Cocoa Quilts

It has been too long since I posted! Life has been way too busy. I have been working on some new quilting ideas, and gardening furiously, and I have a new love in my life....

Meet Cocoa...

She is very active and curious and wants to be right in the middle of everything I do. I don't seem to mind though. She is my first pet in several years and I am enjoying her thoroughly, although my husband was not too impressed when I brought her home. Here she is helping me work on my latest design, Strawberries and Lace.

I had a small exhibit at our local coffee house and made the quilt in honour of the show, which took place during a Strawberry Moon. Nothing like a deadline to make me finish a project - It was completed about 1 hour before the show. I am going to go back and redo the applique of the lace doily. I want to stretch out the chain stitches on the edge a bit more.

It is a prototype for a larger project, I want to make a full-sized bed quilt using some of the ideas from this quilt.

Here Cocoa is helping me work out ideas for applique motifs using real strawberry plants and vintage illustrations of strawberry plants

A little help from my friend.

Work in progress, quilting detail

It's a miracle my quilt isn't completely full of runs. Silk and kitty paws are not a good combo.

Inspiration for the name of my budding quilt design business, Cocoa Quilts Design Studio. Logo: Kitty playing with thread on sewing machine. 

Quilting detail, almost done now.  Morning of exhibit.

Detail, strawberry flowers made of gathered yo-yos and embroidered with rayon boucle thread.

It's funny how finishing a project just makes you want to start another to replace it. So I started cutting out the wool appliques for this project: 

 Isn't this just the cutest? Not that I need another project.....

20 Different Directions at Once

I started this post in January, but never posted it. Busy life, no time for computer. Anyway I am intending to pay more attention to the blog and get back into it. Here it is!

You know how it is when you finish something, and can hardly wait to start something else? I have been in a frenzy working on all my Christmas presents. Alas,  a couple people got items still in progress. Like Lorrie, whose socks still had knitting needles in them. I finished quite a few things, including some UFO's which I gave as Christmas presents.

I knitted socks for my Dad.
I knitted thrum mittens for my niece Leah. And started two more pairs for siblings Ethan and Ayda. Sadly not finished, but they will get them by the end of January.
I made handbags for friends and family.

I finished my snowflake quilt and gifted it to my son-in-law.

Finished my Mexican Star quilt, which was gifted to Lynda, who stays in Mexico every year for 2-3 months.

Now it is New Year's Day. I feel like going off on several different paths at once. I want to knit, embroider, quilt, spin, crochet, paint etc. There are so many possibilities! And I have so much stash to use up. Of course, that does not prevent me from acquiring more stash. I think I need to have another rummage through the lot and generate some shame. Then I will get back on my "do not buy more stuff" wagon again. I was doing really, really well for 3 or 4 months. And then I went to Fabricland. I think the key is not to put myself in temptation's way. I have no willpower at all. I know this. I have been deleting all the e-mails from Elann, Knitpicks, Treenway Silks, and  the Nordic Needle without opening them. That is the only thing that saves me. I love internet shopping. And don't even talk about being able to fondle the fibres in person.

I have decided, in honor of my recent 45th birthday, to reinstate "The Year of ME" once again. For my 40th year, I decided I was going to finish all the UFO's I could that were languishing because they were not gifts for others, but for me personally. I rarely finish objects made for myself because I have no deadlines for myself. I spent most of the year finishing items that were presents for myself. It was very nice.

What objects should be on the roster??? Hmmm. I think I should pick at least one project in each of my interests. Maybe 12 in all, one for each month. Or is that too ambitious?

1. The Kiss. Cross stitch started at least 18 years ago. I think it may be the oldest UFO on my list.

2. Dreamcatcher. Another cross stitch project dating back about 12 years.

3. Santa's Midnight Runner. Made one as a present, never finished my own.

Santa's Midnight Runner

4. Christmas Bellpull, quilted. Ditto.

5. Sweater in need of sewing up and button band.

6. Shiri Mor gloves. Lost interest after 1.25 gloves completed. Should try to get these done for winter.
7. Uniforms. Not interesting but would be useful for work. Would only take a couple of days to finish.
8. Cat Bordi's socks. A concentrating project

9. Lace mystery shawl.

10. Felt purse. Embroidery complete. Needs to be put together.
11. Tanja Berlin's Red Fox. From EAC Seminar at least 3 years ago. Threadpainting. I loved this technique. Hopefully I remember how.

12. The Charity Sampler. Also ancient embroidery UFO.

I think I will start this endeavor as of New Years Day 2012. I would have started on my actual birthday, but I was not able able to resist working on Christmas Presents. So I cheated and set my start date a couple weeks late.

Consumed

Lately I have caught a couple of episodes of "Consumed" on HGTV. It is all about folks that are living in chaos because of all the stuff they have accumulated. Basically, the host of the show goes in, takes everything but absolute necessities away for 30 days, then the people try to work on relationships and address the reasons for the accumulation of possessions. At the end of the month they all go to the warehouse and try to get rid of at least 50% of the junk.

This is ringing a bell. I am not exactly a hoarder. Hmm. Maybe I am in denial. Ok. I AM A HOARDER.
Mostly of hobby stuff.  I have loads of hobby stuff that I have bought over the past several years, as well as things I have inherited. I have been through many craft phases and have the detrius from all of them stored in a shed on our property. Lately, this shed is also a junk repository. Whenever I don't know what to do with something, it goes into the shed. I can hardly walk in there. There are also little caches of wool, fabric, books etc all over the house. Also lots of clothes to go through. On my days off next week, I intend to start a ruthless sort through all this stuff. Goal: get rid of all the things I have been storing for years and never used.

Estimated start date: October 8th. Watch me go.

Adventures in Dying

Well, we hauled out the dyepot again. Had a lovely time dying all sorts of fibery goodness. However, all this fun was preceded by some misery. Note to self: never, ever put damp items in a rubbermaid tote and close it up for several months. I opened my tote of dying accessories and had to pitch most of them out because of mold. None of it was very expensive, thank goodness. Plastic tablecloths, paintbrushes, and a bamboo steamer. But still a waste. Last time I dyed stuff I was visiting my friend Lynda, and we packed everything up and I headed for the ferry, completely forgetting to dry everything out on my arrival home. Once the clean up ordeal was over, Joelene and I got to work and dyed wool for her own Swirl! jacket. She wants a jacket that looks like fall leaves and moss. I think she has succeeded.

Joelene's Fall Frenzy

I was in a mood for bright colors, as usual. I dyed some lovely light mohair and some 50/50 wool silk for another Swirl! jacket too. Yes, I know I am not finished the first one yet. I also dyed alpaca laceweight and some wool roving for spinning. Only darkness kept us from going further.

Susan's Royal Peacock Plumage

Roving, Color - Black Cherry

Now everything is drying out in the bathroom. It is amazing how much water wool can soak up. Even with the dehumidifier running it has taken 3 days to dry out. Then we had to wind it up into balls. Do you know how long it takes to wind up 2800 yds of laceweight alpaca? Too long.

Baby Turns One

Another last minute finish, this time binding stitched on while riding the ferry to visit my Granddaughter, Leota. This quilt was completed in time for her first birthday. Not bad. I had originally planned to make it for a baby shower present a couple weeks after she was born.

Last minute ferry finish

 I love this quilt. I am enchanted by the bright colors, the interesting blocks, the texture etc. I had to use the last piece of my treasured Laurel Burch stripe fabric for the border. It was the only contender in the end.

Bluebird block. Fancy stitching, hand embroidery

Fuzzy sheep. Leota's favorite block. Too cute.

Teddy bear. Machine and hand embroidery, rick rack. What's not to love?

Leota seems to like it almost as much as me. She keeps playing with all the fuzzy fabrics, particularly the sheep block. I think I will make this quilt again. There is another family baby due in January.

Leota and her quilt

Now, on to my next deadline. Another wedding present.

Girl on Fire

I am on a finishing projects kick. Alas, because of the finishing thing I have also begun a starting things kick as well.



Which of my legions of UFO's are now complete, may you ask?

1. The quilt for my sister-in-law's wedding present. Finished at 2:30PM on the day of the wedding. The wedding was at 4:30PM.

2. The thrum mittens. Love them. Want to knit more. Have ordered and recieved two kits for thrum socks, as you are more likely to wear warm socks on the West Coast than mittens. One of the mitts is slightly fatter, as I became more generous with the thrum material on the second mitt.

3. My little snowman quilt. Wool hand applique and hand quilted. Started, oh, 3 or so years ago. Just needed to be quilted. This is the first hand quilting I have done on a finished quilt.

4. 30's reproduction fabric table runner. It could also be used as a baby blanket. Hand appliqued and machine quilted.

5. Handspun wool. Fibre was purchased at the Gibson's Fibre Arts Festival 2 years ago. I started spinning it on a drop spindle, then switched gears and spun the rest of it on a spinning wheel. I think I will call it Merlot Magic.

To celebrate all this finishing, I started knitting a new project. It was destiny at work. I got a new book in the mail, called "Knit, Swirl". I highly recommend this book and the patterns in it so far, but please go to the author's website and download the pages of errata in the published volume before starting to knit a jacket. http://www.knitswirl.com/  

Turns out that I had the exact wool required to make one of the jackets, "Stratasphere", in the exact color depicted in the book, and, get this.....4 extra skeins more than the pattern required. As any knitter knows, the chances of this happening are about one in a hundred million or so. Usually you are short one skein, and knit 95% of the garment before running out 2 inches before you finish the second sleeve. So, of course, not wanting to thwart destiny, I started casting on that afternoon. Once you have cast on the 570 stitches called for, and joined them in the round, the jacket is lovely. Perfect company knitting, you can chat with friends and not make a million mistakes because you are not paying enough attention. Of course, I am knitting it with Noro Silk Garden, which is lovely and soft and endlessly entertaining with it's color variations.

I am also currently sewing three handbags, which I started last Monday night at quilting. My niece Melissa was visiting and we started one for her as well. Needless to say, she went home with her handbag complete and I was left with three cut out only. However, things are going well on that score, I have one finished and two partly completed. The down side to this is that I have another quilt deadline looming and am ignoring said baby quilt in favor of finishing handbags. Hopefully this will be remedied by the end of the day.

I am also spinning my wheels, so to speak. I have just bought a new spinning wheel, and am really liking it. It is an Ashford Kiwi, double treadle. I really like the double treadle compared to the single. Much less work. I am spinning a single right now. I am going to name it 'Amazon Parrot". It was hand dyed by my friend Lynda, fibre content unknown. We suspect it is BFL wool and possibly a little silk. No matter. I also have to finish spinning the fibre on my borrowed wheel before I return it to my friend Barb.

Now I have to get busy and work on my baby quilt for granddaughter, Leota, who will be one year old in mid September. I have my work cut out for me.

Deadlines Again

Well I have my work cut out for me again. A deadline looms and there is a lot of work to be done. I have a queen-sized quilt, a wedding present, to quilt before the 30th of July. The quilt is sandwiched in two sections, which will be united once the quilting is finished on each half. First I have to pick out the mess on one section where the slippery rayon thread popped out of the tension disks on my sewing maching and created a loopy looking chaos on the reverse side. This is likely why very little quilting has been accomplished so far. I hate picking out quilting.

Half of my Fall French Braid Quilt.

 I also have a dress I want to sew for the wedding. And a shawlette I want to knit to go with the dress. Something tells me I will need to pull a couple all-nighters. And get up at 6 AM every day to sew before work. And sew in the evenings after work. Hmm.

Shawlette in Angel by Debbie Bliss. Lovely and soft.

Dress material and pattern. Dress is cut out only. Of course, I am planning on modifying the pattern. Foolish me.

Unfortunately, I keep getting distracted from my tasks at hand by other things.

a) Visitors. My nephew Carson is visiting, and it is impossible to machine quilt and visit at the same time. He will be here til the 25th. He seems content to visit, play cards and relax. A very low maintenance nephew.

b) Knitting things other than the above shawl. My friend Cheri sent me a present from Montreal. She was in a knitting shop, and really wanted a certain Fleece Artist kit for herself. She resisted purchasing it for herself, as she has 4 other projects currently on the go, and has vowed to finish one of them before starting anything new. So she bought it for me. I opened the package, and pretty much started casting on immediately. Cannot stop knitting thrum mittens.

c) Reading. I have been sucked into a series of three books and have been unable to set them down. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. Thank goodness, they are now finished.

d)Migraine headaches. I think, due to needing new glasses. I have lost 3 perfectly good evenings because I cannot focus.

e)Work. I am working full time until the 29th, doing holiday relief. I should have done more sewing when I had a few days off, instead of reading.

f)Gardening. The garden is growing, I am starting to have to do stuff with the produce. I have to make a bunch of pesto sauce tonight, my basil plants are exploding.

I have also been distracted with a couple new hobbies; painting for one.

Painting of Hesholt Lake in the Winter, from a photo by  Lorrie

.And Canvaswork embroidery for another! Not that I need another hobby.



Winter Chills pattern by Carolyn Mitchell. Love it.