Crochet Faster!

I picked up this fun yarn last year at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. We're quickly approaching the next Sheep and Wool Festival, so I figured I should get hooking. This is a free pattern on Ravelry (linked below). You can read about what I picked up during the 2018 Sheep and Wool Festival.

They yarn is from yarnhygge. It is a very nice fingering with such fun color. 

I don't know if I'll finish in time for the Sheep and Wool Festival (first weekend in May) but I'm going to give it a go.

Pattern is Small Fans Shawl (free on Ravelry). 

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):
Crochet hooks: Clover Crochet Hook Set (10 hooks)

Charity Quilting

This week we have a couple bright rainbow charity quilts. This great string quilt was pieced by another member of  Annapolis Quilts for Kids.

Another one from the group.

Here is the EpochConverter for 2019.

2019 Charity Quilt Count: 12

Charity Quilting

Here is another string pieced quilt top I assembled and quilted for Annapolis Quilts for Kids. 

Another member pieced this fun flannel quilt. I quilted it up and trimmed it. It will head to another member for binding.

Here is the EpochConverter for 2019.

2019 Charity Quilt Count: 8

Charity Quilting

I've been working through the charity quilts at a good pace. I'm hoping to finish up all the tops I have before the next meeting. This is one of the string quilts I pieced. These are fun to make. 

This cute panel quilt is quilted and ready to go to another member of binding.

Here is the EpochConverter for 2019.

2019 Charity Quilt Count: 6

Charity Quilting

After I finished up my Good Fortune quilt I grabbed some charity tops to get them quilted. I pieced this one. 

And this one made up of leftover 4-patch blocks.

These are headed to Annapolis Quilts for Kids tomorrow along with a stack of others I finished over the holidays.

This year I'm aiming to quilt at least 50 charity quilts. Here is the EpochConverter for 2019.

2019 Charity Quilt Count: 2

Charity Strings

Last week I shared my progress on some string blocks for Annapolis Quilts for Kids. As we near the end of the year, it is time for me to round up the last of my charity quilt finishes. 

I had made a collection of string blocks using primarily greens, too. I paired the string blocks with some fun 6.5" squares and sewed up a top. 

I did the same with the blue string blocks. I like to pair the string-pieced blocks with a plain block. This helps stabilize the string blocks since they are pieced on the bias. 

No fancy quilting for these simple quilts made with leftovers. Even the alternate blocks are leftovers, usually from backing fabric. 

Now I just need to get them trimmed and bound. These, along with a couple others, will be headed to Annapolis Quilts for Kids in the New Year.

I met my goal of finishing one charity quilt per week for 2018.

2018 Charity Quilt Count: 54

String Piecing Charity

After I made some of the units for Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt Good Fortune, I decided to pull out some of the strings for charity quilts. These are leftover bits that I've collected from many of the charity quilts for Annapolis Quilts for Kids.

I grabbed the blues, the phone book pages, and got stitching. String piecing is a chaotic process. It makes quite a mess but is totally worth it.

After a couple hours of work, I had pieced enough to pair with alternate blocks. Want to learn how to make some of these yourself? I recommend you head over to Bonnie Hunter's String Piecing Primer to learn the hows and whys of this method of using up those leftover bits.

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):
Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle
Fiskars Rotary Cutter
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Classic Steam Iron
Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion
Fiskars 8-inch scissors
Juki TL-2010Q
Creative Grids 6.5" Square Ruler

Maryland Sheep and Wool 2018

After looking at my post for the 2017 Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival I realize how much restraint I showed this year when it came to shopping. I'll get to the yarn in a bit. I want to share a few of the sights of the show.

The last couple years we have camped at Ramblin' Pines beginning on Friday evening and departing on Sunday morning. This makes for an early start for the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. This year, I was in line before 8 am . By the time the gate opened, the line was probably 3-4 times longer than when I stepped up. This was the first year I purchased my ticket online. It seemed a quicker choice than paying cash. I don't think the ticketed line moved much faster, though.

There were a couple nervous alpaca. Look at those lashes!

Like every year, I went to the working dog show. I love to watch these pros at work. 

The sheep are about a year old, the dogs range in age from 1 year to 12 years. I love to see the dogs because you can see their desire to do the work they have been bred to do. 

I even found a few fluffy bunnies in the rabbit barn.

In the end, I didn't come away with that much yarn. I would have shopped more if the human crush didn't get to be so, so uncomfortable. If I look in a booth and there doesn't seem to be room for another single human in there I move on, no matter how much I want something they have. I'm also not one to stand in a line 20-30 people long. Don't worry, I won't run out of yarn any time soon.

I do really like every yarn I picked up this year. I don't have precise plans for these, but I'm hoping to do better than I did last year since I still have so much of that yarn not even caked up.

This year's mad loot includes: (from the left side)
KnittyAndColor - a fun speckle skein called "Bitchin!"I had to have, and a mini to go with it
Hobbledehoy Yarns & Fiber - a yellowish green called "Wormwood"
Coughlin's Homespun Yarns - couple Flat Feet sock flats by Conjoined Creations in somewhat matching pinks
Yarn Hygge - two skeins of SW 2ply sock called "Cosmic Dawn"
Bottom: Into The Whirled - one skein of Pokokku Sock called "Captain Tightpants" because I will not be denied a yarn with such an amazing name

Now I need to go work on all the projects I have in progress so I can get to work on this new yarn!

Charity Quilting

A couple of the charity quilts I finished this week were constructed, quilted, and bound by me. This doesn't happen often, so I wanted to crow about it a little. This is my binding attached to the back and pulled to the front for a quick machine finish. Curious how I machine finish my binding? Check out my Binding Tips and Tricks page.

Once that binding was done, I attached the label. I love these little labels from Quilts for Kids.

I'm going to need another bag to carry all these to the Annapolis Quilts for Kids meeting on Saturday. If you're in the area, you should check them out.

Tempting Ewe Yarns

During the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival I always stop in to see the absolutely wonderful creatives behind Tempting Ewe Yarns.

These beauties always have something in the booth I want. Sometimes, too many things. This year I picked up two skeins of lovely yarn. I'm not sure what the plan is with the red, but I could not leave it behind.

I also grabbed these awesome F-Bomb stitch markers made by BritStitchery. I may have to pick up a set of the FYI stitch markers, too.

I knew exactly what I was going to do with that speckled yarn. It will join these two skeins of Tempting Ewe to become a Knit n Slide shawl, design by Stephen West.

I caked up all three and they are going to be great together!

I even manged to get it cast on during game night last week. I'm really enjoying this one. But I say that about all the Stephen West projects. I'm using Knit Picks Options Interchangeable Nickel Plated Circular Knitting Needles and Clover Lock Ring Markers for this project.

Dancing Leaf Farm

We're almost to the end of my short series covering the yarn vendors who supplied me with my Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival goodies this year.

Dancing Leaf Farm is always strategically placed near the entrance. This means it is often one of the last shops I visit. I usually stop in on my way out. Because one wouldn't want to leave with yarn budget unspent. This year I really splurged and bought five skeins of Sock Hop. I've been eyeing the Find Your Fade shawl and thinking I need to try something like that. I haven't caked this yarn, yet. You can be sure to see another update when I do, though.

Marigold Jen Hand Dyed Yarn

I always stop in to Jenny's tent at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. This year I picked up these three small hanks of yarn to add to my growing collection of sock yarn.

These hanks are 50 grams each. When you want to knit something big that may seem like an annoyance, but if you want to add some variation to your color work this is way to go. When I was working on the Marled Magic Mystery Knit Along by Stephen West I realized how few colors I have in my collection of yarn. These yarns will come in handy the next time I decide to make a marled shawl, which I think is very likely.

Check out Marigold Jen on Facebook, Etsy, or Instagram.

into the whirled

I was drawn to the into the whirled booth by the amazing colors. I had to pick up some of the amazing sock yarn. Again, I have no plan for this yarn. but with colorway names like "Captain Tightpants" and "Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey" I couldn't leave without them.

I need to either figure out more things to knit with sock yarn or I need to find more one-ball shawl patterns. Do you have a favorite design that uses 100 grams of yummy sock yarn? I would like to hear about it.

Stephen Willette

This year I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival knowing exactly what I wanted from Stephen Willette Fiber Arts Tools.

I wanted a Nostepinne. This tool is used to wind yarn into a ball for easy knitting or crocheting. A video on how to use this tool can be found on the Stephen Willette Fiber Art Tools webpage. I also saw more than few shawl pins that I would have loved to have but I was trying to stick to some semblance of restraint.

Find out more about Stephen Willette Fiber Art Tools on their webpage, Instagram, or Facebook.

Do you have a favorite hand-made tool?

Cozy Color Works

I picked up this yummy Super Wash Merino from Cozy Color Works during the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. This colorway is called Northern Lights and I just had to take it with me. What am I planning on making with this scrumptious yarn? I have no idea.

Find out more about Cozy Color Works on their webpage, Instagram, or Facebook.

Flying Goat Farm

This will be the first in a short series of posts outlining the wonderful yarns I bought during the 2017 Maryland Sheep and Wool. Look for more posts throughout the coming weeks as I will be providing links to the designers.

One of the first purchases I made during the festival was this beautiful Corrie Sock SW Wool/Nylon from Flying Goat Farm. The colorway is Fire Opal. I couldn't resist the dark colors combined with the soft blue-greens and that wonderful pop of pink (and I must say I'm sorry about the horrible light in this photo). I must admit that I didn't pick this yarn with a project in mind, but chances are it will become a shawl of some type. I may have to play with it to see how those colors work together in stitches.

Maryland Sheep and Wool 2017

One of my favorite parts of the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is the working dogs demonstrations.

Sure, there are sheep.

But these dogs are so dedicated to their craft. I will sit on a cold bench for 30 minutes just waiting for the working dogs to show up. Why? Because working dogs of all types are amazing to me.

Two of the dogs this year were there last year. Old ones. This fella is 11.

And young ones. I will say this 3-year-old lady mellowed a bunch in the last year. She is still eager to work but now works so much better with her human partner.

Friday was rainy so Saturday was muddy. I learned about the spectacular mud in a prior year and packed my boots. I wasn't going to get muddy sneakers again.

I did stop over to see this smiling face between the humanity-packed trudge through the vendor barns. I love to see all the wonderful creators and their creations but the crush of people can make me feel like I want to bolt. More than once I passed by a shop just because there were too many people.

This happy bunny face was hanging out over in the rabbit barn. Sure there were plenty to pet, but I just wanted a picture to share. He looks like he doesn't mind missing the attention.

Did I do any shopping? Of course I did! I'll spend the next week going through this pile of loot to share the names (and links) of the amazing creators that made this all possible.

Stringing Along: Quilting

Last week I posted about this string quilt. I finished the assembly and added a border. Why did I add a border? I think a border, while not always necessary for the design, is important for stabilizing the center of the quilt. All of these string blocks and the on-point setting made it pretty obvious to me that I would need to stabilize the quilt before loading onto the frame.

My favorite place to pick up wide backing fabric is Spring Water Designs. Every time I to they have something that just works with my quilt top. This backing was no exception. I embroidered the label directly onto the backing fabric before loading onto the quilting frame.

Not surprisingly, I found that this quilt was a little oversized but still fit onto my frame. I did buy batting for this project because I didn't want to have to piece batting. I generally buy batting by the roll so my limit (without piecing batting) is 90". This quilt is almost exactly 90" wide so that wasn't going to work.

I went nuts with the quilting. I quilted feathers, I echoed the feathers. I quilted swirls and echoed those. This quilt is full of several different quilting motifs and I love the overall effect.

I love playing with different designs. This is the back of the quilt so you can really see the quilting detail. I really need to make a quilt with some negative space and do some free-form quilting. quilting it over busy piecing doesn't give it a chance to shine.

Here it is all quilted. I still need to add the binding and get some good photographs of this one.

For those three people who follow my blog, I apologize for being late with the third post the week. I always mean to blog regularly but this week got sort of busy with after work social events, almost no craft time, and even less opportunity to sit down in front of my computer and write a post. I'll try to do better next week.

Do you make scrappy quilts? What about string quilts that use up those skinny leftovers?