Knitting a wool sweater in May. No I am knot knuts!

Happy Memorial Day. I love this quiet solemn day.
We have lived in our new house for 5 years now and finally I managed to get an American flag to place on the house. I can't tell you how many times a patriotic day would go by and I would wonder how come I didn't have one. Not any more.

Well, we are entering a hot streak of weather for New York State and it is supposed to break records tomorrow. What am I doing? Knitting a wool sweater of course. I have been trying to finish this sweater since the Spring of 2010. I posted it on an earlier blog post. Well. It's finished I'm finally proud to say. It won't be worn until next winter, but it's done.
Before:

After. Finished and blocking on May 30, 2011
It's a pattern from Garnstudio.com. Drops pattern 85-5. It's nice as these patterns are free and there are some beauties. I did purchase the yarn from Nordicmart.


The other thing I did today was GARDEN. Lots of it. Since we built our house I have been working every year to build beds and perennial gardens. Last year I invested in Irises. They are beginning their bloom and I am going to take a picture of each one so I can remember thier colors. I purchased them online (very reasonable) from The Iris Farm

I am looking forward to seeing the rest of them show off their fleeting beauty! 

MAY, may I please have more time to sew?

Concert season and Solo Festival season is upon the music teachers in our area. It's overwhelming, but then I don't have to proctor over the state tests that the kids are bombarded with at this time of year. Like the kids, I need an outlet for the busy times and I managed to sneak up to the sewing room to crank out a couple of new items. More stash buster patterns.
The First Pattern is a simple table runner for Spring. It is made with 5" charm squares. This went together in a couple of hours. Easy and variable. Anka's Treasures Little Charmers II pattern. Her patterns are lively and bright. A true rush of happiness. My fabrics are from a charm pack that was on clearance and I have plenty of charms left for another runner.

My free motion quilting was not my best on this work, however. Need more practice.















The next pattern was a hoot. I am making this for my daughter for her birthday. She'll like this tote bag as it fits her personality and lifestyle. I have had this Moda Santorini Olive Grove fabric for a while and I bought it to make an apron out of it, but then that seemed too predictable. Then I found this neat tote bag pattern called Tahoe Tote by Pink Sand Beach Designs that I purchased from Create For Less, one of my favorite shopping places! A great pattern. I will be making more of these.
The other fabric is from the Complements line from South Sea Imports and the green fabric is from a linen shirt that I was just about to give away to the Salvation Army. I recycled it and matches perfectly with the Moda Olive fabric. It's a nice size and the pattern calls for plenty of interfacing so it easily stands on it's own...a very nice feature.  Perfect for toting things around.

This photo is more true to color!

Spring Fever for handbags

Little pieces of scrap fabrics and some free motion quilting

I've absolutely gone crazy for making bags. This little gem is a reward for cleaning and organizing my stash the day before yesterday.  I've been pondering the next big quilt project. I am torn between inspirations so in the mean time I decided to make myself a spring kind of bag to replace my old ones (which I still use on a regular basis.) I didn't want to shock the world with my summer bag from the last blog post......especially when our central New York State weather can't seem to break into the high 50s.

Tell me you don't want one of these cuties!

Vacation summons up some project progress.

Managed to find a little time during the school break to complete some projects.
I made a new purse. I was color hungry. Such a long winter and part of me wanted to escape to warmer climes, but that wasn't possible. Instead I made a purse out of the hottest colors possible. It must have been my "inner summer" in me that was crying out when I selected the fabrics from my stash. 
The pattern is from the book Sew and Go Totes by Kristine Poor (A Leisure Arts publication). Fun pattern and I think I will be making the cover purse tote soon. Don't blind yourself looking at the purse....it's bright!

Since we took a quick trip to Maine to see our kids and granddaughter, I managed to whip off another Wheatfields cotton dishcloth on the 6 1/2 hour trip home. It's a favorite pattern of mine which I have knitted several times before and worth knitting and sharing over and over again. I love my homemade washcloths. I prefer them to terrycloth ones...they're softer on the face, dry faster and I can reuse them a couple of times unlike terrycloth washclothes. This was knitted out of good old Lily Brand "Sugar and Cream"...an inexpensive and practical "no-fuss" cotton yarn. However, if made out of a neutral/natural color, it looks especially nice. I have them posted on Ravelry.

Wool Felt Applique

Wool felt projects. Started over the Christmas break and finished this weekend. Since the musical is finished, I am tackling UFO's. I have a great start on next year's Christmas presents.

This pattern is called 'Dress Me Up Frosty' by Nutmeg Hare.

This pattern was created by Nutmeg Hare. A 11 x 35 wool applique table runner.

Called "O Christmas Tree"

These were fun to make and a nice change from quilting and knitting. I used to do great deal of needlework when I was in my 20's. It was nice to revisit the skill and it's nice to see that embroidery is making a bit of a come back in popularity.

My grandmother used to do some wool applique back in the 1950's and I still have one of her pieces that I plan to replicate.

These patterns were purchased from Prairie Point Junction (Wool Felt Central)

New York Beauty Wallhanging

Made this for my daughter a couple of years ago and gave it to her for Christmas. I had it professionally framed under glass and it looks wonderful on her wall in her kitchen.

Finally! Freedom to get back to my avocations

I have been spending the last 4 months directing our High School Musical of "OKLAHOMA!" and now that it is done, I am back to my world of quilting and knitting. Not only that, we were dumped with 26 inches of snow over the last 24 hours, so I had a SNOW DAY. A nice gift after months of long hours at school.

English Paper Piecing Hexagon Flower Quilt

I am proud to say that I finished my English Paper Pieced hexagon flower quilt. All hand pieced and this was accomplished between rehearsals and any free time in between. I'm going to call this my "OKLAHOMA" quilt as I worked on it in sync with the production of the show. I put the binding on it 2 weeks ago. (Somehow I found the time.) I love this quilt and am so pleased with how it turned out. I am going to start working on completing the unfinished quilt I bought last summer. Now that I know how much I enjoy hand piecing, I look forward to always having one hand piecing quilt in progress, simply for the fact I can take it anywhere and work on it while I am at the hair dressers, doctor's office, on long (or even short) car trips.
I managed to churn out a few other projects this winter. A Christmas present for my good friend, inspired by her new bedroom colors. A simple design created on my Electric quilt software and scrap fabrics. The inspiration was the striped border fabric I purchased over a year ago on a whim when it was deeply discounted.

Also, a couple of little scrappy projects. A Debbie Mumm wallhanging pattern. Sometimes it's fun to do playful and quick projects to satisfy the craving to make something from fabric. This was so fun and is an adorable wall hanging. I may make a couple more or these for gifts next winter.

I found a used and slightly worn out picture frame in the trash, salvaged it and simply made foundation letters spelling "WELCOME". I just keep on finding ways to use my scraps.