And... then it was December. Whew!

Is anyone else out there as surprised by the speedy arrival of December as I am?  Sheesh... I am way behind in everything.  And we just had a holiday!  But, as a friend pointed out, days off are not "days off" if you're out and about and madly doing things, which was certainly true of my Thanksgiving holiday.  Luckily, some of us got a cold, windy and hilly 5k in on Thanksgiving morning to enjoy the outdoors and offset some of the looming calories.  Good thing, because a new recruit joined the ranks of our traditional dessert arsenal, and was an instant hit.  I recently picked up a new bundt pan with a fall/harvest theme, and tried it out by making a pumpkin cake with chocolate swirl.  Absolutely amazing!

It turned out so beautifully that I decided to forgo the frosting, and no complaints were heard!

I also subjected the family to a cheese pumpkin.  Yep, just like it sounds - a delicious pie pumpkin roasted in the oven filled with cheese, toasted bread cubes and a few other tasty additions.  There are a variety of recipes out there for the cheese pumpkin - some harkening towards fondue, others resembling more of a thick, spreadable dip.  I went for the latter, and my efforts did not disappoint.

And, because I used a true pie pumpkin, I've got a whole dish of cooked pumpkin in my refrigerator to make tasty dishes from during the holidays!  A win-win, I'd say.

Well, now that Thanksgiving is in the books, it's time to gear up and tackle some of the many projects I have in varying states of "unfinished-ness" around my house.  I'm working on quilting a baby quilt for a friend who is due in January.  I pieced together a rather whimsical top of brightly colored kites fluttering in the sky, with embroidered ribbons for tails and a lovely pieced border.

The photo above is of the pieced top, just before I layered and basted it.  I'm working on machine quilting it now, and hope to have it bound and finished before Christmas.  I've had this pattern for years, and it was certainly a doozy.  I don't remember ever picking out as many seams as I've done in this one.  I'm happy with the final product, though, and I'm hoping it will be well-loved, and therefore well worth the effort.

A holiday table topper, a wall hanging, some felt tree ornaments and a lot of basting and quilting are on the docket for the next few weeks... stay tuned!

March {crochet} Madness

Lately I've been on a bit of a mad tear crocheting small projects with cotton yarn, or even alternative materials like string, cord and jute twine.  Yep, twine.  The same kind I tie up my tomato plants with every year, and the same stuff I watched my Mom work macrame knots with when I was a kid.  It all started with a book I checked out from my local library a couple of months ago entitled "Quick Crochet, Huge Hooks" by Sally Harding.  If you crochet even just a little bit, I highly recommend finding a copy this small book packed with completely do-able projects.  Luckily, no one else in my area seems to want it, so I've been able to renew with free will, although I have noticed that copies sell pretty cheaply on Amazon.  Anyhow, I fell in love with a couple of twine shopping bags detailed in this book, as well as a few other bags and small projects using yarn or string, and a circle rag rug made from fabric strips.  Hey, we all have extra fabric strips!  Actually, it would be a fantastic use of leftover binding strips... hmmmmm... but I'll save that for another post.

So I got out my trusty P hook, bought up all the twine from my local True Value and began madly crocheting shopping bags.  It turns out the twine is a lot easier to work with than I thought it would be, although having some experience crocheting with cotton yarn (or other materials with little to no give) would probably help.  The first bag I made a lot like the one in the book, using fabric strips for contrast stripes.  I strung some catchy wooden beads on it when I was finished, and mailed it to my Aunt in California.  Since then, I've been trying a number of variations on the pattern, using different combinations of string and cotton yarn with the twine in a wide array of striping patterns.  The bags have been a blast to make and I'm currently designing and making an extra large version for one of my brother's co-workers.  Check out some examples below...

The bags are crocheted holding two strands of twine together at once, which makes them super strong and pretty roomy, as you can see below... although I had to tweak the pattern a bit to get them this size.  I should go back and count how many rows I added.  I took one grocery shopping and it worked out really well!

I have been on the lookout for parachute cording and some other string alternatives to use as stripes, so I plan on making plenty more.  It only takes me about 4 hours to crochet one bag, so it's a really good project for evening idle time, or a car ride.

I've also been working on some smaller projects using cotton yarn.  I recently discovered the Ravelry site, which I absolutely love perusing for patterns and new ideas.  I also highly recommend the blog Moogly for lots of great projects and gifts that work up quickly.  If you haven't been there yet... check it out!  I just made several soap savers which I'll be giving family and friends from their Pampering Massage Soap Saver pattern... if you've got 30 minutes, some cotton yarn and an H or I hook laying around, you can whip one of these puppies up in a flash.

As you can see, I added wooden beads to the ends of my drawstrings instead of just tying knots at the end, just for a little extra flair.

I've also picked up some little patterns on a variety of websites and blogs for crocheting decorations like flowers, leaves and owls.  So I just turned some of those practice pieces into decorations for some Mason jar cozies that I've been making from a fabulous pattern at the fibre company blog.  

The two I've pictured above are both wide-mouth pint jars, but the blog post shows some amazing striped ideas for a variety of jar sizes, including directions for crocheting two different sized hearts.  I'll be sending a few of these to my cousin in South Carolina, who owns and operates a fabulous boutique and salon and is as much a fan of the jar as I am.  

Next on my radar is a jute basket from the Crochet Me site with some really cool bead embellishments... I think I'm in a bit of a manic mode with projects these days.  Hey, who needs spring cleaning, anyway???

In Like a Lamb...

I'm not entirely sure how tomorrow is March 1st, especially since we've had an extremely weak (if not non-existent) winter in these parts.  *sigh*  And I definitely did not get enough projects completed this winter!  *another sigh*  I probably say that every year, though.

Friends of mine are expecting their second boy on March 15th, so I've spent a couple of late nights after work madly sewing a baby quilt for them.  I'm using a fun pattern called Yellow Brick Road (Atkinson Designs) which I've had on my shelf for a while but never used.  Wow, this pattern works up quickly.  I've already got a completed top and pieced back, just waiting for a weekend to layer, baste and machine quilt!   Photo of the completed top below...

I don't think I've ever put this much red into a quilt in my whole life, and I was a little apprehensive at the start, but the folks I'm making this quilt for just aren't the pastel type.  So I used a lot of super cool fabrics with airplanes, trucks, dots and squiggly lines, and I'm pretty happy with the result.  I was lucky enough to have a little extra backing fabric to cut corner squares from, just to break up the red border a bit.

Close up of a couple of the blocks...

It's kind of hard to see where one block ends and another begins, but the pattern has you whip up a few different variations of a finished 9" square block.  Six fat quarters gets you the whole top sans borders, which for the baby size ends up about 36" x 45" and a pretty sizable quilt for a little guy.  The pattern called for 6 1/2" cut borders, which I thought was ridiculously wide for the overall size of the top, so I scaled back and cut them 5" and added the blue corner squares.  The back is a continuous cut of the dark blue truck fabric, which I had to sew a grey strip down the left side for extra width.

The vertical grey strip is not in the above shot, but pretty easy to imagine... I might use that space after the quilt is done to applique name letters, if I have time, of course!  The project is resting until the weekend when I have more time.  In the meantime, I need to marinate ideas about machine quilting.  I don't have time to send it out to a professional long-armer, so I'll be doing the machine quilting myself with a really cool red, blue and yellow variegated thread I picked up at my local quilt shop.  Happy Thursday, everyone!

Beginnings

The idea for this blog germinated a few weeks ago when, not surprisingly, I was hunting through a bookcase for something craft-related.  I came upon a small hardcover notebook that I probably purchased almost 20 years ago, and realized it was a quilter's journal.  Well, it was supposed to be.  Best laid plans, right?  Sadly, I have been sorely remiss in its upkeep.  There are a few projects detailed from my early college days and a few years following, and even some snapshots (yes, actual printed photographs) of finished projects.  And then there are blank pages.  LOTS of blank pages.  I thought about those blank pages, and about all the projects I've completed in the many years since... mostly quilts, many of them gifts for weddings or births, and all of them memorable.  Except that I did not do my "due diligence" in keeping track of them.  Sigh.  But then it hit me.  What if I had actually kept my journal faithfully?  What would I have now?  Sure, I'd have descriptions of all the beautiful and creative projects I've completed, maybe photographs as well, but who would see them besides me?  Much of the joy of creativity is sharing it with others, be they family, friends, or those in the world with similar interests.  I firmly believe that ideas and information should be accessible to anyone and everyone.  So the dusty book is hidden back on a crowded bookshelf.  And thus, my blog is born.  Stay tuned.