A Quick Christmas Gift

I knit a hat for my husband, for Christmas (he needed a warm hat, that was long enough to go down past his ears - this should do the trick). The pattern is Baa-ble Hat, and ever since it came out, it has been one of the top patterns on Ravelry - it is so cute! I was so pleased to have a reason to make it.

I spun the yarn with wool from different sheep breeds - the first three are natural colours, white - Shetland, dark brown - Coopworth, grey - Gotland, and the last one is a Merino Cross from a local sheep farm (Sheeples), I had dyed it shades of green. The wool came from all over the world too - New Zealand, United Kingdom, and Canada.

I spun a thick, 3 ply yarn. The spinning took twice as long as knitting the hat (I do have some leftover yarn).

Three ply yarn is such a nice round yarn, and perfect for stranded colour work (2 ply is good for lace and plain knitting).

I made some modifications to the pattern and more details can be found on my Ravelry project page.

I wanted to share this post (link) from Angela Walters that I found on Pinterest today - it is tips on machine quilting - not technical tips, but how we are hard on ourselves and the reason why we make quilts, well worth watching. This is why I quilt - nothing brings me greater joy than seeing my family use what I make!

This is my oldest son watching a hockey game on TV, using two quilts (look at those curls! - his hair is short now). The quilting on the top quilt is nothing fancy, but my favourite design to quilt, I loved all the steps in making that quilt, it would never win any prizes at a quilt show, but I don't need it to, the fact that it is finished and gets used is everything to me!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥︎

Mini Quilt Finish

I finished my Temecula Quilt Co mini mystery (We Wish You a Mini Christmas). It is 7"x19.5". I used two layers of thin batting, and regular cotton thread for the free motion quilting.
These mini mysteries are always so much fun - it is nice quilting along with friends, and this year I quilted along with my Mother too!

Here is her little quilt. She recently took her first Craftsy class (and loved it) - Creative Quilting with your Walking Foot by Jacquie Gering. Her quilt is quilted with one of the decorative stitches - it looks great!

Since I usually have two knitting projects on the go (a pair of socks and something else) I started a new project. This is Aglow by Kristina Vilimaite. I am using some yarn that I dyed and spun, it is a gradient, black to white. So far the pattern is a bit of a struggle, but I am sure it will be worth it.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥

One More and Some Finishes

One more block added to the growing pile of tiny blocks.

I finished the sweater I knitted from yarn I spun this summer. The yarn is 100% natural merino, that I chain plied (4 ply yarn), about dk/worsted weight. It is knit top-down with raglan sleeves - I made up the pattern as I went along (I had a basic idea in my head of what I wanted when I started).
This is the easiest type of sweater to make without a pattern because you start by make a swatch to determine the number of stitches per inch, and then all I did was measure how big around the neck I wanted the sweater to start out at - this determines the number of stitches to cast on (81 for this sweater). More details/photos can be found on my Ravelry project page.

Now I have started knitting a pair of socks. The pattern is Elm. I am using my favourite sock yarn - Blue Label by Tanis Fiber Arts in the colour Atlantic (these are the most amazing hand dyed yarns!).

Here is another finish, a couple of pillowcases for Christmas (I hope my sons don't see this, but I am pretty sure they don't read my blog!). A couple of years ago, for Christmas, I made my sons (young men) pillowcases, at the time I thought they just accept that their mother makes things (i.e. not much excitement), but recently when their pillowcases were beyond repair and I got rid of them, they both, independently of one another, asked me what had happened to their pillowcases - words like 'loved' and 'favourite' were used!! That was all I needed to hear, and I was off to the fabric store in search of novelty fabric (hard to choose!).
Here is the link for the pattern I used.

I thought it was interesting how the rabbit was digging in the snow for the seeds.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥︎

More Little Blocks

Nine Temecula Quilt Co mystery blocks finished, three more to come. These have been so quick and fun to make (2+1/4" blocks).

The local John Deere dealership always has a lovely Christmas display - this year Santa in a swather.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥︎

Little Quilt Blocks

I had forgotten that the newest Christmas Sew Along from Temecula Quilt Company started at the beginning of December, so today I caught up.  The blocks are just 2+1/4" finished - very quick to make (details on the sew along can be found here). I have made a couple of their little sew along quilts, and for this one I have chosen to just pick fabric at random (hopefully it will end up looking nice and scrappy!).

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥︎

Double Wedding Ring Quilt

I took a break from this blog because I blogged everyday on my photo blog for a month. I really enjoy the photo blog, but find it time consuming to maintain two blogs - I need to find a balance that works for me.

I am still working on all my hobbies.

I finally finished my French General Double Wedding Ring quilt!

It is 60"x71". The fabric is a fat quarter pack of Rouenneries Deux by French General, along with some yardage for the centres and little blocks from the same fabric line. I used wool batting and flannel backing.

For the free motion quilting I used Bottom Line thread.

For the quilting designs I chose continuous curves for all the pieces in the rings, and also in the centres along with straight lines through the centres, there are also circles in the little lens shapes (to compliment the circles in the piecing - my son told they look like lots of eyes).

For all the continuous curves the quilting foot acted as my guide.

I used an acrylic ruler for the straight lines for the first time - it worked so well.

I also finished a few knitting projects -

A couple cowls -

Seeds to Flowers Cowl

Ice Queen

and a pair of hand spun wool socks -

Now I am working on a hand spun sweater. This one is knit top down (no pattern, just making it up as I go).

Back in October I had the Craftsy month pass and picked up a new hobby - baking! This hobby my family notices and loves.

pecan pie

cheese soufflé

meringue kisses

danish pastries

Pavlova

more bread

New kitchen appliances last month helped too.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥︎