Still Beautiful

As fast as they bloom, they fade away,

and sometimes what is left is just as beautiful.

Lots to see and do in the garden as summer gets underway. 

Spring flew by, will summer do the same?  

I finished my May Sweet Nostalgia block, How Does your Garden Grow? back in May, but have yet to start the June block.  When the garden sprung to life, this gardener had to spring into action, trading in my needle and thread for clippers and shovel.

But, I am still getting just enough of a fix to keep me going until things slow down in the garden.  I long to return to my evening hand quilting and spend whole days in my sewing room.  Reading Kaffe Fassett's, Dreaming in Color inspired one of two new mini quilts, that I will share with you once quilted. 

 

Fun with crochet continues.  I fell in love with the cover of Doilies in Color, so home it came along with a ball of size 10 crochet cotton and a 1.65 mm hook.

I wasn't sure how it would go with such fine thread, a small hook and hands that fall asleep, but turns out to be no different than hand quilting with hands that fall asleep and I mastered that no problem.  I am also learning Tunisian crochet from a book called, 101 Easy Tunisian Stitches.

Looks like I'm hooked on felted bowls, four more to show you.  I should have taken a photo of the one with the purple center before it was felted; it was beautiful with pretty ruffled edges.

Lesson learned that detail may disappear when felted.  My fancy crochet stitches in the center of the same bowl also melted together after felting.  So, in the end a single crochet stitch would have given me the same result, but it was fun stitching the fancy stitches.

Love my little lilac bowl and the handles on the white one.  The blue and white bowl may be my favourite so far.  I can say so far as I have three other bowls ready for felting!

I will be participating in a quilt challenge in a couple of weeks and the theme is Fish.  So, my mind has been working overtime trying to think of an idea.  One idea keeps coming back to mind.  Maybe on Sunday I will put a do not disturb sign on my sewing room door and see how much prep work I can get done.

Until next time.....happy quilting!

Karen

Bowls

Pottery bowl

Wooden bowl

Yarn bowl

Felted bowls!

As you can see I love bowls, so when I came across a pattern for felted crochet bowls, well, I just had to make some.  Afraid of ruining them I waited weeks before felting, but it turned out to be super easy and now I can't wait to make another one.  This time I am going to design my own pattern and maybe even go a little wild with colour. 

Until next time.....

Karen

Friendship Star Finished

I was seeing stars as I hand quilted Friendship Star, with so many seams it was hard to keep the stitches nice and even.  But, it's done and still worthy of a place on the wall. 

Also finished

Sweet Nostalgia

March Winds Doth Blow

We have been enjoyed some really nice spring like days that melted away the snow and made it possible to open windows and take in a breath of fresh air.  A little spring in the air put a spring in my step and I made a dint in some much needed prep work.  I prepared April and May's Sweet Nostalgia blocks, five Dear Jane blocks and two Civil War Bride blocks.  Now, that should keep me busy this spring.

Something else I have been working on is a little crochet, but I will keep that a secret until it is done.  I'm going to try felting, so fingers crossed.

As always, when one googles a subject, in this case crochet, one thing leads to another and you spend way too much time surfing the net.  But, I did find some interesting websites, blogs and patterns.

Crochet Me

Ravelry

icrochet

Patons

Lion Brand Yarns

AllFreeCrochet

Attic 24

Hookin on Hump Day

Le Monde de Sucrette

Clever Cheshire Cats

The Flower Bed

Moogly

Felted Button

Crochet with Elizzza

Larksfoot Stitch

Anastasia Stitch

Crocodile Stitch

Rings of Love Stitch

A nice neat finish

Japanese Flower

Hawaiian Flower

Five Petal Flower

or

Five Petal Flower

Flowers in the Snow

Mille Fiore Flower

Puff Stitch Flower

Chunky Cable Slippers

Electronics Cozy

Fusion Blanket

Blackberry Salad Striped Afghan

Sea Pennies

Crochet Yo-Yo

Easter Eggs

Spring Basket

Easter Egg Treat Bags

Pumpkin Trick or Treat Bag

or

Trick or Treat Bag

Hearts

Picasso Potholder

Birdie Decoration

Tiny Owl

Until next time.....happy quilting and maybe a little crochet!

Karen

Country Comfort

From Rosemary Wilkinson's book, Quick Quilts to Make in a Weekend came Country Comfort, a nice utility quilt perfect for big stitch quilting and homespun fabric.

What I like best about Country Comfort is the big flower template used for quilting.  And, what makes it interesting is you center it over the seam of two joining blocks, instead of in the middle of each block.  Now, it was pieced together in a weekend, but hand quilting it will be a whole other weekend or two.

Every fall, as the weather starts to turn I think about crocheting again, but never do. Well, this year out came my crochet books and a few balls of yarn to practice with. I started at the beginning, reviewed all the basic stitches and was surprised how much I remembered.

Deciding what to crochet is proving to be difficult, as I would like to use up the odd balls of yarn I have around the house first.  How easy it would be to just pick a pattern and head off to the yarn shop, but I'll try not to do that.

In the meantime, I have been happily working on one of my Hocuspocusville stitchery blocks and joining together my Shades of Autumn, POTC blocks, which is looking pretty good, but very slow going.  So, it looks like my fall project will continue right into winter, if need be, to finish it.

Until next time.....happy quilting!

Karen