Three on Thursday: Projects I’ve been working on

One
The first thing I am working on is a So Faded sweater for my daughter that I actually started in October of 2017. When I picked it back up last month, I realized that the size I was knitting was now too small for her – but not before I knit several more inches on it to try it on her. It’s all been ripped out, the yarn reclaimed (using a similar process that I did for this sweater), and I’m near the bottom of the body and have started a sleeve. This time around I’ve made some mods (one should be obvious)… but I’ll share those when I get done and make sure they’ve worked out the way I wanted. 🙂

Two
My daughter asked for a twin-sized Toy Story quilt when she saw all the Toy Story fabrics that were available. I designed a quilt, bought fabric, decided I could do better on the design… and have redesigned it at least 3 times. I recently realized I made a math error on the design I’ve settled on… so we’ll see what happens with that!

Three
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to tackle a sportweight sweater for my daughter out of some organic cotton I bought at a fiber festival last year. I’ve been round and round thinking about what pattern I want to use, and whether I’m going to do a design on it, and if I do will it be colorwork or intarsia or stripes. I have still made no decisions on this, but have spent a lot of time on Ravelry looking at patterns and letting my mind chug through options.

What are you working on?

Three on Thursday: Considering monogamy

What a week it’s been! It’s been full of surprises, and not really in a great way for me. But… we’re chugging along.

Joining with Carole today for Three on Thursday – so here is my list of three things from this week:

One
I ordered a beautiful bright green dress for my daughter from Primary this week, with the intention of it being a St. Patrick’s Day dress that will have a longer life than one with shamrocks on it. I ordered short sleeves so it can transition into spring, and I had the somewhat crazy idea that I could finish her Chains cardigan in time for her to wear it over her new dress at a St. Patrick’s themed piano lesson event she is going to on March 15. I initially dismissed this idea immediately – no way would I finish it by then – the rows are so long! And then I thought, if I stopped working on all my other projects, it just might be feasible. But…

Two
I already have two active projects in other crafts, the Halloween SAL cross stitch and a Girl Scouts quilt. I’m enjoying both of them, but splitting my time between these and knitting is not leaving much time for me to finish either of them.

Three
For my birthday, I asked my mom to buy me the supplies to make the St. Patrick’s Day Countdown and Easter Countdown from The Sugar House Shop. (You may remember I’ve already made an advent calendar and a Valentine’s countdown from her shop. I’ve also made a birthday countdown of hers… but I just realized I never blogged it!) They arrived this week… and I’m also itching to try to start and finish the St. Patrick’s Day countdown before the beginning of March. Which again, I could do, if I quit working on everything else!

Ah… if I was good at being project monogamous, things would get done! I’m willing to give it a go, I just can’t decide which one I should go for. What do you think?

Three on Thursday: Lately

One
I’ve been desperate to start working on a Girl Scout quilt for my daughter (it’s her first year as a Daisy Scout!), but my sewing machine is not playing along. I attempted to modify some Build A Bear pajamas to fit a dragon’s tail (we may or may not have gone to buy the White Fury the day it came out last week :-)), and the fabric got jammed. I managed to get it free, but since then, the machine won’t sew anything! I’ve tried to troubleshoot myself, but to no avail. My parents, who are also my sewing machine experts, are going to come look at it this afternoon to see if we can get it going. In the meantime, hit me up on my Options post and let me know what you think I should do about the Quilt That Lingers. 🙂

Two
Speaking of Girl Scouts, it feels that most of my life for the past two weeks has been about Girl Scouts. We have been going door-to-door selling cookies, and even hitting up people at our local businesses as we do our errands, and finally my girl has reached her goal! And since I am the troop leader, I have also been registering the girls for upcoming events and preparing for our next meeting. I am tired. 

Three
I have once again turned into a KonMari tornado (this is about the third time this has happened – this time the Netflix show and my desire to make cleaning my house easier got me going), and we donated quite a few things to a local church that has a food pantry and a free shop for those in need. We are off to the library today to donate some books as well. I’m not done yet! 

Joining in with Carole this week – go over to her blog to see who else is participating! Also, my comments work now! 🙂

Options

I have been working on a quilt for over two years. I’ve made lots of quilts since I started it, but I just can’t seem to get this one done. I keep running into roadblocks (largely that I seem to not have been able to measure when I did a lot of the initial cutting, and ignored that my fabric was directional :-(). I finally got my craft room cleaned out, but the one thing that is looming is large portions of this quilt that are put together and strewn about the room. It’s time to finish it. Here are the three options I’ve been considering on how to finish it:

One
Follow the pattern exactly. This means cutting 56 tiny squares and a few width of fabric strips, and recutting some white that I screwed up to make the last row. I will end up with a twin-sized quilt.

Two
Call it quits on making the last row of middle blocks (you can see the fabric that I have already together for that in the above picture – it’s just missing the white strips between). I would then just whack on the white border to the sides and call the top done – which would leave out the patterned fabric border and the little squares border. I would not have to cut anything else! I would use some of the little blocks I’ve already cut (that would have been in the border) and use it to make the backing a little more interesting, which would mean it wasn’t a total loss. It will end up with a good-sized quilt for the couch.

Three
Finish the last row of middle blocks (which means recutting the white strips), whack on the white border, and cut some of the pattern border (which would be the sparkly white and silver you see in the background of the picture above) to make a second round of border, but make it bigger to cover the difference of removing the little squares border. I’m considering doing the backing in flannel to make this a cozy winter quilt. This would make the quilt twin sized.

So I sat down and wrote this and thought it was pretty obvious what I was going to do, but I keep going back to maybe I should just do it by the pattern because I’m really pretty close. Ugh. What would you do?

Note: One of my kind readers let me know the comments weren’t working. I have discovered it was a sneaky plug-in, which I have now deactivated. I look forward to having a conversation with you soon. 🙂

FO: Bright baby quilt

As I’ve mentioned before, I took a beginning quilting class earlier this year. I learned a few things, kept a few (possibly bad?) habits, and finished a quilt that I really love. 

Between signing up for the class and actually starting the class, I found out that a dear friend was expecting a baby. And all of a sudden, I knew exactly what the quilt would be for – her! I had browsed fabrics before and nothing was speaking to me, but when I went back with her and her baby in mind, fabric nearly jumped off the shelf at me. 

The first fabric that I really fell in love with was this gorgeous alphabet fabric. I loved the vibrant colors and cute illustrations that went along with each letter.

I picked out some coordinating fabrics, making sure I incorporated a variety of the colors that were in the alphabet fabric. I ended up choosing a white with some rain drops on it instead of going full neutral for my background color. I love that fabric, but I won’t lie, a few times during the making of the quilt I wondered if I should have gone with a plain white. But once it was all together, I knew it was the right choice. I wanted this to be a bright, happy quilt.

And so, every Tuesday, I spent two hours plugging away on the quilt and learning a few tips. By the end of the last class, I had done everything but the binding. I stalled for a bit there, undecided on what I wanted. Originally, I thought yellow, and then I thought that was too light. Then I wanted to find a solid purple that matched the purple in the quilt, but I couldn’t find the right shade. Finally, as I was driving in the car (because that and the shower are the only places genius strikes), I thought GREEN. It should have been so obvious. Green is my friend’s favorite color, and there was some green in the quilt, and it couldn’t hurt to up the green factor. So back to the fabric shop I went, and I was able to find a green that was from the same fabric line as the purple polka dot I had used in the quilt, so it was a perfect match. 

I know I’m biased since I made it, but I think it was the fantastic choice. 

We had my friend’s baby shower at our local yarn shop (of course!) last week, and I think she really liked the quilt. We had a really lovely time, and NOTHING beats a shower that is attended only by makers. I loved seeing what everyone had made. This baby will certainly be wrapped in love when she arrives. 

Three things: What I learned about myself and class

This week, I finished an in-person beginning quilting class at my local quilt store. Though I had made a few quilts, I was doing so only based on a quick speed-through of a free Craftsy class, and figured there were a few more tips and tricks I could pick up from a real class. 

Well, that didn’t really turn out to be the case for me. Because what I discovered about myself is that I’m not really a class person. This surprises me, because I was a straight-A student and very consciencious all during school, even through university. But I think I actually hate classes. This is why.

1

I only want to know what I don’t know. I don’t have the patience to sit through explanations of stuff I already know how to do. I can probably count on one hand the number of new things I learned in this class. And now that I think about it, I got a little antsy in school too, when the teacher was going over stuff I already knew or had studied. But I just don’t have time for this as an adult. Mostly because…

2
My teacher told me some things I asked about “wouldn’t work.” Well, I knew that wasn’t true, because the reason I was asking is because I’d done it that way. And it worked. It may not have been the professional/competition quilting way to do it, but it wasn’t that it didn’t work. It would have been fine if she
had said, “You can do it that way, but it works better this other way because…”

3
I hate homework. Knowing I had to plow through certain steps to be ready for the next class took a lot of the joy I have in making things away.

All that being said, the positive point of the class was that every week I had 2.5 hours of dedicated quilting time. This would never, ever happen if I stayed home. So I did get almost all of the quilt (sans two rows of quilting and the binding) done by the end of class. 

But what I’ve learned for the future is that I should just trust in Google and look up things I don’t know as I come across them in things I want to make. That’s how I’ve been rolling with knitting and cross stitch and quilting for years, and I don’t see a reason to change now. And I guess I’ll never be going back for a master’s degree either. 🙂

 

Three on Thursday: Projects

Oh my friends. I stayed up late watching the British version of Sherlock. Somehow, I have never seen this. I do not know how that is possible, but it’s true. I watched the first episode last night, and Netflix sneakily auto started #2, and I ended up watching half of it! Of course, with the intention I would be working on my cross stitch (see above), but in reality I put it down and started focusing on the show entirely. Not much progress to show, and I have all the yawns, and am drinking double my daily coffee allotment. *yawn*

So here are 3 projects I’m working on now: 

1.)  The aforementioned cross stitch. I have joined the Tiny Modernist Haunted Mansion SAL. Three rooms had already been released when I joined, and I’ve only been working on the project since last Friday, so I am VERY behind. It doesn’t help that I ordered the materials from the suggested online store and it took nearly 2 weeks to get my materials. It didn’t ship until I called the store a week after my order to ask why there had been no shipping confirmation… and 2 hours later, my order magically shipped! So anyway, between the two, I highly doubt I’ll be finishing this for Halloween 2018. Oh well, maybe I can get some cute Halloween fabric on sale in November — because my plan is to turn this into a throw pillow.

2.)  My daughter’s Weasley sweater. This projects has been a bit of a to do. All I have left is to finish duplicate stitching her initial on it, and I think I should redo the collar cast-off. It’s a little snug, and I think if I redo it to be a little stretchier, she’ll be more willing to wear it more. 

3.)My quilting class quilt. This week, we learned Flying Geese and Square in a Square. I hadn’t done either of these techniques before, but it was really fun! Head over to Instagram for some sneak peaks of the blocks I’m working on this week. 

My knitting and I haven’t really been on speaking terms lately (not sure why), but I will be starting a 4th project soon: my daughter’s Christmas dress. I bought yarn for this back in the summer during my LYS’s sale, and didn’t start. I wanted to measure her closer to Christmas. But I just remembered last week that I wanted to do this project — and it’s a fingering weight dress! — so I guess I better get cracking on that.

WIP: Winter Quilt

Two years ago in January, I went to my local fabric shop and picked up these beautiful winter fat quarters. I loved the pastel tones, and especially loved the penguins and the mama and baby polar bears. I thought this would be a great winter quilt for my little girl. She has a (store-bought) Christmas one, so I envisioned this being a January-February one that could brighten dreary post-Christmas days. 

Since I was still very new to quilting (at the time, I’d only completed one quilt), I had some issues with cutting the fat quarters. I realized after I had cut almost all of them, that I should have cut the rectangles a different way to get them to all go in one direction. There was not enough extra fabric to re-cut. That irritated me, and I let it sit for a very long time. 

Eventually, I decided that I had almost all of the fabric cut anyway, and I would make the squares all go the “correct” direction, and would have all the rectangles pointing with the bottom of the fabric to the right side of the quilt. That would keep it consistent, even though it wasn’t ideal. A finished quilt is better than an unfinished one anyway, right? 

I’ve finally started getting it pieced together. I have three of the main rows done, and am halfway through with a fourth. There is a light at the end of this project tunnel finally! 

I’m having to fit it in around my beginning quilting class project, but I’m still making steady progress. 

Now the only problem is that I don’t want to use the backing fabric I originally bought! I bought sweet little dancers, because 2 years ago, my daughter was in dance. Now she’s only in gymnastics, and though that’s still little girls in leotards, I think I would really like something that goes along with the winter theme, or at least is more directly related to the colors in the front. Any suggestions? 

 

Fabric for quilt top: Maude Asbury Snow Day
Pattern: Marquee from Fat Quarter Style
(Possible) Backing fabric: Tiger Lily by Heather Ross Tiny Dancer

Three things: Back in the saddle

Hi everyone! It’s been a long time since I participated in Three on Thursday, but I’m glad to be back joining in with everyone.

Here are three things going on now: 

1. 1. Until this month, I was blogging as knitsnips. I’ve moved my archives over to this site, and will from now on be blogging from here, poppyspotcrafts.com. I’m excited about this new blog and sharing an even broader range of my crafty pursuits! 
   
   
2. 2. I am signed up for a beginner quilting class that begins next week. I have already completed 4 quilts and pieced half of another. But I’m finally going to learn to do it the “right” way. Though I’m sure I will also discover a few things I’d like to keep doing “wrong.”  🙂 The above picture shows the fabrics I have chosen for my class project. I can’t wait to cut into these beauties!
   
   
3. 3.I am in the midst of my first cross stitch project, which you can also see on my Instagram. I picked “More Cowbell” because this sketch was very important to me and my junior high best friend during our very intense SNL phase. Just seeing it makes me very happy and I can’t wait to frame and display this in my craft room! If you haven’t seen this skit before, or even if you have, watch it to make your day. 

Three things I’ve finished recently

Hi everyone! It has been a couple of weeks full of changes. I made the decision recently that I would become a full-time stay-at-home mom to my 4-year-old daughter, and left my job in mid-January. I’m very lucky to be in a place where I can make this decision. So far, it’s been great. I think we’ve yet to find the exact rhythm of our weeks just yet, as BK was sick most of the first week I was home, and we are also doing some work in our kitchen, both of which have affected how we spend our days. But I’m sure that we will fall into a gentle routine soon, and our days will be even fuller than they already are. 🙂

This also means that I’ve wrapped up a few projects that have been lingering for a long time! Which brings me to my three things…

1. A Quillow. I’ve made 3, but I just finished the last one yesterday! Quillows are fast and fun sewing projects. Can’t wait to show you the full details of all of the ones I’ve made.
2. TMNT flip-top mittens: My friend Heather of BaH Yarns made the coolest self-striping colorway, Cowabunga, inspired by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. TMNT happens to be BK’s favorite thing ever, and I used some of the DK yarn to knit her a hat around Halloween time, and finally finished up some flip-top mittens with the leftovers just this weekend.
3. A Valentine’s countdown (close-up above): I LOVE this and I finished this within about 2 days of being home. Super cute! I hung it up on our bannister just to see how it looked, but have never taken it down! Technically, I shouldn’t have it up until Feb. 1, but it’s bringing so much joy right now I can’t. It’s very cold and grey almost every day, and the bright pops of color from this project are making me happy.

Full posts to follow on all of these projects, because they are so fun! Hope you’re all having a terrific Thursday. What did you finish this week?