Crafts

Life’s Loose Threads first anniversary

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Snickerdoodle

My little blog is having its first birthday this week!!! The cookies are snicker doodles. I made them last night.

Have to admit I still feel like a blogger baby trying to crawl off the blanket. Yep, but I’m still pretty proud to have posted my 46th blog post, topping out with 488 followers, without blowing the whole thing up. Thanks to my lovely daughter, Katie, for answering all my blog questions and her techie assistance!

Did I mention there have been 2,805 blog views so far from 37 different countries? Imagine my surprise when Mongolia, Bulgaria, Iceland and South Korea first appeared on my blog dashboard? And my deepest thanks to my son, Ricky, who read my blog while he was deployed. I would have never gotten all those hits from Kuwait without him!

While I’ve been writing a humor column for the past 17 years from the suburbs for several local newspapers, it was my thought to take the blog in a different direction. I’m one of those moms/wives that love all things quilting, recreational knitting, traveling around the block and the world, healthy cooking, not-so-healthy baking (let’s face it … everything is better with butter) and reading … mostly fiction. Although I’m not going to lie, I’ve read some pretty awesome non-fiction. It’s why it is difficult to blog about just one thing. Heck, I’m still finding my voice and attempting to make sense of any of life’s loose threads that might come my way.

Which reminds me … while not officially thread … it was also a year ago I started knitting the scarf featured below. When it measures 70 inches, it will be finished … hopefully by Christmas. I purchased the yummy red metallic yarn one summer when my mom and I were hanging out in the Texas Hill Country.

Don’t know how some knitters do it. I subscribe to one knitting blog (www.fortheknitofit.wordpress.com) and the lady is prolific! I am fortunate to get a couple of rows knitted in the evening while helping our handicapped daughter with her dinner.

I purchased the lovely yarn at The Old Oaks Ranch Fiber Art Center (www.theoldoaksranch.com) in Wimberly, Texas. It is a magical place with a fiber arts studio, sculpture garden and alpaca ranch. I know … interesting combination … but it totally works. Next weekend is the start of the “7th Annual Hill Country Yarn Crawl.” I can’t wait for my husband to ask me what a “yarn crawl” is. The art center and nine other yarn shops from Austin to San Antonio are participating.

One of the other stops mom and I made last summer was to The Tinsmith’s Wife (www.tinsmithswife.com) in the teeny, tiny town of Comfort, Texas. Touted as a knitting and needlepoint shop, they are also participating in the yarn crawl. With 5700 square feet of yarn heaven, let’s just say I’ve never seen so much luscious yarn in all my life! So much yarn eye candy, it felt like stepping into The Louve in Paris, France. Quite overwhelming. If you can’t make it to Paris … you should really try stopping by Comfort, Texas and go with a project in mind.

Now that I’ve practically made it off the blogging blanket, I can’t wait to see where Life’s Loose Threads leads me this coming year!

The quilt has a name!

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Mimi's flower garden quilt
I had lots of great suggestions for a name of the quilt I made that will be donated to The Village Learning Center (www.villagelac.org) in November. I loved all the suggestions! Loretta was the one that tied Mimi to the donation and I believe best fits the quilt. So “Mimi’s Flower Garden” it is!!! Why didn’t I think of that?

Name that quilt!

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I need some help naming a quilt. For you non-quilters out there, just like books, quilts need a name, or a title, if you will. Short and sweet words work best. It’s for a quilt that I’ll be donating to my special needs daughter’s day center. They have a fundraising gala each November and it’s something personal I like to contribute.

So several years ago I purchased a collection of thirty Kaffe Fassett fat quarters. The man is an amazing textile artist that does the most interesting things with color and pattern. If his use of color doesn’t cause your eyes to dilate, the designs will knock your shoes and socks right off your tootsies!

Earlier this year I used part of Kaffe’s collection to make a quilt for our special needs daughter’s room. I used a scrappy pattern entitled “Spider Star Quilt” from Edyta Sitar’s book “Friendship Strips & Scraps.”

Mimi's Spider Star Quilt

With all the leftover fabric from Mimi’s quilt, I made the simple quilt below with 2-1/2” strips. The beige print really makes the colorful blocks pop!

Some of my thoughts about the quilt title include: Kaffe’s Windows, or maybe Garden of Delights. Any thoughts?

My happy place is a quilt shop

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One of my New Year’s resolutions many months ago was to make up several scrappy quilts to have on hand. That’s so I don’t look like a deer in bright headlights about to get creamed by an eighteen wheeler when someone asks for a donation for their next fundraiser. I know what you are thinkin’. What is up with the Christmas fabric? It’s nearly the Fourth of July. I like to be prepared. Part of my Girl Scout training.

So this particular quilt was created with a disappearing nine patch pattern from my stash of Christmas fabrics. Easy and breezy! I promise to blog about the pattern in a future post. My friend Debbie demonstrated the pattern one day at Prayer Quilt Ministry. She is awesome! It’s my new favorite pattern if you need to create a quilt top quickly.

So last night I pulled out some of the larger fabric pieces from my personal stash that would be enough to bind the quilt. For you non-quilters, the “binding” is the edging that finishes off the quilt. One-half yard is about the right size but my options were limited. I didn’t like the all-over candy cane fabric for the quilt. And the batik with the red and white berries wasn’t speaking to me either.

It’s why today I traveled to The Quilt Room, http://www.thequiltroomhuffman.com, to purchase some binding fabric. The ladies are so nice at The Quilt Room and are always up for pulling down bolts of fabric for auditioning purposes. Adela helped me pull some Christmas fabrics over to the cutting table so we could figure out if any had potential. Laura, who also works at The Quilt Room chimed in with a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down. I came out of there one happy Girl Scout camper with a half-yard of dark green foliage and tiny red berry fabric. Let the binding begin!

Celebrating 80 big ones … and 5 things my mom taught me.

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We celebrated my mom’s 80th birthday over the weekend. There was lots of old-fashioned fun with cake, candles and family!

Today I reflected on just five of the hundreds of things my mother taught me.

1. My mom taught me patience. When I was a little girl she taught me how to knit. She is a righty and I’m a lefty, so there was lots of frustration on my part. After dropping many stitches and finally getting my tension just right, I finally got the hang of it. Today the rhythm of clinking two needles together is still music to my ears.
2. My mom taught me about the power of stories. I still remember sitting at the laminate kitchen table when I was probably 8 or 9. It was at that kitchen table I first learned she was a little girl when German soldiers marched into Holland during World War II and stayed for a number of years. Mom would tell me how she peeled buckets full of potatoes every day. It finally dawned on me the story wasn’t really about the potatoes. It was all she and her family had to eat.
3. My mother taught me love is in the little things we do for others each day. I’ll never forget how she spent the first two weeks with us after our Katie was born. In the middle of the night we’d bump into each other in the hallway after our newborn cried out for another feeding. “I’ll take this one,” my mother would say, “you go back to bed.” She would stay with us again when the next two were born.
4. My mother taught me how to iron a shirt. Back then there wasn’t such a thing as permanent press. Everything wrinkled. There was lots of spritzing and heavy steaming involved. Of course, the skill wasn’t just about properly ironing a shirt. I also learned to walk my little brother around the block in his stroller about 10 times so mom could finish making dinner. Basically, I learned to pull my weight so mom could keep a home with a husband and five children running more efficiently.
5. My mother taught me there is beauty in the smallest things like the white paper snowflakes we folded and snipped with scissors as kids. We hung them all over the front picture window every winter. Or the flowers she grew in her yard each spring and shared with family and friends. Too bad I didn’t get her two green thumbs. Obviously teaching is a lot different than inheriting a gift!

Quilters R Us

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On Friday, I attended a local quilt show in our area hosted by the Kingwood Area Quilt Guild. The members put on a great show every two years showcasing their skills in manipulating fabric, creativity with design and interesting color choices. And besides providing lots of great eye candy for a fabric junkie like me, there was plenty of quilting inspiration to go around.

Some of my quilting buddies: Noreen (we call her the Fabric Whisperer), Sid (the needle-turn applique guru), Sally (perfectionist extraordinaire), Tina (she can do anything) and Kim (the long-arm quilting queen) won a bunch of ribbons between them. I’m so proud of these ladies. I credit them, and several others skilled in the quilting arts, for improving my own skills over the years. They have inspired me to grow outside my comfortable cardboard rowboat to wander through scary swampy areas like needle-turn applique, intricate paper piecing and taking risks with color choices. I mean … how can you sink up to your neck in yuck when you have friends that are there to throw you a life jacket?

It’s probably why last year I actually finished five quilts (photos are featured above). Two found a home with extended family as Christmas presents, two quilts I kept, and one was auctioned for a local charity. Without the help of Kim, who has a long-arm quilting business, that would never have happened. She cuts my quilt-making time in half and makes my piecing look amazing.

While the quilt show is now just a memory … they left me with enough ideas to last till the next time the guild show comes to town.

A scarf for Elyse

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I’ve been knitting since I was a little girl. My mother taught me … which wasn’t exactly easy since I am a lefty and she is a righty. My very first project was a long scarf made from bits and pieces of mom’s stash of leftover yarn. The scarf was a yarn cornucopia of different colors and textures. By the time it was finished the poor thing had a bunch of holes from dropped stitches. Oh, and the width had grown about five inches from splitting so many stitches. But I was so proud of that first knitting project! Betcha nine dollars I still have that scarf around here somewhere.

I have made my grown-up daughter a couple of warm scarfs. Katie was in New York recently visiting family when her lovely little niece asked her where she bought her scarf.

“My mom made me it for me,” Katie answered.

“Oh, can she make me one?” Elyse asked.

Her brother, Josh, also put in a scarf request. Katie told them she would ask upon returning to Texas.

Now Elyse and her little brother had warm and toasty little store-bought hats and mittens. But it seems scarfs for young ones are not so common. When Katie returned from frigid New York of course I said yes. I mean … how can you refuse two of the cutest kids on the planet? And besides … their little necks were cold.

Elyse put in her order for hot pink or gray. Her brother Josh requested navy.

Not having a clue how long and wide to make a child’s scarf, I first had to figure out a few things like how wide, long, what type of yarn and needle size. I learned from good old Mr. Google 4 to 6 inches wide and 36 inches long was a pretty good standard for a child. Not to say Google is an authority on child’s scarfs … but I had to trust someone.

My next stop was my favorite yarn shop just north of Houston, Twisted Yarns (www.twistedyarnstexas.com). My eyes glaze over from all gorgeous yarn colors whenever I go into the place. The nice ladies just led me around by the hand and helped me pick out a wool-type yarn that was washable and dryable. My head cleared enough to drive by the time I got out the door.

I struggled in the beginning with Elyse’s scarf getting the correct width and pulled the stitches out several times and started over. It was all worth it when I went to the mailbox recently. There was the cutest thank you card from Elyse for the hot pink scarf. Josh’s navy scarf is about halfway finished. Hope to get it in the mail before New York City has its first thaw. Below is the simple pattern I used.

Super Simple and Fast Scarf Pattern for Child

Yarn – something washable and dryable and soft – approximately 375 yards.
Needles – US#7 (or size needed to achieve gauge); I like the short needles for scarfs.
Gauge – 20 sts / 4” in stockinette stitch.
Finished size – approximately 5” wide by 36” long.

Cast on 46 stitches. Even rows: K2, P2; rep from * to last st, K2. Odd rows: P2, K2; rep from * to last st., P2. Cast off after length measures approximately 36”. Bind off all sts.

Next year I’ll start clanking my needles together early and include some fancy stitches to knock their little knitted socks off!