Be*mused

Bloody fingers

   

My fingers are a bit bloodied this morning but it's not from yanking out pachysandra so I'm fine with that.  I'm handquilting again after too much time away and I'm wondering what the heck I've been putting it off for.  I had somehow forgotten how much I love to see quilting develop a piecework design into something special.  This little doll quilt swap has been the best jumpstart and I'm overflowing with ideas and plans for new projects.  The other day I pulled out some batting, Quilter's Dream Request, that I picked up years ago after someone recommended it.  It's aptly named...it is a quilter's dream.  I find myself picking it up to add a few more stitches while I wait for the iron to heat up or the tea water to boil. 

I wish I could say that we're all settled in here at the new place, but that process continues.  We had a plumbing *incident* Monday night that kept me from attending quilt group Tuesday.  In the end, it turned to be a good thing since another contractor showed up while the plumber was here to give an estimate on some work.  The biggest challenge, still, is the closet space.  In my previous house, we had ridiculous storage space...8 closets (4 of them double) plus 3 walk-in closets.  Here, we have 6 closets total, all 1940's size.  We had a 2 1/2 car garage, now we have a 1 car garage. (Will it ever house a car?)  I'd love to have everything put away, but boxes remain and the sorting continues.  Each week results in improvement, but it's a bit of a mental drain.  (Translation: Get these boxes out of here!!) 

 

I know you've seen these mittens, but you've never seen them completed!  In fact, you've never seen any of my mittens as a complete pair, both thumbs finished, ends all woven (you'll have to take my word for that) and blocked.  They're all ready to wear and, coincidentally, the perfect color for covering bloody fingers.

To infinity and beyond

 

When I received my swap partner's likes/dislikes, the first thing that popped into my head was a fabulous piece of vintage fabric that I've been hauling around for over 20 years.  I'm sure you have such pieces in your stash.  The type that takes your breath away when you come across it.  You know immediately that it's a *must have* and that some day, it will be the perfect piece for *something*.  Little did I know that *something* would be a swap piece, but I'm fine with that.  More than fine with it.  (Actually, I'll have some left when I'm finished.)

My first plan was to use the little liberated stars in a 3x3 grid as the center, but one of the swap's requirements was to 'make a quilt of the quality that you'd like to receive' and I knew that if I was making this for myself, I would've done something different.  So I did.  I put the stars aside, made a few quick pencil sketches and jumped in with both feet. 

And am I having fun!  I'm free-piecing (something I've wanted to play around with for ages), appliqueing (something I used to do a lot of, but haven't in years) and today I completed the top and basted it up to hand quilt...another thing I did daily, for years, until...who knows?  Knitting came along?  No, it was before that.  Anyhow, the whole point is that this swap has made my quilting fun again and I can't wait to finish it and send it off.  Receiving a quilt in return (from a different partner match) is going to be like frosting on the cupcake, because this project has given me so much already.

It's been a busy week, or maybe it just seems that way because I've been battling one of those on-again, off-again colds.  Tuesday, I finally made it to a weekly, local quilt group that several people had mentioned to me and found a relaxed and friendly bunch of quilters whom I'll probably be joining on a regular basis.  I'll need a hand project...might there be an end in sight for the flower garden quilt? 

Tomorrow I'll be stepping out of the sewing room to make the torturous trek to the mall to find some new black heels for an event this weekend.  I'd hate to admit how many years I've been wearing the same, plain pumps to these business shindigs, far beyond their shelf life, and we have a black tie to attend on Saturday so there's no putting it off any longer.  Although, it is in Peoria...perhaps I could squeeze one more wearing out of them?  Nah.  (Just kidding, Peorians!)  Being the homebody that I am, I'm already looking forward to putting that behind me (the shopping and the event) and getting back to my projects.  The holidays are starting to press in and I have a few things on my list to make.  Have you started your holiday handwork yet?

***Added (just a little) later:  Get over to Bitter Betty's and check out the best Halloween decorations ever!  So clever!! 

Holed up

 

Last week I impulsively joined a doll quilt swap, thinking it would motivate me to get back into the sewing room.  It worked!  But several days holed up in my new room have only resulted in a few small blocks.  I'm ok with that, though.  I was under the mistaken impression that I had finished unpacking my sewing things a few weeks ago, but when I actually got in there again, I *remembered* that despite de-boxing everything, quite a number of things were still stacked here and there.  It took quite a while to settle that stuff in (and truthfully, there are still a few small piles of things looking for a home) but I did make enough progress to take my sewing machine out of the box and set that up. 

You may recall that I had just gotten my new sewing machine before we sold our house in May, so my work on the doll quilt has been slowed by needing to consult my Janome handbook whenever I need to do something other than straight stitch.  Like rewind a bobbin.  Tortoise-like, I'm moving along. 

 

It probably didn't help that additionally, I decided to try some of Gwen Marston's little stars for the first time...3" stars.  I'm pretty revved up about the little project though and happy to be humming along again.

The swap is a secret one, in that participants don't know from whom they'll receive their piece.  When signing up, you're asked to provide some likes/dislikes to give your quiltmaker some ideas of what style of quilt you'd like.  My recipient put together a short but helpful list of colors and themes which immediately had me digging into some vintage fabrics for the perfect border piece (which of course I'm not revealing...yet).

In my rush to fill out the last-minute application, I'm afraid I didn't give this much thought.  The person who drew my name is probably more confused now than if I hadn't made a list.  So if you're reading this (and haven't started yet), I'm a fan of traditional designs in dark, reproduction prints (Sewprimitive Quilter posted some lovely examples this week), but I also like scrappy, quirky fabric mixes and liberated piecing (a la Gwen Marston).  I love zigzags and sawtooth edges; I don't like too much purple or pink.  But I'm sure I'll love whatever you send...I've never met a quilt I didn't like!

Fabbo fiber weekend

  
Sophie's Toes *Death by Chocolate*

Saturday:

• Get up early, shower, read the blogs while waiting for naturally curly hair to air dry before heading to Chicago for Yarn Con.
• Aimlessly click on a few links and stumble upon breathtaking textile work of Japanese blogger.
• Notice that said Japanese blogger seems to indicate in a little English that her fabulous zippered pouches will be?/are being? sold at a US gallery.  In the city my niece just moved to.
• Impulsively email said niece to inquire about proximity to gallery. 
• Drive to Yarn Con.  Chat with Ann (missed you, Kay!), boohoo over sold out books.
• Head to Sophie's Toes table.  Catch up with Emily, finally meet blogless Carla(!)  Drool over luscious yarn.
• Take cell phone call from niece(!) at gallery(!).  Japanese blogger pieces are there...charming, charming!  Give go-ahead to purchase favorite little pouch from blog post photo.
• Indulge in two skeins of Emily's Death by Chocolate.  Suffer weekend-long craving for brownies.  (Who says knitting has no calories?)

Sunday:

• Read the NYT while watching the Sunday morning talking heads.
• Persuade M to grab some clippers and join the fun in ongoing pachysandra clearance project.  (It continues!  Never-ending!)
• After several hours, saved by rain.
• Martha MacGyver calls with invite to area quilt show.  We're on!
• Quilt show and lecture by Bill Kerr.  Meet many local quilters and Persnickety Diane(!)
• Second day of camera in bag, memory who-knows-where? 

Monday:

• Painters arrive early to continue exterior trim work.
• Post-weekend tidying up.
• Noon: Answer doorbell...mail-person with package.  From (now favorite) niece.  Already!  From California!!

 

• *Sigh*

Progress

   

Progress on so many fronts this week!  Yes, she's finally knitting again, having been happily reunited with her comfy chair and focused lighting.  Not only have I knitted one mitten, but I'm well on my way to a finished pair.  (Gosh, could this become a habit?)  I don't have a shot with both in the same frame so you'll have to take my word for it, but here's the second cuff, to illustrate my newest bright idea. 

   

A lot of people comment that it must take a lot of patience to knit these mittens.  No, not at all!  That's the fun part!  What takes patience is the weaving in of ends.  Truth be told, a few of my earlier single mittens still have a wad of ends tucked inside.  I HATE weaving in ends, especially on these mittens because if you wait until the mitten is finished, you have to continually flip it inside out and back to as you work to check that you weaving is nice & neat and not catching other stray yarn ends.  I decided this time to try to weave them in as I work on the cuff, and found it's much easier to see what you're doing, inside and out, making an outside duplicate stitch possible as well as final tail-weaving on the inside. 

 

I've found that you can't immediately weave in a completed color.  You need to get about a 1/2 inch of knitting ahead of it to be successful.  The slight downside is that it does break one's rhythm to stop and weave ends but imagine, no nest of ends waiting for me on completion!

   

There has been some controversy regarding my chosen motif.  Strawberries or radishes?  I charted them out as strawberries, but didn't want to get too fiddly with seeds so I knitted them without.  I, too, saw radishes appear as they worked up, probably because I used some magenta in the tips.  Since I planned the mittens to look very Christmas-sy, I think I'll call just them sugarplums.

There's been progress on other fronts as well.  This was our living room as it was occupied by the previous owner:

 

And here it is now:

 

Ahhh, that's better!  It's a west facing room and except for late in the day, looked like a cave in the dark red.  Now I just need to decide on some new furnishings and get our old porch love seat moved out.  (And change out the brass screen and maybe paint that brick on the fireplace.) 

This last week has been packed.  I spent a fun afternoon with a new friend...a blogger who lives just a block away (now that's a small world!), sold a garage full of furniture at a neighborhood yard sale (meeting loads of new neighbors in the process), registered to vote, experienced two miserable visits to the DMV (enough said) and spent Sunday afternoon at the last, regular-season White Sox game. 

     

Being New England natives, for years we were ardent Red Sox fans.  But during our 26 years in Cleveland, the Indians won us over.  On Sunday, the White Sox were battling the Indians to claim a shot at the playoffs.  No rooting dilemma there because one of our favorite players from those Indian years now plays for Chicago.

 

Oh yeah...not only did he win the game with a home run, but last night he hit another homer in a decision game which secured their playoff spot.  Let's hear one for the old guys!  We'll be looking forward to seeing more of Jimmy in the next few weeks.

   

As will *Soxman*...