Almost Wordless Wednesday

In case you were all wondering how to take an amazing photo like I just did.The trick is to...



...push all the stuff covering the table into a big pile so you have room to set your block down. :P

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Valentine's Day

To celebrate I'll show you the Love in NYC quilt I made a few years ago.



I'd show you the snazzy new Valentine's things I made this year, but I didn't. Am I the only one who only gets the urge to make something for the upcomming holiday on the actual day of said holiday? Must get better at that. I may still make some Valentine's placemats. We will see.

Since my last post I've been making quite a few things.

Two baby quilt comissions.



These make lovely handmade gifts even if you didn't make it yourself. If anyone is interested in getting a quilt made, please contact me.

I've also been working on getting up to date on the block groups I'm in. Only two groups, but it's really easy to get behind schedule. I'm trying to start the year on time!

Bee FF for Laura. She wanted a romantic look to her blocks.





This is also for Laura. We are partners in Sarah and Molly's Free Piecing Study. One of the January blocks is a Log Cabin House. I still need to make a heart block and a mondo bird.



Knitting has also been occupying a lot of my time. I'm in a sock knitting group with my local shop. It's called Pull Up Your Socks. We are aiming to each make 6 pairs in a year. 1 per month. I'm trying to finish at least a pair per month, but unofficially of course.

These are my December/January Socks



I also made some zombies.



and a Gnomey for my man. His request.



The patterns for these are from Mochimochi Land. Her stuff is amazing!

I'm going to try and blog more. My Ottawa buddies are giving me a hard time because I don't blog as much. I will admit that lately I've been struggling with blogging. Mostly because I feel like the blogging world is so saturated right now. And it is very hard to compete with all the giveaways and quilt-alongs. What's a girl to do? I'm in no way fishing for comments, but I wonder who's out there reading?

So here's my PSA (public service announcement) If you read a blog, but tend to lurk instead of commenting. Why not comment. Let the person writing know they are not alone. And who know's you might just make some new friends.

Take care friends. Till next time.

Happy New Year Friends!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and A Happy New Year. I'm excited that the new year is upon us and can't wait to see what it brings.



As usual, I plan to participate in a few quilty things.

1. Row10 has now become Bee FF as we will be making blocks for each other this year. This is my favorite group as it contains my real quilting buddies. The fact that I have only met two of them in real life does not mean that they aren't the best quilting friends a girl could have.

2. Sarah and Molly's free piecing study. I am teaming up with Laura and we will swap blocks back and forth. This study is open to anyone, so if you are interested in getting better at wonky liberated quilting, this is for you!ddd (note: i'm not the Sarah that's running this project. It's Krommama.)

3. Scrapbuters Challenge 2011. This is a group that is just challenging each other to make scrap projects. No pressure or deadlines for this one. I'm excited and am currently working on some scrappy wonky blocks that will become one quilt or many small quilty things. Not sure yet. And I think that's the best thing about it. No pressure, just sewing and fun. The photo above is just some of my scrappy blocks.

4. Dear Strawberry Jane. This is my own project that you may remember if you have been a longtime follower. I've been blogging here about my project to complete a "Dear Jane" quilt. This is a reproduction of a quilt containing 225 unique blocks. It's a pile of work. but so pretty.

5. Knitting one sock per month. This is a challenge with my local yarn shop (the Kniterary) knitting group. It will help me get my sock stash down, without taking over my knitting life.

6. Also planning to use a lot of my fabric and yarn stash. I would like all of my yarn to fit in one bin by the end of the year. And I'd like my fabric scraps to go down by at least one bin (I currently have 3 huge bins). I'd also like to make a dent in the yardage.

Since we are now living in a smaller place, the goal is to have more control over the stash in general.

7. Bee Quilts. I am in the process of working on old bee quilts. The most recent is the Row10 Quilt. I have it all pieced and ready to quilt. I plan to combine machine and hand quilting on this one, as it is so special. My house quilt (AQB1) is also ready for quilting, and I am working on piecing together my Ten Make Two blocks as well. So stay tuned for photos of those.

I spend a good part of today looking for my camera. It has vanished, yet the memory card is plugged into the computer, so how far could it really have gone? If you find it, please send it back home. Although it drives me nuts, I miss it and need it to post photos!

I leave you with a mosaic of my favorite projects from 2010. Hopefully next year's mosaic will be even larger, as my sewing mojo has finally returned!!

The Big 3-0

In one week (December 16th), I will be 30. Not sure how I feel about that. I'm not exactly where I thought I would be at 30. But I am loved and happy.

The mini cake is from my in-Laws. They have given me a cute cake like this from the girl with the most cake for the past few years. Very much appreciated! These cakes are very tasty and this one is Lemon! Yum! And cute! I'm eating it early because I've been staring at it in the fridge for too long.

We don't have plans for the big day. We are in a new city with no family or friends around. I thought we might go into Toronto for the day if S can get the day off. I have a gift card for Lettuce Knit burning a hole in my pocket. And maybe a nice dinner.

How do you celebrate your milestone birthdays? Any ideas.Will 30 really feel any different from 29?

A Kirby little secret..

It's time that I let you in on a little secret. During the move and my trip to Rhinebeck and all the insanity that came along with that stuff, I was working on a very important quilt commission.

It was for Nintendo of America. I was commissioned to design and create the quilt for Kirby's Epic Yarn game on the Nintendo Wii. Isn't that insane?! I'm still shocked and it's long finished and shipped out. We love Nintendo at our house, so even though the timing of this project was less than ideal, it was too awesome of an opportunity to pass it up. If you remember I made a Nintendo quilt for my husband a few years back. I don't think I ever posted a photo on the blog, so here's a picture of that one.



Now, on to the Kirby Quilt!

Here is a bad photo of Kirby overseeing the whole operation from the top of our fridge.



I made the whole quilt, all 119 inches (almost 10 feet!square), in the Kitchen because my sewing area hadn't been unpacked or set-up yet, in fact it still isn't. Gotta do that soon.

Here is my initial design plan. I created the grid in Excel, and then just coloured with pencil crayons. Once I decided what I wanted to do, I coloured in my Excel sheet on the computer. That's as high tech as my quilt designing goes. I prefer graph paper and pencil crayons.



The quilt consisted of 80 10inch quilt blocks created by Nintendo fans, media and staff. These were created using the White Bella Solid Layer Cakes and fabric markers. All of the fabrics, mostly solids, and a few prints were ordered from Fat Quarter Shop. Love them! Their fabrics on the screen are soo true to real life, which makes ordering from them awesome. The felt, buttons, embroidery floss came from Fabric.com. This was the first time I ordered from them, but I was very pleased and would do it again.



While waiting for the other blocks to arrive, I started creating my 16 10inch blocks out of felt and embroidery floss, and one big centre logo of the game. I was also asked to embellish each of the 80 blocks with a bit of stitching. Big job! Good thing I was between day jobs at the time. (Still looking for a day job btw if anyone has any leads on anything creative in the Toronto Area or work from home, please let me know)

Here are some of the blocks I received. Love the one on the top in the middle! It's amazing!



Here are my blocks



The centre square



Me and the final product! Ready to ship!



Some of the blocks and detail









And here is the finished quilt! Hard to photograph in the apartment so this one was sent to me.



I had no idea where the quilt was going to be displayed. Turns out it was at the Nintendo World store re-opening in NEW YORK CITY!! for Super Mario's 25th Anniversary. How awesome was that!



The above photo was taken by hello sandy at the Nintendo World store!

Here's a photo taken by GamingBits. That big green square in the top left corner is the back of the quilt hanging in the window.



and some more photos of the event are available here.

Yay! Feels good to get that secret out.

Oh and I got to play the game. Super fun!

Happy Quilting!

My recipe: for Spaghetti Sauce

This spaghetti sauce is something I make a few times a year. It makes a big batch and I freeze it in Medium Ziploc bags. This sauce originated with my friend Lisette. She invited me over to make sauce one day, and I wrote it down as I went. She's not a fan of veggies and I am, so I added a zillion veggies which were not in her original recipe.



Here it goes:

Lisette and Sarah Spaghetti Sauce

In large pot:

1 large Onion
2 stalks Celery
1 Bacon (I omit the bacon because I rarely have any)

Cook those and add meat

1 pound of ground beef (or chicken or turkey, I've tried them all) you can also add probably another pound of meat if you are a meatarian (i'm pretty close to vegetarian)

Add veggies:
1 green pepper chopped
1 red pepper chopped
2 medium zucchini chopped
2 cups carrots cut fine (i like those matchstick precut carrots in the produce section)
1 tray of mushrooms
1 can of mushrooms (I like mushrooms)

Spices:
Bit of nutmeg
Bit of sage
Lots of oregano
Lots of basil
Red Pepper flakes (to your spicy level)
3 bay leaves
salt
pepper

Add:
1/2 cup red wine (I rarely have this since I'm not much of a drinker, so I use about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of red wine vinegar)
1 big can of tomato paste (or two small ones)
2 cans of diced tomatoes
2 cans of tomato sauce

Let that cook over medium-low for about 30-50 minutes

Let cool slightly and carefully scoop into Medium Ziploc Freezer bags. Makes about 6 bags. Each bag serves 3. (You can portion to suit your family)

Store in the freezer flat.

Then all you need to do is take it out the of freezer the night before and defrost in the frige.

This is the best sauce I've had and it's sooo much better than jarred sauce. Try it and enjoy the homemade goodness.

Rhinebeck Recap

It feels like ages since we went to Rhinebeck for the Dutchess County Sheep and Wool Festival but really it was only a few weeks ago. October 16-17th to be exact.

We had an amazing time! I only took two pictures. It was such a whirlwind that I wanted to enjoy every second. Plus I knew that there would be tonnes of photos in the blogisphere if I wanted to re-live it again.

The highlight of the trip was meeting THE Ysolda Teague! and Louise and I got our picture taken with her! What would have made it more fabulous was if I had finished my Damson Shawl in time to wear to Rhinebeck, but sadly I only finished it yesterday. Photos to come after blocking.

Here's us with Ysolda!



My other photo was of the famous and incredibly delicious chicken pot pie. Yum, yum, yum!



We also had some of the maple cotton candy, Heaven!

Here's my yarn haul.



Slightly over budget. But I did come home with 25 dollars.

Clockwise from far left.
Mini Mochi, Colour: Babyface 111
The Sanguine Gryphon Litte Traveler, Colour: San Zhi
The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! , Colour: Half-Banded Topper
Jamie Harmon Merino/Angora 2 ply handspun, Colour: Multi
Jamie Harmon Merino/Angora 2 ply millspun, Colour: pink-red (making that up)
Socks that Rock Lightweight Mill-end, pink
Socks that Rock Lightweight Mill-end, grey green blue
Fibre Optics Roving, 80% Merino & 20% Silk, Colour: Chocolate-loden-teal-dusty blue gradient

And a Ravelry Goodybag from the awesome party! Priceless!

I also got a Jennie The Potter yarn bowl. Which I've already put to good use on my next project. I'm starting the Daybreak Shawl by Stephen West.



If you every have a chance to go to Rhinebeck, do it! You won't be disappointed.

Getting there..

Well, we've got the cats all packed up...





and we're getting ready for the move.

The thing is our new place is quite a bit smaller (no craft room), and I'm starting to feel like one of those people on Hoarders.



This big pile is all crafting stuff. And the craft room is not empty. I think the book box count alone is over 12 now. And I've stopped counting the fabric and yarn boxes. Eeks.


We're moving Friday.

Still to pack:

- The rest of the craft room and mostly everything else.

I may need some backup.

Disclaimer: No cats were harmed in the packing of the apartment. All banana box chillin' was strictly the idea of the felines pictured. We love kitty cats!

Hi to the visitors from Whitby and Oshawa! We're moving to Whitby!

On the move..

I'm sorry for the long haitus. Things have been crazy.

We finally found a new place to live and will be moving a few things this weekend and shoul be completely moved by next week. In the midst of all that craziness I was working on a few comissions from an old coworker.

I say old coworker because since we are moving over 4 hrs away to a new city (scary), I have had to quit my job. I am hoping to find something that will feed my soul. Here's hoping there's just the perfect creative job out there just waiting for someone like me to fill it!

Here are the commissions.

Commission #1 - a nameplate for a new baby



Commission #2 - a wall quilt





I also took my last bus ride as a OC Transpo bus pass holder. Had to document that one as I waited for the bus that was 15 minutes late.



Also new is that I'm no longer a braceface! Got those pesky braces off, and now have nice straight teeth! Yay!

Talk soon,

Sarah

Moving

I thought that since it had been so long since I have blogged that I should fill you guys in on some new developments.

We are moving from Ottawa to the GTA. My husband got a promotion which is the reason for the move. We are in the process of finding somewhere to live, and staring at empty boxes procrastinating packing. I haven't forgotten about the blog, there has just been a tonne of stuff going on in a very short time frame.

Note: If you are moving shortly do not ever scan a room and envision yourself packing every single thing in it. ugh!

Needless to say I haven't made any progress on the Improv(e)Your Butt Quilt Challenge. I did ok that first week.

I've been trying to craft whenever I have time. I'll try and take some photos if I can find the camera! :P

Improv(e) your Butt Challenge!

Jacquie over at Tallgrass Prairie Studio has thrown out a challenge to all the quilters out there. It is called Improv(e) Your Butt Challenge. Basically it's meant to get us crafters (who spend lots of time on our butts sewing) up and moving around. The goal is to log our miles on this website and see if we can collectively make it across the US. I'm not from the US but I'll gladly walk across it to get fit and make a fun quilt!

The fun part of all this is for every mile that we log, we get one piece of fabric to use for our improv project. This is a fantastic idea. I've been trying to figure out a quilting/exercise thing for a while and here it is. And I always seem to do better when there is group motivation!

I’ve decided to use scraps or cut fabric but nothing bigger than a 6 inch square. They can then be sub-cut depending on what block I'm trying to make. I'm going to take my personal challenge up a notch because I am in major need of some extra motivation! (Because I’ve been doing zero exercise.) I fell off the wagon big time! and because this 6 month project will end exactly on our 3rd wedding anniversary (January 26th, 2011). And wouldn't it be fun to fit into that dress again...(i don't need to wear it, just want to be that size!)

This means in addition to the 1 piece per mile, I will also be rewarding myself:

1 piece for every day I stay on track with my food plan (this is key for me to see results)
1 piece for every time I do my weight routine

That’s a potential extra 10 pieces per week! I won't be logging these ones on the mile tracker but will keep track here on the sidebar somewhere.

We'll be sharing our quilts over on the Project Improv flickr group.

Wanna join in the fun? Go see Jacquie to find out how to join the team!

52 Fridays Week 29/52 the Laura Edition

Happy Birthday Laura!


(From me and some friends from my weekly Knitting Group!)

Sorry..

Haven't been in a photo taking mood. Which means there isn't much to see. We went to New York City for the July 4th weekend. I'll try and get some of those photos up soon.

I'll be back I promise.

I'm around...

Just not here.

I've been doing a lot of knitting! Here are some recent photos.

In a true test of perseverance, I finally finished my Ravelympic Socks! Yes the Ravelympics were over in February. But the socks are finished, and that's what counts.



I've been working on a Shawl.



And I started a new pair of plain socks.



If you're a knitter you may be wondering "what the heck is with all the Noro Kureyon Sock?" My reasoning for starting the shawl is that I was upset with the Ravelympic socks and their lack of stretch and having to start from scratch 2 times. I didn't want it to destroy my love for Noro, so I started the shawl. Then once the Ravelympic socks turned out ok, I decided I should get going making another pair of them before I forget what I did to the first pair. Strange, I know.

I'm also behind on my 52 Fridays. I have taken photos, but just haven't posted. I'll be doing that soon.

Sometimes it's just hard to keep up with everything.

So why not have a nap?! Seems to be working for Olivia.

Sewing

I sewed a bit last night and today.

I made a pouch!

Not a quilt, but 'quilted' so I'll still count this as a win! Sewing mojo on it's way back!

Side one.


Side two.


Peek at the inside.