may post

sew tickled to have won these colorful fq's from oceanwavesquilting used to make her spinneret block and an aqua and red fq bundle and 100 block magazine from amanda murphy during the 100 block blog tour. 

i sent for this gorgeous dark purple yardage to make a night sky for the 'hello moon' bom by april mae designs.  of course, i couldn't get just one piece ... got a fq bundle too.  it was on sale, ya know!

and i've been working on my texas teardrops qal by quiltinglodge ... love the pattern and was tickled when vicki announce she would do the qal.  so, all my blox are stack and i've started appliquing them.   unfortunately, this will take awhile ... i've a problem focusing and things blur.  it's a muscle problem.  i had polio 60 years ago and then periodic episodes of weakness.  after i had my cancer operations, they come frequently and affect all my muscles.  

btw, my lighting is pretty darn good in my sewing area - the machine lights are fooling the camera.

 

long month!

 

  i won an ebook of my choice from stitch and unwind; i chose this!  love that tree! 

   i was the lucky recipient of this cuddle kit!  [i forget, again who sent it to me]  i'll make a qayg for my dggs - he'll be a year old at the end of june!

   during quilting world day [?] last month, i got one of the day prizes.  love bali pops!   just right to make a great log cabin!

my borders are on my hexalong!  and am fixing the flowers.  have decided the leaves are the wrong color ... will not fix those on!   i'll do a whle new set of leaves and save these for another project.

 

 

the last week or so

 my sis, a friend and i made a fart last week to make the rounds of the quilt shops on the other side of the peninsula ... my loot ...
green fabric to add to my st paddy's day fabric collection.  can' resist this fabulous fabric [it's for my birthday you know] some green ricrac for trim on that irish quilt i'll make someday.  a circle sewer attachment for my viking [prince, it's name], a piece of polka dot fabric to try out for a background block.   a pinker blade for my rotary cutter and patterns!  one a pretty pointsetta pattern for a christmas runner, not the big quilt shown and from robin place shop ... an almost over block of the month they're running that i couldn't resist ... it's done in batiks and the blocks are just fine.   there's three more blox to go, and the setting finish.




my favs ... the musk ox, puffins and the sitka rose.












a prize from this'n'that.com finally came.   valentine fq's and a tag, for luggage?  







my hand sewing on my hexie quilt is slow, very slow, as is my knitting.  but besides the fabric shopping trip, i made to other trips to anchorage with my sis, so i am trying to recuperate.  on the bright side, we are still bird hunting, trying to get pix of two different birds that are unusual to the area.  birders from far and wide have come to get pix;  my sis and i are probably the only two who have not seen them. 

february, too, is going fast!

 my bff sis made me a thread catcher!   what a nice surprise!   i'm so fortunate to have her!

online shopping ... got half of them on a really nice sale, then came across a really great sale and go some more.  love  kona solids!

 have two more smaller flowers to go and some buds and leaves to make.  vines and stems are ready.  borders are cut. 

the back, fronts and sleeves are done and waiting to be joined so i can work the yoke.  this is a heavy piece!  the baby llama and silk is worsted weight and heavy, but very nice to work with.

my half pi shawl is ready for the border rows and then the edging!   and my cladonia shawl is coming off the needles ... pix when it's stretched. 

 

 

glad tidings!

altogether now!  ready for borders ... dark grey, almost black; have vines ready.  it was a really dark grey day yesterday; it's been rainy!  not good for pix!

made it to the post office saturday, my six yards of pirouette from westminster fibers came ...  a prize i've been waiting for!   i split it with my sis!

 and my yak blends came, ordered three days before!  fast!   green 85%yak, 15% nylon for sox and silver, half yak, half silk lace wt for a shawl.  i'll put little pearls in the pattern.   i'm almost finished with one and two thirds done on another.   so i'm already thinking ahead now ... these will by for me!    

i've pulled some yardage from my stash for the skill builder block of the month ...  am going to see if i can keep up











alyssa at http://www.pileofabric.com/skill-builder-bom/  is going to start it in a few days.  it's a quag!  so it's solids on the front, prints on the back.   some of the blox looks like they'll need lots of skill to work them.   but, i'll have fun trying, and i won't have to tell how many times i made any of them to get a good one!

my hexalong is coming along ... 4 rows together, three rows ready to join

prize from sewcalgal

 prize:  from fabric cafe ... 900 inches of chenille!

prize:  from this'n'that

a shawl for a gift ... emerald green

the other shawl, also a gift

spool pincushions for some quilty gifts

and my treat from the lqs! 

so, i must have spent my december  knitting, blogging and doing a little shopping and very little sewing!   but i've sorted, reorganized and gave away two bags  of my stash to the local guild for their charity projects.   that really wasn't enough to give me some space, though, so i'll do it again.    y'all have a happy new  year!                          

                                                                          

 

Christmas greetings!

to my friends, my followers ... May all the blessing and joys of Christmas be with you on this day ...

 

           Merry Christmas!

long time passed

so little accomplished ... so much time has passed!   i've been hand sewing and have three rows joined; a fourth row has one more flower to join now that a day or two has passed since i had my camera out.  the last five flowers are waiting for their hexie papers, though. 

prizes!  one hundred blocks won from ... gasp!  i wrote this down so i could remember, now i can't find my note.  the second hundred blox book, the trophy mug and bonus bundle of flannel fq's is my prize won from the quiltmaker mag!   i also won five skeins of knit picks wool of the andes peruvian worsted and a pattern for the devon cardigan, a great sweater pattern [i wrote the giver's name down on the same note as the first one]  they also sent a hank of misty alpaca, sock weight along with the knit picks yarn, i presume, as an apology for having to wait for so long for them to send it.   btw, i gave the first 100 blox mag to my sis!

 

two new projects ... a sweater i'm knitting with a llama and silk blend [sigh, so nice!]  the back is done, the fronts are half way.   and a shawl for myself - merino and silk blend.   my other shawls are done and waiting to be rinsed and stretched, but, since i pin them to my carpet, i'll have to wait a little longer 'til i can get down on my knees [i fell on my knees a few months ago and they're still too sore.  doc said i'm too old for them to heal quickly (LOL) but the swelling is gone now!]

 

 

 

p.s.

how could i forget what i wanted to post in the first place ... progress on my fatquarterly hexie qal!  slow progress , but any progress is progress.

i blinked ...

and october has passed ... i've barely been back here in my craft room.
i cut bunches of circles from my fq bundle i won and that's as far as i got on that!







and i took advantage of a whopper of a sale and got some fabulous orange fabric for a pittance.

best of all i won this fab book from favequilts on their giveaway!   great reading! and i hope to work up a quilt top from it.  sometime.  soon

fav fall recipe!

Pumpkin Spice Bread Recipe
Ingrediants
3 tbsp canola oil
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup honey
3 tbsp firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp flax seed
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp chopped walnuts

PreparationPreheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat a 8x4 inch loaf pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, beat together the canola oil, pumpkin puree, honey, brown sugar and eggs until well blended. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, flaxseed, baking powder, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and using the electric mixer on medium speed, beat until well blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the hazelnuts evenly over the top and press down gently to lodge the nuts into the batter. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 50 to 55 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn the loaf out of the pan onto the rack and let cool completely. Cut into 12 slices to serve.

last coupla weeks

time's been whizzing by lately ... and i've been picking up packages every time ive been to the post office ...

fabric for my christmas project







a skein of yarn, a prize [ i was going to say from ... but it escapes me now] and a piece of batik widebacking, a very small cutter with a rotating blade and a pack of needles








some white ss classic redheart yarn and a set of pearl cotton, both prizes from different weeks from stitch and unwind, a new sock book with a great pattern in it, and a hank of quviut sox yarn from a shop over in skagway.






the half circle shawl that i finished is more or less stretched ... there is a broken thread near the bottom edge that has to be repaired.  i don't know how or why that happened!   i only soak my finish and squeeze gently to rinse , fold it into a towel and pat it then lay it out to be stretched.  i saw the broken thread and did not stretch and pin it.   i can fix it, but dont know if i'll gift it now.


i didn't get any sewing done [sigh] but i did get this made!   a squat mason jar pin cushion with my fave piece of scrap ... shamrocks and ribbons.  i couldn't find my curved pins to put in there; looked and looked, and found them a week later pinning a sandwiched quilt together for quilting.    btw, the pincushion isn't that big, it's just the camera angle.

package in the mail!

hancock's of paducah's sale on batiks was just too good to resist!   the batik on the bottom is silver 'blush birch leaf' ... too gorgeous for words and the tonga treats were $17.   what more can i say?







10 flowers! 












i've cast off one shawl and cast on another and worked the foundation row on it.   this one is an alaskan one, out of sitka in southeastern [alaska] and worked bottom up ... the first bottom up for me.  pix of the half circle one i finished when i've got it stretched.






and a new toy:  the new ipad, 32gb that can be used anywhere.  the keyboard is built into the case and is easier to use.   all i have to do is learn to use it!   will load my patterns and pix in soonest.    this's my practice picture a few days ago!  that's progress; to take a picture with it and retrieve it, too!

new month!

i caved, and sent for this gorgeous christmassy tree pattern that i've been drooling over, and then had to get it's companion piece, too.   i'm sew lucky!








and speaking of lucky, this 6 inch charm pack is a prize that i won in july, and now that i've got it in hand, i can't remember who gave the prize ... i didn't write it down when it came!  [senior moment]







the background pieces for 'a walk in the woods have gone from rows to done already.  waiting for me to cut out the leaves.








i have lots, well, 2/3's of my hexies basted and have decided i erred on the number of flowers needed and cut some more.  i'm making lap size, about 52" square; my flowers are 7 1/2" and i figured to put 5 down and 5 across, but i'll have to make 7 across to get a reasonable square.  the border with it's vines and smaller flowers will make it about 52"!




so, i had a 20% coupon for the fat quarter shop and got 1 and a 1/2 yds each of all the kona greys:  charcoal, iron, medium grey, steel and ash!   iron and steel are pretty close!