SEWmuchKNITting

Since my finished projects have been few and far between lately, I thought I would post about one I completed in November. My local quilt guild, The Loose Threads, has a yearly challenge to finish a UFO, and I chose this  project since I really wanted to work with these bright colors! Fabric and design came from a kit I purchased at Guildcrafters quilt shop 2 maybe 3? years ago, on an impulse buy since I liked it so much :-) I'm glad I did since I had lots of fun putting it together, and it looks great hanging on the wall in the reception area of my husband's dental office (IMHO!).                                                              Flower Fireworks    11/2010                                        ...

The Sophisticate  sweater knit for baby Simon is on it's way.....I love this pattern! I think this will be one of my favorites to knit up for little boys, tho I will need to size it up a bit next time. Gotta love those little 'leather' buttons too :-) My husband and I made a trip out to Chicago to visit our daughters a couple of weeks ago, and had a blast as usual. My daughter and I ran in the Hot Chocolate 5K put on by the Illinois Bone and Joint Institute, and it was a lot of fun. The race was held downtown out of Grant Park, around Soldier Field, and back up behind the museum district. It was a beautiful day, and of course there was Ghiaradelli hot chocolate AND chocolate fondue at the end to motivate us! We also went out to dinner for Ethiopian food one evening,at Demera Ethiopian Restauran t, a first for me! The aromas when we opened the door to the restaurant were amazing! Dinner (we ordered the chef's special) was served on a large platter without utensi...

I know it's been awhile since my last post, but I have been knitting and quilting away.....not much sewing tho. My daughter's co-worker has a new baby son named Simon, and I wanted to knit the very cute little Baby Sophisticate sweater for him. Tho it has been said that this pattern 'runs small', baby Simon is a very little guy and I think this sweater will be perfect for him this winter: Yarn: Jasper by Berocco , colorway: 3844-Mochica Blue Needles: size 8 both circular and DPNs size: 0-3 months

Robyn is hosting Colorful Fridays on her blog: Daisy Quilts , and so I thought I would play along! Toby wearing his orange outfit: Love to use that pop of orange in my quilts: Color on the bookshelves: Color in the workplace: Love the orange mums this time of year: Orange and blue, one of my favorite combinations: This slice of orange showed up yesterday at dusk!: I think I'll be seeing orange the rest of the day!

I have been working diligently on this quilt that I have been calling "Spring Fireworks". I have committed to having this quilt completed by Nov. 8th, which is the next meeting for my local quilt guild, Loose Threads. It should be noted that I agreed to have this completed a year ago(!) when we all signed up for the "Complete a UFO Challenge". I am not having any problem quilting this on my domestic sewing machine, a Bernina 1260. Since I have several quilts to be quilted over the next few months, I went ahead and added two tools to my sewing arsenal: Machingers quilting gloves , and the Supreme Slider Free Motion Machine Quilting Mat . So far, so good!

The game goes to the MSU Spartans..... and the U-M Wolverines go back to the drawing board to get ready for Iowa. d.a.r.n.

http://www.michigandaily.com/content/cartoon-little-brother ........... GO BLUE!

Got a chance on Friday afternoon to meet up with my son Kenny and his girlfriend Cassie for dinner in Frankenmuth, MI.  Zehnder's restaurant is famous for it's family-style chicken dinners, and we all enjoyed it immensely! Love the old-school sign: Then it rained pretty much all day on Saturday, and there was no televised coverage of  Univ. of Mich. vs. Indiana football (huh??!!)  Listening to the game on the radio gave me several hours of uninterrupted machine applique time! I am really motivated to finish this project that I started last November: So motivated that I spent another 3 hours or so on Sunday evening, before I stopped to catch the latest Mad Men :-)

I have been attending the American Sewing Expo for more years than I can remember, and this year was no exception. My sewing and knitting buddy Karen and I arrived at the Expo on Sat afternoon around 12:30 pm. We browsed the vendors on the show floor, drooling over some lovely wools and silks at some of our favorites: Vogue Fabrics (Chicago), Haberman Fabrics  (Royal Oak), and Fabric Gallery  (Williamston). Then we took a seat for a bit and saw the fashion show put on by PatternReview . After a couple of purchases, Karen left for home and I stayed on to see the Passion for Fashion competition runway show. This time I was in full agreement with the judges re the winning look!  Sunday morning found me back in Novi for an 8:30am start to my full-day class: Leather 101 with Kenneth King . I had taken classes with Kenneth last year, and I knew that I would get a wealth of information and some funny stories along the way :-) I now feel totally comfortable to approach ...

I l.o.v.e. that purple jumbo herringbone fabric....sigh....... In the words of the designer of this look, Mondo: "Yeah, those bolts of fabric have voices, and they say 'come over and pick me up' and I usually do".  I can so relate.

Since September is National Sewing Month , I think it would be a great idea for me to spend some time cleaning my sewing space and organizing my garment sewing projects. I'm taking the cue from Myrna's blog, and the Yarn Harlot too. Last night I purchased some large resealable bags, and plan to set up 12 projects with all that's needed to get started: pattern, fabric, notions, etc. Then I can pull one out at a time (one per month??) and be ready to go! I feel that my sewing has stalled out a bit lately, and I'm sure some of that has to do with the fact that I feel overwhelmed when I think about sitting down to sew. Wish me luck!                                         (nice and neat after last cleaning session!!)