SEWmuchKNITting

Christmas 2012 is now in the books: the gifts have been exchanged, opened and even worn. Now I can post about the stealth knitting I have been working on since last March!  First up are the Melody Fingerless Mitts I knit for my daughter Libby. I picked up this kit at Vogue Knitting Live! in Chicago, and had fun knitting with beads for the first time. The yarn was JoJoLand Melody Superwash sock yarn. Beads were black size 6. My daughter Kristen was the sweater recipient for this year, and she had chosen this Drops design last January, along with several others. That way I could pick the one I wanted to knit from her choices, and she would still be surprised! I used Berocco Vintage yarn, which knitted up beautifully. This cardigan, knit in the worsted weight yarn, is very warm. Even though there is waist shaping, the more boxy style will lend itself to layering very easily.  I immediately thought of my son's girlfriend, Cassie, when I saw thi...

I finished this KAL with Sweet Pea's Yarn and Gifts last Spring, and now that the weather is colder I got a chance to wear it. The Lightening Shawl is a fun project to knit, and using the variegated Mini Mochi yarn made this shawl look fabulous. I inadvertently added a couple of rows (count much?), which I noticed when I started to run short on yarn. Thanks to my fellow knitter Kathy, I was able to use what she had left from her shawl to finish mine.  Here is a close-up......maybe a little too "close-up"! LOL Hard to take those pics of yourself with the camera phone and smile at the same time :-) I love the simple shawl pin I picked up last year at Knit Michigan.   Posts to this blog have been few and far between since there has been NO sewing going on, and all my knitting is for Christmas right now....."stealth" knitting, as we knitters like to call it! Look for a knitting-heavy post soon, and a year-end wrap up after that.  After th...

Thank you, Lori from Girls in the Garden , for nominating me for my first Blogger Award, the Very Inspiring Blog/One Lovely Blogger Award! I'm thrilled that this came from Lori: an exceptional sewist, gardener, decorator, and Mom....not necessarily in that order :-)  The rules of this award are: 1-Thank the person who nominated you. 2-Add The One Lovely Blog/Very Inspiring Blogger Award to your post. 3-Share 7 things about yourself. 4-Pass the award on to 10 nominees. 5-Inform you nominees by posting a comment on their blogs. So.....here are 7 things: 1- I love sushi, but only eat it in Chicago with my 2 daughters 2-My husband and I are high school sweethearts, and we work together 4 days/week. 3- I am an alum from the University of Michigan so my blood runs maize and blue ;-) 4-I belong to 2 knitting groups, and one quilting group, and I love my knitting and sewing buddies! 5-Dresses are my favorite garments to sew. 6-TV viewing: Proj...

As someone who rarely wins anything, I'm excited to say that I have really hit the jackpot these last few months. I found this lovely, queen-sized quilt top at an estate sale a couple of weeks ago. It was folded up and stuffed on a shelf that held yards and yards of folded fabric. I had searched through those shelves earlier and didn't see it, but while I was picking through the fabric one last time I saw a sewn seam......SOLD! for $3.00! I am just thrilled that I was able to save another quilter's beautiful work:                      Close-up shot of the center medallion.....very pretty fabric choices: Over the summer, I purchased 1 ticket for this raffle quilt offered by our small town's Historical Society. A lovely and sweet Cathedral Window, hand sewn by another anonymous quilter. This quilt is an interesting shape, long and narrow, and looks like it might have been made to lie at the foot of the bed as decoration. ...

May we all reflect on our Blessings as we celebrate this Thanksgiving Day.

Making progress on the Christmas Quilt discussed here . Quilting is finished, I'll be sewing on the binding while I'm at my Quilt Guild meeting tonight. Hooray! A new quilt for the holidays! Final pics to come.......

Finally....a knitting project that I can write about! Like many knitters, the majority of my knitting projects at this time of year are all about gift-giving. This adorable little project was a gift too.....to my niece and her husband at their baby shower last weekend. I have to thank my knitting buddy Deb for introducing me to this pattern, and I stole her idea of gifting it with the book and caterpillar toy :-) Perfect! This is a quick and easy project using Vickie Howell's line of yarn, Sheepish . So soft and squishy, perfect for snuggling a new baby. The only "fiddly" part of this pattern is attaching the eyes. The patterns suggests hot glue(!), but I chose to stitch the green part to the felt base using my sewing machine and invisible thread. Then I hand stitched that to the hat, and hand stitched the yellow rims, along with the antennae. Not hard to do, just took a  little time.            Too cute!

I'm so happy to be participating in Faye's Carnival of Skirts sew-along this month! It was just the motivation I needed to get back to sewing some additions to my work wardrobe, since I wear skirts a lot. After seeing so many successful projects using Pamela's Magic Pencil Skirt pattern, I ordered one online along with her recommended elastic. Of course, I received my order *several* weeks (months??) ago, and it's been just sitting on my sewing table mocking me.  Per pattern instructions I used a stretch woven fabric, not sure where it came from....maybe Vogue Fabrics a year or two ago? It has quite a bit of stretch, with a weight similar to a stretch denim. The fabric is actually two-sided, with a shot of gold thread here and there (which fails to come across in the photo). Of course, I spent quite a bit of time last night trying to make up my mind which side of the fabric to use, and decided that the darker side with very little metallic thread visible woul...

Christmas will be here in 81 days, and I try to have a new Christmas quilt each year. "Try" is the operative word here....most years it doesn't happen :-) But this year it will, since I pulled a top out of the to-be-quilted pile and got to work. First thing I needed to do was to lay out and layer the quilt sandwich: backing, batting and quilt top. This quilt is almost queen-sized, so I needed to piece the backing fabric. I don't worry about the seam down the middle, and whether or not it is strong enough. The quilt will be held together with enough machine quilting, and I've yet to have a seam pop, even on those "couch quilts" that get used a lot.  Since my basement floor has a commercial-grade, low-pile carpet, I just pin the backing to the carpet with straight pins, making sure it is stretched taut. My batting of choice is 100% cotton. Though I usually use Warm and Natural , this Mountain Mist cotton batting was on sale so I thought I...