The Sale

I went to the final closing sale for my LNS which closes forever today at 5 p.m. Everything was 75% off (25% off stitch models). So, I bought some items I normally would not have, but at 75% off, it seemed too good to pass up. Bought a few more Lizzie Kate items, Prairie School patterns, Lincoln fabric (never had that before), Klostern fabric, more Treasure Braid and a single stitched model (a snowman). That will be fun.

Right now the weather is wonderful! I'm happy to hear that the heat wave has diminished in Texas as well. I just wasn't looking forward to roasting next month. I'm such a coward.

Not much else done in the crafting area other than I'm finishing packing up what will be packed up for the Winter. Not going to be able to paint for more than a week-I hope it remains warm enough to keep the windows open! Oh, and I have a temporary cooking blog on the new MSN spaces. I was just trying it out and it seemed a good way to get the recipes to my sister too. Visit it when you are hungry. http://spaces.msn.com/members/PrettyMuchYummy/

Other Stuff I do

Do I only do needlework? Nope. I love movies and books.

I am not a regular TV watcher. Not that there are not good shows on, but just not important enough for me to remember to turn the TV on. I tried, I really did, to enjoy Desperate Housewives, but I was just so turned off by some of the characters that I just stopped bothering. I've been watching 24 (Keiffer Sutherland) on DVD, so will make an effort to see the episodes as they air this year.

I'm very much a movie watcher and I will admit that my preference are high body count movies. Horror, thrillers, action adventure are movies I will go out of my way to see generally (OK..Blade did have a little more blood than I could take, but oh well). I also like kid-like movies (Shrek, Ants, Nemo). I occasionally like a romantic comedy, but I wait until it's on Cinemax to see it. The last one I really liked was You Got Mail. I did rather like Meg Ryan movies, but she isn't 'cute' anymore. So far, I haven't found her particularly good in dramatic roles either.

I have boycotted Tom Cruise movies since 1997. He may be a good actor, but a fruitcake whose career should die before he does any more damage. Seems others are finally catching on!

Most recently, I went to see Corpse Bride. If you didn't like Nightmare Before Christmas, you won't like this movie. It has an interesting story, but the music isn't anywhere near the caliber of the first movie (stories aren't related..just the style). I enjoyed the movie, but this is not one I'd watch over and over. Featured trailers for future movies that looked interesting included Chicken Little, the next Harry Potter movie and Chronicles of Narnia. I go the first day to every Harry Potter movie. Just gotta.

I can no longer read my favorite books. I have eye damage that makes reading a book very difficult. In fact, I haven't read a single Harry Potter book, yet I know them very well via audio editions. On a computer, I can adjust contrast, font, and all making reading easy. Can't on a book. Some of my favorite authors include Anne McCaffrey, Christopher Stasheff and most recently Dean Koontz. I've also become a fan of funny vampire romance books. It's dumb, but hey, I enjoy them.

Ok..well, I'll add more if I get to it today.

Storage for the Scrap Obsessed

Today's posting is for the fabric obsessed. If you are not fabric obsessed, you will not see a point here.

There's been discussion on some quilting boards about how to handle your scraps from quilting projects. I used to have several scrap boxes; it would take hours to go through trying to find stuff to make into something. Then I had to iron, sort and cut. I adapted some of the suggestions. These days, I have a small scrap box and regularly go through and cut pieces into usable sizes. I want stuff that works with quick-cut methods as well. That way, when I'm ready to start a project, I can just start. I also can get a really scrappy look as I have such a variety. However, my collection is not huge. My storage space is small (a bookshelf). How do I organize?

My most common square sizes are 2 7/8 inch, 2 1/2 inch, 2 inch and 1 1/2 inch. I have a couple of other sizes for specific projects. The trick to storage is to store in such a way that you don't have to reiron when ready to use. At the same time, you don't want to become too obsessed with perfect organization. My stuff all has to fit on a bookshelf, so it has to be light. I store my 2.5 inch squares in a photobox, purchased from Michaels. Shoe boxes are too flimsy to constantly take on and off a shelf. I can make a large twin sized quilt from the squares that would totally fill this box. I keep my 2 inch squares in an ice cream bucket. Filled, there are enough squares to make half a twin sized quilt.

I have 2 collections of 1.5 inch squares. One collection is sorted by rainbow colors for a planned quilt. The other quilt, inspired by Bonnie from Quiltville, uses everything else. It is a log cabin look-a-like. Coffee cans are great for these really small squares with one caveat. If you don't like the odor of coffee, use something else as it takes quite a few washings to completely eliminate coffee odor. Once these two quilts are complete, I will never again save 1.5 inch squares! Ahh...but the challenge. This is a project that I expect to take years, so I don't stress over it.


This black Tupperware box, purchased for a buck at a garage sale has worked splendidly for my 2 7/8 inch square and triangle collection. I use the Scrapsaver and surprisingly, have not had any problems with stretching on the bias edge of the triangles. Perhaps I'm more careful than average? In any case, again, I have enough squares to make a twin sized quilt. Next to the box are two fabric collections for specific planned quilts. The 5.5 inch blue squares will become half-square triangles with an appliqued dragon. The 2.5x6.5 beige/tan background rectangles are for a project featured at Quiltville.com called Scrappy Sister's Choice. Most of these were long strips leftover from trading 6 inch squares of background fabrics with other quilters through the mail. I always buy some extra in case of shrinkage or cutting errors.


I absolutely love these little plastic shelf boxes. Unfortunately, I don't have the footspace for them. This little bitty one, which fits on my bookshelf, seemed useful for storage, but it quickly fills. Instead, I use it as a staging area. The top 3 shelves I put cut shapes (Drunkard's path, pyramid, tumbler) for charm and charmlike quilts and the bottom two are for storing chain-pieced leaders and enders for the log cabin look-alike. One has lights, the other darks. When those drawers get filled, I spend a couple hours sewing them together into blocks until they are empty again.


I just loved this little plastic basket that I received when I purchased some charm squares from my LQS. I store 4 x 1.5 inch strips in here. Then, when it gets filled, I sew together a whole bunch of them, trim to 3.5 inches and add them to the utility quilt I am making. It is going together round robin style in order to maintain a complete random look.


Finally, I keep referring to Bonnie. Bonnie is a professional machine quilter in South Carolina who maintains a great site that she has even improved! A recent feature shows her pieced quilt backs (she uses leftover 10.5 inch pieces to piece her backs rather than use yards and yards of the same fabric). http://www.quiltville.com/. OH..oh..ohh...and I bought my plane ticket for Texas yesterday!! I hope a cold front comes through before I get there in mid-October. A heat index of 111 in San Antonio does not sound good!

Storm Damage and Progress

As I type this, I am surrounded by the sound of chain saws. Last night, while watching TV about the path of Hurricane Rita, and wondering if I'm even going to be able to go on my Texas trip, we got hit by a big storm that caused significant damage. In fact, there was a tornado only a couple of blocks away (F2 about 50 feet wide, meterologists say). We, however, had straight line winds estimated at 80 mph. So, we've lost a couple of trees and had a 'train wreck.' My Dad's scale model Christmas Train broke its bracing and fell sideways. The caboose lost it's roof. The trees we lost were due to be cut down in a couple of years, so it's not too tragic. Some folks lost all the trees in their yards and of course, some folks lost their homes. A large section of the business district in both Blaine and Coon Rapids lost power all day, so I wasn't able to get my bifocals today. Darn it.

Note the 5 gallon buckets to get an idea of how big this Christmas lawn ornament is.

Every evening, I've been doing about 1/2 an hour of sewing on the Depression quilt. I just make HSTs. It's also one of the few things I can do on any craft stuff without getting these new bifocals as I can't read directions and work on project at the same time! Darn it.

Needlework Shop Closing and Ebay Rant

I found out over the weekend that the needlework and framing shop closest to me is closing at the end of this month. The owner just decided it was time. Apparently their reduction sale has been going on for a couple of weeks, so there wasn't that much left that I really needed to buy. However, what I did buy was 60% off! I will share it with you!

My first item was a Shepherd's Bush seasonal project entitled "Happy Heart" that includes all the buttons. I liked it and it was a little different from what I'm accustomed to doing. Bees seem to be popular again.



I bought a very few threads. I really liked Treasures braid and loved the fuzzy Alpalca. I resisted buying any of the hand dyes, silks and such easily since I just really don't get into using them. They are nice, but often don't show up well on my backgrounds. I miss a lot of the subtlety unless I have bright sunshine. Could be because I'm red/green color blind? I don't know.


This next one is just a little project called "Dizzy Busy Bees" by The Sweetheart Tree. It also includes a tiny bee to be added to the stitching. I don't hesitate to buy these types of things used as it's relatively easy to get the little figures mail order.



I would have loved to have purchased a couple of the stitched models, but with my Texas trip coming up, I really jumped on myself to stick to my budget. As such, I still spent $26 today! I want to stop at some of the stitching shops in Texas as well, since I'm sure they carry an assortment that isn't readily available here (catcus, cowboys, western, for instance).

EBAY RANT (you can skip this if you want, but if you are a small seller, keep going!)

On to the rant about Ebay. A year ago, several people that I know predicted that Ebay planned to run off all the small sellers (these are the folks that brought Ebay to where it is today). They are currently doing this with new rules at Paypal. Many of you might not know that Ebay purchased Paypal a couple of years ago. I have a Paypal personal account. This has restrictions such as I can only receive $500 in any month, limited number of transactions (I think it's 30) and can't accept credit cards. That's fine--I'm not in business. I sell 25 things roughly 4 times a year. I am typical. I am also being run off.

Two months ago, Ebay started notifying folks that used the Paypal icon that you could only use the icon if you accepted all forms of Paypal payment (in other words, no personal accounts). It confused people. Fine, they have to respond to buyers, even if it's because the buyers refuse to read the payment information. This allows buyers to list only auctions that took Paypal credit cards. The latest thing is to cancel the auctions of folks who do not take credit cards, and do not use the Paypal icon, but accept Paypal bank transfers (e-checks). In other words, personal accounts. You aren't even allowed to list in your description that you accept Paypal cash or e-checks. Now, if you are in business, accepting credit cards is simply necessary today. But as an individual who is selling her personal stuff, why should I have to pay fees for accepting money when I have a PERSONAL account? Several others have predicted that those who don't offer Paypal at all (just money orders or Bidpay) will eventually be knocked off. Ebay greed probably to pay for their billion dollar mistake. Let's look at a recent example applying the new rules. Since I am not a business, I don't have enough transactions to generate any discounts, so would be paying full fees. A used cross stitch booklet which sold at auction for $2 plus $1.50 shipping. Fees are:

• Ebay Listing Fee: .35
  Ebay Final Value Fee: .35
  Paypal fee for accepting money: .30
  Paypal % fee for accepting money (includes shipping): .09

That's $1.09 in fees for a $2 booklet. There is an additional hidden fee. You also get charged for cash transactions as well as the credit card transactions. I have a personal account for a reason. I am not in business. Guess what. Come November, I'm not going to have an account at all because I'm going to cancel both Ebay and Paypal accounts unless Paypal removes their restrictions. It's a little like the fox in the henhouse with a fiduciary dictating what occurs in a sellers' environment.

Now, quitting Ebay isn't such a bad thing. I have noticed, in the last year, that there has been a HUGE dropoff in the market for most used cross-stitch, knitting, quilting and scrapbooking books and patterns. I think it's called market saturation. The only thing I can get on Ebay that is difficult for me to get elsewhere are punchies (for scrapbooking). But those businesses will mostly disappear as well. How can you keep offering punchies for $1.25 when much of it goes for fees? ok..off my soap box. I guess I'll go back to trading charts (or offering them free for postage).

Crafts and Help

I'm not going to belabour this. Right now, cash donations to either Red Cross or Salvation Army will do more for most victims than anything else. However!

Quilters: American Quilters Society (AQS) and the International Quilt Festival (IQF) are both requesting quilts for hurricane refugees. IQF has requested twin sized and AQS requested twin through king-sized. They do not want infant/child quilts. Prefer poly batting (dries faster), but cotton is fine also. Don't forget the long-legged guys! IQF will deliver quilts to the Houston shelters. AQS will store the quilts in their wonderful warehouse facilities in Paducah, ready to ship where they have been requested in the disaster area. This will catch many of those smaller shelters when they are ready to get them. These requests are for finished quilts-they can be quilted or tied.

Here's the link for Intl. Quilt festival: http://quilts.com/
For AQS: Send donated quilts to:AQS Quilters to the Rescue, c/o American Quilter’s Society, 5801 Kentucky Dam RoadPaducah , KY 42003

This is going to be a long term effort at many of these shelters in several states. If you want to knit or crochet afghans for refugees, go ahead and do that. Warmer blankets will be needed in a couple of months. Make them adult sized. Eventually, you'll be able to find addresses of where to donate these for hurricane/flood victims. If you want to make bright, cheerful afghans for kids, go ahead. Just don't make them baby sized or use poor quality materials. Be sure everything you use is machine wash/dry. Don't forget that local need is still there--keep making the blankies for BlankiePatrol.com, battered women's shelters, local law enforcement and such.

Also, I'm thinking that soft toys or pillows might be an appreciated item once the basics are taken care of. Something for a child to hug and hold or to identify a teenager's cot. Just ideas.

Hurricane Katrina

Well, what can I say? It's a huge disaster to the US. I can't even imagine how difficult it is going to be for everybody in the Southern areas struck by this to recover. I don't have any relatives or close friends in the disaster area, but I am very much aware of others who do. The economic impact will be long felt as the affected areas were very dependant on tourist dollars. Anything else in today's post is pretty trivial in comparison.

New Orleans was to be my last stop on my Texas trip in October. I wanted to go there before they lost all the big trees (and I've never been to the South before). Only last Wednesday, I decided against taking the train for the whole trip, due to connection times in Chicago, so I had yet to buy my tickets. I still plan to go to Texas, although it's possible they will cancel the big quilt show in Houston (end of October). If they do that, I will just remain in the areas between Dallas and San Antonio.

I am continuing to pack up my quilting area for remodeling, cut fabric for the scrap quilts and work on those crocheted scrap squares. I'll try to give some interesting pictures tomorrow for a sort of end-of-month wrap up. That is, after I go to use my birthday discount at the local quilt shop!

Also, don't forget. If you haven't already, September 1 is the last day to download patterns from Solutia.com as they have left the yarn business. I tried just SAVE and it doesn't work for my setup. Easiest for me was to open WORDPAD, copy and paste the photo, then copy and paste the instructions column by column (the graphs are photos also). The majority of patterns are crochet, but there's a lot of knitting ones also.
http://www.acrilan.com/patterns.html After you have downloaded your patterns, be sure to BACK UP all your patterns. I have mine on a CD as well as one of those little bitty portable plugins.

Swap Blocks

I've been simultaneously working on finishing two sets of swap blocks, selling stuff on Ebay, trying to get my sewing machine problem solved, visiting with unexpected stayover guests and having medical problems. Egads. Things just come in bunches sometimes.

Here's the block that I made for Barbie Block Swap Two. I'm not certain what this pattern is actually called (Chasing Geese?), but it's a nice one for featuring a really wonderful fabric. Those geese (little triangles) are 1.5 x 3 inches finished. They come out exactly sized using Eleanor Burn's Flying Geese ruler. There are other methods of making flying geese, but when you have this much exactness required, this ruler can't be beat since each goose is made larger and cut back to exact size.

Sorry for the poor color. The geese and the center are different pinks.

Rant Ahead: One of the holdups for finishing the blocks for my block swaps was being unable to get Kona White from my local Hancock Fabrics. They ran out of white more than two months ago. I have requested this several times. Still not in. I don't want to have to switch all my solid fabrics shopping to mail order, but I see I'm losing my choices here. The only quilting store that carried any kind of significant selection of solids closed some years ago. Hancock's carrying Kona helped alleviate that, but I can see lots of orders to Hancock's of Paducah in my future.

Also, someone asked about that chevron afghan featured behind the scrap afghan that I am making (see Aug. 18). The chevron one is not a take-a-long project. This is primarily because you only crochet one line and then move on to the next color. So, you need your whole box of scrap yarn to work on it. It actually looks nicer if you use two rows of one color rather than just one.

One Is Not Enough

It just isn't enough for me to have only one scrap project going. Must have more. Must have more. I started another scrap afghan. This one comes from the Leisure Arts Booklet Old Timey Afghans. Here are some of the little squares that I am making. Very simple design will be surrounded by one row of black and then just sewn together. These go together pretty nicely. If you do this pattern, there is an error (3rd row, need one more dc at the very end of the row). As mentioned before, I leave the ends loose and then use a large yarn needle to finish them off. Needed something to while away the time while chauffering a relative to a 3 hour medical appointment. Still have that beer box full of leftovers, although most will go to a St. Paul elementary school towards the end of September for their projects.


The One Line Afghan went on its way yesterday (cousin and SO). The Kitty Kat Quilt goes away with its owner tomorrow (my sister and BIL). I will miss my finished projects, but I'm ready to move on. Of course, we won't mention that I have another 42 blocks of Kitty Kat quilt (mostly Christmas colors from a swap), so I will be making another, eventually. It will get put away until other projects are done. My younger brother has (gasp) requested a quilt. I'll let him look at quilt projects after I get back from Texas. All my fabric is being put into storage until probably the end of the year (I'll have my UFOs and current projects here). I have no lack of projects to finish!

Today (and the rest of the weekend), I am concentrating on making swap blocks. A little difficult as the guest bed is in the quilting area, which is also under construction. If I can get all the cutting done today, I'll be able to just sew, sew, sew when they leave tomorrow and finish by Sunday night.

I'm adding the Texas State Fair to my itinerary for my trip. I've never been to any other State Fair, so that should be fun (different kinds of cows also). http://www.bigtex.com/

Pets and Crafts

Most blogs I visit include their pet pictures. I don't actually have a pet since my nearly 19 year old cat died several years ago. I am, however, keeper of the EO (Evil One), otherwise known as Fiona. Fiona is my sister's tabby cat, but for several reasons including wanting to be an only cat and illness, she lives here. She is going on 16 years old now and weighs in at 5 lbs. 14 oz. So, she is a small, skinny cat. Her normal daily routine is sleep. Occasionally, she will awaken for food, water and attention, but she prefers to burrow under a quilt or afghan and sleep all day. At night, she rests from her daytime activities and sucks heat from me. Here is her lioness pose when I brought her out in the sunshine today.
This was supposed to be the 'official' portrait for the Kitty Bed Gallery for the Felted Kitty Bed Knit-a-Long. As you can see, the kitty barely cooperated and the color is terrible. I will try to fix that tonight. I used Landscape yarn in variagated pinks. This is a yarn from Joann's that is half 100% wool and half poly. It results in a felted item with nubs. It looks really nice, but unfortunately, it lacks stability. The kitty bed sides insist on flopping over. This would be great for a purse, but not a kitty bed. The upper edge is finished with a couple rows of eyelash yarn (also from Joann's). It really looks nice after coming out of the wash. I'm giving Fiona two months to sleep in it--if that doesn't work, I have two other households to test the bed in.

This soulful look is from my other sister's dog. She is a large sheltie named Brandy. She is laying her head on my very first quilt, the Teepee quilt. Brandy is very gentle with stuff, so I don't worry at all about her using quilts. She's not a digger. Even when playing through blankets, she is incredibly delicate. The thing about Brandy is that she is always cute. This dog does not have an off or ugly day. In fact, the only reason her ears aren't upright in typical sheltie fashion is because my sister was taking the photo (and she's the alpha dog). Brandy is 7 or 8 years old.

So, there you have it. My pet photos. Before I leave you today, I thought I would share a photo of the sexiest cross-stitch project I have ever seen (being sold on Ebay). Wonder if I'll see anything like that in Fort Worth in October? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v311/Tarana/SaveAHorse.jpg

Goodbye Peter Jennings

I've missed seeing Peter Jennings whenever I watch the news. He's been anchoring on ABC pretty much my entire adult life. The one thing he said to learn from his illness was to quit smoking. As an ex-smoker myself, I can understand not only how hard it is to quit, but also how easy it can be to start again.

I'm fortunate. I finally quit after 7 or 8 attempts in January 1991. I recognized that my problem wasn't nicotine addiction so much as the habit of smoking (like biting your fingernails). In the 3 months prior to that, I eliminated habitual places, where I smoked, one at a time. Finally, the only place I smoked was my chair. The day I quit (mid-January), I started an afghan. I made it a goal to finish it for my sister's birthday and it kept my hands busy, busy, busy. Yes, I finished it by February 16 (the night before). I also found that I had to eliminate certain things. Beer was one of them as I always smoked when I drank alcohol. It took about 3 years before I could drink a beer without craving a cigarette.

All of my cigarette money went to buying needlework stuff, so technically, I didn't really save any money by quitting smoking. I created a new demon--one that could fall in on me if the piles of stash get too high!

Today, I didn't get any needlework done so far, but I have been sorting and packing away in anticipation of repainting in September. All these fabrics I had forgotten about, I get to visit again. I am also using my 2.5 gallon Hefty zips to sort out stuff needed for planned projects. I found that these are large enough not only to contain the book/pattern, but also to keep the fabric somewhat wrinkle free. It also reminds me to stop buying more fabric....

Happy Birthday To Me!

I'm 39. Again. Here's the cake my sister made featuring my favorite cartoon character. That strange stuff on top is multicolored sprinkles. The only needlework I've done is undoing a giant multicolor yarn knot. The pieces will all go into the Colorful Granny afghan. Oh, yes, I'm in a unique category. I started out having two younger sisters...I now have 2 older sisters. :)

Swap Blocks

I have often joined online block swaps over the years and really enjoyed them. It started with Compuserve back in 1987 (yeppers, before Netscape!). Currently, I primarily join block swaps with QATW (an MSN quilting group) and Quilting at About.com. I prefer a centralized swap where the blocks are sent to a hostess, swapped out and mailed. This is a fun thing to participate in, particularly if you are not a member of a local group, but it does get expensive (you almost never seem to have the fabric in stash) and can be time consuming. I've learned to plan better and try to get everything together early on. All the swaps featured in this entry are from QATW (last 6 months or so).

The results of the Ocean Waves swap from earlier this Summer. The results were wonderful! One of the participants provided a good photo of a bunch of her swap blocks laid together. Notice that an arrow appears! I never even noticed this effect until I saw it in black. Requirements were black fabric for background and brights. I think most of us used Kona, as it is a very consistant black across the country. Here's a link to the pattern we used: http://www.quilterscache.com/M_O/OceanWavesVariationBlock.html

Photo by Lea Anne

Saturday, I received my swap blocks for the Barbie Quilt! These are really nice! I'm still in the process of completing a block for Barbie 2. My first design wasn't working with the fabric selections, so I'm making a different choice. Once I'm happy, then I can go into production and finish all of them. Notice the cute bikini block in the lower left corner (thanks DJ!). I've had a couple of ideas as to how I want to set these, but I'll wait until I have all the blocks. I also need to make the Barbie silhouette block. The requirements for this swap were that you use only pink, black and solid white.


Here's a prior block swap that I completed. It was Country Baskets (yep, another QATW). Think Thimbleberries colors as this photo sortof washed that out. There were subsequent swaps of the same group, but at the time, I couldn't join. So, I still have more blocks to make before I can finish this quilt. The swap blocks add variety that I might not otherwise have. If you would like to make these blocks, here's a link to the pattern. The instructions are excellent! http://www.scrapquilts.com/basket.html



I hesitated for a long time, since my vision worsened, to join block swaps because mine don't always come out exactly as they should. Several ladies told me to stop agonizing over it, but just don't trim the final block to size. That way, if someone really doesn't like having corners exactly meeting, they can fix it themselves.

Thoughts for July. I'm really amazed that I finished several large projects last month! It's always nice to have a finish to spur you on to finishing other things. On the other hand, due to remodeling at the end of August, I have to put a lot of my projects and fabric into storage. Eeep. On the plus side, I'll be focusing more on cross-stitch. Other good news is that I'm finding all the parts for some of those UFOs that need to be done.

Colorful Granny Scrap Afghan Begun

Finally finished watching 24, season 3 last night. Exciting! While watching, I started on yet another scrap project. This one will use up small quantities of yarn. Here's some of those I did yesterday evening.

I need over 800 of the motif centers, so it will take awhile. The trick to doing this one well seems to be crocheting the piece and leaving a 2-3 inch end after finishing off. Then use a yarn needle to weave the yarn into it. The motifs are only 1.5 inches square. I do about 10, then pick up yarn needle to finish. If you want a scrap afghan pattern that uses up lots of scraps, take a pass on this one. Half the yarn needed is the background (and I surely don't keep quantities of background yarn around!). However, it is ideal for using up your collection of small scraps (yes, let's not say too much about why I would want to). Here's the afghan as pictured in my instruction booklet.


This pattern was originally featured in a Leisure Arts Leaflet called Scrap Yarn Afghans Book Two. On Ebay, with shipping it costs between $6-9. However, I discovered that the pattern has been reissued in a crochet digest sized booklet called Granny's Delight Afghans. Even better for many of you is that it is sold at Walmart! I personally think that the selection of afghans in this booklet are nicer than what were in the original booklet, but that's just my preference. I just bought this in early July, so whine at your local Walmart if it's not in stock and you like this pattern. It is less than $3. It may be carried at Michaels or Hobby Lobby, but Joann's usually doesn't carry these little booklets. Now, I was drawn to this afghan in the first place, but didn't really like the off-white background. Then, I came across SusanB's (Kansas City) website and I was hooked (pun intended). http://susanbinkc.home.att.net/gdaugh.html . She has many examples that she has made for charity using different backgrounds. If you like this pattern at all, be sure to look at her web site.

Now, you might laugh...another project?! Unfortunately, I don't have any other projects I can work on while watching TV (new glasses with bifocals being one of the problems). I have to keep referring to directions and that makes it hard to watch the show. These are easy.

On the Quilting front, I bought a bunch of Christmas fabrics today to make the blocks for an online Christmas block swap. OK.. I went overboard. Be nice. I need to make additional blocks to finish off the quilt. The nice thing about some of these fabrics is that the quilter's gold or glitter really makes them fabulous (along with their rich colors!). Not pictured is the white on white snowflakes or the nearly solid emerald green, which will be included. The back is likely going to be a patchwork of leftover scenic Christmas fabric. I only have plans for one more Christmas quilt and have way too much fabric, so using it for the back is an ideal choice to use up stash. Since the quilt will go to my parents, I'll get to visit it too. I've included a photo of the block design I plan to use for the block swap. It's done in last year's Thimbleberries Christmas Fabrics.
This block is known as "Single Wedding Ring".

Knitting Bag Done

While still listening to the latest Harry Potter audio book, I managed to finish yet another project; this time a knitted one. I finished the knitting and felting on this knitting bag last year and just needed to attach the pockets and handles. I'm not really satisfied with how I did the handles, so plan to pull them out and rethread again. The pattern is My Constant Companion and is a knitting bag featured in the book, Knitters Stash, which contains knitting patterns from shops all over the US. You can also buy the pattern individually from the designer (http://www.knitkit.com/). I have and plan to try out a couple of her other bag patterns include Mezza luna (a crescent shaped bag) and the Oregon Tote (smaller and squarish). Both are felted.

See how the handles tangle funny? I think it's my threading that is doing it, but I needed to post a photo!


My particular bag is made from Cascade 220 (purple) and Lamb's Pride Bulky (pink - adds a fuzzy texture for interest). I did have to trim my pockets as they just wouldn't square up after felting. I used regular Coats and Clark thread to attach the front pocket and the inner pocket. Next time, I will use a more substantial needle as mine bent. I am missing one pocket (a long one intended to hold double pointed needles), so when I find that, I will add it to the inside.

Since I rarely buy knitting books, I thought I would review this a bit. Mine is the original hardcover version. Contains a variety of patterns from shops all over US-adult sweaters, both long and sleeveless, a couple of children's items, a very interesting tea cozy, a rug, felted fish and a pillow among them. These are often the most popular selling pattern at the specific shop. Now, the knitting bag is what got me to buy the book, but the sweaters are also an attraction. They tend to be more sophisticated without being too trendy. Many of the featured items use more expensive yarns, however, you can substitute. This book assumes that you are an experienced knitter, so I don't recommend it for beginners.


The paperback version is available at Amazon.com along with more reviews. One reviewer mentioned that there was a substantial listing of errata for this book. I checked, and yes, it looks that way, but the majority of the errors are minor. Here's a link to those changes: http://www.interweave.com/knit/books/be_knitters_stash.asp
I should comment about the reviewers at Amazon who reviewed this book. The majority who did not like the book were either beginning knitters or prefer a style or project not represented in this book. To complain that the name of the book indicates that the book features scrap patterns is your first clue. One legitimate complaint is that there wasn't more information on the specific yarns so that substitutions can be made 10 years from now. However, that complaint is minor because gauge is included in every pattern.

One Line Afghan Completed

I have finally finished the One Line Afghan! This is a present for my cousin and her SO. She was the only female relative I hadn't made an afghan for yet. The finished afghan is 60 x 95 inches. Yes, this is an example of why you should check gauge. It is 20 inches longer than I had planned!

This is not my original pattern, but a combination of a couple that were previously published decades ago. A pattern called Ole Scrap by Lou Ann Millsaps (1995-Needlecraft shop: Afghan collectors series) is very similar and likely based on those older ones. I kept alternating between an I and J (whichever was handy) with a resulting gauge of 10 stitches for 4 inches. I would recommend making a 10 inch swatch (with just a 2 inch tail) to find out how many to cast on for your length. After a while, I started to do colorways from light to dark throughout (adding yellow here and there to add some brightness to the afghan) as it had much better color than just light color followed by dark color. This project was started in early 2004. My digital photo just doesn't show the wonderful color of this afghan!

One Line Afghan (60 x 75 inches)
Gauge: 10 stitches over 4 inches

Need: I hook and lots of scraps (I used a beer box full of yarns). Use worsted weight yarn. You can use the occasional sport weight yarn, but use 2 strands when crocheting. For some yarns, you may have to switch to a J hook for that row. I did not like the result using specialty yarns. Homespun or Boucle also looked weird (unless you have enough to use throughout the afghan).

Directions: Do not turn your work throughout. Always leave a 10 inch tail on both sides. Leaving a tail of about 10 inches, make 185 chains (this is your length). Finish off, leaving a 10 inch tail. Returning to first chain, sc in first stitch. Then alternate dc and sc to end. Finish off. Always starting at the same end, alternate starting with sc and dc for remaining rows. Stop when 60 inches wide.

Color: to get the nicest effect, work with colorways going from very light to very dark. I found working 6 colors in this worked much better than 2 or 3. A colorway would be like a group of blues or a group of greens. Work a yellow, gold or orange in occasionally to really brighten it up.

Fringe: Gently pull together 4 ends and tie close to afghan. Do not let them pucker. After all ends are tied, use a ruler and cut each section even to 7 inches from the knot (don't try to do a bunch at once--just doesn't work well).

Note: This is an oversized afghan as my family members tend to be either very tall or fluffy. Adjust size as needed. If your gauge doesn't match, just figure out your stitches per inch from your swatch and divide into 75. Makes a very nice pet mat - just make it smaller.

[edited to add]. Why 10 inches on ends? It allows enough length to do several decorative options for fringe as well as allowing for an uneven edge. I just used one knot at the edge of the afghan, but you could also do a double knot, braid, or just finish the edge in multicolor yarns. If you then finish off the edge, you can put in fringe that is more substantial.

Kitty Kat Quilt is Done

Yeppers, it has happened. I have finished the Kitty Kat Quilt! Started it in December 2003 and finished yesterday. This is a gift for my sister and BIL who have 4 kitties (actually, 5, but I have Fiona at my house). It is about 74x94. Many of the kitties (and fenceposts) came from a swap.

This closeup shows some of the quilting. I primarily quilted in the ditch around the kitties, but having not read the instructions for the batting in advance, discovered, after it was pinned, that I needed to quilt within 3 inches. Thus, I needed something in the spots where kitties were facing away from each other. I used designs from one of my recent quilting book purchases as well as making up things such as a Friskies cat food can and milk container. The little mouse in the corner is a freebee mouse design from Quiltmaker.

The back of the quilt was done with 3 fabrics sewn together. I figured that it was a patchwork on the front, may as well do it on the back as well (and use up some stash).

This pattern is from McCalls October 2000 by Robert Callahan based on a design by Janet Kime. I used the modified kitty block featured at the link below, which gives a little more space for the kitty kat ears.

(edited) The link to the pattern adaptation used for this quilt is no longer active. Therefore, I am placing piecing instructions here. Sorry, don't have the diagrams.

Finished size: 5"x9" (unfinished size: 5-1/2" x 9-1/2")

Please use good quality fabric. Wash and iron before using.

Cat fabric: cut (2) 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" squares, (1) 3-1/2" x 8-1/4" rectangle, (1) 2-1/2" x 6-1/2" rectangle.

Background fabric: cut (1) 1-3/4" x 3-1/2" rectangle, (1) 2-1/2" x 5-1/2" rectangle.

Piecing the Block:

1. Draw or press/iron a diagonal line on wrong side of cat fabric 1-1/2" square. Place cat fabric square on background 1-3/4" x 3-1/2" rectangle, right sides together, aligning bottom raw edges. You'll notice that there will be extra background material above the square. This is to ensure that the tops of the ears don't get lopped off! Stitch on the drawn/pressed line. Trim excess fabric; press open. Repeat on opposite end of background rectangle with matching 1-1/2" cat fabric square to make a pieced rectangle.

2. Sew pieced rectangle to matching cat fabric 3-1/2" x 8-1/4" rectangle.

3. Draw a 45° diagonal line on wrong side of background fabric 2-1/2" x 5-1/2" rectangle from upper left hand corner to raw edge. Hint: to quickly and accurately mark diagonal, simply fold upper right hand corner down to left edge to form triangle. Align raw edges and finger-press along fold.

4. Sew pieced rectangle to matching pieced cat body. And there you have it! A cute little kitty!

Harry Potter Cometh

Finished the crocheting on the One Line Afghan today! Finally! Tomorrow, I'll do the ends and the fringe. Maybe by the end of the week it will be a done deal!

The audio version of the latest Harry Potter came in at the library. My sister is listening to it now and then I will take over. Since we only have 10 days, I probably won't be posting until after I've listened to it, which will take 2-3 days, I'm sure. If you get a chance at all, listen to the audio versions of this book. Jim Dale came out of retirement to be the 'voice' of this series and it is wonderful to listen to his telling of it (and his many voices).

Listening to Harry Potter audios is when I work on cutting out my charms for my 1000 pyramids charm quilt. I have over 600 cut out now. A charm quilt is one where you use one pattern piece and every piece is a different fabric. I just picked a triangle for mine, but many use squares or other shapes. Takes real effort to accumulate a lot of charms. Cutting them out is also a time consuming process. My charms vary in size from just over 4 inches to 8 inches, depending on where I got the charms. Well, yes, and in addition to any fabrics that I bought for other projects. I use rotary templates and a 28 mm Olfa cutter. I first cut out a pyramid, then a Drunkard's Path piece (if there is room) and then squares or 1.5x4 rectangles. Many of the fabrics are top quality, so I really don't want to waste any of it. I can also enjoy it in more than one quilt!

Here's one triangle of my 1000 pyramids. When put together this way, instead of row by row, you can create disappearing mountains. This was the feature I most loved about this pattern! Also, a link to the template set that I use: http://www.ezquilt.com/products/acrylictools/classic.htm. This set has the advantage of showing the sewing lines so that you can view exactly what is going to show up and center flowers or butterflies or some other feature.

This is the Drunkard's Path quilt that I've been making from the leftovers from charms. It's a 3 inch Drunkard's Path (also a set from Pepper Cory/EZ Quilting - got mine at Michaels). I have enough of these now to finish my queen sized quilt, but I can't help it. It's my very favorite pattern, so I'll just keep cutting more.

Bright fabrics don't often work with all the other fabrics in my charm quilt, so I have been making a tumbler semi-charm quilt with those fabrics (as well as leftovers from my fish and bug projects). Yes, I know, this probably has a lot to do with why I have problems finishing! I have too many things going. This will probably end up a modified eye spy quilt for a kid. If you look carefully, every tumbler has a corner clipped out of it. This is part of the template that makes matching very easy when sewing. You get the actual sewing done more quickly and accurately.


The 1.5x4 inch pieces are being saved so that I can do this Flip and Sew Mystery quilt. It's just a technique I wanted to try and since I have a ton of this 3 inch cash register tape. I was unable to participate in the mystery at the time, but still want to make a quilt from it. Here's a link. http://members.aol.com/qltblockcenter/04benfranklin/index.htm. Now, I don't specifically measure these to be 4 inches, just that they are at least 4 inches. The ends will all get cut off anyway. Yes, folks, there are faster ways to accumulate these, but I'll do that AFTER all the charms are done!

The Post Brings Excitement

This is a rare occasion for a double post. I received a Random Act of Crochet from a fellow crocheter in Britain today. She sent me a wonderful Mile-a-Minute pattern booklet. I didn't know you could do pineapple or aran afghans this way. I love all these patterns (heck, I've made 5 Mile a Minutes over the years). I'm really looking forward to starting one of these soon!

She also sent me a wonderful square for my afghan. A simple stitch featuring a fabulous ribbon yarn. It is by Patons and I am now totally sold on ribbon yarn. It is SO soft. The label is missing part of the name of the yarn - starts with Bell which may be discontinued or simply not sold in US (sure is soft). Feels somewhat like a rayon. Did I mention soft? I would like to make a short sleeve garment out of this as my first garment. This was a wonderful package from my British Elf!


I also wanted to mention the potholder/mat that I bought at a garage sale earlier this year. It was a newly made item. This has been, by far, the best potholder for me so far. I have large hands and many potholders just aren't big enough or are too thick or thin. This one is great! What she did was single crochet two rectangles and then crocheted the two together using a nifty picot stitch. It is made of kitchen cotton (I don't know brand). I really like fancy potholders, but well, this one works for me. The cheery color helps as well. I bought two from her and have been using them since May and I just love them! Interestingly, my Mom doesn't like them, although she is finally using mine. She prefers the cutesy ones (she also has small hands). I'll have to make her a sheep or cow one. You know...she's my Mom.

Return to Regularly Scheduled Weather

It is so nice and cool outside (70 something) and breezy. A huge difference from yesterday.

Yes folks, it is no longer a rumor. The digital camera and the computer are buddies once again. Of course, we had a beautiful morning and the MOMENT I go outside to take photos, it becomes totally overcast (and is darkening even more as I type). Anyway, I did take some photos of projects. The first is my Christmas Snowball quilt That was one of my UFO projects. The center snowball blocks have a Christmas scenery fabric. Really a great way to feature a fabric! I quilted poinsetta leaves and berries in the center of the snoballs and meandered the rest. The pattern was called Monet's Garden and it was from Quiltmaker (republished last year in one of those 'favorites' issues). I started the quilt in 1994, I think and finished earlier this year.


The second photo is of the nearly completed One-Line Afghan. As mentioned before, this afghan is entirely made up of yarn purchased at garage sales. Takes a long time and uses a lot of yarn, but it sure feels nice. Most of the yarn is worsted (a lot of it Red Heart before and after the turn to no-dye-lot), but I also used some sport yarn by doubling it up. I have one of those yarn winders which makes it really easy to use both ends of the yarn without tangling. This is also an afghan where making a swatch to get gauge is really important. This puppy ended up considerably longer than I had planned-not that my cousin's SO will object (he's pretty tall).