Cyra ~ busy, busy, busy stitching

The grey and green background that I made while on that lovely stitching retreat a couple of weeks ago, has turned into a quilted tote-style bag.

A Splat on one side, and a Swirl on the other.

  

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This fun fiberart small quilt is now hanging in the towns meeting room along with about 18 similarly size 'self-portrait' quilts, haha. 

And I use the words 'self-portrait' very loosely.

(this is nothing like me really, lol)

The mini-me has a scrap strip fabric dress embellished with free-motion scrolls, a crochet bag with embroidered flowers, and she has a needle-felted head, hair AND boobs, and she wears metal wire glasses and two thread friendship bracelets. 

Her sandals (flip-flops or jandals) are made with a tiny buttonhole stitch in black thread.

The other mini-me's are all on a similar background with the same binding, and they are all connected together with fabric tabs in the same colour as the binding. 

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I have finished a quilted chair back cover, or antimacassar, for the old-rocker in the lounge.

It's the Snowball block.

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My old teapot cozy bit the dust (it was only about 12 years old lol) so I made a new one.

Love the kiwi fruit fabric for the kitchen.

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And my final show for this week is a couple of 'containers'.

Basically made as thread-catchers, but can be used for a number of different things as well.

I need one of these next to my sewing machine because I'm always losing the seam-ripper or little scissors or the feet for the machine or the bobbins or.............

These nice containers will hold everything I need right there.

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So you can see I have been sewing up a storm since the retreat. 

It was a great way to get me back on track.

All for now.

Happy Stitching

Cyra

Cyra ~ In a heat wave

I'm trying to remember what I have stitched or created since last week, lol. 

It's been so hot here lately that it's hard to get my brain into action and remember what I've done.

This is an experimental knitted scrumble for freeform work. Inspired by the KCAL on the FF group in Ravelry.

Cloth doll body pieces cut out and ready for sewing together. 

This might end up as a collaborative group project at sewing group next week if it turns out how I want it to turn out, lol. If not, then it will be a one-off creative experimental doll for me.

I started this miniature rug quite a few years ago, and as I've recently started creating my dolls house, I though it about time that I finished this rug, so I've worked a bit of the middle top and bottom panels.

It's not part of the doll house kit that is mentioned in other posts here. It is my own design.

 

I have found the suitable board that I need as a base for my dolls house, and after DH has found his 'round-tuit' and cut it a bit shorter for me, then I can start to build my house, hopefully within a couple of days. Can't wait to get started on that bit.

For those who don't know - I live in New Zealand, and it's summer time here now, and we are in the middle of a heat wave. Rain would be most welcome at the moment and I would run outside and dance in it.

This is the sunset that we enjoyed at our beach last night.

Wishing you all a colourful, joyful and creative week.

Happy stitching

Cyra

Judy~A Few Finishes to Share

 Sorry to have been MIA for the past few weeks!  I have completed a few projects despite the craziness of the past month, however.

You remember this one, right?  Well, with the leftovers of the 21 colors I completed another hat, and it had even more ends to hide.  I couldn't quite follow the pattern exactly though. I think it's hard to see how they're related, don't you?

Then Nancy did a post on helical stripes, and so I tried it with dpns (double point needles).  It was fun, and I couldn't help wonder whether I could have used the technique on these two.  Thanks, Nancy!  It worked great on my little Christmas hat.

Meanwhile, I've been working on Nutkin for Dee's KAL.  It used to look like this:

(Did you notice my "bobbin"?  I finally found a use for all those bread closures! Someone else's cool idea)  And now it looks like this:

I am not using the short row heel though, and if I ever make this pattern again I will use an K1P1 cuff.  This stitch pattern is easy to memorize which is nice.

Our quilt group has made stockings for the local Ronald McDonald house for quite a few years now, and these two are my contribution this year. Quilting the fabric is what takes most of the time.  It looks like one is bigger than the other, doesn't it?  They are from the same pattern though, so I think my eye is tricking me.

We spent part of Saturday with these two.  They suddenly appeared wearing some of the things I made over the years.   It's fun to see them used!  Have a great week!

Judy~Was Busy with Mozart and a Few Projects

Right after we got back from Florida, our choir began the final weeks of preparation for our concert last night.  We sang Mozart's Ave Verum and his final work, the Requiem.  The wonderful soprano soloist sang his Exultate and the orchestra opened the program playing his Sonata in C.  It was a wonderfully uplifting evening, but boy are we tired today. (There's a photo on our Facebook page.)  In the meanwhile, I did finish a couple of projects recently.

The Crazy socks are DONE!  It was probably the most complicated sock I have ever made with lots of unusual stitches and direction changes.  The cuffs were knit sideways and then seamed with a modified 3-needle bind-off.  All those direction changes made for a very interesting sole, and the "thing" in the gusset is on both socks and supposed to resemble a butterfly.  I started this project with a plain color yarn which was splitting badly so reverted to this choice which I thought was a tonal but became quite stripy. A plain color would have shown the different stitch patterns better, but this yarn made for a very fun sole.

My hair stylist is soon having her first baby, a girl.  Her color scheme includes lavender, so I made a pair of booties to welcome baby.  (They look blue in this photo though.💜)

As soon as our youngest GD saw her brother's zebra slippers, she asked for a pair.  How could I resist such a sweet request?  The first thing she said when I handed them to her was, "Do they have my name on them?"  That they do, and they even fit!

Just the other day I remembered a promise made last fall to make a pillow for my oldest GD using her latest completed embroidery.  Since we are headed that way soon, I thought I'd better get busy and here it is, ready to hand deliver.  If you click on the photo, you may be better able to see the chicken button.

Those are supposedly Bohemian chickens!?

 So know you know where I have been!  Hope you've had a good several weeks.

Judy ~ Happy New Year!!! It IS Tuesday Already, Isn't It?

The holiday projects took over, and I became a very bad blogger.  In my time away, I did complete another Interrupted Cowl, however.  (Don't tell anyone, but I have the yarn for a bunch more......They won't get done any time soon though.)

I dove into my stash to find the next project, a Bead Stew bracelet, from Earthfaire.  I'd forgotten how much fun these are to make and also discovered a few more beaded projects patiently waiting for me to discover. (do?)  The bracelet was so much fun, I made another one for DD#2's birthday which is right after Christmas.

I also whipped up a couple of projects on the sewing machine.

 

Here's a very current photo of GD#1 modeling her cat scarf and requested pink hat. Hopefully they will keep her toasty warm!

Two more dish cloths came off the needles with barely a dent in this huge ball of holiday yarn which has been put away till next year.

I also finished a toasty warm scarf from a lovely Berroco yarn called North Star (and loved it so much that another one is underway in charcoal)

and one of 3 pair of mitts which DD#1 requested for the texters in the family.

Those were my final projects for 2016.  One of my plans for 2017 is to finish a couple of cross stitch WIPs.  Wish me luck!  And now I am

Wishing all of you a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

Judy ~ Yikes, I Thought It Was Monday!

For quite a long time now my quilt group has made Christmas stockings for the local Ronald McDonald House each year, and I have always participated.  For some reason, I also always procrastinate this project until the very last minute, even though I only make two stockings.  So this past week since the deadline for turning them in was coming up, I did my two and here they are, front and back. (My first grade teacher told Mom that I was a procrastinator, and I guess she was right!) 

Here is something I did finish in a timely fashion.  I showed DD#2 the pattern called Brooklin Vest; she liked it and bought the yarn.  It's finished, she's worn it THREE times and just sent me this photo! (She cut her head off because she said she looked too tired.) The yarn is Berroco Vintage Chunky, so it was a relatively fast project and the first time I ever knit something side to side, which kept it interesting.  And there were NO seams to sew together!

This is what the back looks like.  The color is more true in the above photo, and you can also see that it looks much better on.

Then DD#2 sent this photo yesterday which was taken last month when we were in the Midwest and I delivered the Rainbow Sweater. (DD#1 is in the middle of the back row, and my sister is on her right.)  The sweater is plenty long and should fit GD#1 for a while. I'm sorry you can't see the buttons as they were a real find: golden suns! Just perfect for a rainbow, don't you think?

Have a great week!

Angela ~ Shirt Repairs

I finally got to sew something!   Repairs to a couple of shirts, modeled by my trusty manikin Anne Boleyn.

This plaid shirt got an asymmetrical redo. 

And this one received an easy patch repair.

Both had major holes worn through in the same place, the lower right side.

A friend has a rough spot on her kitchen counter tile that they have never been able to correct, therefore her shirts get holes in the same place.  She also finds it hard to find 100% cotton shirts in the style she likes at a price she can afford so I offered to repair hers.

For the plaid shirt I used a heavier cotton with the wrong side out to almost match the colors in the plaid.  The buttonholes in the shirt were also too large so the repair fixed that as I had to make new buttonholes through the new fabric overlay.

For the paisley I found one color locally that actually matched one of the colors in the shirt.  I would have preferred a purple but they all were really off in color.  I used a fancy stitch the sewing machine does to attach the patches to the fronts only.  Then I used the same stitch in 3 rows to stiffen up the front band as she had a problem with it being wimpy and gaping between the buttons.

Wait till you see the next shirt project!

Judy ~ A Little Sewing and Some Knitting

This week has been fairly busy, but I did finish a couple more projects.  A while ago Dee found a great free pattern for some yarn in my stash!  Shocking, eh? The Interrupted Cowl is fun to knit, so fun that I ordered two more skeins of Bamboo Bloom in different colors.

In a recent email, DD#1 mentioned that Sophia would really like a nightgown.  That inspired me to find a quick pattern (Thank you, Center Diamond Fabric Shop in Cannon Beach, OR.) and crank up the sewing machine for the first time in ages.  It took 45 minutes in line locally to get the fabric cut, but the wait was worth it; next time I'll get the fabric with my patterns.

It's way too warm in the Midwest for a long nightgown, and the pattern had a shortie version complete with bloomers. Sewing is so much faster than knitting, at least for me.

Hope you all have a great week!

Judy ~ Passing on the Craft and a Little Knitting, Too.

Last summer this little lady started learning how to embroider with the help of Hoop-a-Loops,  (Thank you, Susan!) and when we were visiting last fall, she finished her second piece of stitching which I brought home to make into a pillow. And finish it  I did, finally, this past week with the help of some perfect fabric that I found at one of the quilt show boutiques and a great button and some dark green piping courtesy of JoAnn's. 

Said pillow is winging its way to the Midwest.  I hope she likes it.

The fabric! (The bow below is the correct color.)

Can you see the turtle button?  This project was more difficult than the first one, and I think she did a great job, don't you?

Meanwhile, I finished another hat which should fit the intended recipient much better than the last one!  Hope you all had a great holiday weekend.  The countdown to Christmas begins tomorrow, so I need to get back to work. Ciao!

Judy ~ Gaining Ground

The scarf is almost twice as long as it was! With the exception of the game on this past Sunday, the Scoreboard Scarf is up to date! (Each game is separated by a grey row, the dark blue represents our score, and the green is our opponent's score. Each row = one point.) It's about time for more yarn!  I'm thinking there's way too much green, and I need to get crackin' as there's another game on Thursday and 50 rows to add before then.......

Not only did I catch up on the scarf, I completed two Christmas stockings for our local Ronald McDonald house.  Each year our group makes over 80 stockings, so my contribution isn't much, but at least I do something.  Right in the middle of this project, my sewing machine started making horrible noises and quit stitching correctly.  I fiddled around with it, but it wasn't till DH watched my fiddling that it started behaving.  Guess that's what happens when you're confronted by an engineer!?

If you care to see what else is going on,  you can visit my blog.  Otherwise, have a great week, and keep on stitchin'!