Armchair Travel

~ Mary ~ 12 Comments

Books take you places … especially travel books. I spend a lot of time in my chair at night knitting, binding, or crocheting blankets and I’m usually watching something on my iPad or listening to an audiobook. Right now, it’s an audiobook called Dear Bob and Sue, about a couple’s visits to all 58 National Parks. Some I’ve been to and many I haven’t but it’s bringing back many memories of visits to state, local, and national parks, historical sites, and monuments. Sometimes I’m amazed at how lucky I’ve been to be able to travel and see so many places in person.

I keep my phone nearby (I’m listening to the audiobook I borrowed from the library on my iPad on the Overdrive app) and look up sites that sound interesting as I listen to the book. I probably won’t retain much information but I find it very interesting and entertaining to hear about the sites.

And of course, it brings to mind our many trips including our South Dakota road trip with the boys and Becky 11 or 12 years ago. It was one of our favorite family vacations! And yes, we drove across the state line briefly to visit Devil’s Tower.

There are so many beautiful and interesting places to visit in this country and I’m grateful I’ve seen many of them.

Quilted

~ Mary ~ 5 Comments

My Charm Squares Happy Block top is quilted with another one of my new pantographs called Leafy Love purchased from Urban Elementz and it’s definitely a new favorite. One of the things I love about the new machine is that I can resize pantographs and this one was resized to 6.5 inches high keeping the width proportional. Urban Elementz has paper patterns in addition to the digital ones I use with my Pantovision so if you like ones that I share here on the blog, check them out.

There are brief instructions for this quilt on my website.

Finished

~ Mary ~ 5 Comments

The Trellis Stripe blanket is done. It’s my 3rd blanket finish for the year and blanket #4, the yellow blanket stitch one, is done too except for weaving my ends in.

  • Pattern – Trellis Stripe free from Attic24
  • Yarn – Caron Big Cake in the Grape Jelly colorway – 2.25 big cakes used
  • Hook size – I
  • Finished size is about 40 x 52

I started out doing her edging but went wrong somewhere on the first round so I just continued on in a similar way without worrying that my stitches weren’t lining up like hers. I like the picot finish!

This colorway wasn’t working up as pretty as I’d hoped in this pattern during the making of the blanket but I’m happy with how it looks finished and a little girl somewhere will love the purples I’m sure!

Assembled

~ Mary ~ 7 Comments

My little Charm Square top for our February Precut challenge is done. I used 2 packs of charms (84 – 5 inch squares) and cut the border strips 2.75 inches. It will also be bound in the pink and I started with 2 yards of the pink border fabric but have a good size chunk left. It’s busy and bright I know but I think it will make a cheerful donation quilt.

I finished all my goals from last week – I don’t always post my goals here but having them set whether for a week or a month really does help keep you focused and progressing! This week my goals are:

  • Assemble Charm Square top
  • Quilt 2 tops
  • Make orange Rainbow HeartStrings blocks
  • Trim and get binding on one of the Maine quilts

I’ve already finished #1 and #4 today and the first top is loaded on the longarm and ready to quilt tomorrow.

Snow?!

~ Mary ~ 9 Comments

It’s not often they get snow in the Atlanta area but I love this photo Chris sent me yesterday with all three of them wearing hats I knit!

I taught myself to knit and to crochet – it’s not hard if you find the right “beginner” book and YouTube videos help if you don’t understand something. They didn’t have all the videos when I taught myself but these days if I don’t understand something in a pattern or a stitch, I can usually find a video that lets me see a demonstration. Very helpful especially if you’re just starting out.

Charm Squares

~ Mary ~ 9 Comments

I had work around the house to do getting ready for company tomorrow and an annual inspection for our wildlife exclusion service (there was evidence of rodents in the attic when we bought the house although none were actually caught in the traps)… So I didn’t expect to get any sewing done but I managed to squeeze in a little time to start my February Precut quilt.

I had looked at several options for charm squares but my time is very limited this month because I’m traveling twice in the last two weeks so I’m going for easy! The Charm packs were bought from BluPrint. I made this quilt last year in a different color scheme and while it’s simple, it turned out cute. Click the link to see it.