Stained Glass Effect

  I found this picture of the Big Star Quilt.  I had pinned it up on my sliding glass door and I love the stained glass effect I got with the sun and all the colors of the quilt top.

Call Her By Her Name

    I decided on the perfect name for my Singer Serger a few weeks ago.  She is now known as Dolly.  I love musicals and "Hello Dolly" is one of my favorites.  This machine is just as sassy and lovable as the main character in that movie.  I have had a couple of problems with threading her but it was all operator error.  Once I figured out exactly how to thread her correctly, it was all good and she works great.   I have a light grey thread running through her right now and it works for everything I'm doing at the moment.

    I spent the last couple of days putting a three thread rolled hem on the scarves I made a few weeks ago.  Originally I put a narrow rolled hem on them with my sewing machine (without a rolled hem foot because I like to live dangerously) but I wasn't happy with the finished product, it wasn't very neat and it needed to be fixed.  So I fixed them.

     See my lovely scarves now.  In the first picture you can see the beautiful three thread rolled hem I did on Dolly.

Big Star Quilt - Past Project

Look what I found in my blanket chest.

I made this quilt in 2014 and it was my fourth quilt.  I bought yardage from the Mirage line at  Connecting Threads.  I just picked some of the prettiest colors in the line and put them together to make four big star blocks and then I sized down the big star block and instead of using 10" squares to make the stars I think I used 5" squares to make the border stars.  The little stars on the back are a little smaller but I don't remember what size they are.  I love this quilt.

Stocking Cap - Better Picture

I realized that the picture I posted a few days ago of the stocking cap on the floor in all it's 54 inch glory was not a really representative picture.  Here's a better picture of how it can be worn.

Everyone Needs A Simple Knitted Lacy Scarf

    I definitely need one.

     I have made myself a few crocheted scarfs over the last few years, but I really like this scarf and the pattern is so easy.  I found this free pattern on Ravelry several years ago and I've made two of these for gifts.  The pattern is called the One Row Lace Scarf by Turvid.  It's very pretty and very easy to knit, which is good for me because I'm not the most accomplished knitter.  You don't have to be a Ravelry member to get the pattern.  Here is the link to the blog with the pattern.   Link here.

    This would make an awesome travel knitting project because it's a simple pattern to memorize and it makes such a pretty fabric.  It's almost as small to carry as a sock.

   I'm making my scarf with size ten Sunstruck (by Knit Picks) circular needles (larger size needles are suggested to show off the lacy stitches and I think the 10 is perfect) with a 24 inch cord.  I tried a 16 inch cord would but it was too short for me.  I would rather have too much cord than not enough.   This is a back and forth project so you can certainly knit this on straight needles but I like the circulars for keeping my project secure. 

    I'm using Knit Picks Brava worsted in the silver colorway.  This yarn is acrylic, which I like.  It's soft and indestructible.  I like that I don't have to worry about bugs eating it and it's washable.  The pattern writer used alpaca yarn to make hers, so feel free to use a natural fiber.  There was also the perfect amount of yardage in a skein of this yarn.  The pattern calls for 175 yards of yarn and this yarn comes with 218 yards.  I'm using two skeins on this scarf because I want this one to be extra long, but one skein of this yarn would be enough for a scarf according to the pattern.

  Here's a picture of my pretty progress so far.

      I bought a lot of Knit Picks Brava in different colors (there are lots of beautiful colors) earlier this year and I think all of it would be great in this pattern.  I picked the grey because, well, it's grey.  I like grey.  I will probably make more of these in some of the other colors, like currant (burgundy) Dublin (dark green), solstice heather (bright navy blue), and white.     

    Knit Picks also has a worsted weight yarn called Mighty Stitch which is a 80% acrylic and 20% super wash wool.  I bought a few skeins of this as well in January to try it out.  I like a good acrylic/natural fiber blend.   The Mighty Stitch comes lots of colors and is a 208 yard skein.

   This blog post turned into a complete Knit Picks commercial.  Sorry about that.  I just like Knit Picks.  I buy a lot of their products and I use them.  

I've Been Knitting Dishcloths

   That's all I've been doing.  It's been very relaxing.  I have four dishcloths to show for my efforts. 

    While I was knitting these green dishcloths, I decided that I needed some pretty blue yarn to make more.  I ordered four balls of Knitpicks Dishie in the Navy colorway (now that I know blue is my daughter's favorite color which is amazing that I didn't know that before).  So I have to knit up about one and a half balls of the green, jalapeno, colorway then I can start working with the blue yarn. I'm getting about three dishcloths from each ball. 

    I ordered more two cotton yarn cones from Amazon in a beautiful variegated yellow and blue colorway, but it got lost in shipping and I never received it.  Then I had to fight with the Amazon website to find the right place to report my lost package and request a refund.  It is not easy to find the right screen in Amazon to report a lost package and I couldn't even send a complaint about how hard this is to do because there isn't any place to lodge a complaint.  I haven't ordered anything from Amazon since.  I don't think my postman cares very much, so I'm laying off the mail orders for a while.  I'll buy cotton yarn in a local store if I want more.

    Yesterday I was looking at quilting blogs and I found some beautiful applique and embroidery that I wanted to share with you.  Through The Needles Eye.  She made a beautiful robin with a forsythia branch that is just stunning.  Here is the link to her post.   Click Here.  I have beautiful memories of forsythia from my childhood.  We had a large forsythia bush in our backyard and every spring while I was in elementary school, my mother would clip some sprigs off, wrap them in aluminum foil, and make me take them to my teacher.  She would do the same thing with the roses from the single rose bush that bloomed in our yard. 

    I haven't done any sewing on my quilt top.  I did make up about 30 pink and 30 orange hexies to make more flowers, but that was as far as I got.  I have also made headbands from t shirts.  I don't have a picture, but I do have a link to a short YouTube video on how to make a headband from t-shirts.  I bought new t-shirts to make these and they are super cute.  I got two headbands from each t-shirt.   I hand sewed them instead of using my glue gun like the person did in the video.  I don't like glued wearable items.  Here is the link to the video:  Click Here.   Have Fun.

The Christmas Stocking Cap Is Finished.

  I love this hat.  It fits well.  It's 54" long and I can use it as a hat with a scarf attached.  So much fun.

 

Sewing, Knitting, Sewing, Knitting, Sewing, And On And On

   I don't have a lot to show for my last couple of weeks.  I've been sewing up drawstring bags for DD for her use in her travels.  She has a big trip planned next month.

    I finally broke out the fabric for my hexagon Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt to cut up some hexies to make some more flowers.  I haven't finished the third row yet, but I think if I get some more hexies made it will spur me to get that third row sewn on.

   I have also been knitting on my Christmas stocking cap.  I'm on the decrease rows right now and I have about 45 rows left to knit.  It should be done next week and I'll be sure to share pictures here.  The red section is now at about 40 inches.  I don't know if it will finish at 48" but I'm really happy with this project. The ribbing was the perfect solution to my too big hat problem.  I think I would love to have a stocking cap in every color.