It’s been busy the past couple of weeks and more so the last couple of days as we hosted the dinner for a progressive supper our “two-by-two” group from church put on. Lots of cleaning and putting up of Christmas themed decorations.

We put up the tree and I put the Christmas tree skirt I finished last week under it. So glad that this UFO was finally done. It took longer than I thought it would and the machine quilting took longer as well. By contrast the bug jar quilt that I’m finishing the binding on only took one day of machine quilting. Anyway here it is:

Christmas tree skirt from the “Thimbleberries Book of Quilts” by Lynette Jensen.

The only difference between my finished quilt and hers was different fabric choices and I added on a circular piece of fabric to make the skirt bigger. The original pattern went to the scalloped edge. The binding of course took forever to sew down.

Skirt under the tree waiting for presents.

Next on the list is finishing the binding on the bug jar quilt and I hope to have that finished tomorrow so I can post a couple of pictures of that as well. Then it’s on to other projects, time is flying by and running out even though I still have most of December left it feels like it’s too late to get stuff done. Happens every year this deadline kind of feeling.

Karen

Well Jen finally sent me the pictures we took a couple of days ago featuring the blue baby sweater so I thought I’d post a couple of the photos. Really it’s all about the sweater…not…vbg.

Sweater knit in Bernat Soy Natural Blends. Pattern – Raglan Cardigan – from Baby Knits by Debbie Bliss.

It was very nice working with the Soy Natural Blends as it was very soft. I don’t know how it holds up in the wash but the finished sweater had a nice sheen to it. I found the pattern easy to work up although lots of loose yarn ends to tie in so a bit fussy that way. If you’re thinking of making this pattern be aware that the sweater works up to about the right size so if you’re wanting the baby to grow into it I’d choose the next size up from the baby’s actual size.

“Really grandma, the AC/DC concert was that good?”

And finally the best for last, two really cute guys

Grandpa never seems to get tired of holding Chase for some reason

That’s it for today, hopefully next time I blog it’ll be the Christmas tree skirt which I started ages ago. I’m not looking forward to the marathon session which will be sewing down the binding on this project.

Karen

Thought I’d post the latest colour run that I did for a swap in my fabric dyeing forum group. The swap was a blue-orange colour run and the colours I choose were ProChem’s Intense Blue and Burnt Orange.

ProChem’s Intense Blue and Burnt Orange.

The idea of this swap was to create browns but as you can see I really only got one brown right next to the burnt orange primary. I’m thinking that the burnt orange is closer to a golden yellow than a strong orange. I really like the blue-green colour that’s next to the intense blue primary.

Here is a picture of the run with the fat eighth parfait I did with the leftover dyes.

Colour run with parfait.

I just mixed up some dried fruit and cherries with brandy to sit over-night. I’ll be making some fruitcakes tomorrow so we’ll see how this turns out. This is one bowl of fruit and I have another bowl that is similar but without the nuts for a different recipe that a friend gave me. I’m hoping these cakes work out as I spent a lot of money buying the ingredients. As is always the case it would have been cheaper to buy the fruitcake but I like my fruitcake without citrus peel so thought I’d give it a try cooking my own.

Mix for fruitcake.

I finally finished the little sweater I was working on for baby Chase but I forgot my camera at home and the pictures I took are on my daughter’s camera. I’ll post a couple of pictures when she sends them to me. The sweater just fit, he’s growing so quickly.

Karen

Back at the beginning of August I blogged about a technique called Kumo – spider web – shibori and mentioned I was going to use the fabric in a project. The link is here: Spider Web Shibori to see the fabric.

I didn’t want to post a picture of my project because it was a gift for a friend overseas and since she had given me the link for the bag I was afraid she would clue in as to who the gift was going to. Well my parcel finally made it to it’s recipient (only took 2-1/2 months) so now I can blog what I made.

This bag is from a pattern in Ravelry called Inga’s Crocheted Bag. I’d post a link but you have to be a member on Ravelry to be able to call it up so just type in “Inga’s Crocheted Bag” and you’ll pull up the pattern.

The neat thing about Ravelry is that once a pattern is out there people will post their finished project and talk about them so I was able to see all kinds of colourways and get hints about the bag which I put to good use. The originial pattern calls for a 7 row square but most thought this was too big so I only did five and some mentioned that the handles tended to stretch so I re-enforced the straps by weaving extra cotton into the stitches.

The lining was a bit tricky for me because I haven’t done this type of thing before but a couple of pictures on Ravelry helped to clue me in. I put in lining because I didn’t want anything to fall through the holes in the crocheted stitches.

Inside of crocheted bag with Kumo shibori lining.

When the pieces are sewn together the bag turns out to be square.

Bag hanging from cupboard door.

Anyhow glad that the bag finally made it’s way overseas to Australia, I was beginning to freak out that it had been lost.

Karen

I finally finished the top today. I auditioned pieces of material for a border around the bronze and came up with a really nice one of boysenberry and basic blue (ProChem) but the piece wasn’t big enough so I dyed a larger piece last night and then added the borders today.

Bug jar quilt front, handdyed bronze and boysenberry/basic blue mix borders.

The bronze borders match the brown in the background material of the jars and this is the same material I wrote about a couple of posts earlier. The idea is the jars are sitting in a pantry. The purple went well with the bronze and the black with the purple.

I have additional bug fabric that could have gone for the borders but I figured it would look too busy so I’m saving that material for the back of the quilt which I hope to finish tomorrow, then I guess I’ll quilt it on Friday. I was trying to figure out how to quilt around the jars but it’s going to look funny on the back so now I’m thinking to just go simplistic and do an all-over meandering stitch and that way the quilt will be reversible and the back won’t look funny with misplaced quilted jars on the back. I’m thinking lime green for the binding.

I hope to get a better picture once it’s all done as the lighting was poor in the kitchen as its dark and gloomy outside. The quilt is even more vivid in person.

Karen

I’ve been working on a few projects lately and finished one over the weekend. We have a lady at church who is very talented and aside from being a great singer and musician she also does puppetry and one of the puppets she uses is called Miss Ewe.

I have a book that I recently aquired a few months ago called Tea Cozies and while flipping through it I found Miss Ewe and decided to make her to give to my friend.

“Sheepish Look” tea cosy pattern by Caroline Lowbridge from the book “Tea Cozies”.

I’ve also been working on this project, which is supposed to be a surprise for my daughter so I’m only posting part of it and will post the finished product after the baby shower this Saturday. I don’t think she reads my blog so Jen if you’re reading this don’t.

Project teaser.

And of course being proud grandma I get to post pictures of my new grandson and so I thought this one was very precious that his mom took.

Baby Chase.

I guess that’s all for today.
Karen

I’m a grandmother.

Jen and baby Chase.

Karen

Just a quick post. Yesterday I needed to dye a piece of fabric to match some commercial fabric I had on hand that I wanted to use in a quilt so I got out my swatch book – the one with all my colour gradations of the various dyes. Low and behold there it was bronze, who would have thunk bronze would be the match but it was so I dyed up just over a metre and was so tickled to have it turn out the proper match that I just had to post.

ProChem’s bronze and commercial fabric.

I’ve done this several times where I’ve gone to the swatch book and made a match and every time I think it’s so neat that I now have this ability.

Karen

Well I finally sewed together all the squares in my swirl quilt and all that needs doing aside from actually putting it together and quilting it is to put some kind of border around the squares. I’ve decided to piece together a border of plain blocks made up of the other swap technique fabrics in my stash. I’ll probably do that after I’ve put together some kind of quilt for my new grandson that is due to be born in the next week or so.

John holding quilt over deck railing at back of house.

The swirls that make up this quilt were some that I had done myself but most of them were done by other ladies from my fabric dyeing forum in a swap exchange. For a block swap everyone does up the required number of squares and then sends them in to a hostess who exchanges all the blocks and mails them back out to the participants. This way you can dye up say 14 blocks in one colour pathway and then receive back 14 different coloured blocks.

I didn’t want a black quilt so had a hard time coming up with a good colour to match all the squares. Call it lack of imagination but I went with white to frame the squares (there were different sizes) to 15 inches and then a narrow band of light baby blue to tie them together. Black would have been stunning but the blue and white will match the guest bedroom and my bedroom for that matter better.

I also had my Knitpick’s order come in on Friday so thought I would post a picture of the colours that I bought during their recent lace sale.

Knitpick’s “Cloud Alpaca” in the colour Peppermint. I waited 9 months for this yarn to be restocked.

Knitpick’s “Shimmer” in the colour Hush. This is an alpaca silk blend.

Knitpick’s kettle-dyed “Shadow” in the colour Eggplant. Shadow is a 100% merino lace weight wool.

Knitpick’s kettle-dyed “Shadow” in the colour Altitude.

All the yarn together in a stack.

I already have some lace weight yarn waiting to be worked on but since I’d waited so long for the peppermint alpaca cloud to come in and it happened to be right when the other lace was on sale I decided to go ahead and buy some more since the shipping was the same regardless of how much I bought.

The lace yarn was quite reasonable ranging from $5.49 to $2.99 per 50 gram skein. Needless to say the peppermint alpaca was not on sale seeing as how there is such a great demand for that colour. Still, all in all if you figure you need anywhere from one to three skeins of yarn for a lace scarf or stole then you can make one of these projects for under ten dollars. Of course finding the time to do it is another thing but I’m thinking Christmas is a reasonable time frame. I guess another problem would be giving up the project once it’s made.

Karen

I haven’t posted in a while. I have been working on a quilt top recently. Its made up of tie-dye swirls that I’ve made myself and some I received in a couple of swaps. I was almost done but wouldn’t you know it I goofed on adding some borders so now find myself picking out half of those. There is something to be said for sewing one row at a time instead of doing everything at once. If I’d done that I wouldn’t be at the point I am at the moment. Anyhow I’ll blog the top once it’s done.

I’ve also been doing some canning and making jam. I’ve decided to make some baskets for Christmas this year with different varieties of fruit and I even found some Christmas lids to go on the jars.

Blueberry jam, strawberry jam, peach jam, bumbleberry jam, and canned peaches.

Not a great picture with the window in behind but you get the idea. I’ll have to make some peanut brittle and cookies to put in the baskets as well when the time comes.

Edited to note: Bumbleberries are a combination of fruit in this case blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. I guess the tern is either local or Canadian, lol, I didn’t realise.

Karen