"Live in the sunshine,
swim in the sea,
drink the wild air..."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Simple shopping bag made by me,
quilt in progress by my mom!)

Revised and Finished!

This quilt has been hanging on the wall of my sewing room since May 2007 - waiting for quilting inspiration. With the help of a friend, I decided that it needed some sashing, so I took the blocks apart and sewed them back together with the yellow in between while I was in Maine two weeks ago. I did the free-motion quilting on my mom's new Bernina! As soon as it gets a label and a wash, it will be on its way to Hong Kong for the little sister of the recipient of this quilt!

A Few More Places

Shaky Handwriting

I've decided against adding any words or letters to the top from yesterday. I'd like to use a dark purple binding to frame it, but I don't have enough fabric left, so I might let the project marinate for a little while before finishing it up.

Looking around at the Liberated Amish Get Together site, I was inspired to get back to a project I started in another one of Tonya's online events back in September 2007! I'm making a quilt for myself (for once) with place names of all the places I've lived. It's a long list! After finishing up all the short ones, I'm trying to move onto the 10+ letter places without making them so large that they dwarf the others. My 'handwriting' was a little shaky with the first one after such a long break, but I'm quite satisfied with the next one. As always, thanks to Tonya for her tutorial!

Inspired!

I was so inspired by Clare's quilt for Tonya's Liberated Amish Get Together that although I didn't join in back in January, I woke up this morning and got this top (it's 36"x54") finished in one day! It was quite a marathon, but I just love the result! Thanks for the inspiration Clare and Tonya!

I'm Still Here!

I've been helping a friend learn to quilt recently, and it's meant that my machine has been busy, but I've been using the time to finish up a bunch of almost finished knitting projects. Here's one long-lingering quilty finish, as well. I started this quilt back in August and just did a simple loopy thing for the quilting. I'm still not sure which side is the front!

Eine Kleine Gestrickte Zwischenmusik

Just a little knitting interlude...

While helping a friend learn to quilt last weekend, I was able to finish up a few knitting projects that had been lingering in their last stages of completion. Two pairs of mittens started in 2oo8, plus one started this year.

The brown ones based on the Quo Vadis pattern and made with Patons Classic Wool; the white ones are Lovikkas made with Järbo yarn (free pattern på svenska on their site); and the grey ones are improvised using Patons Shetland Chunky (not enough wool content, in my opinion, but loved the yellow flecks).

Finishing is fun - I should do it more often! I haven't set any kind of resolution, but I would like to get both my knitting and quilting UFOs under control this year.