So long 2009, Hello 2010

2009 was a great year!

I made some new friends. Met Upstatelisa and her wonderful daughter C at the Vermont Quilt Festival, and we got together one more time here in Ottawa where I met her other two kids (J & B)! I also got to meet the lovely LauraJay and her son A! What a wonderful year of friendship.

Lots of Quilting was accomplished this year.



I also started knitting again in September. My sewing productivity went down, but that's ok. Knitting has been wonderful. I go to a weekly knitting group and I'm becoming more confident with every project. I've also got a long list if things I want to make.



Looking forward to 2010 I'd like to simplify. But I also want to have fun.

I will continue knitting and have signed up for NaKniMitMo10 (National Knit Mittens Month 2010) on Ravelry. Basically you knit a pair of mittens in January and post a photo by the 31st. I will be tackling the Swedish Fish Mittens. Hoping to start them tomorrow.

In February the Olympics are coming to Canada and although I live nowhere near Vancouver, I will celebrate by participating in the Ravelympics 2010. You cast on a knitting project during the opening ceremonies and try to finish by the closing ceremonies. You are supposed to pick something that is a challenge for you. I'm thinking a vest but still not 100% sure. I am on the Stash and Burn groupies team.

I will also be sewing but part of my goal to simplify will be my reduced involvement in swaps. My walls are full of small quilts for now. I will focus on functional quilts and placemats. I am going to participate in row10 with my lovely online quilting friends. We will make one row of a quilt for each person per month. It will be so lovely to have a quilt made by all my new friends. I will probably also do placemat quilt swap, as we could use some more placemats.

Scrap and stash reduction will hopefully be a side-effect of all this quilting. :)

Oh and Dear Jane I will be back! I've missed working on this project.

As far as resolutions go, I'm generally not good at keeping them. But I will try very hard to be more active and be happy with small accomplishments. I always get down on myself if I don't start the gym 7 days a week and then promptly quit. I will start slowly and be happy with any progress. I am also going to make more healthy meals from simple fresh ingredients and try new recipes.

2010 will also be a year of self-acceptance, love, discovery. I've never liked being in photos, or seeing photos of myself. Part of my growth this year will be in participating in 52 Fridays. We will post one self-portrait per week on Friday.

I thank all of my wonderful readers and friends. I try to answer all comments individually, but it does get hard sometimes. Please don't think that they are not appreciated. Thank you so much for all you have given this year.

Hugs.

Busy Busy

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I was busy knitting like a crazy person. The second week of December I was so sick. Home in bed. But I did get some knitting done.

Socks for Dad



These are just K2 P2 rib in Cascades 220 Superwash. I followed the instructions and formulas from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. These are my first every pair of socks and they fit him perfectly, so if you make a guage swatch and follow the sizing charts, it should all work out. I'm about to start a pair for me outta sock weight crazy bright self-striping yarn.

Then on the 15th of December I started Ishbel for my Mom. My first ever lace project. I think I knit and frogged and knit this thing twice over. But I finished it on time despite people telling me it would never be done. I did it! Yay me! The yarn is Superwash Sock in Coastal colourway from SweetGeorgia. They are from Vancouver BC Canada! Beautiful stuff hand dyed to order!

Ishbel for Mom



And now my knitting confidence is growing with each project. I decided to tackle the wonderful Foliage hat from Knitty. I have loved this hat forever, but never thought I had the skills to make it. Once you knit a lace shawl in a week, you'd be surprised how much more confident you feel. So yesterday I made the hat from start to finish. It is made of Malabrigo Chunky from someone's stash in ravelry. So glad she was selling it. It didn't even use the whole skein. The colour is called Floral but I have dubbed it Strawberry Lemonade.

And here I am haming it up for the photo shoot. Ignore the chipmunk cheeks. Still trying to hide the braces.



I've also been trying to catch up on bee blocks. Hoping to start the new year with a clean slate. See y'all later gotta go do some more sewing...

I made mittens!

So I haven't been quilting but I have been knitting. I started going to a group every Thursday night. It's been very fun, and the ladies are so nice.



These are my Chevron Love Mittens! I purchased a pattern from Knitterly Things. Julia (the store owner) designed the pattern. It's amazing. And for those who think they could never do something this complicated..it isn't. This is my first colourwork. But not my last.

I've already got some more patterns lined up on Ravelry. Swedish Fish and Cupcakes by SpillyJane! But I must finish Christmas gifts first.

Yay knitting!

I Quilted!

For a while there I thought my quilting mojo had vanished. Thank goodness it didn't. Nothing like a deadline to get you out of a funk.



This quilt is for my friend Tanya's new baby boy. He is due December 19th, and I am giving it to her today at a Christmas Potluck (Surprise shower)!



My procrastination is still working well. I quilted it thursday night and last night i added a bit more quilting and started to hand sew the binding. Up at 6:30am this morning to finish it. In the washing machine at 8:00am, dryer at 8:30. And now at 10:08am it's all folded and ready to go. My other friend Chantale is picking me up at 10:30am.

Nothing like a deadline to get me going!

Oh and I used my new labels for the first time. Love them! Good thing, I've got 99 more.

Sarah's Stars

That's me!

My twitter/bloggy friend Julie asked me about this block I made for the lovely Tacha for theAnother Quilting Bee 1 swap group, so I thought I'd do a quickie tutorial for her and the rest of you too. I was just winging it when I made this block for Tacha, so I had to measure the finished block to determine the sizes of each piece.



This block is my own design using Maverick Star and classic 9-patch components. Please don't use it in items to sell, and if you do make it, I'd love if you sent some blog traffic my way. New friends are always welcome!

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment and I'll try my best to clarify.

Enjoy!

Sarah's Stars Block - This block finished ast 16.5 inches with seam allowance. It's a biggie.

To make this block you will need to know how to make a 9-patch block and a Maverick Star. That tutorial has already been done, so I'll send you here to get it. I will use the colours in the layout pictures when referring to each piece.

Here is a picture of the block layout.



It consists of:
4 large Maverick Stars
1 small Maverick Star
4 small 9-patch blocks
Strips to connect them all together

Start by making these block components.
• 4 large stars using a 2.5 inch square for each of the 9 segments (you can do a fussy cut centre if you want, I added strips around to make my fussy cuts big enough for the block centres)
• 1 small star using a 1.5 inch square for each of the 9 segments
• 4 small 9-patch blocks using a 1.5 inch square for each of the 9 segments

Out of green fabric cut:
• 2 pieces 3.5" x 1"
• 2 pieces 4.5" x 1"

Out of light blue fabric cut:
• 8 pieces 6.5" x 1"

Note: the green and blue fabric strips are all 1 inch wide, my picture is not to scale)

Out of pink fabric cut:
• 4 squares 3.5" x 3.5"

Let's get started!



Row 1 Assembly
1. Sew pink square to the 9-patch block and attach the blue strips on each long side of this unit.
2. Attach one maverick star block to each side.
3. Make sure that the pink square is at the top of this row.




Row 2 Assembly
1. Sew the short green pieces on either side of the small star, then add the top and bottom pieces.
2. Sew pink square to the 9-patch block and attach the blue strips on each long side of this unit. Do this two times.
3. Attach the three sections together following the diagram. Make sure the pink squares are on either end of this row.




Row 3 Assembly
1. Sew pink square to the 9-patch block and attach the blue strips on each long side of this unit.
2. Attach one maverick star block to each side. Make sure that the pink square is at the bottom of this row.
Sew rows together.

Voilà! You're done!

If you make this block I'd love to see it! I know that you won't all be rushing into your sewing rooms to make this, but if you do, please post photos in the flickr group I just made.

Makeover in Progress

Stay tuned! My blog makeover is in the works.

The very talented Amy from Patchwork Folio has been hard at work.

Changes to come soon!

Now if only those people from What Not to Wear would redo my wardrobe...

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone has a great day today!



This wonderful spooky quilt was made for me by the amazingly talented upstatelisa last year in a swap. I'm so glad we got matched up, she has become a good friend.

Don't eat too much...

DQS7 Received!

I bet you were all wondering if I received a doll quilt in the Flickr Doll Quilt Swap.

I did!



It had a long voyage to make, but it arrived to its new loving home last week.



This beautiful quilt was made by Ralitza (Domoshar) completely by hand!



All hand stitched, hand quilted, embroidered!



Check out the story about it here.



Yippeee! I love my new pink and orange quilt!

I Won!

I can't believe I won a prize in the Blogger's Quilt Festival! I'm still in shock! Thank you to Lisa for sending me an email this morning notifying me of this wonderful event!

I won a blog makeover from Amy! She's the lady behind the lovely blog button for the festival! How cool is that!

Here's what I won:

To celebrate the launch of PatchworkFolio I am offering a complete blog makeover to include a custom header, 5 sidebar title buttons, custom background, fonts, colors, favicon and post divider, coordinating post title font and custom 'email me' button. I will work with your current platform (i.e. Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress or other) and restrictions may apply depending upon your plan level and options available with your service. If you don't have a blog but wish to enter the drawing I will get you set up on Blogger's free platform and include all of the above (a $150 value).

Which means my blog will be all prettied up! yippee! Thank you to everyone involved in the festival!

Blogger's Quilt Festival - "My Minny Muu" February 2009

This is my entry in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

I made this quilt for me in February of this year but had yet to take photos of it. I was hoping to take some lovely photos outside this week, but it's been raining. So the giant table in the laundry room of our apartment building, will have to do. I thought of standing on the table to get a better angle, but they have surveillance cameras and I'm clumsy. So just a bad idea.



This quilt was an adventure that began on Flickr. While strolling around, I came across this and this and this photo of amazingly cute Minny Muu fabric by Lecien. I told everyone who would listen (and some who were just pretending to),about the cutest fabrics that I found, with little strawberries, random french words, mice and cheese, little teddy bears holding their own little bears...I could go on and on(and I'm sure I did). Just imagine all the blank stares from non-quilters.



So one Friday evening around 12am (I guess it was Saturday morning), I made it my mission to find this fabric online and purchase some. Immediately -if not sooner.

There were a few online stores that carried yardage, but I really wanted a little bit of each of the fabrics. I needed every print, in every colour. How could you leave one out!

So I created a table in Excel that had each store along the side and the prints along the top. I made check marks in the boxes to keep track. This was my plan to buy as many of the prints as possible, while spending the least on shipping. My Mom is still laughing at me about the Excel sheet.

Then around 2:30am, I came across Honeysuckle Cottage and low and behold they had layer cakes of the fabric (they still do!). One 10 inch square of each of the prints in the collection. I struck gold!! The only real issue is that I'm in Canada, and this shop is in Australia. But hey, they had the fabric. So I placed an order. I think it came to $60 Canadian. I didn't care.



While waiting the super long time for this stuff to make the trek from the Land Down Under to the Great White North, I noticed that the Fat Quarter Shop (in Texas) was also selling sushi rolls of Minny Muu, but there were no pictures of them unrolled, so I had no idea what was in them. I didn't care. I ordered one red, and one blue and some very cute dots to hopefully match. Oh and some sprinkle fabric (not pink like the link but the same print in white), 'cause who knows, maybe I'll change my mind about the dots. I'm sure you see how a fabric stash can develop with this purchasing strategy. While browsing Fat Quarter Shop's site, I fell in love with a pattern in Little Charmers 6 for a very cute table runner by Anka's Treasures.

Once all my goodies arrived, I decided to use the table runner pattern to make the quilt. I made the table runner top 4 times, and used them as 4 giant blocks, and then devised a layout to incorporate the giant blocks.

Most of the top of this quilt was made while on a Girls Crafting/Quilting getaway with friends. It was very fun! And being one who has a hard time focusing in group situations, I spend a lot of time taking these things apart, and re-sewing them together.



Full-on photos to come. When the sun arrives.

Check out the rest of the wonderful quilts in the festival here:

It's been a great mail week...

I received the prize I won from Anina over at Twiddletails Blog.



My tenmaketwo blocks from Aneela, and check out the lovely extras. Heather Ross fabrics from Munki Munki PJ's.



Some lovely Malabrigo Yarn that I bought from a Ravelry person. This will be a hat.



Thank you everyone!!!!

In the making category.

I made this kitty for a special little girl.



And I'm hoping to finish this scarf for myself before the winter hits.

First Jane-a-thon results

I finished 10 blocks for my Jane quilt in the Jane-a-thon this weekend. I was hoping for 20 but I do tend to over-estimate my level of productivity. I forgot to account for being exhausted Friday night, aparment cleaning and grocery shopping Saturday, and last night, a date night dinner at Baton Rouge and a movie (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs) with my sweetie.

I'm still very proud of my progress. Check them out.

Day 1


L-5 Chattanooga Charlie (09/19/09)


C-8 Hani's Crown (09/19/09)


C-3 Rayelle's Fence (09/19/09)


L-3 Reflections Abound (09/19/09)


K-4 Thea's Turn (09/19/09)


DAY 2


D-7 Meeting Place (09/20/09)


M-12 Hopscotch (09/20/09)


H-1 Peek-a-boo (09/20/09)


A-5 Cathie's Campfire (09/20/09)


A-1 Pinwheel Gone Awry (09/20/09)


And if you'll take a second look at the title of this post, I said 'first' because I do plan to do this again. Very soon! I've completed 50 blocks and still have 175 to go.

ETA: I forgot to metion that even though it was not a contest, upstatelisa won! She made 16 blocks! and some were hand applique!! Must be all that getting up early she does. :)

Let the Jane's begin!

Tonight begins the Dear Jane-a-thon weekend! I'm totally exhausted but I feel like somene shot the starter pistol and I'm off! Or I should say "we're off!" Ms. Fanny Fairbanks, Upstatelisa, and twocheeseplease and I are are all working in our own sewing rooms/areas and trying to make as many Jane blocks as possible this weekend. I would be the happiest girl in town if I can finish 20 blocks. Sounds like a lot but my( insane) goal of finished quilt by end of April 2010, is fast approaching. To date I have finished 40 since January 25th,09. But I have faith that I can do it! We all can do it! (different deadlines of course).

Go team!

Photos of progress to come!

DQS7

I finished my doll quilt(s) ages ago but haven't had the energy to take a photo and send it to my partner. I know, not hard, but sometimes if feels like it is.

Without further ado...here is the finished doll quilt and it's twin!



The one on the left is headed South of Canada (that shouldn't give a whole lot away), the one on the right is for me. :)

Can't wait for my partner to get it!

The view from above

This was the lovely view this morning from our balcony. The Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival is this weekend and it's such a lovely day, I guess everyone took their balloons out for a spin float.







How wonderful for us!

Yippee! I won!

Not the lotto, but something equally as good!

Anina the that quilt queen was having a a scrap giveaway on her twiddletails blog. Beautiful scraps! The only catch was that you had to name all of the fabrics. I was up for the challenge. She sells all these fabrics in her shop, so I carefully scoured here shop, and found all the names. There was only one that she didn't have there, lucky me I had some in my stash. But I wasn't home. So I checked my email receipt from the shop where I bought it, and low and behold, the name was there.

Hard work pays off!

Check out what I won! here

I am so happy!

Back on the Jane Train

I rhymed!

I'm planning a Dear Jane weekend with my online buddies Upstatelisa and Fanny Fairbanks. It will be the weekend of September 19th if everyone's life cooperates. We haven't planned out all of the details yet, but we will spend the weekend working on our Jane quilts. Each of us in our own homes...haha. So an at-home retreat of sorts. We will try to mass produce Jane blocks like crazy, and compare notes. Probably on twitter or something throughout the weekend, and post results on Monday? If any other Jane-ers out there want to play along. Just let me know.

I have already started a list of blocks to make that weekend. I'm aiming for the instant gratification ones. Gotta win the competition!!! Oh wait, it's not a contest...

In the mean time, I've finished some blocks that I had started a while ago. The hand applique was done, all I needed was to machine sew the pieces together.

I give you...

J-3 Rick's Volleyball Net (08/23/09)

Love Paris! Never been, but I'm open to free trips there! :)


M-13 Lynette's Diamond (08/23/09)



E-2 Merry May (08/23/09)

Check out the awesome frog fabric!

I-1 Ralph & Nelda's Wedding (08/22/09)


Till next time, take care!