http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/ en-us sarahminshall@yahoo.com 2010-03-02T17:46:18-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/2010/03/making_a_quilt_takes_forever.html Seriously. It's hard work. FIVE YEARS of work, in fact. It's such an awesome pattern--called Love Beads--and is from the book The Modern Quilt Workshop by Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle of Funquilts. (The book is one of my favorites--it was one of the first things that really sparked my interest in making modern patchwork.) I pieced the top back in the fall of 2004, and started quilting it sometime over that winter. I wanted to be all ambitious with the hand quilting, so I had the brilliant idea to free hand, thin spirals in all the circles. And while it looks GREAT, I burned out on it quickly. It's been sitting, collecting dust and pet fur ever since. It's one of those projects that I felt really guilty about leaving there. I really thought it had the potential to be a fantastic finished quilt, but the idea of hand quilting THAT much....ugh. No thanks. In keeping with my post from a few weeks ago, I've just been trying to weigh out what I REALLY want to be making these days. For the past few years I've focused my energy into making items for craft shows and Etsy, and while I still enjoy doing that, I really came to the conclusion that I've not finished much for myself over that time. Between really slow sales at shows and online (which is depressing when it's all that you foucs on), I decided it was time to get back to quilting circles. And you know what? I enjoyed it. The circles are done, and I'm on to the major task of finishing this bad boy off. I've started marking out my diagonal stripes that will serve as the background. To my surprise, it's moving fast. I'm hoping at this point I can have the quilting finished off by the end of March. It's going to be a stretch, but I think it's possible. That way, no one can tell me that I don't finish what I start. 343@http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/ Quilting 2010-03-02T17:46:18-05:00 http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/2010/02/cough_cough_piece.html So, hey. I just want to say, that if you get bronchitis, it sucks. You cough, and cough and cough and do little else besides cough and sleep. In fact, today was the first day this week that I didn't wear pajamas all day. I even went to work. It was a big day. In fact, I took a picture of my happy bronchitis face. See how happy I am? So, so happy. During my time on the couch this week I've been thinking about wanting to get down to business on some of my projects. I started piecing these blocks over the past summer and due to other projects and craft shows that I did last fall, I never finished them up. Today's plan was to figure out how many I have completed, and how many more I have to go. At this point, I have 23 finished blocks and I'd like to have 40 finished for a 5x8 grid. Each block is about 12 inches square, but even with 40 blocks, I'm not sure about the size. So here's my question for my fellow quilters: Do you always have a set size in mind when making quilts? Part of me is concerned that if I don't at least make it as large as a twin size that it will be useless if I ever decide to use it for something other to cover up with on the couch. Any input into how big you decide to make your quilts would be appreciated. I'm having trouble coming to a decision on what I should do. Hopefully I'll be seeing a little more of my sewing table in the next few days (minus the cough drop wrappers, of course). I'd like to get these blocks tied up so I can do some top piecing here in the next few weeks! 342@http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/ Quilting 2010-02-26T17:00:20-05:00 http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/2010/02/things_that_good_1.html Let me be honest: I'm currently sick and grumpy. I've had a bad cold since last Wednesday and then I lost my voice on Friday. It's now almost a week later and my voice is still nowhere to be found. It really sucks. However, here is a list of things that are currently making me happy: *Watching Curling on the Olympics. I watched an hour of it yesterday in between my napping and I found it completely intriguing. I have no idea what the heck was going on, but boy, I couldn't take my eyes off of it. I need to learn more about it so I can become a hard-core curling fan. *Having a freshly organized shelf of cds. I will be the person who buys cds up until they stop selling them in stores. I just can't get behind the idea of spending money on a downloaded song. I need the cd in my hand so that I can leaf through the liner notes. I'm fuddy like that. *Knitting socks! I ended up going with the green yarn for my socks, and despite several false starts, I'm off and running on the Interlocking Leaves pattern. So far, I'm very happy with them. *Ice cream. 'Nuff said. *And a nap to top it all off! 341@http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/ Knitting 2010-02-18T22:03:39-05:00 http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/2010/02/sock_knitting_as_sport.html I easily get all wrapped up in group projects. Every October I get all riled up to knit only socks for Socktoberfest and then this past November for Vestvember I knit my first actual wearable garment. There's just something fun about knowing that a group of people with a shared hobby are working on the same things you are. So, beginning tomorrow night, I'm going to try knit a full pair of socks for Ravelympics 2010. I want a challenge, but I don't want to knit something so tough that I won't be able to finish. I've pretty much decided that I'm going to knit a something toe-up, which is relatively new skill to me. I had pulled out these five yarns hoping that one of them would inspire me to pick a pattern, but I'm still torn. I'm thinking I'd like to use the green (Dream in Color Smooshy, in Happy Forest) to make the Interlocking Leaves socks. However, I could still persuaded to pick something different. I just can't make up my mind. I can start casting on tomorrow night as the Olympic opening ceremonies begin. I have this feeling that I'll still be having trouble deciding what to make. 339@http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/ Knitting 2010-02-11T16:27:46-05:00 http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/2010/02/picking_back_up.html This little blog is a funny thing for me. I love keeping it. I hate feeling like I have nothing to say. And I would be crushed to end it. But I worry about what I should say. Does anyone really care about what I make? Should I write only about quilting or knitting or both? What if my pictures are lousy? Will anyone leave comments anymore? Ultimately, I've decided that I cannot worry about those things. I cannot worry about whether or not people like what I make, like what I write about, or like the pictures I take. If I want Hip To Piece Squares to live, then I need to keep this blog for me. So this is where I'm beginning at again. I'm working to encourage myself to finish projects that I've started ages ago...not because I NEED to finish them, but because I still love them. They need my attention, and not my anxiety of worrying that they won't be perfect. That's the way that I need to think about this space. I don't need to keep writing because it's something that I need to do, but because it's something that I love. 338@http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/ Life 2010-02-09T17:00:36-05:00 http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/2009/07/what_ive_forgotten_to_say.html Hi. Wanna see what I've been up to in the last month and a half or so? Okay. First off, I knit an Ishbel shawl. We're getting married sometime, because I love it so much. (See the Rav specs.) I did a super awesome crochet potholder swap where I made five potholders: and got five beautiful potholders back in return. Good crochet practice for me, and even better mail in the end. I love them all. I made some new patchwork pouches, eye pillows and journals. Some are in the shop right now, if you're interested! I got some work done on quilt tops. I finished this one that was sitting in my "fix" pile for about 5 years. Now it's sitting in my "quilt pile." No idea how long it'll sit there. This top was meant to be finished for my friend's baby...over a year and a half ago. Now I'm working on the quilting and will hopefully have it finished up soon. And then I started this one. It's far from being done. Then it was the 4th with all the picnic-y goodness and fireworks: I made some progress with another new crochet project. And finally, I came up with a new design last week. It's in the shop, too. Okay. All caught up. Lots of new things being made! 337@http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/ 2009-07-16T15:52:53-05:00 http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/2009/05/blocks_for_a_bee.html I'm constantly amazed by the opportunities for real life connections that the Internet has brought me over the past few years. From all of the kind comments that are left here on my blog and on my photos, to swaps and friendships that I've made online, I cannot imagine my life without it. So, in the newest of those opportunities, I joined a project called the 12 Squared Quilting Bee. It's interesting how it works: for the next 12 months, we'll all be making blocks for each other. One person sends her fabric out to the other 11 quilters, we make blocks to her specifications, and then send them them back to her. This month I made blocks for Valerie--month one down! Truthfully, I was really overwhelmed when I got the fabric for May. I loved the fabric, but together they're big and bold and just not what I'm used to. Plus, seriously! It's nerve wracking to make parts for other people's quilts. But I really didn't need to be worried, because Valerie has a great sense of color and pattern. The first one I did, I pieced like how I do my quilted totes. No plan whatsoever. But this one is my favorite. I love the fabric in the center of the block and I really felt that it needed to be framed by a log cabin. Looking forward to next month's set of fabric! 336@http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/ Quilting 2009-05-18T18:30:19-05:00 http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/2009/05/mini_quilt_fail.html There are those projects that are destined to be failures even before they start. This is one of those projects. On first glance, it doesn't look like a fail. Looks can be deceiving though. I signed up for a doll quilt swap back in March (or maybe earlier, I can't really remember), and had really good intentions about getting something started. Between the combination of lack of inspiration, other projects I was more interested in, and good old fashioned procrastination, I managed to hold off beginning this until about the last week in April. Turns out, if I had read the information (at all) I would have noticed the quilt was due the last week in April. Well crap. In the meantime, I received my super awesome quilt from Alison. It's so fabulous. I love everything about it--the colors, the design, the quilting. She did a fantastic job, and sent along a handmade pincushion to boot. She's so talented, and I was lucky to be her recipient. Did this help me be a better swapper? You be the judge. But finally, I managed to finish the quilt earlier this week. Since I decided to hand quilt it, it took a longer to finish, but it looked good. I ended up buying a store bought, pre-made bias binding for the edge (which I've never done before, but why cut all that fabric when I just wanted a red border?) and at that point, thought I was ready to go. A quick toss in the sink, then a run though the dryer and I've got a soft, wrinkly doll quilt. Did you know you have to wash store bought quilt binding? Neither did I. The red dye from the binding was everywhere. I took to the quilt with a bleach pen. It seemed to work, but at this point, I had to come up with a way to get the bleach out of the quilt. I took a chance and washed it again in colorsafe bleach. It took the dye out, but now, the water had soaked the bleach through all of the layers and dyed the back of the quilt. Splochy and overall ruined really. I couldn't bear to take a picture of the quilt afterward. I sent it out anyway, with an apology note and a few other goodies to make up for my craptastic swap. So....who's interested in doing a swap?? I promise it can't get any worse than that. 335@http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/ Quilting 2009-05-14T21:27:51-05:00 http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/2009/05/gifts_for_a_wee_person.html Wee people are surprisingly easy to make gifts for. Find cute stuff, make it, and present to wee person's keeper (or mom). Simple. I do not have wee people. I have a dog. And I work with mini people at work everyday. Although I do not currently have the desire to own my own wee person, I apparently have an intense drive to make cute embroidered onesies for other people's wee people. Monkey onesies! Despite saving these until the last minute (and staying up most of the night before the were due) I was overall happy with them. I used a Sublime Stitching iron on pattern, and other than figuring out that I had to use an interfacing under the stretchy material, the whole thing couldn't have been any easier. I also wanted to knit a blanket, and being that the wee person will be arriving early this summer, I went with something lightweight. I used the Baby Chalice Blanket (link here if you're on Ravelry) pattern, with in Knit Picks Comfy. It's a 100% cotton yarn, and while I'm not usually a fan of knitting with cotton, this stuff seemed really nice to work with. Plus, it should help the wee person's mom and dad when she spits up all over it and it needs to be washed about 15 times a week. No worries about felting it all up. 334@http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/ Sewing 2009-05-12T17:46:21-05:00 http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/2009/04/blue_skyyellow_flower.html Hello, Spring! It feels like its taken Spring forever to get here this year. I'm glad we finally have a little in our corner of the world. So....color inspiration, anyone? 333@http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/ Life 2009-04-18T00:03:37-05:00 http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/2009/03/piles_and_piles.html What makes me happy these days? Three bins full of fabric scraps to be re-sorted, cut, ironed and used. A messy desk filled full of projects in progress. Happy, but maybe a little overwhelmed, I must say. p.s. A few new items are in the shop. I'd love it if you'd take a look! 332@http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/ Sewing 2009-03-31T21:12:26-05:00 http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/2009/03/sidetracked_by_hexagons.html I am so easily swayed by peer pressure. Okay, so nobody pressured me, but I still couldn't help myself. So yeah, I've got a bit of a crochet addiction now. I kept getting caught up in all of the new crochet that kept popping up in my photostream on Flickr in the past month, but then! I found out there was going to be a crocheted potholder swap. And then I may have signed up...without completely knowing how to crochet. I do know how to do some basic crochet. Very, very basic. So, to work on my skillz, I thought I'd step the difficulty level up an notch and try the hexagon pattern that I found at this lovely website. They turned out a little like this: Not so much what I was hoping for. I don't know if I'm just reading the pattern wrong or my stitches are too tight, but I added a few chain stitches here and there, and a few more stitches in the final row, and things are looking so much better. So much better. It looks a teeny bit different than the pattern wanted them to look, but I'm happy with them. I hadn't intend on wanting to continue on with these, but I think I'm going to attempt a full afghan of them. We'll see though...I'm easily sidetracked. 331@http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/ Crocheting 2009-03-23T17:45:32-05:00 http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/2009/03/i_only_started_this_four_years_1.html I know this may come as a shock but, I'm finishing a quilt. A real one! I figured it was about time, seeing as though I have my a-maz-ing new sewing machine now. When I started this quilt (FOUR YEARS AGO) I was a firm believer in the idea that a quilt wasn't a quilt unless it was completely made by hand. No sewing machines allowed. I now realize that is a dumb idea. Seriously dumb. No freaking wonder I burnt out on quilting. Hand piecing everything + hand quilting everything = kinda boring. I've always really wanted to come back to working on this quilt. I put it away partially because I had a lot of trouble figuring out what I wanted to use as a backing fabric. (I ended up going with a super cute Michael Miller print--white with black exclamation points.) But the real reason why I gave up on it initially is because I was really tired of hand quilting. I had just finished this for two of my friends and I really just had enough. I thought about machine quilting at that point, but I'm glad that I waited until now. My old machine was so much less reliable about even stitches than my sexy new machine. (yep. I said sexy.) But even with my new machine and walking foot on, I've had a hard time controlling the spacing in stitches. It's been getting better, but I've noticed that I have to be really careful about not letting the weight of the quilt pull at all while I'm feeding it into the machine. I was also really thrown off by not having tight tension on all three layers of the sandwich. When I hand quilt, I use a hoop to hold the layers tight, but when you sew on a machine, you really just leave it all up to your basting work. It's odd at first, but I'm getting used to it now. So, just a little more quilting to go, plus the binding. I'm ready to have this four year project finished. 330@http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/ Quilting 2009-03-19T18:03:03-05:00 http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/2009/03/a_cowl_for_allison.html Wheee! Two blog posts and two completed knits in one whole week! My lovely friend Allison had a birthday this past weekend, and being the lovely person she is, deserved something that was squishy and warm and red. I knew I wouldn't be able to crank out a pair of socks in just a few days so I decided to go with a Darkside Cowl. I love how defined the stitch pattern is, but yet is still simple enough to wear just about with anything. It was also a perfect way for me to use a nice yarn and be finished in less than a month. Allison is also a knitter and appreciates good yarn so I picked out something I hadn't seen before -- Elsebeth Lavold Baby Llama. LLAMA! This stuff is super soft and squishy. I'm a little worried that it might pill and nub up a bit, but hopefully the softness will make up for any of that. Pattern here, yo! 329@http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/ Knitting 2009-03-13T17:31:36-05:00 http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/2009/03/new_hat_new_something.html Crap. I've done it again. I've been debating wiping the blog out and starting fresh (just because I think it's pretty embarrassing that my last post was in October...of the sewing machine I bought in August) but I think I'm going to just leave it up. Nobody's reading this pile anymore, anyway. So, back to business. I finished a new hat. I was skeptical about this hat for several reasons. As I knitted it, the brim seemed very odd to me. The picot edges seem a lot larger than I had expected and I thought it might look silly. I also was concerned with not having enough yarn in the end (I used two skeins Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight Baby Alpaca) so I decided to begin the decreases early. I think if this yarn was thicker and I was planning on using it as a winter hat, I would have ripped back and knitted it longer, but I'm satisfied with using it for a spring hat. On Ravelry? See the details here. And hey, add me as a friend. I like friends. 328@http://hiptopiecesquares.avenueb.org/ Knitting 2009-03-11T17:36:31-05:00