Peas In A Pod

Bias Beauty Shawl/Scarf Pattern Review

You might remember back in April, I blogged that I was casting on a new knitting project.  Well, I couldn't say it then, but I was knitting a shawl for my mom for her birthday.  Well, Hell must have frozen over, because I actually finished it on time for her birthday!  Mark it in your calendars, friends, because it's a first!  LOL

The pattern is called Bias Beauty Shawl.  I wish I could give you a link to the pattern, but it was a one-page sheet I got at The New Ewe yarn and quilt shop in Newaygo, MI a while back.  I am thinking it may be a pattern someone at the store wrote up.  If you want to get hold of the pattern, maybe you could try contacting them.  Sorry!

And here it is hanging over the railing of my brother's lakehouse deck.  I really love it.  You can see how it hangs at an angle.  It's knit on the bias.  I have never knit anything on the bias before.  Truthfully, I'm not sure how it happened, because it just felt like regular knitting, but I sure like the way it hangs.

Here is a close up of the pattern.  (You might also be able to see the little flecks of gold from the strand of gold metallic thread that is embedded into the yarn.)  Again, you can see now the stitches go at an angle.  The stitch is really pretty easy and produces this very open, lacey effect.  Somewhere during this, I tried to knit a lacey cowl with fingering weight yarn.  I tell you, I ripped that baby out four times and finally gave up.  I am not sure knitting lacey stuff is for me!  But, I can attest, if you haven't been successful with lace before, this pattern might be for you.  It was easy to follow, easy to execute, and still gave the lacey look.  I would highly recommend this pattern as an introduction to lace-type work, if you haven't done much with lace before.

Here is the ruffle edge, which I just love.  This is such an interesting shawl to knit.  You start at each end and begin knitting at this ruffle edge.  You knit to the center back, move your stitches to a stitch holder, and start again from the other end.  Then, you join them in the center.

Here is my beautiful mother on her 70th birthday, modeling the shawl.  It should be great for this Florida resident who is always cold when she is in air conditioning.

Here is the back.  You can see where it's seamed together.  I didn't do the greatest job on the eam, if you ask me.  I had a few problems that resulted from poor planning on my part (i.e., not leaving myself enough yarn on the edge to do the kitchner stitch all the way accross!  I had to start from each end and work my way to the middle.  Sheesh!).  But it looks fine!

Mom also like wearing it as a scarf like this.

Back view when worn as a scarf.

We also liked the scarf worn this way.  Happy birthday, Mom!  Hope you liked it.  I enjoyed knitting it so much, I'm going to knit one for myself in a champaigne color.

I really enjoyed knitting this and would recommend the pattern to anyone.  I'm off to list this project as COMPLETED on Ravelry.

A true confession before I leave you....I had both halves of this done about 2 months ago.  For some reason, though, I waited until two days before I had to leave for New Hampshire to sew the two halves together and block it.  Why do I do things like that???!!!  I am such a dork sometimes!

And by the way, just so you know, I am sitting outside as I write this.  It's a warm evening, and I'm sitting in the shade, drinking a glass of wine, eating some cheese and crackers (no, it's not on my diet....leave me alone), watching Sweet Pea blow up water balloons and talk to the dog and cat.  It's a very pleasant evening!  Let's just hope I don't get pelted by water balloons!!

Catch you all soon!

Until next time,

New Hampshire and Gruber's Happies

Hi Everyone!  Sorry I've been gone so long!  I was having so much fun in New Hampshire (Lake Winnipesaukee)  that I just didn't do any blogging.  Then I was out of town again for work.  So, now I find myself trying to catch up (again!).  I know I am behind on responding to some of your comments!  So sorry!

When in New Hampshire, we did a lot of this:

(Kids jumping off my brother's dock...)

And this:

(Sweet Pea and I "tubing."  Also, I got up on the wakeboard!  Woo hoo!)

And this:

(Anchoring the boat in a cove on the lake so the kids could swim and the adults could relax.)

And this:

(Having a couple of drinky-poos on the boat with my brother, sister, and SIL.)

And this:

(We took the cog railway train up to the peak of Mt. Washington.  This photo is "gray" because we were up in the clouds!  The weather was horrible at the peak!)

And this:

(More boating and generally having a great time.)

And this:

(Going out for evening boat rides to watch the sunset.)

I love how this photo turned out.

The sunsets were truly awesome.  I had fun playing with the settings on my camera to see what produced the best photos.  I think I took about 500 photos over the course of the week.

One of the highlights of my trip was getting to meet Amy Friend of During Quiet Time blog.  (She is such a shrimp, I felt gargantuan next to her!  And I'm only 5'3"!  I have got to get back on my diet!  How cute is she?!)  She emailed me when I blogged I was in New Hampshire and said I might not be that far away.  So, my dad (who is always up for exploring) and I made a road trip to her town.  Dad went exploring the town, while Amy and I went for frozen yogurt with her two adorable kids and just ahd a chance to talk.  I had a great time meeting her.  Her kids are so cute, I could just eat them up!  I hope we can get together again sometime when I am there to see my brother again.  She even gave me a little something, which I'll blog later.  She is so sweet.  I wish I had had something to gift to her.  I will have to start thinking of something.  Hmmm......

It was a great trip, and then it was back to reality and work.  I still owe you all a post on my Happies from the Gruber's retreat.  So, here they are.  I am so lucky to have such wonderful friends!

Here was my Happy for everyone else.  I packaged up three of the Lavender Sachets I made into a cellophane bag, and I made this treat topper on my printer and Silhouette cutter.

I found the flower, lettering, and background "paper," which I thought all matched the Lucy's Crab Shack fabric wonderfully, at Lettering Delights' website.  Awesome.  I designed the topper myself, and even set my cutter to cut out around the white part of the flower.  So, all I had to do was bend it and staple it on.  I was really proud of myself for learning how to do that!

Amanda Jean gave me this cute little thread catcher.  I adore it.  I love the colors, and pinwheels are just my fave!!!

Michelle gave me this wonderful door hanger--what a hoot!  And some cool Mardi Gras fabric!

From Rene', a little bundle of joy....

Rene' is from Florida, so some really "Florida" fabrics, and some pretty stinkin' awesome chocolates!

Terri gave me a zipper pouch made from her own fabric, designed on Spoonflower.com.  If you want some of Terri's fabrics, here is where you can get them.

I love attention to detail, like Terri's logo patch inside the pouch.  The inside fabric and logo are also designed by Terri.

Doris gave me another cool zipper pouch with a clear vinyl front.  I love the label on the front.  The sewing machines you see are the lining inside.  Just awesome!

It has been a pretty wonderful and Happy summer!  No complaints here!  Thank you to my friends for such wonderful gifts!  I adore them all!

Hope your summer is a blast, too!

Until next time,

 

More on May Baskets, Making Gift Tags, Giveaway

Hope you all had a wonderful May Day!  I was surprised to see that many of you had not heard of May Day or celebrated May Day with giving May baskets.  Isn't it funny how your family/culture can have a tradition, and you just assume everyone else has it, too?  :-)  If you are interested in learning more about May Day and its origins, click here to visit the wikipedia site.  Basically, it is a pagan holiday that celebrates spring, fertility, and the like.  The wikipedia page says that the tradition of leaving a May basket has been fading since the early 20th century.  I forgot that if one gets caught giving a May basket, a kiss must be given!  Good thing I forgot about that, because as you will see, Sweet Pea got busted a few times!

We went to one of Sweet Pea's friend's house and hung their baskets on the mailbox.  She rang the bell while I hid behind a bush.

Sweet Pea ran and hid behind a bush.

And quick as a wink, she came out, because she could hardly stand it!

Her friend seemed happy to receive her little gift.

Baby brother liked his a lot, too. How cute is he?

Couldn't get a decent photo of middle brother.  He's one of my favorite kids....and he's ALL BOY!  He was either moving too fast or had his mouth stuffed with candy and made faces at me!  LOL.  Good thing I had forgotten about the kissing rule, or Sweet Pea would have owed some kisses!

We made a few more deliveries, too.  She came out of the bushes at the next house, too.  But we did have them fooled for a while!  At the last two houses, no one was home.  So, their's was definitely a surprise.  It was a lot of fun!

Did you notice the cute gift tags we made?  They were also fun to make.  I do a little consulting each year, and my rule for myself is I can spend about a third of it on a little splurge for myself...something I wouldn't otherwise spend so much money on.  The rest I put into savings for that long arm.  (I like spending it on something for myself, though.  It helps me feel like my extra work was worth something!) 

Image from http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/

With my extra moola, I bought some new embroidery software, and it came with a really nice new cutter called a Silhouette Cameo.  Sweet Pea and I designed these tags, printed them on our printer, and then had the machine cut them all out.  We also had it cut out the orange piece of cardstoc and taped the flower to it.   The machine even cut the hole for the string.  I used this wonderful video tutorial at Under a Cherry Tree blog to make the tag.  I'm going to have fun with this cutter.  I am going to use it to design and cut applique shapes, too.  You'll probably hear more about it in the not-too-distant future.

I found these nice perle cottons that matched the fabric to tie the gift tags on.  Don't you just love this color combination?  I will tuck these away to use fo rmore projects in the near future.

Before I leave you, I need to share one more May Day idea with you...  You know how I am participating in the Aurifil Designer of the Month sitcheries?  Well, check out the May stitchery:

Photo used with permission from Thimbleanna.

Look at this adorabe May pole stitchery!  I just love it!  It was designed by Thimbleanna, and the free pattern for the stitchery can be found on the Aurifil website.  But if you go to Thimbleanna's blog post about it, you can see that she made the little stitchery into a May basket and filled it with flowers.  May baskets are traditionally filled with flowers and/or sweets.  So, if you prefer, you can make a May basket and fill it with pretty flowers to give away.  I think this May basket is adroable and will definitely be making one as a May day decoration for our house.  I love it!  Thank you, Thimbleanna for this beautiful design and for allowing me to show your photograph!

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY....

Because I ordered three kits for the Heart Cone project, I have three copies of the pattern.  I am giving one to a friend.  But, I'm going to hold a giveaway for the other.  If you would like to win the Heart Cone pattern that I used to make my May baskets, just leave a comment.  I'll draw a name on Monday, May 7 and send the winner a copy of the pattern.  Good luck!

EDIT:  THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.  THE WINNER WAS LYNN!  CONGRATUATIONS LYNN!

Well, tomorrow I'm off to Wisconsin for the big Sewing Weekend at Nancy's Notions.  I will be staying with my SIL, Linda (SisLH).  I probably won't have a post for you until I get back.  Have a great weekend!

Until next time,

 

Cupcakes, anyone?

Okay....Typepad did it again.  Lost my post again!  At least this time I was only partially through it! Gonna try again!

I have a confession.....I haven't had much sewing time lately.  You may have already guessed that.  What little time I have had, I've been working on some projects for The Quilted Fish.  I can't show them yet.  But I'm really excited about some stuff with her.  I can't wait to show you.  But it will have to wait a bit more.  Patience, my precious.

So, in the meantime, I may need to have a couple of "non-quilty" posts.  Can you bear with me through those?  I'm hoping that you may still find some inspiration in the posts....

I'd like to share a couple of fun things with you from my trip to Florida.

While I was in Fort Myers, I went shopping one day with my mom, dad, and Sweet Pea.  I went shopping for a dress for the gala I went to, and I bought the dress I was wearing in this blog post.  After a full day of shopping, Sweet Pea had asked if she could get some ice cream.  We saw a sandwich board on the sidewalk that said "ice cream" and was pointing down this little sidewalk.  We walked down that sidewalk and found this adorable shop.

Check out these wonderful looking cupcakes!  The vanilla ones look so pretty, don't they?!  I love turquoise.

Mmmmm....chocolate and peanutbutter (said like Homer Simpson saying, "mmmmm.....beer").  They had a peanutbutter cup in the middle!  Honest!

So many good choices!  Cupcakes sure are the rage these days!  My dad was entranced.  We brought 4 cupcakes home for dessert.  The owner went in the back and found us some more Caramel Mudslides. It's no wonder I've gained back some of the weight I had lost.  :-(  Gotta get back on the diet.

They did have ice cream, too.  Really good ice cream!  I tried to get a nice photo of Sweet Pea, but she was not very cooperative.

The whole shop was adorable.  Don't you love the turquoise walls and the polka dots on the menu?  I really loved this light fixture over the cupcakes.  I wish you could see the furniture they had.  The chairs were these really cute clear plastic, modern-looking chairs.  And the tables were stainless steel.  My dad was talking to the gal behind the counter.  She was one of the owners.  She told us they had only been open TWO days!  Wow!  I hope they make a great go of it!

They had some cute little serving stuff for sale, too.  I loved this platter.  Don't you love that saying?!  (If you can't read it it says, "My age?  If I was wine, you couldn't afford me.")

And how about this one?  I sort of wish I had bought these.  They would be fun for serving at parties.  (This one says, "To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites!")

And how about these cute, cute, cute towels?  That should give you some inspiration right there!

This was a fun day in so many ways.  Some good, quality family time, a new dress, and something yummy for the tummy.  I am missing my mom and dad as I write this.

Anyway, if you are ever in Fort Myers, you should visit this cute little shop.  It's called Grace and Shelly's Cupcakes.  (Click the link for locations and information about the shop.)  Stop in and show them some love.  You won't be sorry.  Both the ice cream and the cupcakes are AWESOME!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

 

I'm a gifted (but frustrated) girl!

I'm frustrated because....

Last night, I spent an hour writing this post.  I had all the photos and links in.  I pressed "Schedule to Publish," and lost the entire post.  I was so mad!  It's hard to get motivated to rewrite an entire post, you kow?  Okay, here goes.  Do overs.  (I'll try to remember to Save more often this time.)

I'm gifted because....

I am so blessed and grateful to have wonderful friends and family in my life to gift to me now and then.  I have the most wonderful SIL (SisLH) who lives near Nancy's Notions in Wisconsin.  She goes there often and sends me little gifties.  I often don't blog them, because I use them right away.  (Or sometimes Sweet Pea absconds with them.)  I'll have to show you what she sends sometimes.  She's awfully good to me.  I am excited because next weekend, we are going to Nancy Zieman's big Sewing Weekend at Nancy's Notions.  There are all kinds of classes going on....oh, and shopping!  Mostly, I'm looking forward to hanging out with SisLH a little bit.  Should be fun.

The other day, I received a box in the mail.  In it, were my bee blocks from Shelly from Prairie Moon Quilts  (more on those later).  Also in the box was this little quilt.

She said that her modern guild issued a challenge for the members to make something with a heart on it and gift it to a friend they cared about and needed.  Shelly made this and decided I was her friend who needed. it.  Wow!  First, I was honored that she considered me such a deserving friend.  Second, I did kinda need it, what with all my stress lately!  Thank you so much, Shelly!  It's just gorgeous!

There is so much attention to detail on this.  Notice all the little buttons sewn to the ribbon.

And then there are three quotes printed on paper, framed out beautifully, and tied to the quilt.  They are all wonderful, but the last one is my favorite.  I love this quilt.  It will hang in my sewing room.  Shelly, you brought tears to my eyes with this.  I don't know how to thank you.

Then, at Easter, my mom gifted me this figurine.  It's a Jim Shore figurine of a cat.  You might recall I have a nativity scene that is from Jim Shore, which I blogged previously.  I've often thought I'd like to collect his figurines.  I guess Mom agreed that I should and started it for me.  She said she felt a little bad about PJ and the kittens dying.  So, she got me this.  I adore it.  Thank you so much, Mom!!!

I thought maybe he should live here by my African violet.  Sorry the photo isn't so great.  I have done some editing to it (e.g., to crop out that plastic bag that peeking in the corner--grrr), but cannot get it to save when I upload it.  I'm about ready to throw this computer out the window.  Plus, it's operating really slow.  Anyway, I love this cat.  He kind of reminds me of the Cheshire cat.  Doesn't he?

Well, better run.  Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Until next time,

Mama Pea