On The Needles

Meet Lillian.

I am so easily influenced by others.

Mickey Depre  shared a link this cowl on Facebook the other day

and the search was on.

Here is a great article about the designer, Don Waalen-Radzevicius.

Each of his designs has a family back story.

Lillian has 2 sisters that will probably be living at my house soon.

Anne and Margaret.

How's that progress for not going to start anything new until Greta is finished?

The good part is that the yarn came from my stash.

I'm using Felici Sport Yarn from Knit Picks.

Great progress was made on Greta.

I vowed to knit at least an inch every day and so far, so good.

I have several shows that I record, 

so each morning I watch one or two and knit on Greta.

What's on your needles?

See great projects at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

Grandmother's Choice Sampler is now a finished quilt top.

I love it! And so does Jessie.

And I'm quite happy to have it on top of Mt. ToBeQuilted.

The backing is cut to size,

the binding is sewn, pressed and ready!

Next step is to get the longarm table cleared off and get that baby warmed up!!

The instructions called for mitered borders and since that is the size I had precut,

mitered corners we will make.

I've done it several times before and every single time,

I sew it wrong.

And then I sew it right and its perfect.

I am so happy to have this top complete.

Next I pulled out Sanctuary.

This quilt design is from Kim Brackett's Scrap-Basket Beauties. 

I haven't worked on this since I posted this picture in October.

Borders are now on and this too has found a spot on Mt. ToBeQuilted.

It was a great sewing week.

See other great design walls today at Patchwork Times.

On The Needles

Off The Needles

Rivel Cardigan

I think I have a major front band shortage.

She hasn't tried it on yet but I think the front is going to pull way up when it's on the body.

Have you ever ripped back after you have blocked something?

Is it going to be a night mare?

I thought I followed the pattern of pick up 3 stitched within 4 rows.

Maybe I didn't.

How do you really know when you have enough stitches to make the band fit correctly?

I do love the elbow length sleeves.

Greta Vest got quite a bit of attention this week.

I knitted a few rows each night.

After Denise showed off her vest,

I am really anxious to finish mine.

We have an event March 8th,

I wonder......

See other fabulous On The Needle Projects

at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday-UFO Edition

I'm embarrassed to say it's been one year ago today since I joined anything to my Grandmother's Choice Sampler.  After finishing some BOMs last week, I needed to pull something to work on. This is what I chose, I needed to make 12 more blocks. I'm really glad I added sashing to the rows and sewed the rows together. Otherwise I would have a big box of blocks and possibly I would have found it too overwhelming to think about.

I also stated right in the beginning that I would not make all of the chosen blocks. If it was something I didn't want to make, I would choose something different. After all, it is called Grandmother's Choice and I am a Grandmother and I choose not to be frustrated with my quilting. :-)  So I sat down at EQ7 and found my substitutions and printed out my blocks, pulled fabric and have these final 3 blocks to make. A good rainy day project for today.

I'm getting down to the last of my fabrics. The borders and binding are all cut and the backing is cut to size. Hmm, is there possibly a finished quilt in my near future???

Check out other fabulous design walls at Patchwork Times.  I see Kathy is working on her sampler also. This makes me happy.....and maybe a little competitive but I like the idea of sewing with a friend.

On The Needles

I started teaching Jessie to lay in my lap while I knit.

He did pretty good.

Only a couple times he tried to paw the Greta Vest.

Several more rows were knit during his training.

We'll try again today.

After he got bored with his training, 

he went to his blanket to sleep some more.

I picked up the Rivel Cardigan and finally started seaming it together.

Sleeves go in today.

Then the "fun" part, the front/neck band.

See other fabulous On The Needles projects at Patchwork Times.

Thursday Fun

I played in the sewing room today. 

I finished my The HEXIE Blog February BOM .

I made the Wishes Quilt Along February BOM.

I'm all caught up on the 3 BOMs I'm doing this year.

While at the beach the a couple weeks ago, we visited Boardwalk Quilts.

Right away we spotted this cute little panel for a soft book.

Grandson Corbin is Monkey crazy so we had to get it.

I can't wait to give it to him.

It feels good to get these projects marked off the list.

It feels better to have my blocks caught up before the middle of the month.

You know what I mean, don't you.

Design Wall Monday

I had a FAB-U-LOUS!sewing week.

Yesterday I finished my Celtic Solstice top.

Now to make the backing!

All week I've been stitching on Pieced Hexies.

I have the last 4 basted, ready to stitch together.

Then it's time for a quilt top.

Or another re-design because I love stitching these together!

I finally started my Tell It To The Stars BOM from Patchwork Times.

Wednesday I made these 2 blocks.

They weren't hard at all but 

I spent more time with my seam ripper than I did at the machine!

Just another of THAT kind of day.

Thursday I did the blocks for February.

I did 2 for each month because that's what the instructions say to do.

You know Judy L designs the most fabulous quilts so I will not question.

If it says make 2, I will make 2. LOL

Today I will sew a Monkey Counting Book for 2 year old Corbin.

The boy loves monkeys and while shopping last weekend,

 I found a soft book that was made just for him.

I will spend time watching all the Olympic coverage I can find.

Someone in my house doesn't enjoy it.

BooHiss.

Find other great design walls at Patchwork Times.

I love Monday in Blogland!

On The Needles

Last week I pulled out my Greta Vest and started working on it again. I haven't worked on it since April!  I've made some pretty good progress on it.

We went to the beach for a few days last week and I thought for sure I'd  have lots more knit on this but with the clam digging, running around and relaxing, I didn't even open the box.

I did make good progress on my latest to go socks. I wound more yarn from the second skein into a ball so I could sort of match the stripes. I took forever to find the repeat.

Rivel Cardigan is being sewn together. Hopefully front band will be started this weekend.

I can't wait to see what everyone else is working on. Check out On The Needles at Patchwork Times.

Tell It To The Stars Blocks

February Tell It To The Stars Blocks

January Tell It To The Stars Blocks

Information on Tell It To The Stars project can be found here at Patchwork Times.

Thanks Judy L for another fabulous year long project. 

Design Wall Monday

We left here Thursday morning for a much needed long beach weekend. I had such great intentions of making more Pieced Hexies. My only sewing time last week was spent getting these ready to stitch. I had kitted up 7 designs thinking I would get them all finished and have nothing to sew. So I grabbed my knitting box along with my to go knitting bag.

I did not open my sewing box. Not one time! We were so busy with running around and clamming and resting that I even did very little knitting.

When we got home and things were somewhat put away, I wanted my recliner-clamming is hard work on an out of shape ole broad! So when the Super Bowl came on, I decided to work on these. I am so glad I started on them again. They are so much fun to make!   You can find Mickey's books at her website.

Saturday we visited the local Humane Society and as soon as I saw this little guy, I knew he had to be part of our family. So we adopted him. He is a 4 year old long hair chihuahua. We changed his name because Pretty Boy sounds like a bird name. He is now Jessie Sam-Buzz Domke. Today I'll make an appointment with the vet to have a well baby check up and a neuter. I'm not saying he was from a puppy mill but I have a suspicion. He is fitting in nicely and even stayed on my lap while I was stitching.

See other great design walls at Patchwork Times.