TREATS! TREATS! THREATS!

Happy Halloween to all! I hope that you get lots of treats and NO tricks!

Thanks to Princess EW for bringing in a NEW TREAT to the shop the other day. These PEEPS were good - chocolate mousse through and through. These were not just dipped in color with the white insides, like the orange pumpkins that she also had. Notice that the package is empty! YUM!


Also, many thanks to my sister, who always sends me a box at Halloween. This box had some fun candy - besides chocolate, there were also Gummy skeletons in different colors. Below, is one of the favorite items that she sent - a water bottle from BlueQ. BlueQ's stuff is hilarious, as is this item. I also got a Pirate Girl PINK T'shirt, Pirate Girl sticker, a pad of gorgeous scrapbook paper, along with a few Wizard of Oz papers, a card with the Wicked Witch of the West on it, and picture of my nieces. TREATS! TREATS! TREATS!

Wild Ride - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Got my October block done this month with 2 HOURS to spare! I opted for going to the Monday class to "flash" it, which actually gave me an EXTRA 2 days to get the block together. True heaven for a procrastinator, OR as I like to say, "Someone who works best under pressure!"

So I cut out all the pieces on Sunday afternoon, sewed most of the components of the inner block together on Sunday night before hitting the hay. Then Monday, I got the ironing board and iron prepped, sat down at 9:15 a.m. to tackle the rest of the block. As I proceeded, quite a lot that could go WRONG did go WRONG in putting on those corner pieces. My machine started to act up, with the top thread breaking and the bobbin thread in a mangled mess. So some cleaning of the machine was in order, and after pulling out gobs of lint from under the needle plate and bobbin area and applying some oil, I proceeded. Somehow the needle position knob was altered - unbeknownst to me - BOOM! The needle broke sending a piece of it flying into my hair. I was wearing magnifiers at the time, so I was thankful that my eyes were a bit protected.

NOTE TO SELF: Next month get Nuclear-Grade safety glasses from trunk of car to wear while sewing block!!! (Just kidding about the "Nuclear-Grade" - no such thing - just safety glasses that I got while working in the Nuclear industry.)

Back on track, the big corner pieces got on and off and back on again, because the block was turning out a bit too big. BIG is good, but not TOO BIG. Just as I hit the ironing board to give the last corner a pressing, I noticed that there was a seam in one of the corner pieces showing on the right side. Now, HOW did that happen??? Another little seam ripping session - always nerve-wracking because the seam ripper can and (if possessed at that moment - certainly nothing to do with OPERATOR ERROR) will cut right through the fabric causing an even bigger problem. But the seam ripper was my friend that day and with continued perserverence the block got done.



For a while there, I felt like I was in a Charlie Chaplin/Max Sennet movie - it was getting a little sLaPsTiCkY. So at 11 a.m. the block was in my clear project box ready to go to the Jam Patch to be "flashed" at 1 p.m. Whee-EEW! What a ride. Only three more blocks left, so here's hoping that I'll be cruising smoothly to the end, and not having to install a 5-point seat belt (like they use in NASCAR) to my sewing room chair.

Sheet Set Info

In response to comments/questions: the sheet set referred to in my previous post was from a catalog page sent to me by JLM. She knew I would love to see those "animaux" knitting away! The description is all in French. The designer is Zofia Rostad and the manufacturer is Elve. http://www.french-brand.com/ has a lot of Zofia Rostad bedding, but I didn't find this set :-((( I did a Google search, but haven't seen this set yet. Perhaps someone else will have better luck.
French bedding is not the same size as here in the U.S. - Just an FYI.

UPDATE from JLM - She has been going through old magazines and catalogs and tearing out items of interest. So it's probable that the catalog and picture of the sheet set is quite old. AWWWW - really not fair! Still cute though!

I NEED a Twin Bed

So then I can get this sheet set??? It's too cute! Why would this just be made for kids??? It's not fair! Wouldn't EVERY knitter want to sleep with these industrious animals??? Well, I sure would, and I'd probably even get into bed earlier every night so I could knit a few rows myself with my buddies before heading off to a yarn-filled dreamland.

Hmmmm. . . . Then in the morning, I could knit some more with them while having my coffee.

I'm sure eventually I'd have to leave them to work on their projects during the day, but I'd be back to join them again later.

I just had to share this with some of my knitting friends. I know that secretly we ALL would want these!

BON ANNIVERSAIRE a vous!

Mon amie JLM!!!
I have been waiting and waiting to post these pictures of a SHEEP scarf that I made for my friend who now lives in France until she opened her gifts for her birthday. Well, today's the day, and of course she's 6 hours ahead of me, so she's been celebrating. How do I know? Because in my email this morning was a message from her with the subject line: OMG!!!!! Clearly, she opened this gift - even wrapped in paper with SHEEPS on it.

Besides that I just happen to come on some white alpaca yarn at my LYS to use for the body of the sheep (we LOVE alpaca!!!), I also "found" (meaning I shopped at home) two great sheep buttons to sew on for the eyes. When you stand away, you can't really tell that they are sheep buttons, just that it's eyes are looking sideways.

I love the way this turned out and luckily I have enough of the yarns to knit myself one. I'll have to go hunting for the buttons though or do a little more shopping at home!

JLM said that she would be posting a picture of herself wearing the scarf on her blog, http://ste-foy-bordeaux.blogspot.com/. So check out her posting and wish her a Happy Birthday!

Now. . . The Back Story -

One day last year when I was at my LYS, Sandy, one of the owners, was busy and asked me to help one of the customers with the scarf she was knitting. The woman wasn't sure how to pick up stitches. So I sat down and got her going on it. She was knitting a similar scarf to this SHEEP scarf, only it looked like a Panda Bear. I thought it was pretty cute at the time, but didn't know anyone who was a "Panda Bear person", so no need to start THAT project!

Then several months ago, in Joann's, I came across a small book of scarves, and pictured on the back of the book was the SHEEP scarf and also a Zebra scarf (same shape, just knit with black and white stripes and it also had a yarn mane). Needless to say, the book came home with me and so far, one gift was accomplished.

Could it bee???

the middle of October already?

Last week, I stitched up a little freebie from primitivebettys blog, and personalized the piece so I could give it to a friend's baby girl for Christmas. Then it hit me, FOR CHRISTMAS!!! Oh, no! Christmas is in December and it's now October. Well, at least this one present is done, but I better get to a few more, or at least start my LIST. No more lounging around like the two I live with!


This piece just came together - a small piece of Lakeside linen in Vintage Bittersweet (gorgeous pinky tones) that was sitting around, along with some CC Clay Pot, the freebie pattern, and a pre-made frame with cute little irredescent stars on it in just the right size! I added the crown to the pattern and changed the date in the box to the baby's name.

This freebie along with some great others can be found at:
http://primitivebettys.blogspot.com/
And check out all of her patterns. Love them. Halloweenie and Primitive ones.

Framed, Finishes, and Flubs!

Here is my Blackbird Design's Flock of Birds framed in a favorite Eastside Moldings frame in black with a tan undercoat. Now I just need to find a place to hang it around here.

Two weekends ago I had a pretty productive few days. I finished my Sampler Block of the Month block for September at 12:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, so I could attend the Saturday morning 10:00 a.m. class. I am certainly not alone in this last minute effort. When I got to the quilt shop for our sampler block class, there were several other women who said that they were up until all hours finishing their blocks for the class. Guess some of us work better under pressure! It helps to be using this Bali fabric colorway because the front and back of the Bali fabrics look the same. So at all hours of the night/morning when you can barely see to sew the block together, at least you won't end up with the wrong side of a fabric showing - one potential problem averted!

Then the next day I put the last stitch in my Live Simply. I love this piece - not sure I can LIVE up to the instruction, but hopefully I can aspire to it! It was a quick and easy stitch. The pattern was charted in Valdani thread. I changed all but two of the colors to other hand-dyed threads. It was necessary to finish this piece up because I started stitching another piece and used a length of DARK thread on the new piece, assuming it was WDW Charcoal. Well, it turned out to be the WDW Onyx that I had used on the alphabets in this piece. So, after I had to rip a few stitched words out in the new piece, I went back to this piece and finished it off, stowed the unused threads for Live Simply, and WHA-LA, hopefully no more Charcoal/Onyx confusion!

Well, new patterns are coming in from the cross-stitch market in St. Charles. I loaded up on a bunch of new Halloween patterns. Tomorrow starts the Online Show. It'll be interesting to see how much more new stuff will be out for that. According to the lastest Always In Stitches newsletter, I might be coming out with a new reproduction sampler soon. So, I guess I better get on that right away!!!