Good Things Come in Small Packages

Well, I finally got the last border on it and now I present... Blue Mountain Rhapsody! I'm going to hand it off this week for somebody else to make the border. I'm really pleased at how well it turned out. It's probably the most complicated top I've ever made, uh, make that completed. Moreover, Stashbuster Alert! I used 132"--that's almost 4 yards--from my stash!

And in the mail yesterday arrived a nice little package.

I looked at the return address (Mary Jane's Cross and Stitch) and had to zoom to my studio to open it. I thought you'd like to come along for the ride.

Hmm, packaging material...

Looks intriguing...

Ooh! Yes! It's my first installment in the Over-the-Top Series from Just Nan! Cute, huh? I can hardly wait to start. I just need to get past this finishitis first....

Speaking of which...

I couldn't sleep last night so I got up and knitted the i-cord (kind of a square strap for you non-knitters) for my iPod carrier while reading more of Sense and Sensibility. Then I took advantage of the fact I was using cotton yarn. Cotton yarn is plied loosely. I was able to separate 1 of the 4 plies and use it as a thread to sew up the sides of MiPod. It worked like a nice strong button thread. Now I don't need pockets to listen to a podcast! Hoop-de-do!

Finishitis Strikes Again!

So I finally finished The Red Thread. I wasn't able to obtain the "finishing kit" that Bent Creek put together, so I went through my supplies and found snaps and heart-shaped buttons. I think it came out pretty cute! I think that if you click the photo, you'll get a larger version of it.

I've started reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Okay, it's part of a larger scheme. I joined the Jane Austen Yarn Club. It goes for a year and every two months a new reading suggestion, hand-dyed yarn, and original knitting pattern arrives. I know, it's a total indulgence, so I paid for it out of my own money, not the household expenses... Besides, anything that encourages me to get reading these days is a good thing. I used to read a great deal. In fact, my parents used to claim that I was born six days early because I didn't have anything to read in there!

... and They Asked for Seconds!

Tonight's dinner featured something that went over very well... and shouldn't have! So I thought I'd share the recipe. Even if you're not into cooking, I think it makes good reading.

Twice-Baked Cornbread

1 cup cornmeal 1 cup white flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 can of corn
scavenged leftover pumpkin (about 1/2 cup)
1 cup plain nonfat yogurt, preferably left on the top shelf of the refrigerator to partially freeze
1/4 cup vegetable oil, more as needed
2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.


2. Drain the corn and reserve the liquid for use in a soup. (worked great in a roasted veg soup tonight!)


3. Get the cornmeal out to discover it's almost all gone. Substitute husband's prize stone ground polenta and hide the evidence.


4. Mix "cornmeal" with flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.


5. Scrape yogurt into measuring cup, approximating because of the ice crystals. Add pumpkin and oil. Stir.


6. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients with corn. Mix until appears like a thick batter. (or mooshed-up macaroni and cheese, as the Man of the Place commented.)


7. Scoop into prepared muffin tin. There will be some leftover. Ignore it. You have plenty to do.


8. Set timer for 15 minutes and work on soup.


9. After 12 minutes, discover eggs still sitting on work area. Squawk.


10. Remove muffin tin from oven and glare at it. Think. Look at the eggs.


11. Shrug. Crack eggs into leftover batter and mix thoroughly.


12. Scoop mostly cooked batter out of muffin tin and into mixture. Mix really thoroughly, being sure to break up all the cooked bits.


13. Look at the clock. Note that you have to leave in five minutes to pick up your kid from soccer practice and there will be no way to make two batches of muffins.


14. Yank out a square 8 x 8 glass dish. Spray it and dump in the new mixture. Pat it out evenly.


15. Place in oven and set cook-timer to turn itself off in 25 minutes.
    
16. Dump the muffin tin in the sink and hope for the best.

MiPod has Cables

Whoa! It's been a week since my last post! How did that happen? It must have been that crazy trip with Joaquin Phoenix to Malaysia... Oh, no, I dreamed that. Ah, well.

Okay, I haven't been jet-setting, but I have kept busy. I finished the stippling on the Polka Dot Garden...

...and the chartreuse thread rocked it!

And I got the medallion done on Ben's quilt. I worked about 8 hours on it on Friday. Whew!All that's left for the top is a border. I still don't have a good name for it, though.

One of my favorite things to do while creating pretty things is to listen to podcasts and music on my iPod, Ruby. Ruby also keeps me company while I exercise and do housework. The only problem is that I am a female. Hence, most of my clothes are pocket-free. So, I looked up iPod knitting patterns and found this one! So soon I will have my iPod caddy all ready to go!

Notice the cables? That's right, this girl can do cables. (Woot-woot!) And I only had to change needles three times and yarn once.

Last night I went to one of those Murder Mystery Parties. It was such fun! I was the tarty character (how come I got pegged as the tart?) and the Man of the Place was a gangster. Surprisingly, we were both innocent. It turned out to be the guy who, in real life, is a pastor! Go figure...

To Thine Own Self Be True

Well, I seem to be settling into 2009 just fine. And learning from past mistakes. If you've been reading my blog for a month or more, you may recall that I had to repin and iron a quilt (Cielo) because I pinned it and stored it before getting around to quilting it, making cause for quite a bit of whining. Well, yesterday I took my quilt to my quilt therapy group and pinned it. Then I took it home--carefully!--and laid it out so it would be ready to go. And it worked out just fine. Yay.
On the way home, I picked up the thread I wanted to use for quilting. I like it. Of course, chartreuse is a little wild, but come on, it's me we're talking about...
Next thing: I know that if I quilt this thing and then have to make up the binding, I will most like have a ginormous (that's a word now!) break between quilting and binding because I'll run out of steam, so I made up a roll o' binding, using the continuous binding technique, and put it away. That way, as soon as I finish quilting my Polka Dot Garden, I can just keep right on truckin'.
I needed some actual handwork today, so I pulled out what I've been calling "Baby Boy on Moon." Turns out the actual name is "Crescent Dreams." Now I wonder why I never finished it. It's not very complex. And the colors are pretty. I sewed on it while I watched the Chargers game with the Man of the Place. They won! Go Bolts!

Welcome to 2009!

You know what I love to hear? When a party hopper says, "I was having so much fun I stayed longer than I meant to." That's a very good sign. I like to run New Year's like an open house so party hoppers can come and go, regulars can stay all night, and those who barely made it out of the house at 11 pm are still comfortable to arrive late and stay late. Tiny has an annual sleepover to extend the party and that makes for buckets more fun.

We had a great crowd. Not too many and not too few. But there was still room for you.

Many games got a good airing out: I played Imaginiff (a Christmas present), Apples to Apples (Santa's surprise gift), and Trivial Pursuit 20th Anniversary--it was so hard we wound up helping each other to get the answers! That made for a very congenial group. And noisy.

And this morning, with God's help, I woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to watch to Rose Parade. Meanwhile, I cut out the fabric for Ben's quilt. I think the colors are toned-down enough for a fellah and I know he has a special affinity for dragonflies. Say a little prayer for Him will ya? He needs help getting a new start in a new place.This is the pattern I'm working on... from this book:I took a class from this teacher in the summer and she made this sooo do-able.

Oh, and Stashbuster Alert! I'm making it from fabrics in the stash! Can I hear a woot-woot?!

UFOs Spotted Circling Local Studio

We're getting ready for New Year's Eve here! Planning the menu, baking a cake, making little yummies for our dear friends and family. We do an open house and play games. It's fun! C'mon by!

Also, I have been going through and pulling out some of my UFOs. I thought I'd share a few pictures. BUT, just because I'm showing them to you does NOT mean I'm working on them. I thought that looking at them might inspire me. We'll see.

Nine Batik Stars

These blocks are lovely. I look forward to putting them together. I have more of the background color and I like this batik for a border.

Butterfly Garden Quilt Sampler

Barely started--I've probably only spent an hour on it--but likely to be very pretty.

Sleep, Baby, Sleep

I was planning to put this up in my daughter's nursury but, as she's fourteen, she probably wouldn't appreciate it now.

Crescent Dreams

This was a birth gift for a boy who is past toddler age. Again, probably not appropriate.

To Have and To Hold

It's not specific to anyone... yet. I don't remember having much fun sewing on it, so it may never get done.

New Love Blooms

This is our wedding sampler. We've only been married sixteen years, so it's still good. Right?

I Liked It So Much I Bought It Twice!

I was stuck. Really stuck. I used this fun Jacobean print with the polka dots, but I only had 1 measly yard and used it all up in the blocks. But I still had to make the final border. What would go with everything? I am against using white in the outside of a quilt because that's where hands mostly go. Hands aren't always clean. I think you can follow the logic. So I'm pulling out purple, pink, blue, yellow. Nothing looks right. I mean, really. This quilt is crazy (although it's not a Crazy Quilt). So, in a fit of what-the-blank, I pulled out the multicolored fabric boxes and guess what? I found a whole 'nother yard of the Jacobean! Ya-hoo!

Also, I'm starting two more quilts before year's end: this one will be simple. It's called "Late Bloomers" because it's floral on black. It's a great way to, what? That's right, use up stash fabric and use the pink fabric Santa brought me.The pink and the orchids will alternate, and this will be the border.Also, I pulled this puppy out. I've been wanting to work on it for a while, so it's going to get some attention!

The Magical Magic Loop

Bonnie said...
I've just started making socks. Used a pattern I didn't particularly like but the socks are done and are being worn. Does Adult Socks II teach the Magic Loop Method? I bought the book about knitting on two circular needles but haven't found both sets of circular needles. What is the magic about Magic Loop?

Nope. Adult Socks II has you using 4 DPNs (That's double pointed needles for you non-knitters. And before your imagination gets going all weird with some convoluted bent stick thing, you oughta know that a DPN is a straight stick with a point on both ends. That's all.)

Here's a pic I found on the net that shows Magic Loop pretty clearly.

Being a one-day veteran (bow in wonder!) of the Magic Loop method, I can tell you that the only magic I'm seeing is a lowered likelihood of dropping stitches, and a near impossibility of losing needles. Oh, also, it seems to go pretty fast and for a slowpoke like me, anything to speed me up is a good thing. Sock Diva (you know who you are) got me going yesterday morning and I cooked right along. I've already turned the heel (it's kinda square!) and am about halfway through the sole.

And I've been obsessed, as Tiny would say, with my Polka Dot Garden quilt. This is just plain fun for me! And if you think it's loud, well, all I can say is, "Duh!" I have found that it's really important to make stuff ASAP from gift materials. That way people know how happy you are with your gifties. I'm so happy that I already had this Jacobean-inspired fabric that picked up all the colors of the polka dot fabric that was in my stocking. (The pattern is called "Barbara's Antique" and is from Debbie Caffrey.) I'll probably sash it in white to calm it down a little.

Socks and Quilts Galore

I probably knitted about 25 stitches today, but that was putting it on my new needles! I'm going to switch over to Magic Loop Method. Oot-oot!

And speaking of socks....

tshquilts said...
love your quilts and socks. (Thanks, tsh!) What book or pattern would you recommend to someone who has not knitted for many years, but would like to make some socks?
Oh, that's easy! My "go-to" sock pattern is Ann Norling's Adult Socks II: Play on Ribs... funny, now that I look at it, I don't follow it to the letter. I stop the ribbing wherever I feel like it (usually after 2" of cuff) and just do plain knitting (stockinette to those in the know). I'm slow enough already without all that switching from purl to knit. But back to the topic: This pattern not only has sizes for tinies and grups (adults), but it has instructions that accomodate 3 different common yarn weights: worsted, sport, and fingering!

But let me open this up to you all: what's your favorite easy sock pattern?

One more piece of advice: if you have to start over a few times, Baby, know that you're not alone. I've made 18 socks. I've started probably 30 times. You do the math.

Here's the quilt that I had to be so cagey about:

I couldn't show the football fabric without giving it away. My beloved Uncle Don is a huge Buffalo Bills fan, so I found some appropriate Bills colored fabrics in my stash (Stashbuster Alert) and put it together with the football. I titled it, "Are You Ready for Some Football?" When I bought the Football fabric, I thought I'd only need a small amount, for the borders, so I was thinking a yard, to be on the safe side, then I thought maybe I'll just use it for the back, so I said, "Two yards, please." Then something made me say, "No, make that two and a half." Clearly, I was way overbuying and overbuying fabric that was so not me. Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, friends. Here's what's left over:

What's happening today, you ask? Ah, yes. Today I been quiltin' big-time! I finished Cielo: ta-da!

And I started a NEW QUILT. Yes, not one that I started a year ago and not one as a gift, but a genuine new quilt based on the fat quarters that graced my stocking! I had a lovely yard of fabric in the stash that goes very well! Here's what's going on so far:

I've chopped up all the fabric for the blocks--yay!