Summer Daze

My summer is officially over. I went back to work last week, but I feel like I really rested up. I did a lot of reading, some writing and research, and I finished up some old languishing knitting projects.

These socks are from a great pattern, Roza's Socks, published in the Spring o7 issue of Interweave Knits. I started these socks, honestly, two years ago, but the size zero needles can make for slow progress. I had finished one, and had done a couple of inches of the second one. Then I caught a serious case of the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome.

Somehow, when I decided to finish them, it just took a few days. I don't know why I waited so long. The pattern is well written, and the advantage of the tiny needles is that these socks are very stretchy and fit perfectly. They're knit from Knit Picks Essential Tweed.


I also finished this scarf, which was on the bottom of my sewing basket for about a year and and half. Scarves make for tedious knitting. This one, made from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's (the Yarn Harlot) pattern, One Row Hand Spun Scarf, is easy and looks great, but scarves feel like they will never end! This one is knit from some old (like from the 90s) stash yarn, Unger Escapade, 90% acrylic and 10% mohair. It has a great color gradation. But I'm totally done with this scarf.


I've spent the last couple of weeks as Cat Wrangler extraordinaire. Allie went on a cross-country trip with her boyfriend, and yes, they seem to have survived the ordeal just fine. They flew to Wisconsin, visited Peter's family, and drove back in a car his parents gave him. They arrived back a bit tired and out of money, but otherwise just fine.


In the meantime, I was here to take care of the four cats. They were mostly well behaved, though they really missed being short one lap. Alex has been gone a lot at his new job as a stocker at a local grocery store. ("Too back you're not a Night Stocker," says his friend Tim, "that would be so cool." Get it? Night Stalker.)


So the cats and I kept each other company. We like it when the house is very quiet.

And we're all very happy when it fills up again with noise.

We're all poised to go back to school. Classes start Monday, and Allie begins her last year of community college, and Alex is going to HSU and will live at home for the present. I'm going back to my regular teaching duties, though because of the state budget, all faculty are being furloughed for 9 days each semester: mandatory unpaid leave for us, and canceled classes for students, who are paying higher and higher fees.

I'm glad I had such a peaceful summer. The road ahead looks a bit rocky.

Being a Finisher

I know I'm not the only one who struggles to finish projects. With quilts I often get hung up on the borders, so the quilt goes into the Closet of Doom until I can figure out what to do. The other stopping place is the actual quilting. I do most of my own quilting. On small pieces I can get fancy and free-motion quilt, but on larger pieces I'm satisfied to do simple straight quilting.

Mary Mashuda's recent book Foolproof Machine Quilting offers very useful tips on quilting your own quilts on your regular machine by using your walking foot and some simple freezer paper stencils. I love all of Mary's work, and I plan to use some of her tips on the stack of pin basted quilts I have ready for quilting.

But in the meantime, I did finish "Caprice," a quilt I blogged about here and here.



Here are some close-ups of some of the vintage and contemporary fabrics I used.


Among my favorite fabrics is the aqua calico I used in the borders.


I added a piece of gingham to this lovely bright seersucker for the back.

And I also finished my locker hooking rug.

Knit Parade

I've finished up a few knitting projects in recent weeks. These are all destined to be gifts. One of the many benefits of living on the coast is that I can knit (and wear sweaters) all year, because it never gets hot here. All these patterns are available free on the web, courtesy of generous blogger-designers, and I've included links.

Baktus is a shawlette that is knit from one point to the other. I had two skeins of beautiful sock yarn that I bought last year in Portland. You use half of whatever yarn you're using to kit from one point to the middle, and the other half to knit from the middle to the other point, so that there are no leftovers. I added the snazzy tassels.


Michael has two nieces who have had babies this year, so I knit Stella a Mossy Jacket from Vanna's Choice yarn.


It's a respectable acrylic yarn that comes in great colors. People with new babies don't have time to hand wash sweaters.

Elías will be getting a red Garter Yoke Baby Cardi made from washable wool and acrylic blend yarn.


Baby sweaters are a fun project. They finish up fast and use little bits of yarn. Plus who doesn't love a baby in a hand knit sweater?

Locker Hooking

I've been fascinated with locker hooking since Vicki posted about her project some time ago. It's a craft where you take strips of fabric, "hook" them through a mesh canvas, and then "lock" them down by running a cotton string through the loops. There's not a lot on information on locker hooking on the web, but this site, which sells supplies, including patterns, also has a very useful tutorial that can get you started.


You use up a lot of strips of fabric in this craft. I of course have lots of fabric, and some of it is even already in strips, but instead, I'm using up old cotton curtains, sheets and pillowcases that are worn thin, faded, or even holey. It's easy to cut the 1" strips with a rotary cutter and ruler.


I ordered my canvas and needle from an eBay vendor. It was a big canvas, so I cut it in half for my first rug. I like the way these random colors work together. For my next rug I will probably use the pre-printed grid to do a checkerboard or other similar pattern. A lot of simple quilt patterns could easily be used to make patterns.

Other items one could make with this craft include place mats, table runners, and handbags. I find it relaxing and easy to do. Working a random pattern like this one takes little thought.

I've seen starter kits with a locker hooking needle and canvas bundled with recent books on Amazon. That would be another way to get started. You probably have plenty of fabric strips itching to be rugs too.

Brief Vacation

Last week Michael and I went to San Francisco for a little getaway. We had a great time, and took a lot of photos at the Conservatory of Flowers, a historic structure in Golden Gate Park. Here are a few shots.

You should be able to click on these photos to make them bigger.


On the first day of our trip we saw a wonderful exhibit of work by Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams at SFMOMA, so we were primed to take these nature photos.

We saw a fabulous exhibit of photographic portraits by Richard Avedon that spanned the period of the 60s to the 2000s at the same museum.

While we were filling up our cameras' memory cards, there was a loooong line of people across the road waiting to get into the King Tut exhibit.  We felt very clever for being in the Conservatory instead of in the Tut line.  

I think I enjoyed the architechture almost as much as the beautiful tropical plants and flowers

This leaf picture is for Allie Aller who's incorporating the most interesting leaves into her current CQ project, inspired by a vintage piece.

Here's a virtual corsage for my virtual pals.  May your days be filled with beauty.

Art for Your Kitchen Table

Tablecloths always remind me of my maternal grandmother. She often had beautifully starched printed 40s and 50s tablecloths on her kitchen table. To me her tiny immaculate kitchen was a place of peace and well-being, a place of good food and order, and tablecloths trigger those associations for me.


Now I have my own collection of 40's and 50s tablecloths, and I've decided to make several of my own. Quilted table cloths are art for your kitchen. I don't know about you, but I don't have much wall space in my kitchen, but I have a big green table that is the perfect place for a rotating series of quilted kitchen art.



Bird Quilt (39X39) is made with embroidered pieces from Debra Spincic's Etsy store of beautiful machine embroideries. She has a wide and varied selection of pieces: borders, motifs, word tapes, and other beautifully executed and high quality items. There's a link button to Debra's shop in my sidebar.


These bird blocks remind me of those old state bird transfer embroideries. I have a set of those transfers, but buying these blocks from Debra made the quilt much easier to finish. Embroidered motifs make excellent blocks to alternate with pieced blocks.

I added machine embroidery to the bird blocks with my Janome, but Debra can add borders to these blocks. The word tapes, embroidered on twill tape, are going to be a feature in several quilts that I'm designing right now.

Because this quilt is designed for a table, it has no batting, and is sewn together like a pillowcase and turned--it has no binding.


A cheerfully embellished kitchen table can make your day.

Scrap Management

The question of the month over at Quilt Studio asks members to share their storage strategies. Be sure to check out how some quilters create order from the creative chaos of their studios.

Being of the thrifty/recycling-oriented variety of quilter, a lot of what I use to manage my supplies are repurposed items from thrift stores. I got this vintage wicker picnic basket last week for $2-- it was half off day for teachers and students.

I'm planning to put my tiny scraps in it, though right now it's on top of the wardrobe in my room, because wicker is to cats what bubble wrap is to some people: it makes their paws itch for destruction. Louie especially finds all wicker items to be scratching posts in disguise, and I've got a shredded wicker trunk in my sewing room closet to prove it.

I have been diving into the scrap bins and making some scrapy blocks with no specific project in mind. I find that one organizational strategy is to make blocks when the scrap drawers won't close easily any more. I've got my scraps divided into two drawers: one with strips and one with chunks. From the small strips I'm making up some spiderweb blocks. I've made a spiderweb quilt in the past, and I got the itch to make another one.


These 4.5 inch scrappy log cabins are being stitched together haphazardly from the smallest scraps. I'm trying to use bright colors and some black, but otherwise, it's a free for all.

I like wooden boxes, and I'm using this one to hold my paper piecing foundations



See- through plastic salad containers are great for holding supplies for individual projects.

They have lids and can be stacked.


And I love tins, especially for button storage, and I have them in all sizes and colors. I bought some terrible cookies one year just for these tins. There is something inherently cheerful about them, and each one seems to promise something wonderful's inside.

Easy Shawl

I made this shawl for my sister for her birthday--it's one with a zero in it, but I'm not saying anything else in that regard. The pattern, Clara Parkes' The Secret of the One Skein Shawl is available free on the web.

I knit this shawl from two skeins of Red Heart Soft, which my mother gave me several years ago. It's an acrylic that feels a bit like cotton to me. To permanently block acrylic (so that it retains its drape and shape) I pin the article out to the size and shape I want, and gently press (not iron) it through a wet cloth, . Once it's blocked, acrylic will retain its shape forever, so it can easily be machine washed and dried. Natural fibers have to be re-blocked each time you wash them.

This ease of care, and its ready availability at thrift stores and garage sales, makes acrylic yarn a good choice for some projects. There's also a lot of it already floating around in the world, and if you find the right project for old acrylic, I say knit 'em if you got 'em.

I'm developing a real love for knitting shawls. Simple patterns yield very nice results, and there is something meditative about the repetitive plain stitching. This particular pattern is knit from the top down, and the predictability of the increases is meditative. It's excellent TV/ movie/ reading knitting.

The Doll Palace

I've finished the exterior face lift on the doll house. I ended up painting it the same colors of my real house. This is both because I have leftover paint, and because I love these colors. The doll house will not, however, be a facsimile of my real house. It will have fewer cats and no grown kids living in it.


It has a little side yard that I fenced and re-surfaced. I like having a clothes line, so I added one of those.

Here's how the patio originally looked. Who has a hardwood floor on their patio?

I used self-stick sandpaper squares to make "tiles." The little trellis and the fence were made from craft wood pieces. I'm now the master of wood glue.


It was quite the sight when I attached the shutters.

Masking tape--used here to hold things together until the glue sets--is now one of my favorite tools.

For now the doll house resides behind my chair in the living room. Once I order the new staircase I will start on the interior makeover. This has been fun. I can't wait to finish this remodel so I can rearrange the tiny furniture.