The payoff

There has been a little bit of radio silence here on the blog, but that's only because I've been spending every spare moment working on either my knit-along sweater or my prism quilt. Uh, and trying to buy a house. But nothing big going on :) I am happy to say that because of all this hard work, I've finished the first, made major progress on the second and may have accomplished the third as well. Yay for hard work paying off!  Sorry about the picture, but it's been raining all day and I had to make do with indoor lighting.

My sweater. The lovely Quinn. I can't believe I've finished my first sweater. It fits like a glove, can you believe it? I love the drape, the length, the color (which is much brighter in person), the collar, the sleeves. That last I am relieved about, because I am VERY particular about my sleeves. There are a few things I have learned with this attempt that I will take with me to the next sweater. And yes, there will be a next sweater because I've been bitten by the bug and found out that its not as scary as I thought. Anyway, lessons learned:

• A swatch is of uber importance. Yes, everyone and anyone who has knit a sweater will tell you this. Listen! It is sooooo important to fit!
• It takes a long time to finish (at least for me!) but it flies by. Don't be intimidated by how long it may take.
• The stitch counts they give you? They are important. Especially when you do the shaping. Unfortunately, I cavalierly disregarded the count, and now my shaping is off-center.
• Go with your gut instincts. And fix your mistakes, before you get too far along. I noticed the whole-row mistake in the lacework in the yoke only a couple rows later, but I kept going, convincing myself it wasn't very noticeable. And you may not even be able to see the mistake, but I do. Every time I look at the sweater. Every. Time.

I'm still pretty happy with the end result and I'm very excited to wear it. My fingers are itching to start another sweater already, but I'm thinking I'll try something a little smaller, maybe? I finished this one in about a month, so that means I could potentially finish 6 more before Christmas...kind of a sick thought, huh?

Knit, knit, knit, knit, knit...repeat

As in lots and lots and lots of stockinette in the round.  Now I am remembering one of the big reasons I have never knit a sweater before! It's a little boring at this point, but there is something to be said for plain ol' stockinette that you can just pick up and knit without having to consult the pattern (or the numerous notes and hash marks scribbled in the margin!) I have split for the sleeves, which wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be, though I did need about half an hour of Googling and a Ravelery group consult. My in-laws were here this weekend, which actually gave me a lot of time to knit, so I am nearing the first body shaping section. As Shannon said in her post, it's a bummer being a size large! If I were an extra small, I would probably knit a lot more sweaters. My progress:

I love the asymmetrical yoke, though I think I will be much happier with it once it's blocked. Hopefully the increases won't be so obvious.

The sheen of this yarn is beautiful. I definitely want to use it for other sweaters.

If there are any more sweaters.

I also started cutting and arranging my Patchwork Prism quilt.

I am liking the way the colors are going together, but I've realized that I really do not have enough different fabrics for the teal ring. It's killing me, because I was really trying not to buy any more fabric for this, but I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and pick up some more fat quarters. I'm realizing this is truly a scrappy type quilt that looks better with many FQs than just yardage of a few fabrics. Looking at this picture, I also feel the medium blues need to be more...medium. They are looking a little light to me. What do you think? Isn't the lighting in my sewing room, I mean, dining room awful?

And just to show you what we did with Grammy and Papa this weekend:

Strasburg Railroad Engine 475

 

 

We trekked the 2 hours down to Strasburg, just outside of Lancaster, PA, to the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. Across the street they have a steam engine and cars restored to their Victorian era splendor, that run to the town of Paradise, PA, on their original timetable. The ride through Amish country was beautiful and Jack was speechless through the whole thing, which I think is a first! Definitely worth the trip.

Hiccup fixed.

Ah Blogger. An often painful experience. It seems to have eaten half my post from the other week, so if you were reading my post from yesterday and wondering what in the heck I was talking about, I fixed it. You can now actually see the quilt and the links to the quilt along and pattern. Sorry! (and thanks for letting me know, More Like June!)

Picking out prism fabric

Remember the Patchwork Prism quilt along that I mentioned last week? It's in the fabric choosing phase right now and that is the absolute hardest part of quilting for me. I know what I like when I see it, but for some reason, putting colors together just confuses me. Typically, I find a picture that I like - either a photograph or art work, or sometimes even a magazine spread - and pick out the major colors from that to help me choose my fabrics. That isn't really cheating, since I am still picking out fabrics "from scratch" and not just buying a collection that I know goes together. But if you ask me to throw together fabrics for a quilt without a reference, well, I get a little stumped.

When I saw this quilt, my first thought was to copy it. That's what I do a lot of the time. I mean, I see a quilt I like, and I like it. I like everything about it. Why would I want to change it? But I am trying to branch out a bit, be a little more creative. I have lived near the water most of my life (except for the 7 years I spent land locked in the high desert of New Mexico. But we won't talk about that.) and I've always loved all things nautical. I especially love sea glass and I've always wanted to try to make a quilt using the colors of the sea. So I thought, why not make a sea glass quilt?

Alright, so here's what I pulled for the quilt. I'm trying to use as much from the stash as possible, but I did buy some fat quarters to fill in.

Here are the darks, for the very center.

Then the mid blues, with some light blues for the accent hexes.

Here are my teals. I'm a little light on these, and most of them are from a quilt that I cut for but never made. I'm hoping I can make them work.

My greens.

My aquas. I had plenty of these!

My sands.

And a dark brown for the corners.

I'm liking everything together, we'll just have to cut it up and see how it looks in the pattern!

April Showers bring...May quilts!

Ah, the crazy April weather. How is it that I forget every year what its like? We started out with gorgeous, sunny, warm days - perfect for knitting. Every non-sleeping moment we spent out in the backyard, where I could sit and knit my little heart out while Jack played/got dirty. I got quite a bit done (for me) on my Quinn sweater for the luvinthemommyhood KAL during these days. I am finally past the lace yoke and am about to split for the sleeves.

Then came the cold. And the rain. And snow?!?! And back inside we went.

I am still getting a little knitting done, but with more inside days, my sewing machine is calling to me. I'm trying to be good and knock some items off my sewing list. So I finished up this:

This is actually the second time I've made the Beach Robe pattern by Dana at Made. The first one was done hastily and, sad to say, not very well and is already falling apart. I decided to make another one because Jack uses it all the time for bath time, and we are also planning to use it at the pool this summer. This time around I made sure to finish all the seams and take my time with the bias tape. I think I put the hood on wrong, but I sorta fixed it, so...oh, well. I made the Large size of the pattern, and as you can see, its a bit big on him but he can grow into it.

With that must-do sewing done, I started working on a new quilt. I have had a stack of vintage sheet charm packs I got from the etsy store In Color order for a couple months now, just waiting for inspiration to strike. I finally decided to make them into half-square triangle blocks with Kona ash, and I'm thinking they will eventually be a random pinwheel-type quilt.

But then I got distracted. I first saw this quilt on Pinterest

Anna Maria Horner Patchwork Prism

and immediately pinned it. Then I found out that the blog Sweet Diesel Designs is having a quilt along for it! The prizes are incredible, but just having a quilt along to join has given me the nudge to do this quilt. Right now. The vintage sheet pinwheel quilt is going to have to wait. As much as I love this version, I'm definitely thinking I'm going to change it up somehow. If you are interested in joining the quilt along, it is here or if you just want to do the quilt on your own, the free pattern is here. Do it with me!

In full knitting mode

 

The Tops, Tanks and Tees KAL at luvinthemommyhood started up last Wednesday and I am in a knitting frenzy! Since my last post about it, I kinda had a change of heart (and pattern). I started off by knitting a swatch like a good girl - my first time ever! Knitting a swatch that is, not being a good girl ;)  I even knit it in the round using this tutorial from Jane Richmond's blog. The first time doing it took some finagling before I discovered the soft case for my interchangeable needles was the perfect size to loop my yarn around. But I did not get gauge. Boo. So, undaunted, I frogged my swatch and tried again with smaller needles. Again, no luck - but in the other direction! I had introduced myself on the Ravelery thread for this group, so I decided to ask what to do and got some wonderful suggestions. In the meantime, however, I downloaded this:

Interweave Knitscene Summer 2012

And immediately fell in love with this amazing tee:

Quinn Sweater by Amy Gunderson - Knitscene Summer 2012

Even more amazing? Somebody on Ravelery had already knit it using the Cascade Yarns Ultra Pima that I bought for the original tank! And I got perfect gauge! And I had enough yardage! It was meant to be.

I was a little nervous - after all this is my first garment EVER. I had picked the original tank because it was simple, and I figured I should start with something simple. Quinn is not simple. But. While I like the Summertime tunic, and may try to make it one day, I didn't love it. And I really think if I am going to spend all of this blood, sweat, tears and, let's face it, money on something, I need to love it. And I really do love this - the shape, the simple lace on the yoke, the little asymmetries. I have done pretty much everything in the pattern before, in one project or another. So I have decided to be brave, throw caution to the wind and knit me up a Quinn.

And you know what? So far, so good!

My Quinn

I haven't had any real problems. It's all about taking it one row at a time and making sure I read the next section of pattern until I understand what I'm being asked to do. I'm hoping it's not going to be too big. I may have to figure out how to do modifications if it is, cause there's no way I'm starting over. But I'm loving the color, the sheen and everything else about it, so I hope it turns out. And I feel pretty good about taking my chances.

I have done a little sewing too, and I am mailing my friend Lesley's quilt tomorrow, so I WILL finally be able to post photos of that. I was supposed to have had a girls' weekend with her this past weekend and give it to her in person, but the stomach flu visited our house and it was not to be. So I am mailing it because I just can't wait until June, when we rescheduled. Cross your fingers that it makes it there!

Hello terrible twos, buh-bye sewing time.

Whoa, time flies when you're - well, let's just say it flies. I have been up to my eyeballs in the terrible twos here and it is no fun. Not only do I have a whining, crying soundtrack to my day, but we are also having sleep problems. Ugh. I think we've finally "fixed" the nighttime issues that cropped up when we were staying at my parents' house, but we are still struggling with nap time. He went from a 2-3 hour nap to mostly no nap! A couple days this week I got him to take an hour-long nap, but it's still hit or miss.

Which means that my sewing time has gone to almost zero. Boo.

I've started trying to sew while he's awake, hoping he'll just play quietly by himself. Sometimes it goes that way. Sometimes I'm fighting him off my machine pedal, keeping him from maiming himself with the iron or just playing referee between him and the dog.

However.

I am determined to sew. It keeps me sane! It must be done. So, I have gotten a few things finished.

A couple months ago, I came across Hoodie's Catch of the Day line. I knew that I had to have it and had to make something for my mom with it. I was a little disappointed in her reaction to the quilt I made her for Christmas, so I needed redemption. So I decided to think small and made her a couple of kitchen towels and potholders.

 

She loved them. Thank goodness. I didn't really use a specific tutorial, just kind of winged it. For the towels I just strip pieced the fabric and appliqued it to a couple of (perfectly matching) towels I got at Target. The potholders (that's front and back of two up there) I put together by looking at ones I had and reading tips online. I sandwiched a 9" square of Insul-bright batting between 2 squares of cotton batting and then the fabric on either side. I did simple diamond quilting (with cotton thread) and then made some double fold bias tape to bind, turning a little loop over at the end. Pretty simple stuff, but I think they turned out well!

I managed to eek out a homemade Easter gift for Jack, too, though I was sewing this up the night before Easter:

I saw these I spy bags on the blog homemade by jill and thought it would be the perfect quick and simple gift for Easter. The fabric is Michael Miller Plaid Portation that I had in my stash - because I knew it would be perfect for Jack. I found the poly beads at Michaels, along with several little toys and scrabble letters. It actually wasn't as cheap as I would have liked, but it was last minute. If I had more time, I could have found cheaper items for the inside. I did end up making another one (in a flowery fabric) for my friend's daughter's second birthday, so I was able to split the items up, making each one a little more - economical.

I made the little pocket on back for the card, as well, though I didn't take pictures of everything before it went in. I figure I could just type it out, or maybe take pictures of each item laying in the poly beads. Or he could store some goldfish snacks in there. Whatever.

I am still slogging away at April's Craftsy Block of the Month - english paper piecing hexagons - and I am giving my friend her quilt this weekend, so I can finally post pictures of that, woohoo! If my 2 year old doesn't kill me first.