Project 2016 - Revival - Painting Again

I am painting again!! This time it is my beautiful DD's room. She was 12 years old when we moved into the house that we live in now. There were two rooms for her and her brother, one green and blue and one pink. She got the pink. When I say pink -- I don't mean a pale, off white, iced pink...I mean a bright, almost hot pink.

I am not sure that the picture captures the intensity of the pink, but it was somewhat overwhelming and headache inducing for me!

DD left behind her bedding, so I took one of the pillow shams from her animal print comforter set to Lowe's and picked two colors out of it for the walls.
The colors are 2007-10C Coconut Milk and 2007-7C New Haven Clay in an eggshell finish. However, you will not see either of those colors in the picture on the left. That is because, I was not sure that I could cover that pink. So I selected Valspar's High-Hiding Primer as the first coat. It worked great and the pink is completely covered in one coat of this primer. Next week, I will begin painting the colors I selected.

I am really looking forward to having an adult bedroom for my DD and her new husband to stay in when they come for Thanksgiving.

Happy painting!!

Throwback Thursday - Butterfly Kisses

This is a baby quilt that I did in 2010 for a colleague's baby girl. A simple 16 patch with circles at all the intersections. The circles were attached with Pellon Wonder-Under Paper-Backed Fusible Web - (one of my favorite quilting techniques) and then machine blanket stitched.

Once I got past how to make the circles -- I used a compass and butcher paper, the quilt came together really quickly. The materials were pretty and spring like and it still makes me happy to look at it.

Giving a quilt to someone's baby is a real joy -- evidence is here!

Happy quilting!!!

Throwback Thursday - Well Used/Loved Quilt

This is actually one of my very favorite quilts! It is the quilt that has been on my bed for eight years. It is 110" by  120" and fits as a topper on my king size bed. For this beautiful Log Cabin, I followed the pattern almost down to the letter....the only difference was I added an additional fabric from the same Moda palatte that was not in the original pattern.

I had Gina Elias from Princeton Illinois (?) quilt this beauty and I was very happy with the feathering and checkerboard design that she did freestyle on her long arm.

Happy quilting!!

The Better To See You With...

I am working on a new project -- something for me this time. After the Chicago winter last year; the 40 below temperatures we had; and predictions that this winter will be even worse, I am making myself a hooded scarf. There were a handful of patterns for them in Ravelry and I decided on Little Red Riding Hood--a free pattern by Lion Brand Yarn.

This pattern has an interesting stitch called Granite Relief Stitch. I swear that I have seen it before under another name, but could not find it. (If you know what it is please comment below and stop my wondering!) The pattern is highly textured but not one that you could knit brainlessly while watching television. While I have not yet made any errors which required serious 'tinking', I have had to count my stitches on a regular basis.

The texture of the pattern and the complexity of it both come from the fact that one row of the four row repeat decreases by nearly half of all the stitches with a k2tog -- then on the next row increases back up with kfb. The k2tog has already started my index finger aching as I tend to grab the yarn with the fingernail while I slip the needle under both stitches.

The yarn that I am using is Knit Picks Full Circle in Cardinal colorway. It is a worsted weight 100% yarn which is from recycled fibers. It is a nice red which leans towards purple as opposed to orange. The yarn is pretty "sticky". I have had to tink back a few stitches and it isn't a clean trip back. This would make a great felting yarn. I just hope I don't have real problems keeping straight on the pattern or this scarf will be a mess.

Happy Knitting!

Throwback Thursday -- Tobacco Road

This was a HUGE bed quilt that I made for one of our sons. It is about a queen sized quilts and is done in 3 different versions of black and brown -- Tobacco colors.

The colors were definitely manly which is what I was going for.

This quilt was completed in 2008 and the pictures were taken with an old camera, so it was hard to get good definition.

The piecing was a real bear and seemed to take forever. My DD spent a lot of time with the rotary cutter helping me get it done.

Happy memories!

Tale of a Giant Hat

DH's San Francisco Giants hat was a really fun and easy knit. I could have gotten it done much faster but for time. Time busy doing other things (when I would rather be knitting) and time spent unknitting almost 1/2 of the design grid. Somehow, I accidentally created an increase and had an extra stitch that I did not notice for quite sometime. This is a good enough reason to count your stitches every couple of rows as counting takes less time than unknitting!

As an aside, my husband was upset with my last post. He said ,"Giants are an NL club so there is no DH in San Francisco." I guess in his mind DH can only mean Designated Hitter...oh darling husband of mine.

I will try to post the grid to my patterns page in a day or two if you have your own SF Giants DH!

Happy knitting!

Throwback Thursday -- Remember the Inheritance?

Remember this? I am slowly connecting all the squares to finish someone else's project. I figure I will do a large sofa pillow, but it is hard to do. After all the white of the wedding dress, it is even hard to do off-white!

 

I am working on two nine patch sides. I figure when I get done connecting all of them - which could be done in an afternoon if I could concentrate - I will connect them with a brown or some other color. As long as it isn't too close to white.

Happy Crocheting!