Dear True Love

Dear True Love Socks:

It's not you, it's me.

Our relationship got off to a rocky start. First, I did the toe with the wrong sized needles, and had to do it over. After I got started, things seemed to go smoothly.

You became my mindful knitting project, something that I needed to think about, not just knit away on blindly. You taught me some new things. I learned "Judy's Magic Cast On". I started doing my cables without a cable needle. I used 2 circular needles, instead of 5 dpn's. I watched youtube videos, when the instructions for the heel weren't completely clear to me.

I finally finished the heel and started the leg. I have been looking at you, thinking that you don't look like my foot. Since I bought this yarn to make socks for me, I thought they should look like my foot. So today, I tried you on.

You are much too wide for my foot. My dainty little foot just swims in this sock. I checked the tension before I started, and it was dead on, so I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

So I think it is time we said good bye. I am going to frog you this afternoon (that sounds gentler than rip out). Perhaps, someday, I will alter the pattern, or make socks for someone with a foot  your shape. But, for now, it is good bye. And really, it isn't you, it's me.

Love, Kate

Cathedral Windows

I am fortunate to have made friends with a number of very accomplished quilters. One of these lovely ladies volunteered to come and run a workshop for the ladies from the church quilt group.

We had originally scheduled this workshop for about a month ago, but we had to cancel, because of snow. When we went to reschedule, the instructor was planning to be golfing, and many of the ladies were sure they would be gardening. I told them all that I had ordered a morning of rain, clearing by about 2 in the afternoon. Surprise, that was exactly the weather we had today.

So, we spend a cool, rainy morning, making cathedral windows, two ways.

This was the instructor's sample.

The project is a thread catcher, with a weighted pin cushion.

I took some pictures of the pin cushions, during coffee break.

It is amazing how different everyone's fabric is.

By the end of the class, everybody had a nearly completed project, with just a small amount of sewing left to be done.

Of course, mine was brighter than the others.

And, of course, it had a touch of purple!

Thanks, Lynda, for a really fun morning!

An Afternoon With Hilary Rice

Well, actually, I had an afternoon with Hilary's exhibit, called Rare Reflections. currently in display (but only until Sunday) at the Mississippi Mills Textile Museum.

Cathedral Woods - Picture from the Artist's Website

Her work is wonderful. She uses a variety of materials, and techniques, put together to make these incredible works of art. I have seen her work on her web site and I even have a couple of her patters, which I have been too chicken busy to try.

If you want to see more of her work, check out her web site, Mother Earth Studios.

Maritime Cutie

Karen's Maritime Beauty pattern, that I made at retreat, lead to scraps. The scraps led to another inspiration, I call Maritime Cutie.

It is a postcard, 4" x 6". I used a half size copy of Karen's pattern, and fused it to the card. I was not crazy enough to try and paper piece those tiny pieces.

I hope you like it, Karen.

Serve Others - Part II

The Serve Others banner is together, hung and dedicated! I was still frantically sewing the binding on at 1 PM yesterday and I needed to hang it before 6 PM.

Here is how it looked at 2:30.

A closeup of the banner:

The members of the group traced their hands on Heat and Bond and fused the hands onto a background square. After I sandwiched the squares with batting and batting, and serged around them, they all quilted around their hands with 6 strands of embroidery floss. They added trims, sequins, beads, or buttons to make the blocks their own. I then added the sashing, and the borders with the words. The young women in the group were amazed at how wonderful their blocks looked, set into a quilt.

I had such fun, helping them learn something about the needle arts, while creating this. Perhaps some of them will do more, later.

Lessons learned:
1. When working with young people assume that it will take twice as long as you expect, then double that number.
2. These young people were at an age when "can't" hasn't fully entered their vocabulary, so they would gamely try anything I asked them to do.
3. Modern 15 yo's do not know how to sew on a button.

I hope they give me the opportunity to make another banner with them. The 100th anniversary of CGIT is in 2015. Maybe if we start the banner in September...