Socks, one of my favourite things!

Last night I commented to Alex's youngest nephew that socks are one of my favourite things, to which he promptly replied "no, they're not!" (which in turn caused Alex and I to start singing These Are a Few of My Favourite Things while chasing him around the house). But really, they are. Ask Alex. Or my Mum. I have all different kinds - plain ones, colourful ones, wool ones, cotton ones, fleece ones, and, of course, hand-knit ones. So far I have knit three pairs of socks (one chunky and two fingering weight) and am working on my fourth pair now.

This will become a pair of Hermione's Everyday Socks and I'm loving them already! I modified the pattern to be toe-up rather than cuff-down: I cast on 28 stitches using Judy's Magic Cast On, increased two stitches on each needle every other row for a total of 56 stitches, and I'm reversing the chart so that I work from rows 4 to 1. The yarn is Fibranatura Yummy which has, unfortunately, been discontinued.

Working on these socks reminded me that I haven't shared these socks that I finished a while ago.

These are my By the Sea socks in Madelinetosh Sock in Iceburg (this colour is discontinued I think). The sock pattern is actually available for free on Wendy Johnson's site and is called Seaweed but I renamed them because of the the names of both the pattern and the yarn colourway.

This yarn is so hard to photograph - it's a really nice blue in real life. I actually have a lot of completed knitting that I've never shared on the blog (including my first adult-sized cardigan) because it's hard getting a picture of myself wearing it all - socks are much easier!

In case you didn't already know, I'm a little bit of a closet Potter head and I have plans to turn all of Erica Leuder's Harry Potter themed (free) sock patterns into toe-up socks for me! I cannot wait for my Hermione socks to be done!

Home is Wherever I'm With You...

Hey y'all! How's it going? I have been working really hard to make time for crafting in my new routine (which is why I haven't been around these parts in the past couple of weeks) and have managed to get a few things finished in the last little bit - hurray! My brain is finally starting to get adjusted to my new normal which I am so grateful for. I've made a few things as gifts which haven't reached their new owners yet, but I've also finished a quilt-wall-hanging-thing for our apartment.

I made the top for this back in the summer/fall but got stuck with how to quilt it. After making another little mini quilt using this same alphabet (which I'll get to in a moment) and doing semi-straight line quilting on that, I decided that straight line would look great for this one and would also give it a little structure for hanging.

This wall hanging was inspired by the song "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros which is a song that Alex and I both really like (you can listen to the song on their website if you want haven't heard it). We haven't decided exactly where it's going to go yet; options so far include: above our bed, above our couch, or in the hallway near the front door.

I used Elizabeth Haugh's Refrigerator Magnets alphabet pattern for the letters, but with a few changes. I used the 5" templates here but paper-pieced them rather that using freezer paper as she specifies in the directions. I found paper piecing the letters was less time-consuming and I only had to adjust a couple of letters to work as paper pieces - as far as I can remember, only "s" had to be cut to work for paper piecing and I was able to follow the numbers on the templates for the rest.

The letters were all pieced using various prints from Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks collection - I didn't have any problems paper piecing with the voile but I wonder if using freezer paper with it would be a problem. Both the background and binding are Kona Charcoal and I used a purple toile I had hanging around for the backing. I still have to make some little hangers before we hang it up. I should probably also put a label on it... ya, I guess it's not technically done yet.

Home

For: Me! (and Alex!)

Finished Quilt: 28x40"

Completed: April 08, 2013

PB&J Giveaway Winner!

Hey ya'll! So I am a total dope and forgot to announce the winner of the PB&J fat quarter bundle during my last post (I'm blaming it on sleep deprivation)! Here we go - the winner is...

Congratulations Amy! Please send me an email with your address and the lovely people at Fat Quarter Shop will send your bundle out! To everyone else: If you haven't stopped by Amy's blog, The Needled Fig, I highly recommend you do - she makes cute things!

Also, I just wanted to say thank you so much to those people who left comments on my last post with suggestions on how to work around my new schedule and get some crafting done. There are some really great tips there and if anyone else has any ideas please feel free to leave a comment on that post too!

Be bold, be bold, and everywhere be bold. -Herbert Spencer

Hey y'all! So I'm still settling in at my new job and getting used to my new schedule (the time change helped nothing here!) and I've been having a really hard time fitting crafting into my life right now. With the travel to and from work I'm out of the house for 10 to 11 hours a day and frankly, I am just exhausted by the end of it. It's been really not fun, and I know that it will become easier once I get used to it again, but does anyone have any suggestions in the mean time? How do you fit crafting into your already full life?

I did manage to get a bit of sewing done on Saturday since I needed to finish a birthday present for my friend Kim. I decided to make her a pillow and thought that it would be an excellent chance to try making some X and + blocks which have been all over Instagram lately.

The finished pillow was made to fit an 18" square pillow form so I made 4 blocks (which finish at 7.5") and then added a border. The pillow has an envelope back and I used my Not Your Traditional Log Cabin Pillow tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew to figure out all of my measurements. Since I wasn't quilting the pillow front this time around I added a piece of canvas the same size to give it a little more stability and to cover up the patchwork seams on the inside.

I used a bunch of different fabrics for this one and I just love the look! For the background of each block I used either the grey or white "sewing guide" print from Mama Said Sew; the added border around the blocks is black & white Sketch.

Most of the printed fabrics come from scrap bags I bought at The Workroom - I have blues, purples, and yellows (I also have greys but I didn't use any here). And I love how scrappy and fun it is! For the squares at the bottoms, tops, and sides of each plus I used a black and white print to set off the colours and bring everything together. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out and I think Kim is too!

I've got a couple of other backlogged projects to share but I'll wait for another blog post. But seriously, if anyone has any suggestions for crafting with limited time or for getting used to a new schedule, let me know!

It's Giveaway Time - BasicGrey's PB&J!

Hey y'all! Once again, the lovely folks over at Fat Quarter Shop and I are teaming up to bring you a lovely giveaway! Oh yes, it is nice...

This time around we're giving away a fat quarter bundle of BasicGrey's brand new PB&J! This line is so new that only the pre-cuts are available so far (but the yardage should be available nearer the end of this month). I'm really loving the colours in this collection - very sophisticated, yet still fun, and the prints are great! I want the whole collection, but I definitely want reams of that white-ish grunge - I think it would make a fabulous background choice for a quilt I have in mind.

Yep, so pretty and yummy!

Okay, so I guess you want to know how to enter, right? You have two chances but please be sure to leave separate comments for each entry. Here's what you've got to do:

1. Leave a comment letting my know which item (fabric, pattern, bundle, etc)

is your favourite from FQS' Coming Soon page.

2. Leave another comment if you are a follower of my blog.

That's it! Two easy-peasy ways to enter! I will close the comments in a week (on March 11th) and announce the winner here on the blog. International entries are, as always, welcome! Also, please remember that I have comment moderation enabled so if you don't see your comment right away it just means that I haven't had the chance to approve it yet (duplicate comments will be deleted).

*the giveaway is now closed*

Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish. -Jean de la Fontaine

Hey y'all! So I haven't blogged in a little bit but I have a pretty good excuse - I started my new job last week! If you've been with me for awhile you know that I have been looking for work for quite some time now; it has been a stressful few months and the last couple especially have been really hard. I am still settling in and getting used to my new routine, but so far everyone is really nice and I'm able to give recommendations and have a say in the library services.

Anyway, because I'm still getting used to having far fewer hours in the day to devote to my own work, I have only sewn one thing since I started my new job (although there is other crafty stuff going on that I can't talk about right now) and that had to be done by last Sunday.

At this month's TMQG meeting we held a little blind pincushion swap! I've really been enjoying making one colour, scrappy pincushions so I did it again. Almost all of these purple scraps came from a little scrap pack I bought from The Workroom.

I fussy cut the centre motif from Tula Pink's Birds and the Bees and decided to go with a rectangular log cabin so that I could use as many scraps as possible. I don't know the identity of many of the scraps but I do know that there is some Lizzy House, Anna Maria Horner, and more Tula Pink in there.

My pincushion went to Sally (who also brought each of us a bag of crushed walnut shells to use in future pincushions) and I received a pincushion back from Sandy which I have, unfortunately, not had a chance to get decent pictures of.

I'm really hoping to get some sewing in this weekend, especially since I need to finish the quilt I started for Alex - wish me luck!

Valentine's Heart - a Free Little Cross Stitch Pattern!

Hey y'all! As a way of saying happy Valentine's day I've got a free little cross stitch pattern for you.

This little heart is pretty simple and fast to stitch up (not having any half stitches) but looks fun with it's alternating colour bands and varying stitch motifs. 

After stitching, I starched and ironed, trimmed the piece down leaving a 1/4" on each side of the heart and sewed it down onto a pre-made blank card. I'm giving it to my mumma when I see her on Monday!

I'm sure that there are loads of other ways you could use this little motif - maybe use some waste canvas and stitch it on to a scarf or cardigan, or integrate it into another craft project such as a mug rug or tote bag. Do you have any other ideas? I'd love to hear them!

UPDATE: Unfortunately, this pattern is no longer available for free due to changes made on various platforms. It is now available for a minimal fee through my Etsy shop.