Allietare! Week 1

Just a quick update on my Allietare! progress...

All done & ready for clue 2!

Mistakes Along the Way!

 Buongiorno, Amici!

I made my half-square triangles by cutting 2 1/2" strips for my grey and neutral fabrics.  This is where I made my first mistake...

I forgot to divide by 2.  Yes, I cut 20 grey strips down to 600+ 2 1/2" squares.  I like to have some room to just toss something aside if it doesn't work, but this is a bit much!

My second mistake I found this morning as I was sewing the second seam for my HSTs.

This looks innocent enough, don't you think?

But, NO! There are three layers to this one!  Okay, I won't beat myself up over this as it was the only one that grabbed a buddy along the way.

This morning I realized that this project may wreak havoc with my lovely, type A personality.

I couldn't walk away form pressing all of these open.  

I was sorting them into groups and knew that there should be 10 to a group (except for that little guy that's on the buddy system.)

I'm using Grandma Edie's iron...it's heavy...my arm got tired, but could I walk away?

Nope, not me!

Now they are all pressed and I can drop back to working with smaller groups.
I can trim them down in groups of ten.
One thing I haven't decided for sure is whether to keep the stars in the mix.  I kind of like the softer look of the other fabrics and might just add a few more of my favorites.

You can join in the fun by visiting Bonnie at Quiltville's Quips & Snips and look for the Allietare Mystery! tab!

And that's where I'm at today!

Buongiorno Amici!

Well, here are the details from yesterday...

First of all, I completed another 19 blocks for Baby Girl's quilt.

On to Allietare!

My constant fabric is an older piece that I absolutely love...it's "Barely There" by Jinny Byer (for RJR Fabrics). 

I cut 20 2.5" strips. Yes. Twenty. That's twice as many as I needed. 

I don't Math well. 

I sorted through my 2" box and pulled my neutrals. Then I cut a single strip from the fat quarters I had. (I purchased 5 neutral FQs specifically for this project.)

After cutting all of those squares, I cleaned my machine. I'm using my Bernina Artista 200,

#57 foot (1/4" piecing),

Schmetz 90/14 quilting needle,

Aurifil 50/2 #2610 (a light blue/grey).

I also wound three bobbins to get me started. 

Machine settings:

Stitch #1

Stitch length 2.5

Tension 4.0.

Whew! Glad to get those boring details out of the way!

Today is another family dinner. I'm taking the neutral squares with me so that I can get them marked. 

Here's my plan for the week:

Today: mark the diagonal

Sunday: stitch double lines

Monday: cut & press

Tuesday: trim

Wednesday & Thursday: catch up

Friday: CLUE 2!

Cuciture felice!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We are celebrating with Mom & Dad today. Our contribution is turkey,

Isn't that purdy?!

green bean casserole, dinner rolls, pepperoni rolls, apple, cherry & pumpkin pies and peanut butter candy. 

Rule number 1: NEVER scrape the pan clean...this is my payment for slaving over a hot stove!

Now we wait for everyone to show up with the rest of the food!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Buongiorno, Allietare!

*Because I don't have internet at home and I blog from my phone (and because I probably just haven't learned how) I won't always have clickable links. My apologies to Bonnie Hunter.*

It's time!

The mystery starts today!

I cleaned up the kitchen just enough to make coffee and clear my cutting area. 

Who cares about a dirty kitchen when there's stitchin' (or in this case, cutting) to be done?!

Thing 1 and Thing 2 have been warned. 

"There will be NO EATING at the kitchen table until all of my strips are cut!"

But, that's okay, since they are "camping". 

(Sometimes I just don't know if I'm encouraging creativity or messiness.)

Oh, look!

Baby Girl & Princess are up and I just claimed the table...

Princess has given me her opinion on that...

Who's in charge around here?!

A few quick picks from yesterday:

My niece and her birthday cowl.

The two biggest blessings we have to be thankful for this year.

And a perfectly beautiful turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. (Thanks to my amazing husband & the firefighter's who cook amazing things!)

Cuciture felice!

Check out google translate! I'm learning Italian as we go through this mystery!

Just Another Tuesday...NOT

Mom is finally back home!

She spent the last two weeks recovering from hip surgery. 

Here's a word for you...

Osteo-necrosis. 

It hasn't been fun. 

It hasn't been easy. 

But, she is home & I can settle in at my house and take care of some holiday planning, knitting, quilting, decorating, etc. 

Tonight it's me & the boys watching Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving special. 

And working on my Mystery 220 November project. 

Dinner was easy...

...and delicious. 

Hope you have a good one!

Making a Plan

I've started my lists of kids, nieces & nephews, siblings & partners and moms & dads. 

It just kind of lets me know how far behind I am before I even get started!

Today the plan was to cut Baby Girl's quilt but she only has lab today and will be home early. 

So, new plan...

1. Start making kids socks

2. Finish strips for Jack-o-lantern's birthday quilt

3. Start another cowl/scarf

That should be enough for today. 

Time to get busy!

Busy Birthday Weekend

Saturday was Darren's birthday. I had his socks all but bound off. I did manage to finish them before going out to dinner. 

I think he likes them. He told me as he was taking them off "They're comfy and feel springy on my feet."

After dinner, we went to see my beautiful niece at her acting debut as the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. She was amazing and I am just so proud of her!

I cast on this November KAL from Ravelry yesterday. Thankfully, they were only to the second clue and I am caught up. I hope I get it finished and can possibly add it to the Christmas gift pile. 

Now, I'm going to try and find a quick bulky knit pattern for the next birthday. 

Look out Ravelry...here I come!

Always a Day Late

Yesterday was WIP Wednesday. 

And I missed it. 

Again. 

Well, here I am. Late, but making progress on the Trail Ride socks for Darren's birthday. I have 24 hours to secretly work on them and get them finished. 

He will be home all day tomorrow and will probably see me scrambling to finish them for Saturday. 

So, I'm off to have my coffee & work some magic!

They are Heeled!

I am finally past the heels.

It should be easy sailing from here on out. 

Maybe I will get these finished for his birthday. 

Knit on!

Allietare Quilt 2015

I've always wanted to do one of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilts!

This year it's called "Allietare".  The photos she posted from her trip are gorgeous and the colors she has chosen are right up my alley!

Darren picked up the paint chips at Lowe's today while he was there...

I'm sew excited!

I have plenty of the reds and neutrals.

I also have an excellent start on the golds, a decent start on the blacks, and a possibility for the constant grey. 

I won't need to buy much and might even get a local swap going!

You can visit #Bonnie's Quiltville Blog for all the details as we sew along. 

(I'll get that link going when I can get on the computer!)

(De-con)Structo Loom

Finally got a bug to get this loom cleaned up. 

It's a Structo tabletop loom. 

I have independent legs for it as well. It has a number imprinted in the wood of the castle:

It appears to be the same "font" as the metal treadle plate. 

It has been bathed in Murphy's Oil Soap and I'm getting ready to oil all of the various metal parts & pieces. 

My biggest concern at this point is cleaning the reed and the heddles. I have wiped the reed with some naval jelly and I'm thinking about removing all of the rusty heddles and just keeping the clean ones until I can order more. 

I would love to hear your suggestions!

Didn't I blog that?!

I thought I had blogged R's birthday playmat. But, now I can't find it. So, if you've heard this story before, feel free to skip ahead. 

My nephew's birthday was in August and I threw together a Minecraft Sword playmat. Thing 1 & Thing 2 helped to get the colors sorted and this is what we ended up with...

My trip to Eleanor's on Friday was to gather some greens for another sword playmat for my nephew J. His birthday is in early December. 

I also wanted to get some coordinates to the Vintage Modern charm pack for Baby Girl's quilt...

What I didn't plan on was buying the entire line of Minion fabrics!

I'm not sure what's going to happen with this, but who can pass up Minions?!

I also grabbed a couple of stash builders. I lucked out on the light neutral. It had a repeating spot and I was given 2 "damaged" yards in addition to my requested 1 yard. Can't do much better than that!

All in all, a very successful trip to Eleanor's!

Happy Fall!

There are a few things about fall that make me smile:

And the colors this morning:

It also looks like a trip to Eleanor's Quilt shop is happening today. 

Accomplishments & a Do-Over

I am not a morning person. 

But, if I'm going to survive the upcoming winter, I'm thinking a routine might be good. So, I started today. 

Before noon:

1. Washed dishes & straightened up the kitchen

2. Folded a load of towels

3. Washed a load of jeans

4. Balanced the checkbook

5. Finished most of the Twins' schoolwork

6. Took the Princess to school and The Boy to work

After noon:

1. Threw a fit due to the washer not spinning out

2. Threw another fit because of ladybugs and stink bugs

3. Picked the Princess up from school

4. Fought with the washer again & decided to put jeans in the dryer anyway

5. Sorted my "strings" quilting box and separated Kansas Troubles, Civil War prints & plaids from all of the other fabrics

Now, I'm on to Darren's socks. I frogged them on Monday and started over. I figure if I make time to knit for an hour or more each day I might be able to finish them before his birthday on November 7. 

Best & Worst of the Changing of the Seasons

I like fall. 

Don't get me wrong, 

but I don't like the migraines due to changing weather patterns, the colder temps and especially the stink bugs!

Yuck!

But, here are a few of the things I do like:

Homecoming.

The colors. 

Knitting socks (and other Christmas gifts). 

What I don't like about the socks is when they end up about an inch too long. Sigh. 

I ripped them back once because I did the heel wraps entirely wrong. I had The Boy try them on & they are entirely too big. I guess I'll be ripping back more today. 

Or maybe I can just take off at the tie?

Thoughts?

Home Alone

I find myself all alone this morning. 

It doesn't happen often. 

The only bad thing is I'm running shuttle all day. 

Said "Good bye" to Baby Girl at 7:15.

Took The Princess to school at 7:30. 

Took The Boy to work at 8:30. 

Will need to pick up The Boy at 1 and The Princess at 3.

Lots of interruptions, lots to do. 

I'm thinking Monday's need to be a day for working on Baby Girl's Christmas quilt. Actually, I need to decide on a pattern for this quilt. I've been making 4 patch blocks, but haven't come up with a final design. 

I also need to get Darren's socks to the next phase...men's socks take a lot longer to knit than ladies & childrens. He may only ever get this one pair. 

Maybe I'll just crawl back under the covers and look through quilting magazines and see what I come up with. After all, I don't often have a day to do whatever I want.

What shall I do first?

Thing 1 & Thing 2 are at Gram & Pap's for the weekend. 

The Princess has had her interview for Berea and we are back home with a free weekend. 

There is plenty to do, but where do I begin?

If I clean the kitchen, I'll want to recover the chairs (I've been wanting to do that for a while & The Boy has pulled all of my fabrics out of his room).

If I want to work on Baby Girl's quilt, I'll need to clean the sewing room...

Yep. Nothing happening in there anytime soon. 

Of course, I could cut the new fabric that I got this weekend.

Then, there are Darren's socks. I'm almost finished with the gusset increase. I think I could get that to the next stage rather quickly. 

Then, there is laundry, bills to pay, the checkbook to balance, stink bugs to gather and flush, my little garden that is so close to being ready for spring (just a few more weeds to pull), and the chicken coop that needs cleaned and composted in the main garden. 

It's a great day for outside work, but I'm thinking I'd rather spin or knit or sew...

I guess the best place to start is re-assessing our funds. At least I won't have it hanging over my head for the week and will be able to relax and enjoy any sit down time that arises. 

What do you do when a weekend opens up without any major responsibilities?