Garlands for Valentine's Day.

Here are all my garlands for Valentine's day.  I added the red bead garland today.

One More Valentine Decoration

   I like to hang garlands from two set of spotlights in my ceiling for holidays and seasons.  It's a great way to keep decorations from prying kitty noses and paws.  I found some ultra cute red gingham hearts at Hobby Lobby yesterday and I had to have them to make a garland for Valentine's Day (even though they were not on sale).

   These hearts needed loops and I know the easy way would be to get some red ribbon and glue that to the hearts, but I don't have any pretty red ribbon, so today at 5:00 a.m. I was rooting around in my fabric stash looking for some red fabric to make loops.  I wasn't sure I would find any because I don't have a lot of red fabric because of the dye running issues it has, so I usually stay away from red. 

   I was lucky I found a piece of red with tiny white polka dots on it in and that became the fabric for my loops.  I cut the fabric into 2" x 4" pieces and folded it up, ironed them, and sewed the folded edge closed..  I plugged in the glue gun and glued the ends together to make the loops and glued the loops onto the back of the hearts.  This project took about an hour and a half from fabric finding to finish.  So easy, fun and adorable.  I'll be stringing these up with some jute twine.

Wild Christmas Pillow Cover

    I made myself a bright and wild red and green Christmas pillow cover.  I love it.  I found the fabrics on Etsy and I used the quilted pillow cover tutorial here. 

Summer Holidays Are Upon Us

  We have three lovely summer holidays coming up.  Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day.  They all deserve some patriotic decorations.  I made my whole family some patriotic hanging dish towels and I have gifted them now, so I can show them off here.

   I made ten of these, each family got a set of two including me.  These are so much fun to make and everyone loves them. 

      I bought the fabric from Hobby Lobby about two months ago and I found the pretty blue dish towels at Walmart along with the lovely buttons.  Each actual dish towel cost $2.96, and you cut the towel in half to get two hanging towels from it.  The buttons cost $1.27 for a pair and the fabric cost about $3.50 for two tops.  So a pair of hanging dish towels cost about $7.73 in materials to make and it takes me about 70 minutes to make two from the cutting out the top to sewing on the button.

Finished Lace Scarf and Starting A Hat

   Finishing this scarf makes me want to make a bunch of these in lots of colors.  Love the simplicity of the pattern and the finished scarf.

    This is not a flattering picture but I was trying to get the full length in the picture.  I think I stopped knitting at just over 6 feet in length.   I did not use the full skein of the second skein that I started, so I have leftover yarn, but I still love the scarf.  This scarf fits doubled around the neck perfectly.

   And this is close up of the stitches and how pretty they are.

I started another knitting project with a yarn I have had for at least two years when I bought six skeins of it because I loved it so much.  I made a couple of items with it in 2016.  I made a knitted neck warmer and a crocheted scarf with it and now I need a hat to complete the set.  This is Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable yarn in the Cappuccino colorway.  It's so soft and pretty.  To use up this yarn I decided to make my go to hat pattern "The Boyfriend Hat" by Stephanie Nicole.  The pattern link is here.  I'm going to use up the last four skeins of this yarn on this hat so I'm knitting this with double strands and I will knit this hat until it's gone so this will be a stocking cap style hat.

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.

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.

 

Christmas Stocking Cap Half Done

I have knit 27 inches of the red yarn this beauty so far.  It's going a little quicker than I thought it would.  I knit on this hat every time I get a chance to sit down.  This is so much fun.  I can't wait to wear it this Christmas.   This will be getting a pom pom and jingle bells added when I finally finish.

Finding The Perfect Project For Yarn

   I have 7 skeins of Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable yarn in the Stained Glass Colorway.  You can see it here:  link to picture of yarn colorway.  I pulled this yarn out a couple of nights ago because I thought I found the perfect pattern for it.  I found a free knitted shawl pattern that is called Spiral Staircase Shawl on the Ravelry website which I thought would be a good match for this yarn.  I tried to start twice but I was not happy with the result.

    I've knitted with this yarn before and I enjoyed the knit and my project turned out really well.  I made a knitted neck warmer in another colorway of this yarn.  It was an easy 3 x 2 rib pattern (link to that post here.)  I also crocheted a nice scarf in this yarn and that was easy to make as well (link to that post here.)

   I really want to use this yarn but I was having a hard time finding a pattern for this colorful yarn until I found the Granny Stripes Shawl pattern.  The easy pattern is found here.  The original pattern calls for color changes every two rows so my colorful yarn makes color changes so easy, like cheating.

    This shawl can be made as big or as small as you want.  I haven't decided how big I want to make this, but I'm planning on crocheting as least 5 skeins of this yarn and see how big that is.

   This is my shawl after using one skein.

Scrappy 16-Patch Blocks

   I finished my red plaid nightgown.  I didn't match up any of the plaids on the seams so it's not very pretty and I won't show a picture of it.  Suffice to say, I love it and that's all that matters sometimes.

   I started working on my next quilt project.  I'm making a scrappy quilt with 16-patch blocks set with white sashing.  I finished these three blocks.  I'm planning a quilt with 35 blocks, 7 rows of 5 blocks each.  The white sashing fabric should arrive by Saturday.

    I washed 4 1/2" yards of muslin this evening.  I bought it this morning at Walmart.  It was $3.97 a yard and I took all the material that was left on the bolt.  I will be making a lining for the "Needle Art From My Heart" vest with some of this muslin.  The rest of the muslin will go into stash.

More Knitting

    I'm really having a lot of fun knitting these days.  Yesterday I bought some soft Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable yarn in Cappuccino colorway at Michael's for $4.51 including tax after using a 30% off coupon.  I've been wanting to make a ribbed neck warmer with a very soft acrylic yarn for the last couple of years, but I never got around to it.  This yarn is a lovely cream and soft light brown that made lovely stripes in this project.

    I cast on 100 stitches using a long tail cast on and knit a 3 x 2 rib for 7 inches.  I used size 8  16" circular needles for this project.  I like to use stitch markers to count off every 10 stitches so I can keep track of my knits and purls.  I really enjoy knitting this rib pattern.  It's a pattern I learned making a favorite ribbed hat and it goes very quickly, so I just cast on as if I'm starting the hat and then I bind off after knitting 7 inches of ribbing, it's nice and stretchy and the perfect length on my neck.  This pattern would also make a nice ear warmer/headband by knitting 4 inches length instead of 7.  It would be fun in a bulky yarn or a worsted yarn held double made with big needles.  I could make bunches of these, but I really don't need them, so I'm starting a different knitting project tomorrow.

Faux Redwork Quilt Top Finished

     I finished sewing the blocks together this morning.  It didn't take long to put the rows together.  There were 30 blocks all together and it makes a smallish lap quilt.  I love the faux redwork blocks and the simple four patches are perfect with them.  I tried to alternate the birds and the flower redwork blocks in each row.  It's hard to see the polka dots in my pictures because I when I re-sized the pictures the polka dots disappeared.

    I have to order a batt to make this into a quilt.  I think I have enough of the red polka dot fabric to make the back, I'm not sure about the binding.  I'll keep working on this until it is done.

  CORRECTION TO PREVIOUS POST:

    I have to make a correction to my description of the Singer One sewing machine I posted about yesterday.  It does have a drop feed dog switch.  I missed the instruction in the book, it was a short paragraph on a page I skipped and the switch is kind of hidden on the back under the slide out table  I was wrong, you can do free motion darning and quilting with the Singer One sewing machine.

The Next Quilt Project

   I found this faux redwork panel on etsy a few weeks ago.  Each block is about 7.25" square.

This,

   plus this,

plus 30 - 5" white charm squares, equal this,

   I love, love, love the red mini polka dot fabric.  I pre-washed all the fabric so I shouldn't have a lot of problem with the dye bleeding.  This quilt top should be a lot of fun to make.  

   

Red Wool Pin Cushions

     I do not have any red sewing accessories on the table that I keep my active sewing machine on.  It is time to add some red color to my sewing area.  I made a couple of felted wool pin cushions for myself with some wool yarn I purchased just for this project.  I love making these little wool pin cushions.  They are so much fun to make, so simple and so useful.

     This is a short written tutorial on how I made them.  I use 100% wool yarn.  I bought two skeins of KnitPicks.com's Wool of the Andes worsted yarn a couple of weeks ago.  One skein in red and another in cranberry.  This yarn is lovely to knit with.  I've made a few scarves with it, but it's really great for felting.  The bulky variety of Wool of the Andes is also fun to work with.  I was able to make two pin cushions from each of the skeins I bought.

      I wind the yarn into a flat ball.  I couldn't tell how much yarn I had used each time, so I just guessed when I thought I had used half of the skein for the first ball of each skein.  I thread the end of the yarn into a long steel needle and weave into the center of the ball several time to make a little dimple and then I weave the end in the ball of yarn to secure it.  To keep this all together while I'm felting it, I place the balls in a knee high stocking secured with a knot very close to the ball.  I can fit four or five of these small wool balls into a knee high.  You can also use a sock to the do this, but I prefer to use a knee high because I can see through the stocking and I can see if the wool is felted enough.  I wet the knee high and the wool balls thoroughly in the sink with hot water, you can also put them in with a load of wash.  Soap is supposed to help with the felting process, but I usually just rely on water and the heat from the dryer.  Then I dry them in the dryer with a couple of wet bath towels or a load of wash.  The heat and the friction help the wool to felt.  I usually run them through the dryer several times until I like the way they have felted.  In this project, the red wool felted much better than the cranberry wool.  Interesting.

My Knitted Christmas Hat Is Done

   I started this in April and have been working on it since then.  It's finished.  It's not as pretty as the first one I made  because I got a little sloppy when I was knitting two together to reduce my stitches, but it will do and I can wear it around the house at during the Christmas holiday.

Time To Start A Knitting Project

    So I bought some red and white yarn a couple of weeks ago.  I'm going to make myself a Santa hat.  I made one a few years ago and gave it away in a Christmas swap.  I really wish I had kept it.  I don't think it was appreciated.  So I'm going to make one just for me.  I'll be using Wool of the Andes yarn that I bought from Knitpicks.com.  I love Wool of the Andes yarn, it comes in a great selection of colors, it felts well and it's cheap.  I bought three skeins of red and one skein of  white to make my hat.

    Here is a picture of the hat I gave away.   This one was started with 100 stitches and I knit a 3 x 2 rib section in white for about 3 inches. I'll be using 16" size 8 circular needles to start.  This one was a  little too big (you can see how big it is with the white section on the neck of the head model) so I'm going to reduce that number of ribbing stitches to 80.  The red section is knit in stockinette stitch, and I reduce the number of stitches every 7 or 8 rounds.

Cat Pillow Done and Another Project Started

I finished the cat pillow today.  I had to dog sit my granddog at my home this weekend.  He is an American Bulldog and he always scares my kitties, so I have to stay with him the entire time he is in my home.  Yesterday I spent my day  setting up my new computer and today I finished one sewing project and started a new one.

This is the fabric before I turned it into a pillow cover.

And this is the front of the finished pillow.  I made the pillow envelope style.  It was really easy once I got the fabric made.  I put a muslin back on the fabric and I sewed the fabric to the muslin for stability.  The muslin also gave the fabric a lot of body.

I started my patriotic door decoration for next summer.  It's a simple star, 10" squares made into half square triangles that is super easy to make.

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I have the rows put together now and the backing is sewn to it.  I didn't put any batting in it, but I am going to bind it with top with the back and I'm using the blue fabric to bind it.

I should have the binding done in a couple of days and I'll share the finish with you.

Past Projects - Quilt and Crocheted Afghan

I made this simple quilt for my brother in January this year.  I actually emailed him last year and asked him about colors and patterns so that he and his wife could have a say in the end result but they never made a decision.  So I made him this one.  This quilt is similar to the very first quilt that I made in 2012.  The quilt I made in 2012 was given away at a family reunion.  My brother really liked that quilt, so that's what I decided he would get.  He loves his quilt.  The back is solid dark blue with a few of the pinwheels in the center of the back to give it interest.  I did the binding in the same dark blue and the quilting is all stitch in the ditch.

You can see my quilt inspectors, Taffy on the table and Merlin on the floor doing their quality control inspection.

Since my brother does not let his wife use the quilt, I crocheted her an afghan and sent that up to her in August.  It's a one color afghan made up of 80 - 8" granny squares.  I made it with Red Heart Super Saver Solid Yarn (acrylic).  It's big and very warm.  She loves her afghan.  This is a picture of it spread out over my sofa.  

  I'm currently working on making a new harness for my dog, Wolfgang.  It's cut out but I have not done any stitching on it.  Once I finish the harness, I will be working on a pillow cover using some Laurel Burch fabrics I have been collecting for it..  I bought an 18" pillow form at Walmart last weekend for that project.  I have fabric for a quilt, I have fabric for a patriotic door decoration, I have supplies to make potholders to match my new kitchen curtains, and I also have some fabric to cover the new table top ironing board that I bought a couple of months ago.  That's a short list of things I want to do.  I also have one embroidery and two cross stitch projects ready to be started.