While Snowed In

I got snowed in at my parent's house for most of last week. Luckily I had these fabrics and my quilt plan stashed there waiting to be cut. I don't have the best luck cutting with the rotary cutter so I needed mom to show me a few tricks.

Once I got going I didn't want to stop! I got all the pieces cut and laid out in one evening.

I played around with the layout for a while and was finally happy with it.

Mom's trick for making sure the values were distributed evenly, a black and white image of the layout:

The next morning I pieced together the first two rows and, with a little adjustment, fit them nicely together.

I came home that day and my house was much colder, so I haven't wanted to sit at my machine. I was wishing for a crochet project because that is something I could have worked on while cozied up under a quilt on the couch.

It was a crazy week around here with highs in the upper 70's last weekend, then ice and snow and the coldest temps in twenty years here. I made it home Thursday and it was not too harrowing. Thursday night into Friday morning we got more snow and schools ended up being closed four days in a row! This weather is definitely atypical for us. Though we were cold, we really came out unscathed. One of our cold water pipes froze up a bit but I caught it in time and thawed it out with my hair dryer. So many people here had frozen pipes, and rolling blackouts throughout Texas was turning off heat, luckily our heat is gas. There were many wrecks and abandoned cars on the roads and I'm happy that I waited to come home and didn't risk my life or my car. I'm glad it has thawed and is warmer now, but I do feel like I accomplished something while I was snowed in.

This quilt was inspired by Wee Wonderful's version of the Plain Spoken Quilt from The Modern Quilt Workshop. Looking at her color scheme again, I'm afraid I put too many colors into mine, it is so hard to restrain myself when it comes to color! I haven't seen the pattern or book in person (though I do want to), but designed mine based on how large I needed the quilt to end up for the back of our couch. My rectangles are cut to 9" tall x 2.5" and 4.5" wide. I had extra fabric so I ended up with 10 rows of 10 small blocks and 9 large blocks each. Surprisingly Frank loves the quilt despite the multitude of color, and that makes me very happy!

Cleaning Out

I started cleaning out around my studio area a couple of days ago and came across the treasures. The Mexican Fire Agate was given to me by a wonderful customer and I had totally forgotten that I had it. I don't remember realizing how beautiful it was when I received it.
The tiny bottles were in a box of found objects that I collected from my mom's stash several years ago. I filled the middle one with some Mexican Fire Opal chips that I inherited from my Pawpaw. I am not sure where or how he collected those, or if he purchased them, but I always remember a jar of them next to his easy chair along with another rock that he called a dinosaur egg. Those little opal chips came out of the bigger jar that was his and the whole collection is very precious to me. In fact, Ann Jenkins included one in a necklace that she made or me. The tiny geode must have come from Pawpaw too, though I'm not sure when I acquired it. I love this little collection in my window sill, it makes me smile and think of my Pawpaw.

Karlie Kitty

I made this stuffed kitty for my niece Karlie. The pattern is from Wee Wonderfuls, the book that I mentioned the other day. It is such a cute book, and I love the way Karlie Kitty (as I named her) turned out. Check out this flickr group to see projects that other people have made from the book. If you sew for kids at all you will want to get this book! I also added the Wee Wonderfuls blog to my blog list under sewing blogs, so check that out too.

Some Sneak Peeks

I have been super crafty lately, keeping my hands busy at all times.
I practiced my limited knitting skills and made a washcloth.
Next up, practicing the purl stitch on another washcloth (you can never have to many of those).

A sneak peek of Karlie's Kitty. I renamed her, in Wee Wonderfuls she is Katy Kitty. By the way, mom gave me that book for Christmas after I mentioned it to her. She knew I wanted to make some dolls for Karlie out of it, isn't that sweet. I love this book, if you like to sew for kids you should definitely check it out! I'll share a picture of her in full after she is in Karlie's possession, not that my 16 month old niece reads this blog, but you know.

Another sneak peak. I started the Granny Stripe blanket today and it is zooming by. I love it! This is another gift, so I probably won't show the whole thing until it is gifted. I'm using the Crayon yarn from Knitpicks that I used for Leo's blanket and I still love, love, love it.

I know, I need to work on jewelry, but I am addicted to crocheting! It is so fitting for this cold weather, snuggle under a quilt, hot coffee and Lucy at my side and hook away.

I have been applying for spring shows, so I'll let you know how that goes.

2010 in Jewelry

I made this mosaic in a hurry last week via flickr and then forgot to post it here. I did a mosaic of favorite pieces from 2009 and wanted to do the same for 2010. I think it helps to look back and see what I have done over the past year. I sometimes feel like I make the same things over and over again, both for etsy and shows, so it is nice to see the variation and mix of one of a kind pieces in there.

I have been busy on more house projects as well as cooking (and going to the gym). Frank has been home from work because of the cold. We didn't get the snow that hit most of the country, but it is cold, for here. I'll be back to work on jewelry tomorrow thank goodness!

Holiday Wrap Up

I should have done this post yesterday. The holidays are over and seem far away now.
I stayed off the computer all last week and just added the last of my Christmas pictures to flickr yesterday. There were a few that I couldn't resist sharing.

I made one last batch of Sugar Cookies to take to Frank's moms on Christmas eve. They were the prettiest ones I made.

Here are Frank and I amidst the madness of Christmas eve with seven children.

Normally we go to my parents house after Frank's moms, but they were out of town. I didn't want to go home yet, so we went downtown to see the light display at the Pier 1 headquarters.
They were magical!

Frank's huge stocking. I put all of his gifts in there!

We made the dogs pose for their Christmas picture in their new sweaters.

On Christmas day we had two wonderful meals with two sets of wonderful friends. I didn't get any pictures of our delicious meals, but all the recipes were winners.

Mom and dad got back home last week and we did Christmas with them on New Years Eve. We had a very mellow New Years, which was fine with me, my choice actually.

We gave mom two books and I gave her these Fiber Earrings.

We got dad The Woodbook and he loves it!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
My resolution, which I didn't even mean to be a resolution, is to organize our home and clean out all the clutter that is hidden in closets, drawers and cabinets. It doesn't feel like a chore because I want to do it and it feels good to get it done. I'm not putting too much pressure on myself to have a time line and this will be an ongoing project for the next few months.

Finally Finished!

I'm back!

I have been quite busy since I've been gone.

I have been crocheting a lot and finally finished this afghan that I started in 2009. I had finished all of the squares last week and was determined to finally finish it and give it to its intended recipient. I made this one for Sarah Schermerhorn, who is the mother of two of my oldest friends. She made us a lovely quilt and I wanted to do something for her. I think she really likes it and I'm pleased with the outcome too.

I am also starting on the third hat of three that are late Christmas gifts for my Brother and his family. I really, really like this pattern (its free!) and may have to make one of these for myself too. I will post pics of all the finished hats once they are in the hands of my family members.

I'll share more of what I have been up to soon.