A Little Something To Brighten My Day

After a week or so of rain I needed to find something to brighten my day. So I pulled out this cute little embroidered dog I found among some fabric that was given to me and decided to make something. I went through my basket of reproduction fabrics and decided that this red one would be the one to brighten my day.

So while my Hubby, who had the day off, went to go pick up the kiddos from school I sat down at my machine a quickly sewed this cute little quilt.

When it came to quilting it, I did a stitch in the ditch around the embroidered part and then went with some free motion dog bones and dog paws. The lighting wasn't the greatest when I took the pictures, but the dog bones are along the side and the paws are in the corners.

It was fun to just experiment with something different with the free motion quilting and even though it isn't perfect it came out way better than I thought it would. So now I have a cute little quilt hanging in the Soffice (sewing room/office, named by my kiddos).

And Now They Are Gone...

Oh how I wished for the days to slow down, I was ready for some peace and quiet away from the holiday busyness. Now, I realize that along with that came a different feeling, a kind of lonely sadness, the feeling of walking around like I lost a part of myself. Our two older boys have now both headed off , back to the places they came from, the younger kids have gone back to school and now the house is so empty and kind of lonely.

The 20 yr old got to spend two weeks at home before he had to return to Germany and our 22 yr old just left for Louisiana after getting to spend a little over a month with us. I feel very blessed and thankful that our whole family (all 7 of us) got to spend Christmas together this year, especially knowing that our 20 yr old will probably be in Afghanistan next Christmas.

I think the next couple of weeks I need to find all my unfinished projects I have going, organize and then finish them. I need to settle into a new routine and not dwell on the emptiness of the house. I know in time I will come to enjoy that quirt peaceful time by myself but it just feels like it is going to take longer this time around.

Mystery Socks

Here are my finished socks from Through The Loops Mystery sock knitalong! This was the first knitalong I have participated in and I really had fun with it. Okay, so I was mostly a silent participant but I enjoyed reading and seeing the other posts and comments.
I wanted to finish both pairs during the KAL so I went out and bought some more needles and started the second sock as soon as I could. I would knit the new clue on one sock and then when I finished with that one I would pick up the second and work on that one (maybe I need to try the two socks on two needles again). The pattern was fun and easy to follow, Kirsten did a wonderful job!

I made the medium size and they are a little big but they are so comfortable. They pattern shows up better in person than it does in the pictures. I would really like to make another pair of these in a solid color yarn so the pattern will show up better. I don't know if I should have knit a small or if I should have just gone down a needle size.
I am very happy that I have picked up my knitting, I had missed it but just wasn't in the mood I guess.

February Lady

I finally finished my February Lady sweater (2 weeks ago)! I wore it for the first time yesterday and loved it, it was so comfortable. I enlisted my 15 year old to go outside and help me to take the pictures so I could finally blog about it. I really enjoyed knitting this sweater and can say that I am thinking about knitting another one sometime in the future. This is the first sweater that I have knit for myself that I actually felt comfortable wearing and it has inspired me to find new patterns for sweaters to knit for myself.

Warm Hats

Now that my son has received his birthday box with his hats inside I can show the pictures! I had to ask my youngest to model them for the camera and he did so willingly because he is such a camera ham. I used the "A Hat Fit for a Boyfriend" pattern found here . I really liked this pattern and it was a very quick knit (2 hats in 3 days).

I used Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride worsted for both hats. The lighter gray hat I used size 8 needles as called for in the pattern and I love the big squishy look to it. Knowing it was supposed to snow soon I decided to knit two hats for him and so the second one I thought I might be able to knit up a little tighter and maybe it would be even warmer??!! I went down to size 7 needles and it is fine and it fits great. When I went back to look at the pictures though I realized I am so much happier with the looks of the one knit on size 8 needles. He was very happy with them and said they fit great so that makes me happy.

Now that I had my younger son modeled the hats for me, he has been planning out his own hats and my oldest told me his accidentally fell into his laundry and shrunk (felted probably) so he will need new ones too.

Knitting Again

I have been knitting a whole lot more than sewing these last two weeks and have been very happy to have my knitting needles back in my hands. I have had the February Lady Sweater on my needles since last Fall I think. I had knit all the way to the beginning of the lace pattern and then walked away, the only thing I can figure is that I got to the lace pattern and felt intimidated by it. The funny thing is, I have been enjoying the lace pattern since I picked it up and started knitting on it again.

I apologize for quality of the pictures, it has been dark and stormy here the last couple of days.

This is My Mystery sock that I am knitting, the yarn is a mystery to me too since I pulled it from my stash and the labels were missing. I am enjoying this knit too! The other item I am knitting are my my Anastasia socks I started about this time last fall. I am still on the first sock but I hope to get moving on these and finish both socks soon. I believe this yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd stripes.
On the sewing machine, are two of my MIL old formals that I am attempting to cut and sew into a southern belle dress for my 10 yr daughter's Halloween costume (hopefully)

Shirt-Stripe Boxes

I have finally finished my Shirt-Stripe Boxes quilt top! I decided to add a fourth row and am so happy that I went to all that extra work, I am in love with this quilt. It's not perfect and there are some wonky squares here and there but I just love looking at it.

I can see another one of these in my future, though I will definitely go with the ruler and rotary cutter. I will also pay closer attention to the shirts, to make sure the materials are the same weight. I did run into problems when sewing the different weights together. Now I need to decide how I want to quilt it, I will have time to decide on that.

I have started a new quilt and I have picked up my knitting needles again after a 6 month break. I saw the Mystery Sock KAL over at Through the Loops and decided to knit along! I am going to cast on today along with finishing a birthday present for my son's 20th Birthday that he celebrated in while he was in Bulgaria. Since it snows where he is stationed I figured I'd better make him something to keep his head and ears warm. Since we are from California this should be a fun and cold experience for him.