Happy Easter to All

Today, I awoke to a beautiful, clear, blue sky. The forecast was for rain. I'm sharing my bit of spring with those that still have winter clinging on. May your day be blessed with peace.

Market Bag

I'm spring cleaning my craft closet by finishing up projects that have been on my "To Do" list for years. I'm finding ways of using those yarns that have somehow multiplied while sitting on the closet shelf. Don't ask me how that has happened- but it's true. So at night while watching tv, I have been working on my knitting projects. Since this market bag tutorial, http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/grrlfriend-market-bag, has been on my list for a couple of years, I decided to make it last week. This is so much faster than making a sweater.

Fabrics and Designs

I spent part of the day playing with fabrics and quilt patterns. I'm in the planning stages for a quilt that will be given as a graduation gift to my neighbor's daughter. She'll be graduating from high school this spring. I'm planning on designing the quilt with both sides having a different look to the quilt pattern.

Since her favorite color is pink, I'm working with pink as the main color on one side. Although this isn't my favorite color,  I'm warming up to that color since there are some fabrics with fun motifs. I'm adding an orange since I like the look of the orange with the pink.

For the other side, I have chosen bright and cheery colors with cute motifs.
I thought I knew what I wanted to do for the one side, but now I'm leaning towards a different pattern.

The Mink

Five years ago, I picked up the vintage mink collar at a second hand store for $25 while shopping with my daughter.  I pictured a jean coat with a mink collar that I thought I would quickly sew that autumn, but that never happened. This month while organizing my fabric closet, I came across all the material for the coat project and decided it was now or never to make this garment a reality.

It's cute, it's done, and I'm ready to retire to just focusing on making quilts.

At Least I Finished It

It only took me six years to knit and assemble this sweater. This is my first sweater project, and I can proudly say it is my last...never again. Any future knitting projects will just be socks.

My evenings this past month have been spent finishing this project while watching all three seasons of Downton Abbey. I love that show! I enjoy looking at all the elegant dresses of that period of time...and the vintage sewing machines.

Flowers for my Mom

The center is one of the paper-piecing stars that I made last year in February.  Since to me it looks more like a bouquet of roses than a star, I set it off to the side to use separately from the other stars that I had made. Looking at it last week, I knew where its new home should be-my mother's dining room table.  So, I quickly sewed up a table runner for her Valentine's gift, a bouquet of roses that will never need watering.

Tessellating Stars

This table runner will be a thank you gift for the lady that gave me the free Singer in the gorgeous treadle cabinet. All the piecing was done with the Singer 66-1 and quilting with the Davis NVF.

Tessellation

I have been making stars. This piecing project is a lot easier than I thought it would be. Working with paper first, I decided on the size block I wanted to use. I cut one 5" block in half, then cut the halves on diagonal to form the triangles. I cut another 5" block into quarters to form the inner square. I did the same process with a 6" block, just minus the inner square. I decided to use the 5" block for this table runner that I'm making.

After selecting fabrics, cutting pieces, and arranging the layout, I started my piecing. First, I started sewing one triangle onto the square by lining up the right angle of triangle to the corner of square and then sewing right sides together 2/3 of the way down. The bottom section is left open to make it easy to attach the last triangle. I pressed the top section that I had sewn.

 Now working counterclockwise, I attached the top triangle and then pressed.

Then the third triangle was sewn onto the right side of square and pressed.

And lastly, the bottom triangle. (Note that this is a different block that I used for this photo so the fabrics/colors are arranged differently.)

I then pressed again and cut off all the tips.

 Blocks were then sewn together to form rows, and rows were sewn together.

 Well almost, I'm still working on sewing the rows together.

Tis' I

Yes, it's really me. This photo was taken at the last quilt guild meeting. I'm showing off my two quilts that I took to the sharing time of the meeting. At the guild, there are many talented quilters that routinely share their beautiful quilts; all which I have enjoyed. This past meeting, I opted to reciprocate the deed back. The smaller quilt went to the community donation program that day.

Yummy Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love homemade chocolate chip cookies. I'm always ready to try a new recipe too. Recently, I came across a gluten free recipe from Land-0-Lakes that uses many different types of non gluten flours in the recipe. So, I gave it a try.

I'm glad I did because these chewy chocolate chip cookies are the best! I added walnuts in my second batch and substituted a 1/4 cup of the flour blend with sorghum flour. I purchased the rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca flour at the local Asia market since those items are cheaper at the Asian market than anywhere else. I recommend these yummy cookies to all, just google for the recipe. Enjoy!