On the Needles, Dec. 27, 2013

I've made good progress on my Cowlie project this past week. I had all kinds of plans for getting things accomplished yesterday. I was going to lay out and then cut the pattern pieces out for Avery's pajamas, but my back had other things in mind. The muscles in between my shoulder blades decided to spasm, they've done this before, so the first part of the day was spent with a heating pad on my upper back, and the rest of the day was spent relaxing, and doing some knitting, since that didn't pull on those muscles. They're better today. I'm looking forward to getting this Cowlie done, since one of the things I want to do in the New Year, is start getting out walking again for some exercise, and I'll need this warm snugly head covering to do that.
There is a special treatment that goes around the front edge, and I'm not sure how much yarn that's going to take, so I think I'll start on it next, since that ball of yarn in the left of the picture is all I have left. If I have any left after doing the front edge, I'll do more on the bottom ribbing section and then bind that off.  The front edge actually folds back, so it doesn't end up as big as it looks here. If I continue with this today, I just might be able to finish it.
I've been thinking about next years' projects, both quilting and knitting, and I think I'll start doing the same thing with knitting as I do with quilting. As a project is started and blogged about, I'll label it with the name of the project, and the date so it shows up on the blog and I can track what I've started and finished for the year. I think in the past year I did six pairs of socks, plus the Dreambird Shawl, three hats and one scarf and a baby sweater and Avery's Truck sweater and the Bunny Balaclava for Avery. But, if I'd labeled them here on the blog, I'd know for sure exactly what was started and finished.
I'm linking up to Judy's On the Needles

Design Wall Monday, Dec. 23, 2013

 Another Monday, another week without anything new on the design wall. :( But, I have been working on a project, and long overdue, badly needed project. A place to centralize and organize all of my circular and double pointed knitting needles. I spent a lot of time yesterday browsing pinterest pages for organization idea for these things. I really dislike the roll up things. I wanted something where they could be out where I could see them, and get at them, but out of the way at the same time. Up until now, my needles have been scattered all over the place, in various bags and drawers, resulting in my not knowing what sizes I had or didn't have, and that would end up in me buying more, since I had no idea what I had and where they were, if I did have them. That problem only got worse after we moved. After we moved, since I couldn't find most of my needles, I've slowly been replacing them with the bamboo wood ones when I order more. I like how light weight they are, and the fact that they don't slide out of the working stitches. And for some reason, they seem to be easier on the hands and fingers to work with, as well.

So, here they all are, the ones I have found so far, at least, in their labelled spots, with the circulars hanging from labelled insert things. While I was at it, I went through all the projects that were in various stages, and discovered that there really aren't that many of them. I have a baby sweater that I found that just needs a sleeve finished, a pair of socks that need the toes grafted, and the rest of the projects are all current ones. So, this needle holder contraption is going to live on the side of the shelving unit, right beside my chair. And, hopefully, I will never have to go searching for the right sized needle again.
I'm linking up to Judy's Design wall Monday.

Stash Report, week 51, 2013

Wow, is it ever hard to believe that there is only one more stash report for this year! This week's is easy.... nothing in and nothing out. Lots of time spent finishing deadline quilts for customers, and then lots of baking and lots of shopping and lots of finishing up other gifts, none of which can be shown. Doesn't make for a very interesting blog post, though. The best thing that has happened in the last couple of days is that our son Noel is home for Christmas. Yippee!!! He picked a good time to travel, yesterday morning, in between two winter storms of freezing rain in our area of the country. Thankfully, we actually didn't get much of the freezing stuff where we are, just plain rain.
I've been thinking a little bit lately, about plans for next year. I am going to continue with the stash reports, but am going to concentrate more on using what I have, whenever possible. I want to concentrate on using up the boxes and bins and heaps of scraps and stings and crumbs that I have hanging around here, taking up space. I'm starting to feel really overwhelmed by all the stuff I have, so it's time to use some of it up. So, I think that will be my focus for the next year, and I'll mostly use that focus for deciding what projects to start.

This is my poor little cutting table. It's gotten to the point where there is no table top left to cut on. I have got to set aside some time in the next while to do something about this, or I won't be doing anything. That pile on the back left hand side of the table is all scraps that need to be sorted and either put into their appropriate sized bins, or cut into sizes to go into those bins.So, as I go forward, I'm going to be thinking about the projects that I want to do, in order to decide what sizes to cut. In the meantime, here are the numbers, unchanged from last week.

Used this week:                                 0 yards
Used this year:                               125.15 yards
Added this week:                                 0 yards
Added this year:                              180.55 yards
Balance:                                                 55.4 more yards in than out.
So, from here on, the search for next years' scrap busting projects begins. Pinterest, here I come. I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report.

On the Needles, Dec. 21, 2013

I've done it again, and here it is Saturday, And I'm doing Friday's knitting post. But there's something about this time of year that makes my already bad procrastinating habit even worse. I finished up all the customer quilts that needed to be done before Christmas on this past Wednesday.
Since then, there have been lots of grocery shopping trips, optometrist appointments, stocking stuffer shopping trips, and pajama pattern tracing, then pajama cutting out and pajama sewing. One pair is completely finished. I did manage during all the driving around, to get some knitting done, and am making good progress on my Cowlie. There is a treatment for the front of this piece once all the rest of it is done, and I really hope it does something about folding the front part back a bit, because right now it is really long and hangs over my face. It's the right gauge, so I'll just have to wait and see what developes from here. I've started the ribbing shaping for the transition from going horizontal to vertical. After that is done, it gets joined at the front, and then knit in the round to form the cowl neck part. It's a pretty fast and easy knit. And I learned something new doing it, the magic loop  cast on. I like learning new stuff.

The rest of the time yesterday was spent baking. My wonderful husband has been expressing a desire lately to learn how to make pie crust. Yesterday was the day. He made 4 dozen mincemeat tarts. By the time he got to the second batch of tarts, he was getting there. By the last dozen, he had it nailed. While he was doing that, I was baking up some Soft gingersnap cookies, and some no bake cookies the we around here call Mud Pie cookies. I also made up another batch of dough for more of the soft gingersnaps, since they need to be refrigerated over night, and they are soooooooo good. I can see the first batch being gone in no time at all.
And best of all today, our son Noel is coming home today, and he'll be here for 5 weeks. That's not great for his pocket book, but it's wonderful for this mom to have him around for a bit. So, I'm going to link up to Judy's On the Needles, and then get back to the baking. More ginger snaps without the snap, some coconut macaroons, and maybe some chocolate chip cookies too. I'll see how the day goes.

Stash Report, week 50, 2013

I used a little bit this week, doing the place mat for the guild that were given to Meals on wheels. I did up 2 place mats, one for the colour challenge, and then another out of an orphan block. I forgot to take a picture of the second one, but here's the first one, for the colour challenge.

It used more fabric than it should have, due to errors in judgement for the size of the pieces required for the paper piecing. I ended up just using over sized strips of fabric to do the piecing, which caused quite a bit of waste. And I have to add in the remains of a bolt of Kona cotton I ordered. Some of the bolt went to other people, but 15 yards of it has remained here.

Used this week:                                       1.1 yards
Used this year:                                     125.15 yards
Added this week:                                     15 yards                    
Added this year:                                    180.55 yards
Balance:                                                    55.4 more yards in than out.

But, the good side is, I have plans for that Kona cotton. It is Kona Ash, and will work as a background for a couple of quilts I want to do in the near future. I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report, then I think I'll knit for a while, after I read the other reports that are posted there.

Real Studio Tour

Vicki Welsh, over at Field Trips in fiber is doing a Real Studio Tour. Last week, we showed non sewing tools that we use for sewing. This week we are showing our storage solutions. I have a couple of different ones. When we moved last spring, the worst part of it had to be figuring out what to do with all the fabric. My studio went from being all in one room, to now being in 2 rooms. My sewing area is down in our apartment. I had to figure out some way of at least semi-organizing the fabrics so I could see them, but that wouldn't look too messy. I saw an idea, originally using comic book boards to wrap fabric around, so that the fabric would stand up on the shelf. Now, if this were a show room studio, or a magazine studio, these shelves would be pristine, and tidy, all lined up even with the edges, without power cords from the light box hanging down from the shelf on top.
But it's not a magazine studio, so there is a cord hanging down, and the shelves are a bit of a mess. I didn't have access to comic book boards, so I just used acid free foam core boards, which I cut down to size. Any amounts less than 3 yards got folded in half length wise, and then wrapped onto boards that are 8 inches wide by 10 inches tall. And fabric amounts greater than 3 yards got wrapped onto boards that are 8 inches wide by 20 inches tall. As new fabric comes in, the theory is that it gets wrapped onto the appropriate sized board......
My other storage solution involves my unquilted tops, and any customer tops that are waiting to be done. We took some 2x4's and attached them to the end wall in my long arm studio, taking care to find the studs in the wall to attach them to so they could bear some weight. Then, we got some ordinary coat hooks and attached them to the 2x4's some wood dowels complete the system, for the quilts to drape over, and hang as they wait their turn. Almost all of the quilts hanging in this picture are mine, waiting to be quilted.
I'm linking up to Vicki's blog for this week's studio showing.

Finish it Friday on Saturday

I have a couple of finishes. The place mat for the colour challenge was handed in at the guild meeting on Thursday, so I can now show that project.  I used a Mariner's compass pattern out of Electric quilt, but I told the program to make it 14x20. Then I left off the background areas that would have made this into the rectangle, and left it in the oval shape. This is going to the Meals on Wheels people in our city, who will use this as a decoration for someone who will receive their Christmas dinner from Meals on Wheels this year.                                                  And I can also now show Road to Brenham. I'm going to attempt a picture out in the snow. It still has to be washed and dried before it goes to its forever home at the wedding the weekend, so if it gets damp or a little wet, it won't matter.
I started writing this post, yesterday, which was Friday, expecting to go to the wedding today. Well, it is winter, and plans get changed along with the weather. There is a snow storm today both here, and in the city where the wedding is happening. The roads are awful, with lots of cars in lots of ditches. So, we're not going to be able to make it. :(  We'll stay at home and wish them well from here.
I'm going to link up to Finish it Friday even if it is Saturday.