Yarn Along ~ Lichen Kerchief

A post of my current read and what is cast on my needles ~ Inspired by Ginny over at {Small Things}

I've been pretty busy at my sewing machine the last couple of weeks so I'm so happy I finally have some more knitting to show you all after missing last week's yarn along :)

This pretty mauve cotton/linen blend yarn by Linsey has been in my stash but I hadn't used yet because it's more coarse and stiff than what I would usually knit with but I just love the color and while I was having a peak at what all my ravelry friends had hearted in the last little while I came across the Lichen Kerchief pattern that is perfect for my little girl :) You've got to LOVE ravelry!

I apologize for the dark photo of my knitting but I've been spending the last couple evenings knitting by the fire keeping nice and warm :) I just love to listen to it snap and crackle and its warmth is so welcome now that we have been freezing off and on outside at night. The kerchief has a neat little pattern of v-shapes interspersed throughout it using a simple twisted stitch and I think I'll probably get it finished up tonight and get the buttons on it sometime in the next couple of days so she can start using it. I'm in between books this week so no photo to share but I have a couple good ones, The China Study & Hunger Games, requested through the library so I hope they arrive soon :)

I can't wait to see how this kerchief fits and what you all have been knitting this week!

Hugs,
Rosina

Painting & Knitting

Underneath the tablecloth on my kitchen table is a permanent patch of butcher's paper securely taped down. Why you might ask? So that when the painting bug strikes my children which is quite often this mama can just whip off the cloth and and let them go wild without worrying about how I'm going to fix water marks and paint stains *grin*.

I seriously love this stuff! And it's pretty much indestructible :) If you have never used it there is one side made of brown craft paper which makes great wrapping paper that you can stamp and draw on and on the other side it has a water proof waxy coating that you can spill on, paint on, get marker all over and wash it all up with soap and water when you're finished :)

Today they were painting the backgrounds for a fun fall tree picture that will have them blowing paint through a straw tomorrow to make free form tree trunks and then we'll add colorful leaves using our pencil eraser ends. I just hope we can keep the paint from blowing out of the straws and onto the walls! Maybe we should to some practice breathing through the straws before I actually hand over the paint LOL.

While they happily painted away I pulled out my yarn swift and a couple of skeins of a pretty mauve colored cotton/linen blend of yarn that I've had put away for a rainy day :)

I think I've found the perfect project for it but you'll have to wait until tomorrow's yarn along post to learn more about it *grin*. Gotta love ravelry and free patterns!

Hugs,
Rosina

Gnome Snack Mats

I love crafting with felt!

The creative possibilities are endless when you get going with it *grin*. In the winter edition of Rhythm of the Home is an article on making snack mats and I just fell in love with the idea of a special little mat for each child to enjoy a snack on :) So out came my giant stash of felt and linen fabrics and I set to work cutting out little Tomten.

Applique is sort of like a jigsaw puzzle as your fit your pieces together, overlapping edges, stitching them together...

and watching the images appear :)

The original pattern called for a 7 x 9 inch square of linen but I decided to make it slightly larger at 8 x 10 inches because my tree and gnomes were a little bit larger than I had anticipated *grin*. Another thing that I did differently was that I stitched all of my felt pieces onto one single layer of linen so that all of my stitch work on the backside would be nicely hidden inside the layers of the mat and not visible on the backside of my finished mat like in the pattern. I just thought it looked tidier that way if someone happened to flip it over to check it out as all of the little stitched pieces made for quite a jumble :)

I just love how they turned out!
So far I have just finished these two but I have one more boy gnome cut out and ready to be sewn and then I will have one for each of the children. I just know they are going to go crazy over them :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Looking for more crafty ideas or inspiration? Pop over to Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday and see what others are up to :)

Sewing... Sort of

Hubby came home last night just in time for another day of being without power *grin*. I think he was seriously thinking he should have stayed on the boat where he had lights, tv, and a fully functional kitchen LOL. Hopefully this isn't going to be the winter norm of storms and darkness!

I had hoped to get more done on my holiday table runner this morning while Daddy and the kids played but I only made it half way through the blocks before everything shut down. I was chuckling to myself as I was sewing because I'm sure a serious quilter might cringe at how I was sewing my corner blocks on :) This time instead of marking a line down the center of each one I just pinched them making a crease to follow and I actually haven't pinned anything together since starting... I just love to break the rules *grin*.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get a chance to actually finish them.
For now I'm just enjoying being able to check my email and fill some pots full of water for tomorrow morning just in case we wake up in the perma dark again *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Piecing Pinwheels

I'm getting closer to finishing my holiday table runner and I'm loving all of the red :) The pinwheel blocks have gone together quite well although I did have to put my seam ripper to good use and pull a couple of them apart to adjust the centers so that the points aligned better :)

I decided to modify my pattern just a little though after running across this really cute peppermint twist table runner :) So I just finished cutting 48 little squares in a tan linen to place on the corners of my pinwheel blocks to round them up. I know what I'll be working on tomorrow *grin*.

Happy sunday!

Hugs,
Rosina

Pretty Potholders

Look at the gorgeous potholders that arrived in my mailbox yesterday :) My lovely swap partner ended up being from right here in Canada and I just LOVE what she created for me. The cute little quilted christmas tree is actually made with same fabrics that I used for my partners potholders! Great minds must think alike *grin*.

I adore the stitching on this potholder, the way it created hills and valleys around the little squares of fabric... so crazy creative!! It actually reminds me of a game of pac man *grin*. They are perfect for my kitchen as it is red and the polka dot binding is just fantastic :) I don't think that I can bear to use them though in fear of staining them so I think that I'm going to use them on my coffee table for resting a candle jar on. That way I can enjoy them all throughout the holiday season and they won't get any pot roast or pie stains on them *grin*.

Along with the potholders came this super cute little felt christmas tree decoration to. Again more stitching so lovingly placed all over it. It will be a perfect addition to the handmade ornaments that the children and I have made for the tree :)

Thank you so much Val!!!
Hugs,
Rsoina

Holiday Package Ready To Ship

Ta-Dah!

All finished :) My little holiday ornament turned out even better than I could have hoped and I'm seriously going to have to make one for myself now *grin*.

Here is everything that I'm sending to my secret swap partner for the holiday edition of the potholder pass. Both of the potholders have the appliqued bird design on the front and the candy cane striping for the backing. I wasn't sure how I was going to add the potholder hooks but I decided on using red rik rak and embellished them with a tiny red heart and to accompany the potholders is my little stumpwork ornament.

I sure hope my partner will enjoy it as much as I did making it for her :) The whole package is all wrapped up and ready to be dropped off at the post office tomorrow morning and I can't wait to see what I get *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Stitching Away

The potholders are coming along nicely :)
I decided to leave the more christmasy fabrics on the bottom and mounted them all onto the white linen background adding a red border with little linen squares in the four corners. I think it compliments the little birdies perfectly!

This may be the fastest that I have ever completed a swap. No I'm not done yet... darn close though *grin*. Both of the potholder tops are stitched and quilted to the heat resistant batting and all that needs to be finished tomorrow is to add the binding and whip up my ornament :)

I can't wait to see what my partner makes for me!
My mom was teasing me about putting so much work into a gift for a complete stranger but you know I have received some of the nicest things from ladies all across the globe that I have only met through emails :) It's like Christmas all year round to have little surprise packages of homemade goodness arrive!

Hugs,
Rosina

100 Block Grid

Wow! 100 blocks. I decided to go ahead and create the entire grid of 100 blocks for the stitch along after all *grin*. Talk about indecisive!

Thank goodness I've got a nice long quilting ruler. It made creating the grid much easier as I could line up 6 inches at a time of the one inch intervals consecutively across the ruler using the markings and keep watch to make sure I wasn't getting off track and crooked with each new row :)

Even with all of the checking and re-checking it is slightly out but not noticeable and I made one little boo boo and drew a line to long but I'll just have to cover it up with some creative embellishment *grin*. Tomorrow I'll tackle stitching up the grid and covering the pencil lines!

Happy stitching,
Rosina

Hexagons on the Hoop

Thought that I would share how I'm doing with my little hexagon quilt :)
I had originally intended to give it to my daughter for Easter but with all of the bunny goodness that I ended up making for her I thought that I would hang on to the quilt and give it at a later date so that her brothers didn't think she was getting spoiled *wink*.

I found the most vivid fuschia colored linen to finish it with. I just LOVE the color and I'm absolutely smitten with linen right now so I just had to buy it *grin*.

I pinned the hexagons to the linen with some quilting safety pins I had to keep it as smooth as possible so that it wouldn't bunch underneath as I shift the larger piece of linen around and now I've got it on my hoop so that I can start to quilt inside the hexagons :) I've decided that I'm going to do a little bit of free hand embroidery inside the green linen hexagons and put 'love mama' and the year and so on for her to. I can't wait to get a little more time to work on it, it's going to be so cute!!

~ Rosina