Let's Review!

Don't know why I have to work so hard to find energy to blog.
Where to begin?

I've been sewing!

I happened across Purse Palooza 2012 just as it was set to get underway for the month of June. Celebrating bag making of all kinds! Invited bloggers review 2 purse or tote bag patterns each weekday.  Some of the patterns are free, but most are for sale.  
With lots of chances for prizes!

AND I won already!!
I received all of Noodlehead's bag patterns :)

I made the 241 Tote Bag!
I recycled an old pair of black denim jeans, including the pockets (1 inside) and part of the waistband for the strap. The pattern consists of just 3 pieces grouped at the end of the pdf. Pattern pieces are PRINTER/INK FRIENDLY if you decide to only print those. There are very detailed directions that can be followed from laptop.
The pattern also called for an outer zipped pocket that I fully intended to reuse from the jeans, but in the end I left it off this version. The pretty oriental accent fabric was some Sara gave to me as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago.

I love everything about this bag! It's a perfect size - not really as big as I was afraid it was going to be.
The curved inset with side pockets were a little tricky to sew without puckering. I was determined!
The lining has a few gathers, but I let it go! I didn't top stitch the side pockets - mostly because of the bulk - because if it didn't go well it would ruin the entire thing.
It was such a pleasure to actually follow a pattern, rather than my usual Just Wing It method.

Which is what I did making this bag. I used a pair of UFO quilt blocks that were part of a Block of the Month series I abandoned long ago. Easily diverted as usual! I had been reading about Snap Bags - using metal carpenters measuring tapes for snap shut closures. I wanted to make one. But of course I wasn't content to make my first Snap Bag a simple envelope style sack as most of the tutorials I found described. NO. I wanted to quilt-as-you-go using Sharon Pederson's method for reversible quilts.  And it should have sides, rather than be a flat pocket.

The tape measure is on the inside pocket... but I cut a slit to remove it and then put it back in afterwards.
Technically this bag is actually reversible, using sashing - sewn by hand - to hide every seam.  YES. Make it harder than it needs to be. As usual.

In between these bags I also sewed the Naughty Secretary Bag ... Lindsay Tote on the Pellon site.

I may have jinxed my sewing machine by deciding after all this sewing it needed to be cleaned. Took it apart, cleaned the dust bunnies and had it all back together the easiest I ever remember. Usually the back panels take forever to line up so the screws can go back in.

This week in CRAZY.
So, Jax was running around the yard crazy-pleased with herself for finding a long strip of fabric. Hanging a foot from either side of her mouth, it streamed out like a banner while she trotted around with her find - just far enough out of reach for me to possibly take it away from her. Fine. KEEP IT!
She had dragged one of the girls poor baby dolls from down over the bank where they used to play house. I assumed she had found a piece of clothing or an old blanket they left behind (20+ years ago!). Chewed to bits all over the front yard with just the doll head left.

Later, while I'm sitting in the recliner knitting my latest project, she decides I should have her banner. Shoves it into my lap. Perhaps I would like to play tug of war? WITH A SNAKE SKIN! Shed recently, no doubt, from the big-ass snake tormenting me everywhere I go lately. At least 3 times I've run screaming for my damn life after nearly stepping on it. I don't care if it's harmless. Make it be GONE with whatever means you like, honey!

Meanwhile. Just before daylight one morning last week Jax let out a low growling warning while looking out the bedroom window. I bent down to look in the direction of her concern just in time to see a basketball on legs walk across the front lawn. Went to the door and turned on the light just as a small porcupine waddled up onto the deck. It then marched up and put it's paws up on the door like it was asking to come in. NO.

No wonder I never blog. Where has the time gone? Time to get moving!!

Keeping the hands busy . . .

The longer you put off updating the blog, the harder it seems to be to get back to. I blame Facebook - where it's easier to pop a few photos into an album and see what the girls are doing.

Both daughters were home for Christmas and it was wonderful getting outside together. Winter this year has been so mild that trails were open enough to go hiking in search of several new local Letterboxes. Most of them were frozen solid in the holes they were buried in though, thanks to the melt/freeze weather conditions.
We introduced Jax to hiking while looking for letterboxes, but getting her to sit nicely while we stamped in will need some work. She does climb onto stumps and halt all forward momentum at a moments notice. She seems to think they make the perfect resting spot!

By Christmas I had about burned myself out with all the knitting mitten projects. By the time the girls left Maine once again I was ready for a different craft to take over my interest - and help keep the empty nest blues from taking over for too long!
First up was rediscovering Coptic bookbinding - logbooks for Letterboxing! I picked up one of the Crop-A-Dile eyelet setters. I love it - although it does take more hand strength than some of the promos advertised. Also the name brand eyelets are no longer readily available and the backs of the ones local craft departments carry really don't spread flat and smooth. Some of the edges are quite jagged and require an extra squish to hide the fact as best I can. The main thing is to get them squished enough so there are no sharp edges to snag a finger on! 

Of course as with all craft projects of mine, any can be tackled to the point of obsession! At last count I was up to about 30 finished logbooks. I had several packages of index cards and a pair of jeans to recycle into denim pocket logbooks. 

I'm thinking of holding a crafty yard sale this spring.

Next up on the crafting front was to dig out the crochet supplies and make a couple new bunnies. My box of finished things is always available for the girls to dig into and choose items for their friends or their little ones. It was getting depleted of bunnies!

As the 2nd bunny was nearly completed I "discovered" a free Dice Bag of Doom! pouch. It totally tickles me no end. I've finished 3 now using up odd balls of yarn.  (Nothing obsessive to see here folks. I bought 2 packages of eyes and there's one left :)

(Did I say Blogger had gotten easier? WHY is so hard to move pictures to where you want them?)

Season's Greetings!

TODDLER in the house!

(Slightly naughty, can't take your eyes off them for a moment, toddler!)

Her first evening found her mostly hiding under the table. 

She was raised by a couple who appeared to be deaf, without verbal abilities. It took a few days to get used to our voices. She may not have ever been out of the building where 2 litters were being raised.

 

Outdoors is a wild and wondrous place. 

She's decided she quite likes it outside! 

All trained to "Go. Hurry-up" outside. NO ACCIDENTS!

Well, my training came a long quite nicely. I know her whiny toddler signals!

We've had a very warm fall lately.  (Except for the 2 SNOW storms!)

I took my mitten project out onto the deck so I could keep an eye on her. 

She climbed up into a chair to join me in the sunshine spot.

She loves having a bath! Climbs in and out one her own. 

She thinks there should be 2 things in her mouth at all times and it doesn't matter if that's a your hand. Or ear. Watch out for biting!!  

Vet thinks I'm a big fat fibber. Warned her to beware! 
Jax pretended to be the best behaved puppy Dr. Jessica had ever seen.
I still can't believe how good she was!

She IS a chewer of everything NOT piled high out of reach. 

Croc makers should go into the puppy-teething-toy business as they seem to be the only indestructible shoes in the house. Tom has lost at least a dozen shoe laces.  

PICK UP YOUR STUFF!    Or else . . . :)

 

She blends in and does the instinctive retriever point.

Every hair on her back from the tip of her nose to the tip of her tail stands straight up at unfamiliar sounds. Pretty sure she's seeing something I don't on our walks. There was a piece of half eaten pizza left on a rock deep in the woods of our nature trail. It was trash day and I'm pretty sure some little critter had just abandoned it.  (I hoped it was little and we headed for home pretty quickly.)

Jax stays with us on the Nature Trails very well, although sometimes drops down into a hollow spot and plays invisible. 

Hates collars so I need to get a bigger, easier to put on harness.

 

She's a bit of a Daddy's Girl.

(For a COOKIE she'll do whatever we ask!)

I was DISTRAUGHT!

My beautiful daughters were home for two weeks in July and we enjoyed every minute of being family.  Four of us all in the same place - again!

There was Letterboxing and hiking with a borrowed dog up Chick Hill. There were lobster dinners and takeout meals from all the favorite places they missed from being two time zones away. Strawberry shortcake and strawberry crepes.
There was bookmaking with Steph. Sara needed another lesson in Paper-Pieced quilt blocks so we dragged my sewing machine out onto the deck to enjoy the wonderful weather.

Then they flew away to be grown-ups again.

And I didn't know what to do with myself. It always takes a few days to readjust to the empty nest but this time it seemed harder. Part of the problem may have been that I was tired of crocheting and was ready for the normal recycling of hobbies. What had been obsessively filling idle time needed to be changed up.

So I decided to figure out how to make mittens. Mostly I wondered if I could make knitting the thumbs not suck so much. (Still NOT my favorite part!)
I tried out several free patterns and have settled on a method to call mine.
And then of course I did what I always do: I kept knitting mittens.
About 25 pair within 2 months.
Actually I'm still knitting them. 15 pair have been made for the kids at Downeast School.

 

I also made this really cool book planter:

And then we bought a new puppy!

Life got busier :)

More crocheting . . .

It's so satisfying to mark a Work In Progress finished. 
These little scarecrows by Fiber Doodles were to be my 2nd crochet project last March when I rediscovered crochet hooks.

It turned out they were a little over my head at the time, so the pattern was put in a folder and tucked away.  It's no longer a free pattern so I'm pretty happy to have found my copy.  I made 2 :)

I've also been trying to figure out how Elisabeth Doherty of Gorrmet Amigurumi makes her style of doll faces - a much changed style since producing her book Amigurumi!: Super Happy Crochet Cute.  She only makes finished dolls and doesn't seem to be interested in selling patterns anytime soon - reasonable I suppose. But I want to try that myself!  The nose is still coming out a bit like a snout. Another attempt is underway.

I did use her book to learn how to do jointed arms - with safety eyes, actually! Very cool - although I've learned a lesson on proportion. Arms are a tad long!

I also finished another doll using various Dawn Toussaint techniques. The hooded sweater was my own - again with proportion lessons! Hood needs work next time.  I hope I wrote down what I did so changes can be managed.

So crochet it is then

As the craft pendulum swings...

I could not bring myself to start the next quilt UFO.  Our living room is getting a bit of a makeover and not really the best setting for a quilt in progress, anyway.

For April and May I just felt like crocheting.
So I did! 

Edited to add pattern details:
All of these patterns were by Dawn Toussaint. Her website is here.
Koala pdf is free.

A finished quilt and other things

March's UFO Challenge was #1.

1. Y2K quilt started in 1999. needs to be quilted. It's HUGE.

A quilt top that I made too big.
Ridiculous big!  I think it would have dragged on all 4 sides of the floor on our queen sized bed.  I sat with a seam ripper on an Aunt Laurie and Ben Day and took off one row. More needs to go to make it a manageable size. I didn't have the will to quilt this one yet.

Number 9 became # 1.
(Executive decision :)

9. 1.  48 STRING BLOCKS!  Made for the 2010 Bonnie Hunter RRCB mystery.

(Step 5: make 600 half square triangles.)

NO. I would rather poke my eyes out. I'll be using the blocks for an Evelyn Sloppy pattern instead.

I adapted instructions to fit the 8.5" squares - 30 used right away. The extra string blocks were whacked into 5" strips - across the middle for straight edge "piano key" outer border.  I was completely out of most of the colors, but by salvaging the extras, most of the colors are in the border.

I put it onto the sewing machine - turned around so the cutting table would hold the extra as it fed through the machine. Took one inch of machine stitching. Decided I hated it BOTH the look of the stitches and shoving it through the tiny little space of the sewing machine. Ripped it out. (Cleaned my sewing room back up!) And hand quilted it.

Quilting began March 10th. Final stitch of the binding made 8 pm March 31st! All stash fabrics used for this one except the backing.   A finished quilt in just under 4 months!

Sock Madness round 2 socks were completed. Knit March 21-25.  Round 3 should start any day now.
We'll need a cable needle.


On April 1st we got 15 inches of snow. It's snowed a couple of times since, without adding much more. It then rained for days and days, melting most of it away.

I am so ready for some outside gardening.

For now I have a shelf of African violets in various stages of bloom!

March Madness

Torrential rain, an ice storm & mad knitting!

An ice storm took out a couple more trees on our front lawn.

My snowman lasted until March 4th - the head fell off first. For a while the scarf looked like it was hanging in mid air around the invisible man! Then we had 3 inches of rain in 24 hour period; went into basement flood watch mode but luckily no broken sump pumps or power loss this time around.

Sock Madness 5 has begun!
Having participated in Sock Madness for many years, their labels outnumber many of the others on my sidebar. I dropped out of SM4 on the very first sock and wasn't sure this year would fare much better once I saw the first pattern. K2, P2 stripes.
Nearly the entire pattern: knit two, purl two. UGH!

I hate stripes and I'm the slowest K2, P2er in the east :)
Like March Madness Basketball, there are refs that make calls on the rules. Shortly after pattern release it was allowed you could do the socks in a single color since the pattern designer showed one at the end her pattern. I had already completed 3 stripes. I took her throw away picture of a solid color sock at the end as a sample of what it looked like AFTER Sock Madness. Not an actual option if everyone was to knit with the same handicap (2 yarns dangling & tangling the entire sock.) But once stripes were started it was ruled you had to do stripes all the way to the toe.

Not sure what Mad at the Ref chant applies, but I shouted a couple in my mind for a while. Then I decided to suck it up and keep knitting. I started them Friday at noon and finished them Tuesday morning. On to round 2?

At least they're "stephani colors".  March Madness also means my daughters both have a birthday coming up this month.

Which reminds me...yikes!

She needs her head examined!

(This quilt is finished!)

The Patchwork Times UFO project for February was #10.   It's done. 2 days late.

I hand quilted for hours on end from February 14th to February 27th. The quilting frame took up most of the living room and the final push to get it done was mostly so we could have the room back!

(My wrist aches, but I'm not sure if it's because I quilted too much or because I haven't done any for 2 days and it's missing the activity.)

Ran out of fabric for the binding and an ice storm kept me off the road an extra day. Finally got out of the house Tuesday.  I hand stitched the back of the binding down today.

Used actual bias cut strips and I must say I'm a convert. Straight cuts across the width of fabric may be easier, but I liked the way the bias folded so easy to the back. It's also supposed to hold up better and not wear out at the edge.

Prize Surprise :)

I win the BONUS prize!
Last week Quiltmaker Magazine's Blogger posted a chance to win fabulous prizes if we left a comment making up a dinosaur name - something quilty.

I wrote: "When my girls were young we renamed one STEPHasaurus because her older sister had TriSARAtops

(Land Before Time stickers are still stuck to my sewing machine 20 years later ;) SCRAPaSEWrus…"

2 Winners were chosen. And then came a surprise that still makes me grin ear to ear:

"A special prize goes out to Laurie in Maine, because any woman who has The Land Before Time dinosaur stickers on her machine 20 years later is just too cool for words."

I'm Too cool for words! 
(It's in writing :)

UFO quilt top complete!

(As usual there's an OOPS!)

Patchwork Times UFO Challenge for February is to work on #10 from my list:

10. Orphan Blocks quilt. I want to use the Settings Solutions book.

This started out as another foot dragging, I don't know if I want to project.
It's not that I don't have plenty of orphan quilt blocks to choose from. There's too many mismatched blocks.
Overwhelming in their do-not-go-together-ness.

I kept digging and finally settled on 7 + 1/2 Wedding/Crown of Thorn blocks, 4 leftover star blocks from an exchange in 1998 and a Monkey Wrench made from the same fabric.  I managed to come up with a yard or two of each of the leftover matching fabrics as well.

I studied the Setting Solutions book for the first 4 days of February and continued to dither.  What to do?
The "solutions" in the book seemed designed for pointy star blocks and my abandoned Wedding Blocks spoke to me of circles. 
I decided to try a medallion center using Drunkard's Path.

Have never done this curved pieced block, I might add.  I finally settled on using my quarter inch seam foot and the no pin, just sew method.  A Curve Master foot looks like it might be very useful. If I had one!  
My curved pieces were a little wonky, but they trimmed down to 3.5 inches fairly well.  Once I pressed the wonk out of them with the iron!

I wondered if Drunkard Path could be used as a frame for the individual blocks? Turns out my orphan blocks ranged from 8 to 10 inches. It might have been helpful to realize the wedding blocks were not 12 inches when I decided on 3 inch squares for the Drunkard's Path design. I found the pattern for the Wedding Blocks I thought I had used and it "said" blocks were 12 inches. I never doubted.
I also never measured. My blocks were 10 inches.


WELL...some sides were 10 1/2 - 11 inches actually. Apparently I was very careful to keep all the points of this block "pointy"! Not so much concerned for scant quarter inch seams or block sides of equal size. Probably why I quit this project? Blocks are "framed" in an effort to compensate  (oops!)  But by now fabrics were running out, so a new color was added.

The red print fabric selvage dated it as 1994.  It's ALL gone now. Yeah! Drunkard's Path (or whatever this patch is called!) blew through fabric pretty fast.  I bought 2 yards for the outer edge and border and even that is all gone but for a few inches.