Diana's Bikini

There's a statue of Diana the Huntress in Pueblo.  Usually she is naked.  Not now.  Someone knitted her a bikini out of white fuzzy yarn.

Project Linus Update

I was home in Colorado this past weekend.  One of the things I did there was work on my Project Linus quilt.

I found some perfect fabric for the backing at Joann's.  This first photo is the backing, the batting (donated by my mom), and the top, all ready to be sandwiched together.

Mom's cousin Cass and a group of ladies quilt for Our Lady of the Meadows.  The church gives quilts to those in need.  Cass lent us the frame they use to stretch the quilts.  Here is the quilt stretched and ready to be quilted.

Lucky for me, my mom knows how to do all this stuff!  She taught me how to tie the quilt.

Here's a closeup.

And this is Mom in action.

Here's an artsy in-progress photo.

The last thing I did was learn how to make binding, attach it to the quilt by machine, and hand-sew the rest of it down.  I got about one-quarter of the way done with the by-hand part.

I intend to finish the quilt over Christmas.  Stay tuned for that!

Cowl/Infinity Scarf

I really wanted one of these.  So I made one.  This is the Canaletto Cowl by Megan Goodacre.  It was easy to make.  I finished it yesterday during the Texans game, thanks to overtime.  It's big enough to loop twice around my neck.

It loops twice around Lucy's big neck too.

The yarn is Dream in Color Everlasting DK.  The colorway is called Daylily.  That's a much better name than #8493 (or whatever) which all too many colorways are named.

Project Linus Quilt

Usually I am a selfish crafter.  I make things only for me (and occasionally for my mom).  But I'm making this for someone I'll never even meet.

At the quilt show last weekend, we wandered into the Moda Bake Shop booth.  The lady there gave each of us a bundle of twenty 2.5 x 5" rectangles.  In another booth I saw a charm pack (forty-two 5 x 5" squares) of the same fabric.  Coordination!  I bought the charm pack, not knowing what I'd do with my new little stash of fabric.

A while later we stumbled upon the Project Linus display.  This is a volunteer group that makes and gives blankets to children in hospitals or crisis situations, wherever they are needed.  I knew what I would do with the fabric!  It is children's fabric with dots, owls, numbers, and cars (the collection is called Ten Little Things) and it would make a great Project Linus quilt.

So I took a few evenings this week and made a quilt top.  (The sewing machine and stuff were still out from making my violet quilt top.)  The main part of the quilt is the charm pack I bought.  The blue border is leftover from the inside of the tote bag I made for Carol a couple years ago.  The patchwork border is 36 of the 40 rectangles the Moda lady gave us.  The outer green border is fabric I bought at Joann's specifically for this project.  I think this is pretty cute!

I'm going to (hopefully) finish this over Thanksgiving with a little help from my mom.  Rather than hand or machine quilting, I will tie the three layers together with yarn.  I have coordinating yarn, left over from my flock of bluebirds.   I'm really excited to finish and donate this quilt!

Yarn Caddy

I like to read Nichole's blog.  She's got cute dogs, great instagram photos, product reviews, and giveaways.  Recently she reviewed the Della Q Cleo Yarn Caddy.  And she was giving one away.  I loved the bag in her review so of course I entered.  Imagine my surprise when I won!  I chose the color Tequila Sunrise and the nice people at Della Q promptly sent my Yarn Caddy.

This is a great bag!  It's big so it can hold a lot of yarn or in-progress projects in the interior.  It's got four big pockets on the outside for even more stuff.

Currently mine is holding an oh-so-close-to-being-finished Carson shawl, which is a pretty big project.  Should I get bored with that, there is some recently-wound yarn for an Anne Hanson scarf.  Of course the patterns for both are in the bag.  In the front pockets I put my little notions pouch and a bottle of water.  I know I could fit even more stuff in here but I'm trying not to start too many projects at once.

The Yarn Caddy is stylish too!  Look, it's in an ad in the latest issue of Vogue Knitting.

Thank you, Nichole and Della Q, for the fabulous Cleo Yarn Caddy!

And she's off!!!

Normally at the dog park I'm too busy throwing the ball for Lucy to take pictures as she launches herself into the pond.  But since my mom was here, she threw and I photographed.

Look at her go!

Big splash!

Such a smooth swimmer!

Quilting

I took some time away from knitting to quilt.  My mom is a quilter and she was here the past few days to visit and attend the big quilt show, the International Quilt Festival.  I was inspired at the thought of all those beautiful quilts and knew with my mom here, she'd be glad to help me with my quilting efforts.  

I knew what I wanted to make.  I loved the quilt on the cover of the winter edition of Simple Quilts and Sewing (see small photo of the the cover at the left in the link).  But rather than brights, I wanted to use my violet fabric.  I've been buying fabric with violets for years.  (My sorority flower is the violet.)  I just needed a solid color that would tie everything together.  I went to a quilt store and found the green.

Before my mom arrived I cut all the fabric and assembled the blocks that consist of both violet fabric and green.  I should add that I also did a lot of dehoarding (including taking the old printer and broken cameras to the electronics recycling place and shredding a whole bunch of stuff--really, why did I think I needed to save those old pay stubs and bank statements for so long) in my office/library.  I thought the clean, uncluttered floor would be a good place to lay out the quilt and I could shut that room's door to keep the livestock out.

We laid out the blocks, looked, rearranged, and came up with a pleasing distribution.  I sewed everything together.  Mom kept track of things like which way to press the seams and how to logically put the parts together, stuff an experienced quilter knows but might have taxed my brain.

Here's the result.

And a close-up.

Not bad, huh?

Now it needs borders.  I found some great fabrics at the quilt show for this.  We'll work on the borders next time we get together.