She sent us strips of solids and asked for quarter log cabin blocks. I took the liberty (no pun intended) of adding a sliver of my liberty print to one of the blocks because it just looked so good in there. Hopefully she won’t mind. I forgot how peaceful sewing could be, if only I could get past the initial getting everything cleaned up and ready stage. That’s one thing I like about yarn– all I have to do to prepare is sit down. I can knit or crochet with a veritable rats nest of string and pillows and discarded laundry, mail and shopping bags around me. (I’ve tried this with sewing with some success…but I don’t recommend it).

Before I started the blocks I had to allow myself some more squishy fun time with the Blue Sky Alpacas cotton that was leftover from my blanket (yes, I finished. No, I haven’t washed it or blocked it). There are teensy amounts, so I figured I would knit a little baby hat. Right now I’m thinking it’ll be a long, striped stocking cap, but we’ll see how far the yarn gets me. There’s something about this yarn that makes me love to *knit* it– does that ever happen to you? Certain yarns lending themselves to certain crafts? I feel like that’s as good a reason as any to learn to do both crocheting and knitting.

I also started another sock yesterday. The same sock pattern from Crocheted Socks: 16 Fun-To-Stitch Patterns, this will be pair #4. We just got some yummy Malabrigo in at Yarnivore and I was asked to show off the crocheted sock (you wouldn’t believe how many people have said that they didn’t know you even COULD crochet socks!). I started this yesterday and I’m almost ready to start closing up the toe- how’s that for speed? Needless to say, the Malabrigo is super dreamy to work with and definitely one of my favorite sock yarns. It’s incredibly soft, and comes in such pretty colors. And you know, it’s kind of nice to work the same pattern several times. I hardly have to pay attention anymore, and I know where the tricky parts are and how to modify certain parts so that it fits me better. I probably don’t even need to make a second one since it’s a store sample, but I’m hoping that they will follow me home eventually.

I am really excited about this one, even though I know it will take me a while to get around to sewing it up. Our group has had its struggles keeping up and staying involved, but I am thrilled with the blocks that have been sewn so far. It has also been a fun opportunity to sew with lots of fabrics and color combinations that I wouldn’t necessarily choose, and those challenges, of course, encouraged me to “think outside the box.” My main hope was that joining the bee would make me sew something every month, in the midst of other deadlines, and it did help me to do that. I can’t wait to get the rest of the blocks!

First are Chawne’s blocks from January. The task she gave us was seemingly simple- sew two checkerboard blocks from 36 squares each. I found it to be incredibly challenging to get my corners to meet, despite measuring, cutting with a fresh blade, pinning,  lining up my seams, using the seam guide and pressing. The corners…do not meet. I hope she can live with the wonkiness — I like it (prefer it even), but, I feel like I failed at these. It just isn’t in my blood to get things to match up perfectly, especially not 36 times each on 2 blocks. Sigh. I could probably use a course in “proper” quilting.  I sent these out yesterday, not too terribly past the deadline.

Next are November’s  Neighborhood blocks for Megan, which I sent out in December (late). These were fun to do and played to my improvisational quilting sensibilities. She sent us lots of different scraps to choose from, and requested teeny tiny houses (that part was the challenge– to do something interesting within a 3″ ish space). I wish I had had more time to do more blocks, but I was in the midst of a big deadline. At least I got a gnome in there!

And finally, here are October’s Sampler blocks for Melanie, who was kind enough to trade months with me. I didn’t realize October  was originally my month and we had just barely arrived in San Antonio. Actually, I kind of still feel like I’ve just arrived and it is four months later! Melanie said to do whatever we wanted, so I came up with these designs. These colors were a challenge to me, I really wanted to add a little something from my stash at first (the easy solution) but in the end I think these solutions work. I’m curious to see how this quilt comes together since everyone’s blocks are different.

Februrary is my month and shamefully, I nearly forgot again until I realized no one else was posting about it being their month. I’ve had a color scheme in mind for a while now so I gathered up everything from my stash and only went to purchase a few grey solids to fill in the blanks–yay for not going overboard with fabric buying.  I sent the fabric out yesterday along with some Bauhaust textile inspired guidelines–I’m excited to see what comes back!

And so yesterday I made my September 12 Squared quilt blocks for Amanda. She wanted Wonky Stars and gave us a link to this great tutorial. She also sent all pre-cut squares, which made it so much easier for me to do these in a couple of hours,  yay. I had a lot of fun, as usual.

Now you may be wondering why I did these so quickly when I put off August’s blocks for nearly the entire month. And that brings me to the big news: We’re moving back to Texas! In  just a couple of weeks, we’re packing up our stuff and heading back to San Antonio, where both Paul and I grew up. I have enjoyed living in Bozeman, but it is time for us both to move on, so we’re going to give Texas another go. I always kind of figured I’d end up back there, but it’s still bittersweet to leave.

And, in doing some packing and sorting and agreeing to publicity type things, I realized that I have some stuff I’d like to give away before I move. You know, so that I don’t have to move it? And also because moving is a great time for sorting through things and sharing what you no longer need. And thirdly, because I agreed to do some giveaways and I better check them off my list before everything is in boxes. So, this week will officially be The Week of Giveaways here on Lindamade. Giveaway items may include but are not limited to: books, magazines, a nice pile of scraps from my studio, and more. I’ll do one giveaway a day,  you can enter each one once, and all entries will stay open until next Monday. At that point I’ll draw winners, email them, and make a big trip to the post office. And hopefully be just a little lighter as we gear up for the drive. So be sure to follow along this week, the fun begins Tuesday!

I used an improvisational technique for these, working with the scrap  fabrics Daria sent in the size that they came. First, I edited the choices and only used 6 fabrics for each square. Then, since I had about an 8″ width (selvedge to selvedge) of white fabric, I cut it into three 12″ long pieces and whatever was left (with the aim being 12″ quilt blocks). I set aside 2 of these cuts, one for each block, then cut the other pieces into strips that matched the widths of the fabric. I sewed a white strip to either side of each print fabric and laid them out, figuring out where I wanted the prints to fall and trimming the white parts as necessary. Then I cut one of the 12″ cuts I set aside into two 2″ strips and 4 approximately 1″ strips. I sewed the 1″ strips between the print/white strips and sewed the 2″ strips to the top and bottom edges. I changed up the arrangements slightly as I went, which is part of the fun of doing it as you go!

I just love how this one came out! (Sorry for the dark photos, there’s lots of construction on our house right now and it’s blocking my light!!)

On the second square, I was really running low on white fabric. (You can’t tell in this picture, but I sewed three white pieces together to go next to the bottom printed strip). At first I thought I would also have to leave the top strip off and let Daria add it, but then I kind of liked the effect of the 2 prints touching, so I went with it and was able to add the border. It still needs a strip of white fabric on top to make it the right size, but that’s something she can easily fix when she gets it (I didn’t have exactly the same white, so I’d rather let her match them).

I’m really enjoying sewing the blocks, they give me a little something fun to do when I have other non sewing deadlines.

I’m really happy with this one, which I did at least a week after the first. Since I almost always piece improvisationally, I thought I’d kick it up a notch and play off the stripes from the first block and the log cabin idea. Traditionally log cabins are pieced around and around, working outward (kind of like a spiral). So I thought that instead I would still piece it in a spiral, only I would form the whole width of each section beforehand, in essence creating one “round” of log cabin pieces, but each “strip”  was made up from several strips of fabric. I made sure to include the dark navy fabric on every side to carry your eye around.

Then I cut something a little too short at the top left, so I filled it in with some bits and pieces and it was a most happy fix. I really love that little slanty thing. You can also see that I ran out of some fabrics at the top left- again- these are things you could worry about, but I learned (from Denyse Schmidt) that you can actually use these situations summon your creativity  (by adding the red fabric to the strip on the top right so that it aligned with the green vertical strip,  I essentially extended the line from the green edge ). I’m not sure if this makes any sense when I write it out, but the bottom line is this: improvisation= love.

Sometimes I think I’d like to play with fabric a lot, lot more. But I am up to my ears in yarn right  now. Which is one of the many reasons I’m thankful to be participating in 12Squared.

It was fun to work with the blues and greens, since I don’t really have a lot of those colors in my stash (in prints, anyway). I added a few more tones of blue and green to these blocks just because I felt like they needed them– I think it worked out well. I really love making log cabin blocks and I like getting these little envelopes of fabric in the mail from my fellow quilters– it’s just fun to play with someone else’s color schemes.

I had hoped to get some more sewing done this weekend  but I just can’t seem to sit and focus long enough to really get started. Sigh. I hate to say it, but I think I like to crochet because I can flop on the couch and watch TV while I do it. And it’s not even good tv, but it keeps me occupied. Maybe one of these days I’ll get a TV in the craft room, but that could be dangerous.

*****

p.s. I’ll be back later today or tomorrow with the winner of the stickers!

I love how colorful this turned out, and now that it’s actually warm outside, I can wear it. (Note: There’s actually snow on the ground in this picture.) Yay.

This Friday my old purse died on the way to my door- the zipper got jammed and everything was stuck inside (luckily Paul was home, so I did not get locked out).  So of course my weekend goal became making a new, simple purse. Believe it or not,  it is actually easier for me to make a purse than to find one I like (and can afford) in stores, so there you go.

Here she is. The purse is about 10″ x 10″ since I like to travel light. Everything I used came from my stash, and Valerie, you might recognize some of your scraps mixed in here. I decided that I wanted a neutral ground with strips of bright color, and I didn’t use a zipper this time because I couldn’t really find one I liked. The “sport/jacket” zippers are too big but garment zippers have really tiny teeth that don’t do so well either (see above). Since I really don’t travel too far or carry very much (and because I was feeling lazy), I decided to close it up with a little snap at the top.

It’s funny, but sewing is definitely a different animal for me. It’s more about the outcome (ie. a dress, a purse, a shirt) than the process, where with crochet and knitting I enjoy the process a bit more. Actually, I really enjoy the process with patchwork and quilting, too, but when I’m constructing something I get hung up on silly mistakes that I don’t want to rip out. I’m not saying that it’s bad or good, just different.

And most importantly, she sent chocolate. The sweetest little Lindt lambs. They were adorable. One was consumed immediately (see how she’s missing from the lower corner of the box?). So cute.  And I love the scraps that she sent. Here are my favorites:

They will definitely be nice to tone down some of the pink and orange overflow in my own stash. I kind of want to start another fun quilt, but I have a secret quilt project I’ve been working on that I am avoiding at the moment, so I feel guilty cheating on it with a selfish quilt.

Instead I’ve been working on this dress, Simplicity 2702 (using all stash materials):

And I knit a new hat for Paul. The old hat disappeared somewhere between here and San Francisco (boo!) but I whipped this one up with Elsabeth Lavold’s Silky Wool (yum!) over the weekend. It’s a tad big, but that only means that the next one will fit even better.

It’s still snowing. So I couldn’t just let him suffer for the rest of the winter (which as you may know, could last until July). Sigh.