28 September 2011

WIP Wednesday

Remember this wonky star quilt? I finally got it together to piece the back. (I know you're probably tired of me saying it but I'm sorry for the super crappy lighting in my house. I really wanted to participate in WIP Wednesday so I had to do what I had to do.) Anyway, I'm hoping to be done with it completely by this time next week so that I can start on - shout it from the rooftops, people - THE LAST BABY QUILT OF 2011.

Still chugging on the hexagon quilt. I decided that I'd post about it on the first of every month. Showing tiny weekly bits of progress will be boring for everyone. So look for that this weekend. I need to find my Farmer's Wife. We had a spat sometime around vacation-palooza and I just haven't gotten around to picking her back up again. Bleh.

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

xoxoxox

21 September 2011

Scary hands

Sorry for the weird disembodied hands picture. No good way to take a picture of gloves really.

This was my last beach finish, and I'm going to claim them as such since I finished them Sunday night. Since I hadn't gone back to work yet, I'm going to say that I was still *technically* on vacation. I know that's pushing it but whatevs.

Super quick and easy. I've been meaning to make some fingerless mitts for a long time but that thumb thing scared me. Now that I've done them, I know how crazy that was. Pattern found here and, especially for my friend Sue, the yarn used is KnitPicks Imagination Hand Painted Sock Yarn in Frog Prince. I'm not sure I'm entirely 100% in love with the color but it's growing on me.

I started the gargantuan king sized hexagon quilt. 1083 hexagons total, 16 down. Just to make matters worse, I calculated how far along I was. 1.4%. Yeeps. And my friend Sue (who almost wasn't my friend after she pointed out this nasty little fact) was that the 1.4% was just for my quilt top. Not backing. Not quilting. Not binding. (She didn't really point this out. I knew it already. And even if I hadn't, that wouldn't have been a reason to unfriend Sue.) No idea how I'm going to quilt it yet. I've got lots of time to let the ideas marinate. Pics to follow soon.

xoxoxox

17 September 2011

Beach craftiness

I have problems. I admit it. We came to the beach for a week with Scott's family and I brought six (6!!) projects to work on at the beach - 4 knitting, 2 sewing. Project one was the scarf that I showed on the last blog post almost as soon as we got here. (I worked on it a bunch in the car on the way.) Project two were these little lovelies.
I completed the last of these 91 Kaffe Fassett yo-yos yesterday. These have a purpose but I'm not quite ready to talk about that yet. I still have lots of work to do on it. (By the way, have I mentioned how much I love Kaffe Fassett? I LOVE Kaffe Fassett. It's a new love so it's still pretty fiery.)
Finished project three is this cowl scarf. I started this just before I left for South Africa. It was my plan to have it for the trip, but obviously, that plan didn't quite work out. . . It's super cute and soft and I love it. I picked those yarn colors because they reminded me of a lion's mane. The pattern was found here. It's been finished for weeks but I just had to look up how to do the kitchener stitch again. So easy. And the weather was actually blustery enough here tonight that I was able to wear it out.

I have one last project that I will either wrap up tonight or on the way home tomorrow. I always hate the end of the vacation but I'm looking forward to being able to stretch out in our big king sized bed again. It's tough having the two of us and the two puppies all squished up in a full bed.  Yikes.

xoxoxoxox

15 September 2011

A quiet September

I finally finished this project. It was a birthday present for my sister-in-law. (Thank you for not pointing out that her birthday was in January.)

Kelly has been a huge Pee-Wee Herman fan since she was a kid - one of the many reasons I think she's awesome. I found this picture a few years ago when visiting at Scott's parents house and inspired by this post, I decided that I wanted to make a pillow for her. I scanned the original picture, enlarged the scan and then cut out each element. I tried to match the colors in the picture as closely as I could with Konas but his jacket needed to be special.
I found a men's suit coat at Goodwill for about $5 and cut it up to make Pee-Wee's jacket and the back of the pillow. I kept both the breast pocket and pocket at the hip on the back.
I found this awesome tag on the inside. I must also say thanks to Mr. Todd Garrett and the good folks at Goodwill. When I was taking the jacket apart to make the back of the pillow, I found $40 in cash in the inside pocket of the jacket. SCORE! WINNING! I think Kelly liked the pillow as much as I hoped she would. It was certainly the strangest thing I've ever made or am likely to make, but it turned out exactly as I'd hoped. (I will say that as I was piecing Pee-Wee, without hair he looked a bit like Nosferatu.)
And I finished this at the beach too. I bought this yarn last year when we were at the Outer Banks on our honeymoon so it's kind of fitting that I'm using it this year at the Outer Banks.  (Sunday was our first anniversary.  Awwww. . . ) I saw a great scarf last week on etsy and thought I could make it myself. I scrounged around in my stash and found this and it's perfect. It's this great yarn that is partially made from seaweed. LOVE it. Super soft. I thought I had enough of the sunflower color but I was delusional. I think the bit of pink adds so much though.

I brought lots of projects to do while we're here so maybe I'll have another finish to show tomorrow. Or maybe not. We'll see.
xoxoxoxox