Christmas Crafting

Wow, it has been a busy month.  I didn't get everything on my schedule finished, but I got what was needed finished. First I basted my Starry Night Christmas Quilt, which is on the schedule to quilt during the rest of Christmas Break.

I also basted the last shirt quilt (which I didn't get a picture of) and my Slide Show quilt.

Next on the list was cutting out the fabrics for a new Christmas Quilt.  I asked my brother if I could have some of his beach photos to hang on my wall, (He takes great Ocean wave and beach shots and sells them on his Surf Report Website, Nimbuss Grand Strand Surfing, under the Seascape Photography link.)  He said he would gladly trade me some of his ocean shots for a Christmas quilt, so I picked out 20 red fabrics, and 20 green fabrics and got cutting.

I actually cut out enough to make a couple different Christmas quilts, but for now I focused on making my brother's quilt. 

 I started turning the squares in to Half Square Triangles and was on a roll laying them out and sewing blocks together when my daughter came down with an illness.  We took her to the hospital a day later when we ruled out a stomach virus, but it was too late, her appendix had burst and she and I had an all exclusive 6 day stay in the hospital.

There wasn't much to do for six days in the hospital other than watch TV and play with our tablets and that got boring after awhile, so I brought my knitting needles along and finished up some Christmas presents.  I knitted 10 dishcloths while waiting things out in the hospital.   I had a few already made from the past couple months, and made a few more the last couple weeks before Christmas for a total of 35.  

(The photo below only has 31.  I mailed four before I thought to stack them all and take a photo.)

I made a total of 9 sets that I gave away for Christmas.

And as always, my pets are always close by when I am crafting.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

=^..^=

Cotton Dishcloths

On my travels this summer I took my yarn with me.  Lots of driving time and relaxing at relatives gave me plenty of time to finish up this set of dishcloths and hot pad.
These are all free patterns I found on the internet.  

Janelle's Star Dishcloth

Double Bump Dishcloth

Starburst Hot Pad

Ball Band Dishcloth

Crochet Flower Dishcloth

Gift for a Friend

I made these dishcloths for one of my friends for Christmas. Two are knitted and the other two are crocheted. I made them earlier in the year but didn't want to post about them until now because I know she checks my blog from time to time.  I didn't want to spoil any surprises.  

It was a good thing I made them earlier this year, because the 4 quilt project I took on in December took up most of my craft time for the month.  It left me with hardly any time to make anything else.  I am still working on one last Christmas project.  I suppose it will have to be a New Year's Gift instead.

~~New Year's Resolution  -  Schedule my time more wisely in the coming year.~~

Playing with Yarn

Over the Holidays, I did a little traveling. Since I couldn't pack up my sewing machine and fabric stash, I decided to bring a small bag of yarn and some knitting needles and a crochet hook.
The first thing I made were these flower hot pads.  They were super quick to make in the car and I ended up giving them all away before I made it back home.  I made a total of 4, but only managed to get a snap shot of 3.  I have to say, I really love the internet and all the quilt blogs I read every morning.  If it wasn't for them I never would have found this pattern.  I started out by clicking on Mary's blog, which is in my blog roll on the right. In one of her posts she had a link to Gari's Blog, which I clicked on and started browsing.





As I scrolled down that page I saw a picture of some items Gari won in a give away and one of those items was a crocheted hot pad.  I immediately fell in love with the design and was even ready to dish out money for the pattern.  Her blog said she got the items from Terri at Purple and Paisley, but there wasn't a link.  So I copied and pasted "Terri at Purple and Paisley" in my Google browser and sure enough Terri's Blog popped up at the top of the list.  I browsed her blog, which is wonderful and full of exciting photos, and after reading many of her older posts,  I finally found the the post where she had made the hot pads, and I must say the photos of her hot pads are most delicious.  But there was no pattern name or link, so I decided to email her, and she most graciously sent me the link to the pattern. The best part is that the pattern is a free pattern on the net.  You can get to it here.

After I made those, I decided I needed to use up the rest of my cotton yarn.  I had already made 4 dishcloths for a friend for Christmas, three knitted ones from a pattern book I own and one crocheted one from this Basket Weave pattern I found on the net.  These four put me in the mood to finish up using some of the cotton yarn I had in one of my bins.  I recalled making a round dishcloth years ago and wanted to make another one, so I googled round knitted dishcloth patterns hoping to find the same pattern I used years ago.







I didn't find the exact pattern I was I was looking for, but I did find lots of new ones.  I even found a basket weave pattern for knitting that I couldn't pass up. I started with that one first and came up with this dishcloth.  After I finished that one, I worked on the round ones.
 














The pattern I decided on for the round ones was the Crazy Daisy. I love this pattern and I love making round dishcloths.  I have one more already started on my needles, I will have to finish that one later though, since I have some quilty projects that have deadlines coming up soon than need attention first.