A new project bag!

Finally, after a bunch of attempts to make a sock project bag, I actually succeeded!  With no mistakes!  OK, I did sew the wrong sides of the first 2 pieces together, but I fixed that.  So, that counts as a perfect bag.  Moi.  Perfect Bag.  I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it!

Here's the URL for ordering the entire pattern:  http://meylah.com/incolororder

The pattern is from a charming blog called In Color Order.  And the directions were easy for me to follow, and I really can't follow directions at all.  So, you know this was not hard at all.

I bought the pattern set, because I wanted other sizes, and am way too lazy to try to figure out measurements.  And now I want to make a larger project bag for my shawls.  Such excitement!

So, me being me, I now have pulled lots of fabrics to make lots of bags.  And then I'll have to fill all those bags with new projects, and here we go again.

Hi, again.

I've been gone sooooo long.  I guess I just wasn't in the mood for blogging.

What's new here?  A most wonderful knitting project that is, of course, a mystery.  Suffice it to say that I'm loving this so much.  And I can't even show you a picture.  I will tell you that the yarn is Carrie Lace yarn, 1300 yards of 80/20 merino/silk, and soft and drapey and delicious.  This one is for the Light and Dark Lace club's April-ish edition.

Socks are back in my hands again.  Nothing terribly interesting to photograph.  I just want soothing, mindless sock knitting, but not in stockinette.  That's boring beyond belief, so some ribbing, some lace, etc.  Two pairs went to eldest Grandkid; turns out that he loves my cosy socks.  And 2 prs to Miss P, who also has fallen in love with Gram's socks.  When she was here last April, we went to the Statue of Liberty one soggy day, and came home soaking wet.  To warm her up, I lent her a pair of my woolly socks, and it was love at first wear.  She absconded with a bunch of them.  The child grew, and her foot is now an adult size 8, and my size 6 socks are a bit too small for her.  So, I've been pressed into sock mania.  And then, His Hubbo needed a new pair of sleeping socks, so that's what I'm working on at the moment.

I'd show you pics, but it turns out that the patterns I unvented for the lace socks turned out so nice, that I'm incorporating them in the Mystery Shawl.  So, no pics here either.  Sigh.

Here's what I can show you:  a doll outfit, a doll quilt in progress, and the first block that I'm making for Dear Jane, also in progress.

Miss P has been pestering me for a kimono, so I bought Joan Hind's kimono pattern and just finished it today.

Isn't it adorable? Lots of mistakes, but I hope she won't notice.  If she wants another one, I'll be happy to do it. I haven't sewn doll clothing in a few months, and got somewhat rusty, but did enjoy this a lot.

I have always wanted to make a log cabin quilt, even as far back as high school.  So, I finally got brave and made 8 little blocks, and sewed 4 of them together for a doll quilt.  I'll do the same with the leftover ones.  One to Miss P and one to Miss R.  You'll notice some blue lines; that's where I'm doing some fake quilting.  It'll all wash out with cold water when I'm done.

I'm going to take a class in hand quilting at The City Quilter early in Feb.  I don't know if my hands can handle it, but I'll give it a try.  I'm pretty sure I'll never become Wonder Quilter, but it would be nice to know how to actually do it properly, and I always like learning new things.

Speaking of new things, I am taking a Dear Jane class also at TCQ.  Help!  Teensy, weensy little bits of fabric.  Hand stitched.  Turning me into a crazy lady.  These little guys will finish up to around 4.5 inches.  Here's the first one I'm doing.  This is block A-13, and it has 21 pieces in it.  It's so tiny that I am using a magnifying lamp to see where I am.  Even the little needle is hard to thread, and I can still thread the sewing machine needle without difficulty.  This is some learning experience.  Take a look at the Dear Jane website to get an idea of the complexity of this project.  No, I don't plan on doing the entire thing; it'll take me years and years to finish it.  But I thought that some little wall hangings would be fun, or even a doll quilt.  Maybe no on the doll quilt; I'd be hysterical if one of the blocks fell apart in play.  Anyhow, this is what I have done since last Fri's class.  It's taken me hours to work this, although today's stitching went faster and better than the previous work.

It looks huge in the picture.  Nope, it's not.  I have a class once a month for the next 3 months, and each time we'll learn a new technique.  I'd like to go next time with 4 blocks done.  I'm going to look for the easiest ones.  BTW, there are no instructions, just a drawing of the block and a picture of Jane's block.  What a learning experience.

All the candles were lit.

This was the last night to light the Chanukah candles. Aren't they pretty?

Time to watch my Dresden Plate

Look what the Hubs found:

I can hear you saying:  "So what?  It's an old watch.  Big deal!"  Well, it happens to be a big deal.  His Royal Hubserooni has a thing on wind-up watches, and looks for them wherever he goes.  We know they are out there because that's what we used before battery-operated watches.  You'd think they'd be all over the place.  Nope, they're  not.  So, anyhow, he ordered a bunch of watches from Ebay, and this ladies' watch was in the pile.  And it's a wind-up watch and it fits my small wrist.  Every morning I wind it, and then it keeps perfect time all day long.  I rather like it as a retro-watch.  I really want a new, snazzy one, but this one makes me smile at the moment, so I'll use it until I find the perfect watch.

And what are we watching?  OK, looking at?  This!

My first Dresden Plate quilt.  Appliqued by moi, and hand-quilted also by moi.  Not quilted in the ordinary way that hand quilters quilt, just in my method, which is probably wrong, but it worked for me.  I think I might have quilted it a bit too closely, but it's all a learning experience for me.  After many struggles with trying to pull through a knot, and failing and cursing miserably, I played around with one of my old embroidery skills of threading it ahead of my line, taking a tiny back stitch, and then quilting through all the layers.  So, the back is kind of messy, but boy did I learn from it!

I loved the entire process of the hand-work.  I seem to like all the quilting processes with selecting the fabric the most, of course.  I like the machine sewing the least, mostly because straight lines and I don't mix.  I swear I'm going to become a hand patchwork sewer.  Growl.

I truly adored making the Dresden Plate and now want to make many things with it or part of it as the design.  So easy and such fun, and I didn't louse up the machine piecing on it either, which really surprised me.  I backed it with a solid fabric.  Not a good idea because you can see my messy white thread stitches on that deep teal background.  Ick.  Next time I use a print for the back side.  The other thing I did which I won't do again is apply the binding to each side rather than go around the piece.  It was fast, but I made really messes on the back with trying to get the pieces to go together without raw edges showing.  I'll do the regular double binding the next time.  And I really really like to do the hand binding part.  And I think binding clips are fun and adorable.

We are having a nice Chanukah.  Quiet, just the 2 of us.  Light the candles, say the prayers and sing a song or two.  Miss P has taken to calling me a couple of times every day and she brings me up to date with her presents and such.

Happy Chanukah!

First night.  Yep, candles are burning, but you can't see the shames.  That's the candle that lights the other candles.

Said the prayers, sang the songs.  No latkes, however.  We went to Mom's residence's Chanukah party on Sunday and consumed enough tasty fried food for the rest of the year. 

Our menorah was bought a few years ago and depicts an immigrant family setting out for New York. 

Finished and crinkled!

She's finished!  The little doll quilt for a certain grand is done!  Here's the before the crinkle:

And here she is after a nice tumble in the dryer, crinkly and cute as can be!

I must say that the crinkle effect really hides a lot of messes I made. 

I learned a lot from this quilt. 

1. When you piece the half-square triangles, it helps to have that seam on top so that you have a prayer of a chance of sewing at the right spot.  Good thing to learn.
2. Little polka dot binding really ups the adorable factor.
3. I need to make smaller quilting sts.  This may be impossible for me.  I'm taking a hand quilting class at The City Quilter in February.  Hopefully I can do it and quilt smaller sts and not get my wrists into major ache mode.
4. I loved doing this, all of it.  From selecting and buying the fabric, cutting, sewing and then all the hand-work, it was such fun to do. 

What's new?

We went to the NY Botanical Gardens on Sunday to see the train show.  The trains were OK, nothing to write home about, not even worth the wait, BUT the buildings were amazing!  They are fashioned out of twigs, leaves, acorns, etc, etc and are adorable beyond belief.  I half expected to see a little elf or fairy pop out of a door.

You cannot imagine how charming this all is!  It was tons of fun watching the little kids taking pictures and exclaiming over the trains.  Kids like the trains a lot.  Me?   Eh on the trains, but oh, the buildings!

Sewing news:  DD's Fruit Cup quilt is coming along quite nicely.  It's about 1/4 done, and I'm zooming along at odd moments of the day to work on it.  All those nice straight seems.

It certainly isn't a shy quilt at all.  Bright and cheery, and perfect for a dark NY apartment.  The blocks are on my design floor, aka the living room floor, and are just set up to get an idea of size.  Not the final placement.  And of course I'm now thinking of a bunch more quilts to do.  This stuff gets into your head and I obsess about it, even dreaming about it.

Knitting news:  It's time to sign up for the next edition of the Light & Dark Club.  Roxanne is doing the dyeing, and I've finished and blocked the shawl.  Yes, it is a mystery shawl, but I'll give you a teensy sneak peak.

The yarn is a singles, and works up beautifully. My wonderful test knitter, DragonYady, tells me that this is her favorite shawl!  I love it, myself.  I'm not a good blocker mostly because I have no patience, but if you make this, you can block those gentle points very very well.  And then you can reblock my piece.  tee hee.