Off the Needles

This little set will be winging its way South tomorrow. It is a cute little car-seat size blanket and newborn hat & booties in pretty grass green that I started knitting awhile ago, before I knew Zachary was on the way.

Welcome to the family, Zachary!

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Because You Matter: Boy Quilt #2

I’m really moving right along with these sibling quilts! Here is quilt number two:

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It measures 43″ x 30″ – a nice size for a preschooler. I was digging around in the bottom of my stash and I came up with six 6″ squares of bright cartoon jungle print that my friend Karyne had given me years and years ago and that I had totally forgotten about.

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I dug out some jellyroll strips in bright primary colours, cut up a dark blue cotton pillowcase donated by Pam for the background and sewed up six wonky courthouse square blocks.

 

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I hand tied it with red yarn and ran around the outside border with the machine. I’m pretty sure that the machine lines are a lot straighter in person than they look in the picture. And if they aren’t, well, I guess they’re just a lot like me, lol!

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Don’t ya just love pictures of quilts all rolled up? I do! Something about the colours against the binding just makes me smile.

I’m linking in with Cat Patches for her New Fabric Object linky party. We’re supposed to show what we started in April. I started the project of making three quilts for three little boys. Two down, one to go!

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Ciao for now!

 

 

 

 

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

Wow, here it is February already! I know I’m not the only one feeling blown away by how quickly the last month flew past us!

This is a bit of a random post… I started a lot of projects in January and thought I would share them with you.

First, I have started knitting a pair of socks for Kelly’s cousin Amber (read about Amber here). She has trouble staying warm at night because the stroke has affected the circulation in her legs and feet. So I am knitting a pair of warm woolen knee-high socks for her to wear to bed. This is my first time EVER knitting with this fine sock yarn on these itty bitty needles, and I am loving it! Love love love!

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I am also participating in three on-line bees this semester. If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that I was totally stumped by the January We Bee Learning block. But I did manage in the end and TA DA! here it is:

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I’m also participating in We Bee Canadian and January was my month! I chose a traditional bow tie block, but requested garden prints. You know, fruits, vegetables, flowers, grass, seeds … anything found in a garden. Even shovels & wheelbarrow prints would be acceptable! This will be a fun quilt. Here’s what I’ve gotten so far:

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The last bee I’ve signed up for is brand new to me. It’s called the 3×6 bee. That means there are six people in the bee, and we each make six blocks of our own choice but in the colours requested by our bee-mates. You have 3 months to make and mail them. If I run through this bee two or three times I’ll have enough to make a quilt top. Here are the colours I’ve requested:

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AND…I’m taking a creative writing course at the college on Wednesday nights. I love this class. It takes a fair bit of brain power, though, and has also created a bit of a temporal deficit.

I’ve also started a new quilt (inspired by Valentine’s Day), but you’ll just have to wait for a bit because I’m holding it aside in hopes that I will get it finished within the fortnight. Why? Because on February 15th I’m participating in my very first EVER blog hop! Yup! It’s the Hugs & Kisses blog hop. Look for me and my valentine quilt on February 15th – the day after valentine’s day!

Lastly (if you’re still with me at this point)…I’ve been thinking about attending a master class – a DANCE master class. Yes! I said Dance! All this stirring of creative juices – quilting, knitting, creative writing – has stirred up my love of dancing and I feel like maybe it’s time to shake some dust off my hipscarf and study with my mentor at Arabesque again. Wow! Didn’t see that coming, did ya? Lol!

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I’m linking up over at Cat Patches because it’s New Fabric Object day today, AND I’m linking up to Fresh Sewing Day & the Small Blog meet over at Lily’s Quilts. Check them out!

Ciao!

 

 

WIP Wednesday – bring it on!

Well,  I’ve got a lot of things in progress to show you this week! (Could it be because I haven’t done a WIP Wednesday in a while? lol!)

On the needles:

November’s We Be Learning BOM languishing around waiting for me to get around to actually mailing it:

This little dolly waiting for me to finish it:

This one waiting for me to decide how to quilt it:

This little toddler quilt waiting for me to finish the hand work on it:

the Mon fils quilt is in the hand frame:

Waiting in the wings are my November 1/2 square triangle block, the last two Treasure Chest blocks and my orange peel quilt blocks.

A maelstrom of quilty ideas are chasing themselves around and around my head. I really should write some of them down and make some space up there…