el día de los muertos

I'm crossing things off my to-do list left and right here...finished this patchwork pillow with Day of the Dead embroidery from Sublime Stitching just in time for the holiday today. When I did the Virgen de Guadelupe embroidery back in May I didn't really think that it would take me so long to finish up the skulls and put everything together. That purple and pink skull was sitting in its embroidery hoop waiting for eyes and teeth for about 5 months there as I moved on to different projects.

The skull fabric is by Alexander Henry and I think it officially puts this pillow into the kitschy category, but oh well...it matches the theme, right?!?

happy halloween

It's our first halloween in our new house and consequently our first time passing out candy to all the neighborhood kids. Shinji is being a good sport greeting all the trick-or-treaters at the door while we hand out the candy. He's been very popular with the kids.

And Nuku Nuku is holing up in the basement enjoying my new quilt.

Hazel Hurrahs and rodgab

One last fall stitchette finished. I'm done with fall, now on to the next set. From: wee wonderfuls

We saw an amazing concert last night with our friend Jodi at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit...rodrigo y gabriela. They're a Spanish guitar duo with a rock n roll twist...filled with lots of tricks and techniques to make you drop your jaw. It was a bit louder and a bit later than I'm used to but their talent definitely made staying out late on a work night worth it (man, are we getting old...had to stock up on coke to get a caffeine high to keep us awake : ) You can check out some of their youtube videos here.

Handkerchief Corners Quilt

I am officially finished with this little project. (You can see how the project progressed here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). I'm pretty sure this is the longest it's ever taken me to complete a quilt. I bought the fabric back in May, came up with the idea for the pattern in September and got to work on September 19, a little over a month ago. This project has been haunting me and I'm so glad it's finished!

This is the largest quilt I've made to date and the first time I didn't use free motion quilting. Yikes...all of those straight lines got pretty tedious. It got to the point where I made myself quilt it in one hour blocks so that I would at least get something accomplished. And to top that off, I decided to go with the not so speedy machine stitched/hand stitched binding method seen here. The hand stitching took forever and wasn't quite as fun as embroidery, but I got the hang of it after a while and now it seems a bit more manageable.

I was so happy to throw the quilt in the washer and dryer and see it come out in all its crinkly, wrinkled goodness.

Here are the final details if you're interested in making one of these for yourself:

Final quilt size:

64” x 88”

8 blocks x 11 blocks = total 88 blocks

Blocks:

finished size

8” x 8”

For each block you will need the following pieces:

   Final Size       Cutting Size (w/ 1/4" seam allowance)

1: 5” x 5”         5.5 x 5.5

2: 5” x 1.5”       5.5 x 2

3: 1.5” x 6.5”     2 x 7

4: 6.5” x 1.5”     7 x 2

5: 1.5” x 8”       2 x 8.5

Fabric needed for front:

18 fat quarters

5 sets of fabric from each fq = 90 sets from fq (you will have two squares extra)

1.75 yards for solid color (I used white) center squares

Cut the fabric as directed on each fat quarter:

new yarn + scarf

I discovered my new favorite yarn last month. Berroco Jasper 100% Merino Yarn. I've been knitting a new brioche stitch Berlin Scarf with this yarn for the past few weeks and I am really liking the colorway...can't go wrong with a self-striping green, turquoise and purple yarn, right? I wish I could make every project with this yarn because it is just so soft and so enjoyable to work with. This is definitely the solution to my "wool is too scratchy" dilemna!

I am cranking away at the hand-sewing the binding on my handkerchief corners quilt. I'm hoping to have it all finished by tonight. Jon and I have had a Wes Anderson film-fest weekend. We saw The Darjeeling Limited in the theatre last night, watched an interview with Wes Anderson on the Charlie Rose Show afterward and are wrapping up the festivities with an afternoon showing of The Royal Tenenbaums (one of my top ten favorite movies ever) this afternoon in our basement while I finish up the binding.

weekend in Chicago

We had a lovely weekend in Chicago

...enjoying the gorgeous weather

...catching up with old friends

...window shopping

...getting smoothies at Jamba Juice (seriously wish one of these would come to our town soon!)

...shopping at Papersource for the first time in person - finally getting the paper flower kit I have been eyeing for a few years

...picking out our first new ornament for Christmas this year (from Papersource)

...enjoying public transportation (or not having to find a parking spot in the city)

Wilson Walks Walter

One more fall stitchette to go and I'll have finished my first set of patterns from wee wonderfuls!