Quilt Alongs

I'm officially a joiner now. I never have been really, I prefer to do my own thing at my own pace (wow, that sounds snooty but I promise I'm not!). This past month I've join TWO quilt alongs!

I don't know what brought it on but first I joined the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt Along that Angela and Amanda started last year. I asked for the book for Christmas and got it!
Here are the blocks I've done so far:
These blocks are a little tricky but a lot of fun! Go to my Flickr page to see the block names and numbers.


A few weeks ago I joined the Sparkle Quilt Along. These are the fabrics I chose to make the mini quilt size.


I've made quite a bit of progress on it this week! Fun, fun, fun!

I hope your weekend plans involve some fun too!

Echo pillows

I've done a little sprucing up of the place lately, including making these new pillows for the living room.

I'm not in love with our couch at all but it was free and I'm actually glad because I don't worry so much when my 3 year old spills something on them. It is a grayish sage green color and I find it challenging to coordinate colors with it.

When I first saw the Echo fabric collection by Lotta Jansdotter I knew it would be great for home decor.

The little pillow goes on the chair (which is a really nice light chocolate brown scored on Craigs List). I made it entirely using the Standing Stones print in heather.

For the big pillow I knew I wanted to piece a design together and I eventually came up with alternating strips, left and right, on a Kona Coal background. You'll see Alexander Henry "Heath" in this one too.

I definitely wanted to be able to remove the covers from the pillow forms so I installed invisible zippers on each. Thankfully, with Rachel's wonderful tutorial, it was a breeze!

I LOOOOVE how these came out and they make me smile every time I walk into the living room!

a {very} belated happy new year!

Hi! I had no intention of taking such a long blogging break and now I have a major backlog of things I want to share. We had a lovely Christmas spent with family. There was a small flurry of last minute knitting on my part to make my hubby a pair of Fuzzy Feet.
I love how quick these are. I knit the second one in a single day! However, now that we have a front loading washing machine, I've been unable to felt them to a perfect fit. I used Peace Fleece worsted in the Ancient Fern color. I don't felt things very often so if anyone has any tips to get them more felted I would appreciate it.

The next thing I finished was my Avery scarf. I have to admit I'm a tiny bit disappointed in this one. I should have known the yarn I used (Queensland Kathmandu Aran Tweed) would totally mask the stitch pattern. It's still a great scarf in a nice charcoal grey and I will wear it lots!


And just last week I cast on for a new project, Henslowe. I've been wanting to use this Lorna's Laces sock yarn that I won from Yarn Tootin' a while back. I just love the muted grays, browns and aquas together! I don't have a great history of finishing the shawls that I start but I have high hopes for this one, it starts off with some nice soothing garter stitch.


Can you believe it? A whole post on knitting! :)
I hope your year is off to a great start too!