Curtis and I have lived in the area most of our lives, yet we have not been ice fishing, so when the invitation came, we took the opportunity.  This slide show will show a little about our day and some of the people that we shared the experience.  The slide show has 27 pictures, so it may take a few minutes to load.

Make your own photo slideshow

Bags, bags and more bags and then a purse

I purchased the brown and cream colored bag (in second picture, in the middle) at a yarn shop in Alabama, about 2 years ago while Curtis and I were traveling.  I have enjoyed using it for small knitting projects.  This first bag I purchased and seeing them on another blog inspired me to make a few.  Just call me the Bag Lady.

The brown and white bag in the middle was my inspiration.  Each is lined with a coordinating color.

Origami Bags.  I learned of these at the sewing room at Valle del Oro Resort last winter.
 Michelle  and I each made one on Sunday.  

Then it was a purse.  It is a nice size and holds a cell phone in the pocket.  

This was our quilting week-end.  For me it was making bags, for Michelle it was making an origami bag and working on a beautiful quilt.  Happy Stitching...

Stretch Star Quilt - Michelle's Quilt

Last fall, I posted a picture of Michelle holding this quilt before it was complete. 

 It was made from the fabrics left over from another quilt Michelle made.  

The fabric has a lot of letters and words printed.  A fun fabric.  

Hand Knit Wool Caps bring Warmth during the Cold Winters.

In Northern Minnesota we have had warmer than usual temperatures and very little snow.  We still only have a light covering, but the temperatures have dropped and are still dropping.  -22.5 degrees as I write this post.  My husband was searching the house for warmer outdoor wear and especially the face masks and caps.  The sudden drop in temps kind of smarts the skin.  I have enjoyed knitting stocking caps for my family recently.   Two for my brother, one for nephew, Matthew and one for nephew Steven and one for my husband, Curtis.

The Wool Navy Cap for my husband, Curtis.
The Navy, Green, Black and Red are made with Cascade 220 yarn.
Some are handwash and some are machine wash wool.
http://cascadeyarns.com/

A Wool Green Cap made for my brother, Punky.  Curtis is modeling.

    

My brother is modeling the Wool Black Cap made for my nephew Matthew.
We were in Alabama, the weather was in the mid 60's when he modeled this cap.  

A Wool Red Cap for my nephew, Steven.

A Fair Isle Cap knit for my brother, Punky.
  It was knit with Spud and Chloe a cotton and wool yarn.
http://www.spudandchloe.com/yarns/

The pattern is from a new Alice Starmore Fair Isle Book.
http://www.amazon.com/Alice-Starmores-Knitting-Crochet-Tatting/dp/0486472183/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326953062&sr=8-1

Curtis modeling the cap made for Punky.

This is my first blog post of the season.  I wish you all a Happy New Year and lots of time to be creative.  I am working on my third jigsaw puzzle for 2012 and knitting a pair of wool black socks.  They will soon be complete.  Quilting projects are in progress.  A full week-end of quilting last week-end and the plan is to sew this coming week-end.  

Merry Christmas

Christmas comes but once a year and why I am always last minute, I do not know.  I doesn't seem to matter if there is a lot on my to-do list or a little.  That being said, I baked cookies.  Scandinavian cookies with 100% butter.  Land O' Lakes Butter!  Sandbakkels, Thumbprints, Rosettes, Krumkake, Peppernuts, Spritz and Spritz dough with a cookie stamp.  My cousin, Carletta, baked Berliner Kranser, Christmas Bread and Swedish Rye.  This makes for 7 kinds of cookies and two kinds of bread.  Oh and then there is Lefsa!  Uffda!  Yes! I ordered lefsa from the Senior Center.  It is melt in your mouth lefsa.  This is all for my cousin, Maxine and Gil's 50th 
Wedding Anniversary.  Our mother's made these cookies and bread every Christmas and Maxine's mother made many of these for Maxine and Gil's Wedding 50 years ago.  We are trying to carry on the tradition.  Seven different kinds of cookies, candies and breads.  The candies didn't happen this year.  We leave the Monday after Christmas to help them celebrate their 50 wonderful years.  I plan to post more pictures after the event.  

Curtis helping me make Sandbakkels.  He did great.  This was his first time.

Sandbakkels

Thumbprints with my Crabapple Jelly

Curtis decided to be cute during our Christmas Picture Photo Shoot.  

This free ecard made with Smilebox

Table Runners

A fun table runner in black and white with music notes.  

The remaining fabric worked well to make a set of pot holders.  

They could also be used as small mats and are reversible.   

A fall table runner that I made a couple of years ago.  

This one is quilted during the process of quilting.  Makes for a fun table runner.

November 19, 2011  


We thought winter was here to stay.  Curtis is out for his bike ride.  He has a stationary bike inside, but prefers his outdoor bike ride even in the winter.  Now on the 21st, the snow is starting to leave and we are to have weather in or near the 50's for Thanksgiving.  It should make for nice travel during the holiday week-end.

Batik Jelly Roll Quilt

We celebrated a very special Birthday with my sister-in-law as she turned 65 on 11-11-2011.  

Happy Birthday, Leanne. 

We are having beautiful weather this fall.  

Still not sliding around on our feet or in our vehicles on the roads. 

 I'm thankful for this wonderful weather.
The snow will be here soon and all will be white.

This is my first quilt using a Batik Jelly Roll.  It took only one Jelly Roll.  

 It was so fast and sew much fun.  I am looking forward to the next one.

Curtis holding the Blue Batik Jelly Roll Quilt

Knitted Carriage Robe - Afghan

Probably 40 years ago, I acquired this pattern from a friend.  Through the years I have knit several of these afghans in different colors.   It is an easy project to take along on a road trip.

I used 2 large skeins of worsted weight yarn called "I Love this Yarn" from Hobby Lobby.

I will show a picture of the yarn and include a copy of my instructions.

A very soft yarn.

If I have enough yarn, I knit this afghan about 32 inches long.
At 29 inches it can sometimes be shorter than the width.
Happy Stitching!!

Roping Log Cabin

Traveling in Arizona, a couple years ago, I found this cowboy, roping group of prints at a quilt shop in Benson, Arizona.  So fun to make a small quilt.  Just 16 log cabin blocks makes this project.  Each log is cut 1" wide.  I placed a sleeve on the back so this piece can be a wallhanging or a table topper.

Roping Log Cabin

Quilting Together

We have had the most beautiful fall weather and it looks like it will continue a little longer.  A friend, Michelle and I quilted this past weekend.  I came into the weekend with my small quilt called "Coins" pieced.  I cut pieces for Michelle and she also pieced her small quilt.

Becky's Coin Quilt

The Coin Quilt is from the book
Bits and Pieces

Michelle sewing her Coin Quilt

Michelle's finished piecing her quilt.

I pieced two small projects.  

1.  A table runner called Nine Patch Star by Pieced Tree #TINY34.  

I find these pattern cards from Pieced Tree a lot of fun.

I also cut pieces for a second Nine Patch Star.  

2.  A long cabin table topper inspired by a table runner my sister-in-law pieced. 

Becky's Nine Patch Table Runner

Becky's Log Cabin Table Topper

Becky's Log Cabin Table Topper

The Photo above and below show Michelle's quilt in progress that she worked on over the weekend.
 It is called Stretched Star passed down from a friend.
Will post a photo when it is finished.

Happy Stitching to everyone.  Thank you for stopping by.

The Vintage Baby Cap is something that Mother and I would knit many years ago for baby gifts along with the booties that I posted recently.  They fit a newborn by folding back the front.  As the baby grows the folded back part becomes less and less.  For most the cap will fit until they are a year old.  When I started knitting again about 3 years ago, this was the first project I picked up to knit.  Once again I am using the caps as baby gifts.  I have been knitting caps through the summer and just completed the finishing work on them.  


My Mother always claimed that there were less ear aches with these caps.  Because of the pattern, they fit very nicely around the ears.  A fun and easy project to knit.

Vintage Baby Caps - See my model Aria in an earlier post.

Small Quilts

A fun time making some small quilts using my fabric stash.

A stuffed animal quilt and a doll quilt for some little folks.

A Tree Dimensional Bow Tie Quilt.   

A playful fabric for the back of the Bow Tie Quilt

Marti Michelle Book used for the
Three Dimensional Bow Tie 

Doll quilt inspired by a photo found in a book.  Made from fabrics in my stash.
 Backing is a delicate rose print.

Vintage Baby Booties

Vintage Baby Booties

My mother and I would knit these baby booties and a cap to match for baby gifts using a baby acrylic yarn.  A few years ago, I starting knitting again and my first knitting project was the baby caps, which I have knit many.  Recently, I decided to try the baby booties with washable wool sock yarn on a size one needle.  They were so fun to knit and so fun in this self striping sock yarn.