Back from a Break

I took a "blogger break" for what I thought would be a month and it turned into two months. Thanks to those who wrote and asked me how I was doing. Everything is fine, I just felt that I was wasting too much time on the computer.

I had a wonderful summer and here are some things that I accomplished -

I made myself a robe/housecoat with fabric I bought in Hawaii (less than $20 for 4yards for beautiful cotton!) last Christmas -

I rarely make practical things, so I was thrilled with this. I also made my husband some pyjamas since I was on a roll (no pictures, and not in bright floral fabric, but maybe next time!).

I made some more runners for shelves in my sewing room -

This one is made with little thimbles (about 1") cut from some left over fabric from a quilt I made last year. It was a leader-ender project.

This one was just to practice free motion quilting. They are both about 8" x 26".

Here they are on the shelves -

Can you tell I am running out of ways to use quilts!

I taught a Invisible Machine Appliqué class this summer, and this is what I designed for the class -

It is about 10" x 16". Everyone did wonderfully, and it was lots of fun for me!

I needed to replace some worn cushion covers and I designed another appliqué block -

The fabric I used had a paisley design, so I incorporated that into the appliqué design and the free motion quilting.

I left the appliqué and the borders puffy to accentuate them (it was so tempting to quilt a feather border, although they are only 2" borders, but I wanted to see what it would look like un-quilted, and I am pleased with the results).

I made a coordinating pieced block for the second cushion. This 12" block is "Sea Breeze" from the book 'Knockout Blocks and Sampler Quilts' by Judy Martin.

They are 16" cushions.

I have also been knitting with yarn that I spun -

This one from a pattern - "Lazy Katy" by Brigit Freyer. The yarn is from Merino Silk fibre from SweetGeorgia Yarn, in the colour way 'Maple'.

This scarf is made with Merino (from a good friend) that I dyed (it is spun about a worsted weight, and came out so soft and squishy). The pattern is 'Undulating Scarf' from a 2010 Spin Off magazine, and it is also available free on Ravelry. It is a wonderful pattern because the scarf is reversible. I changed the centre double increase because I couldn't figure out how to make the one described in the pattern (I did 'K1, YO, K1' all in the same stitch).

The next two shawlettes are ones that I designed after taking a couple of Craftsy classes (Lace Shawl Design and Shawlscapes) -

This is a lace one made from Kid Mohair that I bought while on holiday this summer (we went to where we used to live in Alberta and I went back to my old local yarn store - it was so nice!).

It is the first time I have spun mohair and it was lovely to spin.

This one I wanted to be more free form, and I made it up as I knitted, which was fun (this is inspired by the Shawlscapes class). I also spun the yarn without much thought and just enjoyed the process, and it came out really nice too. This is BFL from SGY in the colour way 'Chai Spice'

I completed some Blocks of the Month -

 
The August block for the Ostrich BOM, a Dresden Plate (this is an 18" block),

 
and 9-Patches for September (4.5" blocks).

My Pieces of Time BOM blocks for September (we took August off).

Whew!!

Thank-you so much for stopping by and have a great day!!♥

Craftsy Class Giveaway

I was recently asked by someone at Craftsy if I would be willing to host a giveaway on my blog. Those who know me, know that I am a huge fan of Craftsy, so of course I accepted.

I have been mostly self taught, but ever since taking my first Craftsy class last year - Cindy Needham's Design It, Quilt It, I have been hooked.
The Craftsy platform is a wonderful way to learn. You learn at your own speed, and because you own the class forever, you can view it as many times as you want, and you can go back to it years from now (my first online, and only non-Craftsy class I took, I only owned for 6 months - it was terrible). Also because people are constantly adding projects and asking questions, the classes are constantly evolving and there is always more to learn.

These are some of the things I have made this past year with Craftsy Classes (and one workshop). I have learned new ways to free motion quilt, uses for all my sewing machine stitches that I never used, new concepts in knitting and sweater construction, jewelry making, how to dye fabric (and then in turn wool), how to spin yarn, and the list goes on! Craftsy has fabulous sales that I can't seem to pass up - I only buy classes on sale.

This is what I am currently working on - a shawl I designed with the class Shawlscapes with Stephen West, using wool that I spun with the class Spinning Dyed Fibres with Felicia Lo (this yarn is Fractal Spun, and you can see the effect starting to show).

Onto the Giveaway!

Craftsy is giving away one Craftsy Class each to 5 lucky winners! 

The contest runs from August 1st 2013 to August 14th 2013 (6pm EDT). 

The contest is for people who are already Craftsy members, and for those who want to become members (sign up is easy - you just need an email address and a password).

Just click on this link - Big Craftsy Giveaway to be taken to a new page to enter.

Even if you never want to buy a class, the free classes are fabulous!! I learned so much from watching the lectures from Quilt Con 2013,

and who knew pizza that rivals pizza we had in Italy could come out of my home oven!! This is from the free class Perfect Pizza at Home with Peter Reinhart.

Note - 

I gain nothing by hosting this giveaway. Like you, I will be entered to win a class. The host with the most entries from their site does win a class, so I appreciate it if you chose to use my link. Thanks!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥

July Roundup

This month I managed to finally finish the Rob-Peter-to-Pay-Paul quilt top (Yeah!!).

It is 56"x70". It will stay a top until I am ready to quilt it in the fall.

I spun everyday for 24 days (and then cleaned my spinning wheel and put it away for a while).

This is all that I spun during the 2013 Tour de Fleece - 600g of yarn in total. The brown yarn was fibre from SweetGeorgia yarns, and the rest are my hand dyed fibres. Now I have some knitting projects lined up!

Speaking of knitting, I finished up two pairs of socks this weekend.

The blue ones are my first pair of toe up socks (the pattern can be found here). The grey ones are the July 2013 Mock (mystery socks), from the Ravelry group Sock Knitters Anonymous.

I finished my Blocks of the Month this weekend too -

Pieces of Time BOM blocks.

Ostrich BOM - this month "Seminole" was chosen.

Art Quilt of the Month - the piece of fabric was cut from a piece of sun printing I did last week (it didn't quite work like I thought it would, I think it was too hot and dried too quickly). The quilting is a spinning design, since I did so much spinning this month. I added a painted sun after it was quilted, just to represent summer (it is in contrast to my January art quilt which represents a blizzard).

Last week I spent some time at my parents home, and only went down to the lake once (we were busy working).

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Tour de Fleece

This month I am participating in an online spinning challenge called Tour de Fleece (it runs the same time as the Tour de France, but a different kind of spinning - I am amazed how many people are participating, every day there are about a thousand posts/pictures on the main thread - we can each post one per day, and there are over 7000 members in the group). 

So I have been spinning everyday for the past two weeks, this is what I have done so far (all 100 gram bundles) -

This is a 75% super wash wool/25% nylon blend for socks that I dyed (after spinning the first bobbin, I re-dyed the second half darker, because I thought it was too light).

I really had to concentrate on spinning even for this skein, which is still a challenge for me.

This is bluefaced leicester wool from SweetGeorgia Yarns in Vancouver.

I didn't stress about spinning this, and it came out to be the thinnest yarn I have ever spun - a lace weight. I really enjoyed spinning this one (BFL is a great fibre to spin). I did "Fractal Spinning" - it will show when it is knitted.

Now I am working on these bundles of Merino wool that I dyed to coordinate with each other.

This will be a thicker yarn. I will ply the two separate colours together.

I dyed some more fibre yesterday - so much fun!

This is such a great challenge, and I will have all kinds of knitting projects lined up for the fall!

Hopefully fall is a long way off, because I have been enjoying summer!

We took out more grass this year, but this time added mulch and trees.

The vegetable garden that went in so late is doing well.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

BOM's, AQOTM, and a KAL

The end of the month is always a flurry of sewing to catch up on for me!

Here are my Ostrich Block of the Month (BOM) blocks - 

This month was "Stars", I made two 9" Ohio Stars.
Here are all of my blocks so far -

These are my Pieces of Time BOM blocks (7.5" blocks) -

and all of them together (plus the pattern - a long way to go) -

My Art Quilt of the Month (AQOTM) was inspired by all the roses blooming in the garden -

I even used a leaf as a stamp for the quilt (just painted the back of a leaf with gold fabric paint).

It is 6"x8". The rose photo is an altered photo of a rose in the garden, that I printed on fabric. Something different for this month - no beads! That was a challenge for me!

Here are all six AQOTM so far  (hard to believe that half a year has gone by) -

I participated in a mystery Knit-A-Long (KAL) for June from Craftsy. This is the first time I have ever done something like that. It was exciting to get the beautiful skein of yarn in May, and then wonder about what we would be making in June.

It is a lace cowl. The yarn is a silk and mohair blend that is as thin as a hair and floated, plus it was knit on large needles. I have never knit with anything so fine and it was a challenge (one person said she felt like Charlotte spinning her web).

It also had a 16 stitch cable at the start and end of the row which was another challenge - once the instructor added a video on how to do that, things went much smoother for me. Everything was well explained and it was nice to knit along with others.
It is very rewarding to finish something so challenging. It is so soft and light, I look forward to wearing it. If you click on the link, you can see how it can be worn.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Knitting and Dyeing

I haven't been spending much time on the computer, but I have been doing lots of other things.

Summer is finally here and I have enjoyed working outside!!

Things are growing and blooming, which is so nice after that incredible long winter.

I have done a bit of sewing on the Rob Peter to Pay Paul quilt -

I also finished knitting a sweater -

This is The Seamless Artemisia Sweater from Craftsy.

It is such a great way to knit a sweater - from the top down with no seams, so I tried it on as it grew to make sure that it fit just right (it is 30°C/86°F today and hopefully it will be a long time until I need to wear a wool sweater!).

The only thing that I did different than the instructions was to knit the sleeves two at a time, using the magic loop technique (like I knit socks).

Yesterday I dyed some wool ready for spinning.

It is the first time I have tried this and it went very well (I used acid dyes - just need vinegar to set the dye, and I steamed the bundles in an old canner). The top pastel one is wool and nylon for socks, it came out lighter than I expected. This is the fibre before steaming -

This Saturday the Tour de Fleece starts - it is a month long online spinning challenge (runs the time of the Tour de France), so I am all set.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥