For the Love of...Handwork

Sorry to those who've been waiting for the newest installment of For the Love of...

Time has, once again, gotten away from me. Last weekend we went down to Sidney, Nebraska for a visit to Cabela's & a weekend away. It was our Valentine's Day/Jake's birthday celebration & I got so wrapped up in getting ready for the trip that I completely forgot to write the post. Even with Road Home Quilting's reminder tweet (Sorry ladies!)

Several months back I decided to join the Farmer's Wife QAL. I'd been looking for a long term hand sewing project I could pick up & take a break from with no pressure to finish. This was the perfect quilt. And I love all the letters in the book, so inspiring.

So far I've only finished 2 blocks, there are just too many fun projects I want to do, but I recently pulled it back out & have more pieces cut and ready to sew.

I started another sock on our trip. It's the Spring Prairie sock by Yummy Yarn Studio. I've turned that heel and am working on the instep. I love the way colors work through the pattern. The yarn was a Valentine's gift from Kayanna, isn't it beautiful??

A cross stitch I made several years ago.

Cross stitch from my mom. The details are amazing!

Another cross stitch from my mom. See where I got my love of cross stitch from??

A candle holder Jake made for our wedding, he made several for the tables at our reception.

A couple of my grandfather's paintings.

Another of his paintings (top of picture). And our wedding quilt, made by Jake's Aunt Leigh, hiding in the background.

Both our grandfather's made us nameplates when we were young. They have a special place in our house & our hearts.

Thanks for visiting. I'd love to see some of the handwork you have around your house. Write your post, grab a button from the sidebar, then come back and link up. Link will be open until Monday at midnight.

Next week (I promise) we'll share our favorite Accessories. Have a wonderful weekend!

Knitting - A Big Finish & A Plan

I shared with you my first sock a couple of weeks ago and then I had to take a break from them because I wasn't used to knitting with such small needles/yarn.

Last week (or so) I cast on the second sock, because what's the point in having only one sock. To be honest I was kind of dreading it. The first sock took forever & I wanted to just be done.

The second sock took no time at all. I knew (mostly) what I was doing and my knitting has gotten much faster. I did get stuck at the gusset, but Kayanna once again came to my rescue with a quick response on Twitter.

By yesterday afternoon I had a new pair of socks!!

And they fit perfectly!

I had such an enjoyable time with the second sock that I bought some more sock yarn when we were in Torrington on Saturday for the gun show. I've rolled it up & begun the swatch.

This yarn (truer color in the picture below) will become a pair of Kalajoki socks. Kayanna & I will be knitting along together and we'll be starting once she finishes another pair that she is working on. If anyone else would like to join us just tweet your progress with a #kalajoki hashtag so we can all see! :D

If you don't do Twitter leave a comment below. If there's enough interest maybe we can start a Flickr group, or something.

While at the LYS in Torrington I also picked up a couple skeins of some beautiful Brown Sheep yarn. I just went in for some Soak & all these yarns just jumped into my arms! I have no idea how it happened!!

Aren't they beautiful??

I don't have a set plan for them yet, but I do have a couple ideas. We'll see...

For the Love of...Your Favorite Room

This week we're sharing our favorite rooms. Could be a room in your house or future house, or even dream house.

Right now my favorite space is my sewing room. I finally have it set up with nice flow from sewing machine to cutting board/iron. And I have Jake's grandparents old chair for knitting & handwork.

The entire left wall covered in white flannel as a design wall. And that is one of the most comfortable chairs ever! I covered the footstool, the cushion's next!

Inspiring artwork received in various swaps. I hope to have this entire wall covered in mermaid-inspired hoops & minis someday. :)

More water-y scraps.

Now that I have my sewing room set up how I like it (a little messy, but it happens) it's time to focus on the next room. Our bedroom!

Our bedroom is boring. Bed, dressers, no headboard, busy ranching art on the walls. I love the artwork, but some of the pictures are kind of stressful & too active for a bedroom. I want things more peaceful.

The other day my mom sent me my grandfather's matryoshka dolls from his multiple trips to Europe. The largest one is mine, my uncle sent her to me when he was stationed in Germany when I was little. The next 3 are from grandpa's trips. And then there's the blue and white one. That is from our trip, when he took me with him to Russia & Scandinavia. It was a great trip! You can't really tell from the picture, but the smallest doll is much smaller than a penny. There actually is supposed to be an even smaller doll (approx. the size of a piece of rice), but it must have fallen on his floor and gotten lost at some point.

Why am I telling you about these dolls? Because they are the inspiration for our new bedroom. Along with the Tula Pink Prince Charming they are standing on, the Lizzy House behind them, & this beautiful palette from Design Seed.

I'll share the progress as I have things to share, so likely it'll be very slowly.

Not it's your turn. Share your favorite room. Grab a button from the sidebar, write a post, & come back and link up.

Next week: For the Love of...Handwork. Share your favorite hand sewn/knit/crochet/braid/whatever. :D

For the Love of...Books

Thank you so much for all the Swoon love yesterday! I've started the chart for it, so hopefully I will have something to share in a few days. :)

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This week is all about books. Our house is FULL of books. They are everywhere!!

We try to keep them corralled,

but as you can see our bookshelf is over full.

My inspiration...

Some of my favorite crafting books.

Cookbooks

The greatest story ever written, Stephen King's The Dark Tower. Seriously, it's awesome!

And sitting right next to it, one of my favorite authors, Mark Twain.

Now it's your turn. Share your favorite books. Write a post about your book collection, favorite book ever, or what you're currently reading. Grab a button from the sidebar. Then come back and link up to the party!

Next week we will be sharing our favorite rooms (I need help with decorating ideas!) so pretty them up & get ready to share.

Swooning Along In My Own Way

After stitching up this little guy the other night I was itching to continue cross stitching yesterday. I thought that a x-stitch that looked like a quilt would be really fun, but I had other things I needed to work on so I wrote down my idea & went on with my work.

A few hours later the light bulb switched on!

Swoon!

Have you seen the Swoon-along going on over at Flickr? It is a gorgeous block and I want to play along, but I have too many other quilts in progress to justify starting yet another one.

So instead I pulled out my sketchbook and my crayons, laid out the block and got to stitching.

I even drew up a simple pattern for a larger block.

Are you Swooning? How’s your progress coming along?

Edit: The very lovely & talented Camille Roskelley, Swoon block designer, was kind enough to allow me to share my chart/pattern. So be on the lookout for it later this month.

Edit2: With the first edit all of a sudden the post went wonky, stole my photos, & shared them as html instead. I’m crossing my fingers that this rewrite works!

Calorie-Free Dessert!

Have you heard that The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery has a Dessert of the Month Club? Each month they send a new dessert cross stitch directly to your inbox.

Late last night the February Devil's Food Cupcake arrived. He was just so cute I couldn't wait to start stitching. I had most of the DMC colors already & for the ones I didn't have I picked something close. I only meant to do a few rows last night, but I just kept going and all of a sudden there it was!

Isn't he cute??

Eventually I will do the entire sampler in the proper colors, but these first ones will be put into different small projects I have lined up.

January truffle as a Zakka pincushion (from Zakka Style)

If you want to join in but don't cross stitch, don't worry. There are excellent directions that accompany the patterns.