Knit & Crochet Show

The Knit & Crochet Show opened today in Manchester, NH. It's the first time I've ever been to this show. It was great fun! They had so many vendors selling all sorts of yarn. I was really interested in lace yarn as well as sock yarn. They seem to be my two favorite types of knitting. I wasn't disappointed but I was overwhelmed! There was so much to see. I never knew some of this specialty yarn even existed! I should have taken more pictures but I was too busy looking at everything.

This picture above shows some of the winners in different categories of knitting and crocheting. It seems that people are knitting or crocheting just about anything you can think of! There was jewelry and pocket books! Items that don't necessarily come to mind when thinking of knitting or crocheting.

I had to take a picture of a crocheted log cabin quilt/afghan. Such neat things! It was very inspiring to see. I wanted to go home and knit up a storm!

I tried to buy some yarn that we don't see too often. Remarkably, Red Yarn had the neatest new yarn! This yarn makes a ribbon type scarf. It only uses one skein. I figured it's worth a try. They had many different colors to choose from.

This yard is also from Red Heart and makes a gorgeous ruffle scarf. This also uses just one skein of yarn for a scarf. I couldn't resist! The price was also great!

I chose this tweed sort of yarn for sock yarn. It looks so comfortable and it's hand dyed. It's a navy blue although that's hard to tell from the picture.

 This is my favorite! It's a shimmery variegated lace yarn. It's so pretty and soft! I had to have it!

There was so much more I could have bought but didn't. There's only so much time in the day. I love what I bought! Can't wait to work on new knitting projects!!

Blogger's BOM for June

This is Blogger's Block of the Month for June. This month's block was the creative work of Pam Kitty Morning. She has the cutest blog! She also designs her own fabric. Her blog is fun to visit. You can visit her here. I think this month's block was the most colorful! I added an extra solid so it could have been even more colorful! The directions were easy to follow and I finished this block quite quickly.

Here are the blocks so far. I'm not sure what I'm going to end up with but it's fun! I suppose it's a little like a mystery quilt. It's nice to be surprised! I think we're supposed to end up with 14 blocks. I'm not even sure what sort of setting I would have with that amount of blocks. We just have a few more months to wait!

Project updates

Although it's been very hot, I got the layers all pinned and now Lil Twister is all ready to quilt. I've been working a lot but I found some time. It's only about 38 inches square. I had planned on adding a wider border but my mom saw it and loved the size. She'd like to place it on the back of the chair she uses to watch television. She has problems with her legs and thinks it would be great to place on her legs when they get achy. I wanted to make her a lap sized quilt but she insisted this is better. I'm just happy she likes something I made. 

This is the fabric I used for the back. It's also part of Kate Spain's Good Fortune fabric line. I love the colors! I'm not an orange person but I like the look of orange with this particular blue.

I'm not sure how to machine quilt it yet. I may just do my usual meander over the body of the quilt and try something different for the borders. I have something for reference now.

Look what I got in the mail! I love this book! I spend a lot of time just looking through it and dreaming that I can sew the same design as Leah Day! Once this stretch of work is over, I hope to start practicing a few of the different designs. Until then, I'll just dream!!

I thought you might like to see how cute the booties look with their ribbon ties. I love this pattern. It's easy and looks great!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Baby Booties

I finished these baby booties a few days ago. I have a friend having a baby girl and thought they would be a fun gift. They didn't take very long to make. I have to buy some pink ribbon and lace it through the openings. They are a very cute gift to make and I hope she likes them!

I've been having some awful cell phone problems. My phone was fine Sunday but Monday morning it was acting weird. It seemed to spontaneously shut off and turn on. It did that a few times but I didn't think much of it. Well, as the day continued, it started doing that all the time! The phone became so hot and the battery kept dying. I had to go to the Verizon store and although they tried to fix it, I ended up getting a new phone delivered to my house. Thank God I had insurance! They told me that I could set the phone up when I got it but I went right back to the store and had them do the set up. I had no idea what I was doing and I didn't want to take the chance of screwing up the phone. So, my phone is now back to normal and I'm happy again!

My Lil' Twister quilt top is almost done. I have one more border to add. I'm hoping to be able to post a picture soon. It's supposed to be close to 100 degrees today and tomorrow and close to 90 on Friday. I'm working a lot the next few days. I doubt I'll get much done. I'll have to see how much energy I have!! I might surprise myself.

FMQ Challenge for June/Friday Night Sew-In

I dedicated this Friday Night Sew-In to getting my Free Motion Quilting Challenge done for June. Cindy Needham provided a wonderful tutorial explaining many different aspects of free motion quilting. I printed out her whole tutorial and feel I'll be using this in the future. She talked about thread, lighting, tools, etc. She covered so many topics! It was wonderful!

I am so grateful for the Friday Night Sew-In. I kept putting this off thinking I didn't have enough time to work on it. This evening set aside for sewing was perfect for me! I finally did have enough time and I really wanted to sit down and accomplish something! Thank you, Heidi! It was my first time participating but it won't be my last.

Thank you, Cindy and SewCalGal for the opportunity to improve my free motion skills. I could only meander when I first started back in January. I feel like I'm really learning new skills that I'll be able to put to good use!

Dying to see what everyone else did tonight! I'll be checking that Flickr group!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Friday Night Sew-In

Tomorrow night is the night for the Friday Night Sew-In. It's a great night to stay home and catch up on some much neglected projects. I know it's Friday night but it works out great for some of us! I'm working tomorrow and Saturday so it will be a nice way for me to spend my Friday evening.

I haven't really decided what I'm going to work on. I have my hexagon project that I'm finally working on. I also have the Free Motion Quilting Challenge to start for this month. I'm sure I'll find something to do!

If any of you plan on sewing tomorrow night, let me know! Link up on Handmade by Heidi  and add your name to the list!

See you there!!

Mystery solved!

Last night was the last meeting of our quilt guild. It's always a fun meeting. We have a banquet, more raffles than usual and we recap the year. One of the things we all like to see is the outcome of the block swaps and mystery quilts. The block swaps were hanging on the walls throughout the hall. I must admit that I didn't take any pictures! Each participant picks a block and everyone makes them a block throughout the year. They were all very nice.

I did the mystery quilt this year. It's fun because you never really know what you're going to end up with. Mystery quilt tops are displayed at the last meeting and everyone gets a kick out of seeing how each quilt turned out so differently. I think it's a nice lesson in color. Color plays such a huge role in all our quilts.Some patterns become more prevalent depending on the colors used. It's always neat to see so many quilts of the same pattern being displayed right next to each other.

I doubt many of you could pick out my quilt even though I've posted the picture. It sort of blends in with all the others! I'm the purplish quilt somewhat in the middle. In the top picture, I'm between 2 brownish quilts.

I think this is my 3rd mystery quilt. I always used fabric from my stash. Another free quilt! I try to forget that I actually bought all this fabric at some point since it's free for me to use now!

Lil Twister

I just finished putting my rows together for my Lil Twister quilt top. I'm using Kate Spain's Good Fortune charm squares. However, I decided to off set each square with a solid light blue so each colored square is easier to see. I really like how it came out. It needs to be squared off and ironed.

I'm not sure about borders. It's only 32 inches square so I'm thinking of using 2 solid borders and one wider border. I don't think it will be a very large quilt. It should be easy to machine quilt!

I have a baby shower to go to in a few weeks and have been working on knitted baby booties. I should be able to post them very soon. I'm hoping to concentrate on my hexagons after the booties are done.

Tonight is our last meeting of our quilt guild. We end the year with a banquet. It's so nice not to have to cook. My husband is away on a golf trip so it's perfect timing!

Knitted doily

I found a pattern for a knitted doily and have been working on it all week. I'm blocking it as you can see in the picture. I just used some leftover sock yarn. It didn't come out that great but I really love the pattern.  My grandmother used to crochet doilies so I tried the knitted version! I might use cotton yarn next time. I suppose it's just an extension of lace knitting which I really enjoy.

It's been a quiet week as far as quilting and knitting are concerned. I worked an extra day at work and it seemed to throw off my whole week. I think I had one day that I could actually stay home and get some sewing done. I did start to piece my Lil' Twister quilt. I have 3 rows sewn. I'm hoping to post a picture sometime next week.

I'm working on my hexagon project again. It's rather slow since it's handwork but it does look nice so far! Pictures to follow soon!

Unfortunately, I have to work at 7am tomorrow morning. It's too bad our day jobs keep us from our quilts!! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. 

Mystery Quilt Trip

The Tewksbury Piecemakers sponsors a mystery quilt trip twice a year. Although it was raining buckets yesterday, we went on our little trip! Only a few people know where we're actually going. We meet the bus in the morning and know we'll be home late afternoon. We usually go to a few stores and have lunch. This time was a little different and loads of fun!

Our first stop is The Button Box Quilt Shop in Wellesley, MA.

This is Linda and Marlene. We're sitting in the back room enjoying some coffee and goodies.

I'm having a little coffee here. It's still on the early side! Shopping was so fun at this shop.

They had some gorgeous fabrics. The store was set up by color which made finding a particular color or shade so easy! We could have stayed here all day! I did buy a few things!!

This is a table runner quilt kit and pattern by Ann Lauer. I had seen it in the Connecting Threads catalog but they were out of it by the time I ordered. I was very happy to by the kit as well! I've never tried bargello before so this should be fun!

I couldn't resist this book! It had some great designs. It's hard to find patterns and inspiration sometimes so I grabbed it!

Our next stop was at Wellesley College, They have some great green houses and exotic plants. I'm not into plants but I went in anyways. This is the only thing that caught my eye.

It was a rosemary plant!! I didn't stay too long. It was hot and humid.

We got back to the bus and ended up in Newtonville, MA at a place called The Paint Bar. We were told we'd be eating lunch here also. There were cold cuts, chips, cookies and cupcakes. I had a diet coke but you could actually get wine or even a mimosa! We found out we'd be painting here. We were all a little surprised. I have no artistic ability. I can't paint a picture to save my life but everyone was a good sport about it and we all gave it a try.

This is the picture we were all going to paint. I had no idea if I could do it. However, we had a guide! Our instructor guided us at every step of the way. Here is our group working hard.

Here is the finished product! Mine is in the middle.

Not too bad!

By the time we got to the bus, it was around 4:30. It seemed like it would be too late to make our last stop. However, the shop was called and they stayed open for us! We went to Fabric Corner in Arlington, MA. My phone was almost dead so I didn't take any pictures at the store. I did buy a few things.

I bought some backing fabric. It was a great price, 30% off! I also bought some charm squares which I plan on giving to a friend.

I was totally exhausted when I got home last night. We did get a little Make and Take project for the bus ride which I never made. I made it while watching TV.

Just a little tissue cover.

It was a long day but so much fun!

Two more finishes!!

I finally picked out fabric for the borders and finished the mystery quilt! I added a 2 inch lighter purple fabric. It's hard to see but there are some shiny little dots speckled over the fabric. The larger border is 6 inches wide and also has a bit of sparkle to it. It's purple but sort of changes over to a dark pink every so often. I plan on binding with a plain black fabric. Of course, it has to be quilted first!

This is the shawl I've been working on from Vogue Knitting. The yarn is sort of silvery purple. My mom came over the other day and really liked it so I ended up giving it to her! I love knitting these shawls but not sure if I would wear them very often. I was happy that my mom was actually planning on using it.

I have to keep myself from starting any new project. I have to machine quilt a few quilt tops first. I just have to keep reminding myself! It's so easy to start a new project!