I'm Having a Give Away....

...when I reach 300 followers. I am nearly at 300 followers and I thought once I reach 300, I'll give away a special prize to one lucky follower.

I see lots of blogs out there who have more than 1,000 followers and I wonder if I'll ever have that many followers? I also see other blogs who have far fewer followers than myself and I know how hard it can be to get noticed out there in blog land. It's taken me about 5 years of blogging to get close to 300 followers, while others have acquired thousands of followers in far less time. Who knows why some blogs get more attention than others? I'm just so grateful to have so many fabulous followers (yes each and every one of you), so I am not complaining, just making an observation.

Keep a look out for when I announce the give away...it may be soon or it may take a few weeks, or months to hit the big 300 followers...you just never know.
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Mini Japanese Origami Kimonos

I made these Japanese origami fabric kimonos at my fiber arts groups. We had a guest teacher who taught us how to make these.  I had taken a class from her a few years ago, but I had forgotten how to do them. The first 3 photos, I followed the instructions, but I did the last one a little differently. If you know me, you know I am always trying to do things easier and find better ways. Read each caption to learn more.

The first 3 kimonos here are lined with a fabric that you can barley see. The lining makes the fabric thicker and a bit harder to work with, since they are folded and pressed. The only sewing is to sew the lining and the outside fabric together. So that got me thinking...

...and so I tried this kimono without any lining at all. You can't see the lining much anyhow and without the bulk of the lining, it made the kimono easier to fold and press and no sewing was needed. So it was easier to make and I needed half the amount of fabric, since I didn't line it. Can you even see much difference?
 

These kimonos are being given to my daughter. I actually made 6 of them, but 2 were of the same fabrics. She is going to choose the ones she wants to keep and give the rest to her friend who just had a birthday last week. Pin It Now!

Knit Sweater

I knit this pullover sweater in a self stripe yarn.

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Knit Sampler Scarf

I am teaching a beginner knitting class and this is the 2nd project that I will teach the class how to knit. This is a sampler scarf from a free Lion Brand pattern I found online, and it's called The Road Scarf. It is supposed to be longer than this, but I ran out of yarn. I wanted to show the class an actual example of how the scarf and the various stitches should look, so I knit this with a skein of yarn I had on hand. I chose this pattern to teach them how to read a knitting pattern as well as learn how to knit different knit & purl combinations.


Knit Sampler Scarf.



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Pocket Coffee Cup Cozy

"You've got to pick a pocket or two dear, you've got to picket a pocket or two."... This is a free pattern where you can choose between knitting a cozy with a stockinette stitch or a cabled cozy. Here is the pdf pattern.

Knit Pocket Cozy with pocket. The pocket can hold sweetener or a teabag. This was easy to make and a good way to use up some leftover yarn.

The empty pocket here.

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Knit Cotton Bag

Here is my lime green cotton knit bag. I knit this with a cotton yarn (Lily's Sugar & Cream). This was a free pattern from Bernat. It's called the Market Bag. I made a change however to my bag. Even though the knitting was easy to do, I found I was having trouble with the stitch pattern in the directions because I would end up a stitch short every so often. So I started again and decided to to knit a k3, p1 combination instead of the knit pattern they gave in the instructions. It looks very similar to the photo in Bernat's pattern, but it was much easier to knit my way.

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Little Witch Quilt

Witchy Poo. I made this quilt block several years ago with the intent of making a larger Halloween quilt with other Halloween motifs. Well that never happened, so I made this into a small quilt for my daughter so she could hang it up for Halloween. I photographed this quilt by setting it on some Mexican Feather Grass in our yard.

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Quilt Fiesta

I went to Quilt Fiesta on Friday. This is a quilt show from the members of the Northern New Mexico Quilt Guild and the show was held at the fairgrounds in Santa Fe.
 

To see more photos of  fabulous quilts from this quilt show go here.

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Taos Wool Festival

The annual Taos Wool Festival is the first Saturday & Sunday every October that is held in Kit Carson Park. The event is free, although people come to shop for yarn, fiber, animals like sheep, alpaca, etc. and to eat. There are demonstrations on various things like spinning. The weather has turned and it's usually a lovely autumn day where we can wear our knit/crochet/felt/woven creations. I had a nice time.

Cute alpaca faces.

Wild knit creation including wings and wine corks!

I bought 3 skeins each of these yummy yarns.

This light post in the shopping plaza on Bent Street in Taos was tagged with knitting.

Another tagged knitted light post.

Pretty metal flower sculpture outside a gallery on Bent Street.

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Chores Quilt

I made this quilt for my grandson. Or did I really make it for my daughter?!! I hope this will get the little guy helping his mommy since they will be moving into a house soon (from a one bedroom apt) and there will be more chores to do. This was a free tutorial from Moda. I added a border around this quilt and included laundry instead of floors as my grandson is nearly 5 years old and I thought he could help with the laundry folding clothes and putting them away rather than cleaning floors.

Closer look at the pocket. My daughter can write the chores she wants done on cards and place them in the pockets.

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My Day for Leafs Me Happy Blog Hop

It's my day to share with you what I made for the fall blog hop. The first 2 fall blocks I made were these two:

Fall wonky free-form log cabin block.

Fall colors pieced block. I sewed strips together, then cut them and resewed them.

Then I got to thinking about fall here in New Mexico...Starting the first weekend every October in New Mexico, and lasting for 9 days, is the annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. It's the largest gathering of hot air balloons in the world.  So when I think of fall I think of hot air balloons. It's a magical time when balloonists and tourists from all over the world gather to see hundreds of balloons ascend into the beautiful blue skies of New Mexico. There are so many unique special shapes balloons too that are so much fun to see. From the New Mexico Chili Ristra Balloon to Canada's Maple Leaf balloon and the Canadian Royal Mounted Police balloon. (Those Canadian balloons are dedicated to you Madame Samm). So I just had to make a Hot Air Balloon quilt to celebrate the fall here in New Mexico.

Close-up of a balloon.

October Skies in New Mexico quilt. I designed and made this quilt. The center balloon depicts the New Mexico state flag with the Zia sun symbol in red. The sky fabric is more watercolor pencils on fabric like I did on the piggies quilt pillow.

Falling Leaves table runner. Maple leaves appliqued onto a leaf print background fabric, although you probably can't see the white background is actually a leaf print. I had the leaf print fabric I used in the border for several years too. So everything is leaves on this quilt.

I could have made each into a separate block, but it was easier to applique to a long background fabric instead and besides I wouldn't have had enough background fabric if I had made separate blocks.

Can you see the leaf print background fabric? I quilted veins in the leaves and quilted pebbles in the background and the border.

The backing fabric is a zigzag print using all the colors I used on the front (green, gold, brown, burgandy, brown).

I hope you enjoyed my quilted creations. Thanks to Madame Samm and Cherry for organizing another fun blog hop.

Here is today's schedule of the other blogs participating, so stop by and see what they each created too.

Thursday 4

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Patchouli Moon Studio {me}

Freemotion by the River

Quilt Doodle Designs

Apple Avenue Quilts

Jane’s Quilting

Spoilt Dog Quilts

Ramblings of a Quilter

Deborah

A Passion For Appliqué

Gracie Oliver Arts

 

 

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