Catching Up

I got behind on blog posts, so I am trying to catch up. I hit the local thrift shop every now and then. Sometimes to drop off some stuff and sometimes just to look around. You never know what you are going to find. This shop is benefitting the local hospital. I happened to be there at the right time!

Thrift Shop find!

 They had about a half dozen vintage quilts come in! I  saw someone walking out after purchasing one so went over to the blanket rack. There was a yo-yo quilt, an old applique quilt, a 70's polyester quilt and then this 1930's Double Wedding Ring!  I snatched the DWR as fast as I could! It is in pretty good shape. The backing is folded over as the binding.  There are a few faded areas, probably where the sun hit it while it was on a bed. All hand pieced and hand quilted.

Close up

 I have been participating in Sock Madness on Ravelry this spring. It has been fun! I am out now, but made it to the 3rd round. Here are my socks from the competition.

13 Memories

This was the warmup pattern, 13 Memories. It was so fun to knit! I had a sock and a half finished when the qualifying pattern dropped, so went back to it between rounds.

Smock Madness

This was the qualifying pattern, Smock Madness. I loved this one! The color is bright and cheerful and the knitting was fun! Learned a new smocking stitch.

Demogorgan's Lair

The pattern for the first round was Demogorgan's Lair. Toe ups and each sock had a unique lace pattern. It was hard, but I made it through!

Echoes

The pattern for the second round was Echoes. I don't do a lot of colorwork on socks, so this was a challenge.

The third round was another toe up pattern. And we had to knit a very large size. My team was filling up and I realized I did not like the way this pattern was knit and had no chance to finish in time. I only got to the end of the first foot on the first sock. So when I have a few minutes I will ravel the yarn to use in another design.

In between rounds are bonus patterns. I am working on the first bonus, Aka Woolhoney. I switched it to cuff down and am not knitting the lace on the foot. It has been fun to knit. I am about finished with the leg on the second sock.




The winner of last week's drawing is: Bekah! I will message you to get your address.


Linking to:

Nicole
Beth
Judy
Beth S.
Emily
Myra
Sarah
Anja
Nina-Marie

Retreating

In March I went on a quilt retreat with my local quilt guild. They rent a large cabin just outside Zion National Park. It is a sew on your own project type event. Everyone takes turns cooking meals. It was wonderful!  I was able to get a lot done.

Folded points

I don't remember the name of this technique, but we learned it at a guild meeting and I was able to finish tacking the folds down. It will be a potholder. I liked the technique, not sure if I will use it much. I could see that it would make a nice flower.

Quilting

My main project was to quilt a wedding quilt for my cousin's daughter. Last year I did a post on my collection of unquilted tops. I sent her the link and this is the one she chose.

Quilting is finished!

And I was able to finish the quilting!  I did not bring the binding fabric along so I completed that at home. And as it sometimes happens, I did not take a photograph of the completely finished quilt.

Close up of quilting

Back up project

I then pulled out my strips and clothesline to work on a bowl. This guy is going to be big! I ran out of strips and need to find some more in that color scheme. It sorta has a color scheme.

Sewing area

The sewing area was in the main room. Big windows to showcase the beautiful view!  There was snow on the ground.

View

I decided to hold a giveaway for a book. This is a used book that has been passed around a couple of times. Has the name of two previous owners on it. It is a good book!  Mandala by Katie Pasquini, the 1983 version.

Sorry about the photographs being sideways, I will try to fix it later. To enter, just comment with your favorite spring flower.  Will draw a name on Thursday, May 16th, my son's birthday.

Linking to:

Lorna

Nicole

Beth

Beth S

Judy

Emily

Anja

Nina-Marie

Sarah

Myra

Easily Distracted!

One of the reasons that we chose Kanab is that they rarely get much snow in the winter. Since we have been here that has not been the case. We have had snow every year. And not just a dusting. The storms that have dumped snow on Las Vegas this week and really hit us hard. We are about 3 hours away from Vegas. I am ready for spring!

Monday's storm

 On Monday we got a good 6 inches of snow. I am glad I did not have anywhere to go and could just stay home.

Thursday's snow

 So the next storm rolled through late Wednesday night and all day Thursday. Another 8 inches  of heavy wet snow. I would be thrilled if I had access to my snow dyeing equipment, but it is tucked away in storage in the back of sweetie's shop. And he is visiting his brother in Tennessee, so no help getting it out. And yes, Utah has had a serious drought for the last few years and really needs the snowpack. But I wish it would stay up in the mountains.

13 Memories

I decided to try Sock Madness again this year. It is a knitting competition and last year I was just short in the qualifying round. This is the warmup pattern. I am loving it! So fun to knit!  I love the scrappy feel! Reminds me of scrap quilts.

Sample blocks

Last post I talked about joining in Emily's Medallion QAL. I knew just the thing, I had some 12 inch blocks that were samples from a class and thought they would be perfect to set together for the 24" start of the medallion. Oops. There are only 3 blocks and I only have a strip and a partial of the background. I used that same background in my daughter's wedding quilt and am pretty sure it is used up.

Starry, Starry Night

I had 3 sizes available in the class pattern. This is the medium size and the finished quilt sample for the class.

Close-up of the fabrics

Sewing together the scraps

I must have been organized with that class box, I had all the scraps from the sample quilt in the class box. I loved the look of the colors and started sewing them together all improv like.  Instead of focusing on another plan for the 24" medallion center. I am almost finished with the scraps. Maybe I can get caught up on the QAL before the next round comes out.

Small size

This the small size of the block pattern. I use these to demo the blocks in class. I love these quarter blocks, you can rotate them ala log cabins and make a lot of different designs instead of just the stars.


Linking to:

Nicole

Beth

Judy

Emily

Alycia

Nina-Marie

Sarah

Myrna

Labels and Sleeves

This week's finish is making labels and sleeves.  I tend to put those off and decided to get this last batch of quilts done, done. So now I am ready. When it is time for these guys to get entered into a show, they are ready to go.

Last week I had my lousy dishrag featured. I drew a name and the winner is Beth at Cooking up Quilts! Thanks for the fun comments. I didn't even finish one lousy dishrag this week, so maybe next week. I got about 1/3 of a dishrag done while visiting with my step-mom Tuesday night. I had gone to visit her and to attend the Southern Utah Fiber Art group! It was fun, several women demonstrated various felting techniques.



Linking to:

Nicole

Judy

Beth at cooking up quilts

Emily

Beth

Kathy

Nina-Marie

Sarah

Myra

Finished a quilt!

Finally finished my Ricky Tims' Caveman quilting piece! The finishing process took more time than I had expected, but I think it was worth it to tuck all those threads. The background does not show well in the photograph, it is more of the greenish blue.

Ricky Tims Caveman quilting

I did post this to my FB page and tagged Ricky. His comment was "Oldie Goldie". I think that makes a good name for this guy, what do you think? Up next is making some labels for recent work and to start working on another piece for a challenge that is due in March.

Gift Bags

At my local guild this week we worked together on making gift bags for the Balloons and Tunes event coming up President's Day Weekend. The visitors center co sponsors this event and we were asked to make the bags for all the pilots. They give out a bottle of sparkling cider. It is a fun event. Fun to watch the balloons launch and float by the red cliffs. Hope the weather allows them to launch. There is also a band showdown. A fun free event, if you are anywhere near Southern Utah, check it out!

Crown Royal block

One of the gals in my guild is making a Crown Royal quilt for her son. He collected a lot of the bags over the years. Claudia drafted out her quilt on graph paper. It has been fun to watch this evolve.

This week's lousy dishrag 

We drove to Salt Lake City last weekend for our granddaughter's 3rd birthday. It is a 5-6 hour drive, so I usually have my knitting basket with me. I knit another lousy dishrag. I experimented with a new design. Here it is blocking. The horizontal rows try to gather and the vertical rows stretch. So it is very cockeyed. Anyway, I had nice comments on my lousy dishrag last week. Thanks. I was using the term lousy as in not much rather than awful. I decided that I would have a drawing for this lousy dishrag. It is meant to be used, so when it stretches out it is no biggie. Please leave a comment if you want your name thrown in the hat. Sorry, but USA addresses only. (I sent a baby hat to England for the great grand and it cost $14 to mail it.)  This may become an ongoing thing, I knit a lot more dishrags than I can use and give away locally.



Linking to:

Lorna

Nicole

Beth 

Emily

Judy

Beth

Myra

Sarah

Nina-Marie

Leanne

And so it goes.

I went to Arizona with Sweetie and the two puppy dogs for a couple of weeks. I had hopes of all kinds of wonderful photographs of the desert landscape. It did not happen. I took some photographs of the first sunset and the camera battery died. And of course, I had forgotten the battery charger. We did not have internet this year, I had given up the hot spot when we got real internet at the house. It was nice to take a break from News. So here is my entire collection of photographs from our trip!

While we were in the desert our great granddaughter was born! She arrived on January 20th, 10 days overdue.  7 lbs 14 oz with a full head of dark hair! Bella Rose.  

Only thing I got finished was a lousy dishrag. It was a fun, stress free knit. Pattern is here.

Linking to:

Nicole

Beth

Judy

Emily

Beth

Nina-Marie

Myra

Sarah

Alycia

New Start

Happy New Year! I hope that there will be happy times in 2019. We are expecting our first Great-Granddaughter to make her appearance any day now! Officially due on the 10th, but as always with babies, they come when they are ready. I am not sure that I am ready to be a Great Grandmother, but at least everything looks like it is going well. 

Caveman Flower

I finally finished tucking all those darn threads on my Ricky Tims' class project! I wet it and blocked it before trimming. Still trying to decide about a faced binding. I don't think I have enough of the blue and I don't know that I would want the orange out on the edge.

Red bowl

Yesterday I went to the quilt guild sew day and wrapped cord for another bowl. I sewed it when I got home. I am happy with it. Happy bright color. Big enough to put a plant in.


Linking to:

Lorna

Nicole

Emily

Beth

Judy

Beth

Nina-Marie

Myra

Anja