May Day! May Day! May Day!

Definitely a distress signal for me. April completely disappeared off my calendar this year. I guess between wrecking my car and the scramble for a replacement in March followed by Easter and then taking my mother to her 65th high school reunion in New Jersey in April, it just did me in. Whatever! Let's move on ... As I recall I promised to share my latest knitting projects.

The first shawl is Boneyard Shawl with Mara Shawl's ruffled edge. I used the yarn I got with Warm Woolies club through The Loopy Ewe. It's a nice weight and size and should keep me warm in cooler weather ... or in the house while the heat is off. The middle picture is of my Reyna Shawl, also using yarn from Warm Woolies Club. It's a lighter weight yarn and the pattern is lacy. I've used it several times already wrapped around my neck. It's beautiful and I wish you could see the sparkles in the yarn! My socks are a fun pair knit with Inversibles yarn. The yarn was dyed in opposite colors so where you see light silver on the one skein, there is dark silver on the other. The yarn is dyed by Fibernymph and you can get all kinds of double-color combinations from The Loopy Ewe. Think team colors or school colors! The pattern is Cadence and it's a freebie from Very Busy Monkey. (All of these patterns can be found on www.ravelry.com .

As for quilting, I have some sharing on that today too! But first the disappointing news. The APQ 2017 UFO Challenge selected #11, which was my Winter Snowmen. This project has been sitting for years and needs to be quilted. It is exactly the same, never touched this year. For May we are to work on #2 which is my Alex's Stars Round-a-Bout. Can't remember the official title to this quilt top but that's what I called it to refresh my memory. So far I've gotten it out to measure so I can purchase my batting. It's already MOSTLY marked for quilting so I need to finish that up then I'll be good to go!


Remember this project? I not only finished the big-stitch quilting but got my sleeve AND label on. I pretty much copied my friend Katie's and my sister's ideas for personalizing and made it my own! I am thrilled to cross this one off my list!


Here are also a couple pictures of the back so you can see my label and some of the quilting.

My guild has a quilt show every other year and this is the year of the show! It's really motivated me to having my labels done and sewn on. I may put this one in the show.

Here is a "teaser" picture of my Winter Wonderland quilt. I finished it quite some time ago but never made the label. It has been entered into the quilt show so it was time for a label. You can see I did a fancy-schmancy label here too!

I machine quilted it on my Bernina and I love it.

I also entered my Dresden Stars. I don't have a picture yet of it finished and I also don't have a label for it yet. That'll be done this weekend.

This is a photo of my Witch's Boot which is also entered in the quilt show. I changed the border up instead of the called-for one. I like my version much better. Not sure if it has a label on it. Better dig it out & check!

In other news, we've had an awful amount of rain here in the St. Louis area.  So much so that I thought I'd share a picture of our dock on the pond. Ridiculous amount, wouldn't you agree? I thought our paddle boat was going to float away!

Thankfully the water is going down. Which is a good thing because the International Quilt Market - Spring is going to be held here in St. Louis in a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to helping out with it ... signed myself up yesterday! I hope to see some of the ladies whom I follow their blogs!!

A last couple of pictures: Gracie was thrilled that the rain was gone this morning and the sun was shining brightly. She was doubly thrilled when she pulled a treasure out of the pond -- a potting bucket! What a happy pup runing with her new prized possession!

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Mom should be here any minute now to go to lunch with me. We're headed to Catrina's in Edwardsville, a favorite Mexican restaurant of ours! Have a great weekend! Ole!

APQ 2017 UFO Challenge, Knit-A-Longs, & More

Happy 2017! And so starts a new year! First things first -- I was waiting for the announcement of the American Patchwork & Quilting 2017 UFO Challenge number to start the year. Seems it was announced early and it is #6. Turns out it is my Jamestown Sampler quilt which looked like this at the start of the month:

So I decided to see what the status of this project was exactly. I laid out all the finished blocks on my kitchen floor and it looked like this:

Pretty, huh? Weird though. I tried to concentrate my 2017 UFO list to consist mostly of completed tops so I could have 2017 be the year of quilting finishes! Wouldn't you know the first project selected is one that I have to assemble the top and then decide & sew on borders before I can even think about quilting! I have retreat this month so I hope to get this top together then.

While roaming through Ravelry, I decided to join in a couple of knit-a-longs. The Loopy Ewe is probably one of my favorite yarn stores. I love their yarns, programs, blog, and incentives -- basically everything about them! I decided to join in on their 2017 Sock Challenge. Thank goodness they're a loose group because this challenge involves knitting a pair of socks each month. I decided to join halfway, choosing to have a pair of socks knitted every other month. Here's what's on my lap yesterday morning:

I am knitting Cadence Socks  by Very Busy Monkey using yarn purchased at The Loopy Ewe. It's called Fibernymph Dye Works. It's a hand-dyed yarn that the colors mirror each other. They have all sorts of colors but I chose a neutral combo. Loving the pattern so far but I haven't gotten far along yet. It also double-duties in a Very Busy Monkey knit-a-long, which only challenges you to knit a new or in-progress VBM sock pattern. Perfect! One project = two challenges. I can do this!

I also decided to join the Warm Woolies Club through TLE also. Around the middle of December, January, and February they will send me (for a fee, of course) a skein of yarn plus extra goodies. There's a Group Page where they suggest Ravelry patterns to use that skein up. FUN! Another skein I need to wind up. They sent me a skein of Blue Moon's Fiber Arts Super Sparkle in pinks to purples with silver sparkle flecks throughout. I plan on knitting a Reyna cowl with this. You can find the pattern here .

My third knitting project-to-be  means getting another skein of yarn wound up. I got a free pattern when I participated in the One for You, One for Me KAL where, if we knit up 2 or more of Laura Aylor's cowl patterns by a specified date, she gave us a free pattern. She is a wonderful designer and I have the yarn, just need to cast on!

I did manage to FINALLY finish wool applique pillow kit. It's called "Farmer's Market" by Timeless Traditions, aka Norma Whaley. It was a FUN pattern and I thought the pillow turned out cute! 

I've lately been trying to work more diligently on my Mosaics applique project. I was so inspired by my friends' progress that I thought I should also get a move on it. Loving it also and will share pictures at a later time when there is some real progress to be shown.

And because that's not enough, I plan on pulling out a cross-stitch project to work on too! Nothing like a new year, a new slate, and I may need a new brain! Did I also mention that I want to start a new bed quilt? I think I'll quietly work on Split 9-Patch by Bonnie Hunter. I should be able to do this in between my other projects. I'd really like to use up some of my scraps this year! High hopes, right?

Happy New Year!