Lunchtime

I was either going to toss the sundry vegetables, left over from previous meals, or make them into lunch. Lunch it was. I tossed salt and olive oil and garlic paste in a tube with the potatoes before roasting, and they were so good. So. Good.
In the ramekins, I combined left over whipped cream and egg yolks, and poured it over left over apple pie and added some butterscotch chips and chopped hazelnuts and baked them like a custard. And this may be my new favorite dessert. It was so rich we are saving the leftovers for later. hahah left over left overs.
On the needles is Eunny Jung's Ivy League Vest. I got the cd from interweave and I was lucky enough to be able to visit Webs in Northampton last week when we dropped Bailey off at school in South Hadley.Webs is a hUge store and I was agog at the hUgeness of it. and they had the exact yarn called for in the pattern and I got twenty percent off and after a crappy week of colonoscopies and polypectomies and such like indignities I decided to just buy it and try to make it ~ and so that is my story and I am sticking to it.

Poppet

My lap bob cat

Where we were today.

Museum of natural history where I was attacked by a giant butterfly.
And I am knackered. Probably shoud have stayed home but I wanted to
have one day out.

Shawlette

From Knitty winter-unblocked

Oops

I started this by accident. I must have been under the influence of
fabric fumes.

Circular knitting needle holder

This is made from an old canvas tote that I had laying around. It will
keep my needles accessible and in one place. The tubes in the top
pocket are cigar tubes from Mike's dad. They are perfect for dpns.
Behind the cigar holder pockets is a bigger pocket for sundries. I
hardly ever use regular straight needles so I don't need a place for
them. The original webbing from the tote makes a good hanger. I cut
the sides of the tote and made a vertical tube and used wool for the
pockets. The contraption folds up to be totable. I made the long
vertical pocket tubular also so there will be no fraying. Now I need
piece of empty wall to hang it. Sorry the picture is not better. Low
light-small camera. I love making things like this and using things I
already have.

Small quilty finish

My commute

Switching gears

I seem to be switching gears again. I am contemplating making some DJ blocks in Robyn Pandolf type colors. I did start a shabby chic jane way back when but it never gelled.The blocks got used in Katy's quilt.
Maybe I have had enough of brights!! No that could never happen. Maybe it is seasonal, liking more subdued colors in the winter. Could be. But the new Pandolf collection, Beach House, is very inviting..but after spending the day in my sewing room yesterday, I know I do not need any more fabric for a while-so I am on fabric austerity for a while..at least for today.
Funny thing, how I can rationalize. I tell my self: I do not buy cosmetics or need fancy clothes for work. I get books room the library and do not drink or shop recreationally. But I do have fabric. It is my inspiration, my paintbox, my sacred space.
Well that was dizzying. Going from ungrounded rationalization to complete validation in one spiraling sequence. I think I need to sit down.

Poppet

Poppet is shaping up for the Olympic De Cat a Lon....the competion is fierce on Cathi's blog, but Poppet is dedicated.

Fuzzy neck thing

Knitted while benched, contemplating whether or not to rise to the occasion.
Bailey bought this yarn a few years back when she wanted to learn to knit but was quickly frustrated. Indeed it is a pain to knit with even on huge needles. But at least it is done. Began today and finished today. and Bailey says it will match her coat.

Wristies

Begun as socks. Morphed to mittens. Remodeld into wristies. Done is done.

and the winner is...

Bailey picked two winners! because I received two extra books. I was overwhelmed by the responses and deeply moved by all of your comments I received more than fifty replies, here and on
facebook and my typepad blog and in the WIP and the Inklingo Yahoo groups- and I could not have chosen the winner based upon worthiness because all of your chosen charities are noble and worthy and I wish I had a hundred books to donate, so each of you could have one to keep and one to give away.
So I wrote each name on a stickie note and drew a breath and said a prayer and let Bailey pull two names. And.
They are Penny Jones and Carolyn in Ohio. I have contacted each one either through her blog or email address, so I hope to hear from them soon with the shipping information!
Thanks to you all for your participation. It is an honor to know you all-such as it is...through the auspices of the www.

Give Away--Jinny Beyer's Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns

a gift for Christmas! and a give away for you.
It seems that the order was doubled and Amazon told us not to return it so I am going to have a giveaway. It will involve a drawing and I would like to ask that you describe your favorite charity and then make a donation to it for the new year. It does not have to be money. It could be a meal to a less fortunate neighbor or a scarf knitted for the red scarf project, or a quilt donated to a shelter or the Quilts of Valor. Or you could even donate blood. It does not need to be a human charity-it could be for a nature preserve or an animal shelter.
And it will be on the honor system. I do not expect you to report back. I believe you will do the right thing. After all, are we not quilters?
My daughter will pick the winner. It may or may not be a random drawing but I think it may have to be in order to be fair. I will do the drawing on January One. Drawing will be from the comments here and my other blog. (see side bar)

making piles

I have been lazily making piles of three inch diamond shapes from the Inklingo collection. I do not really have a direction or a color scheme although mostly it has been blues and violets piling up. I have raided my hand dyed stash and my plan is to cut up as much as I can in the next couple of days off.
I am most recently inspired by the Quilters Album of Patchwork Patterns by Jinny Beyer,which I was given for Christmas!! And not only did I have one delivered but by the grace of Amazon, I received two! And so I have been told I can do what I want with the second. Amazon is donating it because the error was made by them!
so loyal readers......what shall I do?

Got a yarn winder:)

Inklingo Giveaway!!

Be sure and visit Linda and Tilde to see the details. I guarantee you will be inspired!
Let me know if you can resist!

finished in time

Long term work in progress (wip) finished in time to be a gift. Unfortunately the recipient will not be here for Christmas day as she will be working. But at the least it is finished for her and she knows it is here.
It has been ready to have a binding applied since it was quilted by Sue Baddley a long while ago, but I guess I just did not get around to it.I even had the binding cut, left over from another quilt. How many tops do you have that need to be made into quilts. I can think of a few I have tucked away...

What I do on my day off

basically I am a big kid. One of my fondest childhood memories is looking over the deck of a ship waiting for mermaids to appear. I may still be waiting. I bought myself a new box of water soluble crayons in the city last week and they have been calling me all week. I should have spent the morning on baking and gift wrapping but this is what I did instead.

I made these...

Pattern By PurlSoho
Very Cute and what a fun way to use your felted scraps. I did a corrugated k1p1 cuff and 54 stitches to get a right sized cuff. I guess it will be different depending on what yarn you use. Good walking the rabbit mittens.

Jane Austen top

The center is done and I await the fabric ( crimson tone on tone) for the planned two inch inner border. I am not sure yet what to do for the outer border since
I am .not. no. way. going to sew together two thousand tiny diamonds. Nope.
No way. Not happening. Well, maybe just some of them..
*edited to add* This top was entirely done using Linda Franz revolutionary quilting system called Inklingo. I would never have had the patience or precision, using traditional methods, to make this top. I did use templates for some of the shapes, rather than printing, because I was using 5 inch squares from 'nickel' swaps in addition to fabric that I could use in my printer. But that just goes to show you that you can combine traditional template tracing with Inklingo with ease. Linda has many shape collections on her website! Maybe you want to let Santa know-just saying. My only affiliation is as a thrilled customer and freind.
pps. I will send the quilt our for machine quilting as soon as I save enough shekels to do so. That may take a while.

Gee's Bend Quilt Kits from Purl Soho

I love this web site. All sorts of really nice stuff, inspiration, patterns materials and tutorials.
I think I may do my own version of this. I could probably pull these colors from my stash. I absolutely love this. Did I say that twice? O well.

two more seams

I am almost finished with the center...just two more long seams which require more time than I have presently to pin and stitch Maybe tonight? more likely next week. And then I am considering the borders and heaven help me I am already planning another in my head using brights so I can use my Spoonflower panels! Without Linda Franz' Inklingo, I would not have been able to do this pattern. Printing directly on the fabric with the seam lines made the stitching effortless and accurate. As for the fabric, it was collected swapped received as gifts and purchased over the last several years. I am a fabric collector! My stash is legion!

think of the possibilities!

Juicy Bruce

my kids have a page on my space, if you want to hear their band...
They are playing at clubs in the city and will be publishing on itunes soon.

The votes were unanimous for the lighter colored center when I auditioned it from the computer. However it looks kind of drab in real life so I am tempted to choose another, The picture has three pieces cut from the brighter fabric and one from the drab one. can you guess which one I like? it is on the bottom left. My designer dh says, "It draws the eye to the center."
I think if I add some color to the border it will work well.

poppet

fabricguru.com

I am thinking one of these may do-hard to choose without auditioning...hate to buy both!



the expensive one!cat nap
birthday cabbage
Maybe you can help. I have narrowed my choices down to two possibilities....thnks for the website-Dakota essense:)

love this picture

Cute mittens from the Purl Bee

I am enjoying these quick mittens. Almost feels like cheating because
I am using felted wool and not knitting the whole things.

Not a complete loss

There may be another, brighter quilt inspired by this fabric. I am
thinking a 60 degree inklingo diamond star shape may be in the works.

NY SHeep and Wool Festival

We had a lovely time at the wool festival in spite of the weather report. There was not so much as a drizzle or a drop. The temp was nippy and the sheep were turned out in their finest. I resisted the urge to buy a whole unprocessed fleece to spin, knowing I will never actually do all the work that is entailed in actually involved in processing a raw fleece. I did come home with a couple of reasonably small bags of nice fluffy undyed corridale to play with. One day I would like to spin enough to actually make a sweater. heh. Have I told you of the theory that knitting is actually responsible for civilization as we know it? no? well maybe another post. Many fiber addicts already know this in the fiber of their being. Ahem.
(The fourth picture is the inside of a tent made of felt-a yurtish structure in that it is round. Very Cozy.)

in pursuit of a panel

I could not find a panel for my Jane Austen center, so I decided to try and make one. This is my first attempt. I will see how it works out and then if it doesn't work, I will do another! this is four panels and I will give each one a test drive.

collections

I get the need part-the feeling that you must have something to fill a need. This need comes in many forms, the need to look "right" the need to have supplies to make stuff or books to instruct or amuse, music to fill the air, space to arrange it so that you can find it, money to keep it coming. But isn't this need really just one big need that never gets filled?
Isn't it in the nature of the need itself to be unfulfilled or it ceases to exist and what part of ourselves has a preinstalled self destruction option?
So the need just keeps shifting from one aspect to another: shape shifting- to insinuate itself into whatever part is left unguarded, unprotected.
In some more refined context, it is called collecting, and this may be valid for some, safe and even profitable if a market exists. But I think for most, it is just unspecific need, drifting into our lives, fitting into whatever shape our wounds have assumed. Perhaps until we do whatever healing we need to do, before it goes away, or it does us irreparable harm.
I collect books on knitting and quilting and decorating and building: more than I will ever use...more than I can even find....in my piles. My personal stacks. I have bought bookshelves to house them and even joke about our library, but they are overflowing, unruly, and threaten to overtake what little open space we have unless the need is tamed or more likely replaced with a different, less demanding need.
Ah, but my needs are very demanding, the need for supplies and rooms to put them in, and the need for inspiration and time to implement and money to feed the supplies and keep the house and fund the inspiration. I have always been at odds with my needs, sometimes denying myself to an unhealthy degree and at other times self indulgent to the other unhealthy extreme of addiction, and mostly I have wavered somewhere in the middle, balancing on a high wire. With no net, the hushed crowd of my needs, gathered below in the dark tent.
This rave is precipitated by my not being able to find a book. One book. A book which has the pattern I need to begin the other mitten. It is here somewhere. I just know it.