been working on a cabled hoodie pullover for myself. I had a few issues with the gauge at first and it was causing me no end of worry and concern as I was knitting it. My gauge is usually spot on, but this time I was actually ½" short with the required number of stitches. So I bumped up my needles a size and then my gauge was spot on.

I'm using Caron Wintuk yarn for this (discontinued) as I have it in my stash. I've vowed not to buy more yarn until I get my stash down. Only problem is, I've got a lot of onsie twosie skeins that are going to cause me no end of fits. I'm hoping that I'll be able to trade them for full amounts of what I need for sweaters and what not, but I'm not entirely sure that that's going to happen at all .. My username on ravelry is gquilts. If you are interested in picking up onsie twosie yarns, please check out my stash and maybe we can work something out.

Okay back to my purple hoodie 'or not' (ravelry link).

Here's a close up the cable pattern (please excuse the blue colour - this was a nite pic and I didn't feel like messing with it to make it the correct colour) This is one section of 26 rows for the pattern. Rather pretty. And the pattern has created some really nice movement up the sweater back .. It's going to be just as awesome up the front too! And I can't forget the sleeves of course ;)

I met with another Windsor knitter last Saturday (feb 7^th), and we were chatting and nattering away enjoying each other's company and our tazo chais. I KNEW I had made a mistake but couldn't figure out what I did ..it was really weird and only in that one spot .. the other cable didn't get dinged like this one. Oh there are 2 cable repeats per row. It wasn't until I got home that I found (saw) my goof and that entailed me back knitting stitch by stitch 6 rows to fix the error. Normally I would have just slide a needle across the piece, but with the cable pattern, my nerves just couldn't have handled it! What I had done was twist the cable the wrong way and repeat a row. You can see in the boxed section just where the mistake was. You can compare it with the cable below it. Since it's not all that noticeable and this is likely going to be under the hood, I left it at this point.

I finished the back last nite (temp pics - not blocked and looks blue due to flash) and did some math to have this be a full frontal zippered hoodie. I'm rather proud of myself that I worked the cable pattern right up the binding off for the saddle shaping too :D My plan is to do both front sections at the same time. I'm using circs for this so fitting both front sections on the them will be a piece of cake .. I'll just have to make sure that I don't tangle up the skeins ;) But I'm sure I'll adjust.

The hood part is pretty odd, (and I don't think that the cable pattern repeats on it either .. hmmmm) I was looking at the directions on Sat with my friend, and I'm tempted to do this as one piece instead of 2 as the pattern says ... if it doesn't work out, I can frog it - the nice thing about frogging yarn is it's MUCH easier than frogging quilting / sewing ;)

This is my first sweater for myself in over 8 years so I'm pretty pumped about this!!

am i actually unlocked??

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:17:00 +0000

hmmm .. i don't see the nasty verification box .. does this mean that I'm finally unlocked now ..

Boxes packed .. truck is loading / gone ..

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:59:00 +0000

A fter yesterday's 'scheduled' posting fiasco that I just caught in time - I've decided to try another blog service. I'm not sure if I'll stay there or come back here .. There are things about blogger that I just love - ability to use my own layout and change the fonts etc, widgets galore that work (for the most part), the beta blogger which is a lot of fun - but there are things I HATE - i'm still considered a spam blog, I've requested a review since day 1 and I've had several requests expire - no clue if I keep my spot in the queue or get bumped to the bottom, so I keep requesting reviews. I even joined google groups to find some answers on this .. and nope - no answers .. just more frustrated ppl like myself ..

pfft .. you ready for this .. I have to do that stupid word verification for each and every single post / edit that I do .. okay fine .. rather got into the habit of it .. but do you think that these ones are easily seeable .. oh HELL NO!!! bah .. blogger has this scheduled post feature which I used from time to time .. well this is the first time I used it since I got 'locked' .. well here we go with that blasted word verification .. i finally get it to go up .. hours later I check to see my most recent post .. I'm like WT???? where is it .. so i check my post listings .. the buggers have moved it into draft (!) so .. in order to get it out of draft and published .. are you ready for this??? i had to do that damn word verification again .. (*&#(*&^(#^$*#&&()@#$(#*& THAT'S IT! So i went hunting for a different service until blogger figures out what their bloody robots are doing ..

So in the meantime, I'm relocating for the time being .. I started a blog at wordpress.com and was able to import my whole blog over there, comments included .. but i have to use their templates or pay for the upgrade .. it's not a lot, but it's not the point .. at blogger i get free expression of my layout - and more widgets that suit me ..

Now I do love their dashboard interface .. but am frustrated by some widgets not working as expected - prolly b/c i'm not sure what the restrictions are for them .. but i'll figure it out eventually

I do like that wordpress enables you to create stand alone pages - so I could in reality move my kitty quilt, quilt gallery and other misc pics over there ..

at any rate, I'll leave a light on here with an arrow pointing to my new blog .. if you are on my rss feed here, I've set up the new blog for that as well .. just click on subscribe on the left when you get there .. gquilts.wordpress.com

Last 4 days in a quick blurb

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:13:00 +0000

I 'm sitting here trying to organize my thoughts and set things in the proper order. It's been a bit since I posted, and while I don't always manage to post on the weekend, it's been a rather insane type of week beginning for me and my family.

Most of you know that my father was admitted to the hospital on Monday afternoon with a high fever, chills, extreme joint pain, inability to make a fist or turn his head. The rest of our adventure is long and I won't post it all here - but I can give you a shortened version of it.

Drive up to hospital .. There are like 2 empty spots in the ER parking lot .. I go "dad .. This doesn’t look good" .. Well get him out the car (refuses a wheel chair) go in and see that triage is PACKED and the waiting room is like standing room only .. Oh HELL NO!!

So off we go to the clinic and gets seen by a dr in the clinic and when she sees that I have to help my dad stand, she decides he’s going to ER .. We are like ??? :O .. She goes I’ll give you a note so you don’t have to wait and call over .. Oh yeah .. You don’t wait all right, but then you would be waiting in a room for the dr for HOURS .. One guy was saying there’s a 6 hr wait .. Not sure if it’s true . But I would put it at 4 or 5 easily without even trying ..

So my dad works at DMC (Detroit Medical Center) that is a sweet option as it’s right in downtown Detroit and he’s got awesome employee coverage. I stop at home to tell reg and kyle what’s up and over the border we go.

He was admitted to Detroit receiving hospital Monday evening due to high fever, dizziness, chills, nausea and a zoning out episode that he suffered while in ER – he spent the night in their observation unit having tests done and being monitored. He was also dehydrated and his sodium level was high. They put him on fluids with a pain killer (this is the really really really short form)

I left him at 2am to come home and get ‘sleep’ (which never happened) But I went there the following morning and he was bright alert and not feverish .. So I got to bring him home yesterday and he was quite his normal self again .. Altho there are days that I can do without that :)

so dad's home and is doing well now .. has tonite off and will return to work on Thursday nite. I managed to get some good sleep - i guess that getting 14hrs sleep over a 4 day period just isn't enough :\ .. I slept 14 hrs last nite and feel a bit groggy from it, but do not feel over taxed or tired out.

I'll be putting up some of what I've done quilty wise over the next few hours .. I have to take pictures and put some of this into the proper order :)

Death by borders ...

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:57:00 +0000

I have bordered myself to DEATH! No more .. i just canNOT stand it anymore ..

Today & tonight, I've put 12 border strips on the 1800 quilt, and then 8 more on Carmen's mystery ... her quilt calls for 1 more outer border .. and I just do NOT think that I can do it :\ heh .. to take a break from it, I squared up 40 HST units .. so you know it was bad at that point.

But I did get the border strips on my 1800 quilt .. in the picture above that's 2 of the top 3 sections .. the far right and the middle. This is going to be awesome when together. I had a nice scare earlier .. I really wanted to use the black paisley for the border and binding .. good thing I did the math first (altho in the long run, it didn't mean anything ... ) and i realized I would not be able to do both .. so I fussed and fidged and did my darnedest to get that paisley in .. i could have done, but really didn't want a 1" border unfinished .. that would have been a skinny little thing that would be useless on this size quilt .. so I started to dig .. (I do that a lot don't I??) Found some light material - but naw .. I knew I didn't want that, I really didn't want to use the brown with the darker brown vines in it .. it's nice .. but not what I wanted .. it's not dark enough .. then I remembered my yard sale find :) .. it's a nice dark green with red (colours that are in the quilt already) and with only ¼" showing, it wouldn't be a HUGE stand out .. so that made me happy there that I had a solution that I was happy with :)

I finally got a chance to get back to my '97 swap quilt that I want to repair .. I've opted to have that as my hand work while watching TV and with football season starting yesterday, I get to work on it .. it took me an hour to pick out that one ooboo'd spot and then some more places, and cut out the old batting etc, etc, etc .. I was still finding bits n pieces of that cheap 36" muslin and it was just shredding like crazy as I was picking at it .. I've decided since I'm doing handwork, to just quilt it in as I fix it ... one fell swoop .. all the patches that need to be replaced are white and I am old school and press to dark so they would be flat under the seams anyways .. so I'm just slipping them in, pinning the buggers down and stitching away .. I'll likely get this done before footballs season ends, but i'm sure I'll have a TON of things to hand sew soon enough. I did have a spot (where the pin is - see the blue dot??) where I didn't get all the cheapy muslin out and I let it goof me when I putting in the patches .. so i'll be prolly tucking that under or smucking it down .. not sure .. I really don't feel like picking that whole patch apart, but if I have to, I have to ..

I'll be starting to quilt my 1800 quilt today I hope .. I've picked out my motifs, adjusted them for my block size, all I have to do is print them out and then layer up the sections .. I'll prolly pin these or use basting spray as they are a whole quilt just 33½" sections.

Sections - Onward ...

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:08:00 +0000

E arlier tonite I was standing at my ironing board with a rather stunned look on my face .. and my mind was blank .. I'm thinking to myself .. that's it??? They're done?? ... oh my ... i had actually gotten all the sections of the 1800 quilt together - you could have heard a feather hit the carpeting! Then a HUGE grin spreads across my face .. borders .. all I needs to do is BORDERS!!!!!!!

Then I started to think .. (you so know that is NEVER a good thing with me) maybe I should do more dramatic type quilting for this .. I remember seeing all the beautiful handwork on the quilts I viewed online and in books ..

Sometime later ...

Hours pass and nothing hits me a "right", then it rather dawns on me .. those were on whole cloth quilts, applique, on-point or sashed quilts .. pfft .. bah .. So I head off to the quilt index to see what I can see .. What I saw was allover quilting, echo quilting and you ready for this - outline / ditch quilting .. so here I was searching for hours for the perfect motif and I already had it .. bah

BUT - I did find a site with some wonderful free motifs - Forest Quilting and she has 2 there that have definitely given me ideas for the larger blank spaces .. the points on my larger center Ohio Star, and the Double X Star in each corner .. I'm thinking of using the Cornice Motif or the Dreamy Motif in those larger blank spots (page 6) .. the Cornice motif appeals to me because it's middle is a circle and that will surround the sisters block and not interfer with it .. I'm not going to do allover quilting as this is quilt as you go and how much do you want to bet, the blasted lines will NOT line up .. I am sooo not gonna go there .. not in a million years .. so .. basic ditch / outline quilting it is .. no muss no fuss .. but for the corners and the middle :D :D :D

I want to do leaves or vines in the borders so I rather need them to be wide enough so the design doesn't get totally lost .. i'm thinking maybe 3" border .. I've not measured the fabric again so I'm not sure what there is .. worse case senario; 2" with meander / loopy quilting ..

So tomorrow, borders cut, do my first sandwich and quilting foot away :D

Sections 1 & 2 reporting for duty ..

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:53:00 +0000

W ell this is a nice change .. it's 2:48am and I'm actually tired .. so here's a quick entry then I'm off ..

Here's my list of things that I would "LIKE" to get accomplished this week .. nothing on here is super critical to get done (cept email of course and I'm still working on that). I figure that repairing the swap quilt can be done while I am watching football :) starts on Thursday - WOO HOOO ..

last 2 Ohio Star blocks

piece 1800 sections - 4 sections done

September abstract challenge

catch up on mail / ppls blogs

gran's quilt

put rhododendrum wc together - have some great ideas for the quilt part

fix my 97 swap quilt - hand work for tv time

Here's a quick overview of the sections that still need to be pieced - the center section was done months ago, I've finished the double x sections tonite. The blocks are laid out in stitching order for the next 4 sections .. then it's a matter of finding what I did with the backing material (kyle's too while I'm at it) and then quilt as you go :)

I've rather made a decision that I hope I can keep .. I can see where I'll be not following thru wtih this, but oh well .. i'm going to finish up the various projects that are on the go, and TRY not to add anymore until I've quilted them ..they dont have to have the binding on - that's great for tv time, but i do want to get these quilted .. I've a ton of projects in various stages from PIGs to basted .. so time to stop adding and get these quilted .. I do know I'll be doing Carmen's mystery in a few weeks and there are of course the abstract challenges .. so we'll see how I do with trying to follow this ..

Time vanished? It's a Mystery

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:56:00 +0000

I t's been a super crazy busy weekend - and I didn't go anywhere (!)

First of all I woke up late on Friday - I had an extra large tim Hortons (potent coffee) on thursday nite and was ZIIIIIIIIING BOINGGGGGGGG WIRED and didn't get to sleep until like 9am Friday AM .. woke up to Reg home from work at 3:30 - and it was one thing after another until later that nite.

After Kyle left with his dad, we went out to supper at Vang's for Thai food .. **slurp**, and then a stop at Fabricland :D :D :D They were having a pretty nice sale going on .. 50% discontinued fabrics, 33% off others, some notions were 50% - so I reconnoitered my battlefield and plotted my strategy .. I wanted to get some purples for the "All in the Family Colour Mystery that I and 4 other ladies were test driving for Carmen .. well that didn't work out to well there, but I did get some colours that I've not really used before .. This up coming year I really want to "force" myself to use colours other than my favourites .. each of these cuts is a metre and the bottom three on the left could actually be used for a quilt with the yellow as sashings or what not .. i honestly didn't even look for that! The solid red and black will be used for my discharge dyeing (when I can revisit that!)

After that it was back home and to the cutting table .. I found clue 1 in my inbox when I got home, so the race was on :) Since I didn't have full yardage for all 4 colours, I was using small cuts and scraps .. and as you all know, cutting the smaller pieces into 3" squares takes TIME! I think it was like 4 or 5am when I got done cutting and wasn't even about to start on the mystery.

I gets up Saturday (late due to stupid bed time) and got kidnapped for a '2 hour shopping trip" .. we booked out the house around 3 and didn't get back til 8 - i should soooo know better LOL .. but that's okay, we always manage to have fun together :) Get back and like a good detective, I start at clue 1. I worked all the clues until clue 7 when my brain just went pfft It just didn't want to think anymore - so I gave in .. off to bed I went and of course, it's like 5am or later again.

Before I started Carmen's mystery, I finished up the last cut Ohio Star block - knowing me I would have lost the pieces and would NOT have been a happy camper at all! I just have to cut two more blocks and then I start to piece the sections!!!!

Between the clues for Carmen's mystery I did the leaders n enders to get all the way to clue 4 for gran's quilt (QT summer mystery) I'm maybe 1/3 of the way thru that clue .. so this quilt will be done in no time with using this method .. the next project to get done with this will be my lady bug court wallhangings that I designed a million years ago ..

I did get the rest of the mystery tested and we had an absolute blast .. I just have to put borders on it - sorry no pictures until after we start the mystery on the group and only then it will be the current clue solutions - but I can show you my fabric choices as she's already uploaded that part to the group. I'm going to do the next one in blues .. I forgot my aunt had given me some fabric and there's blues in there - so blues the next one will be :)

Poor puppy has fleas again and gave them to the cats, so part of Sunday was spent giving her another bath, giving the cats flea 'shots' defleaing our house, sweeping, vacuuming, washing everything NOT nailed down .. now wasn't THAT fun pfft! and of course we'll be doing this at least twice a week (the house defleaing part - not medicating the animals)

I have a list of things that I want to get done this week

last 2 Ohio Star blocks

piece 1800 sections

September abstract challenge

catch up on mail / ppls blogs

gran's quilt

put this wc together - have some great ideas for the quilt part

fix my 97 swap quilt

quit n baste projects that are missing me

I'm sure that there are more, but these are the ones that I screamng to me right now .. I'm sure with just plodding along and doing what I do, it'll be done in no time :)

I hope you all had a great long weekend ..

Wanted, brain cell - apply within ..

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:22:00 +0000

I' m using this entry as a draft for my acceptance speech for the "Twit of the Year" award. I swear that some days if I had operative brain cells I could be registered as a dangerous and offensive weapon .. pfft!! Notice how I didn't say lethal .. I only kill my stuff :\

By this time I'm sure you're wondering . what on God's green earth has she done THIS time .. oh this is a goody for sure!! I even amaze myself this time!!

Remember in my last post where my Ohio Star block was just zipping along sweet as can be and I discovered that it was the wrong size?? yeah well this is even better .. truly it is .. twit for brains here messed herself up royally - it WAS the right size .. I needed 11" unfinished and 10½ FINISHED .. "I would like to thank the members of the academy for .. blah blah blah .. FIDDLESTICKS!!!!!" See I told you it was a doozy even for me - heh not your average bear, eh boo boo .. &^%@#! **sigh** Ah well .. I have these 5 done now, one more already cut out from before and just 2 more to cut now .. bloody hell .. BUT on a good note; that is it for the blocks for this quilt .. i just need to put them into sections and then quilt as you go :D :D :D

I wanted to show you how great this combination looks even tho it is the mostly unlikely sounding combination on it's own .. It's really going to blend well together and add some interest to the corner-ish where it'll be ..

In my defense for my screw-up; things have been a wee bit interesting around here to say the least and I've been on an emotional roller coaster since I got back from up North - I guess I was more distracted and worried than I thought - granted I'm not perfect, but since I designed this damn thing, you'd think I would remember what size blocks I made for it; pfft .. ah well .. onward!!

On a good note tho .. I have half of Clue one done for gran's quilt - I even don't mind making mistakes at this point, as it gives me another chance to stitch up another seam :) .. Bonnie - thank you for your wonderful light bulb moment :)

I'll be busy stitching this weekend .. Myself and a few other ladies will be helping Carmen get ready for a mystery that she has plotted .. I think we were promoted to stitch detectives :D I am looking forward to altho that means I have to cut a mess of fabric up today as well as get those other 2 blocks made ..

Think I can be trusted with a rotary cutter?? I promise not to massacre any more defenseless fabric and I'm sure that there's not much left of my ego to shred at this point ..

Oh any operative brain cells, please fill out the application and leave it on the counter please .. I'm sure I'll find it later .. when I'm looking for my mind ..

I must have been due ....

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:27:00 +0000

B ack in January I posted about fabric quality and how getting the thin / low thread count muslin could bite you on the nose in later years .. if not sooner.

This is one of the blocks from my swap quilt from 1997 that I used the cheap muslin for filler blocks for this swap. As you can see it shredded away. So I'm fixing it .. I have Guide to Vintage Quilting by Sandra L Hatch, where she shows you how to fix vintage quilts (I'm not sure I would go THAT far with THIS quilt) and also neat period patterns for the older vintage tops / quilts you may find in your travels. Because this was my first swap quilt and the blocks are signed, I really wanted to try and save / fix it.

I got all sorts of WOW, muslin and batting scraps ready to do this block first .. this is the only one where I have to replace all the white parts - the rest are just QSTs. I decided to quilt these pieces in one shot as they are all going under the other pieces as they are white and I was replacing the batting too.

I did really good with the first QST - cut away the shredded batting, frogged the quilting just ever so carefully and then took out the stitching from when they were pieced. The first part went just about perfect - that should have been my first clue .. It was rather tricky with the quilt stretched out of shape from over the years of these bits n pieces missing - this poor QST had more pins than a porcupine - but as you can see the QST worked just fine ..

So with more confidence I went to the square .. it was the square that did me in .. yes a stupid simple square! For some reason I just could NOT get all the material under the seam for this one .. and this was TWICE this did this to me .. YOu can see the two spots where it wouldn't tuck under. I had it all pinned in and it looked fine - but get it on the machine and start quilting it down and it goes all wiggly piggly on me .. okay nuff of that .. i'm going to lose my temper and I was getting tired. So I just might put them in all by hand then quilt them down .. I just wanted to keep the batting in place as all this shifting and moving was going on with this quilt .. I can use my Sullivan's basting spray for this I guess - or a glue stick :)

Two days ago I cut the greens out for the Ohio Star blocks for my 1800 quilt and yesterday I did the pink paisley for the background .. While i was sewing this I did the leaders n enders for Grans quilt and actually got 7 nickels stitched on one side .. I used Around the Block by Judy Hopkins for this block as these blocks are rotary cutting and she has 6 different sizes for each block

The Ohio Star went together just nicely .. I squared the QSTs after they were stitched to avoid any issues with it being out of kilter - I find that taking that extra step after doing a section construction helps to fix ooboos that would later have me on the endangered list for baldness and sanity .. well okay - not sanity .. baldness then ...

I press the block out and all my points line up (but one little corner - bet you can't find it!!), then I head over to the cutting table to square it up .. and it's a perfect .. 11" ?!?!?!?!?! My heart does the demon drop .. that can't be .. I didn't do a scant seam on this block! I did a flat out ¼" seam - bloody hell .. what the devil is going on .. So I grab the book from my bookshelf and see that it's for 10½" FINISHED block .. NOT unfinished .. oh jesusmaryjoseph I needed a 10" finished .. crap crap crap .. and I was soooo proud of myself that this block just zoooomed together quicker n all get out .. yeah it got out all right .. pfft!

Well I've figured out that I need to have 4½" squares for the QSTs and then 3¾" or 3⁷/8" for the squares .. not a big deal .. I'll just cut down what I've already cut .. but will do the 3¾ block first and test it for size ..

Bloody Hell . only me!

**Throws paws up in frustration, shuts the sewing room down and leaves while there still IS a sewing room .. which in this house is called the cat cave ..

Moving ahead; gran - 1800 quilt

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:39:00 +0000

W ell I did have a more quilt-related day than yesterday .. I actually did quilt-related stuff ;) then again .. I didn't do anything quilt related yesterday, so there is definitely room for improvement ;)

Before I left for up north, I pulled out fabrics for Gran's quilt .. I got those cut out and will work on her quilt 'in-between' - i read on Bobbie's blog yesterday about Bonnie Hunters "leaders / enders" and thought it was a capital idea as I do the scrap leader / ender now .. **Hmm .. why does light green always looks yellow!?!?!?

Since I was cutting Gran's quilt, I figured I would cut out the greens for Ohio Star blocks in my 1800 quilt .. Since there is only 8 of them, it went rather quickly. I've laid the pieces out on the background fabric that i will be using .. I know this looks rather funky, but the greens are managing to work itth the blue/green in the paisley - AND, this was the one fabric that worked the best with the mauvey brown background colour that is being used throughout most of this quilt .. so tomorrow, I cut out the background fabric and maybe the muslin for the repairs I want to do on my swap quilt from 1997.

I know it's been forever and a day since I posted anything about my 1800 quilt so to help you visualize how this will look - voila! the final layout .. and this one has the background changed for these ohio star blocks ..

I am sooo close to getting this all put together .. I got the flannel now and just have to stitch up these last 8 blocks, then cut the border and it's time to quilt-as-you-go. So this quilt should make up pretty quick once I get it all pieced in sections .. heh .. just in time for the end of summer for our summer quilt (@@) ... that's okay .. I can start on our winter quilt right after this ;)

Day after ... blahs maybe??

gracequilts@gmail.com (grace) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:53:00 +0000

Still on the terror-list .. bah

W ith getting the laundry done while up north, there wasn't a whole mess of vacation 'clean-up' to do but put things away (done in fits in bursts thru the day) and go shopping .. Good thing as I am just flat out exhausted .. I'm thinking that this is due to overexposure to the sun 2 days last week .. once was when the boat died on us and the other was driving home (6 hours of sunlight on my arm) Both times I broke out in hives / blisters on my arms, hands (legs for the one on the boat) and while they don't really hurt or itch, I am aware of them and I was totally whacked out both times .. I even took a nap today and I don't ever do that!! This isn't the best picture (I'm right handed and so's my camera) but you can see the blisters / hives on my arm .. specially that big one ..

Reg thinks that I might be allergic to the sun as his mum gets this when she's out for too long - Carmen suggested that i have sun poisoning .. oh great .. I'm already susceptible to heat stroke .. I've not noticed this before as I usually don't spend a lot of time in the sun due to heat stroke danger ... mostly a few hours in the afternoon - but I'll get that checked out tomorrow maybe ...

I mentioned yesterday that I picked up some doilies while I was in Fenellon Falls at a flea market there .. heh .. you should have seen the one in Bobcaygeon .. it was like walking into a junk closet .. there's a sign at the door that even said - "this isn't a museum - this junk's for sale" LOL Gotta love it .. but at any rate .. I got these for $1 each, but the 3 small ones were $1 in total .. so with tax $4.52 .. not to bad me thinks :D I could make these myself, but I would have to get the crochet cotton and then spend the time doing them (!) This is better for me .. quicker AND likely cheaper too! Some of these patterns might be too tight to be really effective for the discharge dyeing, but they all have open areas to use .. if not, I can actually use them for what they were made for .. heh .. fancy that piece of work!

I did get some handwork done while watching TV at nite .. with the fullness of our days, and no puter - I spent most of the day outside doing this and that - so at nite after supper, we would watch the Olympics and I would quilt .. I got quite a bit done considering I might have put 12 hrs in total on this .. one thing my stitches were way to small at first so I had to really concentrate on making them longer .. I like the look of the longer stitches .. You might not be able to see it, but I am using a peachy pink thread for this and the fabric is tea-dyed muslin - I think that it's going to look quite nice when / (IF) it ever gets finished ;)

While I was gone, 2 packages showed up .. 1 I was waiting for, the other was a total surprise. Cheryl from one of my lists gave up tring to sell some flannel and just wanted us to pay for postage (Thank you again Cheryl!!) .. and with me wanting to use flannel for the 1800 quilt, this was just perfect. (I still have the Ohio Star blocks to do on this one) It is so soft an d pretty, it almost seems a crime to use it as batting ..

IF .. operative word here is "IF" my math is right, I should have just about enough to do our quilt .. I might have to buy ¼ yard of it, but need to get some flannel to do Gran's quilt - she doesn't like the heaviness of quilts, so I need to make her's as light as possible weightwise.

The unexpected one was from Darlene .. This picture doesn't even come close to doing this FQ justice .. it's a nice medium deep red with darker swirls on it .. I'm low on reds so this is just perfect timing for me :D I just think that is perfectly cute! I LOVE it .. Thank you again Darlene!!

So other than reading list mail and finishing my emails, I didn't do anything else quilt related .. just too bloody tired today ... maybe tomorrow I will have more energy .. I do NOT like feeling this .. blah .. I'd better feel better tomorrow .. I have some running around to do and with being a one car family, I get to use 2 wheels :S