april? really?
How is it already April? I feel like this year is moving so quickly. Pretty soon it will be summer and I'll be longing for the nice 65-70 degree weather we are having right now. oh, summers in Georgia, how I love/hate you.
Work has been super busy lately, which is great, but also makes me a little overwhelmed sometimes. That means that I get home from work and immediately want to do something crafty to relax.
There has been knitting:
Spelling Bee Raffle socks for Stephanie!
(the colors in this pic are a bit off - the blues are little more pastel than they are here.)
I went through several different versions of these socks before I landed on this combination: Monkeys + Mama E's sock yarn. It's a perfect match! I started some Monkeys with some other yarn, but the pooling started to get to me, so I tried again and so far, the colors are working out nicely with this yarn. They need a good blocking, obviously, but I'm happy with them. and this pattern is fun, y'all. at first I had to really pay attention to the pattern, but now I've got it memorized and I can just knitknitknit while I'm watching TV. LOVE.
There has also been sewing. More box bags, of course:
Box Bags and one zipper pouch, actually.
and some progress on my quilt wall hanging:
yay quilt.
This one is turning out just how I imagined. and Jacob likes it too, which is good since I'm planning to hang it up in our den. SInce I took this picture, I've added the last row of color blocks, and I'm about to add about 3 inches of brown all around and a blue binding. I think it's going to be perfect.
Since I've been sewing like a fiend, I've started reading some quilting/sewing blogs as well. If you haven't seen the Quilt Along posts over at Oh, Fransson! and you're wanting to get started quilted, check them out. She basically did a virtual quilt-along and went through her entire process from picking fabrics to binding and quilting. The posts are really clear and full of great info. I've definitely tagged a few of those posts (color choices, free motion quilting) to use in the future. I want to try and do free motion quilting for this wall hanging, but I need to practice A LOT before I do it.
While I'm sending you to other places on the Intarwebs, here are two more:
- if you are a scrapbooker, check out my older sister Michelle's blog, The Impatient Scrapper. She makes all kinds of awesome mini albums and she's actually designing a mini-album kit for Creative Scrappers in April! she rocks.
- My friend and indie sock dyer Melanie is having a raffle to help support her trip to the Sock Summit in August. Some of her fabulous prizes include a box bag made by me, and um hello delicious red Wollmeise sock yarn. Drooooool.
- Another great contest! Orinda5 is having a free giveaway on her blog with some pretty amazing prizes, including Malabrigo, some gorgeous sock yarn, and a beautiful shawl pin. She had originally intended to run a raffle, but it turns out that it's against the law to run an online raffle in her state, so the prize-drawing is not linked to the donations. BUT. you could totally make a completely unrelated to the contest but still awesome donation while you are there! I did!
I've started another quilt while I'm working on the wall hanging because I am addicted - I'm experimenting with some scrappy strip quilting using this tutorial from Quiltville (and hello she is another awesome online resource that Carolyn introduced me to). I'll take some pictures this weekend if the strips aren't ugly. ha.
have a great Friday!
Comments (19)
BELLA9000 SCHMOOTASTICAL
Posted by ghost of chili | May 3, 2009 10:45 AM
You have so many incredible talents - I'm completely in awe! I've always wanted to make a box bag too and am baffled by the concept. :)
Posted by Sophia | April 15, 2009 11:03 AM
DANG, girl, you are getting biz-zay with that machine!! Awesome. I might've wet my pants a little bit over that cherry print one. ;)
Posted by earthchick | April 9, 2009 3:30 PM
you are a machine. a sewing one. my socks are done done done!
Posted by mai | April 7, 2009 12:55 AM
Carolyn,
I love your site. I recently started knitting, and wrote a story about a woman at a nursing home who helped teach me.
Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/knitlesson
Posted by Andrew | April 7, 2009 12:06 AM
you really are addicted to sewing! so great! quilting and bag making is a great foundation for making tons of other things. i can't wait to see what else you get into.
Posted by gleek | April 6, 2009 5:48 PM
Wow, your sewing has really taken off! I love the bags...and everything else.
Posted by Jan | April 6, 2009 2:56 PM
Thanks for the quilting links...I totally bookmarked them :)
Posted by Stacey | April 6, 2009 12:33 AM
I love Oh, Fransson! too. Lots of helpful info in that tutorial.
And your quilt and bags are all beautiful!
Posted by kristin | April 5, 2009 5:41 PM
yay for the shout out!! and for your major crafty cuteness!!
Posted by michelle | April 4, 2009 11:14 PM
Your bags are super cute. I envy your sewing skills.
Posted by Mindy | April 4, 2009 2:26 PM
You are a sewing maniac, I love it! And the yarn + pattern combo are perfect--I also experienced pooling with that pattern and had to monkey around with it (heh heh).
Posted by Heather | April 4, 2009 11:17 AM
Thanks for the quilt along link! Flickr is making me crazy with a need to learn to quilt & that looks like a great resource!!
Posted by Leah | April 4, 2009 10:38 AM
you blogged! and i checked it! so now i am leaving a comment. plz to make me a quilt soon. kthxbai.
Posted by Cathy | April 3, 2009 7:42 PM
Ooh, thanks for all the quilty links!! I'm loving all of your box bags :)
Posted by Veronique | April 3, 2009 3:43 PM
Left column, centre photo...that's my bag, baby! :)
Posted by Maggie | April 3, 2009 3:24 PM
LOVE the colorway on those monkeys! And that quilt SO ROCKS!
Glad you're squeezing in some "crafty schmoo" time in with all the insanity!
Posted by amanda | April 3, 2009 2:34 PM
p.s. the quilt is looking awesome!!!
Posted by carolyn | April 3, 2009 12:09 PM
i better send you some leftover strips, eh. how wide are the typical ones you're using?
Posted by carolyn | April 3, 2009 12:08 PM