I played hooky today...

I took today off and did some sewing. I made another drawstring bag. I've refined them a bit by making a real "tunnel" for the ribbon to run through, rather than just threading the ribbon through the fabric. The ribbon matches better in person than it appears in the picture.

I also finished my alphabet quilt/wallhanging. Kristen had seen the individual squares and helped me pick out the black & white background fabric.

Do you see how the 4 green blocks all line up in the middle? As planned as that may look, it happened purely by accident. The world works in mysterious ways....

And here's a close up of some of the letters.

House update

Some of you have been wondering how our house is coming along and when we might be moving in. At the moment it's kind of feeling like never, but I'm assured that things will be moving along more quickly soon. We'll see.

Here's our brand new foundation:















And here's the inside, the new kitchen. Yes that is the wall that we tore out 5 years ago.















This is upstairs:


And this is the living room (and Rob), complete with our refrigerator, tub, new toilet and our garage doors.
We'll keep you posted.

More Moebius

This is the unfelted basket and the felted basket. It was so much fun to do and I am still wondering how I was able to figure it out. Next I think I will do the bowl with fringe!


A paper, etc. project. The saying is "for safe keeping she hid her jewels in the toe of her boot".

Reston Adventures

Yes, I did say Reston. Why, might you ask, did I want to go to Reston on such a gorgeous weekend? Particularly when the day started with the latte that I ordered at Starbucks not having any coffee in it.

Well, ladies, because I had heard of a rubber stamp store out there, with the name of Angela's Happy Stamper. And given that stamping on fabric is my latest obsession, and given that I needed several stamps that I couldn't find at AC Moore or Michael's, I decided to set out on an adventure. And Rob volunteered to join me, for reasons that are not entirely clear, but are probably linked to the fact that he wanted to go to Best Buy and there is one in Reston.

Let's just suffice it to say that my preconceived notions of Reston were not unfounded and we won't be packing a van and moving there anytime soon. That said, the stamp store was quite nice, though I still didn't find what I needed (a raven and a hat--more on that later). I did get some fun images that I'll use for other things. We also stopped at Best Buy and got a wireless router, but that's not particularly exciting, especially since we can't get it to work. Here are the stamps that I did buy that aren't ravens.

We also walked around Reston, which was having an arts festival. What was Rob's description of it????? Oh yeah--schlocky art. Needless to say, nothing was purchased except lunch. At least it was a gorgeous day!

Desperate for a raven and a hat, I made the poor boy stop at ACMoore on the way home. Got a hat stamp (see picture), but still no raven to be found. And then I dragged him into G Street to look for raven fabric--none to be had, but there was nice fishing reel, skull-and-roses, and duck fabric. Ugh.

Still having some energy left, we then proceeded to Expo Center to buy tile for our up and coming laundry room--on sale, to our surprise! Yeah! Then on to Montgomery Mall to buy a camera and well-deserved ice cream cones.

But still no raven. So when we got home I did what I should've done before driving to Reston--I googled "raven rubber stamp". How did we ever survive without Google? I mean really! But I found a fabulous site that had not one but SIX raven stamps! This is the site:

http://www.goreydetails.net/home.php

Click on Exceptional Rubber Stamps 1 and 2. So I bought a raven, an octopus and a couple of other things as well, which I am awaiting eagerly!

So all in all, not a bad day. I also finished another bag (still needs a drawstring). And I started on another project that I'm quite excited about. More on that later (and K will get to see the pieces tonight).

Am I a Lucky Mom!!!!

Here are the wonderful handmade gifts I received for Mother's Day!














Beautiful table runner from Amy.



Beautiful bracelets from Kristen.

How lucky am I? There were several other wonderful presents (an IPod shuffle!) but these are the ones that were made for me by my beautiful and talented daughter and daughter-in-law.

Posted by Patti

Birthday loot!

Look at all the great stuff I got for my birthday from my crafty women! The stamped bag is from Erica, obviously. It says "don't forget to believe" and is stamped "dream". She also bought me the cool fabric and ribbon in San Fran!

The crocheted bag is from mom. The lining is an outrageous poppy print and the tag/bobble says "all I need is world peace and a shiney new tiara".

And the cool card was handmade by Amy and says "happy birthday to my sis" inside. It came with a cool vellum envelope that did not survive Lucy's affection.

I love it all!

MOEBIUS

This is the scarf I finished last night. There is no start or finish to it and no seam. Only thing is, I wish I had used a much plainer yarn so the swirls and pattern would have shown up better. Oh well! It's all about learning. Now I know. It's from the 2nd book - Magical Knitting. The projects in the book are so beautiful and unusual. Next I am going to do a small basket with a handle and hopefully work my way up to a knitting basket with pockets that is unbelievable.
The trick to it all is the moebius cast on which is not hard but very different. The book could inspire you to buy a cat just so you could knit a bed for it.

Posted by Patti

Yahoo!

I have seen the zipper. I have mastered the zipper! Yay!

@"#($*@%@#*$

This picture compares and contrasts. The left hand side as you look at it is how they want me to fold it after I put the zipper in. Notice it covers up my piping and will be REALLY wide. The right hand side is how I want to do it, with the self-facing turned to the inside so its narrower, and the piping shows.

This picture is a close up of the facing, folded only once.





First the zipper didn't come in the mail. And now I'm totally flummoxxed --

1) Pin front band to front matching symbols. Stitch. Press seam toward front (did that. That's when I put the piping in)

2) Turn front bad to inside along inner fold line, as show. Press. Baste across upper edge (did that)

3) Open zipper. Pin zipper face down to front band self facing, placing stop at large circle and teeth over center front fold line, as shown. Bast in center of zipper through all thicknesses (that's 2 thicknesses by now. I'm working
with a shorter zipper than it calls for -- 22', not 36;)

I haven't done this yet, b/c its the next step that screws me....

4) on outside stitch along basting using a zipper foot.

5) Turn front band to outside along center front foldline, as shown. Press, baste across upper edge.

This is where I get totally screwed. The final fold makes it four layers of velvet, which is thick and lumpy. Plus the final fold covers up all the piping I worked so hard to put in there.

So my thought is to turn the front band to the inside along the fold line, and somehow decrease the amount of velvet so its only 2 thicknesses, not four.

am I going to ruin everything? I'm worried about the yoke fitting....

TO FELT OR NOT TO FELT!

What is this ? Some may think it's a hat gone terribly astray. After all, Chuck has a big head but this is ridiculous. Note to self -next time pay attention to gauge. Admittedly the most dreaded word in all of knitting.








It is not a hat at all. It is a basket before it was felted. I think it turned out pretty good and it was really fun to knit. Next to the basket is a felted needle cozy, which was even more fun and a whole lot faster to knit. Think of the possibilities for color combinations for both projects.
posted by Patti

Tuck or Pleat? Pleat or Tuck?

Is there a difference? I should probably know if I'm tackling this project. I cut out the pieces for the academic robe Sunday, and marked them last night. There are many, many tucks. And many many pleats. Someone should tell me now if there's a difference! I've got me 7 some odd yards of fabric to wade through!

Bits & Pieces

We went on a little trip, the main purpose being baseball, but I did manage to pick up a few little goodies. The first picture is some fabric from G-Street. I just can't resist those tapestries. Any ideas for a cool bag ? Of course I'm always on the look out for old photos. The buttons are icky but interesting. The metal on them has turned green but I'm sure they will be perfect for something, sooner or later. Beads are from a big bead show in Baltimore. I would have bought more but in 2 hours I only made it around the show once and there was no time to go back and reconsider. I just liked the box of old birthday candles and the puzzle pieces are to use in collages.





This is a picure of those seam bindings from G-Street that I just can't live without. More fabric, the orange has a red bonded lining, and some dodads for necklaces. All in all, successful shopping.Now I need to get busy!

It's in the bag

I was tired of using a ziplock bag to carry my knitting on the metro--my stainless steel tank top deserves something spiffier than that, after all. So I made myself my own little drawstring bag.

It says "It's so quite a new thing" and "A fine specimen of hypermagical ultraomnipotence." I can't take credit for those rantings--they come from 2 difference ee cummings poems.

And you'll note that my own POTD had to get in on the action while I was taking the pic.

Speaking of the stainless steel tank top---it's finished! And, miracle of miracles, it fits! I finished it late last night, so I didn't have a chance to photograph, but will do so soon.

Not As Exciting As POTD!

I fear we are falling behind in the blog race. We need to step up the pace if we hope to compete. So here are 2 necklaces I did.
This one is a tile with my grandmother's picture on it. I did it a while ago but last weekend I redid it. The original beads I had used looked very tacky and I had used wire that was kinky so this version is an upgrade. I am wondering if it needs more..like maybe some branch fringe?

The second necklace is lemon quartz and smoky topaz. I found the quartz in Charleston. It is a very pretty necklace but I have yet to wear it because it seems to go with nothing!

I have a new web site for you to check out. www.shopscadonline.com
It is the Savanah College of Arts & Design's site. Some interesting things.

not in her right mind?

Shopping for a new knitting project is a dicey thing to do alone. Here's what I purchased, and I was excited about it at the time. That quickly evaporated, when after my sale was completed, the saleswomen (resplendent in belly rolls, moustache and smokers rasp) shared with me that SHE had just made the very same thing!

The pattern is for a "cap sleeve shell" made out of ribbon yarn. The yarn (also pictured) is shades of rust, dark blue (Erica blue some might call it) and uggy green varigated.

It might be horrible. Please let me know. And by the way, that's NOT me in the picture.

My Easter Gift!

Would you check out the awesome Easter gift I got in the mail yesterday? It's the coolest! There's an egg in the nest that's the loveliest shade of (robins egg?) blue. The tag says "She accidentially put all her eggs in one basket" (who hasn't??!). And her hat sparkles like a true Easter bonnet should.

By popular demand...

...or something like that. Here's the front of a bag that I started but thought might be a little too out there. It was supposed to be the ocean and the sky, but I'm not sure it worked. It was fun to do, though!

IN THE BAG!

This is the small bag I just finished. Thanks to Kristen's suggestion it has a way cool fringy tassel closing which I kept trying to take a close up of but it was very blurry. The front of the tag is a mermaid and the back says' There are alot of fish in the sea but only a few mermaids'. I tried some branch fringe for the first time and it was really fun.

maybe its just an unflattering picture ...

I mean really, how good can a jacket look when you take a picture of yourself in it in the mirror at 8:45am when you're already late for work? I did get a compliment when I walked into work, so it can't be all bad.

Anyhoo, picture notwithstanding I'm pleased with how it turned out -- I actually took the time to finish it nicely (though you will see I cheesed out on the buttonhole and used a pin instead). I'll try to find someone to take a (more flattering!) picture of me in it later for an updated blog!

SHESELLSSEASHELLS.....

As promised, here is the seashell box. It is a collection of shells I picked up at the various beaches we've been at over the last 20 years. Everyone thinks I bought shells but I didn't. I had the box sitting around for several years-flea market find- and suddenly-in Jan after our last trip to Fl.-I knew I had the perfect use for it. A little paint, a little decoupage and voila!

The directions for fake french seams-press both seam allowances to one side. Stitch thru all thicknesses close to seam. Sounds easy-going to try it on my linen jacket-after I get it cut out, etc.