Extravayarnza

I finally am going to try out Contradance this weekend. The one thing everyone was recommending was a big full skirt to spin around in. Since I was lacking a nice long skirt in my wardrobe I made a quick trip to Joanne's on my way home from work & got right to work. About 3 hours later I had this~

It's a variation on a basic circle skirt & it's insanely full. I started out with this tutorial to calculate yardage...

It adds about 2 inches seam allowance. I ended up only adding 1/2 an inch because I have a serger with a rolled hem foot. The other change I made was an overskirt. I simply cut a second skirt out of a see through fabric ( I made it an inch bigger around so that it would flow over the other skirt). Then I attached them both to the waist band. I love the fabrics I found...

The underskirt is 50% Linen 50% Poly, I did a wrinkle test & it seemed to pass okay. Plus it's the same color as my favorite pants so my favorite shirts should also go with the skirt. I think this may be the perfect everyday skirt as well. The only thing I need to keep an eye on is the skirt stretching out since it's mostly on the bias, however since it's just a simple serged hem it will be very easy to take up.

Oh well, I'll try to get some action shots Saturday night. It looks so much better on than just draped over the door. Now to learn how to spin around more than once & not get dizzy. I was spinning so much in the skirt than I literally was collapsing on the floor. So worth it....

So, late last summer I decided I needed to sew myself a quilt. I choose a pattern, picked out fabrics, I even prewashed them... then promptly put it on a shelf in my studio.

Right now, with all the change going on in my life, especially with the potently sad news I got today, I felt it was time to go to that project that's been my standby. Faithfully greeting me each day & just waiting for the right time to start. The kind of project that will be an heirloom, will last forever, just like the quilt I have from my Great Grandmother.

So, after work I burrowed inside away from the storm & learned the magic that can be had from freezer paper & a rotary blade.

The coolest part was tracing the pattern onto the freezer paper then ironing it onto the top square of the pile. Of course this could only happen after I ironed 17 yards or so of fabric & cut it all into 16" squares...

The pattern makes sort of an off kilter log cabin block. You sew from the inside out, but cut the pieces apart from the outside in. Simply rotating around the block slicing off one side at a time till just a little square in the middle remains...
Trent then did his part by being my paperweight while I cut the rest of the squares!

Then I got to shuffle the fabrics in each section so that pieces that touch each other have a different fabric. If you look carefully half of each square is 'medium light' and half is 'medium dark'.

Then much sewing, pressing, and trimming commenced. I think this was a good first quilt project because the pieces don't line up exactly. Just match them up the best you can & trim the excess. I did opt for the 'larger square' option in the pattern. As written their squares ended up around 9.5" ... I think mine will be squared off at either 11.5" or 12". This was simply by favoring the fatter end of a fabric wedge when lining up the next piece (that makes more sense if you've sewn one of these quilts...).
Much sewing later I ended up with a block like this (well just like this because this is it)

Once all the squares are sewn I'll check to see what the smallest one is & that will help decide how big to square them off to. Right now they're not square at all (they're not supposed to be yet). Then I'll get a plastic square template & make friends with my rotary cutter some more.

Then comes the big moment of sewing squares together & deciding if I want an organic cotton or wool batt.

Two squares sewn.... only 62 more to go!

(Yes there is knitting content below. I don't mind if you skip all the dog stuff...)

Robin & I had a very successful class last night. Every week the barking thing gets less & less of a problem. We actually went to the vet Tuesday & he only barked when we first walked in and when our name got called. Night & Day compared to the first visit. Same thing in class. I'm teaching him that it pays (in food) to pay attention to me rather than bark at the teacher/other dogs/invisible friends... As much as that thrilled me, it's not what's gotten me glowing with pride. That was our socialization time.
Each week in class they bring out different things for them to check out & learn not to be afraid of. Since this school also teaches basic agility they bring out a few agility things. This week they brought out the tire jump again. Robin loves the tire jump. We were doing run bys within minutes of him seeing it again. Then we got to see a pause table. Up him went & laid down for 5 seconds. Such a good boy. Then the second coolest thing was the wobble table. This is a precursor to a teeter totter, basically a big board with a pipe under it so it moves when walked across. This freaked him out a bit, but he was willing to walk across it with a bit of encouragement (food). The coolest thing was defiantly the little mini tunnel. All like 9 inches of it. A bit weird to walk on, but within a few minutes he was running right through! Yippy! My boys going to love agility. We start agility class in 2 weeks.
Before that I'm picking up a few things for us to practice on. Sunday I'm getting a tunnel from Ikea. Plus I'm going to order a practice chute to go on the end so we can start getting used to that too. Then probably next month I'm ordering the coolest set of training weave poles.
I realize this is complete gibberish for many of you. If you're curious to know what I'm blabbering on about here's a link to a cool site that's all videos of different agility competitions.

Okay, I promised some knitting content too...
First off, A big Thank You! to my Secret Pal. She sent me a neat package yesterday with some sock yarn, roving, and bath products that are fragrance free! I'm super allergic to fragrance, so I really appreciate these sorts of things. I even had to switch shampoos because my old one was making my scalp break out in hives! So Thank You!!!! (and Robin says Thanks too, he loves the bone you sent)

I've been kinda crazy about my knitting lately. I'm knitting on several socks for various class. Book projects that I can't show you. But, I also have been knitting on the little donkey sweater. I spent a whole night weaving in more ends than should ever be on one part of a baby sweater.

Then I pulled out my sewing machine & whipped up a lovely misshapen box bag.

Now that I've figured out what I'm doing on that I'm going to sew up a few more...

I don't mean that in any relaxing watch bad movies all day on Sunday sort of way. It is hot here! It's been 90 or close to it for the last couple of days & I just realized that the air hasn't been on at home. I've been sweating buckets here melting onto the couch & just thought to check the thermostat. It was 84 degrees in the house. No wonder why I feel like I'm in an oven. Poor Robin's been laying at my feet panting... the heat doesn't seem to effect the cats for some reason though.
I guess it doesn't help that I have a large purple object laying on my lap either. A large unphotographable object. I'm more than a repeat into the final chart & am about to go up to the biggest needle size. I think (assuming I don't turn into a puddle first) it will be done for TNNA in 9 days.
I do have a finished sewing project. Here's Robin's new set of Bandanas!

I think he likes them...

I'm planning on putting up the extras on etsy when I get back from Toronto (I have between 1 & 3 additional of each print) and I believe I can make some larger ones in the interest is there.
Oh yeah, I'm headed to Toronto for Stephanie's book launch party & the yarn crawl on Saturday. Yippy!
My last trip to Toronto was not as good I had expected.... I suspect that being lead around by a troop of knitters will give me a pretty fabulous view of the city. I don't believe I'll have internet access at the hotel, but I'll be taking tons of photos & you'll either get the full report when I get back (probably posting on Sunday) or if I find some free internet access in Toronto I'll sneak in a quick post.

H is for Heels!
H is for Hand Sewing!

I have strong opinions about both heels & toes on socks. I avoid heel flap/gusset heel & the wedge toe. Neither fit my feet particularly well & to be honest I really don't like knitting heel flap or the gusset.

I think this frees me in my sock knitting. I can try all sorts of other toes and heels, I free myself to just be adventurous. My favorite heels are short row heel & afterthought heels. I've learned all sorts of different variations on both of these and they all fit differently.
My embossed leaves sock is sitting waiting patiently for me to choose an afterthought heel to put in. I'm leaning toward a 3 point start heel since the toe is a variation on a star toe. This might give my sock some interesting symmetry.

I decided this weekend that I needed a quilt. Actually I decided Thursday night & am now in the long stage of hand sewing down the binding. I am so totally in love with this quilt. It's the only thing that's making me work through the 340 inches of hand sewing hell.
You see I love sewing, machine sewing that is. I love cutting (goes double if it involves a rotary cutter!), I love using my serger, any of my 4 sewing machines, and I jump any chance where I get to use an industrial sewing machine. However I really don't enjoy the hand sewing part.
Eventually I get my groove on & between watching both 300 and Son of Pink Panther last night and a bit of sewing this morning I'm closing in on the half way point on getting that binding stitched down, but I've got this knot in my shoulder that is quite uncomfortable.
It's all worth it though. Just wait till you guys see this quilt... It's perfect in all it's imperfectness (it ain't about to win a ribbon at the fair), the fabric puckered, the stitch lines aren't straight, the mitered corners well... aren't, but I don't care! It's perfect. See even Trent agrees with me~

He couldn't even wait for the pins to be removed to hunker in and take a nap...

I is for Injuries!

Most people who've known me for a while know that I'm quite injury prone. At any given time I most likely have a blister, a bruise, and a cut, plus either my knees or tendinitis is probably bothering me. It's just the way I am.
I'm generally fine with just about any injury I get. I spent weeks working with a broken wrist before I got it x-rayed. I've had quite serious cuts on my feet & have no problem with the blood, but my hands or wrists start bleeding & that's it. I'm gone. The only 3 times I've fainted in my life are from 2 puncture wounds on my fingers (one was actually a Chinchilla bite) and when I stabbed my wrist with an hobby knife. A drop of blood from my fingers and I'll start to get woozy.

But now for something much prettier... my first quilt!

The pattern is from Bend the Rules Sewing.
The pattern in the book is for a lap quilt, but I expanded mine by making my strips twice as long & using twice as many of them (actually I used 17 80" long strips). I also used a total of 12 fabrics, 6 "solid" (small low contrast prints) and 6 "printed" (bolder prints)

The final quilt is about 80"x85" and fits nicely on my Full bed. I just totally love it. Just look at the cute binding!

That was by far my favorite fabric & the first one I picked for the quilt.
I think I may see a few more of these in my future...