June Wedding

It’s hard for me to really believe it, but my baby girl got married last week. She was such a beautiful bride and I really wish her and Geoff all the happiness in the world. The wedding was wonderful. She arranged for parents, siblings and grandparents to spend the week together camping/cabining at a resort in Northern Minnesota. Everyone got along and it couldn’t have gone any better.

Of course there was a wedding quilt. This is the Shakespeare in the Park pattern by Judy Martin. The pattern was not terribly difficult, but there were A LOT of flying geese! It took quite a long time for me to get all the blocks done and then assembling the rows was a challenge. It is set on a point and I didn’t really have a space large enough for the entire quilt, so I had to be super careful to keep things in the correct order. Of course I did goof a few times, but thank goodness I caught it all in time.

We had a very long car ride from Connecticut to Minnesota, so I got a lot of knitting time in. I finished my Night Circus socks. The pattern is actually Hermione’s Everyday socks, but the colors of the yarn reminded me of a book I was reading when I bought the yarn. The book was Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and in it there is a circus where everything is black and white and some fans of the circus always wear red. I know the yarn is black, red and gray, not white, but as soon as I saw it that is where my mind went. The book was a great read, I highly recommend it.

I finally started the sockhead hat. This pattern has been in my queue for a long time!

I started another pair of socks, I simply cannot not have socks on the needles!

I worked on my sweater. I really thought I would get a lot done on the sweater in the car and I might have if I had remembered the yarn! I only brought the yarn that was currently being worked, when that skein ran out I did not have another with me – darn it.

On the quilting front, I want to finish up some of my Christmas WIPS in time for Christmas this year. I have a really cute quilt I made from charm squares that just needs to be quilted, it would look great on the table. I sew in the basement and it gets a little stuffy feeling down there when it is warm and humid, but hopefully I can get motivated to get some more projects finished up.

Finally Finished

I finally finally finally finished these socks. I started them so long ago, that I can’t even remember when I started them. I am loving the way they came out and can’t wait for the return of cooler weather so that I can wear them.

Speaking of weather, it is starting to heat up around here. I know that the mid 80s isn’t actually hot, I know that people in the desert would scoff to hear me whine about the heat, but this humidity business is awful. My hair is frizzed out like a mad woman and it is just sticky. I blast my AC and then freeze inside my house. As the kids say, I must be cray cray.

I have been knitting away on my Vodka Lemonade sweater. I have my stitches saved for the sleeves and am working on the body. I love this yarn and the color, I can’t wait to get this one done. The yarn is a blend of cotton, rayon, alpaca and wool. I am really hoping that I can wear it in the spring and summer without overheating. I wish I could knit faster, I am having a serious case of “castonitis” right now and want to knit all of the things.

I am also working on these Hermione’s Everyday Socks. I am calling them my Night Circus socks because the colors of the yarn remind me of the Night Circus, a book by Erin Morgenstern, that I read a couple of months ago. It is not my typical genre, no one was bludgeoned to death in the first chapter, but I really enjoyed it. I read as a part of a read-a-long in the BookishStitcher group on Ravelry. It is really fun to get pushed outside of my own 9 dots sometimes.

On the quilting front, I have the top completed for Emily’s wedding quilt. Now I just have to load it onto the frame and get it quilted. Hopefully the learning curve of a new machine and adjusting the tension don’t take me too long, I have less than 2 weeks before we leave for the wedding – whew, writing that out just made my heart pound, I must hurry!

Here is my updated tracker for StashDash2015, I need to get my little puppy moving!

Knitting Frenzy

I haven’t posted in ages! And so much has changed in the last year and a half. The biggest change is that I have relocated from Arizona to New England. I moved for my job, which I am loving. The transition away from family and friends has been hard, and I miss everyone so much. But it has been fun traveling around New England and seeing new things and there is still so much to see.

I am still knitting and quilting. My new home has a finished basement which I have converted into a giant sewing palace for me. I am currently sewing away like a mad woman on Emily’s wedding quilt. She and Geoff are getting married in a few weeks and in true typical Kellie fashion I am not done with the quilt. My parents are here to visit and drive to Minnesota for the wedding with us, so I have recruited my Mom to help me get the quilt finished. Yes, mrsquilt’s sweat shop is back in business!

Moving to New England has really rejuvenated my knitting mojo. The weather is much more conducive to wearing knits here than it was in Phoenix and a majority of my creating time has been spent knitting.

Here a few of the things I have done recently.

I’ve gotten pretty good about keeping my projects on Ravelry, so check them out there. My user name is mrsquilt. I’m also mrsquilt on Instagram.

I have decided to join the Stash Dash 2015 KAL with the Knit Grills group in Ravelry. The goal is to knit either 3K, 5K or 10K meters between today and August 14. This little tracker should help me to keep track of my progress.

As you can see, I am trying for the 5K, which is 5,468 yards or yarn knitted into something wonderful. I have grand plans, including socks, sweaters, hats and cowls. Wish me luck!!

Hats!

This seems to be the year of the hat for me. It started out with a simple request from Nathan for a hat to take school.

It knit up so quickly and turned out great, so I decided to make another

 and another

 and another

 and another.

I also have a request for a hat from one of Nathan's friends and Nathan has asked for gloves. It's fun to have these quick projects on my needles.

On the quilting front, here are some pictures of the going to college quilt.

It is batiks made using the pattern Good to be square.

My quilting group had our annual quilting retreat in Show Low a few weeks ago.

 Here are the tops I got finished.

This one was our group charity quilt project. I was the project leader this time around and choose the pattern, fabric theme and charity it will go to. The pattern is Starry eyed from the Moda Bake Shop. Red is my favorite color and all reds always seem to mix well together, so that was an easy pick for me. Everyone in the group made at least one star and one square block with fabrics from their own stash. The retreat was the perfect place and time to get this assembled. It will be the next project on my frame.

This one was an old kit I had from 2003ish... The pattern is yellow brick road and the fabrics are from the first Paris Flea Market line by 3 Sisters for Moda. It was a quick sew and I still love these fabrics all these years later. Wonder why it took me so darn long to do this one?

And finally here is my last project. It is the Urban Abacus pattern made with a quick curve ruler. It will look great on my table once I get it quilted.

Until Later

Purple Season

With the preseason well underway, it is time, as Zac says, to start rocking my purple. I love football and I love the Vikings, so for the next few months everything around me will be purple!

This is a quilt I made for OJ for Christmas a few years ago.

I would like to add more photos of the hats and quilts I have been working on lately, but yesterday I downloaded a virus that took over my whole computer. After many hours, OJ finally had to delete everything and reload Windows all together. Right now, Carbonite is restoring my files, I really hope this works! If it does than I will still have all pictures, patterns and music, keep your fingers crossed.

If all goes well with the restore, I should be back soon with pictures of the going to college quilt I made for Nathan, who just left for NAU yesterday, and the pile of hats I made for him.

Adventures in Gardening

After 4 years, we have finally gotten started on the farm garden we wanted to do in the back. As you can see by the aerial shot below, we have quite a bit of back yard to work with.

First up however was the new lemon in the front yard. This is another item that has been on the to do list for years. There used to be a ugly stick in the front that would a get few blue flowers on it sometimes, but now there is the long awaited lemon tree.

I have to say I am very excited about this even though it will take a year or two before we will get lemons.

Next up was to tackle the back. Here is what the north corner of the side yard to the east looked like when we started out

Lots of tumbleweed, branches from trimming in the front and old grass clippings. Now we have the start of 3 raised beds.

The tumbleweeds and branches and dead grass have been cleared away. We also got started on a temporary pathway to the farm garden.

It doesn't look like much yet, but I have big plans. Next weekend I will get my drip system in and fill my boxes with soil and seeds. Also on the short list is fire pit and patio, This one from Pinterest will be my inspiration

On the quilting front, I have made great progress on a new project I will call circle of stars.

The original pattern is by Karen Styles and is called Robin's Nest. Since the mere thought of any kind of bird at all sends chills down my spine, I have renamed my version. The majority of this quilt has been done by hand and I am enjoying the process very much. Not too much to report on the knitting front.

I hope everyone is enjoying spring, wish me luck with my farm garden.

Ouch!

It's been years since the last time I cut myself with the rotary cutter, but today I really got myself good. Put a nice little notch in the tip of my left index finger. Wow did that hurt! Also bled like crazy - but thankfully not a drop on the fabric. I got blood all over my pants and the floor, but the only thing we found on the fabric was a small hunk of finger! My boys were fascinated with it, big surprise there :-)

Before I decided maim myself, I did manage to finish up all of the Strawberry Fields blocks. I need to do some calculating for my layout and possibly some shopping, I am thinking I will need more of the vanilla background fabric.

I have EQ7 and need to reload it on my computer, this might be a good opportunity for me to finally learn how to use it.

I wanted to keep sewing so I pulled out a quilt kit that I bought in 2002. It is Gingham Rose by 3 Sisters. I decided to use the fabrics to make the Misselthwaite pattern by Miss Rosie.

 I was cutting triangles when I cut my finger. Much like running out of bobbin, cutting your finger is a good stopping point for the day, LOL