Tag Archives: patchwork

Sep30

September roundup

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September roundup

Hello! September was a pretty good month, if you ignore the fact that there was another major fire south of us. Thankfully, with the cooler weather, it was far less devastating and didn’t burn down any homes.

It’s hard to capture the deep orange-ness of the sun when viewed through smoke.

I did get to enjoy a few more beach days before the chill set in.

The water was…..refreshing?!

Last time I showed you a pile of quilt squares. These were assembled and backed and quilted and the result is…

…a 6 ft square bed-sized quilt with a scrappy binding and machine quilting radiating out from two points on the quilt. It was quite the challenge to get all that bulk under the arm of my machine.

I have already given this to the intended recipient, a lady I’ve known for 25 years and who lost her home in the wildfire in August.

A super fun project I sewed this month was this sweater.

The fleece is printed to look like crocheted granny squares and I knew I had to have some as soon as I saw it.

I made sure to buy enough to make a matching beanie.

My friends and I had a sewing day, which was a belated birthday celebration for my 61st, and we made Japanese knot bags.

These were mine. As usual, the sewing wasn’t perfect but the cute fabric makes up for it!!

Earlier this year, I made a batch of drawstring bags as a commission. This month I made another batch of 25, lined this time, as a donation to Vegfest. Of course I decided that the fabric had to have a fruit or vegetable theme.

These went into the goody bags on the day. My friend said that next year we should jointly make 100 so that every bag gets one! We’ll see!

Vegfest was fun. It’s so nice to be surrounded by so many vendors selling stuff that I can eat or use without worrying that it has animal products inside. I had helped to round up donations ahead of the big day, and the day before we were filling gift baskets. On the day we had more donations to add, and I was busy with that in the morning, on the door in the afternoon, and helping to clean up at the end.

A finished project that I’m really excited about, that’s hot off the needles today, is my second Sporto sweater. It’s a free pattern on knitty.com and last year I made a grey version. Last February I cast on this green one.

I didn’t plan it ahead of time, which meant that while I was knitting it I was trying to decide how to incorporate the contrast colours. The yarn is Scheepjes Truly Scrumptious Aran, and the main colour is Spirulina Bites. The pink which I finally used on the sleeves is Acai Bowl. I also have some Honeycomb (a mustard yellow) but it didn’t end up in the sweater.

The reason it took eight months? It sat in its project bag for months while I figured out what to do. I started to add a pocket then ripped it out. I finished the body but it was too short so I ripped back, added more length, and did a split hem. And then someone in the Vegan Ravelry group suggested a Finish Your WIPs-along and that was the impetus I needed.

So happy it’s done!

So the vlogging is ongoing over at Stitches and Slapdashery.

This is the latest episode. I’m still learning. I had to get an SD card for my phone because videos take up a lot of memory. I want to record a crochet tutorial but I’ve been having the darndest time setting up the camera in such a way that you can’t see the tripod legs! And I’ve had my new mic run out of juice and had to re-record footage, and the beanie tutorial will be redone because of camera shake! I’ll get there!

I’m looking forward to an October full of creating, and enjoying wearing the warm layers which I have spent so much time making! Happy times.

Feb25

A mini yarn review, and other fun stuff

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A mini yarn review, and other fun stuff

Hello and welcome to my sofa full of blankets. Actually the granny-in-progress is dominating the space right now. I have five more rounds to do until I audition it on my queen size futon. Each round is eating a lot of yarn and time so I can probably count on one round per day.

I have to say, I didn’t think I’d ever buy this Craft Smart acrylic from Michaels but it’s soft and cushy, and I prefer it to the Bernat Super Value which is more expensive and thinner, even though they are in the same weight bracket.

It isn’t my imagination. I just checked the yardage per 7oz ball and the Craft Smart is 354 yards and the Bernat is 440. I wish Michael’s had had the Craft Smart in black because I much prefer it (and it would have been $3.99 instead of $6.99).

I have cast on a sweater! The Cygnet Chunky that I bought for a sweater last year (but unravelled) is being pressed into service to make a top down seamless yoke sweater using my Ann Budd book for the numbers. The large scrappy drawstring bag that I sewed recently is perfect for holding the project and warms the cockles of my heart every time I look at it.

I need to find some bright pink and green yarns to jazz up the cuffs and neckline of this garment but for now it’s just a lot of round and around stockinette. I have worked 6 5 inches of the yoke so far.

After seeing Karen of Just Get it Done Quilts and Kate of The Last Homely House play with their quilt scraps, sewing them to adding machine paper, I was excited when my friend found some rolls for me at a thrift store. I had some time this afternoon to start making my own colourful strips. I cut my paper at 13″ because I doubt I’ll make quilt blocks that are bigger than 12.5″. Karen makes hers 18″.

It was a lovely day off today. The sun was pouring in, I did some housework, and got the tea things out in time for 11am.

Tea, coffee and gluten-free gingerbread cake, friends, laughter and sunshine. What a way to brighten the day!

And we’ve booked flights to go and visit the family in the summer. Can’t wait!

Nov30

Blogmas, here I come

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Hi everyone! I have decided I’m going to participate in BLOGMAS this year. “What the heck is Blogmas?” I hear you cry! Well, it’s quite simple – it’s when bloggers such as I write a post every day (or every other day, depending on time commitment) during December. Some say it ends on the 25th, others do the whole month.

My plan is to post every day from the 1st to the 25th. I will be opening my home-made Advent calendar each day and I’m sure I’ll have lots of other things to talk about.

I’ll be watching some of my fave podcasters doing Vlogmas (the video version of Blogmas). If you are a blogger/vlogger please comment below with your website address so I can come and visit.

After all, blogging and vlogging is all about sharing and building community.

Photos above include two handmade Christmas cards, a batik patchwork drawstring bag (I finally cut into one of my turtle batiks from my holiday in Maui about 4 years ago), a pillowcase-sized sack (one of three) for putting under the tree later this month, and my knitting WIP.

See you tomorrow!

Jul28

I’m just a Bag lady

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Two more bags to show you, one a crochet work-in-progress and the other a sewn finished object.

The above patchwork bag is a giant tote with denim on the back, patchwork from 4.5″ cut squares on the front, denim handles and a magnetic clasp.

I didn’t follow a tutorial for this, just made it up as I went along. The fabrics were inspired by this little drawstring bag…

…which I made recently and decided to give to a coworker who’s leaving. I made the tote to coordinate so I can give it to her at the same time.

It just took me an afternoon from idea to FO.

My little crocheted bag is coming along. I joined in with a Patreon Zoom chat this morning with Hannah of The Cozy Cottage Crochet podcast, and got the squares joined to the base and started the upper section.

It’s still super smoky here and the event I had planned (crocheting at the beach) isn’t going ahead as most people would prefer to stay home in their AC! I must say, my chest feels crappy today, even though I have been indoors all day and haven’t been aware of a strong smoke smell. Ah well, maybe next week.

May15

FO: patchwork tote

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The patchwork tote that I envisaged last week is now a reality. It always feels like free fabric when you piece a lot of scraps together.

I confess I did buy fabric for the lining. The zipper is one of my cheapie ones from an online purchase (they work out at about 35 cents each) and the pink fabric for the pocket lining was in the stash.

I hit a snag after putting it all together. I realised that the large curtain grommets that I planned to use wouldn’t work because of the zipper pocket. I should have placed it lower down.

So a quick purchase of emergency 14mm grommets later, I had my handles sorted.

This bag is super roomy and I love it!

Mar25

March Winds

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Ta dah!

I’m calling this wall quilt March Winds because it’s March, it’s spring, these colours scream “spring” to me, and the leaves look they are blowing across the quilt.

In fact, where I live the leaves aren’t out yet and butterflies are nowhere to be seen. But this brightens up my dining room and matches my table runner and placemats.

The size is 42 by 32 inches. I built it with 8 inch blocks made up of 16 2-inch squares. The sun block was a later addition to the plan.

The zipper trees were inspired by a friend’s artwork and the leaves are fused with Heat ‘n Bond. The afterthought butterflies are glued on to maintain some dimension. I just happened to have some butterfly fabric in the stash.

I’m happy with the result, despite the imperfections, of which there are many.

Happy spring, everyone!

Nov24

Warm fuzzy weekend

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A whole weekend off – what fun! Saturday evening we had a potluck at a friend’s house with a group of lovely people. SO much food, we were nearly bursting! And of course we played our traditional Mexican Train Dominoes. Awesome!

My contribution to the food was apple pie and cashew-based vanilla ice cream (the big pie in foreground was the one I took with me, the smaller one and the jam tart made from the leftover pastry were left at home for the boys to eat). I rarely make pastry these days because of the fat content but OMG it came out so well – I used Melt Buttery Sticks for the first time.

This morning there was a vegan market downtown so we splurged on vegan baked treats, which we shared with the boys because they were far too rich for just two people to eat. We also bought some cool hand-made soaps again, and I also finally bought myself a vegan T shirt. Guess I need to get a photo of that sometime.

Afterwards it was tea at our favourite tea shop and a bit of crochet. I have made three of these gnomes (Gnomes of the Gnorth) now. Two of them were made following the pattern pretty closely, one wasn’t, and I shouldn’t have gone ‘off piste’ because I don’t like my version as much (the one with the white beard).

The pattern is on a blog, Mr Micawber’s Recipe for Happiness, and the designer is Sue Perez whose Ravelry name is MrsMicawber.

I have two new dishcloths made from a random ball of dishcloth cotton that I acquired recently. It never went into stash – I just used it up quickly, making up different stitch patterns as I went.

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And there has been sewing. Between tea in town and going to the gym, I spent a couple of hours making this bag.

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It was made with scraps left over from the snowman quilt/bag I made recently, with a lining from some other stash cotton. I think I need to buy a new walking foot – the one I have keeps slipping, the screw holding it on the machine is loosening so it moves as I sew (and I break needles as a result) and the whole thing is either too loose or too tight.

I am pretty happy with the bag, except for a little uneven quilting across the front. This is the same video tutorial as the other bag, and I pieced a patchwork section just like the original in the video. It’s a good way to use up small pieces.

After the gym I went out for a meal with friends, so all in all it was a very calorific weekend and I should probably not eat anything for the next five days! Yeah, right!!