Katie's Doll Quilt and (of course) More Cards

I finished Katie's doll quilt last night!

Well, there are a few white lies in that announcement. The quilt isn't completely finished; I still have to tack down the corners. It's not a "real" quilt either; it's a "cheater" quilt.

The top of the quilt is just one piece of fabric. The batting is just a piece of flannel fabric. I'm still calling it a quilt, because I did quilt the layers together. They are loosely quilted, but quilted all the same. I just followed any straight lines I could find in the fabric top that went from side to side without meandering. (I don't trust my machine to meander. Often when I turn a corner on it, the needle gets jammed). Then, I stitched around the hearts that all the My Little Ponies were framed in.



The whole quilt was machine quilted, including the binding. I topstitched it down rather than hand tack it to the back. I imagine with the white fabric on the back side, this quilt is going to require a lot of machine washing.

I tried taking pictures last night, but without any sunlight to speak of, they came out a bit dark. I'll try again this weekend.

And for cards - I have 3 new ones to show you!

First, a personalized card inspired by my new Carol Duvall book.



Carol had included instructions on how to stamp directly over paper colored in chalk. I don't have chalk. Nor was I about to color a whole piece of paper in chalk anyway. I want instanst gratification!

But, if you look closely, you'll notice that the color underneath the bike is yellow. I colored a small section of the red cardstock with a yellow colored pencil to make the stamp pop out a bit more.

In case you're wondering who I personalized the card for, it's me. I ride a red bike to run errands and my last name starts with h.

Next up is an Easter card.



I just piled some cardstock up and slapped a bunny button on top. (The back of the button was cut off with an Xacto knife).

Lastly, I give you a Greenland card. Now, I've never been to Greenland. And for the record, I have no desire to go. I hear it's really cold there. I can barely suffer through the Pennsylvania winters without whining once a week.



This picture is from a 1956 encyclopedia that came with the purchase of this house. The son, for whom the collection was purchased for many years ago, thought he could live without the knowledge.

Chili Pepper Quilt Finished!

This quilt has been finished for over a week. Apologies for waiting till now to post a pic of it. More apologies for not taking a pic of the back before I packaged it up. I don't think I chose the best time to take a pic of the quilt; it was shortly after I cut my finger. I was still a bit shaken.

Today I feel much better. Thank you to everyone who offered sympathy, empathy, and advice. Your advice was much better than Dan's who simply advised me to not hold scissors anywhere near Baby Flick (they've named her Evangeline) when we stop by to visit. Rude!

Baby Flick's Quilt is Finished

I had promised that I would finish Baby Flick's quilt before she was born. It was getting down to the wire! She is due to arrive on Tuesday.

I finished the quilt on Thursday night. (I'm so grateful she didn't arrive early. Of course, her mom wishes she would come a month ago.)

Here are the many pictures of it.

The 'F' is for the baby's last name. (The child's sex was unknown when I was picking colors and patterns). After finding the dragon panels, I designed the quilt around them.

The F and the Dragon panels were hand quilted. The rest of the quilt was machine quilted using the stitch-in-the-ditch method. The binding was made from the green fabric used to frame the 'F'. I stitched it to the front and hand-tacked it to the back.

I had a great time making it! I can't wait to start my next one - an Americana quilt for my nephew.

Quilt Frame in Basement

The quilt frame is back in the basement again. No more crawling underneath it to get to the other side of the quilt. No more knocking the closet door into it and having the whole frame collapse on me (the jury rigging is very fragile). Jake is also thrilled to see it go downstairs. He hated getting bonked in the head every time he came in to get pets or to remind me of the time (i.e. playtime).

Why is it downstairs? It surely isn't because of any of the inconveniences listed above. The inconveniences were silly and trivial compared to its practicality and usefulness of holding the quilt in place. I only had to twist a knob and thread my needle before I could sit down to hand quilt. No, the reason the frame is in the basement is because I have finished hand quilting Baby Flick's quilt!

I found hand quilting to be fun and relaxing. I even have a nice callous on my pointer finger to prove it. As this was my first time hand quilting, I kept things simple. My stitches simply followed the outline of the dragon, the clouds, and the framework within the four dragon panels. If you are new to hand quilting, I highly recommend this "technique", if it can be called a technique. It saved me from having to search for an easy quilting design and from learning how to transfer such a design to my quilt front.

Baby Flick's quilt has to go back on the machine to complete the stitch-in-the-ditch quilting, but that should only take me an hour or two. I'm so close to being done. Woo!

A Thank You from My Niece

I received the sweetest voice mail from my niece Katie yesterday.

What she said:

"Because the quilt you made me is so special, I made you a Tigger card. On the front of the card, it says 'Tigger, Tigger, Tigger'. On the back, it says 'I love you very much, Aunt Re'."

(I should mention why she chose to give me a Tigger card. When we were down in Disney World, I informed Katie on more than one occasion that Tigger was the best. She wasn't swayed from loving Ariel any less, but it did make for interesting discussions).

I was so touched. I called down to my sister as soon as I got the message. My sister informed me that I was also getting a Tigger from Katie's stuffed animal collection (mainly because she's under orders to trim it down). We're pretty sure it's the same Tigger I bought Katie when she was first born, but I'm excited to receive it anyway.

I'm not sure that I ever posted a picture of Katie's quilt, so here are two. It was gifted to her on Christmas 2006.

A close-up
Full view

You may notice that there is a book propped up against the bed. This book was gifted with the quilt. It explained why each of the fabrics were chosen, since the majority of them were leftovers from clothes or bedding that I made Katie when she was younger.

1 Block Done and 1 Binding Ripped Out

In quilting, I'm sure that equates to 1 step forward and 2 steps back.

As I prefer to keep my glass half full, here are pictures of the completed dragon block.


This was my first attempt to hand quilt. I was worried that the stitches would look awful and that the I wouldn't get the same puffiness as I do with the machine. The stitches do look awful and because they are not as small as the machine ones, I wasn't able to achieve the same level of puffiness. Yet, I LOVE to hand quilt. It is relaxing and instantly gratifying. I am thrilled with my first attempt at it. I have started to establish a rhythm and already my stitches are becoming smaller and more uniform. So, hopefully, the second block will look better.

For my 2 steps back, I ripped out the binding and the hanging sleeve from the chili pepper quilt.

I just couldn't make the store-bought binding work the way I had stitched it on. Next time, I'll know the correct way to attach it. Currently, I am building up the patience it will require to reattach the binding. I just can't bring myself to do it yet.

Sneak Peak and Hand Quilting

Tomorrow I leave for vacation. We are going to Walt Disney World with my sister's family, which consists of a husband, a 7-year-old daughter, and a 4-year-old son. You might think that I'm excited. You would be wrong. I have been dreading this vacation for months now. My sister has a different idea of a vacation than I do: she plans to drag the children to the park at 9 am (or before), jam as many rides and walking into the day as possible, and carry the kids back around 10 pm. I imagine by the end of each day, both the children and I will be over-tired and cranky. I also envision the husbands abandoning us for a bench and good beer. I plan to bring a bucket with me. Why? Because Mrs. H says it helps to dunk your head into ice water after a long, hard day.

I haven't started packing yet, unless you count the growing pile of stuff I can't forget sitting on top of my dresser. I have a dilemma. What should I bring as a knitting project for the plane rides? Should I pack my mystery project or my shawl project?

Mystery project OR

Shawl project

I can't decide. I might end up packing both.

This morning, since I knew my entire day would be spent packing, I squeezed in a little time for me and did some more hand quilting on Baby Flick's quilt.

Have a wonderful week without me!

A Gift from the House

You put so much work into a house: buying it, paying the mortgage, fixing all the little or big problems, and redecorating. It only seems right that the house should pay you back every once in a while. Mine did this weekend.

Look what I found in an old closet.

A brand new, never-been-used quilt frame! I was so excited. My husband even put it together for me. You see my baby quilt stretched out on it. My neighbor across the street told me that the lady who lived here before me never quilted. So, why is there a quilt frame in my basement closet? I have no idea. True, the frame is not the best (my husband had to jury rig the toothed wheel to the rod with nails and mirror wire), but it is free. And free is good.

Can I share a little secret with you? Hand quilting is not that hard. If you have ever done embroidery work or cross-stitching, you'll be fine. This baby quilt is only my 3rd quilt. I've been avoiding hand quilting - certain that hand quilting was best left to the experts, but when I found this frame downstairs in the basement, I knew I had to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that quilting is not that difficult once you get a rhythm going and it's fun. Now mind you, this quilt could never be shown at any country fair or jury show since my stitches are anything but even, but it's good enough for a baby.

PS. I hope you had a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

The Best Baseball Game I've ever been to

WOW! I am so glad I took the day off yesterday to attend the last Phillies game in the 4-game series against the Mets. It was amazing to be there. It was hands down the best baseball game I've ever been to.

Our Seats

It wasn't a playoff game. It wasn't a World Series game. So, why was it so good? Let me set the stage for you.


Coming up to this series, the Phillies knew they had to win. If we lost the series against the Mets, we would be out of the running for the playoffs. At the start of the series, we were sitting 7 games behind the Mets in our league. Thankfully, we won the first 3 games against the Mets. Thus, the Mets were desperate to save at least one game from the series.


The game was moved from a night game to a day game. Start time was 1:05 pm EST. The crows was 42.5K with approx 40:60 ratio of Mets fans to Phillies fans. To my right was my husband. To my left was a very nice, but very boisterous Mets fan.


And so the game started. The Phillies took a quick lead thanks to the homeruns from Howard, Rowand, and Patty (Pat Burrell). By the bottom of the 3rd inning, we were winning 5 to nothing and had retired their pitcher. No way the Mets come back from such a deficite.


Top of the 4th, the Mets score 3 and in so doing retired our pitcher. Top of the 5th rolls around and the Mets score 2 to tie the game. We gave up our entire lead! Ack! Throughout this entire comeback, the Mets fans are chanting Let's Go Mets. We're having a dickens of a time Booing them down.


Bottom of the 5th, the Phillies come back and score 3 runs off of 4 hits. That silenced the Mets fans. We're winning again. Phillies fans are chanting "Sweep ... Sweep ... Sweep!".


No runs are scored in the next 2 innings. Then comes the 8th inning. Pitching started to fall apart for us. Condrey is having trouble throwing a strike. Gotay starts the rally off by walking. Then, Alou walks. We start churning through the bull pen. First comes Alfonseca, but that only made things worse. He got booed off the mound by the Phillie fans after giving up the lead to the Mets. Then, we bring in Mesa. Phillie fans hold their breath; this is the same Mesa we booed out of town a few years ago when he could no longer save a game to save his life. He let one run in that truth be told was a run credited to Alfonseca. Mesa shut it down after that, but the top of the inning closes with the Mets winning 10 to 8.


Bottom of the 8th, Phillies come up. We manage to tack on 1 run thanks to Patty's home run against one of the best closers, Wags (Billy Wagner).


Then comes the 9th, the Mets fans are cheering for their team. They get booed down. Then, Phills fans start up their cheers of Let's Go Phillies and Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!

Flash Gordon trots in while Queen's music plays on the loud speakers. He gives us fans a 1-2-3 inning.


Bottom of the 9th, now it's our turn to bat. Worthy (Jason Werth) gets on base with a single. He steals 2nd. Then, he steals 3rd! Ishmael (Iguchi) hits a single and brings Worthy home, tying the game! It's 10-10. Mets walk Jimmy (!!) to invoke a double play opportunity, but next up is Chutly (Chase Utley), the best 2nd baseman in the entire league this year. In true Chutley fashion, he hits a single and wins the game!


So, do you understand now? Back and forth the game went. I have my boisterous fan on one side rooting for the Mets. Hubby & I are rooting for the Phills ... of course! The crowd was electric. The game was highly fought for. There were some amazing defense plays. You should have seen the ball Worthy caught at the warning track. Then, there were all the home runs plus all the hits. I was exhausted by the end of the game. My hands hurt; my throat hurt; and my head hurt. What a great game! Hats go off to both our Fighting Phills and to the Mets.



So what did I knit on the way to and fro the game? I can't show you. I was working on the Mystery Project again. So, instead I'll show you the center piece for Baby Flick's quilt that I stitched together last night.

Sore Wrist, but Worth It

My wrist is sore from knitting constantly the past 2 days. I knit on the drive to and fro the baseball game on Sunday.

Then, I knit on the train ride to and fro Center City yesterday. Plus, let's not forget the hour and a half of waiting for the darn train to just show up. So, I knit to keep myself from going spastic. I can only take so much of sitting and waiting. So much = approx 5 minutes. I have the patience of a tasmanian devil when it comes to waiting.

Yet, I am pleased to say all that knitting paid off. My Big Dipper Scarf is completed! As you may recall, this scarf was knit for EtsyFAST's August Celestial Challenge. However, I won't be selling the scarf in my Etsy store. There are 3 mistakes in the pattern. I have no desire to rip out 6 inches of knitting to fix any of these mistakes. Nor am I willing to mark the scarf down in price. So instead, I have decided to keep it for me. It will make a perfect biking scarf in the winter. It is extra thick thanks to the double knitting technique, so it should keep me warm when the 20F winds are whipping against me. Besides, I'm worth it and I don't rightly care about the silly mistakes!

I should have completed more knitting over the weekend though. Saturday was also supposed to spent traveling to and fro a Phillies game. But, the weather was so stifling that we called it off. Instead, I stayed home (inside!) and started on my baby quilt. I finished the middle square. Can you tell what letter it is?

While working on my quilt, Jake waited patiently (his patience is about on par with mine) while I finished cutting all the squares out. Which is a nice way of saying that Jake whined constantly until I got up and took him outside. It spoils him, but I can't help myself. He's so darn cute!

Little to Show For

I've been knitting several hours every day. Yet, I feel like I am not making any progress on my Big Dipper Scarf. I am convinced that after I knit several rows someone comes behind me and rips out the very same rows. It's downright wicked behavior. If I catch who's doing it, I'm going to draw and quarter them!


So, I need some quilting advice.

I was so proud of myself for attaching the binding fabric.

OK, I'll admit it: I cheated. I went to Wal-mart and bought the pre-made quilting binding strips. It matched my quilt fabric perfectly and it saved me from having to make binding strips. I was sold! I attached it the same way I would have it the strips were home-made. I left the binding folded in half, lined up the open ends with the quilt edge and stitched with a 1/4 seam.

What is the problem you ask? Well, as you can see there is not enough fabric to wrap over the 1/4 seam and attach to the back. I don't know what to do. Do I rip it all out? What is the proper way to attach it?

Onto the good news of the day:

• I sold my 1st pattern on The Knitting Vault.


• I am now listed as a designer on Ravelry. I have only added information on my Lucky Drawstring Purse and my Vase Cozy. I hope to add more patterns next week.


• My entire weekend is going to be spent watching baseball. I am attending the Phillies games on both Saturday and Sunday.


• Naturally Spun sent me a picture of the Christmas Yarn. You see it here laid out to dry. The dye has set and it will be ready to spin soon. The amazing part of the spinning process is that she will be doing all of it on a drop spindle! I told her that she had the patience of a saint.

Weekend Work

How was your weekend? I hope it was wonderful!

I spent the weekend quilting, gardening, cooking, and being followed around the house & yard by Jake. Hubby even took me out for lunch on Sunday. It was a lovely weekend.

The quilt is almost finished.

I completed the border and stitched it to the front. Then, I made the "quilt sandwich", holding everything together with safety pins. (I've decided that I am never going to hand-baste the layers together. Why? Pure laziness.) Finally, I machine-quilted the piece together. The majority of the quilt is machine-quilted via the technique called "stitch in the ditch". Only the diamond in the middle has a 1/4 inch stitch (a.k.a. I stitched 1/4 inch away from the seam).

Next on the list:

1. Learn how to make a hanging sleeve
2. Attach it to the quilt back
3. Stitch on the binding.

So close! Which means I am all the closer to starting on my next quilt - a baby quilt.

Sunday was mostly dedicated to working in the garden and hanging out with Hubby. I am in the process of creating specific paths to mow between. If my husband mows down one more of my plants, I'm going to throw the mower out! He's killed a Japanese Maple sapling (with Jake's help who peed on the tree when it was trying to grow back), and injured my rose bush (again with Jake's help ... I think they are in cahoots!) and 2 hosta plants. So in an effort to ensure he doesn't nick my rose bush again, I ripped up the grass under and around it, laying down mulch along the way.

Hopefully, next weekend I can "save" the other rose bush.

So, what knitting did I accomplish over the weekend? Um. Does knitting 2 rows this morning on my mystery project count?

Chili Pepper Quilt Top

The quilt top is completed!

(Here's hoping my sister doesn't read my blog as it is her xmas present).

Well ... almost. It still needs a border. Since, I have several blocks leftover of both the 9-patch and the 2-triangle, I plan to use them in it. As giddy as I am to complete the border, I won't be able to work on it until this weekend. I have too much knitting to do.

More quilting news: I went on a Quilt Blog search this morning. Apparently, they are sprouting up like weeds, similar to the knitting blog craze. I found 3 blogs that I added to my daily reading:

Giraffe Dreams

Scraps and Threadtales

Tazzie Quilts

Be sure to check them out.

28 blocks done, 44 triangles to go

The blocks are done for the CP (Chili Pepper) Quilt!

I finished them last night during the baseball game. True, I was supposed to be knitting a purse, but I frogged the design in the 4th inning. I couldn't just sit there for 5 more innings (actually the game didn't end until the 14th inning, so I really would have been bouncing off the walls. I simply MUST have something to keep my hands busy). So, I started pinning my blocks together. Then, all there was to do was stich them up and iron them.

It's so nice to see something accomplished on the quilt. So, it's not due until Christmas, but I'm trying to be strict with myself. I will not start a new quilt until this one is finished. I will not start a new quilt until this one is finished. I will not ....

I give myself a week before I cave. I've already designed a baby shower quilt to be gifted in September. Do you remember my model of the striped sweater? She and her hubby are expecting their first child. I'm making them a dragon/rainbow quilt because I couldn't find shamrock or sheep fabric. Who doesn't like dragons? They are just as cute as sheep and they will lead you to underground stores of gems.

And because Jake was so cute yesterday, I took pictures!

Here he is helping me garden. His job is to break up the big sticks into little sticks that can be used as firewood or thrown away. He's awfully good at it.

And here he is with a stick more his size.

Have a great day!

Quilt Progress and Vase Cozie backwards progress

Saturday, I spent the afternoon finishing up the Vase Cozie I am making for the EtsyFAST's July Challenge. Then, not only did I manage to seam the cozie together inside out, but I also realized that I made it several inches too short. So, I'm back to the halfway point. It seems as if I didn't accomplish anything. Although, I have learned another valuable lesson: it takes more yardage to cover curved areas when making a snug cozie. So, don't look for the cozie in my Etsy store today. It's not there. It's still on the needles.

Saturday night, I went with my husband to see a live MMA show by BoDog fight in Trenton, New Jersey. No, he didn't drag me to see it. I really like to watch the shows with him (so long as there isn't any blood involved). We watch, UFC, BoDog, and IFC at home all the time. This was our first time watching a live show. The fight card listed 9 fights. There ended up being 10 fights. Some were amazing, such as the Women's Title and the Lightweight fight of Masvidal vs. Edwards. Masvidal ended up spraining/breaking (?) his ankle in an amazing kick to Edward's head - dropping Edward's to the ground. Which leads me to my 1st of 2 complaints: no instant replay. The 2nd complaint: it was way too long of a show. We got there at 7:30 pm and didn't leave until 1:30 am.

I woke up normal time on Sunday, since Jake won't let me sleep in. He has tags on his collar that jingle. So, the trick is to walk heavily on his feet, jingling his tags, until somebody gets up - normally me. He's lucky he's so cute!

Sunday I spent the afternoon quilting. Here is what I accomplished:

Lots of ironing! Plus, the 28 blocks are halfway completed. The squares are just as they look - awfully small at only 1 inch. It has made piecing them together a bit of a pain, but the sewing goes quicker. Once the blocks are completely done, I'll move onto the triangles. I'm only slightly nervous about that step.

More knitting news: I cast on for the mystery project and for the AWHF Shawl. I am nervous about my measurements for the mystery project. I measured the gauge several times before ripping it out to get the estimate yardage needed for the whole project. I am now having a anxiety attack about the gauge. I think I am going to knit the gauge back up, wash it, and block it just so I can double check my measurements. The last thing I want to do is knit the whole project only to realize that my measurements were off ever so slightly. The shawl is going much better. I'll post a picture later this week of my progress.

Happy Knitting, All!

A Birthday Party & Beginnings of a new Quilt

Saturday we had friends over to celebrate M's 43rd birthday. (The whole reason ... well, excuse, really ... to make the potato salad).

Aren't these candles the cutest?!

Then, on Sunday, I finally got in some quality quilting time. I've been so busy knitting that I haven't had a moment to dedicate to the 3 quilts I want to finish by year-end. If I don't start soon, they'll never get done in time. I'll be up Christmas Eve night until all hours, which I suppose I'll be doing anyway, but that's not the point. My point is that I am so glad I had a chance to start the Chilli Pepper quilt I am making for my sister. (Here's hoping she doesn't read my blog).

As Mrs. Porter and Mrs. Fons would say, I worked on onesies last night. I ran out of steam when I came face to face with the mountain of squares that now need to be ironed.

You don't see any chilli pepper fabric in my onesies, you say. Here's the fabric waiting to be cut up into large squares and triangles.

When finished, the quilt will be small enough to hang in my sister's kitchen. It will be laid out in a barn raising fashion. This is the first time I am working with triangles. Of course, I should also mention that this is only my 2nd quilt. Thankfully, it's just going to my sister. Goodness knows she is not going to take a magnifying glass to my work. Or at least she better not!