Speaking of quilts, afghans, and other blankets...

Making progress on the store sample. I have to iron it, make the quilt sammich and quilt it all together, and then make bias tape and attach it. Then I'm done. Woohoo!

I also had an article published today. It's a crocheted afghan pattern that's fairly adaptable. If you want to make an afghan this fall, check out my Harvest Afghan. The picture at the top of the article gets larger, and it allows you to look at other pictures I've uploaded. The 3rd picture shows assembly instructions.

Yay free patterns!

Well...that was crazy.

I just wrote out instructions to make this Halloween quilt.



I am now mentally exhausted and have to go teach knitting. If you want to make the quilt, or at least see more, feel free to check out my article here, and pass the real link along (at the top of the page, this shortened link name is for twitter).

There is not enough coffee in the world for today.

One down, two to go.

One square down, two to go. Quilting is such painstaking work. After this I get to add triple borders, sandwich all the layers, quilt, and cut 500 miles of bias tape. I might be exaggerating, but I'm probably not.

Tearing through WIPs

Got the cutting done for the quilt top I have to do for the store sample. I like the colors together, and saved the selvage for other projects. I'll need to get more fabric assuredly to teach the class, but I hope people take it. It's going to be cute.

I'm a bit further along now, but will update with pics of that when I'm further ahead.



In other news, I know I'm committing an unforgivable offense here by bringing up the C-word...but I just got my first Christmas present done.



I'm hoping that by getting started earlier this year, I'll be done and relaxed by Christmas. Maybe I'll have time to devote to other things besides pulling my hair out and pulling 16 hour days. Unfortunately, I'm also busier this year than I was last year so we'll see how that pans out.

I've got a lot to finish in this next week so I won't have time to work on any more until I'm done with everything that's already on my plate.

A day late and a dollar short, the TUSAL

Why am I always one day late taking a picture of my TUSAL jar for the Totally Useless Stitchalong? I do not have the answer. Other things I can't explain: not following the TUSAL rules. The jar now contains even more quilting fabric strips. My justification for this is that I actually intend to use the stuff in this jar when the year is up. This should surprise no one that knows me. If something is around and has no purpose, I will give it a purpose.

In the background is some little project I'm whipping up in the closest thing to 'fall colors' I could find. Orange would have been good to add to that pile of mess, but I generally ban orange from the house.

One of my many quirks...hatred of orange.

Orange

Finished up another quilt class this week, and that is the fruit (har har) of my labor. I only have 1.5 more of those to go to have a complete set, which will be awesome.

I don't have a table, so I have no idea what I'd do with a set of placemats, but you can't have placemats that aren't in some kind of a set. It's just not right.

The class went smoothly though. I do love teaching.

I teach knitting next week :)

FTC crashes the bamboo party

So the FTC (that's Federal Trade Commission for the uninitiated) just released a consumer alert informing all of us eco-friendly folks that bamboo (like the cake) is a lie. I used my google-fu to find that the eco-friendly folks have been talking about it for up to 2 years. Party sufficiently crashed, I felt compelled to write an article about it in the hopes that more bubbles will be burst, I mean, more consumers will be aware of what they're buying.

This hits all of us who use bamboo. Bamboo is now available in threads (Rainbow Gallery is one supplier), roving (several suppliers there) yarns (again, several suppliers), and fabrics and completed goods which crafters use to make or embellish even more products.

There is hope, as long as there's enough pressure on the industries to make changes, but it will increase our costs if we still want to use bamboo and demand that it be eco-friendly.

I'm disappointed, because I love bamboo yarn and couldn't wait to spin some up.

Socks!

Tada! First sock ever is now complete. It's going to be the store sample for work. In the corner there you see my next sock project:



Finally working on this Knit Picks sock...hopefully I can tackle it.



Also starting what I assume will be Christmas presents for the masses. I got these giant balls of cotton yarn with some patterns included at Hobby Lobby.

Obviously I'm spending a lot of time on knitting/crochet right now. There's a reason for that...I'm gearing up for fall classes at JoAnn's because Lion Brand (check out the article) is sponsoring them. Can you say free yarn and tools? I hope other people can, because I'd like to put in some more hours teaching :D

In other news, I have to get these quilting samples done. I just hate pulling out and setting up my sewing machine if I'm not ready to go. It's such a pain in the rear. I should come up with a better set-up but I'm already taking up the entire living room with my craft/office set-up (Not kidding...moved the living room into the dining room) and I don't think I have room for more surfaces/stations.

I should share the pics of my set-up at some point.

Keeping Ahead of Deadlines

Struggling to stay ahead of deadlines but, as usual, supplies are flying in and completed works are flying out.

I've been slowly accumulating supplies I need to teach the fall classes at JoAnn's.



These are for the fall class, Quilting 201: Curved Seams. I know they're not fall colors, but they'll be cute nonetheless (if you're odd like me).



These are for the fall/winter class, Quilting 202: Steps Through My Garden. It's a 4 session class. I don't have all the supplies, but I'm getting them together.

Speaking of JoAnn's...



I'm almost done with the sock I need for a store sample. I don't know if I'll be knitting up one or two. I assume one, since that's what the class is about...but I can knit the other one during class so when it's over, I'll have a full set :)

That's the incoming and current projects. In outgoing we have this guy:



This sugar skull is now gone to his rightful owner. I'm sure he'll be well cared for.

Busy busy!

Last week I had to sew up some drunkard's path quilt squares to teach a class on curved seams at work. Curved seams are surprisingly easy and this is my current favorite quilt square.

In other, more important news, I am DONE with the design for Smac and tomorrow it will be on its way to meet up with the Valdani people in Romania



Tada!

Close ups of:



Front



Back

It's on a temporary mount for now. Hopefully they'll replace the mount when they get time. For now it'll be easy to ship and transport.

I'll be putting this pattern in my Etsy store hopefully later this week if someone wants a copy.

Now I can start these socks...