Minxxy

Finished the imake patchwork quilt

Finished the imake patchwork quilt wall hanging. Ready for soaking and blocking

Sent to you by me

Hexupuff test

Testing out blogging by mobile using this picture of my nearly finished hexipuff wall hanging

Sent to you by me

Neglected so downgraded blog

Hi anyone who still comes along here. Just to let you know I have downgraded this site and it is now in a very basic format.

 

At least it will save me a bit of cash

 

Quilting

For as long as I can remember, I have loved patchwork quilts. Perhaps it originates from times spent watching Little House on the Prairie and the Ingalls girls snuggled up in bed covered by a patchwork quilt. I never did anything about it as knitting is my passion.

I have made clothes, curtains, cushion covers etc etc etc over the years but never a patchwork quilt. It all seemed too overwhelming and PRECISE. All those seams, piecing together, colour combinations. Not for me. Although I ran in the opposite direction, I have always harboured the ambition to make a wedding ring quilt.

Trouble is, I forget that although I may be an experienced knitter, an intermediate at sewing , when it comes to quliting,  I am a total novice. No more! I have had a word with myself and I now understand I am at the start of a very steep learning curve. Armed with books and You Tube tutorials, I am making headway into the world of quilting. Not only am I making mistakes, I am beginning to understand where I went wrong. I am going to treasure every quilt that I make and not fix small mistakes. They are going to be a constant reminder of my learning path and those mistakes are the baseline for improvement as I practise my way towards a double wedding ring quilt of my very own.

I have made a few quilts to date.

Quilt 1 - Ashleighs quilt

Machine pieced then machine constructed,  machine quilted and machine and hand sewn binding.

Quilt 2 - Linda and Garys wedding quilt

Hand stitched top, machine quilted, machine and hand sewn binding and local tailor shop embroidered the words (I had a huge problem giving this away as a wedding gift, or just giving it away. I loved it and it took many, many, MANY hours of sewing)

 

 

Quilt 3 - Joshua's quilt

Machine pieced using a jelly roll in one continuous strip then keep bringing the ends together and stitching, machine quilted and machine and hand sewn binding.

Quilt 4 - Dunkeld Jelly roll quilt (details to follow)

Quilt 5 - My quilt

Randomly hand sewn hexagons until the top will be big enough to drape over a king size bed. Plan is to hand quilt it and hand sew the binding. Obviously a long term project.

So here's to scant ¼ inch seams, straight lines, rotary cutting and lots and lots of learning. Who said life is boring .... LEARN STUFF.

 

First week of January - done.

What a week! That first week back at school was the hardest EVER. I couldn't get out my bed in the morning, wanted to fall asleep the minute I came in and lacked enthusiasm.

Now the weekend is almost over, I have had two long lies and will be hitting the sack the minute Sherlock has finished so I should get my motivation back by 8am tomorrow. We have a snow forecast in place and I hope I wake up to a world that is white as it would seriously raise my spirits.

On the crafting front, I have a , ahem, large amount of odd balls and end of project balls languishing in my loft and wanted to use them up. I have a patchwork blanket on the go but it is in 4ply and is a long term project. I plan on going back to my knitting group on a Tuesday and Thursday and need something mindless so I can listen to the chatter as I work so this weekend, I have cast on a sediment scraps blanket by The knitty professors.

I already had a bag full of scraps at the side of the computer and used those to start on it.

 

Using size 8mm needles and 4 strands of DK weight wool held together, it is zooming along. Just as well as I went into the loft and liberated this little lot.

 

As you can see, I am addicted to kntting it  as it is currently this length and bunched up on my needles.

And so, here begins a game of patience as I await the arrival of some new, much longer size 8mm needles from Addicted 2 knitting.

Happy Days

 

Merry Knitalong

Over the course of 2013, I have been participating in the Merry knitalong over on ravelry. This was the idea of Martine of the imake blog and was based on the book 55 Christmas Balls to Knit by Arne and Carlos. The deal was we were given the name and number of a bauble or two to knit each month , starting in January and finishing in December. I didn't keep up to date throughout the year but I did manage to complete and photograph all the suggested (or pick your own) baubles by December 2013.

I would call that a rip roaring success. If I knit more from the book I think I would use 4ply wool and smaller needles to make them a bit smaller as they were just a tad to big for the tree. Not to worry though, I hung them at the window of my craft room... and was very pleased with the result.

Giving thanks

Christmas has come and gone in the Good(aber)mor household. The tree is down and in the loft and the gifts are making their way to their new and permanent nooks in this little home of ours. A huge thank you for all the wonderful presents we received, and although they are not all photographed, I loved every single one of mines.

happy New Year to anyone who still wanders past this blog. I have had no interest in blogging for the past year ...and then some. Ravelry has taken all my online presence and that is where I document all my knitting projects. While this is fine, I am not allowed to post about any other crafting which I do whether that is sewing, baking, paper craft, life happenings etc.
I stumbled upon my blog again and was clicking through the links in the side bar and remebered why i like blogging and reading other peoples blogs. Not only does it satisfies the nosy moo in me but I also
find the creations of others, whether it be the smallest 5 minute creative product to the longest and largest life consuming process driven creation, so inspirational. Looking back over my archives, I enjoyed reliving past projects and came to the conclusion that I really should use my small space on the internet more.
I enjoy it. I enjoy reading the comments when I get any. I enjoy writing about what I am doing so I can pull all my creations together in one place.

I think I am going to start blogging again but I make no promises.

With the lack of blogging I miss posting picture like this. MaDGe and I watching Linda and Garys Las Vegas wedding. This was lost in the masses of pictures on my hard drive.

Raspberry Gin and Limoncello

I have planned to make Limoncello for  Christmas for a couple of years and in typical me fashion, I remember then promptly forget until it is too late. Depending on which recipe you use, it needs to mature for between four and six weeks. This year, I am on it. I followed a recipe from The Good Food Channel as it seemed simple enough and used less water, meaning more vodka. Hic!

I also found a recipe for raspberry gin over on the imake blog. It also seemed straight forward and simple although I have missed the Christmas deadline. This little red beauty has to mature for 12 weeks which means it should be ready in time for Hogmanay. Double hic!

Here's hoping that it all tastes yummy and scrummy . I will let you know when I regain consciousness.