Little Red Riding Hood.....

Long, long ago...a little girl used to ring the doorbell. Her mother would answer and ask who's there. The little girl would always be someone different but her first choice was always Little Red Riding Hood. No matter how many times the little girl rang the doorbell, the mother would come open the door and ask who she was...

Yes, you guessed it...I am Little Red Riding Hood. *wink* So anything with this on it is special to my mother and I. My mother gave me this pretty picture one Christmas. Her Little Red Riding Hood at the door. So when I was at a big indoor fabric market and found some children's fabric with Little Red Riding Hood on it, I knew I had to get some and make a birthday gift for me mother.

I decided on a fabric basket to hold her knitting. I took the measurements from this tutorial and the instructions from this tutorial to sew the basket.

In working with this method, you end up with four corner squares of fabric from the fabric and lining leftover. Rather than waste this fabric, I sewed these pieces together and created a small basket to match the large one. I sewed the method from  the tutorial I used for the measurements since she does hers in 5 pieces for the basket which is what I had left from the large basket adding one extra square from the fabric I had left. Clear as mud? *grins* I got two basket out of a half meter of fabric and still have a fat quarter left for something else.

They were fun to sew and easy to follow the tutorials. A great way to make a project basket for knitting, crocheting, stitching or quilting.

Happy birthday again Mom from Little Red Riding Hood!

An Easter themed SAL Day...

Why Easter themed? Because Peter Cottontail came along and presided over the table...

Each time Bep comes for our stitch-along day, I give her a table present. This time I set the table with a yellow tablerunner and my cabbage leaf plates. This sweet bunny and a pretty green glass for her garden table were awaiting Bep. She surprised me with a pretty garden pot filled with tiny wood violets. I just love it and it looks perfect out on my garden table. Thanks Bep!

But we were here to work too! First we worked on a wedding quilt that Bep is making but since it is a surprise, I cannot show it that. She asked me to show her how I attach binding to a quilt. By lunchtime, it was on and she simply had to sew the back at home.

We enjoyed coffee and a lemon cream muffin. Then we got our stitching for the strawberry pincushions cut and interfacing ironed  on. We picked out little beads to sew on before we put them together. Funny but when you start to pick out beads, you can end up with ones that you totally do not expect to want to use. We both decided on our beads and are sewing them on now.  Sewing the pincushions will wait until the next SAL...

But that table was calling so we toasted to our lunch and friendship with a glass of Chardonnay and tucked in...

The theme was appetizers and finger foods...

Bep prepared Belgian endive leaves filled with scrambled eggs with red peppers and onion, mini pizzas and boiled eggs with anchovies on toast. I made real tartar sauce with English cod nuggets, grilled herb tomatoes and deviled eggs.

I am already looking forward to our next SAL day. *sigh*

Hermit doing the moonwalk.....

That was me this weekend. It was the March hermit weekend. First I forgot to add my link to the list before it was too late. Then I started my stitching tucked up in Cranberry Cottage for a nice long weekend. Sounds like all was in place for a great weekend of needle and thread? I started my moonwalk (remember that move by Micheal Jackson) on Friday afternoon. I needed to finish off the last bits of this project...

As easy as it is, I had to restitch the initials 3 times and the date twice to get it right. Tomorrow, Bep and I have our monthly SAL day and will start the next step of our strawberry pincushions. This stitching was just the start.

Then I pulled out this old UFO. Now I love this piece but it got set aside when I needed to work on stitching ort jars for my quilt group's Christmas in July party last year. Not so good as it stayed there until now. In the theme of stitching UFOs, this was going to be next on my list. Oh my! Thankfully I did not take along the quilt I am quilting as I would have set this aside again and quilted. I had a terrible time with seeing what I was doing and there making mistakes. I also did not like a color I was using and frogged the flower to change it to the pink. I also forgot to take photos of where I started at the beginning of the weekend but you will have to take my word for it that I filled in the heart at the top right and started on the keys next to the heart.

I never have trouble with small count doing 1/1. This one is not even all that small at 30 stitches per inch. I love working something so that it is little and delicate but I did not used to have this silly eye disease which is plaguing my being able to focus properly. After working on this on and off since Friday, I put it aside on Monday evening and could feel my eyes were very irritated. I woke up this morning at 3:44am to a full blown attack and having to get up to take some pain medication. I refuse to give up on this UFO though! It will get done but I need to pace myself a little more on it maybe...

We sometimes have our moonwalker moments as stitchers when you end up stitching more backwards than forwards. I am hoping next month will go a little smoother for my next hermit weekend...

In the meantime, maybe I should just try and catch the moon while listening to Elizabeth Mitchell (just love Elizabeth Mitchell and listen to her in my quilt studio all the time...) sing with Lisa Loeb...

DagiLuv - cat sampler wall

Hurrah...another finish...another UFO crossed off my list...

DagiLuv is framed and hanging on the cat sampler wall as of today! I had started this project back at the beginning of 2011 with the idea of stitching all 10 of the patterns from The Goode Housewife in that same year and a further 2 cat patterns. That was a bit over ambitious so I am pacing myself with the idea of finishing the wall in 2013. So my UFO goal for this year is to stitch a further 4 of the samplers. This sampler brought my total up to 6.

I christened this sampler called MayBelle by the designer as DagiLuv. If you remember, I am changing the colors of the cats to look like Dagi, our beloved four footer. The cat was stitched in DMC 3782 and 3790. I also used colors 830 and 834 which are the advised colors but changed to 3776 since I had it in my stash and 844 as I felt the dark grey color would look nicer with the frame since it was black. Black would have been too heavy with the thread color.

I found a perfect square frame again so did a little rework on hanging them and now can on kitting up a square design again. I was so happy to find this one as it is the bronze color which I am using here and there to ensure the look of the sampler wall is not too heavy. And can you spy my little addition? I added a springerle cookie mold that I bought years ago in The Alsace, France. I could not resist as it comes out so nicely between all the needlework while it did not show up as well with my speculaas cookie form collection being small.

Do you remember this pincushion from my old blog?



It has been featured on Ashlie's blog for her Truly Talented Tutorial Thursdays. I was really honored that she included it. You can see it here and follow the photo to link to my tutorial on NeedleNecessities.

Leaping along.....

It is Leap Year and we have an extra day today. What better to do with that day that work on some projects?

This UFO challenge for 2012 has become very easy. So far I have completed 4 UFOs and have been adding more to my list. It is addictive to grab the next UFO and get busy with it.

I finished piecing this quilt top and am sandwiching it today. I have not decided yet if I want to machine quilt it. I have been wanting to do one again by machine to practice but I do love hand quilting. I figure by the time I have it sandwiched, I will be able to decide. As you see, Dagi has decided to model the quilt top for you...

My stitching UFO project of the cat samplers is moving along with DagiLuv. It is a fun design and coming along nicely.

What are you doing with your extra day today?

Shoe mat: One day project tutorial

This past Wednesday, I went out for a day of shopping and lunch with quilting friends Bep and Mieke. We stopped into a couple of shops to look at what yarn they had.

For some time, I have had an idea of trying to make a shoe mat (no more wet shoes on my wood floor) for my hallway but needed really chunky yarn which I found that afternoon. I got started on Thursday afternoon and by that same evening, my mat was done. It was fun to have a quick project which gives you instant gratification.

You need very chunky yarn (I used 5 balls of 100g each) and a 15mm (I think that is size S) crochet hook. Chain enough to make the foundation of your mat as wide as you would like it. I chained 22. Then chain 2 extra which is your first single crochet. Now crochet in each chain for a total of 22 single crochet. Chain 2 and turn. Single crochet 22 using only the back loop of the previous row of sc. Chain 2 and turn and repeat rows until the mat is the length you desire. 

For the border, single crochet around the entire mat. I made sure I created 2 sc per row I had crocheted. Now starting at a corner, chain 3 which is your first double crochet. Make 4 double crochet in the same stitch as the ch 3. Skip next sc and sc in the next stitch. Skip next sc and make 5 dc in the next stitch. Continue around the mat and end by makiing a slip stitch in the 3rd chain of the beginning stitch. 

I wanted my mat to be wide enough to set Jos' big old and much beloved Cat boots on top and wide enough for under my coat rack. You could adjust your pattern for whatever size will work right for you. It is so fun and easy to make so why not try one. If you cannot find chunky yarn, you could use 2 or 3 strands of yarn crocheted together.

And now I am off to dig into my seasonal decorations for my St. Patrick's Day bowl fillers. Did you notice that empty dough bowl? *grins*

Granny...imperfection but still happy dancing!

This working away on UFOs is really becoming fun and addictive. I am enjoying seeing things get finished. My latest finish is my granny square throw...

The problem with some UFOs is that you have to remember what you were doing where you left off. This was going to be a nice large afghan but turned into a throw when I discovered I made a huge beginners mistake.

But the good thing about making a mistake is that you can learn a lesson. If you enlarge the photo above you might be able to see the mistake. I had been merrily making my granny squares and, when I finished the next 20, started sewing them together. But they did not fit on the previous squares or look right. I kept trying to figure out what I did as the actual granny rounds were exactly the right size. Then I saw what I did! I had done a round of single crochet to each and every square before I sewed them together in the previous squares. I just sewed them on and started working on a more elaborate border. 

Lesson learned...always jot down what you are doing on a piece of paper and put it in your project basket. In the meantime, I thought it was a good piece to practice playing with ideas for a border. I just made it up as I went along. It too is not perfect but this is going to be a throw to be well used with all its "wonkiness" and imperfections. 

Yet another UFO is off my list and that feels great. I have another crochet finish to share but I will save that for my next post. You see, I do have new starts every so often but this was a one day project as a reward for having finished this throw. 

So until that post, have a really wonderful and creative weekend!