Alice's House

Shaggy Chic Chenille Clutch

2012-01-18T22:29:00.000-06:00

Every year I tend to get involved with some sort of monthly project series. Usually they have been associated with specific retail establishments like last year's failed Fat Quarter Club at The Quilt Room. The club didn't failed but I dropped out after unsuccessfully trying to balance it with the monthly Knitting in Kingwood meetings.

This year I am returning to an online, monthly sewing challenge. Africankelli (aka Kelli Donely (probably spelled incorrectly)) chose Fabric-by-Fabric One-Yard Wonders for the challenges. I had previously participated in a similar challenge from the original One-Yard Wonders book by the same authors (Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins) and, although the projects were quite interesting, the use of basic cotton fabric limited the scope of the projects. This new book seeks to explore different fabrics and pairing the fabrics with appropriate projects. Like oil cloth for an umbrella, and fleece for truly cuddly stuffed animals. Surprisingly linen is not included although cotton, voile, fleece , flannel and othersl are all included.

I got my copy of the book from Amazon and eagerly sat down to work on the first project, the Shabby Chic Chenille Clutch. The chenille is created using flannel and I just happened to have some high quality flannel hanging around the house waiting for some quilt inspiration. Here is what I came up with by following most of the instructions in the book:

As you can see, the final project does not look like the original fabric at all but you still get the red, white and blue theme.

I did not follow the well written instructions completely....what a surprise! First of all the pattern called for nine layers of flannel for the chenille fabric. The flannel I used was so thick that I could not imagine my heavy duty sewing machine making it through eighteen layers of it for the final seaming. Nine layers would have exactly used up one yard of the fabric but I used only six as I was under no constraints to follow the instructions precisely.

Other changes include the final size. The pattern assumed that the washed fabric would shrink slightly from a twelve inch square to one about half an inch smaller. My chenille shrunk unevenly and I needed to square it up before the final construction. My clutch ended up based on a ten and a half inch square. The only other change was the handle (off to the upper right in the photo). The pattern called for contrasting ribbon while I used a bit of ragged self fabric.

I do have one beef with this project. The final product did not mirror the written instructions. Essentially chenille is created by sewing parallel lines through all the layers of fabric then cutting through all the layers of fabric but the bottom two. The instructions called for cutting though the fabric between each of the sewn lines but the picture definitely showed cutting though every other section. I know its a small thing but one that should have been mentioned in the instructions.

This book is well written and gives some great information on how to handle each type of fabric. I wonder what the next project will be?

Oh! Just in case you are wondering about my New Year's resolution to no longer create useless little projects, I intend to use this clutch for lunch out with friends so that I carry the essentials without taking up table space with cell phone, keys and wallet. This clutch holds just these three items and sits safely in my lap. All the non-essential junk can stay in the car untilI might possible need it.

Charity Knitting

2012-01-15T08:53:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I took the opportunity to join other members of the Knit at Night Guild (KANG) in a charity knitting event at Central Market. Central Market is one of those fancy grocery stores where, instead of Saturday tastings being some frozen concoction, they sample home made marshmallows. They have a wonderful meeting room on their second floor, next to their cooking school, and about thirty of us met on Saturday for some knitting for charity.

This group is one of the classiest craft guilds I have ever belonged to....and I think I have been a member of about 99% of them at one time or another. Everything you could possibly need to be successful at the chosen projects was provided including wonderful food (catered by the store) and endless, excellent coffee.

Two projects were presented. One is a blanket buddy from Lion Brand Yarns and the other was a selection of facecloths.

Each participant received a kit that included the pattern(s) for their chosen project(s), sufficient yarn to complete one or more of the project and knitting needles to make the project. The needles were a thank you gift and are high quality bamboo ones. There were fabulous door prizes including a book (with supplies) for knitting with wire. I did not win anything but those that did were very pleased. (Check out this site for great prices on quality needles.)

I chose the blanket buddy project which is basically a knitted square with a bunny head and arms. The instructions required a little interpretation and mine came out like this:

Pretty cute, yes?

All the yarn was donated and I received two skeins of DK weight yarn called Jamie. You use this yarn doubled for the blanket buddy so this toy really has some heft to it. I think I may have enough left over to make another one. So far Alex has not realized that there is a new toy in the house and I hope I am successful in keeping it from him until I can hand it in.

Most of the items made will be donated to Texas Children's Hospital and other local charities.

I must admit I thought this would be a pretty lame gathering and, except for the one woman who kept telling medical horror stories, the group was very congenial and everyone seemed to be having a very productive time. I left with about a half hour's of work left and some people actually completed their project.

The facecloth folks were given patterns that could be a stretch for some people as each used interesting and slightly complex stitch patterns. Check them out - Lizard Ridge, Darrell Waltrip and Dimpled were all presented. I am glad I chose the blanket buddy as I was not in the mood to struggle with a new stitch pattern however I really want to try the Lizard Ridge one as it produces such a great result.

I hope they will do this again and they are looking for a more central location for the next one. I wonder if I can convince them that Kingwood is a more central location as I know I could get the Elmgrove Community Room for such a great project.

Lumberjack Avoidance Technique

2012-01-10T12:16:00.001-06:00

Today is the day before the bi-monthly yard waste pick-up in my neighborhood. It is also the perfect time of year to trim low hanging branches from the Live Oaks and unruly bits from the Crepe Myrtles. I should be in the yard with a variety of cutting and sawing implements so that I can take advantage of this great opportunity.

Instead I am avoiding this much needed activity to bring you, and only you, a brand new product I found the other day at Hobby Lobby.

I originally went into the store looking for alcohol based inks so that I could check out a technique from the latest Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine. Instead of the inks I found something even more intriguing...Pastel Dye Sticks.

I have played with Oil Paint Sticks but the cost of the sticks ($6.00 and up), the extra long cure time (three days) and the fact that they change the hand of the fabric, have made me a little hesitant to use them in many projects. Pastel Dye Sticks look like a good solution for me. Inexpensive ( about $4.00 for a set of fifteen) and quick cure rate (heat set in seconds) make them something I can try out without a huge commitment.

Using an ancient t-shirt as my fabric, a simple stencil as my design, the brown and gold dye sticks this is what I came up with >>>

Since I have had muddy paws on this shirt (and all my shirts!) at some time or another this seemed like a perfect little test project.

Heat setting required a piece of paper over the design and a quick hot ironing.

As you can see the paper absorbed the excess pastel oil base.

The dye did not change the hand of the shirt at all and the shirt is still fully machine washable and dry-able as it was in the past.

I think I am going to try out some more ideas like sharpen the sticks so they are less like crayons , try them through a silk screen and find a better way to keep the fabric taut rather than just my fingers.

Oops! The trees are calling me but maybe I can do something else to do to avoid using my lumberjack tools....even folding laundry is beginning to look interesting to me today!

Gift Copies

2012-01-03T17:13:00.002-06:00

Have you ever received a gift that you liked so much you wanted more of it?

That seems a no brainer if the gift was chocolate. Who wouldn't want more chocolate? You can always buy more chocolate as it tends to be within everyone's price range.

But what about a gift that is not consumable? Diamonds are a great example. I always like diamonds but probably can't afford many more.

Some gifts you want more of but not an exact duplicate as what you have already received. Like a red jacket you would love a duplicate of but in a more conservative brown.

That was my dilemma when a friend gave me an adorable little knitting bag. Its made out of silk, has an outside and an inside pocket, a great yo-yo embellishment and it is just the right size for a sock knitting project.

See...

Isn't it cute?

I love it BUT there a couple of things that are could be better. For one thing, the interior fabric is a flimsy, black fabric which means it's probably not very durable and it is very difficult to see any bits at the bottom of the bag. Dark interiors are not good things. In addition, I didn't like the button closure which was a little wooden ball. Since it is right above the pocket embellishment I would have loved a more colorful button.

What's a girl to do?

Put up with the defects? (too irritating)

Remake the parts that are bothersome? (too much effort)

Hide it in a drawer never to see the light of day again? (but it is a great size)

Well this girl decided to make her own copy.

I have made two cousins of the original.

The first copy used simple geometry to produce a copy.

Here's how it turned out:

(LOVE THAT FABRIC!)

Boring details: the fabric is a Michael Miller fabric called called Flora and Fauna Blossoms in raspberry. The orange button is from the stash. The interior fabric is the same as the exterior and the interior pocket has an orange zipper closure.

When compared to the original though there is something our of whack.

(sorry about the poor color correction)

After remeasuring everything I realized that I had got the length of the straps wrong. The originals are 22" long while the copy has them at 12" long. The big problem is that the pointy bottom part is not a ninety degree angle but more like one hundred and ten degrees. In addition, the pocket turned out too short due to that miscalculation. The original is more like a fat Buddha like bag while my copy is more like a skinny Fifties like bag.

Here is my second try:

Boring details: the fabric is a washed dupioni silk from the stash and backed with a lightweight fusible interfacing.The pocket embellishment is part of an old thread painting class. The 'button' is an old Chinese coin, some wooden beads and a strip of the silk fabric. The interior is a striped cotton from the stash and the interior pocket has a cream zipper. Wanda McKnight (the hat stand) likes this copy the best as she is pretty conservative. Almost forgot...I added some lavender buds between the exterior and interior so it smells as good as it looks.

Now I have three new knitting bags - one the original gift, one a skinny replica and the third an orange silk Buddha bag.

If you would like copies of the patterns I created for these bags, please let me know and I'll scan them into a file for you or we can hook up and I can give you a hard copy.

Now I need to get back to my knitting so Paul can get this year's Christmas present this year:-)

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

2012-01-01T08:18:00.000-06:00

In some ways I am really glad to move away from 2011 and move onto 2012. I think I have shared in the past how, as a child, I couldn't imagine living to the year 2000 whereas now I wonder how I can make it to 2050!

The baby Kimora

2011 was marked by the sudden and horrific passing of Kimora, Kelis's sister. Kelis still looks for her at Paul's house and at the vet's office. Even Alex, who only seems to live for treats, belly rubs and naps, has become a little hysterical when we visit the vet's office since her passing. They know something horrible happened and that the vet was involved. On the other hand Kelis has adopted some new habits, like learning how to steal bones from Alex, and my little escape artist has not made any attempts to leave the yard since it happened.

On the other hand, 2011 had many moments of personal satisfaction for me. The wheel chair and walker bag project has been taken up by a couple of churches here and we were able to supply a local nursing home with 200 bags this summer. I even had my name in a Methodist church bulletin, very odd for someone with my mixed religious roots. I just about burst with pride when I saw the bags in use and that they really worked. In addition, although I have never sought recognition for these projects, the Kingwood Area Quilt Guild honored me with a Silver Thimble Award this September and you couldn't get the grin off my face for weeks.

On the project side of the ledger I have changed my habits quite a bit. I noticed that, in the past, I made a lot of things (totes, purses and other accessories) just to test out a book or a technique. I ended up with a lot of little useless things. I learned a lot from these projects but it seemed like a waste of time and effort. I have tried to become more focused in my sewing and knitting and have tried not to add to the UFO pile. The whole upstairs of my home has become more organized for creative work and I have become morefocused because of it. My unorganized mess has become restricted to just one closet and even that has become less cluttered as I have sorted out its contents.

I have no specific goals for 2012 but Alex and Kelis have made some specific requests. Their requests run something like this...More walks, more treats, more naps, more belly rubs, more quilts and, most of all, more bones. I think I can handle these without breaking the bank or my back. For myself, just waking up everyday is wonderful with everything following that a bonus. I intend to make the most of those bonuses and who knows where that might lead me (besides the pet store)?

Hop Around Houston

2011-12-28T22:07:00.001-06:00

Hop Around Houston is a shop hop around the vendor area of the International Quilt Festival. It works just like a regular shop hop...you travel from specific shop to specific shop and purchase a little kit at each booth for a different quilt block using a standard set of fabrics. Where I wrote shop substitute booth and you get the idea. For several years I always did the festival shop hop and I have completed a few of the quilts.

Many years ago I did the shop hop, purchased a finishing kit from somebody, made all the blocks and quietly hid it away.

Yup, for some unknown reason I hid away a quilt top that was almost complete.

What was I thinking?

I have no idea what I was thinking but when it surfaced a couple of weeks ago, from a box of books to be discarded, I came across the pieces and decided to finish the year off with a completed UFO.

Yesterday I completed the quilt and here's what it looks like:

I like some of the blocks and others not so much...a danger with this kind of quilt making. I had lost the instructions for the finishing kit so I finished it up on a wing and a prayer. Some of the blocks did not exactly fit with the other blocks so I had to make some adjustments by adding additional borders and, in a couple of cases, I actually resewed the block to get it to the right size.

I like the size of about 68" x 88" as it is perfect for one human and two dachshunds cuddling on a lazy afternoon of mystery novel reading. And, as Paul had absconded with a couple of quilts earlier this season, I needed to replenish my stock of cuddle quilts.

Finishing off the year with a completed UFO is definitely a good thing.

Now on to working on my New Year's resolutions...or not!

Just in Time...

2011-12-27T15:59:00.003-06:00

for the frosty mornings that are coming our way.

Yes, there are not that many when you live in Houston but there are enough that you do need some warm things to wear when walking the dogs in the morning.

My idea this year was to just stack on all the little scarves and shawls I have made lately under my quilted barn coat. Not especially attractive but I figured it would do the trick.

Then I saw this scarf that the mighty Janetta made for her daughter in Texas A & M colors. Then she started one in a cream, pink and lime green variegated sock yarn and I was hooked.

The pattern is on Ravelry by a Canadian designer, Jane Richmond and is extremely inexpensive to buy.

I, on the other hand, did not buy the pattern, just read Janetta's copy, and proceeded to make a successful Rae Scarf.

Here is it wrapped around a youngish live oak in the backyard:

And here it is draped across the fence:

It came out to approximately 50" long and 12" wide at the widest point. It's made out of Knit Picks Stroll Yarn in the color Summer Blooms Tonal. This yarn is great to work with, extra long yardage for the weight and washes and drys up beautifully in the machines. I had one problem with the yarn. About two thirds of the way through the scarf there was a knotted join in the yarn. Normally that would not be a problem but at some point when I was weaving in ends I undid the knot and the scarf started to unravel!. I tied it all back together with many, many knots and many, many curses. Unless you are looking for the error, you would not find it.

Bring on the cold weather, I'm ready for you...even if the dogs are not.

Cheshire Cat Hand Warmer

2011-12-07T02:14:00.001-06:00

While browsing the books at Jo-Ann's a couple of weeks ago I came across a book called 'Everything Alice'. I picked it up, assuming it would be a book of patternless clothing (a la the Bog Coat), simple cooking (like donut pudding) and dachshund joy.

Imagine my surprise when I found it was a book based on Alice in Wonderland, a book I used to hate because of people calling me Alice In Wonderland when I was a child.

Hannah Read-Baldry and Christine Leech have created a book of over 50 projects to sew, glue, cut and bake in this delightful book subtitled 'The Wonderland Book of Makes and Bakes'.

To make it even better, the first project I saw when I cracked the cover was the Cheshire Cat Hand Warmer....the perfect project for someone who tries to get her dachshund companion to provide warming for her hands when the RA acts up. Alex's butt may be the perfect size but he rarely will stay still long enough for any therapeutic effect. A hand warmer is the perfect solution..

Here is the project as shown in the book:

Here is my simplified rendition:

Here is it being used by one achy hand:

Other projects I want to try are the Sugar and Spice Comfits, Lavender Cookies, Fabric covered Tea Pots and... well, just about everything!

For the Alice in Wonderland lovers out there and me.

Lazy Bread

2011-11-27T08:33:00.000-06:00

I don't do a lot of elaborate cooking especially after my failure with individual Beef Wellingtons last year. When I do cook these days it tends to center on an Artisan style loaf of white bread.

Yup, that's me at 1:00AM covering a slice of still warm from the oven bread with unsalted butter and honey.

It seems that I can never start my day with fresh baked bread because my lack of time management skills means that these little feasts take place at very odd hours.

I call this Lazy Bread because it takes almost no skill or ability to make an excellent loaf of bread.

Yum, Yum!

Here's how I make my Lazy Bread:

Yield - one nice sized loaf

Ingredients:

3 cups of bread flour
1 1/2 cups of warm water
1 1/2 teaspoons of active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons of sea salt

Method:

Mix all the ingredients into a cohesive ball in a large bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and wait for a couple of hours for the lump to double in size. Once doubled, put the whole thing into the refrigerator for about 10 hours.

Take the bowl from the refrigerator and scrap the dough onto a floured surface. Sprinkle more flour over the top of the loaf push and pull the lump into a loaf shape by pulling the edges under the bottom of the loaf. Remove to a parchment covered cookie sheet.

Cover lightly with a slightly damp towel and let the whole thing come to room temperature. This can take over an hour so be patient.

Preheat the oven to 450o with a large shallow pan in the oven.

When the loaf has come to room temperature and the oven is ready, put the cookie sheet in the oven, quickly pour a cup of water into the preheated pan and quickly shut the oven door.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until it is a nice color.

Remove the loaf from the oven to a rack and let cool for at least 30 minutes.

Just before you can't stand it anymore, slice and enjoy.

I store it in the microwave covered in plastic wrap for 3 - 4 days... if possible!

You can make a lot of additions and substitutions like using some whole wheat flour, or adding nuts, herbs and raisins but I usually don't bother.

There are a zillion recipes available on-line that I used to develop my lazy bread like Five minute bread, Artisan Bread Baking website and, the often intimidating, the Best Bread Recipe website.

Blue Jean Shawl

2011-11-25T16:38:00.001-06:00

In my quest for accurately counting stitches while knitting lace I picked a very simple pattern from Tanis Fiber Arts called the 'Prism Shawl' for my next lace adventure. It is available from Ravelry for free here. It uses about 600 yards of sock weight yarn , hand dyed from the Araucanuia Yarns' Ranco Solid line and i happened to have a lot of it in aownderful blue to go with my blue jeans..

What attracted me to this pattern was its simplicity of construction until you get to the border. With just stockinette, garter and eyelet rows randomly scattered through out the design this is a pattern I thought that even I could not mess up.

And, surprise, surprise I did not mess up the body too often. Every once in a while found I had dropped a stitch or not added a stitch when required but due to the lack of complexity I was able to fix these errors quickly and invisibly.

Then I got to the border. About two rows into the border I accidentally pulled off about 30 stitches and realized that I would need to unravel a few rows to get back on track. Off came a couple a couple of rows, on went the stitches back onto the needles..with an extra twenty on one side!

I don;t know how I did it but I ended up with more stitches on a row than I had originally. Instead of more un-stitching I decided to go with what I had and make it work.

Here is how it came out:

What you don't see is that the center back point of the shawl has a large ruffle..which sits just above my tail bone!

Someone told me it is fashionable to have ruffles this year.

I may have messed up the final border but this is a great pattern for using up odds and ends of sock yarn. Since I have a few hundred (thousand?) yards of leftover sock yarn, I think I will be using this pattern again for a more eclectic version.

PS - Guess who I found wondering around the house with this shawl in his mouth looking for a place to hide it?

Bad Quilts That Make Me Smile

2011-11-12T11:39:00.001-06:00

Okay, so there aren't any bad quilts. What can be bad about three layers of coziness put together by loving hands?

There are badly made quilts and I seem to be an expert in making them.

I just looked over my past quilt postings and each one of them seems to have included words like 'mismatched corners', 'blunted points', 'discarded blocks that didn't fit' or some such confession of piecing disaster. I have noticed that most of my backings have a wrinkle or three in them and sometimes the quilting looks like a dog's breakfast.

But in each and every case, the final results have made me smile. Whether it is because I have no idea how it all got done, or the fabrics have disappeared, or the blocks are of many different sizes, or the borders were 'made' to fit or wrinkles were quilted to within an inch of their lives. They have made happy.

My latest Bad Quilt began in 1998 and I just took it out of the dryer this morning after a marathon quilting session yesterday. I originally posted about it here. If you look at that posting you will see that I finished the top this March and it took about another eight months to get it quilted.

Here is how it now looks....

I decided that I could not quilt it in simple straight lines as there were so many mismatched corners. In the end I did find a few straight lines to anchor it all and then I quilted circles at various points to hold it all together. I like the way it looks and I had a lot of fun(?) seeing if I could make two circles the same size one right after the other.

I couldn't.

This quilt does make me smile because of all the missteps in getting it made but the best part is that my oldest UFO quilt is now done!!

And isn't that something to smile about?

Picnic Quilt

2011-10-29T15:09:00.002-05:00

Saturday Strippers has been having a lot of fun the past few months working through the book Scrap-Basket Sensations by Kim Bracket. This is a fabulous book for using either Jelly rolls or your own fabrics that have been cut into 2 1/2" strips. Kim has a great way of putting together coordinated fabrics, of which you have limited quantities, with a larger quantity of another fabric to make beautiful quilts. Check out the link to Amazon.com where some of the quilts are shown from the book and you will see what I mean.

Back in August (!) the project for us was the Picnic Quilt. I did not make a very large quilt but I think it will work for Sweet Sadie's.

What do you think?

The fabrics are a bunch of batiks that I won as a door prize some where, the white is from Sew Crafty's closing sale and the quilting (I know you can't really see it) is a meandering leaf pattern I made up as I went along. The size is about 42" by 31" which makes it a nice little accent for the spring.

What really pleases me about this quilt is that I thought my piecing of the blocks was a little off but it all came together when I joined them together. The outside borders worked out in the end even though I didn't really think through the placement. Instead I used up some leftover pieces that sort of bring the design to the more solid borders.

Surprise, surprise....Poor planning on my part did not make an ugly quilt... or at least I don;t think it is ugly.

This is the second quilt that I took to the Quilt Guild Retreat to work on that weekend. I might as well have not brought it as all I did was take it out the basket, shake it out, and put it back in the basket. I still have one quilt that needs to be finished up from that weekend. I pin basted it and started quilting it last weekend at Saturday Strippers and I really, really plan on finishing it up before the end of November. With the Houston International Quilt Festival next week I don't think I will make much progress until later in the month.

It is a chilly day in Houston for late October and I have many windows open in the house. The dogs are not happy about that and have spent most of the day cuddled under multiple quilts on their comfy chair. I don't think they will like it when I scoot them off so I can vacuum up some of the dog hair from the chair. Maybe I will bribe them with treats? Chicken jerky or Greenies or both?

Busy, Busy, Busy Aprons

2011-10-24T21:43:00.000-05:00

The project to make Busy Aprons for late stage Alzheimer's disease and dementia patients is almost over. There are just a couple of more embellishments to attach to one or two aprons and a few more to deliver and this project will move off the books for a year or two.

I am so very happy to see this one finished.

It's not that I didn't enjoy making them but that, unlike the other charity projects I have worked on lately, this one required a lot of thought on the part of the maker to produce a useful product.

For instance, with wheel chair bags, there is a set size and construction process. With as little as twenty minutes work you can produce a very good product that can be used by many.

The Busy Aprons do have a set size and basic construction technique but it takes about an hour to make a basic product and almost two to get all the embellishments chosen and securely affixed to the aprons.

In addition, this project seemed to spark the interest of a lot of people but, once again, my faithful crew did most of the work. Mega kudos to the beautiful Susie, energetic Lish and generous Janetta for their many, many hours of help. I must also thank the many people who contributed stuff for the aprons including many yards of fabric and trims plus buttons,beads, appliques and other bits and bobs..

In the end we have finished twelve aprons and I have enough 'stuff' to make at least a dozen more. For now, the extras bits are going into storage for the Quilt Guild garage sale in about 18 months...unless someone wants to make more before then. If they do, I will be able to help them along with pre-cut apron kits and lots and lots of embellishments.

Here's some of what we produced over the past few months:

Great example of a Busy Apron with lots of things to touch and feel while sitting. Goal is to have at least seven different textures/things to play with on each apron.

Want to make your own Busy Apron for a friend or family member? Basically you take an apron approximately 36" wide by 36" tall and add a lot of things to it that you think someone would enjoy touching. That's all there is to it.

Some things to add to the apron include pockets, buttons, beads, zippers, shoe laces, ribbons, trims, odd bits of heavily textured fabric, bows, braids, small stuffed animals, appliques, sequins, pearls, faux keys, grommets, snaps, Velcro, lace and the list goes on and on and on. We added a small whistle to each one just for fun. They can be removed but I read somewhere that it was a good exercise for your lungs and mouth to blow a whistle.

Next up: Baby Hats!

Heart and Home BOM Done!

2011-10-19T19:11:00.001-05:00

Back in June of this year I wrote about finishing up this quilt top. I put it on the pile of things that needed to be quilted and, quite frankly, proceeded to forget about it.

Along came the KAQG retreat and, while trolling for things to bring with me, up popped this little quilt top. Into the basket of things to do, while away, went this funny little quilt top along with safety pins for basting, black batting, black backing and binding fabric and black thread. I even brought to retreat my sewing machine that does great quilting rather than my usual travel machine.

Piece of cake, right?

WRONG!

Once I started basting the quilt sandwich together all my negative feelings about this quilt came out with a vengeance. My poor applique technique, my inability to center the central house block, the unevenness of the border fabrics and my inability to keep the instructions with the quilt pieces all came together to make me one grumpy girl.

Why should I put any time into making a quilt with such bad vibes?

Ever a Pollyanna, I decided to make this an exercise in improving my quilting technique.

I don't know if my quilting technique has gotten any better but this is how it all came out:

Since my hands have not been working very well I did not attempt to do any fancy feathers but I did add some fun things to the quilting. In each of the blocks with the hearts I quilted in the names of dogs I have loved, my family members, cats I have tolerated, people that have lived with me who aren't family members and lots and lots of little hearts.

I am now in love with this quilt as, even though it is poorly made, it will bring a smile to my face when I see it and think about all the names memorialized in it. Before it was done I was intending to give it to the dogs for their collection but now I think I may hang it on the wall where I can see it every time I go up the stairs to do some sewing just to remind me that a crappy quilt can be saved with just a little imagination.

And, just for some fun, this is how the bath tub/dogs' bed looks like when I go to wake the dogs up in the morning.

What? No dogs! Where did they go?

This particular morning Alex finally poked out his nose from under all the pillows and quilts he prefers to sleep under to see if I was serious about getting them up for a run outside. I had to go digging for Kelis as she wasn't ready to get active yet.

With the cold weather coming, I hope you and yours are as cozy and warm as Alex and Kelis are very night. If a quilt would make that happen for you, let me know. I could always send you another of my crappy quilts....whenever I get the next one done.

Not a 1,600" Quilt

2011-10-15T08:46:00.000-05:00

There is a somewhat popular quilt pattern out there called the 1600 inch quilt. Essentially you take one jelly roll of 40 different, 2 1/2" wide, 42" long, strips of fabric. Sew them end to end, then fold in half and sew the long edges together. Keep doing that and you will end up with a 48" x 64" quilt top.

Did I mention that you are supposed to sew the ends together at a 45 degree angle?

Here is a link that shows you the concept and even a video on the procedure.

Where am I going with this?

A young man I know is a new father and I would like to give him a quilt for his new baby girl. The problem is that I don't have much of a stash of baby fabrics that I thought would work for a very girly quilt.

Along comes the ever creative Janetta who suggests that I make one of these 1600" quilts and she just happens to have a bunch of girly fabrics that would work for it.

Janetta came up with 10 fat quarters of coordinating pink/brown/cream prints and I was off to the races.

I ended up cutting about fifty 2 1/2" wide, 22" long strips of fabric for my quilt.

Yes, that does not add up to 1600 inches made up of 40 different fabrics but I figured it would all work out in the end.

Here is what I came up with:

It came out to 35" x 58" and I do intend to add a border or two of beige/brown/pink fabrics.

Did you notice that I did not sew the strips together on an angle but straight on?

This quilt, so far, has taken about two episodes of Criminal Minds (off the TiVo) to get it to this stage.

Another episode or two and I should have it bordered, basted, quilted and bound.

Not bad for a quick baby quilt.

Next time I will definitely angle the joins of the strips!

Quilt Retreat 2011

2011-10-14T16:21:00.000-05:00

Need I say more?

The beginning of a quilt by the retreat crew for our next auction....LOVE IT!

OMG!

A simple bright fabric center encased in simple borders...brilliant!

A clever husband drew out this quilt pattern on plywood.

Irish chain updated for Jelly Rolls

Check out those clever prairie points.

these colors will keep you awake

For our lone knitter

Sunbonnet Sue gone Hallowe'en.

Secret Sister gifts

Love this!

As declared by the maker...'One ugly charity quilt!'

Beautiful quilt... and look at all those cords!

Hundreds of safety pins!

Of course I can say more.

My own output was very slim for the weekend. I did get most of a little quilt quilted (not shown above), cut fabric for a simple baby quilt, watched a couple of movies, played computer games, worked on my knitting and read most of a book on Brain Games for Your Dog but most of my weekend was spent just relaxing in a lovely location. Camp Allen is just outside of Navasota, TX, home to W. C. Mercantile, a great little yarn shop, and three of us made a pilgrimage there on Saturday afternoon.

What I love about sewing retreats is the opportunity to get away from it all and do what I want when I want without concern for laundry, meals, or dog walking. The fact that I can get some concentrated sewing time is just a bonus.

What I hate about sewing retreats is all that concentrated time with a small group of people. I live alone with a couple of dogs and tend to do my own thing. Imagine my surprise when I heard later that some of the attendees seemed to note how I spent my time. I didn't notice what most of them were doing, just the results of their work.

I've really got to get out more!

One thing I did do on my own was go in search of a screw for my sewing machine. I ended up in a small hardware store in Hempstead. They sent me to a former sewing machine repair store in search of my screw. I never found the screw but I did find a new member of my pack.

Meet Pierre:

He has settled into a spot in front of the fireplace and Alex and Kelis have accepted him as just an other odd thing in the house. He has Alex's anatomy, Kelis's coloring and Kemora's face ... all for a unique mix of Dachshund traits.

Would I go on another retreat...probably. I have been on several corporate retreats which are very similar and several sewing ones in previous years. 2012 may be the year that I spend retreating....there is a knitting one coming up in February and one in April for the sewers and, of course another quilt guild retreat in September. Now that I know the venue so well I will be able to take advantage of all it has to offer like hiking trails, a meditation labyrinth, and I might just make it onto a horse for trail ride. Of course, Navasota deserves at least a few hours exploring it's unique shopping district.

It could be a great year!

Red Scarf Project 2011

2011-10-11T03:36:00.001-05:00

The Red Scarf Project is off and running for 2011 and I have actually completed one already.

What?

You don't know about the Red Scarf Project?

Begun by Foster Care to Success (formerly the Orphan Foundation of America) in 2005 when they collected 3,500 scarves to send to their clients on Valentine's Day. The next year they collected and distributed 15,000! The project keeps growing but so does the need.

I cannot imagine being 18 years old, with no family, being literally dropped on the street by your foster family and having to fend for yourself.

I cannot imagine trying to finish high school, find a home, shop for your own food and make all those life changing decisions that young adults make without any support from an adult.

I cannot imagine being a friend of a Knit at Night Guild member who was dropped form the program in the middle of their senior year of high school who spent those critical last months of high school sleeping on friends' couches. The KANG member related that this friend of hers received one of the Red Scarf Project scarves and how much it meant to him that someone he did not know would make something for him and send a word of encouragement.

I may not be able to imagine all these things but I can make a scarf, send a word of encouragement to some kid in these circumstances.

My first scarf, of what I hope will be several this year, is a simple 2 X 2 rib made from Knit Picks sport weight Stroll yarn in Holly Berry. Here's how it turned out:

I used two skeins for the body of the scarf and some of a third ball for the fringe. Excluding the fringe it is about five feet long. The yarn was easy to work with but I was a little disappointed that there were so many joins in each skein. There were at least eight in one of the balls and another 6 in the second ball. In general, that should not be a problem but each join is a potential weak spot and I do worry that repeated washing could make for an unexpected unraveling... or maybe not.

Grab your knitting needles or crochet hooks, review that guidelines and make a scarf. Heck, you might even learn a new stitch pattern or opt for the tried and true like I did. In either case you could make a real difference in the life of someone you don't even know and what could be better than that?

Quilt Across Texas Shop Hop - Part 2

2011-09-29T13:56:00.000-05:00

As September began to wind down I realized that I did not have much time left to complete the Texas Shop Hop. Heck, I had only visited one shop (Heavenly Threads in Trinity) of the 91 in the hop.

All became clear to me when a Saturday Strippers gathering was cancelled which meant I had approximately a day and a half all to myself. Quickly I called Paul to let him know he was baby sitting Kelis for a couple of days and I contacted Alex's foster mom to see if a visit with Alex would fit into their plans. Both Paul and Liz and Sid were agreeable so I packed the car that Thursday evening and, after water aerobics and Knitting on Friday, I hit the road for this new adventure.

A couple of things first - I had FIVE things to navigate by - a traditional Texas road map, the directions from the shop hop people, a download from Google maps, my GPS and my new phone's navigation application. Despite all these instructions I got lost about twelve times and added about fifty useless miles tothe car.

But I digress..

My first destination was Lone Star Quiltworks in Bryan Texas. I saw a lot of magnificent homes while getting lost trying to get there and my visit started on a funny note. I charged into the store and asked for the restroom. Knowing I was in distress the clerk pointed me to a lovely restroom with lots of decorations for children and reminders to wash my hands. Imagine my embarrassment when I came out and realized that I was in children's toy/book store. With a very red face I left and went into the correct store, just one slot over in the strip mall.

Lone Star is a large, well lit and well stocked quilt store. They have a lot of patterns for accessories and lots of samples. They also have great little gadgets and notions and I will admit I picked up a few Christmas presents. One thing I noticed was their sale rack where everything was $4.00 a yard if you bought five yards or whatever was on the bolt. I found a lovely floral border print in brown that would be great as a backing for a quilt or as a quilt border or cut up into a One Block Wonder type quilt.

After restocking my water bottle I hit the road again for Taylor Texas and E-Jay's Trunk. This is a tiny store with a wonderful ambiance. No pressure here! I found a lovely piece of jacquard woven navy fabric of tiny school houses and stars that are the perfect weight for a house/sun dress or slouchy pajama style pants. I ended up having a wonderful conversation with the owner of the store next door on the relative merits of crocheting versus knitting. A great stop!

It was getting late in the afternoon so I only made two more shops. Both were sewing machine shops with a nod to quilting and other sewing activities.

Austin Sewing Machines in Round Rock was very hard to get to if you did not know the area. They had a lot of fabric but, after using their restroom, I realized that there was nothing that caught my eye so I moved on. Don't get me wrong, it is a big bright store and they had a lot of intriguing embroidery software but my brain just couldn't absorb any of it. Sorry!

On to the Ready To Sew Bernina store in Cedar Park. This store is in a very classy plaza and the parking lot was very full with people getting errands done before heading home for a quiet evening at home. Tress in the parking lot always get my vote for ambiance. When I walked in the store I was greeted with a comment from the owner 'You realize we are closing in ten minutes?". Of course I didn't know you were closing in ten minutes because I am a brain dead shop hopper who has traveled almost two hundred miles today just to get to your wonderful shop. I didn't stop for even ten minutes but got in, got my passport stamped and got out.

Back in the car I decided to call it a day and find where the next shop on my list was located and to find a motel nearby so I could start early in the morning. Ended up in an extended stay hotel for $39.99 (including taxes), didn't sleep well but enough that I know I won't stay there again! Never found the Holiday Inn that was supposed to be in the area.

The rest will have to wait for another day.

Calais Shawl

2011-09-29T12:57:00.000-05:00

In my unending desire to knit a piece of lace without five thousand miss-counts or dropped stitches, I searched on Ravelry for a free simple lace pattern...that is, one with very few pattern stitches and lots of simple repeats. There are hundreds of free patterns that are easy but that is because most of them mostly straight knitting with a complex hem. The Calais Scarf by Judy Marples of Purl Bumps fit the bill. Here's the photo from her pattern:

Isn't it lovely? Many repeats of a small number of stitches (for those of us who can't count) plus an interesting border. These attributes when combined with the use of only one skein of yarn made this a great project for me.

Off I went to the stash thinking of all those sock yarns I have acquired and how lovely they would look in this pattern. While sorting through the pile I came across a skein that I actually hate and realized that it would work for this pattern.

I had purchased a skein of Araucania's Lonco Solid mercerized cotton yarn that had been hand dyed in chocolate brown. I wear a lot of brown in the winter and thought that brown socks would be a logical choice for me HOWEVER this yarn has no stretch in it and would make lousy socks...or at least socks that would not stay up. I had ignored good advice about always reading the label before you buy a yarn and had ended up with string for sock knitting. YUCK!

Anyway, I have been hiding this yarn in the bottom of my basket and brought it out for this experiment in lace knitting.

Here's how my effort came out...

Yes, you can see a couple of boo boos and yes, on one row I couldn't figure out if I was knitting or purling but it's done, is incredibly soft and drapes beautifully. This is definitely something I will wear as a decoration rather than for warmth and I love it.

Lessons learned/re-learned:

stitch markers are your friends
count twice, rip once
blocking wires are a good thing but finicky to use
nothing I own is big enough for blocking this type of project
there is no bad yarn, just yarn that hasn't met the right project yet

I think I will try this specific pattern again but in a traditional yarn (like a wool blend) rather than the string I used this time.

Time to go stash diving!

Walker and Wheelchair Bags Distributed

2011-09-21T19:36:00.000-05:00

Over the past couple of months I have been writing about the project to provide everyone in a local nursing home with wheelchair and walker bags. The whole thing started off innocently enough with the beautiful Rose heading up a project for her church to improve the lives of the residents of the Pine Shadows nursing home. Over the past few months it grew as members of the quilt guild and the church made about 100 of each kind of bag and today was the day that we distributed them.

Here is one of the new bags in use... and it works!

I also got a chance to view this wonderful quilt on a patient's bad...hand quilted too!

And check out this fabulous afghan-

But there didn't seem to be a lot of these homey touches on a lot of the beds.

I don't think anyone was enthusiastic to visit the home but 14 of us gathered to bring over the bags and to visit with the residents.

First of all, the smell of urine and/or feces was NOT present so one worry was alleviated. Also, despite a whole range of disabilities of young and old patients, the staff seemed loving and caring and I didn't see anyone with soiled garments or dirty bedding. Another worry alleviated. The final worry was about those who really can't look after themselves at all. All the residents seemed seemed well cared for and their needs acknowledged and tended to quickly.

But here's the thing... no matter how nice a facility is or how healthy the patients could be, this is still a nursing home where most of the residents will leave when they die. Families and friends visit rarely, if at all, and boredom is only somewhat alleviated by meals and light rehab activities. Its depressing and not where anyone would like to be. With 75% of the Medicaid budget going to these types of facilities I wonder how the level of care might deteriorate if certain politicians have their way.

BUT I am glad I went and that this project is over with for now. I have a feeling we will be making more as time goes on but not so many all at once. I don't think I'll have all the energy I needed to get this project completed until next summer.

Make Your Own Dress Form

2011-09-14T18:48:00.000-05:00

Several years ago, Connie Crawford came to the Houston Chapter of the American Sewing Guild to lead a pants pattern class and a dress form making class during a sewing retreat weekend. Due to some amazingly weird problems... like the venue declaring bankruptcy 72 hours before we were to meet and over 100 attendees working with only a 1' x 3' of space each, the pants pattern making took up the whole weekend so the dress form making was postponed for a few months.

Dress form making is all the rage with many online seamstresses but if my experience is typical, it would be better to save your pennies and buy a pre-made dress form.

For example, your partner who is doing the wrapping needs to be very strong to lay on the layers of tape snugly and consistently. If the taping is not uniformly snug, your final product could be very lopsided.

Secondly, do not gain or lose significant amounts of weight after your dress form is made...unless you want to go through it all again.

Thirdly, be prepared to stand perfectly still for at least one hour for the taping to occur. I think I was required to be still for over an hour (more like two) and, by the end was feeling faint and parts of my body fell asleep.

Fourthly, at least four layers of tape are required to make an adequate form, three on the body and at least one more after it is cut off you. In all I think mine ended up with six layers including one on the inside to firm up weak spots like the waist and where the cutting was done.

And another thing...the form needs to be stuffed after you are done. Stuffing is hard to find and can be expensive. For a dress form that you can stick pins into you need many pounds of cotton wadding..not batting as for quilts but loose cotton fill...and you must fill the form very firmly. At the time it was very hard to find the filling locally and mine was never filled.

Why am I going on like this about an old project?

Well, my dress form has been sitting around the house since it was made. It was int he dining room for a while, then the sewing room and it finally ended up in the back of a closet. In one of my rare moments of cleaning, I pulled it out the a couple of weeks ago and sat it up on the bathroom counter. I thought if I saw it often enough I would be motivated to finish the dang thing.

After much thought I tossed it out in this week's garbage.

After all the time, effort and money spent on this dress form would I toss it away?

Let me count the ways....

I have lost weight since then so it is too big.
Although the dress form has a sway back, I do not.
One breast was wrapped as a double A while the other looks like a triple E.
I have a small butt, and have never had much of one, but my dress form had none at all....completely flat.
More financial investment in this project seemed stupid.
Frankly, I didn't like Connie or her attitude and just seeing that dress form on the bathroom counter brought back all the bad feelings I have of the whole experience.

So there it is on the side of the road waiting to be picked up and sacrificed to the landfill gods.

Rest in peace!

If you really want a dress form just buy one online. I can't for the life of me remember who sold me mine but the basic form came from Paris, there were three covers for it and around 20 little foam bits to made adjustments to more properly match your shape and it has a lovely oak stand. It may have come from Fabulous Fit. I do not see my model on their website and it was certainly less expensive than I see there now, but it is still the best way for me to how a garment will look on me.

Quilt Across Texas Shop Hop - Part 1

2011-09-08T15:09:00.002-05:00

Those wonderful folks in Quitman, TX at Stitchin' Heaven have come up with a great way to force traffic into a lot of quilt stores in Texas. They have created a shop hop of about 90 stores, in eight different regions spanning the whole state of Texas and we quilters have a whole month (THIS MONTH!) to visit as many as we want or can for a chance at some pretty spectacular prizes. Called the Quilt Across Texas shop hop it gives people like me an opportunity to see different shops, explore the back roads of Texas and to find unique quilt related items that are not available through the big distributors while hoping for a big prize.

Today is the day that I started my adventure. There was a little method to my madness.

First of all, I wanted to see how Alex and Kelis would handle a long car ride. The shop I went to today was 75 miles away which seemed like a good test of their ability to tolerate my ignoring them as the miles flew by.

Kelis handled it like a pro. She spent most of the trip sleeping in the back seat on an old wool afghan. Good Girl!

Alex, on the other hand, spent most of the trip whining and trying to get between my face and the wind shield. When he wasn't in the front of the car driving me nuts he was laying on the shelf behind the back seat with his head wedged between the head rests looking for to all the world as a dog getting ready to heave up his breakfast onto the the back seat.

Maybe I'll try drugs on him next time.

The shop I visited made all the Alex drama worth it. Heavenly Threads Quilt Shop is a delightful little store in Trinity Texas with a sweet owner and a Chuweiny(?) named Lucy as the shop dog. Lucy got to meet Alex and Kelis and really didn't know what to do with them. Alex made several attempts to sniff her in her nether regions so no wonder she wasn't interested!

The shop is in an old house, well signed and contains many things for the quilter including several civil war themed prints, embellishments for art quilts and a broad range of fabrics. Patricia, the owner, recently published her first pattern which combines an appliqued cowboy boot with blue jeans into a nice wall hanging. It's not on the website but you can see mine if ask nicely.

My hear sung a little when I saw her backing ready bolts of fabric for 50% off and her pillowcase kits for $5.00 each. I have enough backing fabric for a small quilt factory but the pillowcase kits will be used almost immediately for a project I saw on Facebook. Country Living Quilts (1816 CR 427, Marquez, TX 77865) is collecting pillowcases for those who have been burned out of their homes due to the huge wild fires around Bastrop, Texas.

If I am ever near this area again, I will definitely stop in and enjoy all the quilt goodness here.

And that's the other method to my madness. This shop is WAY off the beaten track for the shop hop. When I mapped out everything else in that region, all of the other shops are concentrated between Houston and Austin except this one. Making it to that shop while doing the other shops would be a bit of a pain so doing it by itself made sense to me.

I also got to enjoy some very pleasant back roads. I drove up to the shop through a lot of construction on I-45 but came back on a lot of country roads so I could stop and have lunch at Florida's Kitchen in Livingston. Yum, Yum!

I love back roads in any part of the world and today was no exception. For a while I followed an old boat trailer with a skiff on it. The trailer had weeds growing on it and the boat lost little bits of itself as we bumped along the road. I wonder what they were going to do with such an unseaworthy vessel after they left the road at a public boat launch? They may have been thinking about sinking it in the lake, but the drought had made the lakes so shallow that I don't think they would have been successful.

I saw no evidence of wild fires in the area (a good thing!) but I did get to see how low some of the lakes and streams are in this area. At one point there was an ugly stench coming through the air vents. Before I panicked I realized that the smell came from rotting vegetation exposed by the dropping lake levels. Glad I don't have a home near there!

The next part of hop that I will attempt may include an overnight stay somewhere as the distances are pretty significant...especially if I want to loiter at any of the stores. Kelis will go to Paul and Alex has been offered a place at his foster family's home. I just have to get the planning done so I can firm up the dates.

If you are in Texas check out some of the stores you have never visited before for a road trip treat. If you are out of state...see if you can get one going in your state. Shopping, back roads and unique quilt related stuff will make it all worth the energy to make it happen.

Fat Socks

2011-08-30T18:04:00.000-05:00

Way back when I was a lot younger and more athletic I would go skiing with my family. One of the best things about skiing was that afterwards I could take my ski boots off and put my poor tired feet into something big and sloppy. Apres ski boots were never in my wardrobe but over sized socks worked for me.

Flash forward more years than I care to count, and I now live in Houston which is many hours of hard driving from any ski slopes. The only thing that remains is that in the winter my feet get cold and tired and that walking on cold tile floors does not make them feel any better.

House slippers are okay but want I really want are over sized, sloppy wool socks. Try to find ill fitting scratchy socks in the stores and they will ship you off to the funny farm.

Enter the Twisted Yarns sale bins. A couple of months ago I spotted two large balls of something called Classic Worsted Tapestry yarn from Universal Yarns. The color I found was China Blue which is wonderful mix of blues, creams and golden yellow. With my imagination running wild, I bought two balls and decided to make bulky socks using one ball per foot.

After a few weeks this is how they came out:

Yes, they are big over sized wool socks but they look pretty awful with that lazy squared off toe.

Light bulb moment...why not felt them? They would still be bulky wool socks but maybe they would look a little better.

Into the washing machine and dryer they went and this is how they came out:

Not very different from the before picture!

What was going on here....

It turns out that your intrepid knitter had not read the label on the skeins of yarn. Classic Worsted Tapestry is not a 100% wool yarn. I had imagined that. It is really a 75% acrylic yarn with 25% wool thrown into make you think it is really wool..BUT IT IS NOT!

I still love my socks and their over sized scratchiness but I have learned a big lesson here:

READ THE LABEL... not just the name of the yarn BUT THE WHOLE LABEL! Read it once when buying the yarn, again when you get it home and again when you are considering what to do with it.

Then you might not be in the position I will be in when I show them at the knitting guild meetings this month where I will have to confess that I cannot read and that yarn with any acrylic in it will not felt.

I think I am now ready for winter...sloppy house socks, small shawls/scarves and ear warmers. If I get down to really knitting I will even finish the sweater I started two years ago for the complete homemade look.

OR maybe I should try mittens before I finish that sweater?

Cold Nights, Warm Ears

2011-08-28T11:03:00.001-05:00

Well, we haven't had any cold nights yet...unless you count the 80F we had the other night, down from 100F during the day.

Anyway, Knitters North of Town (KNOT) of the Knit at Night Gang (KANG) had a great program the other night to create a cute ear warmer headband with a little flower on it. Mabel agreed that it would be a great addition to her winter wardrobe so, after many false starts, here she is in her new ear warmer:

Pretty cute, yes?

This was created from a class pattern that the wonderful Marilee had and that many of us wanted to learn about. The pattern is unpublished but if you ask nicely I'll see what I can do about getting you a copy. UPDATE: Here is a similar pattern I found...looks the same except that this pattern makes a wider headband of 33 stitches instead of the 19 I used.

This ear warmer is made out of chunky yarn on US size 11 needles. I used Berroco Ultra Alpaca (won as a door prize that evening!) in a lovely heathered blue to make Mabel's ear warmer. I worried about the increases and decreases being too prominent with such thick yarn but the stitch changes are all hidden within the 1x1 rib pattern. I did have some trouble keeping straight which was the right side so ended up with some huge markers to remind me that the right side was not the wrong side. The flower is a somewhat free form piece of crochet with a knitted bobble in the center.

I so enjoyed my adventure with this pattern that I have started another one. I think my second one will go to the church that provides KNOT with space FOR FREE! With the high temperatures that we have been dealing with here, their generosity is very much appreciated.

I also want to let the world know how generous the KNOT group is with their excess yarn and needles. Thursday night I collected enough yarn and needles from this group to over fill a huge plastic bin. Their donations were made for the middle school knitting program that I hope will be restarting soon. Some of it will be going to a group locally that knits hats for chemotherapy patients. One little bit of it went onto my needles and became another ear warmer for Mabel.

The yarn was very chunky, almost like roving, and I wanted to see what it was like to work. I kept knitting in garter stitch until there was none left, at which point I realized that it was just the right size to warm Mabel's ears.

Good thing Mabel is generous with her hats as I really do need ear warmers when I walk the dogs in the colder weather. Of course, it feels like we won't ever have cold weather again but I have faith that the weather gods will screw with my expectations of a couple of months without air conditioning or heating bills.

Now back to watching Irene's progress up the coast. Stay safe and dry!

Lace #2

2011-08-12T16:55:00.000-05:00

I decided to try another lace project because the first one proved I really don't know how to count stitches. If you don't remember that effort, check here.

For my second try I decided to use a pattern that someone had copied for me. It's called a Larch Scarf and looked slightly lacy without becoming dreary. The pattern is here along with the notes by the designer.

The notes by the designer proved to be incredibly important for a lace newbie like myself as they included some very important information. If you not a knitter you can skip this part but for the knitters out there the notes included such vital information as the symbol chart and that the whole scarf is in garter stitch. These two pieces of information, if they had been in the pattern, may have resulted in a better looking scarf for me.

However, I think it looks pretty good and, at 52"wide and 22" deep, it will make a nice little triangular scarf to tuck around my neck when it gets a little cooler here.

The yarn used is called Stroll from the online retailer Knit Picks. It's a super wash wool blend and the color I used was Queen Anne. I originally got this yarn in a kit from Knit Picks for six different pairs of socks with cable detailing. I never made one pair from the pattern book but i will be using the yarn for non-cable socks and, maybe, more lace knitting adventures.

As always, there were lessons learned (again!) in doing this project.

Free/self-published patterns have not been vetted by a bunch of testers. Not that retail patterns are always better (see the errata for 100 One Skein Wonders as an example) but the pattern I used could have had better documentation and less gushing over the pattern.
I really can't count stitches without lots of markers. My final count was about 30 though only about 25 made it back into my box of stitch markers.
A more solid looking color did give better results however 476 yards of yarn do not give you a shawl, just a scarf.
Cable needles are a blessing and a curse. They make large projects like this easier to work but my cable never really relaxed enough for it to be pliable. I have heard that if you soak them in some warm water before casting on you can soften up the nylon cables but I will need to try it before endorsing that method.

Alex and Kelis were so excited that I had finished this project that they wanted to join in the fun of photographing it in my front yard....without their leashes!

Fat chance guys!

Busy, Busy, Busy

2011-08-03T20:39:00.000-05:00

Some of us are dealing with friends and family with Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease. Some of us will be victims later in our lives. Some of us remember the first time they saw a friend cry because her husband kept playing with his zipper. And some of just want to help both the patients and caregivers to make their lives a little better.

One of the side effects of these diseases is described as busy hands. Fiddling with a zipper, buttons, pockets, shoe laces, towels etc. etc. etc.

To help keep busy hands busy and to help the patients with a sense of accomplishment someone came up with the brilliant idea of creating Busy Aprons. Essentially a busy apron is a butcher's style apron that has been embellished with simple activities and interesting textures.

It will be the next activity for the once Upon a Time Bee and I made up a sample the other night. Here is what I came up with:

On my apron I included chunky buttons, a Velcro key tab, a key ring, a tassel, a sideways pocket, a pocket held together by a ribbon bow, a big pocket, a bit of toweling, a chunky zipper with a ribbon pull tab, all with rick rack and other trims for more texture. I have space to add more things but for now I'm calling it done.

Other things I could have included were: shoe laces pulled through shoe grommets for lacing, a see through pocket for family photos, a key to something innocuous like a treasure box, big beads and cording for stringing, a soft toy tethered to a pocket, pompoms, ruffles, pockets for washable markers and a coloring book, laminated family pictures to dangle from a key ring, beads and sequins, all kinds of trims, a bow tie or regular tie to tie, cords/yarn to braid ... I think you get the idea.

Several web sites have more information on practical solutions to busy hands. Here are some that focus on Busy Aprons -

Bibs with Dignity
The Alzheimer's Store
Dementia Activities
Simplicity Pattern Company has an activity apron pattern 2623

Time to get busy... after I turn off the soaker hoses which may have flooded my yard by now!

Lace #1

2011-07-24T11:59:00.000-05:00

A couple of months ago I was admiring a lacy shawl knit by a friend. It was white, slightly fluffy and thoroughly delicious looking. I came home and looked up lace knitting on Ravelry and saw many beautiful examples of lacy shawls and thought I could make that!

As in all new projects, my enthusiasm was a tad more than my skill or ability but charge ahead I did.

First I needed to select a yarn. I had a skein of fingering weight yarn from Schaefer Yarn in the Aung San Sui Kyi color... a luscious colorway of peach, green and blue in 50% merino wool and 50% silk called Audrey. I had intended this yarn for some special socks but a lacy shawl seemed like a better project for this yarn.

Secondly I needed to find a pattern. Since I had 700 yards of Audrey I figured I would have a lot of choices. WRONG! It seemed that most of what I liked either required thousands of yards for a body covering shawl or only about 400 yards for a little neck cover. I needed something in between and ended up selecting a free pattern on Ravelry called Ethereal Shawl and originally published on the Patterns From my Head blog. There were options included in the pattern for using more or less yarn than the original. The best part about this pattern is that it has been tested and the pattern updated several times so any errors/discrepancies in the original pattern have been solved.

I printed off a couple of copies of the pattern, sat down with my needles and cast on assuming I would be finished in a couple of days. Almost a week later I was still casting as I ripped out the first few rows about 20 times before I got into the rythym of the pattern. As I continued to knit I found that I had a lot of trouble counting my pattern stitches, keeping my place in the pattern and at about 75% complete I found that I had dropped a sticth or two way down int he middle of the pattern.

Here's how it turned out:

Here's where I dropped a stitch or two. Still don't know how I going to fix it but I will...even if it means just threading the loose stitches on a piece of yarn and tying it off in a big honking knot!

I am not unhappy with the result as it fits around my shoulders and is light enough to not be oppressive but heavy enough to provide some protection against air conditioning.

There are a lot of lessons learned in this project.

Have lots and lots of stitch markers when doing doing multiple repeats of the same pattern in a row. I used over 20 per row by the end, and although it looked like it was raining stitch markers every time I stood up, they made a huge difference in keeping track of the pattern. I did not learn this until about 30 rows from the end.
Count every pattern repeat and every row at least twice. Just because you got the right answer on the first count, count again just to be sure.
A variegated yarn like I used is beautiful and hides flaws but a solid yarn would have highlighted the pattern better.
Stitch markers are not all alike. Those made out of rings with a little space for opening them up love to catch extra yarn especially when using such fine yarn. Look for stitch markers when the ring does not have a little gap in the ring. This is not a good marker...see the little gap in the ring? While these and these look great. Most of my stitch markers have the split so i was not a happen camper.
Make many copies of the pattern you are using. I ended up destroying three copies with my notes and marks. I still have one copy in pristine condition so I can always try this again.
Use the recommended size of needles. Do not assume you know better, you probably don't.

Well, that's it for my adventure in lace knitting. I may try it again as I have found several more lace patterns in my books that look beautiful and, if I remember my lessons learned, could definitely be done by the colder weather.

Helical Knitting

2011-07-17T20:57:00.000-05:00

In my continuing quest of being a know-it-all, when it comes to everything, I took a class yesterday with the Knit At Night Guild (KANG) on helical knitting with Kenny Chua at Park Avenue Yarns in League City.

First off I was late in arriving. I misread my GPS and would have ended up in Galveston Bay if I had continued on the right road for way too long. The shop looked wonderful but the parking for such a large class (about 20 of us) was inadequate. I ended up parking in a puddle on the side of the road and did a very graceful leap out of the car.

Yes, we had some rain (Yeah!) so puddles were to be expected. My inexperience with this phenomenon meant I wasn't watching where I parked. Lesson re-learned!

Kenny is a young chemical engineer by day and a wonderful knitter by night. He has had patterns published in several mass media magazines like Knit Simple, Knitter's Magazine and Interweave Knits. He is a good teacher but seemed uncomfortable up there when, I think, almost everyone in the room was older than him. I hope he keeps at it as he is very knowledgeable with a delightful sense of humor.

Helical Knitting is a response to those of us who knit striped garments and accessories in the round. Instead of knitting back and forth on two needles, knitting in the round means you are always knitting in one direction, usually on needles joined with a cord.

Knitting traditionally (back and forth on two needles) does not have a problem with stripes. You want to join colors, wait until the end of the row, tie on a new color, cut off the old color and continue knitting.

Knitting in the round does not give an opportunity for a hard stop as the end of the row never happens until the end of the item. Striped items usually end up with a jog in the stripes, setting you up for an unattractive indication of where you changed colors.

Helical knitting is a response to that difficulty. Essentially you knit the different colors so it looks like you are knitting in a spiral. Since you are only knitting a single row of color per stripe the colors spiral up the item being knitted without a bunch of joins and without the slope implied by knitting in a spiral.

It really is a very clever way to knit a striped item and I encourage you to check out Kenny's website for some beautiful examples of helical knitting.

Here is my output from the class:

The only place where you can see a join is just where you join the colors to the base brim. Here its the addition of the yellow to the rust at the top of picture.

Otherwise the changes in the colors is completely invisible.

We were using Berroco Comfort worsted weight yarn in four colors. Although I am not in love with this yarn, it really is relatively easy to work with and is completely machine washable and dryable.

How do you accomplish this miracle of knitting stripes without a join? Here is a website with some very technical instructions and another site with a different approach.

If you just want to dive in and give it try here are a couple of things to think about:

Number of colors - not more than six,
Number of stitches - the more the merrier. We worked on a 105 stitches to a row hat.
Stripes cannot be taller than one row for it all to work.

Here is a basic explanation on how to do it:

Start with a base - in this case we used a 1 x 1 rib on needles two sizes smaller than the needles used for the body of the hat. We used 98 stitches for the ribbing on US size 6 needles.
Optional - increase the ribbing stitches from 98 to 105 in a plain stockinette knit row.
Divide the number of stitches in a row into four equal amounts if you are using four colors. In our case we divided the 105 stitches into three sections of 26 stitches and one of 27 stitches.
With the same yarn as the ribbing,on the larger size needles (we used US size 8), knit 26 stitches, drop the yarn (DO NOT CUT) and pick up your next color. Knit 26 more stitches drop it and pick up the next color. Knit 26 stitches, drop it, pick up the last color and knit 27 stitches.
Knit 26 more stitches with your last color, drop it and pick up you ribbing color yarn when you reach where it is hanging. Keep dropping and picking up yarn colors as they appear. One part of each row will be twice as long in one color as the other two parts but just go with it. And yes, your yarns get tangled but deal with it however you want.
Admire the magic!!

There was a bonus in this class in that we learned a brand new cast-on called a tubular cast on. I did it completely and utterly wrong. I am going to You Tube and my reference books to try it again as it really made a lovely edge to the ribbing.

I still don't know it all but I will continue my quest. After all , my ex once said i was right about things 95% of the time so I just have 5% of everything else to figure out.

Have a good week!

Walker Bag Instructions

2011-07-08T20:20:00.000-05:00

Last week I talked on the latest Women on a Mission project. Today we tried to figure out the best way to get the walker bags efficiently put together. These are a little more complex than the wheel chair bags that we have made in the past but the results are pretty spectacular.

Here's what we figured out.

Take note - these bags are best for the aluminum frame type walkers rather than the ones with brakes and seats.

Staffing needed: One person serging, two sewing, one ironing/running/trimming/organizing.

Seam allowance - between 1/4" to 1/2"

Fabric cuts needed - four pieces 4" x 12" for the straps, three upholstery weight or five quilting cotton weight cut 16" x 14" for the body (and lining) and an exterior pocket, two pieces of 6" of Velcro (optional)

Handles (four 4" x 12" cuts of fabric) - Fold and press the handle fabric, wrong sides together, lengthwise then fold the long raw edges into the center of the handle and press again. Top stitch the open edge closed and the folded edge as well.

(images from Sewing 4 Dummies)

Trim and set aside.

Note: the Velcro, if wanted, should be attached after the bag is constructed as we have found this is the best way to make sure that pieces line up correctly. If you don't use Velcro then the handles can tied to attach the bag to the walker.

Pocket (one 16" x 14" piece of fabric):

Wrong sides together, along the long (16") side, sew or serge a seam creating a tube. Turn right side out and press so that the seam you just made runs along the middle of the pocket and not on an edge.

Top stitch one long side as the top of the pocket.

Top stitch the other long side to one of the exterior pieces two inches from the bottom edge.

Perpendicular to the top stitched seam you just sewed, sew one or more seams subdividing the long pocket into two or more smaller pockets. Back stitch these seams securely at the top and bottom of the pocket.

Putting it all together

Upholstery Weight Fabric

Place the pocketed piece of fabric right sides together with the remaining piece of exterior fabric. Serge along the sides and bottom of the bag. Make sure you catch all the layers!

To make a 'bagged bottom' line up the side seam and bottom seam together making a pointed corner. Serge off this tip making a four inch long seam. Use the bottom of the pocket to estimate where to sew. Here is a nice tutorial on how to do this.

Serge around the top of the bag making a nice clean finish. Remember that you will be sewing only one layer of fabric!!!

Top stitch all of the serged seams, except the top. You may be sewing through very heavy fabric so do the best you can. The purpose here is to reinforce the serged seams and to making a nicer finish on the the interior. Try to also sew down the serged seam in the corners as well.

Fold the top, serged edge about one inch into the interior of the bag, pin the handles, two to each side about three inches in from the nicely serged and top stitched sides. Top stitch around the bag at least twice, once at 1/4" and again at 3/4" in from the folded top edge being sure to catch the handles both times.

Sew Velcro onto the handles (if wanted) being sure that the handles don't twist when the Velcro is pressed together.

Trim, trim and trim again. There will a lot of thread ends no matter how careful you are so trim, trim and trim again.

Quilting Cotton Weight Fabric

I wrote a reversible tote bag set of instructions a couple of years ago and the construction of the walker bag using quilting cottons is a very similar construction method. You can find the full instructions here.

Layer your 16" x 14" fabrics n this order:

one interior fabric face up
one interior fabric face down,
exterior fabric with the pocket face up,
exterior fabric without the pocket face down.

Serge along the sides and bottom making sure you capture all the layers.

Bag the bottom aiming for a four inch long seam. Use the bottom edge of the pocket as a guide. See the reversible tote bag instructions for a good picture.

Turn the bag right sides out and press well.

Press the interior and exterior fabrics about one inch into the space between the fabrics. See the reversible tote instructions if this doesn't make sense to you.

Insert the handles, two to each side, about three inches from the side seams and pin in place. Top stitch around the bag at least twice, once at 1/4" and again at 3/4" in from the folded top edge being sure to catch the handles both times.

Top stitch the side seams, the bottom seam and bagged corners as best as you can to reinforce the serged seams.

Sew Velcro onto the handles (if wanted) being sure that the handles don't twist when the Velcro is pressed together.

Trim and trim again although there will not be as many thread ends to finish off as the upholstery weight fabric bags it pays to check carefully just in case.

DONE!

What? No pictures? I sent all the fabric kits and practice bags home with the beautiful Rose but I will try to get some pictures the next time.

Want to do something simpler? Here are the instructions for the wheel chair bags we have been making for a couple of years now.

Flamenco!

2011-07-07T01:27:00.000-05:00

The knitting yarn not the sexy Spanish dance.

There is a whole new class of novelty knitting yarns out there that look like rope or fat ribbon, or, in this case, netting that knit up into fluffy scarves and can add interest to otherwise plain sweaters or other knitting projects.

I was in Twisted Yarns the other evening before a KNOT (Knitters' North Of Town) meeting and saw one that looked like a fishermen's net called Flamenco by Trendsetter Yarns. Here is a link to Jimmy Beans' selection which seems to be the broadest I have seen.

I picked up a skein of plain white, knitted it up at five stitches to the row on 6mm (US 10) needles into every other loop and ended up with 10 feet of fluffy scarf.

Pretty neat, eh?

A couple of cautions about using this type of yarn. It is really tedious to knit. If you are used to just barreling along through one stitch after another you will hate knitting this yarn. For every stitch you need to open up the weave, find the edge loops and knit into the one you find at the right distance from the previous used loop. Then you do it all again...and again..and again. Another thing to be aware of is that it is 100% acrylic so it may be sweaty to wear.

On the other hand, knitting with this yarn gives you instant gratification. At the end of each row I fluffed out the weave and was instantly pleased by the pretty ruffles formed by the knitted yarn. I intend to wear it as a scarf but I think it would look great great as a trim on a sewn garment where that kind of girly embellishment would work. Then again, wouldn't it look great on a denim vest or jacket? Or how about hand sewing it into a ruffly flower? I'm sure you get the idea and can come up with some of your own.

My skein came with a knotted join a couple of yards from the end of the skein. I knew I did not want that kind of join in the scarf and was too lazy to hand sew the ends together, so I have set it aside and intend to dye it. In fact, I have some in the dye pot right now and hope to have it set in the next couple of hours.

Try Flamenco or any other of these new yarns for a quick knit and a fun addition to your knitting repertoire. Other names/types are Flounce, Triana, and Cha Cha. There are a host of videos in You Tube about how to work with these yarns. Needles to say, I did not watch any of them before I started and I still got a great result.

What else is on my needles right now? My albatross is a sweater I started two years ago now and am still not more than half way done, a pair of extra chunky wool socks for keeping my feet warm in the winter on cold tile floors and my very first real lace project.

Yup, I have decided to try to knit a lacy shawl thingy. So far I have had to un-knit about every other row and it took me about a dozen tries just to get the darn thing through the first ten rows without messing up too badly. It is called the Ethereal Shawl from Patterns in My Head and mine should look something like this when it is done, except mine is made from a varigated yarn with peach, blue and green sections:

Wish me luck... only about forty rows to go!

Pretty Little Purses and Pouches

2011-07-03T20:19:00.001-05:00

The other day I stopped at Tea Time Quilting looking for some funky prints (their specialty) and found a copy of 'pretty little purses & pouches' on sale. Lark Books has published about a dozen of books in this series and have come up with a winner on this one as it has a lot of interesting ideas for purses and pouches.

I decided to try out one of the designs and I immediately fell in love with the organization of the book. There is a comprehensive, but not expensive, list of tools. Basic construction techniques are gathered together at the front of the book. The patterns are tiny but are easily blown up at your local copy center to fit a standard sheet of paper... a really good thing! And finally there were no errata to plow through which happens a lot in this type of publishing. I think someone independently tested the patterns so that major problems were eliminated.

Here is the pattern I tried:

I haven't set snaps in a few years but thought that I would remember the major steps. Needless to say, I spoiled many snaps and a lot of scrap fabric discovering that snaps weren't about to happen. I ended up using Velcro and a couple of odd buttons for the closures.

Here is my interpretation of the snap attack purse:

I used some old silk dupioni for both the exterior and lining and a couple of odd buttons to cover the thread used to attach the Velcro.

This is a clever design with two little compartments that seem perfectly sized for a cell phone and small wallet. Micha Mae Melancon (blog and Etsy shop), the designer, has created a wonderful project that could be size up or down depending on your needs.

Now I'll have to try some other projects in the book like this:

or this:

or maybe this:

Or maybe I will stop avoiding what needs to be done around here and find out what my little pee machine (aka Alex) has been doing all afternoon.

Women on a Mission

2011-06-28T17:21:00.000-05:00

There is a woman named Rose who is a wonderful character about town here. At 78 she's a little bent over when she walks, has a perpetual smile on her face and usually wear's an odd assortment of shorts and t-shirts.

Rose is a very generous woman. Although she lives on a very limited income she is always finding ways to give back to the community. Just ask Rose about a project to benefit others and she is always there to lend a helping hand or to organize reluctant friends to pitch in.

Recently Rose became involved with a local nursing home serving 161 souls. This is a place, where but for the grace of God, and a lifetime of saving, go many of us. Near the ends of their lives many of these people never get any visitors and have no financial resources after paying the fees associated with their care. Its a small community with many needs.

To solve two issues at the same time Rose was encouraged by her church to make wheel chair and walker bags for the residents. As part of the process, she is also encouraging other members of her church to visit with the residents when the bags are being distributed.

Visiting can be tough for some people but making bags.....anyone can help with that project.

Enter the Women on a Mission.

Rose approached me about the instructions for making wheel chair bags and I saw that this was going to be a relatively huge project. There are 91 people using walkers and 10 using wheel chairs at the home. That's a lot of bags!!!!

Saturday, during Strip Club, one of us cut out 20 wheel chair bags... enough to cover the current need with a few extras.

Today five of us gathered to begin cutting out the walker bags. I would like us to have at least one hundred kits put together before we start sewing with more being the goal rather than less.

We cut and assembled about SEVENTY of these kits (a kit being cut-to-size fabric for the body and handles of one bag) today in about two hours!!

We are going to meet one more time, on Thursday afternoon, to cut some more bags and I have high expectations that we will more than meet the one hundred bag goal.

Then next Friday we will gather to figure out the most efficient way to make these bags. They are slightly more complex to put together than the wheel chair bags and I hope we can get a smooth assembly line figured out.

I don't expect we will get much done but there will be one final big sewing day at Rose's church with church members, guild members and anyone else we can drag into this project, to make the majority of the bags and get them together to go to the home.

I am so impressed with all of these people. A need was expressed, someone saw a way to fill the need, others ransacked their stashes for fabric (I even bit the bullet and donated a bolt of fabric I have not used in over ten years even though I loved it!) I organized the cutting days, someone else has organized a preliminary sewing day and someone else will organize the BIG sewing day.

Women on a Mission... without them this world would be a poorer place.

Saturday Strippers 06/25/2011

2011-06-25T21:07:00.001-05:00

Today was the June 2011 edition of the Saturday Strippers and what a wild time we had.

Okay, that's a slight exaggeration but I think everyone enjoyed themselves and we did solve all the troubles in the world...maybe not world peace and the elimination of hunger but other issues just as important to us like bathing suit shyness, the benefits of exercise for some friends, how to get a charity project completed without a lot of support and the issues around parenting older children.

The quilt for this month was the cover quilt on 'Scrap Basket Sensations' and was worked on by four of us.

Here are a couple of examples of what the block/quilt will look like when it is done:

I did work on the blocks but mine were packed up and in the car by the time I took pictures of everything.

Besides four people working on the selected project one of us made a quilt for her four year-old great-grandson.

Someone else made about 25 flannel baby blankets for the local charity hospital:

Two others did not sew at all. One worked on cutting out wheel chair bags (she got twenty 'kits' all ready to sew) and the other worked on getting all her cut pieces in order to sew later.

Our final pair, a grandfather and grand daughter combo got a little sewing done and wowed us with grandfather's thread guide invention made from an old soda bottle and some PVC piping. I expect to see it soon offered for sale on Etsy!

Next month we are going to have a UFO day to finish up these quilts as none of us got enough done today to actually produce a quilt top. If you are local to me, please come visit us on the fourth Saturday of the month for an afternoon of sewing relaxation. We may not solve your problems but you may come away with a project completed and who can argue with that.

Free Shipping

2011-06-23T13:45:00.001-05:00

Those are the words that get the heart of any on-line shopper to go pitter-patter in anticipation of beating the system by getting the most bang for your buck by getting free shipping.

I have learned over the years to restrain myself but sometime you just have to break out of the mold and SHOP!

It happened to me the other day.

Fabric.com is one of my favorite places to buy fabric (like yardage for the backs of quilts), simple sewing patterns or when I know exactly what I want and they have it at a good price.

They had advertised that a couple of high quality brands of quilting cottons were on sale at up to 60% off and I decided to take a look.

None of the fabrics that I liked in those brands were deeply discounted so I decided to browse around to see if these was anything else that struck my fancy.

Of course I did find something that was cute, cheap and added it to my cart.

That was the beginning of the end for me.

A simple knitting pattern for $3.00 (50% off the original!) of a little dachshund named Tofu began the craziness of finding enough to fill up my shopping cart with $35.00 worth of goods so I would not have to pay shipping on Tofu.

The hunt was on!

With $32.00 to spend I went first to the $1.93 a yard fabric. You could buy a lot of ugly fabric here but I found some lovely oxford cloth shirting fabric that would make a great pool dress. Three yards went into the cart for $5.79.

$26.21 to go!

Next I went over to the 60% off category of home decor fabrics to see if there was anything I wanted for another bog coat. A wonderful embroidered denim presented itself so I bought a yard (all I need for a bog coat) at $6.36.

$19.85 to go!

This was taking a long time so I next went to a category that I try to avoid...the prepared for dying section. The prices here are not hugely discounted but they had some lovely mid-weight cotton. I know I can have fun playing with it so into the cart it went, two yards for a cost of $17.96.

$1.89 left.. now that's more like it!

Trying to find something for $1.89 on a web site that has over 50,000 items can be very time consuming. Never fear, I have a method. When I am down to the last few dollars I go hunting for deeply discounted notions. In this case, not hugely discounted but something I always need are point protectors for knitting needles. I found some from Clover for $2.68 and into my shopping cart they went.

Ta Da! $35.79!

My order now qualified for free shipping.

Mission accomplished.

Is that a round of applause I hear?

Seriously though, Fabric.com is a great place for for all kinds of fabrics at great prices. I have never been disappointed by what I have ordered and I have even used some of it as I intended.

And they have knitting supplies now so I just may have to keep going back for more.

What were Alex and Kelis doing while I was shopping?

Sleeping! They have learned that when I am on a hunt on the computer that no treats are forthcoming so sleep is their alternative activity.

Heart and Home Block of the Month Quilt

2011-06-19T18:42:00.000-05:00

I was digging around in the shoe boxes full of quilts to be made and came across one that I don't remember much about. As seems typical of me, I had most of the fabric parts but none of the written instructions.

It has to be a good six to seven years old and I thought I had discarded it into the Quilt Guild Garage Sale.

Imagine my surprise when I examined it and discovered that most of it had been completed and all it needed was a little creative license to insert the middle block into the center of the 80% completed quilt.

After a couple of hours of recalculating the amount of border fabric I needed for the center block (and never getting it right) I came up with this:

I think the Block of the Month program it came from was to teach me applique skills but, from what I remember, all the instructions said were things like like cut out hearts, fuse to block, stitch raw edges. No real instructions or hints on how to make it better BUT I did try a number of techniques I will never try again.

Look where Kelis is sitting. That block is supposed to be a Grandmother's Flower Garden block; all hand pieced from little bits of fabric using paper octagons as the foundation. It should have looked something like this:

Let's just say that mine was a more more free form interpretation of an octagon. I will probably never try this again but the primitive nature of my work will put a smile on my face for many years to come.

I will add this to my slowly growing pile of of odd quilt tops I have completed lately and finish them up when it will be way to hot to leave the house. That may be tomorrow!

On a final note... here is Alex is the middle of my dead lawn trolling for things to chew to keep his teeth clean like pine cones, twigs and gum balls (look like thorny chestnuts).

Have a good week! Mine will be busy with three water aerobics sessions, a doctor's visit, a bone scan, two afternoons at Work Shop Houston, a meeting of the 'other' quilt guild, a meeting of the Knitters North of Town, relaxing with the Friday Knitters, book work at Sweet Sadie's and, to top it all off, Saturday will see another gathering of the Strip Club.

Now I need a nap!

Fat Quarter Challenge

2011-06-18T17:14:00.000-05:00

Its that time of the month when the Fat Quarter Club meets to see what everyone has done with the challenge distributed the previous month.

The challenge from May was to take a lovely, delicate paisley fat quarter and turn it into something rodeo/cowboy themed.

Again, I knew what I was going to do with it. I have some fabric with 50's style Pin-up Cowgirls on it. I was going to make one or more little wall hangings using this paisley as a border for these naughty ladies.

Other people came up with an embellished cowboy hat, a BBQ apron, a baby quilt, a picture frame (for a square dancing photo) and a couple of other projects that could be twisted to relate to the theme of the month.

Two days before the meeting this morning I went looking for the focus fabric and this is what I came up with:

WTF?

Where is the wall hanging? Where are the girls? How does a bucket relate to cowboys and rodeos?

Here was my twisted thinking...it's a feed bucket for carrying feed to the horses or for the horses to eat out of when putting on the feed bag... get it ?

So it's a bit of a stretch but I passed the challenge and ended up winning a packet of charm squares.

One thing I did learn (these is always a lesson in there somewhere), I really like to make containers... purses, bags, totes, pockets, boxes, baskets and buckets. Even if I do not have an immediate use for this bucket, I know I will keep it around to remind me of this revelation.

Failed Challenge

2011-06-18T16:41:00.000-05:00

You know this girl loves a challenge.

Okay, so not all challenges. Definitely not ones that include getting covered in dirt and eating disgusting food. YUK!

But I do love challenges when I am given a topic or a material or a deadline or a puzzle.

I recently fell head over heels for a challenge proposed by one of the ASG neighborhood groups I sometimes attend. The challenge was to document a very expensive item and then recreate it for pennies.

Yahoo! I knew what I was going to do even before I left the meeting in January when this challenge was proposed.

In the August/September 2010 Threads magazine there was an article on how to construct a hard sided clutch.

I wanted to try this out and came up with a couple of examples of little hard sided bags, one of which was going to be my inspiration.

So far so good.

Four days before the challenge was due I sat down and began to construct a hard sided clutch and here are the results from two hours before it was due to be presented:

Yup... I tossed it while it was still in pieces. The instructions seemed easy but I forgot Rule Number One when it comes to trying new techniques.

RULE NUMBER ONE

READ AND FOLLOW ALL INSTRUCTIONS.

Once again I read some of the instructions and followed some of the instructions and came out with a useless result.

Where did I go wrong specifically:

Cut all the fabric to what I thought was the right size and, of the seven pieces of fabric needed for this project, three were cut too small.
Used extra heavy duty fusible web when light duty was recommended thus the glue seeped through the silk fabric and made it stiffer than petrified wood.
Cut the chip board interior boards raggedly so the edges curled a little for a too loose fit.
Thought that hard Timtex could replace soft felt padding.

My dollar investment was less than $3.00 for the chip board and I have enough left over to try again. Everything else was already in the stash and were primarily leftovers from other projects.

Next time I try this I will start off with one tool not mentioned in the instructions: a strong person (read Paul) to cut the chip board. My hands are not that strong any more and I really mangled the cutting process.

Until then, on to my next challenge of trying to figure out why Alex and Kelis are so stressed this afternoon.

Could it be because I am eating pretzels while writing this?

I may need to do an experiment to solve this mystery....NOT!

International Yarn Bombing Day - Kingwood, Texas 06112011

2011-06-11T13:23:00.000-05:00

What is Yarn Bombing? Some would call it an example of civil disobedience. Others would call it a bit of middle aged silliness. And still others would call it a way to beautify the world.

Me?

I'd call it a bit of all three plus a way of reminding one swiftly aging person (me!) that you need to take your fun where you can find it.

For the past couple of weeks I've written about this project and even put up a yarn bomb that was quickly removed from my neighborhood.

Last night, four of the Friday Knitters gathered at our local Starbucks, where we regularly meet, and yarn bombed the outside of the store.

We had warned them we were coming and the manager and staff were waiting for us to transform their storefront.

Here's what we did:

Silly? Yes!

Beautiful? Maybe.

Life Affirming? I don't think so!

A good way to end a day of Birthday Eve celebrations? ABSOLUTELY!

Let me explain the final comment....Today is my birthday and during the day these same ladies managed to feed me homemade apple pie, an ice cream cake and a strawberry pie as well as give me presents (!!!!) and a lot of laughter while hanging up our yarn creations. You must agree that this was a good way to end a birthday eve day!

Thank you to Susie, Janetta and Lish for actively coming along on this yarn silliness. An especially big shout out to Ely for coming to see what we were doing and not laughing too hard.

Time to start gathering odd bits of yarn for more convert yarn bombing in the neighborhood. I think I could make a lot more of those little flowers and hand them in all the trees around here AND I dare anyone to take them down!

Alex's New Duds

2011-06-09T17:38:00.001-05:00

A couple of times a year Alex needs a new walking harness. Not because he has grown out of his old walking harness but because the current harness has gotten extremely soiled or worn. His last harness actually started to disintegrate so I knew I would need to get him a new one soon.

The other evening, after our evening walk, the D-ring that is used to attach the leash to the harness actually ripped off of the harness and gave him a few moments of freedom.

No more procrastinating, a new harness would be needed before morning.

Was I prepared to make a new harness that evening? Not really. I had the hardware from the old harness but I really wanted fabric to match his new collar from a few weeks earlier. Even with a few (hundred!) yards of fabric in the stash none of it met my expectations.

In the end I used some African curtain fabric leftover from a wheel chair quilt I made up a couple of months ago.

Here is how it came out:

He looks all decked for a formal party in the 70's!

Note the really dry ground and almost no green around Alex in the picture. It is so dry here that the landscape is getting very stressed. The browning of the grass is not a big deal to me....we can always grow more grass... but the trees and bushes are beginning to feel the stress. A couple of days ago this happened:

Its not the first or the last time that a tree has cracked but, with the ground covers drying up and the trees falling down, I wonder when an errant sun beam will hit a stray piece of glass and the whole area begins to burn.

Time for another rain dance!

CPS Fabric Swap

2011-06-03T17:08:00.002-05:00

I love getting mail that is not junk or bills. In this day and age of e-mail, Twitter, Facebook and blogs it is rare to get something in the mail of a personal nature.

Yesterday was the day for me.

Here's the back story - a couple of months ago Cloth, Paper Scissors(CPS) magazine put out a challenge to its readers to make nine, nine inch squares of altered fabric, send them to CPS by a certain date and get back seven different squares from other readers. The two left over from your nine would be divided up with one whole set staying at CPS and the last complete set going to the winner of a people choice type award.

My submission was talked about here.

What I got back is wonderful range of fabrics that almost defy description. Aren't these wonderful!

Starting at the upper left is a beige piece of burlap with dyed circles, hand embellished with metallic threads and jewelry findings; then an altered photo on muslin with fabric paints and other hand coloring; then a piece of Katasome stenciling; then a wonderful painted piece with hand applied sharpie decorations; then a collage of old ties and finally a metallic quilted piece of fabric colored by deconstructed silk screening and over dye.

I have no idea how I will use most of these pieces but they do inspire me to try different fabric altering techniques. I make stretch each piece on stretched bars and hang them up on my sewing room walls... or then again I may use them in projects....or trade them for other altered fabrics or?

I hope you will have a wonderful weekend with moderate temperatures and a little rain for your gardens. I will be sweltering in record braking temperatures hoping for the the drought to break soon.

Time for a rain dance!

Walker Bags

2011-06-01T21:25:00.000-05:00

I have successfully made many wheel chair bags and the recipients have been very pleased with them.

However, I am always asked for bags for walkers and today was the day to bite the bullet and devise a walker bag that is durable, easy to make and usable. I have been hesitant to make walker bags because the walkers come in so many sizes but I think I have come up with a basic style that should work with all walkers available.

The basic bag follows the same directions as for the wheel chair bag here. There are two major differences. One is that the handles need to be able to be tied, velcroed or buttoned to the walker. The other difference is that I bagged the bottom of the bag as you would do for a tote bag (see here for one method of bagging the bottom of a tote).

More details:

Fabrics
Body and pocket - 16" x 14" - 3 of upholstery weight fabric or 5 of quilting cotton type fabric
Ties - 12" - 4 of 3/4" webbing (what I used) or 4 of other fabrics 4" wide

Final size, excluding handles - 15" wide, 12" tall and 4" deep

Here is my sample -

I hope to get someone to test out the usability of this style of walker bag before we put it into production in a couple of weeks. If they like it, I will produce more complete instructions and post them here.

Yarn Bombing - Update

2011-05-26T07:56:00.001-05:00

It is with profound sadness that I need to report that my Yarn Bomb is no more.

It barely lasted 48 hours before someone took it down!

I don't know if it was someone in officialdom who thought my little bomb was an eyesore, someone else who thought it was an eye sore or someone who wanted it for themselves.

Whomever it was, I'm pissed.

Rest assured I will try again...this time closer to the official date.

Maybe I should try crazy glue next time?

I'll let you know how it goes.

Yarn Bombing

2011-05-21T08:35:00.000-05:00

Yarn Bombing in a form of graffiti that uses yarn to decorate public spaces. Magda Sayeg, in Houston, actually started this craziness in 2005 and it has now grown into to an international source of silliness. Check out this article from Seattle to get more background and this book for kick starting your own yarn bombing adventures.

International Yarn Bombing Day has been designated by a crafty Canadian as Saturday June 11, 2011 and I am gearing up to do some yarn loving in my neighborhood.

But I decided I needed some practice first.

First decision - What to yarn bomb? I looked around my neighborhood and decided that I needed to do something that was public, on public property and visible to many folk. My front yard provides many opportunities... the mailbox, many trees, yard art.... but that seemed too easy. I ended up choosing the light pole across the street from my house.

Second decision - How to yarn bomb? I decided to keep it simple and knit up some old wool into a horizontal striped light pole cozy.

Third decision - When to install it? Too keep in the spirit I decided I needed to install my piece after the sun went down so that it would just magically appear the next morning. My first attempt to install my piece was thwarted when I encountered police cars silently patrolling my street. The idea is not to get caught and I thought being arrested for wrapping knitting around a light pole was not a good idea.

Last night turned out to be perfect.. little traffic, no rain and the dogs were fast asleep in their bed so they couldn't lend a hand, er, a paw, in the process or cheer me on with lots of barking and dancing at my feet.

This morning I took a picture of my first yarn bomb,,,,,

Okay, so it's not that dramatic and the horizontal stripes ended up being installed vertically due to a gauge miscalculation but its done! I've already spied some early morning dog walkers checking it out. And yes, I put it high enough up that most boy dogs will not have a chance to leave their mark on it.

For the official day, some friends and I intend to yarn bomb the local Starbucks where we meet on Fridays. Little garlands of crocheted and knitted loveliness are already in the works and a friend just completed a wonderful scarf, in Starbucks green no less, for the garbage bin outside the store.

I have lots of scrap yarn so I busy in this stash busting activity to have something ready in time.

I wonder if the other light poles on my street could use some yarn loving?

Picnic Time

2011-05-19T21:25:00.000-05:00

I don't like picnicking all that much because of my experiences as a child. It seemed that every time we had a picnic the sandwiches were stale, the drinks warm, the bugs numerous and the bathrooms (if any) disgusting.

As I have aged I reconciled that sometimes picnics are necessary... like on long road trips or while enjoying visits to parks and such. Many years ago I got a real picnic basket to carry all the stuff needed on a picnic and have been using it off and on over the years.

The past couple of years I have been using this basket to carry things for our snack attacks and lunches at the various quilting groups I attend at the Emlgrove Community Room. These days my basket is packed and ready to go all the time with a table cloth, napkins, plastic utensils, paper plates and disposable cups.

I noticed the basket was getting a little tired looking and decided it could use some sprucing up.

Here's the original basket:

Not very pretty and can you believe that I originally got this basket from L'eggs as part of a summer weight pantyhose promotion? How long ago was that? Do they even make L'eggs anymore?

Anyway, the first step was to remove the contents and the plastic liner then hose the whole thing down to try to remove any dirt. Then I stained it with some dark mahogany Minwax left over from when I restained the front door a few years ago.

It took a couple of days for the basket to dry enough for me to remeasure it for a new liner. The old liner hand been stapled into the basket between the basket and a strip of lathe. I used some wonderful spotted fabric from my stash and just tacked it back in with some staples.

Then I began to work on the contents.

I had a place mat kit, for four place mats, that I won somewhere and decided to make them up and use them in place of the old tablecloth I used in the past.

Then the real action stared.

I dug in the old silverware stash and pulled out about enough for eight place settings plus a bunch of serving pieces. They should be enough to handle most of our pot luck snacks and lunches. To carry them I used the leftover fabric from the place mat kit to make a silver ware roll to hold the clean pieces.

The leftover fabric from the lining became nine napkins, about 14" x 14" that I serged to finish the edges.

Then I stopped at Target and found some inexpensive dishwasher and microwave safe plastic plates and glasses. I'll pack a plastic container of some sort to transport the dirty ones home.

So that's it... a newly refurbished picnic basket full of color coordinated reusable goodies.

Take that Martha Stewart! ;=)

Doggie Accessories

2011-05-13T18:59:00.002-05:00

Over the past couple of years I have been making leashes for the dogs from some inch-wide heavy weight webbing. They worked well but were pretty heavy for such light weight dogs.

Dachshund Rescue of Houston (DROH) had friends who made walking harnesses for the dogs and all the proceeds went to DROH. Unfortunately it appears that relationship has ended so I used the original harnesses as patterns for making custom harnesses for my guys. See Kelis's most recent harness here.

Last night I finally completed the ultimate dog accessory. I made both Alex and Kelis new collars. More on these later.

The biggest obstacle to making custom accessories for your own dogs is obtaining the materials Webbing is rarely available in a multitude of weights at reasonable prices. The closures and D-rings for collars are unavailable in our local sewing stores. And then sourcing the right size webbing with the right size of closures simultaneously is almost a miracle.

BUT there is one source for the notions needed and that is old leashes and harnesses. That is why I have been able to make the harnesses and leashes I have in the past. Collar closures and D-rings have eluded me until I found Creative Designworks.

This company has almost every size and weight of webbing that you could possibly imagine AND the collar parts even come in colors!

If you ever wanted t make your own dog accessories, try this company... great shipping, no shipping charges and their prices on bulk purchases are extremely reasonable... especially if you want to start your own business.

Back to my adventures in collar making....

Alex just had his annual physical and, as is custom here, a new collar was in the works. I took him to the local pet store and found lots of cute collars but they all had the same problems.

The problems were that they are pretty heavy duty and the prices seemed ridiculous.

Alex doesn't need a heavy weight collar because I do not attach his leash to his collar, His collar is primarily used to hold his tags so it is really a fashion accessory rather than a way to control his behavior.

For him I used a 5/8" light weight black webbing and a comparable size of black buckle and D-ring. I then added black and orange striped ribbon for a touch of color. I am unable to get a good shot of his new collar but I love that its nice and soft and will not dig into his neck if he gains a little bit of weight.

Alex won't let me get close to photograph his new collar. He would rather stand on guard against unruly squirrels and passing cars.

Kelis's collar, on the other hand, was made using parts from the mini-dog size kit for 3/8" webbing. I didn't use webbing but substituted fabric that matched her newest harness. Quite a sharp dresser on our walks!

Kelis would let me hold her steady for a photo.

It takes very simple sewing to make collars but you need to be able to see in four dimensions to figure out when to add each piece of buckle and D-ring. It took me at least two tries for each collar to get the placement right. One hint that is not in the instructions is that you should really melt the ends of the webbing, with a candle or lighter, to prevent raveling.

I now have enough parts to keep making collars, harnesses and leashes for them for many years. With multiple sizes, weights and colors now available for the webbing my choices are virtually endless. The company that supplied my parts has reasonably priced guides to running a business making these items. I don't think I would ever go that far but I can see other, more entrepreneurial people, having a nice little side business.

Fat Quarter Club - May 2011

2011-05-11T14:07:00.000-05:00

My house might be in chaos but I am getting projects done and out the door... out the door and into the trunk of my car to be delivered.

The May challenge for the Fat Quarter Club at the Quilt Room in Huffman was to take a lovely cream fabric with brown and blue hearts on it and make something masculine.

Hearts? Masculine? What were they thinking?

I had already decided that I would make something that took more than a fat quarter this month as I have lots of little projects around here and really don't need any more.

Without any agonizing this time I decided that I would make a wheel chair quilt for the local VA hospital.

I added about five more fat quarters, some Kona brown and a brown zippered pocket to come up with this:

Not how I thought it would turn out but I think its a nice little quilt. At 36" x 42" its just the right size to cover a lap and not get caught in the wheels and the little zippered pocket adds some extra utility to it....but maybe I should have put the pocket on the back or in not so sharp a contrast fabric???

I used about three yards of fabric and, although it is more unisex than masculine, I think it will fit the challenge this month.

As I write this it is a cloudy, muggy day in Kingwood Texas. We haven't had more than a quarter inch of rain in one day since January this year so all of us are crossing our fingers that these clouds will bring some rain. Heck, I even performed my personal rain dance yesterday and had the car washed!

Another Mother's Day

2011-05-07T19:28:00.001-05:00

Mother's Day and I have a love/hate relationship.

As a child, I loved giving my Mom little things that I thought she would love... toilet water, handkerchiefs, hand made cards and weed bouquets were all accepted by her with much fuss and sloppy kisses.

I was at a loss as to why my Dad would give her sappy cards but chalked it up to some crazy parent thing.

After Paul came, I got to be the recipient of his largess. One of my favorites was a teeny, tiny Dixie cup planted with a violet that his first grade class had planted at school.

Another favorite, I rediscovered the other day. I found a card from him in a pretty pink envelope. Written on the front of it was the message...MOM - DO NOT OPEN UNTIL SUNDAY unless you want to. My son and I both have a hard time waiting to the assigned time to open a present!

These memories and more make me love Mother's Day.

My hate relationship with Mother's Day began seven years ago when my own Mom collapsed at a special Mother's Day mass with a stroke that ended her life three weeks later. Since then I have dreaded this day and its memories.

This year is particularly sad with the passing of my precious Kimora. There is nothing that makes you feel more useless as a human being than when you cannot protect those in your care from random dangers whether its poisonous snakes from attacking your dog to protecting your child from a school yard bully.

So yes, I love and hate Mother's Day but it always reminds me that without those in our care, for however short a time, life would not be worth living.

And, in honor of Mother's Day, I have a chance to embarrass my child a little by sharing a picture of him at his first birthday celebration in Korea before he even entered my life.

Thank you Paul for being in my life this Mother's Day.

R.I.P. Kimora

2011-05-05T18:18:00.000-05:00

Today started off on a high note and suddenly, without warning, turned tragic.

The high note was set when I was able to scratch the sweet spot on all three dogs at the same time after our walk this morning. The rear leg thumping by all three did not last long but my two hands and their three necks made it happen.

The low point cam a few hours later when our sweet, big girl Kimora died after an encounter with a coral snake in our back yard. In the end, it was a little over an hour from when she ingested the venom to when the veterinarian declared her dead.

She was a sweet dog who would always hide between my feet when encountering new people and new situations but fearless when it came to keeping critters out of the back yard. Squirrels, birds, worms, bugs and turtles all knew the wrath of Kimora. Today her luck ran out and, as they could not find a bite mark, it appears that she ingested the venom from a coral snake and quickly went into shock.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of her and some of my favorite posts about her, here, here and here.

Rest in peace my good, big girl and say hello to Jane from all of us. I know you are snuggled up to each other dreaming of catching those elusive squirrels.

Easiest Pillowcase Ever

2011-05-02T17:55:00.000-05:00

I have participated in several sewing projects for charity that have involved making pillowcases for a variety of causes. Not only are these a great charity project but pillowcases are a great present or an addition to a quilt and a great way to refresh your bed linens.

The Million Pillowcase Project at APQ has contributed over 270,000 pillowcases to the needy through a variety of sewing outlets.

I have made, or helped to make, well over 200 pillowcases, some for the project, some for the American Sewing Guild and some for for various quilting groups.

Over time I developed a swift, accurate and secure method for making them and I would like to share this here.

Why now? I just made about ten for a local quilt guild and realized that the people who made the kits had probably no idea how to make a pillowcase.

Easiest Pillowcase Ever

Fabric
27" (2/3 yd.) for body
9" (1/3 yd.) for hem
2" for accent
all cut selvage to selvage

Supplies
Sewing machine with thread matching or contrasting with the body fabric
Serger with thread matching or contrasting with the body fabric. (Optional)

Construction
Press the accent and hem fabric, wrong sides together, lengthwise.

Layer the fabrics selvage to selvage with the body fabric right side up, then the accent fabric, then the hem fabric... raw edges together and serge or sew together.

Finger press the hem and accent away from the body fabric and top stitch the serged/sewn edge to the body fabric.

Inside after top stitching

Outside after top stitching

Wrong sides together, serge/sew the raw edges using an approx. 1/4 seam.

Turn the pillowcase wrong side out and re-sew around the pillowcase encasing the serged/sewn seam within the new seam.

Good seam

Turn right sides out, check to be sure your first joining seam is fully enclosed, fold nicely and use in good health.

Oops!

Another way to enclose the seams, including the hem and accent edge, is the 'burrito' method and is explained here.

Letting the Fabric do the talking

2011-05-01T19:51:00.000-05:00

While deciding on which fabrics to use in the making of wheel chair bags this month I came across a piece of fabric that I have no idea where or how I acquired it.

It is a mystery fabric with no information on the selvedges about the manufacturer or fabric content.

It is very light weight with a lovely drape and I knew immediately what to make with it... another bog coat.

In less that an hour here is how it came out:

It needs a press and I may add a closure but it does work the way it is and it definitely honors the 4,000 year old bog coat tradition.

I have a lot of posts of bog coats but if you need a reminder, extensive instructions are here.

Also, check out the current Threads magazine for even more no waste projects.

Spring Fling 2011

2011-04-28T00:17:00.000-05:00

A highly selective sampling of the Dachshund Rescue of Houston Spring Fling 2011 fundraiser:

Kelis getting ready for getting her nails clipped.

. Thanks to the Westside Veterinary clinic techs for this service!

Mommy, Mommy!

For more Dachshund cuteness see the DROH web site here.

Rocker Girl!

2011-04-27T21:43:00.000-05:00

After a few months or so the walking harnesses of Alex and the Girls really need refreshing. Since they are tough to wash and dry in the machines (metal bits do not like laundry machines and visa versa) I have begun to make their harnesses.

I purchased them once and have been recycling the clips and rings into new harnesses for them.

Kelis's was getting pretty ratty so last night I made her a brand new one.

Check out my Rocker Girl:

Although I took about 15 shots of her on our walk this was the only one that turned out without Alex horning in on the action, Kemora blocking the view or Kelis shaking about.

This time I actually made a pattern and kept notes on what I needed to make her a harness so I will not have to remember how I did it. As she uses this style of harness everyday, I see myself making at least a couple a year.

Why this style of harness? Dachshunds are known for having extremely tender spines and leading them about from their collar only exacerbates the problem. This style of harness actually puts any stress on their whole chest area and is extremely effective is keeping Alex and the Girls under control when needed. One other benefit is that they cannot slip out of their harness like they can from their collars. Even if the velcro belly band comes undone, the neck band has velcro and is also held together by standard dog collar hardware. Even Alex cannot get out of it!

Interested in making a walking harness for your favorite pooch? Here are a couple of notes on lessons I have learned:

Measuring accurately is essential. Around the neck, around the chest, width at the shoulders and from the neck to where you want the harness to stop. Several on-line resources are available as well as commercial patterns and books can also help guide you.
Be prepared to make up a couple of test harnesses before you get the desired fit. Use oak tag (for durability) for your final pattern while swedish tracing paper makes a great sample garment with little cost.
Seam allowances are not needed if you bind the edges of your harness as I do.
Do not leave a lot of excess space at the neck, as you would for a collar, as this style is only used for walking and not for all day wear.
Consider using a dark color for the lining to hide dirt.
Only a light weight interfacing is necessary to reinforce the cotton fabric.
Velcro for the neck and belly straps should be at least four inches long, or even longer at the belly, for security.
Dog collar and leash making supplies are available from Creative Design Works .

Next up...a new harness for Kemora.

Special Needs Patterns

2011-04-27T19:38:00.000-05:00

As you may know, I belong to a group within the Kingwood Area Quilt Guild that is devoted to making things for those in need in our community. We, generally, don't do quilts but we do lots and lots of other things.....chemotherapy caps, baby hats, baby blankets, wheel chair bags, ditty bags, Christmas stockings, and many other items.

Many of our projects are for those who cannot provide these items for themselves due to the expense and/or the unavailability of these items in regular stores.

For instance, caps for those suffering from hair loss can cost well over $20.00 a piece, which can be quite an expense as you need many to always have a clean one on hand.

The patterns we have obtained or developed meet some of the needs in our community but are very basic. I came across several patterns lately, developed by Simplicity, that can be used to make wonderful accessories for the special needs community.

For example, Simplicity patterns 2382 and 2822 are a wonderful assortment of wheelchair, walker and scooter bags. They are definitely fancier than the generic ones we make and would be great to customize for that family member who has such mobility devices. If you are looking for even more interesting bags for walkers, pattern 2300 has a lot of bags for different styles of walkers.

One of the things I didn't get a chance to make for my dad when he was in rehab was a bib to save some of his clothes. Pattern 2687 has great bibs, customizable for male or female users and definitely useful for those of us who tend to eat in our cars.

My absolutely favorite pattern is Simplicity 2623. Although the packaging does not mention it, these patterns are wonderful for Alzheimer patients. Each item has multiple functional buttons, zippers and pockets that allow the wearer to practice fine muscle control and help keep busy hands occupied. Similar aprons cost cost around $50.00 at a store but can be made from your stash for a lot less.

For chemotherapy caps, Simplicity 2494 is the only simple hat pattern I can see in the current catalog. These are designed for fleece but could be easily adapted to other fabrics. McCall's Pattern Company's M4116 is a wonderful pattern for using knits and the styles included are quite exotic. For other hat patterns, Nancy's Notions, has many free, simple patterns and other companies sell or give away many others. The only rules about chemotherapy caps is that the fabric must be soft, washable and all seams or decorative bits cannot rub against the scalp.

If you like the projects we make for the local community but need something for your own or someone else's use, check out these great patterns. They are simple to make, easy to customize and can be real stash busters!

One and Done

2011-04-24T10:21:00.001-05:00

When I tried to knit socks for the first time I only made one of a pair because it was so misshapen. I ended up making it into an eye glass case. It worked out so successfully that I have done something similar for another friend when she also ended up with a first sock without a mate.

Since then all my socks have mates and I am proud of that achievement.

Then came along the December installment of the Twisted Yarns Twisted Toes Sock Club. This was the final installment of the 2010 club and the pattern was a gorgeous pair of holiday socks that used two colors (white and a variegated) of yarn from Crystal Palace with a custom pattern called 'To Every Season' by Ann Manchester.

I was excited by the challenge of working with two yarns throughout most of the pattern and ending up with a pair of socks that said Faith, Hope, Joy and Love around the top of the sock.

I was excited for about the first thirty rows when I realized that I really hate working with two yarns at the same time, did not like the fuzzy yarn that was provided and realized that this sock was going to be too short and too wide to wear comfortably.

When almost done with the first sock last night a revelation came to me...I did not need to make a complete pair of socks. I could make only one, line it and use it as a smallish Christmas stocking to add to the decorations for Sweet Sadie's.

Here are a couple of shots of the sock....it has not been blocked yet but it will be before I measure it for a lining.

So, for the first time in a long time I will be abandoning a sock project before there is a pair.
One and done... now on to figuring out to use up the left over yarn....baby hats? baby booties? lacy scraf?

Fat Quarter Challenge

2011-04-19T11:08:00.000-05:00

I've mentioned before that I am participating in a monthly challenge to create something with a pre-selected fat quarter of fabric and a designated theme.

The meeting was this past Saturday but as i had the Quilt Show commitment I got a dispensation to submit my entry today without fear of reprisal.

That is all well and good but when the creativity juices have run dry this challenge was...... challenging.

Here is a shot of the fabric...

Nice design, interesting color and very elegant looking.

The challenge was to make something juvenile.

JUVENILE!

From a fabric that could been on my Mother's sofa in another color!

My thought process went something like this:

Juvenile
rustic
not sophisticated
simple
easy
sturdy

Did I mention that it needed to be done in one evening while I was clearing out the TiVo?

Here is what I came up with:

A little drawstring backpack suitable for a toddler to take in the car loaded with little treasures.

It is about ten inches tall and about nine inches wide. The cord is some old drapery trim and the side tabs are the same fabric as the lining. The whole thing is interfaced with a light weight fusible and is not quilted. My grand plan included making a couple of little stuffed toys but by the time I got it done the well had run dry.

The best part of this challenge is that I do not have to have it languish in the bottom of a drawer waiting for a toddler to show up. Instead i can use as a knitting project bag.

Another month done done. I wonder what the next challenge will be?

Better Than a Ribbon

2011-04-18T15:51:00.000-05:00

One thing that happens at almost every Quilt Show that I have attended is that some items submitted get judged. Judging has two purposes. One is too acknowledge exceptional skill and ability demonstrated in the items submitted. The other is for the makers to get a critique of their work.

Most people entering items to be judged have made their quilts specifically to be judged. They have not been used, run through the washing machine several times, dragged around the house by Alex or, in the case of wearables, worn to several events.

When I make something it is usually for my own enjoyment or as a gift to a willing recipient. Some how I got talked into submitting two items for judging this year. One was the Origami Jacket ( which I have worn many, many times)

and the other was a purse I made a couple of years ago.

I also submitted one purse just to be displayed.

I didn't need a critique of my work as I am more than well aware of my skills and abilities and the critiques only reinforced that knowledge. The thought of winning a ribbon for my work fed my ego and I was disappointed that I did not get one...no-matter how unexceptional my work.

Notice, I knew I did not deserve a ribbon but I really wanted one.

Today, however, I got something better than a ribbon.

I took the purse I had entered for the judging to a doctor's appointment. I used it because it was still on the kitchen table where it landed when I brought it home from the Quilt Show and I needed a purse to carry my book and knitting.

While waiting to be called back to see the doctor, another woman in the waiting room noticed my purse. She told me how much she admired the shape, the choice of fabrics and generally made me feel pretty good about it.

We were both called back within moments of each other and, as I sat in the examining room glowing with her praise, I realized that her admiration of my work meant more than any judge's comments or ribbons.

I contacted one of the nurses and had her deliver the purse to the other patient. I hear she was most grateful and I hope she gets many years wear out of it.

After all, she had made my day with her kind comments when all I was going to do with it was store with my other purses.

Yup, definitely better than a ribbon.

Now I need to get my inflated ego back in check and try to create something for the next quilt show that is worthy not only of being judged but of actually winning a ribbon..... or maybe not!

Quilt Show Garage Sale

2011-04-17T19:24:00.000-05:00

The Kingwood Area Quilt Show and Auction is over for another two years and I am suffering from post show let down.

Not that it was not a wonderful experience but after living with it for the past year and a half I feel like there is nothing left to do...BUT I have lots to do like start cleaning all the spaces in my house I have not been able to clean since it started filling up with boxes, bins and bags of donations.

Here are some photos of what I had to offer...

Two tables of scrap fabrics.

Two tables of pre-priced items

Five tables of books, magazines and patterns

Four tables of larger pieces of fabric and tons of non-quilting fabric.

See all those bins and boxes under the tables? They are full of even more stuff to sell and by the end of the first day most of the bins had been emptied out onto the floor in that search for the perfect fabric for a project.

In the end almost everything was either sold or given away. Anything left I considered worthless and is being recycled or trashed.

All in all we made over $2,500.00 for the Guild!

If you and your organization want to do something similar I would recommend the following:

Start early to gather your stuff to sell. Six months before your sale is almost too late.
Do not limit yourself to just one type of goods. Although this sale was part of a Quilt Show about 25% of what I had to sell was non-quilt related books, fabrics and supplies.
Simple pricing allows easy change making and allows buyers to easily figure out how much they are spending.
Don't worry about perfect accuracy in calculating yardage. An extra $0.50 will not make or break your sales figures.
Be prepared to bargain! Sometimes people did not want to pay $5.00 for something pre-priced so I would make a counter offer or, if they were already buying a lot, throw it into the mix for free.
There are two goals to this kind of sale - make money for your organization AND to help members get their discards out of the their homes into someone else's home. Be prepared to just give it away for free if that's the only way to get rid of the stuff. I'd say about 20% of what I had was free for the taking.
Find out what people want to acquire and be prepared to offer it to them even before the sale happens. About 20% of my sales were made before the show even opened.

Now I have at least a year before I start doing it all again. I hope I will continue to have the energy and friends necessary to make it another successful sale!

Until then I will catch up on my sleep and puppy time.

New York Star

2011-04-03T16:12:00.001-05:00

See me doing a happy dance?

Okay, just imagine it.

I am doing a happy dance because I was given a project to do on Wednesday and finished it Friday night.

What took so little time and spurred me to a quick completion?

A group of friends are making a quilt top using blocks from Carol Doak's book 50 Fabulous Paper Pieced Stars.

Each of the stars is based one of the states and each of us has chosen a state star to complete.

The style of the stars unifies the overall design and we will each use two fabrics that are identical from block to block. In this case the blocks will all have a black on gray background fabric and a yellow on yellow central motif.

I chose New York and here is how my came out:

It really is square but my picture taking wasn't up to it this morning. I really must learn about foreshortening!

Anyway, I am so happy to have project in and out of the house in less than a week.

See, I'm doing a happy dance all the way to the next project on the list... more baby hats!