Category Archives: Hand Crafts

Things to Come

I had a very productive weekend at my sewing group’s annual retreat! This is a tiny sneak peek of what I’ll be sharing on tomorrow’s Talk To Me Tuesday!

Today, it’s back to real life and back to work!

Reminders:

In honor of my participation in the STITCHED Tutorial Blog Hop, get 15% off your TOTAL PURCHASE from the Sewhooked Shop during the month of March with coupon code MARCH15. Not valid on etsy or craftsy. ENDS MARCH 31.

Paper Pieced Pattern-A-Day Garden Party Blog Hop

The Paper Pieced Pattern-A-Day blog hop is coming April 1, 2012! We have a full compliment of designers ready to share awesome Garden Party-themed FREE paper pieced patterns with you!

Add your Sewhooked-related photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post!

Photobucket

Register Now for STITCHED!

Shop Sewhooked and help keep the free pattern page free!

Retreat Glee!

4 Replies

As I write this, it’s Wednesday night and I’m all packed and ready to leave tomorrow morning for my bee’s annual quilt retreat!

Woo-hoo!

And just for fun, a photo of my empty spools from the last year…ready to donate to a pre-school teacher that uses them in her classroom. I anticipate adding a couple more to the pile during the next four days!

See you Monday!

Photobucket

Register Now for STITCHED!

Shop Sewhooked and help keep the free pattern page free!

Bobbin Storage

6 Replies

Just a quicky for Friday!

In the Great Clean-Up of 2012, one of my goals for my sewing space is to keep my sewing table clear. The last thing leave the table top were my bobbins.

They were already tamed by using soft hair bands to keep them wound, the next thing was storage.

I wanted easy access and the ability to sort the bobbins.

One recycled egg carton later, and I’m all set!

Reminders:

In honor of my participation in the STITCHED Tutorial Blog Hop, get 15% off your TOTAL PURCHASE from the Sewhooked Shop during the month of March with coupon code MARCH15. Not valid on etsy or craftsy.

The Paper Pieced Pattern-A-Day blog hop is coming April 1, 2012! We have a full compliment of designers ready to share awesome Garden Party-themed FREE paper pieced patterns with you!

Don’t forget to comment for a chance to win a fat quarter of the owl fabric used in this tutorial!

Add your Sewhooked-related photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post!

Photobucket

Register Now for STITCHED!

Shop Sewhooked and help keep the free pattern page free!

Lost in Stash

Leave a reply

Carpool Dishcloth

My yarn stash, which is a drop of water compared the the ocean that is my fabric stash, has been neglected for quite some time. I crochet most evenings, making blankets for The Linus Connection. I usually dig out the yarn I need and leave the rest.

Unfortunately, my poor yarn stash had been neglected so long, that I “lost” two small projects in there.

Oops!

I rectified this situation last night by sitting and sorting all of my yarn, rewinding messy skeins and bagging yarn by intended project.

There was one mostly completed dishcloth, using my Carpool Dishcloth pattern. After sorting the yarn, I sat and crocheted for five minutes and finished it up.

FIVE.

Really? I wonder why I left it unfinished in the first place…

Turn Around Granny

The second project I found was a small stack of variegated and brown granny squares, made using my favorite technique, that I call Turn Around Granny. I turn my granny squares after each row, which keeps them from tilting. It also removes one of my least favorite parts of traditional granny squares: they have a front and a back.

These have been sorted out with more brown and variegated yarn and I will endeavor to make these my next Linus Connection afghan.

Free Yarn Patterns

Now, back to enjoying my family!

Photobucket

Workshops are open!

Register Now!

Love For Lily, A Thank You

9 Replies

Two weeks ago, I told you about Lily, the kitten my sister and her husband adopted after finding her abandoned near my parents’ home out in the country.

This is her story, and our thank you.

We now have all the money we need to pay for Lily’s medical expenses. We might even have a little left over to donate to our local Humane Society.

We quite literally can’t thank you enough.

Click here to learn more about Lily’s story.

Here’s a little something I made for Lily. I was lucky enough to act as her post-surgery kitten sitter this week while my sister and brother-in-law were at work. She was a joy to be with every day and I will miss my mid-day kitten break!

Don’t miss my Blog Hop Party Giveaway! I have a free pattern and a fun giveaway, too!

Photobucket

Join me for my workshop:

Registration is open!

Homes For The Holidays

8 Replies

It’s raining in Austin.

Beautiful, wonderful, life-giving rain. After a year of drought, it’s a magical sound.

Rain is not, however, conducive to taking quilt photos. I love photographing my quilts outside. This so-so photo was taken in-between showers. It’ll have to do for now because I will trade good photos for rain any day!

“Homes for the Holidays” started as a pile of cottage blocks from a 2009 swap on the now defunct All About Paper Piecing (the site is still there, but deactivated). I free-hand designed the paper pieced trees and just kept adding until the quilt top was a nice lap size!

This project made my UFO to do list for two years running: 2010 and 2011. It’s good to move it to the “completed” list!

Blocks made by me for the Christmas Cottage Swap on All About Paper Piecing, 2009.

Pattern by Tina Reed.

Quilting Detail: Custom Quilting by Rock Creek Quilts

My family always holds off on decorating for Christmas until after my son’s birthday on December 2. We had a house full of boys last night and this morning the celebration is officially over.

We’ll be decorating tonight after I spend my afternoon at Honey Bee Quilt Store for Open House for January – May classes and then “Homes for the Holidays” will officially be in circulation!

Happy Sunday!

Add your Sewhooked-related photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post.

Photobucket

Registration is open!

Making The Best of It

4 Replies

Oh my, have I ever been sick the last couple of days!

A stuffy nose crept up on me Thursday evening and by Friday morning, I was a sick mess. Stuffy nose, fever, aches and pains.

How fun!

In an effort to not spend my long weekend as a complete lump, I pulled out a hand quilting project I started ages ago. I had to go all the way back to my 2010 UFO list to find where I first started talking about this quilt.

Really? 2010? Come on Jennifer, get a move on!

This is my granmother’s signature quilt, before quilting and before I added the border.

This quilt inspired the Extra Credit block for the Project of Doom.

You may remember that I’ve worked on other quilt tops that came from Grannie’s house after she passed away.

Grannie’s Trunk Quilt

Grannie’s 9-Patch

I did, apparently, at least get the borders on Grannie’s Signature Quilt and start quilting in 2010, as evidenced by my 2010 UFO Round-up.

I’m keeping the quilting super simple. Grannie was not fancy and everything she did or made was practical and frugal, and I’d like the quilting to reflect that. I’m planning to bind the quilt in muslin.

It sure would be nice if this quilt did not make it to my 2012 UFO list!

Back to my tissues…and my hand quilting.

Photobucket

A Little Focus

Leave a reply

My 8th grader is flying home from Seattle right now, on a plane full of middle school honors band kids, directors and (I’m sure) exhausted chaperones after a very successful concert at the Western International Band Clinic (scroll down to see Deerpark Middle School Honors Band).

Knowing he’s headed home after not seeing him for almost five days is making it a wee bit hard for me to focus on anything for more than a few minutes.

That’s a good time for crochet. I can let my hands work the yarn while my mind jumps around in excitement at seeing my kiddo!

Today, I’m working on the Box Stitch Carriage Robe pattern, which is really just fancy talk for a baby blanket! This pattern is an old favorite for children’s blanket charities, originally shared by a Project Linus volunteer.

Mine blanket will go to The Linus Connection, as usual!

While Project Linus and The Linus Connection are not the same organization, we do have the same mission, to provide blankets to children in crisis and all of our patterns can be used interchangeably.

Add your Sewhooked-related photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post.

Photobucket

TTMT #136 – Mood Lighting

2 Replies

In which I discuss general craftiness, updating my living room, Fandom In Stitches (we have a FB group for TABABOM!), The Linus Connection, specifically Stars For Linus, and making baby goodies!

Baby Sweater pattern by Beth Koskie
Rib Look Baby Hat pattern by Kathy North
Very Easy Newborn Booties pattern by Beverly A. Qualheim

Add your Sewhooked-related photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post.

Photobucket

Progress Sweet Progress

Leave a reply

I’ve been working on many decidedly un-crafty things as I gear up for my participation in STITCHED. It’s a very exciting time for me as I’m getting my workshop polished and ready for the site’s unveiling.

In the meantime, I have been doing a tiny bit of handwork while I wait for my kids at various and sundry places. I told you in this post about the linen sampler I’m working on .