Last finishes for 2018

Things are going well here and we've been busy enjoying the holidays and our houseguests. Our guests left yesterday. Today the house is very quiet and there was absolutely nothing I had to do so I spent some time knitting while I watched the Rose Bowl parade and the Winter Classic (sadly the Chicago Blackhawks lost), I took a nap, and I spent time in the sewing studio - a great way to begin a new year!

I do have some finishes. This Flannel Take Five fall quilt was finally finished last week. I bought the fabric in Michigan last fall to make a fall quilt for us. I finished the quilt I made with the leftovers from this quilt last month.

Flannel Take Five is about 63" by 74". I use brown #2372 Aurifil thread to quilt this and Dream Cotton batting.

I used a walking foot for the center and cross-hatched the squares. I free-motioned a cable in the pale blue-gray border and did stippling with leaves in the brown border which is very hard to see.

The back is also flannel and very cuddly. 

My other finishes are all knitting. This white hat is a ponytail hat made with sport weight alpaca yarn.

I used the Ridge and Rib Messy Bun Hat pattern and made a few changes.

For the red hat I used the pattern, Whitman Slouch Hat, and Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) wool.

I bought the yarn for this Yak and Bamboo top in the fall of 2017 at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. It is bluer that it appears in the photo. It fits perfectly but I don't like the sleeves. I want them longer but I waited much too long to get more yarn. Will I ever learn??

Back to today - when I went upstairs to sew, this quilt was on the design wall. It's a Christmas quilt for us and should be finished by NEXT Christmas. 

The table that I use for sandwiching and pinning quilts looked like this. All of these donation quilts are waiting to be delivered.

Without considerable effort, I couldn't go forward with any of my finished quilt tops so I decided to begin another. I still have PLENTY of 2 1/2" squares and decided to do a scrappy Around the World quilt using some of the squares. This is my sewing for the day.

Happy New Year!

I hope you enjoy your journey through 2019. 

I hope your joys outnumber your burdens. 

And I hope you get the chance to create - with quilting, knitting, drawing, sewing, writing, building, making music, or whatever. 

Finishes: Dream Weaver Quilt and Up North Poncho

Dream Weaver is finished. 

This is a free pattern from Missouri Star Quilt Company. The block is simple and fun to make.

I used scraps to make this colorful quilt. 

I quilted this with a walking food and straight lines using teal #4093 50-weight Aurifil thread. The batting is Dream Cotton.

The binding has the blue from the border and the teal from the back - it seemed like the perfect choice. The back is a little lighter than the picture; it's a mottled teal.

This donation quilt finished at 57" square. 

I had plenty of blocks when I made this quilt and I also made Extra! Extra! and  Up, Up, and Away They are both done and in the donation pile.

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My Up North Poncho is also finished. I bought the yarn when we were in Wisconsin (Up North) in June, thus the name. The design is my own and it evolved as  I went along.

It looks like I finished it just in time since we are enjoying cooler temperatures. Thank goodness the forecast has changed and the rain has stopped. This poncho is not waterproof.

Anchors Aweigh and more...

It seems like we were at home most days there for quite a stretch. Then all of a sudden, we were/are on the go almost every day. Ray looked at me a few evenings ago on our way home and said "Are you sure we are retired?". I'm sure but we really get busy some times. That's the reason I was pushing this winter to get so many donation quilts made. I wanted at least 10 done by June and I think this one means there might be 18 in the donation pile! This one might be for a summer baby; I'm also making a girl quilt since we don't know the gender. One of the quilts will be #18 in the donation pile. It's fine if the pile just keeps growing. Who knows what situations will arrive where quilts are needed?. I'll just keep sewing.

This little quilt, Anchors Aweigh, is 43" square.

I used Dream Cotton batting and machine quilted this with a walking foot on my Viking. I used stitch 14 on the A1 card, a wavy line. The stitch length was 1.5 with a width of 6.0. The thread was 50-wt Aurifil #2730, a marine blue. I think you can see the quilting below.

The back is Minkee - I love the rich color.

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I also finished this pair of socks. The yarn is Biscotte, Merino wool with a little nylon, and very soft.

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Last night we were supposed to see Willie Nelson in concert. Sadly the rain, sleet, and ice began and we decided not to go about 2 hours before showtime. We live over an hour from the venue and the weather was supposed to just get worse all evening. Our son, who lives much closer and was going to the concert, was trying to think of someone near him who would could go so I could transfer the tickets to them. I didn't know you could transfer tickets so I was investigating how to do that on Ticketmaster when I found that I could put the tickets up for sale. When we couldn't find anyone that could use them, I posted the tickets for sale. That was at 7PM and the concert started at 8. I found that there were only 8 seats left for sale and I priced our tickets as the cheapest on the main floor. At 7:30, our tickets sold! It was a little easier missing the concert when we got most of our money back. The other 6 tickets hadn't sold as of 7:58 PM so we were quite lucky.

We did have one really nice day in the 60s this past week. I really hope that wasn't our spring! Right now it's snowing and will most of the day. I'm quilting...

Hermione's Everyday Socks

My Hermione's Everyday Socks are done. The pattern is by Erica Lueder. I used Knit Circus Opulence yarn, a Merino-Nylon-Cashmere blend. The yarn, in the color way Pigeon, goes from light blue to a medium blue. 

They have an interesting pattern that is very easy to memorize and knit.

I'm pretty happy with my new socks - maybe I'll wear them at my quilting retreat this weekend.

Some Finished Socks

In the big fiasco where we accidentally felted some of our hand knit socks, Ray lost two pair (all of his hand knits). His have now been replaced but with very different yarns/colors. I have many more pairs of hand-knitted socks so I was anxious to replace Ray's first. I would like to find  some of the yarns we felted and remake the same socks. WE ONLY HAND WASH OUR HAND-KNITTED SOCKS NOW SO WE SHOULD NEVER HAVE ANOTHER FELTING PROBLEM. I knew hot water could felt yarn but I did not know that agitation, even in cold water, could felt yarn.

Although Ray chose the yarn, he now says that these are pretty wild for him! However, I know he'll wear them because he enjoys his hand knit socks as much as I do. 

We bought the yarn at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival last September. The yarn is Merino wool with nylon. I find it interesting the way the yarn makes a spiral pattern down the sock. 

I knit my new socks with Classic Elite Yarns Alpaca Sox yarn that I bought at That Little Red House Yarn Shop in Grand Marais, Minnesota, last September. I loved working with the yarn and have another skein in blue for Ray unless I decide to keep it for me!

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Now I am working on a sweater with some gray alpaca yarn that I found at a farmer's market in Virginia last July. I ended up tearing out the first sleeve yesterday and starting over; that sleeve is now about half done. I'm not sure I've ever made a sweater starting with the sleeves but it's rather interesting. It'll be a while before this is done - I have a ways to go!