On the needles

 New yarn (upper right)for clogs arrived and you know if you order a bunch you get free shipping so I had to order a bunch. Lower left is yarn left over from the over felted slippers but there is enough there for one pair if  I blend the yarn since the patterns calls for a double strand of yarn. There is enough yarn for 4 pairs of slipper clogs.

I found yarn for a top down cable sweater and more sock yarn at my favorite shop.  I'm ready for the super bowl and Olympic knitting.

 

Hubby and I prepped for the Olympics by watching Miracle I never get tired of that movie and made lots of progress on the socks while watching, finally when I start the gusset the colors start pooling. If the leg of the sock is as boring as the foot for color changes I think I will try a cable just to get the gist of how it is done before I start the sweater.

And these are finished so all the socks started in 2013 are done. January has been a finish it month now February begins with new projects.  Check out On the Needles at Judy's. Happy knitting--Ann--

A Finish and a Sunny Day

 See we have sun today and temps are in the double digits! We had sun yesterday too but much colder and I wasn't home all day so I couldn't see the dust.  The only down side to a sunny day is seeing the dust. Lets look at the quilt instead.

2013 was the year of sewing curves, this(click for progression of the quilt) the log cabin and fans quilts and the winding way quilt. I became an expert at sewing curves last year. Finishing the last stitches of the binding last night felt as good as sitting in the sun drinking my coffee this morning not looking at the dust. --Ann-- I really should sort and organize my labeling system for posts.

Design Wall Monday

The borders are on and it has been layered and pinned ready to machine quilt. I could do it the easy way and just do a wavy line up the tree trunk and swing arcs in each tree and background triangle or I could do a variety of lines such as diagonal, vertical, horizontal, cross hatching etc. in  each tree and maybe scrolls in the background and diamonds or curves in the plaid sashing. Any ideas???  I like easy but that doesn't push me to creative free motion quilting.

While the wind was howling over the weekend and it was just howling because we didn't get more than a dusting of new snow I finished machine quilting the border of my Glorified 9 Patch. I'm getting brave and tried a free motion feather. well half a feather and figure 8 ovals.  My brain and hands did not always want to swing the arc to the left then right, my habit is to go right then come back with a large arc to the left from years of doing the concentric tear drops on quilts. Now just trim the edge and sew on the binding.  Check out all the quilts at Judy's Design Wall Monday and be inspired.  Temps just above 0 here. Its a good day to quilt --Ann--

on the needles and the heartbreak of over felting

I got both these pairs of slippers finished and was so proud of myself and thought (since in the past not that much felting happened in the washer) that I could felt things a little faster in the washing machine with hotter water. Front load machines do not let you check the progress so when I took them out of the wash my mouth dropped...they were child size. Note to self DON'T Do that again. I guess I'll list them on etsy. The inside of the the red are 6 1/2 inches and the brown are 7 1/2 inches. On top is my size 8 store bought felted clog just for scale.......so what could I do????

 Something colorful, something fun, something easy.  Start a new pair of socks of course!
New yarn is on the way. --Ann--

old jeans

 Adorable son got to go on another trip and I got his dog good thing she is so lovable. He brought her old bed in with a rip in the cover. It didn't take much for the rip to get bigger and after looking on the internet for replacement covers............  I made a new cover for the dog bed.

Five pairs of old jeans later we have a comfy soft strong denim dog bed. Hubby dear gave me jeans he hadn't worn for years so I cut and sewed sections into a  rectangle then cut two 40"x 50" ovals. I ripped the old zipper and was gleefully sewing it into the gusset when in the last stitches the pull/separator was pushed off the zipper by the presser foot. Try as I did I could not get it back on the zipper teeth. I never realized what a complex invention the zipper is. Each of those little teeth has an indent and a peak and somehow the pull pushes them together and separates them.  I tried separating the teeth slightly and slipping them into the big end of the pull, it only put the teeth together then I couldn't get them to split and slide  up the fastener. I finally gave up and used two old dress zippers one pink and one white and sewed them open end to open end. Will I ever sew a zipper in a dress again!??!! Probably not. 5 pair old jeans + two 20" zippers and a few hours of time= one happy well maybe miss-my-master dog.  And this cold weather makes me glad I don't have a dog everyday!  Next time he goes somewhere I hope it is warmer.--Ann--

On and off the needles

Change of travel plans for the weekend, it is cold and windy here and where we were going has new snow so anything not securely fastened is going to be blowing across the road so I am getting an On The Needles posted.
I'm ready to turn the heel on the blue and grey socks. I started more clogs, the brown for son's birthday next month and the victorian red/pink for me. These have knit much faster than the pair I knit before Christmas, I'm not counting stitches every other row. I still have the bottom sole to knit then into the hot water.

Link for the clogs Fiber Trends
I finished the bunny hop footies with leftover yarn the short row heel has 60 rows so is almost a half circle and they do stay up unlike all my store bought footies that slide down in my shoe.
Also finished the navy 4x4 basket weave socks. Its going to be a great weekend to sit by the fire and knit then go to my sewing room for a while. Stay warm--Ann-- link to PatchworkTimes above.

Favorite things

The weekend was warm and sunny, I went for a walk to the park on Saturday and Sunday. The park has a pond some kind soul cleared the snow so kids could ice skate but no one was skating either day and there were no marks on the ice from skates.  My brothers and I got used skates for Christmas one year. Mom would pick us up from country school with skates in the car and warm cookies or bread and we would go to the skating rink in town and skate until suppertime. Then we would go home and eat and many nights we would go back to town and skate until they turned the lights off at 9pm.  All the kids from the east side of town skated everyday. It was wonderful and fun. That was back before organized hockey and figure skating lessons. Everyone skated for fun, everyone had used skates, every winter we took our outgrown skates and a few dollars to the hardware store and traded for a larger pair. The skates are long gone but I still have my mittens, my grandma knit the smallest red pair, I think I have had them since I was 12, the stitch pattern is a knit, purl row followed by 3 or 4 knit rows then the knit purl row again it has a nice texture. My mother knit the next red pair to the right they are a seed stitch, knit purl row then a purl knit row. I remember putting the mittens from Grandma inside the mittens Mom knit for extra warmth. The top pair of mittens were a gift from our Swedish exchange student. They are so cozy and warm.  Red is my favorite color.--Ann--

Design Wall Monday

Does anyone else have so much fabric that you can't decide what fabrics or colors you want to use for your next quilt!??!!
I frequently have that problem especially when the quilt is for no particular person or reason.  So after gazing at my closet full of fabric and not being able to make a decision I pulled out an old project.  I believe I started this in the late 1990's.

I'm going to add a border of stars and plaid setting triangles the same fabric as the sashing and call it good. And have that wonderful feeling of accomplishment in no time at all and maybe while I'm working on this I will figure out what I want to do next.  It will be a nice size for a single bed or a generous size throw quilt. Check out all the inspiring quilts at Judy's Patchwork Times. --Ann--

It's warm enough to snow!!!

It is warm enough to snow here today after sub zero temps. The snow is so light and fluffy it won't amount to anything and then it might all blow away.
I have been struggling to put away Christmas decorations and I do mean struggling because we bought an artificial tree and it needs to go back in the box and the box needs to fit in the closet with the rest of the Christmas decorations so everything has to come out of the closet and be rearranged and put back in the closet and the door needs to close. So in the process of pulling things out and sorting I found these scraps of paper from a children's magazine from the 30's maybe.

The little poems made me smile and the little activities made me chuckle, the snowman above has directions to fold the paper without tearing it out of the magazine. Obviously either my mom or her mom tore it out decades ago and saved it.
And the drawing instructions......well they might be useful for machine quilting.
I have preserved these little tidbits for all eternity on my blog so I can toss them with no feelings of guilt.  There are lots of things I wish the previous generation would have tossed but now I get to go through it and decide what to save for daughter to toss and she will be saying the same thing about me.--Ann--

Design Wall

 Still no change to my design wall, if you look close at the edge of the photo you can see winding ways behind.  I've been putting Christmas decorations away and pulled my winter quilt out of the cupboard and the best light was on the design wall........I think I made it in 1995.

  The large snowman block started as a 4-H project for second son the 4-H leader thought all kids should know the basics of sewing second son was to use a running stitch to attach the snowman to the background and sew on the buttons. He didn't have much interest so it became a part of my quilt. I think he did 10 stitches on the right side. he was only 8 or 9 at the time.

Hubby and kids each chose a favorite fabric and I traced their hands and appliqued them.

 My evergreens are bowing to the wind. Notice there are snowballs and snowflakes in the cornerstones.  This is a trip down memory lane with all the fabrics I used.... first quilts, a blouse for  me, a skirt for daughter, and lots more quilts.

Oldest son finished his 4-H project way back when he had fun with the embellishments.
Next week there will be something new on the design wall. Check out all the new projects at Judy's Design Wall Monday. and stay warm--Ann--

On and off the needles

 First finish actually last finish for 2013 I finished them New Years Eve.

I'm working on the gusset of the basket weave socks for favorite brother, his birthday is coming up soon. Oldest son was wearing the socks I knit for him last year so I started another pair for him. Oh oh oh and a box of yarn arrived today for slippers for second son. I'm ready to be snowed in for the duration of the winter. Hope you are staying warm in woolens and linking to Judy's On the Needles.--Ann--

the three bears

Three of the four bears are done. My fingers were getting sore from pushing the needle through all the cotton batting. They are a jolly bunch.  --Ann--

Happy New Year

The Snowman's Resolution  by Aileen Fisher
The snowman's hat was crooked and his nose was out of place
And several of his whiskers had fallen from his face.
But the snowman didn't notice for he was trying to think
Of a New Year's resolution that wouldn't melt or shrink.
He thought and planned and pondered with his little snow-ball head
Till his eyes began to glisten and his toes began to spread:
And at last he said, "I've got it---I'll make a firm resolve
That no matter what the weather my smile will not dissolve."
Now the snowman acted wisely and his resolution won
For his splinter smile was wooden and it didn't mind the sun!

Happy New Year --Ann--