More of the quilt

Ok, I really have been making progress on this. I just am pretty bad about updating in a timely manner. And yes, pretty much everyone else doing the mystery quilt now has a finished quilt that is keeping them warm during Polar Vortex II. I have piles of squares. In any case, here is the second set of components I have made. Pink and purple squares. Easy. Although not easy to keep them consistent.

For this next set of components, I made lots and lots and lots of squares from little triangles. And then I used about half of those little squares to make bigger squares of pinwheels. Apparently I'll be using the rest of the little squares for a future component.

Of course, Calvin has been helpful throughout this whole process. Because nothing is more helpful to a project than a cat or two. He's also "helping" me write this blog post. And by that I mean stepping on keys and trying to smack my fingers out of the way.

With any luck, over my next few days off I can make serious progress towards finishing this and regaining the use of my dining room table. Because there are jigsaw puzzles calling my name. And for anyone keeping track, I have also joined a mystery crochet-along project. I'm doing better keeping up with that one. Maybe I'll share. :)

Mystery Quilt

I've wanted to make a quilt for years, and my husband has been telling me I should take up quilting (he knows not what he says). So when someone posted on AQ about a mystery quilt, I said, what the heck. Now, my only experience with quilting so far was one pillow. And that ended up smaller than it should have because my seam allowances were off. No, I do not have a 1/4" quilting foot. Still don't.

Anyway, the mystery quilt is designed by Bonnie Hunter and can be found here:

Some 2010 finishes

Just to prove that I really do finish things (at least the stitching portion of it) from time to time, here are a few pieces I finished this year. Three are cross stitch and one is a latch hook rug.

And by the whims of Blogger, we are staring with the latch hook rug. It's called White Tiger and it is big. Something close to three by four feet.




This second piece is one of three beaded kits by Mill Hill called Quilted Cats. Sapphire is his name. I don't much care for doing bead work, so take a look at the full size picture to see how much of a labor of love this is. And yes, I bought all three kits before I started any of them, so I will eventually do the other two.




This one is called Cat Collector and I believe is from Dimensions. Obviously I still need to cut it out and assemble it. There is a little paper thing that says "Cat Collector" that will go inside the frame. Unless I think of something better to say.



And the final one is another Dimensions piece with the horribly creative title of "Butterfly and Leaves" (or something very close to that). It actually came with a printed mat board and should look really nice once I get it frames. But oh how I hate to frame.



I'm sure I must have finished one or two other things this year, but I'm not the best at keeping track of things and actually taking photos when they are done. Or, for that matter, getting the photos off of the camera and onto the computer.

Here's to more great finishes in 2011!

Amigurumi fun:)

My sister gave my a couple of amigurumi books for my birthday. One is creepy and cute amigurumi, and the other ones is all animals. I immediately (i.e. that same day) picked a project and started on it. And it finally got finished a couple of weeks ago. If you know when my birthday is, that will tell you a lot. I zipped along on it until I got to the "add the eyes" part. At which point I had to find the eyes that I knew I had in my house. I did go buy more, but the store didn't really have the ones I wanted in stock, so I never did use the other ones. Not sure what I'll do with those.


In any case, here's the octopus before final assembly. I call this "Octopus bits."




And here he is "finished." I have to put that in quotes since technically I'm supposed to embroider a mouth and sew on felt cheeks. But I'm not sure I'm actually going to do that. I kind of like the minimalist look.

My January finishes

Guess it's time to finally get this blog rolling, huh? I thought I'd start off with several projects I finished in January (order determined by how Blogger decided to upload them).


This first piece is a needlecase that I got in my Christmas package from my secret Santa, Erica. It's the first project like this that I've ever done, and it came with the most gorgeous silk floss (all the magenta and blue). I've never worked with silk floss before and I have fallen totally in love. Now I'm on the lookout for more needlecase patterns since I've filled this one already. A quick, very fun project.


This second piece also came from my secret Santa. (Sorry the photo is so blurry.) It uses DMC's new scented flosses. I admit, I was a little hesitant at first, but the floss was actually not bad. Not an overwhelming scent, just a gentle perfume of Lily of the Valley. Only the white in this was scented. I will say, however, that the chart was one of the more annoying ones I've ever followed. I'm not sure what they were thinking. In any case, doing this made me curious to try some of the yummier (i.e. food-based) scented flosses. Now if anyone has any ideas on how to finish this, I am open for suggestions. It's only about 6 inches square.


Now this is a project with a history. I bought this kit somewhere around 1993, I'd guess. I'm basing that on the fact that I remember where I bought it, and I haven't lived within 500 miles of that store since 1994. I actually finished crocheting it a long, long time ago. Think years. And I even started the cross stitch on it. But soon found that stitching the same flower over and over again was really dull. Phenomenally dull. Mind-achingly dull. Run screaming from the house dull. But late last year I decided it was time to just finish it. And I did. I'd stitch one or two flowers a night and before you know it, it was done. Yeah!


This was a fun project. I found myself wandering the aisles of the Dollar Tree one day and discovered they had this great bulky yarn. I ended up going to about three different stores buying all they had in about five different colors. And then the crochet madness starts! I'm pretty sure I wasn't following any published pattern and I just fooled around until I came up with something that I like. Actually, looking back, I think I may have mad a scarf first. Whatever. In any case, I ended up with a pretty cool, totally obnoxious, super huge afghan. And still have some yarn left for all my scarf-making needs:)



And finally, a long project finally completed. This piece is called Tapestry Cat and is designed by Teresa Wentzler. I actually finished stitching it some time last year, but just didn't want to sew on all the teeny, tiny little bead. Actually, I almost just didn't add the beads. In the end, though, I decided to do it and am glad I did since it both added a lot to the piece and also helped me catch a couple spots where I hadn't quite finished all of the stitching. Now I've just got to frame it, a task I dislike quite strongly (as evidenced by the large pile of finished cross stitch in my home).