Autumn warmth.....

It is autumn so that means wrapping up to keep warm as a chill enters the air. I had been wanting to make Martha Stewart's Freedom Poncho and decided I wanted to have it to wear now. I found this wonderful chunky yarn in a shop and it was perfect for it. I used this pattern link which I cannot seem to get to work today but want to share in as I think the site is being serviced. This poncho has a large fan trim and a roll neck.

I had 600 grams of the yarn and thought it was going to be enough. I ended up having to hunt for more of it which is not a problem since all the dye lots work together with this variegated yarn. So I went to 4 shops and one had one skein while the others had none. One of the girls called another shop for me but it just seemed to be all sold out. Jos suggested we look in the opposite direction of the middle of little Holland as they might have it in a different area. He was right! They put aside 3 more for me and Jos ran me over to get it last Saturday. I ended up needing 850 grams to complete the poncho.

I also ended up with 150 grams left over. So what to do? I did not want to put it in the already growing basket of scrap yarn. I had also been wanting to crochet my own project basket and here it is......

I looked up patterns online and tried two to no avail. I couldn't make either work well as my bottom waved higher than the North Sea in a storm. *wink* So after 7 attempts, I decided I would try one more time doing a bit of this and a bit of that to see if I could get it to work. It did! I have no idea exactly what I did so I can not make it again but I have my project basket...

I did not quite have enough yarn to get the height I want so I grabbed some solid grey yarn from my stash (yes, I now have yarn stash...lol) and changed my series of single crochet to one row of single and then a row of double crochets. I did this three times and did a last row of single crochet and a fan stitch on the last row to give it a nice edge to turn over. I left the row up on the last photo so you can see the fan stitch better. And look inside...

I already have a new project inside the basket. *grins*

Sorry I have been away for a while. Last week, I kept very busy and then had my scan at the hospital for my eyes. I was convince when my eyes stayed low pain and calm for 2 weeks and 5 days that maybe the disease was not active any longer. But it is awake and calling my name since yesterday. *sigh* Back on medication again but bearing up okay. I see the eye specialist in the beginning of November so will hear more then. In the meantime, the thyroid doctor is thinking he wants an immunologist to look at me. He had been sick over the summer when I should had seen him and only just learned about this development.

I also ended up Monday starting to feel unwell. By the evening, I had a bear of a soar throat. I also had terrible shakes and pain all over. Flu? No...just a bad fibromyalgia flare up due to having a viral bacteria in my throat. All well now and my FM is back to its normal pain levels. I am looking forward to doing lots of handwork over the weekend now.

Happy weekend!

Things are getting spooky!

I am slowly starting to add my Halloween decorations to my autumn ones. This year, I decided I wanted to create a bowl of Halloween thread keepers as decoration. But I also wanted to make a bowl filler pillow to go with them. When I saw this freebie on Nan's blog ThreadworkPrimitives, I knew it would be just right. I sewed a piece of black and linen colored plaid to the bottom half and added a piece of lace made in black metallic thread. It looks like spiders webs doesn't it? The little stitched made above each zig zag is called a 'spider'. To each corner of the pillow, I added a black button to complete the pillow.

Combined with my black bead garland, I thought it looked really cute in my small dough bowl. The three thread keepers are by Isabella over at ThePrimitiveHare. I just love them!

I decided when I had the bowl done to keep it in my quilt studio. I put out a Halloween quilt too. And those pumpkins? You can see how they are made on my other blog on Monday.

Now I am off to hunt for my Halloween stitching UFO in my quilt studio to take to Cranberry Cottage.....

Lucy's Little Stars - A doll quilt

I have many blog posts lined up to do but have found myself very slow paced. My eyes are worsening slowly and this week the pain has increased. I am hoping it is temporary. My sight is also becoming more blurred. I do not get out much at the moment as I will not drive when I feel this much pain but I am keeping my mind occupied with my needle and thread. That is just the best medicine!

I decided to challenge myself from now to the end of the year with finishing as many UFOs in my quilt studio as possible. I showed you my prettied up bag in my last post and now a little quilt finish. This is a doll quilt created from a star block challenge I did while in Kathleen Tracy's online group. I sewed seven of her little star blocks and set them on point. I then created a very scrappy border to surround the stars.

I called the quilt Lucy's Little Stars and my handmade label was sewn on last night to complete the project. It measures 15 by 20 inches. The combination of blues and browns give it an old fashioned look.

It was so much fun for me to hand quilt this! I do love the quilting process especially these doll quilts. I had the setting triangles to be able to use to play with some quilt stencils, changing things to make everything fit just right. There is something indescribable about the feel of my needle and thread going through the layers.

So this quilt has been added to my miniature armoire which is becoming full.

I have some ideas for changes on my bookshelves in the living room and want to place this cupboard in the shelving units. I will show you when I do it but first I have to read books to create an empty shelf. *grins* It is my hope that eventually the miniature armoire will be filled with only the doll challenge quilts by Kathleen. I am no longer in the group but still want to complete the challenge quilts along with the six American doll quilt club projects.

You can see the other doll quilts I have created using Kathleen's designs here, here and here.