Crochet, knitting, tatting and a new thing for me-Golfing.

I have been busy with a lot of things lately. Not just quilts.  (That was the name of the first quilt shop I ever went to. I wish that shop was still open.) I've been crocheting, tatting, knitting and golfing.  Yeah, that's right. I'm learning to play golf.  I have gone to the driving range 4 times and I'm learning my swing.  I've bought two books to read about golf and of course, I watch all the golf shows on TV.  My husband has always played golf and I wish I had learned a long time ago.  I didn't want to impose on his time though and that's one reason I didn't. But, I decided to go ahead and learn and impose on his time and we can travel, play golf and go to quilt shops too.  Anyway, I'll show you what I've been working on later. I took pictures of my crocheted hats but can't find the pics right now.  I've been making them for the hospital I work at. I made 15 chemo hats and gave to them last week. They are real simple to make and make up fast.  I can do them a lot quicker than tatting, knitting or golfing!  I hope everyone is having a great week. I'll post pics later.  Til next time, happy stitching.

Scarves and D4P blocks

Hello everyone, I hope you are having a great new year...the holidays have just flown by. The whole year just flew by for me  and I can't believe it is now 2014!  So, Happy New Year!

I have been busy with knitting and I've made several scarves.  I gave away alot of scarves at Christmas but I'm still working on them.  I've had several friends ask me to make them some once they saw the ones I made.  Here are the scarves I finished this week.  I just finished the blue one last night and I think it is beautiful.  It is my favorite but blue is also my favorite color.... I made the black, gray and white one Sunday afternoon, it was easy-peasy as it was nothing but chain stitch using your two fingers.  I wore it to work on Monday and everybody loved it.  I can't believe it.  This was the simplest thing I've ever done and this was the one everybody liked the most....go figure!

 

 

 

 

Here's the other scarves I made last week too.  I still have about 10 more to make.

 

 

 

 

Today, I got up and made a rubber band bracelet.  I gave the grandkids all a rainbow loom for Christmas and I got me one too.  I wanted to learn to make them in case they needed help.  This is all the rage here and it was easy to do.  I saw my oldest grandson yesterday and asked how he was doing with the rubber band bracelets. He had on a long sleeve shirt. He pulled the sleeve back and showed me 5 bracelets.  They were not  the simple one either but all were the more difficult ones.  I guess he's doing good with this and he can show me how to make them!   I thought it was pretty cool that he (and the other grandkids too) loved this simple gift and he's actually making them.  I forgot to take a picture of my bracelet but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about....

 

 

After that, I started cutting out 5" squares to make 20 more Disappearing 4 Patch blocks.  This is the third D4P quilt I am making. The other two were given to my granddaughters this past year for their birthdays. This one is for me.  I have been making blocks here and there for this one and finally decided to start putting it together.  I had seventy two blocks made and laid them out on the floor to see how I wanted to put them together.  (I used to have a design wall but since my MIL moved in, I can't get to it for all the furniture in the way!  It is really tough to work on the floor!)

 

 I made the granddaughters a large twin size quilt with 63 blocks each.  I was thinking that 72 blocks would be big enough but decided it needed to be bigger.  So, I started sewing more blocks today.  I finished all the blocks today, here they are below. I started putting the rows together but ran out of time.  I'll finish this one up this week, I hope.  The quilt will now be 9 blocks wide by 10 blocks long....90 blocks in all.  I'll put a 2 1/2" white border around the blocks then a final border of 6". So, it should be big enough, I think....I do believe this will be my last D4P quilt but who knows what the year will bring??? It's too early to say now, huh?

 

 

I also made these two French Rose blocks today.  These will be going to my group. Everyone is making two blocks and they will be put together to make a quilt for the church that we meet at.  Every year we give the church a quilt and this one is the one that was chosen for this year. 

 

I hope you have had a great weekend so far.  Til next time, happy stitching. 

A Christmas block, some community service and a little bit of knitting.

Tuesday night I made my Christmas block for our group.  Since I made the block, my name will be put into a drawing to win other blocks like this.  This was a fun block to do. This will be turned in tonight at our Christmas party....I hope I win, I like this block a lot.

Last night, I had to fix some dishes for my husband to take to work today for his Christmas party.  I mixed up a batch of brownies and a Broccoli cheese casserole. While these were cooking, I decided to finish up some pillows I made for breast cancer patients.  I stuffed these and finished them up. Here's six pillows for community service....I give these to the hospital I work for but also give some to our group and they are passed onto the American Cancer Society for them to pass out to breast cancer patients.  We will be working on these in February next year to give to them...

I've also been making/knitting washcloths for a friend of mine.  She asked me to make her 24 washcloths.  I've done 14 so far...here's some of them. the top one was crocheted but all the others were knitted.  I'm bored with these and not sure if I'll do all the twenty four... I'm also working on more scarves and have three of those going right now and have more to do for Christmas presents.  Not enough time to do it all!  I'm quickly running out of time! 

 

So far, that's all I have for today but I'm going to my Christmas party tonight and we are all supposed to bring Christmas quilts to show. So, I'll be taking pics and share those with you soon.  til next time, happy stitching.

Block exchanges, tatting, knitting and a little wallhanging.

I did a little bit of sewing on Sunday afternoon.  This week is my small group meeting and I wasn't ready for it.  I'm in two exchanges in this group and I had to get ready.  So, even though I wasn't really "in the mood" to sew, I had to suck it up and do it anyway.  So, I did. I made my 40 nine patches for my 9 Patch exchange and I started working on the other 5 blocks I needed for the other exchange.   Here's the 9 patches I did Sunday.

I finished my tatted earrings and my knitted scarf too.  The top earrings have seed beads on them. The little owl earrings have seed beads for the eyes.  I found the metal owls at Hobby Lobby and made earrings out of them too.  The other metal owl I found at Walmart and I'll just make a necklace out of him.  I like owls...can you tell? 

Here's a close-up of the earrings with the seed beads.

Here's the knitted scarf I finished.   It's made from Premier Starbella thread.  It was fun and easy to make. I have some gray/black/white to knit up too.  This one is a gift and the other one is for me.

Tonight, I finished the other 5 blocks I started on Sunday afternoon.  These are all made from Civil War fabric and we are about half-way through with the exchange.  This is going to be a great quilt.

This last picture is for Lesley, the Cuddle Quilter.  I told her I had made a small quilt out of the maple leaf blocks and had done it the same setting as she had done...I made this a few years ago and  enjoy this little wallhanging every time I see it. I had put it away and had to hunt for it to take the pic.  Now that I have it out, I'll put it up on the wall and enjoy it for awhile.

I hope you have a great week and get some creating time in.  til next time, happy sewing.

Some Christmas pictures....

I haven't been able to blog lately.  I can't blog at work anymore and I have been too busy at night to blog.

Here are my beautiful grandchildren.....We had a great Christmas. I love spending time with my kids and grandkids during the holiday season.   They make it so special for me.

Here's some knitted scarves I made and gave away at Christmas.

My oldest granddaughter and my sweet MIL....

I have done very little sewing this month.  When I was in the mood, I didn't have the time and when I had the time, I  wasn't in the mood.  Hopefully, the new year will bring some much needed rest and I'll want to get busy too. 

I was going to have some drawings this month and just haven't gotten it together. I will celebrate the new year and have some giveaways in January.  Please bear with me while I get my momentum back!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas or holiday season and that you will have a prosperous, healthy and happy new year!

Until next time, happy sewing!

3 Knitted wash cloths and Lazy Girl Perfect Pouches pattern

Here are the 3 little wash cloths I knitted...This pattern is called Grandmother's Favorite and is very easy and quick to knit.

One skein of Sugar 'n Cream, a cotton yarn....it will make two wash cloths
Number 10 knitting needles

Cast on 4 stitches.
Row 2: K 2 sts, yo, k to end of row.
Repeat Row 2until ther are 43 stitches.
Next Row: K 1, k 2 tog, yo, k 2 tog, k to end of row.  Continue the last row until 4 stitches remain. K 4 stitches and bind off. Hide your threads.
This pattern is from the Workbasket magazine October 1987 issue.


Here's the medium size cosmetic bag I told you about in my earlier post.  It is a Lazy Girl pattern called the Perfect Pouches.  The pattern gives you dimensions for small, medium and large but she tells you in the pattern how to increase or decrease to any size you want.  This is a simple and quick pattern to make.  I love doing the zippers the way this pattern says.  So easy. All of Lazy Girl's patterns are excellent. They are all well written and easy to follow along for even beginner sewers.  If you get a chance, go check out her patterns.  Her website is http://www.lazygirldesigns.com/.

Here's the Perfect Pouch I made for a Christmas present.  It took me less than 30 minutes to cut it out and sew it up, zipper and all...it's lined too.  I put my rotary cutter beside it so you could see the size.  I think it's about 7 X 10 inches finished size.  I plan on making more of these but will probably make smaller and bigger....I have some decorator fabric that I've used to make bags to give away and it's the perfect weight for these.

Ok, my bed is calling me.  Til next time, happy sewing!

Thanksgiving, Family time and a little sewing and knitting.

Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We had a great one except my DIL and grandson didn't make it over, my oldest grandson woke up sick and the DIL stayed home with him so he wouldn't spread the illness throughout the family....I fixed the traditional turkey with dressing, giblet gravy, mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, green bean casserole, pea salad, pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, Cranberry Jello salad, and of course, sweet tea.  Yep, very traditional and lots and lots of calories.  I did really good though...I don't eat chocolate pie or pumpkin pie, I just fix it for others. I had the real food with very little desserts...Everybody had other family things to go to after they ate and all the kids, grandkids and in-laws were gone by 3:00, so I passed out in the recliner.  I didn't even make it to the bed to take a nap.  I snored through the Cowboy game while my DH attempted to watch it....All in all, it was a good Thanksgiving with lots of leftovers.  I made turkey sandwiches the next day and froze the rest so we wouldn't get tired of it. We went to my sisters on Friday and walked around the square in McKinney for the Dickens Christmas.  I took a few pics but not too many.  This used to be fun to see people dressed up in clothing from the 1800's but not too much of that now.  It's become very commercialized now. I was kind of disappointed.  The stores were open and the shopkeepers were dressed up (not all of them) but this was really more like Trades Days instead of a Christmas celebration....I don't plan on going back next year.  I had a wonderful visit with my sister and we did make a trip to the quilt shop on Friday but it was a quick one.  The guys were outside waiting on us!  You know how that is, right?  Friday night we were back to the regular Mexican food!  No more turkey for us for a while. 

I had planned on a Harry Potter marathon and sewing on some bindings.  I have two quilts ready for binding but I didn't get the binding ready.  Carmen, my sweet granddaughter is now crawling and pulling up.  She's going everywhere and I don't have enough hands to watch her and sew or watch TV or do anything else...We are watching Olivia ( girl pig), Ruby and Max ( boy and girl rabbits) and Wonderpets....even my TV watching has changed!   I do enjoy these little shows almost as much as Carmen!    While Carmen watches these, I have been able to knit some wash cloths and I'm giving those away as gifts. These are 30 minute programs and I get a little bit done while they are on.  I've knitted three wash cloths so far. I'm going to a Christmas party this next Saturday and they'll be gone.  I want to knit one more.  These are quick to knit and the pattern is so simple....it's a favorite of mine.  I think the name of it is Grandmother's favorite.   I'll give you the pattern this week. 

Sunday afternoon, I was able to machine quilt a community service quilt.  It's now ready for binding too.  so, that's three quilts ready for binding.  I hope to get the binding ready and have those done this week.  I'll show you pics of those this week.  I also made a medium sized bag.  The pattern was from Lazy Girl and it was so easy to make.  I'll show you that too.  This is also a Christmas gift for the party this coming Saturday.  I decided to make this bag and put a gift certificate to Joann's in the bag.  We always exchange gifts and I don't have time or energy to hunt around this week for a gift so this will have to do....Lazy Girl patterns are so quick and easy to do. I haven't made anything from her that I haven't liked. I was a lazy girl and didn't want to walk down the stairs for my camera to take a picture but I will post one later today along with the knitted wash cloth pattern and pics.     I haven't gotten any more sewing done other than this.  It's not for lack of wanting to sew, it's just not enough time.  How do you handle having time to sew?  I am not a morning person and I cannot get up early to sew. I used to sew in the evenings but my little family has taken up more of my time lately.  Hopefully, after the holidays, life will settle down and I'll get on a schedule to sew more.  Gotta go for now, I'll post pics tonight, til next time, happy sewing!

Knitting night

This week has been crazy.  I've had something to do each night and haven't sewed all week.  Tonight was knitting and it was a fun night.  One of my friends brought this cute little bag and showed it tonight.  No, I didn't make this but I just have to share it with you....so cute.  I want to make it and if I can get the pattern from my friend, I will make it.

Wednesday and Thursday happenings.

This has been a super busy week for me.  I'm sorry to say I could not fit blogging into my schedule...so, I'm going to update now for the whole week....

You know what I did Tuesday night, yeah, that's right. I have to brag one more time that I got to go see Bonnie...
Here's sweet Bonnie:

Here's the quilt she teaches her Scrap User System with:

All of the other pics I took were too far away but if you have her books, you know what they look like anyway....


It was great but I was sure tired the next day,but no rest for the wicked!!! He, he, he, guess who I mean?!

I went straight over to my friend's house after work and helped her with her knitting. She is doing pretty good.   She gets confused easily but she is catching on and doing very well.  Rhonda wasn't there Wednesday night but she has caught on and is already doing an afgan.  She is doing squares out of the book, Teach Yourself Visually Knitting and will be putting these squares together.  I loved this book and Debbie Stoller's book, Stitch and Bitch.  These two books helped me so much as a beginner knitter and these are the books I told them to get.  They like them too and are following along in the books to knit by...We are having a great time knitting together and will be continuing the lessons weekly.  

Thursday night was my small group night.  It was so much fun.  We have some fun and talented ladies....Here's some of the show and tell for this week...




This is the quilt for the church this year. Everyone made two blocks and Glenda and Jackie put it
together.  This will be quilted and given to the church where we meet as a thank you for allowing us to meet here.  We do one for the church every year and I'm very proud to say, they have all been very beautiful.




One of Martha's lovely quilts.



Another of her quilts.  She loves to applique.



Aren't these cute.  Glenda made these for her Mom's kitchen. It was a quilt pattern with 6 different teapots.  She made the four that she liked best and framed them.  She said she did it this way because a quilt would not work on the wall in her Mom's kitchen.  She framed them herself too.





A Christmas quilt top for the DAR, ready for quilting.



This was a mystery quilt that the group did several years ago.  This was the second one of these that we did.  This one is Jackie's and she said she's  going to add a few more details or appliques before she quilts this one.  I love the moose!




This one was Bennie's. Bennie passed away in October  last year and Boneta and several other friends are finishing up the quilting on the quilts Bennie had ready and these are going to the family.  Boneta has quilted four of these little quilts since Christmas. 



This one is a twin.  Nona had to make two of these for her granddaughter's twin beds.  You can't tell it but the plaid border fabric has pink in it too.  Too cute!  Some of the blocks came from another friend of hers with health problems. Joy decided she did not want to finish this and Nona ended up with it....I love it for a little girl..



Judy calls this her left handed quilt. She worked on this while she was recouperating from hand surgery on her right hand....




This is our Mystery Row By Row wallhanging we are doing this year.  Martha (doesn't she have a great smile!) is in charge of this mystery.  Gee, I wonder what next month is going to be?!




This is what we will be making this year.  Each year we have a fabric swap to make a quilt. 




Here's a close up....this is called Wheel of Fortune.

  We have a busy year ahead but it looks like fun!!!









Saturday Sewing, knitting with friends and Brown Bear

Today was a busy and fun day for me. I started out by going over to my friend's house for our second class on knitting.  Both ladies are doing great.  Rhonda is doing continental knitting and Tracy is doing regular knitting or English knitting.  I can do continental knitting but only knitting. I have trouble purling with continental knitting so I don't even try.  We all had a great time. Rhonda brought banana bread and Tracy's husband fixed us hot tea and we just sat and knitted away. The cat was right there with us trying to take away the yarn and the two dogs were laid out by our feet.  What a cozy little group we were.  We will not be meeting again for two weeks but the girls have homework to do....

 I headed home and went on up to the sewing room.   I started working on another of my UFO's. This one wasn't too old.  I started working on this one  when I went to retreat in October so I don't think that's too bad.  Here it is finished and  ready to be quilted.

 This is Brown Bear:

Sorry for the bad picture, I didn't have anyone to hold it for me...

I also finished three of the five blocks from Barbara Brackman's Civil War Blog. I have two more blocks to catch up on and I'll be up-to-date. These were easy and fun to do...



Catch Me if You Can Block

 

Texas Tears

North Star

Teaching friends to knit.

Last night went great.  Both ladies were left handed!  I knew one of them was but I didn't know both were until I got there and they warned me.  I told them I would try to help them and I would show them what I know but that was all I could do.  We covered the basics, casting on, knit, purl, yarnovers and binding off.  It went really well and they seemed to catch on too.  I'm going back Saturday to help them again but we don't meet again for two weeks. They do have homework to keep them busy.  I also showed them some great You tube videos to watch to refresh their memories with during the meantime. You know how it is when you first learn, if you don't use it, you lose it....The internet is such a great teaching tool and I'm so glad it is available.  What did we ever do without it?  Hopefully, I'll be showing you some of their projects soon.  During the meantime, we are just having fun learning to knit together.

My UFO is whining to be finished, Tatting Tuesday and some knitting.

Have you ever had a quilt or project  that stayed on your mind so much, you couldn't think of anything else; or want to work on anything else?  Well, this is that one on my mind...It keeps calling to me to be finished.   UFO 3 as I call it right now.  I came home  Monday night  and continued to work on it.  I put a small black border around it and I put together enough strips  for two sides.  I think it looks wonderful with the piano key borders.  I have to put together more strips for the other sides but I'm going to make some more little blocks for the corner squares.  It's up on my design wall just begging me to work on it...I had to ignore it last night and go to my tatting group.  I did go up and look at it while I was getting my materials ready for knitting tonight but I promised  it I would work on it Thursday night.  I'll show you the progress by Thursday night.  The piano keys just make this quilt.

Last night was Tatting Tuesday and I worked on my flag.  I am getting this done slowly but I'm really enjoying it.  I don't get to tat except on Tatting Tuesdays as I've got so many other crafts to work on.  I am on the last two strips so hopefully I can get this finished by the first part of February.  One of the girls brought Primo dough last night to tatting and showed us how to do it. She brought her rolling pin, cutter and pasta maker.  She brought her cutters and made small stars.  My friend, Mary Jo,  is making a flag too and she wanted these for her tatted flag.  I am considering this but I really want to stick to all thread so I can put this in the fair under tatting and not other techniques....I'll let you know...

Tonight, I'm going to be teaching a friend of mine to knit.  Maybe I should say, I'm going to try to teach her to knit.  She's left handed and I've never taught anyone to knit. I'm going to show her what I do and try to help her get the hang of it.   We'll see how it goes tonight and if it goes ok, I'll continue next week.  If not, I'll refer her to the knitting store or my friend that teaches knitting for a living....I'm excited but kinda nervous. Wish me luck!

I finished my scarf and the Walker Bags are finished too.

I came in tonight and watched  an old movie on Encore called GI Jane. I finished knitting my scarf while it was on.  When the skein was through, so was my scarf.  I think it is a great length (64 inches)  and I'm really pleased. All I need to do now is block it and it will be ready to give away.

I got this pattern off of Turvid's Blog...Here's a link to her pattern.

I also put the velcro on the walker bags and they are ready to give away tomorrow.  I'll be going to Tatting Tuesday and give these to my friends. Then onto my ASG meeting for a Pizza Party to celebrate the end of the Pizza Box Project.  I'll show you pics of that later.   Here's a pic of the inner part of the walker bag...

Til next time...happy sewing,