Wow! I am immensely proud of myself with this one. I had sort of a breakthrough the other day when crocheting in the round finally started to click in my mind, and this was the result. Making a Granny Square was quite satisfying to me, and then I found a book called 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws, and Afghans at the library, so we could be in for some serious crackpottiness here. Not that I needed any more projects, mind you. And did you know there are patterns for making crochet sushi? Oh my…
By golly, it’s a Granny Square!
November 12th, 2009Do comments count?
November 12th, 2009by Ann
Do comments count as NaBloPoMo posts? Of course they do! We are Crackpots and anything goes! So please see my comment on Nancy’s Sesame Street post.
Delinquent Crackpot
November 11th, 2009posted by Ann
Thanks to a high school classmate who asked me in an e-mail about my quilting and whether I have a web site, I checked into our blog for the first time in ages and discovered all sorts of posts, all sorts of news, an impressive number of posts by Nancy, and a new look to the blog. Now I feel like a Delinquent Crackpot. And its NaBloPoMo time, so I will now attempt to make up for my laxness by posting frequently.
One thing I have noticed about the change in the blog administration is that postings are no longer identified by author at the top, which I found a bit confusing at first as I tried to catch up, so I plan to try to remember to alert you all as to who I am at the top of my posts.
More later. Well, tomorrow, to be precise. Gotta keep those NaBloPoMo stats up!
Crochet Samples
November 10th, 2009Well, finally I’ve been able to take a picture of my first few attempts at crochet. These actually are not my very first attempts – those were a bit too messy to post. But after switching from a baby-weight yarn which was both small and slippery, to a regular worsted weight cotton, and after some initial practice, I got a lot better. These are, from top to bottom, single crochet, half double crochet, and double crochet.
I started feeling more confident, so I tried doing a triangle by increasing and by decreasing. The last one is my first attempt at working in the round. It’s supposed to be a triangle, too, but it looks kind of circular to me.
My initial thoughts on crochet: It seems harder to me than knitting but also more interesting, and I think it’s for the same reason. There are more variations and different shapes you can make, which makes it tougher, but I like the variety of results you can achieve. Of course, it may seem harder and more interesting just because it’s new to me. It is a good thing to do when you’re very low on energy and stuck on the couch watching boring TV. I was hoping to get back to some work on the vehicles quilt today but I’m feeling very tired out at the moment, so I may stick to the couch and crochet today.
Sesame Street Turns 40!
November 8th, 2009Ok, so this is neither quilty nor crafty, but when it’s NaBloPoMo and you’ve been sick, you take what you can get! Tuesday November 10, 2009 is Sesame Street’s 40th Birthday! (Andrew just pointed out that Brett Favre is one year older than Sesame Street – I guess that means he’s REALLY old!) I hear Michelle Obama is going to stop by and teach how to plant a garden. Set your TV recording devices if you have one…
Darn those Germs!
November 5th, 2009My second sinus infection in three weeks has taken a toll on both my quilting activities and my NaBloPoMo postings. Sigh! But I am slowly starting to feel a little better and have had enough energy to try a few crochet stitches. (See my comment to Rebecca’s Post.) So far I’ve learned single crochet, slip stitch, and half double crochet. Hopefully in the next few days I’ll have enough energy to take some pictures of my first attempts and post them here.
New Books
November 2nd, 2009Over the weekend we went to visit Grandma Ann and Grandpa Lou. While the boys were happily playing with their grandma, Eric and I had some time to do some browsing at the bookstore. (Memo to Marty: This bookstore also has an enormous collection of beads – you will definitely want to check it out!) I got two new sewing and quilting-related books. The first one is At Home with Patrick Lose. What drew me to it was the plate and utensils placemat in the center of the first row of the cover and the Woven Rainbow quilt on the bottom left. He uses lots of bright colors, which I’m sure is part of what caught my eye. The second book I bought is Sew What! Fleece. It has some cool, simple projects, and of course, you can never have too many ideas for Crackpotty Projects, right?
A Little Something to Start NaBloPoMo
November 1st, 2009I’ve finally gotten around to sewing the buttons on the sweater I’ve made for the baby my friends L and A are having. Today’s the first day he’d be considered to be born on time, so it’s appropriate to finish the sweater, but don’t start thinking “come out, baby” thoughts yet – he’s not allowed to be born until after L and A move to their new house in a week.
The pattern is the famous (at least in knitting circles) Baby Surprise Jacket from Elizabeth Zimmermann – it’s knit in one blobbish piece that magically folds into a cardigan – the only seams are at the shoulders. The yarn is soft superwash merino wool that I bought this summer during my annual yarn store pilgrimmage at All Together Week. The buttons may look familiar to those who’ve seen the sweater I was working on this summer – same style, just a slightly smaller size. Yes, I am in love with those buttons – but in my defense, I did spend a long time selecting them at the fabric store – almost went with some other ones, but they claimed not to be washable. (Hmmm… looks like I haven’t posted about my sweater yet – more NaBloPoMo fodder!).
And, Big Blankie update – all the pieces are done, and I’m working on the assembly process. I’ve got a bunch of sub-blankies sewn together, and all the pieces and subunits have been blocked. I started by washing a bunch of individual pieces and then sewing them together, but then switched to sewing the pieces into subunits before blocking – easier to pin out for blocking, and less likely that I’d get the pieces in the wrong places during assembly. Being done with the blocking means that my large scale blocking surface has been returned to its official purpose: guest room bed, and, when there are no guests present, where I sit while watching TV shows online.
Progress
October 27th, 2009I’m slowly making progress on quilting my Card Trick lap quilt. I’m machine quilting in the ditch, which is pretty easy, except for maneuvering the rest of the quilt around when I need to make a turn to follow the card trick pattern, which is not so easy. Maybe I should have just done an all-over grid pattern! Anyway, it’s quite easy for me to ignore the machine quilting in favor of something else more interesting. So, to try to keep myself plugging away at it, I quilt one block each day before working on other things, and at the end of the day I put my walking foot back on and put the monofilament quilting thread in so that it is all ready for quilting the next block the next day. I have 8 of the 20 blocks quilted so far.
Here’s an update on one of the more fun things I am working on:
I’ve been assembling some of the 9 patch blocks that go around the vehicles print for this 1st birthday quilt. Andrew had fun looking through my scraps and stash with me to pick out colors that go with the colors in the vehicles print. It’s pretty bright – maybe I should put a thin black border between the center print and the 9 patch blocks.
Are Crackpots up for NaBloPoMo this year?
Inspiration!
October 23rd, 2009Over the last few weeks I’ve been pondering what kind of quilt I’d like to do for my friends’ baby’s 1st birthday in December. I don’t have a lot of time to work on it, so I don’t want it to be too complicated. I found a really cute vehicles print at Field’s during the summer, and I know I want that to be the focus fabric. I think cutting it up will take away too much from this great print, so I plan for a big piece of it to be the center of the quilt. Still, I don’t want that to be all – I want to add some piecing or borders or something. So, I’ve been looking through my various quilt books and patterns looking for ideas. Then, the other day, I was looking at Quiltmaker’s web site (which I don’t think is as good as their old one – less content and too difficult to navigate) and found this pattern. Perfect! Or almost – I do plan to make a few changes. I’m changing the number of 9 patch blocks so that my quilt will be rectangular. I have no idea why, but I strongly prefer rectangular baby quilts over square baby quilts. I also changed the size of the squares within the 9 patches from 2″ that the pattern calls for to 2.5″. I have lots of 2.5″ squares from my scraps and that makes the blocks 6″ rather than 4.5″, which struck me as a little small. And I haven’t planned any outer borders outside for the 9 patch because that wouldn’t be nearly crackpotty enough! I’ll post some pictures as things progress.