a{nother} new hobby

As if I need another one . . .



I wanted to try to my hand at spinning yarn, so my mother-in-law gave me a drop spindle and spinning supplies for Christmas.  So in my spare time, I've been working on creating my own yarn.  I spun two singles out of two 1/4 ounce Corridale rovings: toffee and chestnut.  Then I plied them together to even them out a little and see what would happen.  I ended up with a fall-ish thick and thin that was more fun to make than I expected.

I'm not sure what I will do with this one since I only have maybe 5 yards, but I am interested to see how it knits up.

fabulous new notions

I just received these in the mail from my sister, Laura!  What a lovely girl.  She sent them as a pre-thankyou for all the items she requested lately (her 28th birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks and there are about 10 things on her wish list).  But really, I feel like I'm the only one making out in this deal because not only do I have an excuse to buy new fabric and make stuff, I get a ton of new accessories to use!

Each of these supplies was purchased on Etsy.  These YKK zippers are sold by kandcsupplies.  They have an assortment of colors and sizes for about $0.50 each.  The scottie dog appliques and swivel clasps came from twpmango.  There are all kinds of different swivel clasps and appliques on that site.  I just might have to take a visit myself.

fabric for donation quilts

I just wanted to post briefly about the fabric I picked up for two of the Project Night Night quilts that I will be making this month.  I decided to assemble four bags instead of two, each containing a blanket, an age-appropriate book, and a stuffed animal.  These bags are destined for a local homeless shelter to offer comfort to the children staying there.

I am pretty disappointed that I missed this section at JoAnn's when I was picking out fabric for Logan's quilt.  It's a small section labeled "Juvenile Prints" and there isn't much to it, but I found the two lovely prints in the middle along with a few robot and dinosaur prints.  Logan would have gone nuts over the dinosaur prints!  Oh well, I guess I will just have to make him a bed size quilt or pillow or something else with those.

I haven't quite nailed down the technique I will be using to put the quilts together.  But since these two will each contain two layers of cotton fabric with batting sandwiched in the middle, I think it's safe to call them quilts.  I will look for something a little quicker for the next two, but I have time to quilt these.

craft supply score in michigan

When we went to Michigan last week to visit family for the holidays, I didn't take any crafting materials with me.  I don't get to see my family or my inlaws that often so I decided to concentrate on spending time with them.  But as I mentioned in my previous post, I did teach my self to knit--I can't stand being "unproductive" for too long.

But another thing that I thought would help satisfy my craft addiction was to visit a few fabric stores.  I found a quilting store online just down the road from my inlaws.  This was my first trip to a quilting store, so it was a bit overwhelming (not to mention more expensive than I'm used to paying at JoAnn's but I expected that).

After about 40 minutes, here is what I came out with . . .

The green fabric was cut from the bolt, but I can't remember the designer.  The others are fat quarters.  I bought the green and blue fabrics with the intention of making a carrier for the Wii, but now I think they will make a much better knitting bag for me.  The brown and pink I bought to make myself a purse.

I also found this fabric.  Again it's a fat quarter, so I don't know the designer.

My sister, Laura, loves stuff like this.  I'll figure out something.

Our trip to see my family also paid off quite well.  Instead of hitting a quilting store there, I decided just to visit Hobby Lobby.  There would be something for everyone there. 

This is the loot . . .

The large cuts of fabric are for my dad's Stars & Stripes quilt.  I the remnants are for a bib for a friend having a baby soon and the ribbon is just for fun--it was 50% off.

My mom then asked me to go through her bins of fabric and take what I wanted to reduce her stash.  Man, that's the ultimate request.

I did find a few large cuts that she bought for a purpose and never used.  The others were scraps, many at least half a yard.  In addition to these fabrics shown, I also scored some solids including lots of versitile black.

My great (and perhaps great-great) grandma gave my mom some fabric many, many years ago that she never did anything with.  I took most of that, too.  Some of it I would never have picked out myself, but it might look nice in small chunks, like in a quilt or something.  I am also not one to pass up free fabric because I can always use it to practice new designs.

And these were my great grandmothers which will come in handy someday . . .

She also gave me all of this to support my newest medium . . .

and these, which will save me a ton of money . . .

Now I really need a knitting bag!  So a special Thank You goes out to my mother who gave me the supplies to keep me interested in sewing, knitting, and crocheting for long time--at least until our next trip to Michigan.