Michigan quilters, take note

 

Come see us at our first Quilter's to Quilter's sale.  

Don't know what that is?  Well, it will be 28 quilters/vendors selling their gently used quilting tools, books, magazines, Ott lights, sewing machines, fabric, new handmade items, rulers,   and so much more.  

To keep you going, there will be food to keep up your energy so that you can shop til you drop, too. 

Hope to see you there.  

Cleaning out the sewing room.

Oh, the things we find when we  straighten out or clean up our sewing rooms. 

Sometimes I think it's not a good thing because then I can't find anything after I have organized; but then again, you find projects that you started eons ago or things you bought that you wanted to make but for some reason they got put out of sight.  

Well, I started these neat little journal pen holders awhile back and there were still two that were cut out but not made, so I got them finished.  

It's a little pocket that you store you pen in and then the elastic holds it to your journal.  Your pen is always where you need it.  I love them.  It's so fun to do them in funky colors, too. 

I thought these would make great little gifts for those times when we are supposed to bring something at a retreat or whatever to exchange.  

Then, back in December, I got the makings for a rope basket.  I followed the instructions from a YouTube videa  rope basket   and this is what I ended up with.  

Not perfect, but I still like it and it will serve me well when I have knitting projects or just yarn that I want to keep together.  

I, also, had some fabric that was cut out into squares and finally decided to put the top together for a charity quilt, but I will share that when I get that off the longarm and it is finished.  

Catch up on knitting projects.

I've been really remiss on keeping you up- to-date on all my knitting projects.  

Over the last few months, I have been knitting more than I have been quilting.  

My goal was to get some older projects finished with a few new ones thrown in for good measure.  

In January I made....

Juniper hat

Alder mittens

February was the.....

Tuesday hat

Anita's fingerless mitts

March found me finishing the 

Cromwell sweater

Kitty Ankle socks

April was the .....

Summer picnic socks

and I just finished the Ingrid Sweater in June.

All these patterns can be found on Ravelry.  

Because I have sandbagged all these projects, I have spared you all the details, but feel free to ask if you have any questions.  

Guild's Mystery Quilt

I may have OCD.

Doing a mystery quilt is really hard for me.  I need to know what color is going where, what the pattern is, etc., etc.  

I've only done one mystery quilt in the past and I have to admit that I really ended up loving it.  It's just stressful while I am making it because of all the unknowns.  

Well, I am jumping in again.  

We needed 1 yd. very dark; 1 yd, med dark; 1 yd dark (I'm already losing my mind), and 3/4 yd medium.  Then there is the 5 yards of a light that is needed for the background.

Well, I happened to have a 5 yard piece of fabric that I bought for a backing for something else and it really didn't work, but I thought now would be a good time to get that used up by buying fabric for this mystery that matched this backing that I really love. 

These are the fabrics I picked out.  You can see the solid Peach Kona to the left (background).

Got my Ruby Beholder out to check on value since very dk, med. d, and dark seem to be so close.  

Also, took a black and white photo of the fabrics .  

I am pretty pleased with the order. 

What do you think about the long ago bought backing?  

First step:  Other than buying the fabric , we had to  cut out strips.  I am anxiously awaiting the next step because now that the colors are chosen, I am excited to get to sewing on this project.  

Clue 1::

November guild newsletter.

The order of strips to be sewn together is given.  I hopped on it right away. 

I feel like I could be on a roll, but now I have to wat until December  

Clue 2:

This is an easy one for December because they know we are super busy this month.

We just have to measure our first sewn strip to get our own personal measurement and then cut 12 squares with that measurement from the solid light fabrics.  I haven't done mine yet because...... as they know, I'm busy this month  :D

I'll get to it before long though,  

Done.

Clue 3:

This is in our January newsletter.

Lots of strips have to be cut from all the strip sets previously sewn together.  

As I was looking at these strips, I felt like I was getting a hint of what the quilt might look like, so I laid out a block to check it out, but I won't sew it together until the next clue is given because I certainly don't want to have to rip out.  

I put this in gray scale so as not to ruin the surprise altogether, but if this isn't the layout, I will be surprised.  

Now I am wishing I had bought a "light" print for my light fabric instead of a solid, but I will quilt it in a contrasting colored thread with an interesting panto to give it some character.  Of course, this is the way of Mystery Quilts.  You don't know what you are going to get until the end.  

We're getting close to the end.  I was told the next two clues will be given in the next newsletter which should be next week.  

Clue 5 & 6.

Oh!  This is painstaking.

Clue 7 & 8

As you can see, my earlier guess as to how this was going to lay out was correct.

Once the light sashing strips were added, it was ready for the longarm.

I used the Autumn Leaves panto for this one which coordinated with the leaves that were in one of the fabrics.  Because I felt the peach was just a little plain, I decided to do the top stitching in a  Glide thread  in the colorway Mermaid.  The backing was lighter, so I used a Cream Fil-tec prewound bobbin for that.  

To tone down the peach and frame out the rest of the quilt, I used the darkest teal to bind it.  

I do love the design of this quilt, but as I have said, I need more control over what is happening with placement of the fabrics rather than just going with the suggestions of light, medium and darks.  If we do another mystery in the guild next year, I may wait until I see where things are going before I buy my fabric.  Lessons learned.  I am not a fan of mystery quilts, but I will probably do another.  Go figure.  :D

Two is Never Enough......Knit Sacks and more

 In my previous post showing the Davenport Knit Sacks that I made, I mentioned that the closures came four to a  pack.  With no plan on using those closures for anything else, I decided to make two more Knit Sacks.  Remember, this is a free pattern from Jittery Wings Quilt Co. 

Again, I used scraps from my stash to make these two bags.

Each are lined in different fabric.

Since I was in the de-stash mode, when I had a friend ask me to make a couple (?) field corn microwaveable bags (like the rice bags), I said I would use my  scraps from my stash.  Well, nine bags later......

She had to buy a 50 lb bag of feed and clean it.  So I just asked for enough field corn to make one for myself.  10"x12" finished

I made a muslin or light fabric liner to hold the corn and then a pretty fabric for the outer casing which if it  needs to be washed, can be removed and washed alone.  

Here are the last four of hers along with the liners.  They just need to be filled and I will sew them closed.  

Here's my finished one.  

Just put it in the microwave for 1-2 minutes om high and enjoy the warmth.  That lasted a couple of hours for me today.  

That's it for the heated bags though, I hope.  I need to move on to other things.  

Thanks for stopping by and looking.  

Knitting bag

 If you are a knitter and you are anything like me, you have more than one project going at the same time.  So when it comes to knitting project bags, you usually have plenty.  

Well, my friend, Sharon, sent me a site from Jittery Wings Quilt Co. with a free pattern for a knitting sack called the Davenport Knit Sack.  

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I thought I would give this one a try.   Being a quilter, you know there are plenty of scraps in the stash that I could use to make up a bag or two.  

I ordered some purse closures (four to a pack) and that's where I started with making this bag.  

Two bags in and I love them. 

They are lined.

I have two more closures, so will probably make two more bags.  

These are so cute and pretty simple to make  and the perfect size for a smallish knit project.