Handmade Christmas 2014

Hello!  It's been a long long time since we have had a good chat.  I hope you are all well and enjoying the last week of the year.  I hope you are snuggled in at home with your family/pets/friends, lazying around, eating too much and sewing to your heart's content.  

Although the blog has been quiet, I have been sewing quite a bit lately.  There is a lot to tell you, but I am sure I will miss out on smaller projects like bee blocks, etc.  If you want to see it ALL, pop over to Instagram (@fluffysheepquilting) and page through my photos for the latest news.  

Where to start?  How about those super top secret Christmas gifts I was making but could not tell you about?  For now we will stick to the success stories - I will tell you about the total failure later.  

At the Modern Quilting Guild of Ireland meetup last September, we had a craft book swap.  I picked up a book on knitting animal hats.  I know  I am a bit too old/distinguished for this kind of get up, but I thought it might work well for my (nearly) 2 year old niece, Nieve.  

I choose a kitten pattern primarily because it's the only one that I could understand.

I am not the best knitter, but I am persistent.  This was in no way easy for me - I had to re-stitch the hat portion at least 4 times, had a hard time finding a semi-appropriate yarn and kind of made up a good bit on my own.  In the end, though, I had a kitten hat that any 2 year old might be proud (?!?!?) to wear...

The ears are slightly out of proportion and the cheeks a little mal-aligned.  It can be/was also mistaken for a rabbit.  But it fits Nieve and she seems to like wearing it.  We'll call it a success.  I will just need to become a much better knitter as she grows older....hiding my mistakes will become more difficult with time!

Nieve has also become interested in one of my most favorite pastimes: coloring.  While we were together over Thanksgiving, we spent a lot of time drawing, coloring and stickering our creations.

For Christmas, then, I wanted to make her a little tote and portable crayon wallet to bring her crayons and notebooks anywhere she goes.  I started with a little tote tutorial by Jennie of Clover and Violet that is the PERFECT size for this young lady.  It was a very well written tutorial that stitched up in no time.  I used Fancy Free fabrics from the shop as they're girly, but not overwhelmingly pink AND they have bicycles...which Nieve loves.

On the front there's a little ruffle detail on two of the rows...

and on the back an extra large piece of bicycle fabric for her enjoyment.

Sticking with Fancy Free fabric, I made a coordinating crayon wallet for this budding artist.  I choose a tutorial by Modest Maven as it was specifically crated to hold scrap fabric and not a store bought pad of paper.  The little crayon pockets also can hold the fatty crayons or the skinny crayons, so it will grow along with Nieve's skills.  

There's more bicycle fabric on the exterior WITH my very first snap.  I have to say, putting in a snap twisted my brain a bit.  I got there in the end.  

Fully stocked....

Or without paper so you can see the lining fabric.  How cute!

In a completely surprising stroke of luck, it turns out that the crayon wallet fits PERFECTLY into a pocket I installed on the inside of the tote.  Don't I look like a forward thinker?  Ha!

Thank you for brilliant tutes, Modest Maven and Clover & Violet.  You made my Christmas stitching easy as pie!  

A (Least Favorite) Finish (...Ever?)

A finish is a finish.  Finishing a project of any kind should be celebrated.  However, when I finished this one my first thought was how much I did not like it.  At all.  Not even a small bit.

I found this pattern on Ravelry over Christmas and it just struck me.  It is intended to be a bag for all of your knitting stuff.  The good things about it are: 1) I learned a new stitch; 2) it does feel good on my shoulder; 3) it's a good size; 4) it opens quite widely so everything can fit inside easily.

What don't I like?  Well, it will need to be lined to keep the knitting needles from falling through the holes in the sides.  I did watch Miss Lucy back a crocheted blanket and I don't fancy the idea of putting myself through similar steps. 

I think in the end it is just not me to carry a knitted purse.  I like the color. I like the stitch.  I like all of the things listed above, but I just do not see myself walking out of the house with a knitted bag.  Live and learn, I guess.  I am right back to knitting scarves for now.

Another FAL Q2 2013 project checked off the list!  Next up: Charm Swap.  The last set of charms arrived on Tuesday night so I can't wait to start sorting!

Fluffy Sheep Knitted Hat

Finished!  I knitted a hat from fluffy sheep hand-spun wool.  Months and months and months ago the amazing Judy saw that I was just learning to knit and was struggling to find a natural wool to knit my first cap.  I looked high and low and I just could not find the type of wool that suited me.  The kind and generous Judy created an amazing blend of natural wools and spun them into the most gorgeous, soft, warm, perfectly tactile wool I have ever worked with.  Amazing.

Anyway, I set off knitting a little hat.  And then I just barely ran short of wool.  I was missing all of 5-6 feet of wool to finish off the crown to my little cap.  Judy to the rescue!  She had a second skein of wool sent to me over Christmas to finish off this little project.  It took the past five months to get myself together and finish this project.  I packed it up and brought it on the flight with me from Dublin to Copenhagen this week.  There was no way I was returning to Ireland with this hat unfinished.

Want to finally see the finished hat?  Ta-Da:

It's quite hard to find a place to photograph a brown hat.  I first tried the picnic table as at times the weathered grey and lichen look nice with darker colored stuff.  Not so much today.

Now, as many of you know, brown is not at all my favorite color when it comes to fabric.  This brown, however, is just a beautiful chocolate brown that matches my brown leather gloves perfectly and compliments my orange winter coat like they were made for one another.  I even have a little brown and orange striped scarf to tie the look together.  Love it.  

And off to a traditional-looking West of Ireland rock with green little moss.  The only thing not traditional here is the ray of sunshine.  Where did that come from?

And finally here in the grass.  This had to be a fast shot...before Molly the pup became interested!  

Anyway, there's my finished cap.  Another finish for the Q2 finish along, making it my third this quarter.  It fits my head so perfectly, covers my ears to keep them warm and isn't so tight it messes up my hair.  Judy, thank you.  I love it.

Finish Along Q2 Goals

And we start off a new quarter with high hopes.  Here's what I would like to finish between now and June:

1. Rainbow Charm Swap
With 56 lovely ladies waiting, I aim to pack up and deliver an extra large charm pack to each one of them.  That means cutting nearly 3,000 charms and packing up over 6,000!  I have lots of yardage cut, so I just need to get down to business.

2. Pezzy Pizazz
The top is finished, she's layered and the quilted has begun!  I just have to finish the final 2/3 of the quilting and bind this cutie.

3. Tote
I have half of a tote made using this tutorial.  You see, it was to be a replacement Mouthy Stitches tote, but it was no longer needed.  I have the lining made using Summersville (with a little pocket) so I just have to make the exterior (out of Echino) and pop on two handles.  Easy peasy you'd think, but it's been sitting around my sewing room for months and needs to be finished off.

4. Liberty Love
Again, the top is done.  I even have most of the backing fabric here at home.  I need to do a little piecing, layer it and quilt like mad.  I was thinking of quilting it like this, then binding it in Liberty.  That's the plan at least.

5. Modern Stitching Bee
I have the most gorgeous bee blocks piled up here in my sewing space.  I so love them.  It's time to start assembling the top and get this pretty finished off.

6. Knitted Cap
I have a knitted cap made of the most beautiful home spun yarn, sent to me by Judy.  This cap is 95% finished.  I just have another little bit of knitting to do to finish the crown.  If only you guys could feel this...it's so soft, fuzzy and warm.  Gorgeous.  I can't wait to break it out next winter.

7. Knitted Purse
I have a green knitted purse that has been an on and off project for me since Christmas.  I have both handles done and one side.  The second side is 1/2 finished.  I just have to finish that last side and assemble.  I love this project.  I'm not sure why it's taking me so long to finish it.

8. Dorky Science Cross Stitch.
For those of you who may not know me well, I'm a total science dork.  When I saw this cross stitch pattern, who could resist?  I am about half way finished. It is not a masterpiece, but it makes me happy.  I can't wait to finish and hang it above my work desk.  Wouldn't that be hilarious?

I think those are the major UFOs that I can plan to finish in the next three months.  I had better get stitching!

Leanne, thanks again for hosting.  You know I love a good to-do list :)

Knitting Knews

It's been a lovely, but totally organized weekend.  You see, this is a holiday weekend here in Ireland so our lives have been filled with great local festivals, lazy brunches and friends stopping by.  We've had a great time just rolling where the weekend took us.  However, as I adhered to no schedule, there was no sewing going on what so ever.  

What I have been doing is knitting.  It's a great project to have just here by the couch to pick up/put down while chatting with friends or watching the Olympics.  

With your encouragement and Nicky's suggested website, I FINALLY cast off my grey scarf.  This is my first attempt at knitting anything, so it's a super basic repeated knit stitch.  I'd like to stitch the two ends together to make a tube scarf, but that will have to come a bit later.  I'm just happy to not have to wear it this winter with a pointy needle stuck at the end :)

As you know, I was also working on a purple scarf that would be my first intro to both the purl stitch AND to a pattern.  Hold onto your socks.  I was quite happy with the mix up of the two stitches, but was not thrilled with how the rib "ate" the yarn, giving me little in return.  In the mean time, Miss Laura Jane introduced me to the incredible Ravelry....  So, I ripped it all out and started again.  If only quilting let you hit the "undo" button as easily!  Anyway, here's the newly re-invented purple scarf.  I'm super happy with it and think I might actually continue on!

Don't you worry - I have not forgotten about Granny.  I did make the binding and have it machine stitched onto the front of the quilt.  I'll keep stitching onto the back tonight in the hopes it will be done for show-and-tell on Wednesday.  Fingers crossed!

Branching out....

This holiday weekend was spent camping with friends on the other side of Ireland.  Our friend (and co-camper) took a photo of our camp fire.  Isn't it amazing?  Can you see the stars?  Gorgeous.  That's me there to the right of the blaze.  

We were at a 3 day long music festival filled with great gigs in the woods, by the likes of Cathy Davy at Vantastival.  She. Was. Incredible.

Needless to say, there was not much quilting.  I did learn the very (VERY) basics of knitting though.  I'm going to make myself a scarf...over the next decade or so.  I'm using a yarn made of baby alpaca wool.  My other half reminded me all weekend long about the poor, cold, freezing baby alpaca there in Peru just as winter was setting in.  Wouldn't he/she like her coat back?  Oh, goodness.  

I have really enjoyed learning a new skill, something to mess with while sitting around and chatting with friends.   I love that it's portable and that I can quickly see progress (due, of course, to thick wool).  I am jazzed with the pattern, even though it's just a basic, repeating stitch.  And so far I don't see mistakes that I have not caught and fixed.  If you see them, just keep it to yourself, please.  No raining on this parade.

I am loving these needles, though.  They are super chunky and clunky and, as my friends have told me, for the total newbie child.  Still, I think they're just great.  As I have no idea what I'm doing, I made the scarf WAY too wide, so now I have to buy another 2-3 skeins of yarn to finish her off.  Will stop down this week, Eva!

In other news....

Time to get the old thinking cap on!  Sew Mama Sew giveaway day is quickly approaching!  Will you play along?  I absolutely will!  It's a great way to find new blogs and/or loose 3 days of your life on the internet daydreaming of all of your new projects with your huge give away wins.