linus

this is a very late quilt for a very special little boy! it's been hanging around my house waiting for me to get it to it's new owner, which will hopefully happen tonight.

mainly made with Echino and Kona solids, I am hoping it will make the perfect play mat/quilt for Linus.

the wind didn't really want to cooperate with me, but at least you can see all the bright colors flowing in the beautiful sun.

the wind kicked up before I could turn the quilt to picture the back, but you can catch a glimpse of it in this shot.

and just incase some of you are interested my far far away quilt is being featured today at Quilt Story.

creme de la creme

There really hasn't been any sewing in my life at all...and even though I miss it, I am in a serious rut!

Luckily, my knitting groove is in full swing!

This pattern is by Veera Välimäki and is called the Stripe Study Shawl. I can't say enough about this pattern, beautifully written, perfect symmetry and a classic yet unique design.

As for the yarn (Madelinetosh eyre light)......amazing!! Soft and smooth like a mix of butter and heaven.

The colors used are Creme de la Menthe and Antler. 

This will definatly be my favorite item to wear this spring/summer.

washed and in use

The picture of the quilt being basted from my last post was the made for the Robert Kaufman Solids challenge that I participated in along side many quilters from the LAMQG.

I have been meaning to take pictures of it finished, but never seemed to have the time...then last weekend it started raining. Well needless to say, the quilt fell into the washer, then jumped into the dryer and has spent a good amount of time in the last week looking like this

I backed it with some amazingly warm AMH flannel, which makes this quilt a new fav for knitting on the sofa.

 I wish I had taken pictures of it all laid out for you, mainly because of the crazy quilting I did on this one, it was quite intense. But the odds of that happening now are pretty slim. If Izzy and I aren't snuggled under it, then the boys are playing tug of war with it.

As for the knitting that is going on, well I have been working on my very first sweater. I chose a pattern by Melissa LeBarre called Tea Leaves. It is a really pretty cardigan that I have admired for a long time (and also plan on making one for Izzy). The yarn is Madtosh tosh dk merino, in french grey. 

It is my first of 3 sweaters that I will be making in the Magnolia Society, that I joined last month. If you have never heard of it, you can read all about in on the Madelinetosh website. It really was my way of forcing myself into the world of knitting sweaters. 

Now,  seeing as how it is still raining and all the boys are in school, I am back to my sofa with Izzy to knit and read the day away...oh and snuggle, of course.

wordless wednesday

a few things....

I have this amazing girlfriend, who happens to be the most generous and kind hearted person......so much so that she was willing to share some of her Wollmeise loot with me.

For those of you that don't know Wollmeise, it's like the FMF of the yarn world. I was so thrilled that I couldn't prevent myself from immediately winding it and starting a new project!

This beautiful yarn is a dream to knit with and I am so excited to be starting my first shawl. The pattern is called Trillian and can be found on Ravelry.

I also received an order in the mail of some new Madelinetosh......I have such a serious addiction to this yarn, I want it all!! It's all so YUMMY!

As for sewing, I did manage to make a few project bags for my girlfriend as a thank you.

I especially love the FMF bag and I actually used up a good amount of my small scraps.

Now, back to my needles....I have about a dozen projects in the works, I am definatly in a knitting frenzy.

Let me start this post with saying that I hope everyone had a awesome holiday season! 

I won't bore you all with the details of how busy the beginning of this year has been for me, or how I am stuck in one serious rut.....I will say that sometimes life gets a bit overwhelming and I am hoping to find my balance again soon. Until then, let me share with you a few pictures of some of my favorite knit projects I got done last week.

Izzy kept complaining that her little hands were cold, so I found this pattern on Ravelry and started knitting.  

She loves them and I can't get over how cute they look on her sweet hands! The pattern is called the Mini-Me Magic Loop Mitts and was fun and easy to do. 

Of course as soon as she had her mitts on she looked at me and said "Mama, I need a hat to match my puppets"....I know they aren't puppets, but I thought it was too cute to correct!

So I got busy and within the next day she had her matching set!!

Now her hands and head are snuggly warm...and even though our weekend included 75 degree spring like afternoons, she insisted on wearing them both. 

The hat was also made with a Ravelry pattern that you can find here by Paulina Chin. 

I have many other knit projects that are currently on needles and in progress, so you will be seeing more knitty things in the next few weeks. 

I am hoping to find sewing time soon, but as I said I haven't found my balance yet and sewing isn't really something that I have found the time for.....since I can't shove my Bernina in a bag and take it with me where ever it is that my kids need to be! 

Just incase anyone is curious, these are made with Madelinetosh tosh dk yarn and the color is back currant. An awesome yarn that I am currently obsessed with.

a christmas swap

Last night at our monthly LAMQG meeting we enjoyed an awesome holiday swap.

My partner was Kelly, who asked for something that was Christmas themed. Now, I have to tell you this kinda stumped me at first, outside of stockings and advent calendars, I haven't sewn something holidayish. So after a bit of hum bugging I finally got to work. Kelly had mentioned that she kept two 20 inch throw pillows on her coach and with all the pillow inspiration I have been getting from Angela's blog, I decided to go for it.

Now I have to admit, this little flea market fancy hexagon christmas tree was not easy to part with.

I mean really, look how cute they looked on my sofa!!

Kelly really seemed to love them as much as I did, so it made it easier to say goodbye to these two babies. Besides.....look what I scored

six amazing placemats made for me by Alissa!! 

I L-O-V-E them!!! 

I am in awe of how she was able to make something for me that truly is "me", they are a perfect reflection of my home and style. She rocks!! The only thing is, no child will ever eat over the babies, oh no, mama will be pulling them off the table before dinner is served. I know this may defeat the purpose, but beauty just can not be comprised by ketchup or spaghetti sauce!

Now....back to all that holiday sewing that I am way behind on.

tree shoppin....

what do your kids do when you are busy trying to find the perfect shaped christmas tree? for some reason, mine always end up doing this!

no pins.....

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We spent ours up in the Bay Area (right outside of San Francisco for all of you who are not familiar with California) with family. We only go up a few times a year and it is always a joy when we do! It was also where this quilt found it's new home.

I made this quilt as a gift for my sister in laws birthday, which was back in August....but better late than never, right?

Since we were going up for Thanksgiving, I decided to rush it's finish so that I could give it to her in person.

Now normally I don't like to rush the finishing of a quilt, but this time actually forced me to try something that I haven't had the nerve to do yet...

 

machine bind an entire quilt with no pins!! I can't even tell you how exciting this was for me, the whole time I kept looking at my husband going "I can't believe I am actually doing this". Amazingly it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and took a fraction of the time it does when pinning. I didn't get a picture of me sewing it to the front of the quilt, but that was done without pins also. 

Here is what it looked like when finished. 

I didn't have enough time to picture the finished quilt before leaving, so we did it while my sister in law was out shopping, before giving it to her. I really love the simplicity of this quilt and have a feeling it is a style I will play with more in the future. In the beginning, I was nervous about leaving solid squares, but it turned out to be one of my favorite features of the quilt.

Quilted with diaginal lines in both directions, but not in similar patterns. 

Which you could really see on the back of the quilt.

 Just in case anyone is curious this quilt was made with Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush line and Kona cotton in Ash and Snow. I have been on an Ash kick for awhile now, I think it may be time for me to give another solid a try!!

slow going

Just a few things that I am focusing on.....

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you celebrating 

and have an awesome weekend to those who are not!

I don't wanna.....

Sadly, this past friday was my birthday (Izzy thinks all birthdays are her's).

Why do I start the sentence with sadly you ask...well because it marked the start of my last year in my thirties. I know that for most people this is no big deal, but for me it was a hard. I have no desire to be 40!! I just don't like the sound of it....I like 30 something much better. So to make my self feel better, I took a birthday trip to the Purl warehouse here in Socal and bought myself these little pretties..

Liberty of London can chase away the worst of moods! That and my awesome husband taking me away for the weekend (without the children) made the fact that I was 39 feel much better. Although, I have warned everyone that next year we are skipping the day!! I don't wanna.....

I was able to sew up a few new ipad covers yesterday...

One or my sister, made with Heather Ross's Far Far Away 2 and lined with some Liberty to keep her screen nice and safe from scratches.

And a new one for me, made with some cool Echino.

The two together really represent the two of us really well....

I forgot to get pictures of the backs, but I incorporated the same zipper pocket on the back, like the one I made months ago.

I also knitted Izzy a new pair of socks last week. It was my first time knitting child size socks and I love it. They are a breeze to get through, since they are so small.

She loves them and wears them all the time, totally worth making!!

knit knack

I can't believe 3 weeks has passed since my last post....it really feels like it was a few days ago. Life in my world has been all about the kids and schedules. It has gotten quite busy with all boys full swing in their chosen sports and Izzy being at an age that she demands a bit more of my attention (in a good way). 

I have been debating the ways I could lighten the load in my life....because honestly, time has become a precious commodity as of late. No matter how hard I look at the situation, I don't seem to be able to find a solution, so I have decided to give in to the fact that right now my family requires the majority of my time and attention. Why am I telling you this? Because it means less of ME time for now and sewing, blogging and spending time surfing all my favorite blogs falls under ME time.

I am not willing to give it all up (I enjoy my blog and all my blog friends WAY too much to let it go) but I am willing to cut back for as long as necessary to keep up with the real world, because as it turns out, having 3 teenage sons and a preschool daughter is very, very consuming....and I am not willing to miss one moment of it! I will blog as often as I can and keep up with everyone else's blogs as much as possible, but please understand if it's only once or twice a month!

And because no post should go without pictures, here are a few shots of the knit knacks I have finished. Knitting it such a great "on the go" craft that I am turning to it more and more these days to let out some creative frustration.

I finally finished my first pair of socks!!! This was a very satisfying accomplishment for me, not only because I finished, but because I taught myself how to read patterns and grids in the process. I found the pattern for these socks in "Socks from the toe up", these are the Van Dyke socks. I ordered Australian super wash merino wool to make these and it was so worth the postage!! 

A new hat for Izzy! This hat was made using a pattern called "curly cabled helmet" by Sublime. The original patterns calls for ear flaps, but since the hat I crocheted her last fall had ear flaps I didn't want them on this one too. I am going to make her a pair of matching leg warmers in that deep purple next!!

This picture was just so sweet that I wanted to share. Izzy getting some love from her big brother Trenton. It warms my heart in ways I can't even express when I see my two babies together. There may be 10 years between them, but they are still two peas in a pod. 

Amazingly, there have never been handmade items that hang in my home (except for the few trimmings that my boys made that come out for the yearly christmas tree). It's not that I wouldn't hang them, it's just that I am the only one in my family who sews/crafts and I just don't have the desire to hang my own stuff.

With this said, I am so excited to show you the first handmade item to live on my walls.....

See that beautiful potholder?! Ashley made it for me a while ago and I have been eager to get it up in my kitchen. I can honestly say that it is the perfect match to my kitchen. All the greens and blues compliment the accessories that live on my counter tops, not to mention my tea kettle. 

Thank you Ashley, it really brightens up my kitchen and makes me over look that fact that my kitchen is small and obviously built in the 70's!!

that girl is a genius

A while back I stumbled onto Elizabeth's tutorial on how to make a TV tray pressing table. I loved the idea from the get, but it got put onto the long list "things I wanna make", which quite honestly never seems to get done. Then we moved, my sewing space shrank and neither one of my ironing boards seemed to work on a daily basis....so guess what popped into my mind this weekend??

My sister was kind enough to pick me up a tv tray, then after spray painting it white and soliciting my husband to help...I have a new ironing table. I have to tell you that that girl is a stroke of genius. This little table is not only the perfect solution to my creative space, but will also be a breeze to take with me to my weekend LAMQG sews. Small, portable, works great for piecing all my blocks and to top it off, it's cute. What more could a girl ask for?

 

Well, except for an entire sewing room filled with unlimited amounts of fabric and a pressing table big enough to press an entire quilt top at once....but we must live in reality, right?

Covered with a linen cotton blend by Lecien found at Fabricworm.