Bowling at Rohmann's

There is a very cool old Inn, just about 45 minutes from our house, which has a you-set-your-pins bowling alley in it. It is also a hotel which was visited by the likes of Mary Pickford, Charles Lindbergh, and Ronald Coleman, once upon a time (you can see their signatures in the old register even). We'd been meaning to go bowling there for the past year but only finally made it on Friday evening. I think we'll be back again soon! More photos here.

Last Week

Very little crafting was accomplished last week but there was plenty of out-and-about accomplished. There were

A trip to visit Elliott the Ram, his son William, and

His new lambs (again.)

A trip to an abandonned cement factory and water fall in High Falls.

Cookies baked to take to a BBQ at my cousin's house in New Jersey.

And violets were foraged. More on that to come!

Another Mini Quilt?

Of course I won't start on it until I've finished the list but I just saw this quilt this morning on the purlbee and think it's way too cute not to share!

Potholders 2011

My potholders arrived in the mail today! They're lovely! Thank you so much to the crocheters (left to right, Becky / I Felt That, Brenda B, Betheany, Betsyknitsy, locteach) and to the organizers of Potholder Swap 2011.

The End of Week One

I've stuck to it for one week, at least! No new projects were started and I even finished 2 "old" ones. Sure, neither of these had been sitting around for all that long but they were still on the list.

Trip Around the World Doll Quilt. Continuing my efforts to amass a collection like this one.

Flower Seeds pillow. I just love this fabric and how it matches the curtains in my craft room so it had to be a pillow. And, as an added bonus, this wool on the back is one that I love and have had for years and years (since my gung-ho rug hooking days in about 2004) but have never found a use for. Now I've used a bit of it at least!

Finishing Things

Everyone who knows me very well at all knows that I'm not too good at finishing projects. Especially when I have places to store these projects (as I now have in my house versus my 1-closeted apartment in Brooklyn) and so they're not staring me in the face at every turn. So, now that I'm working more frequently (for the best letterpress printer), I've decided that I need a list and a little accountability to get my list of UFO's under control. My goal is to have everything on this list finished by the end of October. I know that the list looks daunting but, just so you don't think I've lost my mind, I'll just point out quickly that quite a few of these projects are very very nearly finished already. Also, I'm not going to start any new projects except for those for people outside of my household until the end of October. Hold me to that one especially!

Here we go!

Throw Quilts:

Redwork Bitty Blocks

Patrick's Medallion

Blueprint Bento Box

Lumiere de Noel

Doll Quilts:

Around the World

Sunbonnet Sue

Woodland Bitty Blocks

Bed-Sized Quilts:

Either Rectangles and Squares Quilt

OR Sleepy Hollow Quilt

Daybed Log Cabins

Pillows:

Master Bedroom Pillow Shams

String-Block Daybed Pillow (using blocks like the top one from this post)

Pink Flower "Seed Packet" Craft Room Toss Pillow

3 Koigu Granny Square Crocheted Pillows

Painting:

kitchen cabinets

furniture to be charcoal grey (small dresser in study, kitchen chairs (3), Thea Table)

Curtains:

last study curtain

living room porch-window sheer

Clothing Sewing:

Amy Butler Tunic

Grey Linen Dress (from the same pattern as this dress)

Liberty Summer Blouse (from the same pattern as this one)

Knitting:

Patrick's Brown Cabled Sweater

Seaming for my machine-knit pullover

Black Kim Hargreaves Dress Sweater

Blue Sweater Vest for Patrick (ravelry link)

MadTosh Ink Socks (ravelry link)

Rosamund Cardigan (ravelry link)

Mosaic Throw

Misc Sewing:

Chesterfield Pincushion (like this one)

Cross Stitched Tiny House & Flowers

quilted potholders

Back to the sewing machine with me!!!

Spring-Like

I've been distracted by some before-it-gets-too-warm to work on quilts sewing and a bit of garden prep work but I'll be back with a more detailed post soon. In the meantime, today it seems that spring is possibly coming to the Catskills and I felt like making a flickr mosaic of the colors of the inbetween season.

1. Finished Square Pincushion, 2. CHARLEY HARPER , 3. P1060291, 4. Project 365 - Day 167, 5. number the tea cups, 6. wreath, 7. I like yellow., 8. yellow week, day three :: yip 2/18/09, 9. spring is here, 10. IMG_4524_edited-1, 11. Cold Spring - Hudson River View, 12. Hourglass Eyelet Socks

DQS10 Finished

On my end it's finished, anyway. I've still not received my quilt and that is a big part of the swap. But I like most doll quilts so I know that I'll love whatever comes my way. Most of my nervousness in the swap comes from worrying about whether my partner will like her/his quilt that I made. And she did!

This little quilt made it to Dena (here's her blog, complete with the photo I used for the house on this quilt there in the header) and I heard from her today so now I can talk about it freely (the doll quilt swap has secret partners so I couldn't post photos of it before for fear she'd see her house and know it was for her). I'm so excited that she liked it! It was a whole lot of fun to make, with all of the little embroidery details I so enjoy stitching.

Dena also likes to embroider so I just had to include a little embroidery/needle book. With some variegated threads. These swap packages are way too much fun to put together!

And here's the whole thing, with the 2 bits of fabric, some local tea, the needlebook, and the quilt, all smooshed into that plastic envelope to protect it in the mail. I hope the wrinkles iron out.

Now I can't wait for my quilt to come and then it's on to crossing my fingers that I get into round 11!!

Snowing Again

I was going to be back here with a post about our newly patched, painted, and decorated bathroom (not the pepto bismol bath but the other one) but I feel so whiny about the snow that was just dumped on us that I have to post photos of that instead. I just calculated a couple of days ago that at this time last year we were out working in the yard in t-shirts. Yikes!

I promise to come back soon, not whining about 3 more inches of snow but with photos of the bathroom.

Another reason for my doll quilt obsession discussed in my last post could very well be my love of miniatures. It does cause me to do some crazy things in cross stitch.

And to buy some totally adorable Lustreware salt and pepper shakers. Why wouldn't it be at least a part of the doll quilt thing? I'm off to cut up some more tiny squares!

Attack of the Doll Quilts

I seem to be addicted to doll quilts. They're just so much fun! A good place to try out new techniques that maybe I don't want to use for a full quilt. A nice practically instant-gratification project. Not to mention the fact that I've become a bit obsessed with these two photos.

My quilt for DQS10. I love this swap! Except for the fact that in this case, the secret partner thing is requiring me to keep that piece of paper over my favorite part of the quilt until I get it mailed out to my partner!

This one's backed and quilted now but this is still the best photo that I have of it -- at least it gives you an idea of the pattern.

This one's inspired by one of the ones in Hilary's photo (linked above). I do love this fabric!

But the unfortunate side effects of making this many doll quilts is that 1) a person eventually uses up every last little scrap of batting in the house and 2) the quilts all inevitably come to the part (and all at the same time if they're feeling particularly diabolical) where the binding needs to be hand-stitched onto the back of the quilt. Oops.

First Finished Knitting Project for 2011

I actually finished something! Even working in all of the loose ends, pressing the edge pieces, and sewing on the buttons! It's the Sketchbook Cardigan from Lion Brand. I knitted it exactly as written in the pattern but here's a ravelry link anyway, in case you want more details. I love the way it turned out (although the fact that every single edge is picked up, knit double-length, turned, and sewn down to the underside made me feel a bit insane as I was doing it)! I've been wearing it every day since it was knit enough to be wearable. Even before I finished knitting the trim pieces or sewing the buttons on. I love it so much that I think that my next knitting project may just be another Lion Brand pattern that I have (I picked it up on the yarn crawl last October).

And I leave you today with a button photo. Just because I love buttons. Don't you agree that they deserve a closeup, even if it is a bit poorly focused?

Quick Ikea Dash

Well we dashed until we hit the line anyway. Then we were a bit stalled. But we managed to pick up

A new light fixture for the downstairs bathroom. One without an extender pole meant to hold it down below the (removed) drop ceiling. Now if only we could finish scraping the room so it could be painted!

No, not the cat. New curtains for the living room. Most notably, the window in this corner is no longer uncovered. That had been bothering me for a long time. Now once I actually get them hemmed and the other sheer for the window looking onto the porch sewn up, this room will be entirely be-curtained.

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope you have a very happy Valentine's Day! Things are very productive over this way today.

Finished redwork pillow (more information here and an in-progress close-up photo here).

One of my series of holiday cross-stitch pieces. This is the one that started that whole project, actually. I love the little heart at the top made of french knots and that the letters are wonky as they are.

And last but certainly not least, I have the Valentines I've received so far from Crow and Canary's second annual card swap. I love this swap! Here is my post about if from last year (complete with a crocheted heart pattern!).

Walk Up the Mountain: Winter Edition

Since walking up the 3 miles or so a few times last summer, I'd not been back up the mountain on which our house sits until yesterday. It was cold but still pretty and quiet up there (it was 14 degrees F yesterday!). I especially enjoyed the wandering donkeys (the same ones in the pen in the summer post -- I hear that they're kind of "free range" now).

I didn't get any photos of the views as I did in the summer and there weren't any bobcats spotted and the ferns are all hibernating but there were snow-covered and abandonned birds' nests to spot and still the creek to listen to and passing neighbors for roadside chatting.

Bitty Blocks -- February

The theme for the 3.5-inch Bitty Blocks for this month is words/text. It's been interpreted a ton of different ways but here are my takes on it (I'm in 2 groups so I'm to make 2 sets of 12 to swap). The top set has 3 different fabrics printed with words and the bottom set has 1 fabric printed with letters and another that I freezer paper stenciled with the first initial of each of the quilters in the group. I'm excited for the other blocks to start coming in the mail!

Doll Quilt Swap 10: Begun

I've had enough time now to check my (secret) Doll Quilt Swap partner's information and likes / dislikes to develop a plan and actually get started. The deadline on mailing the quilts out is in about 2 months still but I plan to do a fairly complicated embroidery / applique piece for the center so the more I can get done prior to receiving my background piece of linen, the better.

Fabric choices for the Doll Quilt.

Inspiration mosaic for the center embroidered piece. All photos from flickr.

A bit of my scale schematics / sketches for the design and an (unironed / untrimmed) bit of the main border.

Back to the sewing machine!

2010 Crafting Year in Review

For the last few weeks, I'd been seeing all sorts of year in review posts on flickr and blogs. It made me think about what I'd actually finished last year. Mostly what came to mind was house projects or gardening accomplishments. But, in making a mosaic of my crafting from last year, I realized that I'd actually done more that I thought I had. Good reason to do this kind of exercise!

I think I knit that first sweater last year rather than the year before last. I made curtains for my house (and learned about printing by hand in the process), scarves for my etsy shop, pincushions, a doll quilt, stockings, and potholders for various swaps (and improved my applique, paper piecing, machine quilting, pattern developing, and quilt binding skills in the process), and a pillow just for fun from some fabric from one of my favorite illustrators/crafters. There was also a cardigan just for me, and a quilt for my parent's Christmas gift.

I suppose that I did more than I thought I did, craft-wise, last year! (Although I did turn out to have read just as few books as I kind of suspected that I did -- Julie & Julia, The Making of a Marchioness, and Cheerful Weather for the Wedding are really the only books that I finished. I'll have to work on finishing books in 2011 -- I probably started 10 that I never finished!)

Bitty Block Committee

Introducing my latest craze in flickr swapping -- the Bitty Block Committee! This is a swap wherein the participants can sign up by month to make 12-24 blocks in a theme to send to other swappers in exchange for different blocks, all measuring 3.5 inches square (3 inches finished). December's theme was "birds and owls", for which I made the little embroidered robin, 2nd up and over from the bottom left corner, and the stamped rooster, diagonally up and to the left from him. Also, not for the swap, but to try out paper piecing, I did the 2nd bird down from the top right corner, inspired by this wonderful mug rug. The rest of the blocks were made by my fellow swappers and I love all of them! More of the blocks were used for the pillow I showed yesterday and the last few are being saved for another project to be done in future. Perhaps after the DQS10 is over.

Speaking of which, in other swap news, I WAS ACCEPTED INTO DQS10!!!! How exciting is that? I had so much fun with the swap last year, I can't wait to get full tilt into it again this year. Good quilting on the horizon!