I need another year of finishing (If not two)

2019 (and the rest of 2018) is going to consist of a new year of finishing. Below are a sampling of projects that either are finished or need finishing.

This is a shawl that needs to get finished. It's a very boring design which means that I just have to keep on going until I think it's big enough. It's not yet big enough!!!

This is a linen stitch scarf that took me a long time. But It's now finished. I got this one done on May 20, 2018.

A Blue Granny Square Afghan that I began because I have lots of little balls of blue-ish yarn. I have since added grey to this project as well. But before I finish this one I have lots of big skeins of blue yarn and I want to use them in an all blue Apache Tears afghan. So I'm making two afghans at the same time out of blues.

I finished these fall colored self-striping socks on Sept. 11, 2018. This was one of the balls of yarn I got from Laura Dean, one of my dearest friends. She gave me two other balls in different colorways that I have yet to touch! (Snort!)

I've always wanted one of these Nordic Style hats with the ear flaps, so I made myself one out of Yarn from sheep grown and spun in Michigan. I finished this on March 12, 2018.

Blue Jean Socks. I've done this pattern, originally from a Threads Knitting Magazine many years ago, several times in different colors, Ivory, black, gold. This time I thought it would make good Blue Jean socks. I finished these on Aug. 6, 2018.

My friend Laura said that my Sock drawer must be eye candy. So I obliged her by taking a photo of my finished socks all splayed out on my quilt.
I am hoping to finish more socks in this coming year, but also more quilts and more one-time knitting and crochet projects as well as writing projects.  I will update a project list on the sidebar of this blog and I will endeavor not to add to it until I have completed at least half of it!!!  That's the goal anyway!

Wish me luck!

What I've been doing instead of projects

Writing books, publishing them myself and selling them at art fairs, that's what I've been doing with all my free time!  Actually, it's not my free time any more it's now my career!  So take that!  This is a picture I took of my booth at the Elk Rapids Art fair last spring.  I've done four events now and I have three more this fall.  The goal is to not only get my books into readers hands, but also to get my name into the public as well.  So it's working!

In the mean time, I've also been cleaning out the stash of fabric, the stash of unfinished projects, especially piecing projects which I am no longer in love with.  Sitting there for hours just feeding tiny pieces of fabric endlessly through a sewing machine.  No thanks, not me any more!  I'm also getting rid of all my embroidery projects, especially cross stitch, and all of my basketry supplies although I still have about 10-15 baskets I still want to do.

Same goes for the Scrap booking projects.  I have about fifty pages that I still need to fill and the stuff for about three times that amount to make pages with.  No more.  I'm going to plan out the pages that I still want to do and put them in the page sleeves and then finish them a page or two at a time as the mood hits.  Then all of the rest of the stuff is going to get donated.  There is a cool place in town now where you can donate crafty things, It's called Scraps, and they will take anything craft related.  They are going to get a lot of my stuff.  And I'm going to buy yarn there!  They sell things for a fraction of retail!

So, between Scraps and finishing projects, I will soon be down to one basket of yarn next to my chair from which I will make continuous endless socks.  And maybe the odd afghan.  And all of the storage problems in my house will be solved.

This week I cleaned out my white cabinet in the back room to remove all unwanted items for the Scraps box.  Now the only things in there are tools and glues and some odd pieces of stuff that I felt I could keep for a while longer.

I am putting together "gift boxes" with cut pieces, scraps, old projects, and odd stuff that won't sell at my craft sales.  These gift boxes are going to be giveaways at the Dixboro retreat in October.  We will make it into a game of steal the gift you want.  Then for sure I will be rid of all of it, except for one thing, and I will be forced to keep that one thing, project or whatever.  Which is why I added one of my books to the mix.  I can keep stealing that back and if I end up with it, I can always sell it later.  It's actually a no lose situation for me because if I end up with one of the other gifts I will give it away anyway, and someone else has my book to read.  It's all Good!

Most of the gift boxes will have projects that I had planned for the block of the month project at the guild, so it all works out after all.  I'll be rid of it all and won't have to think about it again.

That's all that's new on this juncture.  I'll post again after the retreat to show pictures of the quilt tops I finished while I was there.

Dumping Ground for all my Pinterest photos!

Afghan Fever

Yes, it's that time of year again. Winter is great for not just curling up under a cozy afghan, but if you happen to be making it at the same time, BONUS! Here are some that I made within the last two years.

In a previous post I showed the Sherbert Afghan that I made for a friend who kept giving me yarn. Well, that got me started on a quest to make something out of all the yarn she gifted me. These next few afghans are the result of that. Of course, I wasn't able to finish a couple of them, so had to go out and buy more yarn. Then found more at yard sales and thrift shops, so now, OK, you get the picture.

This last one is not finished yet. It's all Single crochet with size G hook, and I just can't seem to make any headway on it. It's all bright colors but it's just going to be slow going. It will be a striking piece though once it's finished.

I have plans for all of the leftover yarn as well. I got this idea from the Medtech at the coumadin clinic, Heidi, who has a booth at local craft fairs and sells these wonderful big crocheted tote bags. Mine are a little smaller than the ones she makes but they are great for storing thing. I use a size I hook and literally any weight of yarn. I often use two or three strands together depending on the weights involved. I can get rid of leftover sock yarn, sport or DK weight along with the Worsted weight. I've also added wool with the acrylics, because they are just tote bags, you don't ever have to wash them. They make great project bags.

Finishes for this summer

I spent the summer in Marquette with my mother, making baskets on her front porch. She hated it! It was such a mess! I loved it. I was out there everyday just weaving my little heart out. This is the booth that resulted at the Interlochen Farmer's Market.

A friend in Marquette, Caroline Scott, once she discovered that I loved scrap yarn, put together a full garbage bag of it for me. I was trying to figure out what to make with it when I looked at it again and decided that all of it went together. So I make her an afghan out of it. I think it turned out delicious looking. All these sherberty colors.

This was one of my major applique projects. I was able to finish all the blocks for it before I went to Marquette and get the top done. I love the look of it. So I figured I'd share it here even though it's not quilted yet.

And speaking of not yet quilted, another! This is the perfect pie crust quilt from the latest tinner project. I was inspired to get the top done as usual, but it takes more than inspiration to get it layered and quilted. That takes perspiration!

I seem to be collecting a lot of extra yarn these days. So I'm making Knitted and crocheted afghans, socks, Christmas socks, mittens, hats, and whatever else I can think of just to get rid of it. I'll get out the camera and take some pictures before I give them all away at Christmas time. Oh well, maybe too late for some of those.

First in a long line!

I realize this is not a quilt. But I have been finishing a lot of yarn projects lately as well. I once saw a picture in a magazine of a bunch of white throws piled together on the end of a couch and thought they looked so neat, with all their various textures. I wanted a similar pile for my couch. Oops, I don't even have a couch. But I will soon be getting rid of a lot of the furniture I have in this house in favor of a daybed that can be used as an extra sleeping place for a guest. So that's what I have in mind. A bunch of white and off-white throws to go on a daybed in my livingroom. I'll finish some quilting project for tomorrow now. Stay tuned! Cindy

Still Trying!

This year, I'm going to focus on finishing as many quilting projects as I can. I am now a writer and as such I need to focus mostly on my writing career, but I still have this hobby taking up a lot of space in my house, if not my head! So I need to finish off these projects once and for all. I already have plans on how I am going to get rid of a few of them. I have one gold charity quilt on my list that I think I need not finish. If I simply give it to our charity group it will get done in some way shape or form. I'm thinking that there might be a few others I can get rid of in that way as well. So that will be one piece of progress that I'll report on after the next guild meeting. I plan to do these things piece mail (so to speak)(GRIN). My goal is to get one major portion of each project done daily after spending the first three hours of each day on my writing career. I will choose one project from the lists at the right and I will set a goal to finish at least one major step in the process of finishing that project. For example: For the Lone Star quilt, I already have the strips cut for the star points, so the next step is to sew each individual point together. I have that job nearly half way finished already so that would make an easy finish. Once that is finished the next step would be to put them together into a star and add the corner squares and triangles. Then the next step would be to cut and attach the borders. My focus at the moment is to finish the piecing of these quilts. So I would stop there and let the quilt sit in the box I have for finished quilt tops. Eventually I intend to match up these quilt tops front to back and machine quilt them, that way I have two-sided quilts. It gets rid of the projects twice as fast. I'm not worried about this method. I already have plenty of quilts for my beds and my family all have a quilt made by me with few exceptions (and I'm taking care of those this year too). So that's the goal! Once these last four lists are all empty and gone, I will start with the machine quilting and binding. Those are my favorite steps so I will enjoy them when they get here later on this year. I will post nightly (I hope) with my progress. Watch as my lists disappear into the cosmos and more finished quilts ready themselves for the 2014 quilt show in Traverse City Michigan. More on that later! Have fun, friends. I know I will! Cindy K.-K.

Recent Finishes, 2012-2013 Retreats

Cat ISpy Quilt. Someone asked how many different cat fabrics are in this quilt. I have no freaking idea! But it's more than 100! There are 500 individual hexagons in this quilt and all are bordered with triangles with little muddy cat paw prints. I ran out of this great print when I did the last few rows that made it long enough. I plan to border it in a black print and paint more bigger muddy cat prints on the borders. If I take it to the next retreat I will easily get it done. It's such a huge quilt that need the table space available at retreats to do it. Can't do it at home, not enough space.

Japanese Circles This was a hand applique quilt. I'm not sure if it's finished. I would have to find the exact right fabric for it if I were to add a border. Not sure it needs it. I am taking opinions!

Haunted Log Cabin Another in my long line of Halloween quilts in my effort to declutter my stash of Halloween fabrics. I am almost there!

Mended Purple Hearts One of the designs from Quiltlynx Designs. I got this quilt finished and set it in shop in order to sell some of the patterns. People started noticing it and wanting a class in this technique. So now we have an on-going Block of the Month class where they make the heart block the first month and then each month after that they machine quilt two or three of the hearts using a different free-motion fill in stitch from Leah Day's Free-motion project blog.

Embroidered Halloween Quilt I found this cute little quilt in a magazine and needed to do it at once. It also used some of the Halloween fabric stash, but the fun part was the hand embroidery using Pearl Cotton number 8. Hadn't done that in ages!

Batik Lady of the Lake Another quilt I've been wanting to do for a long time. This uses those watery colored batiks to perfection. So much fun to make. I now wish I had made it even bigger. I need to add borders to make it into a full sized bed quilt.

Mended Heart of Sandyhook At a gathering of some quilting friends recently we all commented on how deeply we were struck by the tragedy at Sandyhook Elementary. We decided to make this quilt for them. They are going to be using it as a fundraiser for their school.

Zentangle Families "150 Sister" is a tribute to my friend Karen who died of Ovarian Cancer. When she told the nurse who was allowed to come see her in the hospital she told her to just let everyone through because she had 150 Sisters. She meant the 150 members of our Quilt quild! Zentangle Families is another Quiltlynx design available at Interquilten. (See my links at right)

Tangle BOM Last and probably least, is this Thangle Block of the Month. This was the first BOM that we did at the shop. We have learned a little more about it now! I liked this color option so I added some colors of my own to make it more mine. But I got it done! That's the important part.

I will post again as soon as I am able to get pictures taken of what I did in February.--Cindy