Take a Stitch Tuesdays start this week!

Sharon's been having a lot of trouble with spam on her site, so she's come up with a back-up plan. Click the title above (or here) for her post on the subject.

Celtic Horoscope

You Are A Pine Tree

You love agreeable company, peace, and harmony. Compassionate and friendly, you love to help others. A natural poet, you have a very active imagination. You are very soft on the inside - needing affection and reassurance. You can fall in love deeply, but you will leave if you feel betrayed.

What's Your Celtic Horoscope?

trying something new

Since I finished my mittens, I've been playing with Holly Shaltz's Mitered Squares. She shows how to make a scarf, hat, and mittens set with them. My plan is to make the squares into a vest, because sometimes my back gets cold.

Besides, I love playing with these colors. The yarn is an alpaca/wool blend from Fearless Fibers. It's really soft and warm, and feels good in my hands. You can check it out on Deb's blog or her eBay store.

Right Brain or Left Brain?

You Are 30% Left Brained, 70% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

Mittens! I made mittens!

Here's a pic of one of them. I had Thursday and Friday off last week, and all of next week, so I've been spending a lot of time playing.


Besides mittens, I'm continuing to work on my "Wild Garden", and I want to make a scarf for one of my co-workers, and a sweater for me. And as if that weren't quite enough to fill up more time than I actually have, I'm also thinking ahead to Sharon's Tuesday stitch challenge that starts next month.

Stay tuned!

What Chrsitmas Tree Are You?

You Are a Cranberry and Popcorn Strung Tree

Christmas is all about showcasing your creative talents. From cookies to nicely wrapped presents, your unique creations impress everyone.

What Christmas Tree Are You?

And to keep track of your stitch play...

A visual journal. In this post, Sharon shows how you can add pages to a wire-bound book.

I'll make my journal differently, simply because I don't have the kind of drill set-up her honey has. I'll post pics to show my progress.

Take a Stitch Tuesday Challenge

I haven't been keeping up very well lately - so busy with holidays and family, you know how it is.

I found this on one of the other lists I subscribe to, and thought it might be fun to play along. The challenge is being hosted by Sharon B on her blog: InAMinuteAgo. Every Tuesday, she'll play with a different stitch, to see how it works in different colors or fibers, or how it goes in different arrangements. You can come or go as you please, but let's play along, and keep each other posted.

More Fun Stuff!

I've added a new gadget to my page: a free coloring page of the day, from FreeKidsColoring.com.

This site has all kinds of coll goodies for playing with (and teaching) your kids. My favorite is the coloring pages, because they make great patterns for redwork, appliqué, or whatever!

Have fun!

Upgrade!

I've had Electric Quilt 5 on my computer for several years, and it is so much fun to play with. For those who don't know, Electric Quilt is a program for designing - you guessed it - quilts. Version 6 was just released this past week, and I got my copy late yesterday. Needless to say, I installed it immediately, and then sat up until bedtime playing with it.

As with version 5, I'm starting by going through the lessons in the book, to familiarize myself with the new tools and abilities of the program. When I start pulling together some of my own creations (at least digitally; actually sewing them will probably happen much later), I'll post pictures.

If you want to find out more for yourself, you can go to the Electric Quilt website (www.electricquilt.com if the link doesn't work for you).

Red Shoe Ramblings: How To Make A Fabric Postcard DebR Style

Red Shoe Ramblings: How To Make A Fabric Postcard DebR Style

I know this is kind of an old post from Deb's blog, but 'tis the season for making and sending cards!

She's got lots of other cool stuff, too! Check it out!

Approaching the end...

...of the first vacation I've had in years.

No, I didn't go anywhere; but I've had the whole week off, and I can't remember the last time I took so much time off from work and still got paid. I've spent most of the time loafing in various ways, which has been very nice, but not long enough.

I thought I might do some cleaning, so I could move some of my fabric and stuff into my studio, but none of that has happened. But I have been working on my Wild Garden, basting hexagons and sewing them together.

One of the reasons that I wanted to start getting my fabric out of the closet in which it is packed (and I do mean Packed! To get any of it out, I'll have to get everything out, and I'm just not ready to tackle a project of that magnitude), is that somewhere in that overstuffed closet is a bag containing several sections that I've already stitched together, and a box that has the fabric I want to use for the backing, and all my batting. I figured that if I could excavate those elements, I might already have enough to quilt into the lap quilt for Honey.

Oh well, I'll keep stitching with what I have out, and maybe tackle the closet when I'm off again in December.

Every Play Group Needs a Toy Store

You can now find lots of crating-related goodies by clicking on Tactile Arts Toy Store in the link section to the right. Right now, it mainly has knitting stuff, but I'll be adding more over the next few days.

Have fun!

Wild Garden

One of the many projects I have going right now is a Grandmother's Garden variation I call "Wild Garden". To the left is a segment in progress. The hexagons are 1" on a side. When the section has 6 hexagons on each side, I'll quilt it. When I have enough sections quilted, then I'll put them together into a wheelchair blanket for my honey. One of the other things I have in mind for these is a robe that I refer to as my "coat of many colors".

I love English Paper Piecing because it's 98% portable. There are really only two stages that aren't. The first is printing out the hexagon templates on full-sheet label paper (no pins required!); the other is cutting and sandwiching the batting and backing for each section. All the rest of it can be done anywhere; from cutting out the templates and sticking them to the fabric, all the way to connecting the quilted sections. I carry it along to do on the commute train (one of the joys of public transit), I do it while watching TV with Honey, I even do it at my desk while waiting for pages to load on my computer.

Another thing I like about working on small projects (or big projects in small sections) is that it lets me see progress very quickly, which is the sort of positive feedback I need. Not only that, but it lets me use up little pieces of fabric that might otherwise go to waste. One of the women I know at work is also a quilter, but she considers anything smaller than about 1/8 yard to be a "scrap"; for the kinds of things I make, that can be quite a bit of fabric! I can use anything bigger than 1/2" square, especially in foundation-pieced minis.

What are you working on?

Let's Play!

I like to play with all kinds of crafts:

• quilting
• knitting
• crocheting
• cross-stitching
• beadwork
• embroidery

Basically, if it involves needles, colors, and/or fibers, I'm probably there.

Things I want to play with but haven't yet include:

• scrapbooking (for which I've collected many supplies)
• weaving
• dying my own fabric

What do you like to play with?