On and off my Needles.....

It’s more off than on. I was going to write this post and show these earlier, before the hat was finished. But I was on a roll and decided to keep on going. Both of these patterns came from ravelry. The booties are the result of a search for a pattern for booties that would stay on a baby’s foot. The pattern Hodge is a free download. It’s a very quick and easy knit using left over sock yarn, of which I have an abundance. The hat is also a free ravelry download called Newborn Baby’s Striped Hat. The design called for yarn colour changes. But since I have an abundance of leftover self striping sock yarn, that’s what I used. I think there will be a pair of little mitts to go with these, just for a little bit more fun.This is actually the second hat I’ve finished in the last couple of weeks. The first one is made out of the same hat pattern. It has a pair of tiny mitts to go with it. I didn’t have enough of this yarn left to do the booties, as well. Little Abrielle will be all warm and cozy when she gets here in January. I’m a day late, but I’ll still link up to Judy’s On the Needles.

Something's wrong with this picture

I was quite happily and quite quickly working on sewing this disappearing Four Patch quilt together. Or at least I was until the whole thing came to a screeching halt when something turned out not to fit with the block next to it.

Upon closer inspection it turned out that I was working a bit too quickly and goofed up in the cutting.

This is the same mistake I made when cutting my last set of swap blocks for Jannette. I'd been working on this months swap blocks after doing these, and after checking it, I found the same mistake. (Sigh). I'd only done a pair of the swap blocks, so I don't have many of those to redo. So I now have six blocks to put into the backing of my swap quilt, once it is finished.

Posted with Blogsy

Design Wall Tuesday.....

It’s supposed to be on Monday, not Tuesday, but last evening was spent watching the election results come in, rather than writing up a blog post. So I’ll do it today instead. I’ve got a couple of things going on up there. A finish, a start and a work in progress. The finish is a very modern, totally out of my box quilt, from a pattern called Black Tie Affair, found in a Quiltmaker magazine. I can’t remember the exact issue date, and I’m too lazy to go upstairs and get it.This one is going into the waiting-to-be-quilted pile.
The work in progress  I’ve been playing around with is more of the large scale floral Disappearing Four Patch blocks that Jannette and I are doing.
Somewhere along the line I have managed to change the size of the cuts not once, but twice. So there are three different sizes in this quilt. These are the smallest with the cuts finishing at 3/4 inches. These are going into the centre of the quilt. I did some playing around in Electric Quilt to see if I could come up with a design that would separate out all the different sizes, and I’ve shared it with Jannette, since she was also effected by the change in sizes. This is what I’ve come up with. The different sizes are separated out by the dark sashes, which also act as a really neat design element.
The new start is another baby quilt for our grand daughter, expected in January. It is also Disappearing Four Patches, set in a more modern, minimalist way. I originally saw the quilt here, and really liked the layout. These are the colours that Becca has chosen. It’s not going to take long to finish this one.
Earlier today I loaded a new customer quilt and got it about halfway finished. Here’s a look at it. And that’s been my day, full of fun quilty stuff. I’m going to link up with Connie’s Linky Tuesday and the Canadian sharing site the Needles and Thread Network for their Work in progress Wednesday.

Sunday Stash and Stitching report

Again, it’s been two weeks since my last report...... sounds like I should be going to confession, doesn’t it? I’ve gotten quite a bit more done on La Passacaglia. Three more rosettes are now done, which means only two more to go!! 
Can we have a woohoo, hurray??? I’ve taken the whole project down from my upstairs design wall, and brought it downstairs so I can lay out the parts that need to be sewn together. I have better access to them down here, and I can now take them directly off the wall and make sure they get sewn in where they should. I am thinking at this point that I’ll keep the top and bottom halves of the project separate as I sew in the white edging pieces, just to keep the bulk and weight more manageable. I must confess that I am getting to the point on this project that I am ready to have it done and move onto something else. But I am determined to get it done, so I will persevere.
One thing I am having no problem doing at all this year is adding to my stash. It’s so much fun to get fabrics in the mail, regardless of what it does to my stash numbers. The new and fresh stuff is great to have come in.

Fabric used last 2 weeks:             1.2 yards
Fabric used this year:                      67 yards
Fabric added last 2 weeks:           11.2 yards
Fabric added this year:                110.7 yards
Net stash added:                            43.7 yards

Somehow, I think getting into net stash busted numbers this year is just a pipe dream, at this point. But, since I only do this for fun and curiosity, rather than as a keep track to make sure I use more than I buy thing, it doesn’t really matter.
I’m Linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and Angie’s WIPs Be Gone. Then I’ll have to make a decision...... do I start sewing it all together, or do I do the last two rosettes?

Sleep sac finished

And it is soooooooo cute. I originally bought this fabric before our grandson Avery was born. At the time, over four years ago now, the plan was for his nursery to decorated with a tropical fish type theme, and I thought this stuff would make a perfect sleeper for him to fit right in with the theme.
Four and a half years later and I think I might have run out of time to make a sleeper for him. However, fabric never goes bad or goes to waste. A little baby girl will like it just as well. As well as finishing this, I've put a few more stitches into the hat I was working on yesterday, and have it almost finished. Another half hour should do it, then I can start something else.

On my Needles and other fun stuff.....

I loaded a new customer quilt on Thursday and got it half finished. It is such a cute panel, with some piecing added to it around the outside. I’m doing a water effect in the background areas of it, and outlining the figures, mostly frogs and fish.
I worked on that quilt until about 5 pm yesterday, and then came down to play with yarn.
Ever since we found out on Wednesday that our coming grandchild is going to be a grand daughter, I’ve been having all kinds of fun planning and playing with baby girl stuff. I’ve got all kinds of sock yarn left over from making socks, for starters. So I found a pattern on Ravelry for a basic new born sized hat. I’m to the point of starting to make the decreases for the top part of the hat, so it shouldn’t take too much longer to finish. I started another sleep sac, today, but it’s upstairs, and I’m too lazy to go up and get it for pictures. I’ll post it when it’s finished..... maybe tomorrow.
I already know what I want to do up next. These cute little booties, Crocodile Stitch Booties, using this yarn. And then there just might be this hat to go with it, or maybe this one. Who knows, maybe both. It depends on how fast the crochet goes, compared to the knitting. All I do know is I’m having all kinds of wonderful fun! I’m liking up to Judy’s On the Needles. And then I’m going to knit.

Short snippets attempt

In keeping with the intent stated yesterday to do shorter posts more frequently, that’s what I’m doing. First off, today got a late start, due to not sleeping last night. When I got up. there was a text message waiting for me from Matt. They had an ultrasound today, so I figured they had news....... and they did... we’re having a grand daughter!! Woohoo! That has been my not-so-secret hope! Let the fun little baby girl sewing and knitting begin. Having found that out, I promptly went onto Ravelry and did a little baby hat research. There are so many cute choices, that I’m going to have a hard time choosing.  In keeping with this being a short and quick post, I haven’t the time to actually go back to Ravelry and get some of the pictures to show here.
I’ve been working on a customer quilt today, once I dragged myself away from all the fun kitty stuff.

This is it, here. It’s full of fun and bright dots and stripes and plaids. She wanted something curvy and feminine, so I’m doing ribbon swirls.  And now that my sit down break is over, and also because I’m expecting someone who is going to be dropping off a quilt, I must end this here.