Every Inchie Monday #9

Frolic: merry play; merriment; gaiety; fun.
"a merrymaking or party; playful behavior or action; prank."

  Frolicking under the sea. Reminds me of the fun movie Little Mermaid and all the songs in it.

Update

Here's the latest A Needle Pulling Thread magazine that came in the mail yesterday.

Once again, it has something for everyone, knitter, quilter, hooker (rug hooker) and cross stitcher.

  Spring Bliss, doll making and embroidery (with a journal cover) are by two talented ladies - Lucy Garvin and Sherry Del Rizzo.

Some socks to knit for those spring days ahead.

 Part of the ongoing International Santa Series. And there is a knitted corset, beaded Pysanky Eggs, a wonderful display of rug hooking depicting the vanishing Saskatchewan grain elevators, and much, much more. A truly wonderful magazine and one of the very few I subscribe to these days.

Update on this, the baby blanket in shell stitch - I am currently working on row 49.

Oh yes, I almost forgot. This came in the mail yesterday too.

It's a cross stitch chart and, even though it has 2000 on it, it can easily be left out or changed to 2011 or 2012, etc. Anyway, I came by it because I follow Virpi's blog. She is a stay-at-home mom with 6 children and she does a whole lot of cross stitch. Not too long ago she was cleaning out some of her patterns and I was lucky enough to snag this. Drop in and take a look at what she's been working on lately.

Popcorn and shells

No, the title doesn't refer to eating - you'll see.
No quilting getting done right now - just finishing up some little things and cutting fabric for the baby rag quilt. Slow going but, I am crocheting while watching TV. My brother's eldest daughter is due any day and so I thought I would do some crocheting. I have been itching to work on something in the evenings and so I borrowed some books from the library.

This book had...

this pattern and so I bought some white yarn (my stash didn't have any) to make...

this. I have 23 completed rows and I need 74 so I have to purchase at least one more ball of the white.

Here's a close-up of the shell stitch. It's nice to know that I can still read and follow a pattern. Other than making some berets for my daughter the last couple of years, I haven't done any crocheting for a very long time.

It's nice to know I kept my patterns from way back.

It had this little dress pattern done in the popcorn stitch.

I still have the dress and it's waiting for a little girl to wear - sometime in the future. I used two colours because I was short of the pink. It's about 30 years old. I have other things that I have made and kept to hand down but I can't find them yet.

Another old pattern. I did make both of these sweaters in the exact same colours too - probably around the same time. The peach sweater and hat set I crocheted (not the bootees) but only the yellow sweater was knit. I don't know if these two will ever show up. They were made of Phentex - soft, cotton yarn not the stringy nylon stuff that Phentex was famous for. Finding these patterns and looking through them, remembering that I actually did make these, gives me hope that I will be able to read a knitting pattern once again...
Stay tuned.

Every Inchie Monday # 8

Cosmic: Pertaining to the solar system as a whole, and not to the earth alone.

Stars, planets and more stars?

It's not a quilt...

until it's quilted.

The design in the borders.

The border quilted.

I could have just quilted the outside of the tulips and the leaves but I decided to give them some definition.

 All four sides have been quilted and now, a couple of turns have been taken. It will soon be finished.

Every Inchie Monday #7

Fishy: like a fish in shape, smell, taste, or the like.

 I always root for the underdog. I hope this little guy got away.

A bit of spring and mail came

The past weekend, while we were getting some errands done, we dropped over to the St. Lawrence Market and this is what my daughter bought and gave me.

A gorgeous punch of spring colour (could've said "bunch of spring colour" too.) Purple and yellow tulips brighten up my kitchen. Thank you, Maili.

And this is what came in the mail yesterday.

 

Isn't she cute?

Here's the back view.

And a close-up of the crocheted trim.

 Hand made by Kay from S'Mockery SmArt. Here's a link to her Etsy store.

I have loved her work for a while and just decided to buy this little one when I saw her.

Here's the card that she enclosed with it.

So, you see, Kay is also an accomplished artist in other mediums.

NOTE: My little doll is not a bug - I do believe Kay called her a winter spirit or a winter goddess. I think of her as a winter spirit doll. The bug is just the card...

Green - Winners and losers

I was auditioning fabrics for a new project and since I wanted to stick with Ulla's suggestion of using your stash to make space for new fabrics (see button on the right side frame) I pulled out some of the greens I had.

These are the ones I plan on using.

These are the losers that didn't make the cut. I really didn't know I had so many greens and I'm sure there are still some hiding. I really need more browns and tans though.

Every Inchie Monday #6

Electrifying: to charge with or subject to electricity; apply electricity to.

 And what could be more electrifying than lightning?

Getting done

It's on the frame and getting quilted. This was a Spring Mystery Mail-out from The Quilt Patch in Moose Jaw that I did a couple of years ago. They don't have a spring mystery any more but they still have the Christmas one.

I just wanted it off the pile of unfinished and out of the sewing room. Besides, it looks spring-like.

I was going to get some red quilting thread but these were waiting to get used up. The Mettler thread is actually a smoky green. I am not a fan of Mettler or Gutterman quilting thread but I do want to use it up.