Duvet Cover

The quilt retreat was a fantastic success!  I brought fiber scarves and bags to sew for my projects. I finished both of them on Thursday (day 1) and awe shucks, I had to go buy a project or two to do.   I decided to make  a duvet cover for our king size down comforter.  The comforter is still great but the cover on it has seen better days.  I also want to paint my bedroom and I think this gives me the perfect opportunity to decide on a new color to go with the new cover, which of course means I will need new curtains, and hmmm what about that rug?  This could snowball right out of control.  I will keep it simple and start with the duvet.  I chose a pattern called Fire Escapes.  It called for 8 different fabrics and 1 contrast.  I chose to stay in the blue/purple color combo, (does this surprise anyone????) with a little bit of orange, yellow and green thrown in just for contrast.  I can honestly say I have never been accused of being a beige person!!  I worked on the blocks all day Friday and Saturday started sewing the 16 different strips together.  It was a lot of fun and got a lot of attention at the retreat.  I think that has more to do with my bold color choices then my sewing ability!  The strips look great when they are all together but the are not so straight seams before that point.  I backed it with a piece of blue fleece.  The whole things weighs like 10 pounds! I love it! I put the comforter in it and put it on the bed last night.  It was quite warm, actually too warm for dh but he sleeps half the night without blankets anyway.  Because of the fleece backing it stayed in place and did not slip off the edge of the bed.  I am ready for those cold nights now.  Now back to thinking about the other changes that need to be made in the room.....................

Cut pieces of my 8 different fabrics

This is my sewing space, it looks pretty clean and organized right 

now.  I am just starting the day.

I have all the pieces cut out and ready to start sewing the blocks together that will make up the strips.  I learned early, LABEL, LABEL, LABEL!!!

These are all 16 strips sewed but not joined yet. I had to step on my rolling chair to tape them to the wall. I got yelled by someone every time I climbed up there. I never fell once! Some scary close calls though.

Here is a small section of my completed duvet!

Simple Shell Scarf Class

 I taught a fabulous class the other day.  It was my simple shell scarf pattern.  It is really easy to learn the repeating pattern.  I had two ladies in my class and we had lots of fun making this scarf.I love how they all look so different depending on the type of yarn you use.  We are all doing the exact same stitches but they all look so different.  If you notice the bowl of chocolates on the table, we always get a treat in my class when we complete a new stitch!!

Quilt retreat

This week I am getting ready for a quilt retreat in Beaver Bay MN.  It is sponsored by Quilt Corner quilt store.  Roxanne puts on a wonderful retreat, it starts Thursday and goes till Sunday.    It is held in the community center in Beaver Bay and the quilt store is just down the block so we can go there any time we feel the need to feed our fabric addiction.  Yes I have a rather substantial fabric stash to go along with my yarn stash.  Hey, I could have worse addictions!  Quilting at a retreat with 35 other women is wonderful for so many reasons.  You can set up your machine and leave it set up for several days, work on what you want ,when you want,  you get inspiration from others by just sharing the experience.  I also love that you can see what everyone else is working on, sometimes I look at fabric and say " I don't think I would ever use those colors!"  Then I see someone who has put it all together and it looks fantastic.  I love darling hubby and boy child but it is also nice to get away from them for a couple of days.  I do not doubt they quite enjoy a little break from me as well.  In my mind boy child is sad and lonely, hugging my robe because it smells like mommy, and darling husband is just pining away counting down the hours till his beloved returns. I know the reality, boy child is thrilled to have the house to himself to watch TV,  and play Xbox whenever he wants cuz darling husband will probably go out for a beer with the guys. ( I told them last night what I said they were doing while I was gone and they both laughed at me.) I don't think that was very nice, they could have let me keep the fantasy.
We eat like kings at the retreat! We have a wonderful group of ladies who cook two meals a day for us and they are superb!!  We also have a table of goodies that we can snack from anytime we feel a bit of a sugar low.            
I plan to make some knitting projects bags that we will carry at Yarn Harbor and some fiber scrap scarves.  I will tell you more about the scarves next week after I have a finished product to show.  I am off to the great north shore to go quilting in the woods.

Yarn bombing in Duluth!

Duluth News Tribune Article  The Duluth News Tribune did an article on our yarn bombing project. Go to the link I have provided to read all about it.  I am very excited to get it out in the public and make people aware of fiber artists!  BTW that big brightly colored flower that they feature in the photo is mine.  TEE HEE.

Fiber Graffiti at Yarn Harbor

Fiber Graffiti, Yarn Bombing, Guerrilla Crochet, what ever you want to call it, IT HAS BEGUN!!  We started out instillation of the fiber art at Yarn Harbor this past weekend.  It was a cold and very windy weekend but we made sure the posts to the fence are quite warm and brightly colored.  I have just heard from the news paper, they want to do a story about it.  That is great news!!  I explained, as we head into the dark and dreary days of winter, we are bringing some color to the world around us.  Someone asked me why?  my answer was "Does art need a why?" Here are photos of what we have accomplished so far.  more to come.....

OK, people I have some really exciting news to share with you.  I DID IT! I DID IT! I DID IT!  (yes I know that is the equivalent of shouting) Are you ready for this?

 I completed a PAIR of socks. 

          Yes I actually said "PAIR"!!  Now to most people that does not seem like a major accomplishment to go shouting about, but for myself it is.  To date I have 6 single socks completed or near completion so finishing a second one is huge.  If you do not know about my Single Sock Syndrome please refer to blog post Monday Aug 29. Sock!! (I even linked it for you.)      
        Monday I started a pair of socks with my class, which is going quite well.  I worked on them the last 3 nights and I finished them!  I decided to try to do them two at a time.  In crochet it is a little different then in knitting.  In knitting you have both on the needles at the same time and work them simultaneously, in crochet you only have one live stitch at a time, working from the inside and outside of the ball of yarn and I worked each section at a time. I did the cuffs of one put it on a holder then did the cuff of the second, then moved back to the first one for the next section until they were complete.  I think it went pretty well. The yarn got a little wound up but nothing too terrible.  If you notice, I even almost matched the stripes.  OK, so those of you that know about self striping yarn know I did nothing to make it happen, it is just the magic of the yarn, but it certainly looks really impressive! You could have knocked DH over with a feather when I showed him both of them.  His first words were "I know what tomorrows blog post will be about!"  YEP, he was right.
For those of you interested in knowing the pattern I used was out of Karen Whooley's book, I can't believe I am crocheting socks, published by Leisure Arts.  It is the basic cuff down sock.

New New New!

Wow this is a week of new for me!! New Computer, New patterns, New truck.
I am in the process of writing and test crocheting three different patterns right now.  Some days that gets a little confusing.  I will mix up which size hook I am using and start on one of them and my gauge seems way off.  I thought maybe I had a glass of wine I forgot about but then I realized oops I am using a size J hook on my size G project again. Damn maybe I should have had that glass of wine.  I can't tell you much about them but one is an article of clothing that does not have sleeves (hint hint), another is a set that can be worn in this blustery weather we are getting today. Oh yeah, did I mention they use different hook sizes?? Now why do I go do things like that to myself?  If I could learn to get a gauge in one hook size only it would really make my life easier and my bag a lot lighter.  Just a bit of news to share, I received my first check today from the design I sold.  I can now "Officially" say I have sold a design!!  It is not published yet so I cannot tell you anymore, but some day soon!
I had to get a new truck this week.  My old one was to the point of falling apart as I drove it down the road.  I lost the exhaust pipe a few weeks ago, now I really am not kidding about this, it was so loud that when I drove into the parking ramp at work I would set off the same car alarm every day. The boy child did not want to ride into the ramp with me, he asked to be dropped off in the street.  The new one is great, it is an older Nissan Pathfinder.  The really great thing is that it has a remote starter and heated seats!!! What more can I ask for on a cold winter day?? Warm feet and tushey!!  It has some rust around the wheel wells and along the doors, Who among us doesn't?  I was thinking about crocheting a little skirt to cover those areas. Hmm, I will have to put some more thought into that one.  Any thought how I could get it to stay??  Gorilla Glue? Hot Glue? Craft Glue? This week I am planning on Yarn Bombing the fence at Yarn Harbor, why not my vehicle?  OK, Blog readers leave me a comment, any thought how I should best yarn bomb my new truck?  I am open to any and all suggestions.  I have to make sure that the pieces are secure enough to not come off while driving, I do not want to get a littering fine!!

How do you think they did this?

New Computer Day!

I had to get a new computer last week.  My old laptop had no working USB ports and it would just decide to lock up and not respond when ever it felt like it.  I was beginning to think it might have become a teenager.  It is not that old but maybe computers lives are like dog years for every actual one they age 7 years. Hmm, something to ponder.  So I went with DH who just so happen to be going to school in computery stuff and he told me which one to buy.  The sales boy, and yes I think I have jeans older then he was, asked if I wanted the extended geek squad stuff and I said "No, I have my own." (pointing to DH).
  I have now had the pleasure of transferring all the files and stuff from the old one to the new one.  That does not seem like a chore to some people but without working USB ports you have to put it on a disk and move it,  not fun.  It did however make me clean out some of those files that you don't realize are still hanging around.  I found a great wealth of knowledge about the Ancient Pharaohs and the Egyptian tombs, (The boy child had to do a report on them on 11th grade) If you are asking yourself, didn't he graduate a year ago? You are correct.  So why is that stuff on my computer? Well once you move on it does not clear itself out, apparently.  I guess at some point I had tried to move a block of photos and it copied them, 7 times.  OOPS.  I found all kinds of little nuggets like that.  By the time I was done house cleaning things were so streamlined it was sailing right along.  Hmmmm Makes me wonder, if I had cleaned all this junk out before, would I still have needed a new computer?  Oh well it is a business expense, that makes it worth it.  I with I could do other house cleaning as efficiently, just move everything to the little garbage can icon and hit delete, it all goes away and I don't have to think about it again.  Why can't doing dishes, sweeping, laundry, sorting stash yarn all be just as easy.  I might actually do some of it more often if it were.  I should talk to DH about computerizing those things.  Oh well I guess it is time to get back to work, now I have to start creating new files on the new machine.  Did I mention I got a new mouse tooo?  It is purple!!

Fall Colors!!!

Today I wanted to share some of the incredible photos that have been taken in the last week of the Duluth and surrounding areas.  Some of them are from here in town and a few are from up along the North Shore.  I know the fall colors are breath taking all over the US but I want to share some of ours.  I heard it is the most spectacular viewing this year because of the wet spring, hot summer, warm days and cold nights we experienced.  Today it is 70 degrees but we are supposed to have several days of heavy winds so the leaves will soon be on the ground and in the immortal word of Mr. Dillon, "Blowin' in the wind"!  Enjoy!

Sock class!

My attempt to kick (bad pun intended) Single Sock Syndrome has not gone well, I set out to make the second sock to one of the many I have been working on.  I think fate has a very nasty sense of humor.  I got all the way to the middle of the foot and found I am running out of yarn. We do not have any of that colorway left in the store.  Now I have to put it on hold till we get more in, who knows how many more I will have started by then!  I started teaching a sock class yesterday. My DH really thinks it is hysterically funny that I am teaching crochet socks and I have yet to actually finish a pair.  When you are teaching you only need to make one for samples, so see, it is not as silly as it sounds.  Maybe this will motivate me to get them all done???? I can hope, If I were you I would not hold my breath.  I can pretty much guarantee it will not end well, you will be turn blue and I will still be hopping around in one sock.