yard sale finds

I come from a long line of thrift store and
yard sale shoppers. My grandma is the queen of bargain shopping! If I
ask her to find me some random item, she'll find it within a week.
Me, I don't usually have such luck. My aunt has the bargain shopping
gene too and she found these two fun items for me a few weeks ago.

First, an old twin-sized quilt top (complete with batting and backing fabric).
I love the intricate star pattern in these blocks. Any ideas on the
name of this pattern? I'm definitely going to be basting, quilting and
binding this top into a quilt soon.

Then, she found this weaving loom kit. She knew that I wanted to
try weaving and found this wooden rigid heddle loom (I think). The
directions are kind of mildewed shut, so I'm going to scavenge around
the internet to find some instructions for setting up the loom. (Yes,
this is another fiber project that I don't have time for, I realize).

Doll Quilt Swap

I received this lovely quilt in the mail last weekend from my swap partner, Jessica, of The Bossy Quilter. I love the design of the quilt...I've been really into circles lately, but too intimidated to try them myself. She included an adorable set of notecards, too. I will definitely be using these for correspondence soon.

Her quilting is so nicely done. She stippled in the white space and left the patterned fabric untouched. The circles really pop in real life. You can read a little bit more about how she did the quilt in her post, here.

And, isn't her tag on the back so cute? I think an embroidery machine would be a really fun tool to have.

Thanks so much for the awesome quilt, Jessica! I love it!

brick road baby quilt

I made this baby quilt a few weeks ago, but had to wait until after the shower for the big reveal. This quilt is for our friends who are having a baby boy next month. I based the colors off of their baby bedding, which is a teal, brown and green safari theme.

I knew I wanted to make a brick road quilt, so I cut out rectangular blocks (2.5"x5") and arranged them in this geometric pattern. I used 1/3 yard of each solid and then 1.5 yards of the stripes for the backing and binding. The final quilt is about 32"x38" (but I'm totally guessing because I forgot to measure it when I was finished).

6 years

Jon and I started dating six years ago today. To celebrate, we went back to the place where we became "official" and got engaged to reminisce. Six years has flown by and we're still having as much fun being together as we did in those first few months.

{before}

I had a little celebration of my own last night when I FINALLY finished knitting this afghan that's been on the needles for a year. Last winter when I was halfway through with it, I never thought I'd see the day when I would cast off the final panel and finish the afghan. (Remember, this afghan has a total of 124,080 stitches in it!)

I had a change of heart in August and picked it up again to finish what I've started. While the garter stitch does get old after a while, this is the best kind of tv knitting! I think we watched Lost, Dexter and The Wire while I knitted away on this.

{75% done}

Best of all, it's finished just in time for the cooler weather and we'll get to snuggle under this afghan all fall and winter. :)

Here are the details:

Pattern: Olive's Afghan from Knitalong
Yarn: 16 skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca (love this yarn!). 215 yards per skein
Colors: Turquoise Mix, Pea Soup Mix, Fennel, Pumpkin Puree, Cyclamen
Needles: Size 7
Started September 3, 2008, finished September 18, 2009
Rav link: craftr's zig zag afghan
Previous posts: picking out the pattern, finishing strip #1, starting strip #2, two panels completed, halfway done

pinwheel baby quilt

Here's a sweet little quilt that I made for a friend of mine from high school who is expecting a boy this October. I knew that she was using traditional colors in her baby's room, so I went with baby blue and navy for this quilt.

The blocks are 4" square after sewing and the sashing is 4" wide. The final quilt is 28" x 48".

I am starting to get spoiled making smaller doll quilts and baby quilts. It's so satisfying to be able to finish up a quilt in a few hours...maybe I'm getting quilting ADD?!