Swag Bag to Beat All Swag Bags

I am attending the Yarn Market News Conference which is being held in Seattle for the first time. The swag bag is legendary and we yarn shop owners and managers are pretty inured to the charms of free yarn.



A free Namaste Monroe bag in Eggplant (you could pick your style and color).



Packed with all this stuff!

There's too much stuff to list here but needles, yarn, books, patterns, gift items, wool wash and more bags inside!

I should be pretty busy for the next two days. Not that I'm doing any knitting. I have a new quilt on my "design wall" or piece of felt. It's the Santorini samples I bought last weekend mixed with a few other yarns. The blocks are from Color Shuffle that I mentioned in this post. All of these are cut from stacks of four fabrics then shuffled and reassembled. Very quick to put together as you can see.

More Thursday on Friday

Yesterday's post was just the furry tip of a fur covered iceberg. You really must do yourself a favor and view the entire collection. Full fur suits for men and women, sparkle high heel furry boots, fur bell-bottom jumpsuits...you must see it for yourself.

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

Oh, Karl*. It's like you saw last week's post and said, "I see your fur shorts and I raise you."



*Lagerfeld

Measure Twice, Cut Once

After conning Wes into ripping out my mis-sewn block I put it back together. Incorrectly. But not only did I sew it incorrectly I also cut some of my fabric incorrectly. Now I don't have the right amount of fabric. I also realized that I'm not that crazy about this ENORMOUS block anyway. So I'm going to set it aside and move on.

I have a huge pile of quilting books from the library. I'm thinking of trying out some of the techniques in Color Shuffle. The blocks are based on taking a stack of fabric, chopping it up then shuffling the layers. Sort of an orderly scrappy look. Let's see if I can do it without screwing it up.

My hand is feeling better but the back of my wrist is still swollen. I see a physical therapist on Friday. Maybe I'll get a greenlight for some knitting. A girl can hope.

The Last Three Days

I saw the hand specialist on Friday and he just confirmed that I have DeQuervain's (tendonitis in my thumb). I was sent to another clinic and got a custom splint made that is way more comfortable than the generic one I got a few weeks ago. It looks like I have many more weeks of rest in my future before I can start knitting again.

So I have been quilting. I got Liberated Quiltmaking II which has been great inspiration. I made several blocks after looking the book over. Here's a wonky photo of my wonky blocks.



I was given this nifty foundation piecing stamp at the Knitters Guild last week by Linda K. You can see the stamp here with a finished block and a block in progress.



See how tiny?



I'm scared to try to get the paper off the backs of these since the seams are so short. I might use muslin as a backing next time. I have three other stamps I haven't tried yet. You have to be in a particular mood to work on these teeny blocks. And willing to follow the lines.

I got all the sashing on my scrappy blocks and put the whole top together. Here's an idea of how the blocks look with sashing.



I also pieced a back for this. I put a border on this crazy four-patch and pieced a back. I also went to a fabric and notion trade show in the area this weekend. A Moda rep was selling some sample sets. I got 31 pieces of varying sizes of Santorini (.pdf). I've already started cutting and trying to add other fabrics to make this Nest quilt (.pdf). I'm not sure the pieces I have will work for this quilt and I wanted to try to make a sample block. I got ahead of myself and skipped a step. Now I have to rip out several seams and I can't find a way to do that without using my left thumb. Maybe if I make puppy dog eyes at Wes he'll help me out.

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

As soon as the D@lce & Gabanna fall show hit the internet I started to get emails. It's just so Thursday.


From the waist up this one is so cute. From the waist down it's so...perplexing.





You've got knitted rompers.


How do you say romper in Norwegian?

Then comes the catsuit.



Oh, but wait. It's not really knit. It's faux.



But what makes this all seem completely reasonable in comparison?



FUR SHORTS. Please pass the hot pants.

Today's Post is Brought to You by the Letter S

Younger Son is Sick with Strep throat (again) and a Staph infection. While I'm Stuck at home I put on the Sashing for the Scrappy quilt blocks and Surfed the internet. This Sucks.

Getting Carried Away

This morning Wes suggested we walk to Fremont to see the Sunday Market and maybe get some lunch. Once we were there we decided to keep walking to Ballard to visit the library and try the Sunday fried chicken dinner at The Hi-Life. In all we walked 4.5 miles! I'm surprised the kids didn't complain more. The fried chicken was amazing, by the way. And so much food. We have enough for lunches for tomorrow.

My quilting has taken a similar route. I started with the crazy little squares but I didn't feel like cutting the sashing. Then I started a Sparks Baby Quilt. I made all the blocks but didn't feel like cutting the sashing. So I started cutting fabric for another quilt. This one is inspired by a pattern from Kaffe Fassett's Quilts in the Sun. I'm trying to use all the fabrics I already have for these projects. I just don't think I have the right mix for this one. I've also discovered that I really like mid-range value fabrics. I'm talking about color depth here not savings. I don't have many very light or very dark fabrics. I like stuff right in the middle. The pattern I'm trying to put together is made from half-square triangles. They need a dark side and a light side. Mine just look kind of meh. So I sucked it up and cut the sashing for the crazy blocks. I calculated the yardage based on 2" sashing then I cut 2.5". I realized my mistake as I noticed I was running out of fabric. I'll pick some more up tomorrow. I haven't taken any pictures other than this really crappy one of the Sparks blocks. It was just for my own reference.



I think this one might get filed in my Excessively Scrappy drawer. It's kind of cute though.

Also, if any fabric gurus are out there, do you know what this fabric is? I got a fat quarter who knows where who knows when. But I just love it. It makes me smile. I would love to know what line it is from.

Scraps for Sanity

My left hand still hurts. My right hand hurts now from doing everything one-handed. My appointment with the hand specialist got canceled. I needed something to do. So I started to make scrappy quilt blocks. They're kind of addictive.



This isn't even all of them. I've made 29 so far. When my older son got home from school and saw me at the sewing machine he said, "Uh...aren't you supposed to resting?"
"Well," I said, "I did spend several hours on the couch today with an ice pack.
"And then you cracked?"
He really knows me so well.

Yes, I cracked. The needlepoint/embroidery was making my right hand hurt. So I started sewing. Very easy on the hands. I put my leg-lift bar thing on my machine so I can raise and lower the presser foot hands-free. I grab two scraps and stitch. I chain-pieced so I just kept grabbing two and stitching over and over. Then I cut them apart and pressed, trimmed a bit if necessary then started again with the larger pieced putting them together. Repeated endlessly. It was mindless and very satisfying. Now I have all these blocks. I got a little fabric to make sashing but I will wait on that. Holding the ruler firmly and pressing hard with my rotary cutter is too hard on my hands.

So in the meantime...more scraps!



I made four 12.5" blocks (based on this tutorial) just using odds and ends. So much fun. The results is a little chaotic and crazy. I don't care. I really enjoyed making it.

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

Anyone for a swim?









Better get our your wool roving, crochet hook and suede boots. You'll be beach-ready in no time.

Doubleknit #33

It's up.

Vogue Knitting Preview

I really must not be feeling well because I kind of like it! The 360° is up too.