Friday Eye Candy

SAFF Stash!


In this photo you see all my yummy goodness from SAFF! (l-r)

Miss Bab's Sock yarn - even CALLED yummy! lol - and this peppermint looking colorway was only one of two - Lindsey snagged the other one

then Neville Longbottom colorway of sock yarn (from Shelby B's) - and its 10% cashmere - amazing!

Miss Bab's Yowza Whatta Skein (don't know exactly what I want to make out of this yet - maybe this)

2 of Miss Bab's Yowza Whatta Skeins (in Fraser) for a sweater - was thinking about this one

and some commercial self striping sock yarn - maybe a BSJ for my little nephew (well if he turns out to be a nephew instead of a neice!)


and just so there is no confusion... my new sock yarn looks not a thing like the other sock yarn I just bought (lindsey?! lol)


I mean look how extremely different they are!! :) Anyway - I think the first skein is gonna be duckies now and the new one?!? who knows? It reminds me of Christmas peppermint though - so they'll be happy socks!

Hope everyone has a happy weekend planned. We are headed to our Alma Mater for Homecoming and the ride up to Clemson should provide some knitting time. Maybe I'll finish my cheese sweater. Happy Weekending! :)

SAFF

This past weekend I had a VERY fun crafty weekend with the bestest fiber friends a girl could ask for! We went up to the NC mnts (again) - this time to Fletcher for SAFF. Morgan and I were a little behind Millie and we got a text that said "OMG! WOW!" and yeah, that pretty much sums it up!

Walking in - you see literally an entire ARENA full of yarn (be still my heart!)

We walked and shopped and took classes and shopped. We oogled alpaca and shopped some more! The best part about SAFF is not only seeing all the unique yarn but also the unique handknits that everyone is wearing. What a great way to show off your handknits. First of all, I think all were required to wear handknit socks...


Millie wore her GORGEOUS Noro Entrelac scarf (actually makes me want to buy Noro! gasp!)


Lindsey wore a beautiful teal Rusted Root...


and I had on my new Springtime Bandit (finally finished and blocked!)


and the amazing back...


Saturday night we hung out in the room a bit - with the matching hat twins... :) (isn't it ironic that this is called the unoriginal hat?!? - hmmm)


Learned how to make recycled T-shirt yarn (this could be another post entirely). And then went out to a great sushi dinner, coffee and desserts.

Sunday we went back for more classes, a little more shopping and finally a whole group picture

(r-l Millie - in her recycled T-shirt yarn wrap!!, me - in my February Lady Sweater (note to self: knit with something other than pink!), Morgan - in Araucania - soo jealous!, and Lindsey in HER Noro Entrelac scarf.)

It was such a great time and we are now thinking Maryland Sheep and Wool - who knows?! Maybe Rhinebeck is even in our future - it was too fun!

New Nest Quilt

A disappearing nine patch is suddenly appearing...

and I have photographic evidence of my quilt already in use! Awesome!


Make sure you stop back by next week. I am headed to SAFF with some good knitting friends and I am super excited to be able to go this year. We will all be decked out in our handknits and I am sure there will be lots of eye candy gratuitous yarn shots! Don't miss it.
Have a good weekend!

Some Apple Baking

If you read my real life blog (not crafting) or actually know me (which I think both of you do - ha!) then you know last weekend was our (first!) anniversary and Eric took me up to the NC mountains for the weekend. We did alot of apple picking (and got a little carried away).


Evidence of that - I bought the hard core apple peeler, slicer, corer (awesome!) Looking at our bushels of apples I knew I wasn't going to peel them all by hand! When we got home, I just had to try it out and before I knew it I had a PILE of apples - all peeled, cored and sliced in pretty ringlets. Oh what to do!


So I made my mom's (famously amazing...LOVE!) apple pie. And that didn't use them all up - so I made some smaller apple crisps too (gluten free for my celiac friend) and had an oven full of apples.


Good thing I had some help with all this...


Riiiight... the bad news. There isn't even a DENT - you can't tell AT ALL that I used any apples. There will be canning in my future. Any good recipe ideas?!?

Officially a Quilter...

... as of 8pm Sunday night, I put the last stitches in the binding of my first quilt.

Ta-Da!


and the back...


Sorry about the lighting, I tried to catch the end of the natural light at my house -but alas it was already pretty dark when I got home from work yesterday. So - the top is with flash and the bottom without (a bit dark - but closer to the color b/c its an off-white/cream rather than the white it seems with the flash).

I had hoped to give this to my new niece or nephew too - but I might try again to see if I can't get a bit straighter lines etc in my quilting before I give one away as a gift. Anyway, I am pretty happy with it and proud of myself for finishing. Now... onto this bigger one...

"You can't have 'no' in your heart"

This is what my husband told me after he asked why I wasn't sewing and I explained to him that I was 'scared to mess up my quilt top". He told me "You can't have no in your heart" - and I got up and quilted my first quilt (well the following night b/c I realized that night I didn't have a walking foot - no wonder I was scared!) lol!


So thats my quilt IN my sewing machine!! And if that's not BIG enough news for ya - then check this out...


...that's right! It has a binding too! (Well half of the binding is attached. My plan is to take it in the car this weekend - on our anniversary trip yea! :) and handstitch it onto the back) - THEN it will be done!! And I will share my very first really real quilted quilt with you next week!
Yippee!!

Another kind of eye candy...

This time I don't have fabric eye candy (well I do - ha!) but I will save that for later. First I have another kind of eye candy! SOCK YARN! mmm...squishy soft amazing new sock yarn. And fun projects to make with it!
First - the pattern over 12,000 ppl have already made (yeah, I am a little slow catching on!) the clapotis! With this yummy yarn (from Knit - in Charleston! - which it was soo great to have some time to go visit!)

and this...well this will be socks for me! (surprise!) and I think I might finally use Morgan's FAVORITE and go to sock pattern - the double eyelet toe up. We'll see. There is still this matter of quilting - oh and the other socks ...

Practicing and Big Plans

So the BIG quilt top sits idle still...but I have a new plan. Tackle the smaller quilt (that also had a top almost all put together) and get it done first. Easier to accomplish right?!? Well, I got the whole top done, the back pieced, the batting cut AND its all basted...


AND...

THEN...


... the fear kicked again. ugh! So there has been a little more practicing (like how to lock quilt stitches etc) on these small little things...


Then this little guy is totally getting quilted...


(see he sits awaiting...sooo close to the sewing machine, saying "finish me! finish me!" - lol!)

And,well after that I am sure they will all just fly through the sewing machine and quilt themselves right?!? Riiight...

This gripping fear has led me even to knit more in protest and procrastination... you'll see!

I can quilt...

Just apparently not a whole quilt. This is a bag I made a while back (again with Anna Maria Horner fabric that I am IN LOVE with!)



I really love this bag (the fabrics, the pattern, the size) but my interfacing wasn't right (it was heavy according to the label - but not according to holding up the sides of this bag - ugh!) On top of that I made the handles too long (which I still need to fix) - but I still like the bag, its just not as perfect as it SHOULD have been. BUT the good news is that its proof I CAN quilt...if I set my mind to it (right?!) (trying to build up my confidence here!)

Out of Commission...

If you were wondering where I went or if I quit crafting (or even was MIA to finish my quilt - ha ha ha!), I am sorry to disappoint. But you see, my camera went out of commission. I took pictures of a project I did make (and finish actually) but when I went to load them on the computer my handy dandy memory card had decided to delete them all! This is how Eric felt about it after I complained for hours (and miraculously the memory card decided to start working again and keep this photo!)


Sorry that's all I got for you right now - well that and we were gone this weekend - doing this again (on a much smaller scale).


But I am itching to get back in my craft room and hopefully I will have more to show for it this week! Stay tuned!

1st Quilt Top

I have been dragging my feet about posting this, well, because I have been dragging my feet about finishing it.

This is the first quilt top I ever started (well that's not even true...ha!) This is the first quilt top I have ever started since I had a sewing machine (and any taste in picking out fabrics - lol). (see the gorgeous fabrics...they didn't all make it into this quilt - but it sure started this 'stash' lol!)



Anyway, I started piecing it at the beginning of the summer after being inspired by this, and was worried about the pieces fitting - so it took me a month to work up the courage to put all the pieces together for the top. (these were just some finished squares)




I finally finished the whole quilt top (and it lines up pretty well) and now its been sitting in my craft room for over a month like this.



Because I am scared again. Scared to make a crappy back that drags the whole project down (I can't find a kona cotton solid around here that matches) and afraid that if I actually make a back I will have to baste it, and quilt it - (that really scares me!!). So - here it sits... (pretty anyway isn't it?!?)

I wish my great-grandmother was still here. She made TONS of gorgeous handmade (every stitch!) quilts and I would love to have her help. (and at this point really anyone else's help to kick my butt into gear, take away my fears of ruining all my hard work and actually FINISHING it! - any takers?!?)

That said, I have one other quilt top pieced, one other one planned and fabrics for a fourth, a fifth, and even a sixth already picked out (and purchased). See... I have a problem! Someone come help!!