WIP: cricket costume, 2

I finished piecing the segmented abdomen -- totally winging it the entire way. That was fun, and not something I was used to.

I then sewed the front and the back, along with some white lining pieces, together and turned right side out. I'll have to hand stitch the neck hole closed, but first I am going to rip the seam that goes around the segmented part so I can add a little sparkle, via Sulky "holoshimmer" thread.

I also experimented with fusing together layers of "basket wrap" (transparent, irridecent plastic "wrapping paper"). Four layers fused ok (with a dry iron on medium heat, between two sheets of white paper), but doubling that over for a thicker, eight-layer sheet didn't stick too well. But that's where the sewing machine and more sparkly thread come into play. I am so excited about these wings that I can hardly stand still. I know Zoe will be too young to understand, but I hope her mom likes the costume -- I'm quite proud of it, so far.

WIP saturday

a quilty card and progress on the red quilt for Lisa....

WIP Thursday

I've just finished the Kimono quilt top, and I'll give you a peek, but I'm going to wait until the recipients get it before showing the whole thing....

Quick on the Kimono quilt's heels is the Red Quilt....

And the Stained Glass quilt patiently awaits the love it rightfully deserves...

WIP thursday

In the garden... we've got blueberries! (and one sungold tomato, and that basil I swore off? it's growing like mad in the background)

We also have a few baby lady birds left (who have completely taken care of the massive aphid infestation we had on the hops), and one was in the pupa stage this morning as I roamed the garden with my camera...

this is what the baby lady birds look like -- pretty ugly compared to their post-pupa phase, eh?

we've also got sugar snap peas...

our solitary honeycrisp apple (about the size of a golf ball)...

...and broccoli that we'll have for dinner tonight

hydrangeas....

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In the craft room... the kimono quilt pieces are all cut out, and the "sleeves" are pieced.

WIP Wednesday

First, the garden, as an update was specifically requested by Dad.

We've started harvesting kale, lettuce and spinach, and a few strawberries have ripened up.

We've also got artichokes, zuchini, and a total of nine tomato plants, including five Amish Paste plants, specifically for canning.

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On to the crafties!

I know it may not look like much, but I am pretty darn excited about this washcloth: it was my first real time following a pattern, complete with slip-slip-knits, yarn overs and knitting-two-togethers. woo hoo! Next up, I have a date with Debbie Bliss' Baby Knits for Beginners, a whole mess of her baby cashmerino yarn and some size two needles....

I made a solid start on the stained glass window quilt when I found out that the recipients are making a sudden whirlwind trip to Seattle this weekend, but two things happened to stall it again: first, I thought this was going to be an impossible week at work, with physically (not to mention mentally) impossible deadlines, so I thought I would be at the office until midnight and later, but that didn't pan out (aw, shucks!) and secondly, I realized that if I pushed it and dropped some of the finer details I have in mind for this, my first art quilt, I wouldn't be nearly as happy with the finished product as I otherwise hope to be, and I want to do it right.

I got seriously stalled on Seamus' cicada pouch when I ran into an engineering problem. I think I've got it figured out, now I just have to put down the other projects to pick this one up again....

And my two Bend the Rules swap items are well underway....

I have been missing my beads lately... stay tuned for some bead work!

WIP Wednesday

I think WIPs were meant to be posted on Wednesdays -- something about needing to show accomplishment for the week that's half over.

Here's a pair of sympathy cards I made this morning....

And my next project (it's amazing how a totally new, unplanned on project will jump into the front of the project queue.... and I have no control over it), is a cicada pouch (from Omiyage by Kumiko Sudo) for Seamus. I came up with it after I talked to Toni the other day and found out that her son is totally enamoured of insects these days. I have had this book for years, but never had quite the right occasion ot use it. I am so glad I do now.

Today I'll be multi-modal for my commute: bike to campus, bus to work, bike most of the way home (assuming the weather doesn't make me bail and catch the bus), where Eric will pick me up in the car (If you saw the hill between my house and the bike trail, you'd be calling home for a ride too [except Matte, who gets some sort of twisted joy out of this particular hill]).

WIP monday

A little knitting....

Lacy Vine Washcloth by Theresa Gaffey in Knitter's Stash. In Louet Euroflax Sport in Neptune blue.

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Elizabeth and Marla are getting married in August, so their quilt is the next at bat. The pattern is bit of a departure for me, but I selected it specifically with their living room in mind, and I think they'll like it.

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Things in the garden are sprouting/growing/fruiting!

sugar snap peas.....

strawberries.....

blueberries....

lavender flowers....

and hops (they just have the neatest looking leaves!)....

isabella quilt update

Baby Isabella's quilt top is finished! The charm pack made this quilt go together so much faster than any other I have done before. Just add sashing (ok, two separate trips to the fabric store for that bit), and voila! Instant baby quilt!

with finn, for scale.

WIP Tuesday

First, a finished object!

I made a pencil roll for a friend’s daughter’s birthday. I used the pattern from Joelle Hoverson’s Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, abbreviated to fit the 12-color pencil set I bought for it. The word on the street is that the recipient loved it, which makes me very happy.








Now on to the WIP du jour:
I am also about half-way through piecing the top of a baby quilt for the latest arrival of my friends Toni & Shawn, Isabella Renee. The patch fabric is from a charm pack of Moda’s Flutterby line, and the sashing and border fabrics are Kona Solids. The binding will also be Flutterby. I’ve seen photos of this sort of pattern, but I don’t know if it has a name, and I am constructing this quilt without any written instructions.






Toni’s first baby, Seamus, was the recipient of my very first “real” quilt, a rail fence patterned quilt from Alex Anderson's book, Start Quilting (below). Not wanting to rely on the traditional gender-associated color pallette of blues for a boy, I went with bold primary colors in three color groups: red, green and yellow (I know, green is not a primary color, but I trust that you see what I was after here). In each of the groups, I selected a fabric that incorporated sunflowers, since those are Toni's favorite flowers, unfazed by the fact that this boy's quilt was going to have flowers on it. Now Toni has a girl, I am making her a quilt that features insects! Unintentional irony -- I love it.



Rail Fence for Baby Seamus, circa 2005

WIP Wednesday

The huge log cabin has one more border to go! It has gotten so large, I had to employ the clothesline in order to take a photo (for scale, consider that the clothesline is about five foot, five inches above the concrete. Of course, I have to take photos when I get home while it's still light out, and then do some more sewing, so after this photo was taken, I added the creamy pink border to the top and bottom of the quilt. Now all that's left to complete the quilt top is the maroon border.



Notice the garlic doing very well in the lower right corner...

Our starts are also going like crazy: cucumber, beans and kale...






and just as I posted, Eric announced that we have Italian roasting pepper sprouts!

WIP Thursday

The starts are well underway, and I wish I had some time lapse photography equipment to show you just how fast these suckers are growing....




bush bean seeds from last year's harvest...



and various lettuces....

And now for the debut of the huge log cabin, not yet finished but looking mighty fine, if I may say so myself....





There's actually two-and-a-half more borders on there than when the photo was snapped yesterday -- one of the medium pink and half of the creamy pink. I really need to inquire at the quilt shop about getting myself in the queue for their long arm quilting service -- this thing barely fits on my sewing table as a quilt top -- adding batting and another layer would take up the whole room, and probably send me into convulsions. So off it will go for some expert quilting on big fancy machine. Hopefully they'll let me take pictures!

Tomorrow, Eric and I are off to northeastern Oregon for a mini road trip (read: business trip where I get to bring the old man).

My spring quarter class is off to a great start -- sort of on the touchy-feely side, but in a good way, so I am still quite excited about it. We have to do some observations every week on a given theme -- if I like any of my observation writings, I'll share.

ribbit

The blocks are done on the huge log cabin quilt! (crossing fingers, because when I laid it all out this morning, it looked alarmingly small...)



To answer DinoMatt's question from yesterday: “frogging” is knitting slang for realizing that something has gone utterly awry with your project (in this case, the sock was too big for my taste—it would have suited me fine back when I sported slouch socks, some eighteen years ago), pulling the needles out, exposing all of the live stitches grabbing the ball-end of the yarn and pulling out all the stitches. Crying may be involved, and likely red wine. Why do they call it frogging, you ask? Well legend has it that it that since the other way this activity is described is to “rip it back”. Now follow me here.…. rip it… ribbit… frog ….change the noun to a verb….frogging.

WIP tuesday & weekend update

On Saturday morning, Eric and I went curling again -- we love it! I am really getting serious about joining a league next season (September). I forgot the camera, but we had a great time.

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On Sunday, I made applesauce from the huge bowl of apples I had inadvertently collected....




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Eric and I got the spring veggie starts underway, converting the garden window into a... garden window....


We planted broccoli, kale, two types of lettuce, beans (from seeds we harvested from last year's crop), basil, cilantro, walla walla onions, scalions and Italian roasting peppers.



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But with the success of those things came the agony of defeat with other things. Well, not defeat exactly, but disappointment, both in quilting and in knitting.


Turns out I miscounted on the Huge Log Cabin, and I need 24 blocks, not 16. Such a silly mistake, but with a little production modification (why wasn't I chain stitching these babies before?!?) and some serious motivation in the form of other quilt projects piling up, I am already halfway through the eight additional blocks I need to be back on track...




And as for knitting, I had to frog my first sock attempt when it became clear that the sock was just too big. Smaller needles or a stich count reduction, not sure which, but I am determined to begin again! In fact, I have so enjoyed this sock attempt that I have truly had to sit on my hands to refrain from buying more sock yarn already.... ugh.


hmmm... perhaps I should have tried to modify it into a fingerless mitt before I frogged.... oh well.

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And remember the Gift Exhange I mentioned, oh-so-long-ago? I haven't forgotten it! This is my first felted bowl, which I am now embellishing with beads for one recipient....