Knit One Quilt Too

Lucky me!

I just got home to a fabulous prize in the mail.  A few weeks ago, through the grapevine, I heard about a blog contest at Hither and Yarn.  For the contest you had to donate to one of four charities and then be entered to win a skein of yarn.  I chose to donate to Knitters for Knockers- a team doing a Komen Race for the Cure in Richmond, VA.  Well, when Cathy let me know I was a winner I was thrilled! I wasn't expecting all the other goodies, but just look at what Cathy sent! The beautiful Doctors without Borders colorway of sport weight sock yarn from The Unique Sheep, lavendar soap, a nifty little notebook, shea butter, caramel popcorn, chocolate covered cherries and a bar of Green & Black's chocolate!  I think she has my number.  Cathy even sent one of her moo cards!  I have a few that I made, but have never gotten one from someone else.  Thank you so much, Cathy!  I'll put the yarn to good use and the goodies will disappear quickly I'm sure.  Be sure to check out Cathy's blog, there are all sorts of neat things to read about there.  I'm heading to Portland for a week tomorrow, so don't expect me back til late next week.  Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Christmas treasures

We are the very lucky recipients of the Holiday Traditions exchange from Alisa.  I was overwhelmed when opening the box!  I hope our box for Alisa didn't underwhelm her!   Just look at the treasures we got.  First of all the lovely framed stitched quilt square.  Is that not the cutest!  I want to know how she did it and how it's framed.  Here's a closer look.

Alisa also sent these beautiful handmade journals and a great list of her family's holiday traditions.

She sent an added bonus, a box of goodies for making Artist Trading Cards!  Chloe and I love to make ATC's and this will be a wonderful addition to our supplies.  Thank you so much Alisa!  This swap was really fun to do.  I hope we can do it again next year!

 

Goodies in the Mail

I've gotten a few goodies in the mail lately, plus something I picked up in person.  My bookshelf is groaning a bit more nowadays with the addition of these treasures.  I finally ordered Jane's book, The Gentle Art of Domesticity, from Amazon UK because all the reviews about it were so amazing.  I just love it so far, though I'm only part way through.  It's one that you can pick up for just a moment and savor over a cup of tea.  Lovely!

I ordered the Selbuvotter book after an ongoing discussion with Jan about her gorgeous Latvian mittens.  I am also working on some stranded mittens and was glad for Jan's experience in this matter.  The Selbuvotter book is really well done and has some gorgeous patterns.

I had a pre-order for Kristin Knits going for a while- how could I not get that one!  I am a fan of Kristin Nicholas' blog, Getting Stitched on the Farm, and knew when this book was mentioned that I'd be getting it too.  The patterns and discussions about color are really glorious.  Kristin even signed it for me!  When we were in Portland I also picked up Colorful Stitchery and have found it to be quite inspiring too.

Last, but not least, is this pretty little pouch by Glittergoods.  I'm not sure how I came across her blog, but I did and found that she has some lovely items in her Etsy shop.  I ordered this to keep in my purse for all the little things that roll around.  She also sold some nice hand dyed twill tape that I got in my favorite chartreuse color.  I'm a happy camper and now I have plenty of reading material for a while! 

I hope your Thanksgiving was a good one.  Today we are getting the house ready for Christmas.   The elves are busy setting out the Christmas lights!

 

Luck o' the Irish

Well, if I'm not actually Irish, I feel like I am now!  I do have Scottish and English blood for sure, so there's most likely some Irish in there too.  Lookie what I received from Cathi all the way from Ireland!

When she said she wanted to send me something, I thought some tea would be nice, I wasn't prepared for this treasure box.  We've got tea, but we've also got sweets, a lovely calendar, soap and knitted scrubbie, and yarn- oh my, yes, the yarn!

The kids were there when I opened everything and they were thrilled to see each thing.  Chloe thought the wine gums were cool to see because she had read about them in Harry Potter and didn't know what they were.  I've already had a few cups of the lovely tea and of course, the chocolates were wonderful.  Don't you just love the adorable scrubbie!  It's called the Tribble pattern and you can get it here.  It came with some really lovely handmade Irish soap.

Now, onto the yarn.  All I can say is that Cathi must be psychic!  I've been wanting to try the Jaywalker sock pattern, but was really concerned about the difficulty that some have had with fit.  This German sock yarn has stretch built in.  It's called Mega Boots and should be perfect for some Jaywalkers.  Also, it's the perfect color for me, green and blue.

Behind the sock yarn is the lovely Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed, made in Ireland!  How did Cathi know I've been collecting aran tweeds lately with the idea of making a log cabin style knitted pillow?  I'm not sure, but this lavendar color will fit right in.

Thank you Cathi for sending so much love across the globe!  The best part of all this is that Cathi's parents live right here in my town and there is a very real possiblity of a real life meetup in the future.  If not next year, then the year after when she plans to come for a visit around the time of the Sisters Quilt Show.  It should be a blast!

Gifts

First off, I've been meaning to show you the prize I sent to Dani in my blogiversary contest.  I found a few yarns in my stash that have been lingering too long, a bunch of pretty note cards, a couple of sweet treats and a set of beautiful stitch markers.  I think Dani was pretty happy!

I also wanted to show some of the gifts I got from friends after my diagnosis.  There are so many pretty handmade things.  First of all, there is this cozy blanket knitted by Robin from Imagination Tribe, the prayer shawl that is crocheted by my local friend, Sarah, and this handmade bag from Deanne to carry projects in.

Jenn, the amazing friend who organized the Healing Basket, made these supersoft knitted face cloths.

My friend, Myria, is an amazing artist and she made this beautiful sunflower with pastels.

Here are socks knit by Pam and Jill and a scarf knit by Pam.  Aren't they all beautiful?

I also got hand mixed CD's, candles and several bracelets.

Here are the bracelets close up.  The top one was given my by my mother-in-law and is from Friends of Mel.  The other two are handmade by my friend, Kim, and by Zenmomma, Mary.

The hand painted lavendar filled pillow and wish doll (for Chloe) are from Robyn.  The Best Thoughts cards are from Deanne.  Toy Maker has really nice graphic paper arts that you can print at home and cut out.  Definitely worth checking out!

Jenn made the Blessings box and filled it with Artist Trading Cards sent in from friends at Imagination Tribe.  Jenn also gave me the book which I've been reading slowly.  It's full of essays about birds and is so well written I just want to jump in and be where ever the auther is talking about.  Zenmomma made the Believe box to hold the bracelet she made.

And here is the Healing Basket for presentation.  Everything I received came from the heart and will always be cherished.  Thank you all so much!

My Talented Sister

Taking a break from all things soft and stitchy, I wanted to show you what I got in the mail recently from my sister.  She is a talented glass artist as well as stitcher.  For my birthday I got this beautiful bowl which I love for the colors and the sweet shape.  Thank you so much, Cheryl!

A couple of weeks later we got a Christmas package from Cheryl.  Inside was one package that said, "Open Now".  So we did and we were thrilled to see these beautiful glass leaf ornaments, one for each of us.  She even made some fancy doggy cookies for Scrabble.  What a sweetie!

Aren't they breathtaking!  Me thinks my sister needs a blog!

Special gift

Ryan got a special birthday present from my sister this week.  She made him this little tote to carry matchbox cars.  How cute is it?  Ryan loves the fabric and the cars that came with it.  Thanks, Cheryl!

Thank you SP!

I finally got my final One Skein Secret Pal package.  I had completely forgot it was coming, so it was a big surprise!  My SP is Anna in Texas.  Thank you, Anna!  She made a lovely little crocheted and felted clutch and included several other little goodies, including a new skein of yarn.  What a treat!

I got a lovely note, some postcards, a Texas Chili mix, and this super cute skein of pink yarn. 

Not only that, inside the clutch came point protectors and a tea bag holder. 

Anna, this clutch is especially cool because this is the very same yarn that I'm using for my super secret project.  I love it!

I would love to send a private email to you, Anna, but I can't find your email anywhere.  Please leave a comment or email me and I'll be in touch.

Random Wednesday

This has been a busy week with Chloe's summer conservatory wrapping up.   I'll have more about that tomorrow.  Today it's all about the latest random creations. 

First, this is the parts department.  I'm taking a cue from Gwen and Freddy and creating my own parts for a Halloween quilt.  I'd love to have this top done before mid-August because I'll be leaving for a lengthy trip then, but time's getting short.  This kind of quilting is so much fun.  I've got tons of Halloween fabrics and I'm having a great time using scraps.

I also finished this big quilted tote for a silent auction at an upcoming homeschooing conference.  The idea of the silent auction is to have "passion baskets" where someone fills a container with the tools and materials for whatever passion they would like to share.  In our case I'm going to fill it with a bunch of picture books and story tapes that we are ready to pass down and call it "A passion for stories".  It's made from two fat quarters and I followed the directions at this tutorial, with an added layer of batting machine quilted to the outer fabric.

I finished my first Summer of Socks pair.  These are the chocolate cherry colorway of Claudia Handpainted Sock yarn.  This yarn is fabulous!  I would use it for a shawl someday.  I worked these two at a time on two circulars and I'm definitely a convert.  I love having them done at the same time! 

The pattern is Wendy's toe up feather and fan with a change at the top.  I didn't like the way the garter stitch edge was spreading out, so I did a ribbed cuff and finished with the sewn bind-off from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting without Tears.  These will be entered in the Deschutes County Fair this weekend.

I also finished the Entrelac Scarf from Scarf Style (it's called the Lady Eleanor Stole).  This was a wonderful knit and I would do this technique again especially with these very well written instructions.  I decided not to do the fringe on the edge for now.

I got two wonderful yarny packages in the mail this week.  The first was from the Rockin' Sock Club.  This beautiful skein of lightweight Socks that Rock in a new colorway called Peaseblossom.  I love this!  The pattern looks interesting.  So far I've not done any of the patterns that came with the yarn, but I think I'll try this.  Maybe I'll just modify it for a toe up version.

 

I also got my July package from my One Skein Secret Pal.  This yarn is Jaggerspun Zephyr!  Wow, wow, wow!!!!  I'm so thankful, SP!  I've been wanting to try this yarn, but haven't seen it on any of my travels.  It's the most beautiful purple for July's Project Spectrum- how neat is that!  The color is not showing true on my monitor though I tried the photo in three different places.  You'll have to trust that it's a true purple.  Anyway, I've decided on this pattern from Interweave Knits, Spring 2006.  It's called the Trellis Scarf and it looks just complicated enough for me.  I will be taking this project on the next big trip!  Thank you again, SP!

Lastly, I'm finally motivated to finish this Branching Out Scarf, from Knitty.  It's made with Silky Wool and it's a nice pattern, but I set it aside for quite a while.  Now I'd like to finish it by Saturday so I can enter it in the fair.  I've got less than 10 repeats, so I think it's doable.  Stay tuned for a fair posting on Saturday!

One Skein SP- Thank You!

I got a little package in the mail that I had forgotten would be coming, so it was a very pleasant surprise!  Thank you so much to my One Skein Secret Pal.  It's a beautiful skein of Artyarns Supermerino sock weight yarn in the June Project Spectrum color of blue!  There's also a bit of green in it, though the photo is not showing the true colors of this gorgeous skein.  Look how the card even matches and inside is a list of reasons why she picked this skein for me.   How incredibly thoughtful!  You don't know how much I needed a little pick me up today and how much it meant to get that in the mail.  I'm not sure what I'll make yet, but whatever I make it will be beautiful.