Some finished bags

Here we go...



another one, brocade this time



and two, in Oriental prints





this one is a little taller


and this one is for Emily, her Bratz fabric. She added the embellishments.


The designs are my own.

I've been sewing summer tops. This is from Simplicity pattern 4589. Very easy to make and I love the way it fits.





The August 2008 (issue 93) issue of American Patchwork and Quilting has this pattern for a tote bag using dishtowels. What fun to make!

and here's two more, using different dishtowels from Target. These bottom two are not from the same pattern. These are my own.

My Own Mosaic

(thanks to Flicker.com)




1. My first name, 2. my favorite food, 3. What High School did I go to?, 4. my fave color, 5. My celeb crush, 6. My fave drink, 7. Dream Vacation, the Philippines, 8. my fave dessert, 9. what do I want to be when I grow up, 10. What do I love most in life: my family, 11. One word to describe me: CONTENTED, 12. My flicker name: I don't have one, make it Suanknits

I got the idea from the Bella Dia Blog . All the instructions are there. Go, make one for yourself, and have fun!

Finished Project

I was a little apprehensive about this project, this being quite large and not my usual purse or handbag sewing. I've had this loveseat for quite a while. The foams and springs are fine. It's just the covers that are getting ragged and pilled. Then, I read about going green and making slipcovers. I borrowed some books from the library, found a couple I "needed" to buy and keep, and went from there. I still waited a few weeks and finally, jumped in. I finished it in one weekend. The usual slipcovers go from $60 to $90 depending on size. I spent $29.95 on the home decor fabric (from Ebay, of course). The labor, though, would have cost me $400 (that is, if I was to pay myself, he, he).

BEFORE


AFTER


Yellow walls and yellow sofa... YUP! I love yellow, what can I say ;-)

My mom, who's an excellent seamstress, and my husband, Joel, were quite impressed.

I also taught myself to sew dresses, using patterns ( I like Simplicity). I've since made several summer tops for me and a dress for Emily.




And of course, the usual purse or two:





and Flowers:
A rose from the backyard

some Columbine.

Just Pictures

My front yard



Tiny 1.5" squares!


9 patch scraps


2.5" strips

Here are some of my recent knitting:







The baby sweaters were knitted from the top down, the designs from Mary Rich Goodwin's books. Her website is HERE. Her patterns are very well written, easy to follow and written for a wide range of sizes, from infants to adults, well, depending on the book you buy. I love her books.

The baby booties pattern is from one of those little books by Vogue Knitting. This one was an easy pattern but the Vogue books are littered with errors. I once sent them an email pointing it out but they seemed unconcerned. Thus, I stopped buying their books.

My books came in

SOFTIES KIT : This is the same as the book except it has pieces of felt, floss, needle and a different format. The patterns are in laminated card format.



Luckily, I didn't buy the book in the first place. Why do they do that? They did the same thing with Amy Butler's In Stitches Book, and Denise Schmidt's Quilt book. You would think that you're buying a different book. Waste of money.

AMIGURUMI WORLD: Excellent book by Ana Paula Rimoli. Well-written patterns, beautiful pictures and cute stuffies.



PLUSH YOU - LOVABLE MISFIT TOYS TO SEW AND STUFF : Now, there's the keyword - MISFIT! My style is those cutesy-huggy-pretty stuff. That's why I did not like the book. I'd hate to say that the book is bad. Others might like this style, even enjoy making them. This has gotten 2- star reviews on Amazon (2 out of 5 stars). I'd say, to each his own.



My kids saw the stuffies inside the book and they found some quite disturbing. Some made me laugh. There are zombies, an ugly purple thang, a blind penguin, cannibal bunnies and this stuffie with a piece of wood sticking out of its eye. This one freaked out my kids:



I found some cute ones but no patterns. There are the amigurumi cupcake bears, Ami dolls, Woolyhoodwinks (with pattern), flapper dolls, Sewing stars owls, candy corn doll (with pattern), Mommy and Baby owl by Ana Paula Rimoli (and with pattern too!), and a Family of whales (Blairpeter).

This book is a collection of patterns by different designers. Photography is excellent though. Fortunately, I borrowed the books from the library before buying it outright.

These are the 3 baby quilts I finished:

Hubby liked the bright colors of this one. I used 5" charms I bought a long time ago.

A baby boy's quilt. I wish the colors were brighter--lol!

A more subdued baby girl's quilt which featured carousel horses with pink flowers (can't really see in the picture). I like the antique-y look of this one.

coming up... knitted baby sweaters.

This is the way I do my strings...

I use any old phone books or yellow pages. Some of you recycle. I cut mine up. The pages are very thin and perfect for foundation. I cut mine into 6.5" squares. Use an old rotary cutter (not the one you use for fabrics).

I sew on the strips (any scraps)onto the paper diagonally, like this. The first strip in the middle is right side up. I do the flip and sew.



Press the irregular squares with the paper intact. I usually do 5-6 squares at a time.


Turn the squares over and cut. Use the paper as guide. You now have a 6.5" square of diagonal strings. You can remove the paper at this point. Be careful that you don't unravel the stitches.





Sew 4 smaller squares into a bigger 12.5" square, like this:



And this is my semi-finished quilt (without borders yet).



This is going to be a baby quilt. You can do it in all blue fabrics or fall colors (my fave) or any colors you want. Use your scraps, use your stash, use your Japanese fabrics, or batiks. Have fun!

Well, ya know, I haven't blogged but I finished 3 baby quilts! I also finished quilting my Dad's quilt. My mom pieced the top and I did the quilting on my Janome. The 3 baby quilts are orders from my sister in law. I'm also knitting some baby booties and hats for baby shower gifts.

Here are some pics of a top I did in one of the local classes I've attended, hosted by the Country Sewing Center, "Gracie's Night Out". These are some of the possible layouts.

Layout #1

Layout #2

Layout #3. This was the teacher's suggested layout.

Can you guess which one I picked?

Update 3/3/12:

I have re-knitted this pattern as written and did not see any errors. Here is the latest picture:

I've been racking my brains as to why others are not able to get the same fabric as pictured. The only thing I can think of is in row 2.

There is a K1 in the beginning of row. You don't repeat this K1. The repeat is from *YO, k2tog* to the end of row.

Another thing I'm thinking of is that I knit Continental, with the working yarn held in my left hand. I'm not a thrower. When you "throw" your yarn with the right hand, it is easy to drop or miss a Yarn Over.

Pattern Freebie, Big Net Lace Scarf pattern

All of a sudden, I've had requests for this pattern from my old, now defunct, website. so, I'm putting it up here:




I used a skein of Chunky weight Baby Alpaca, about 100 gms, 108 yards, and US size 15 ( 10 mm) needles.

Abbreviations: K – knit; tog-together; SSK-slip, slip, knit; YO-yarn over

Big Net Lace Scarf:

Cast on 17 stitches (must be an odd number of stitches)

Row 1 : Knit

Row 2: K1, * YO, k2tog * ; repeat from * to * to the end of row.

Row3: Knit

Row 4: * SSK, YO*; rep from * to * to the end of row, ending with K1

Row 5: Knit.

Repeat rows 2-5 until you have just enough yarn to bind off. Make sure you end with row 5 and bind off loosely.

I’m sure you can use any type of yarn, worsted, sport, lace weight. Adjust the number of stitches, make it narrower or wider. Play with it.

The pdf link is here on Ravelry.

© 2005-2008 Vicki Suan for Suanknits.

Oh, so, speedy spinner here has finished spinning her Merino/silk roving from yesterday and here is what the yarn looks like. About worsted weight, 147 yards of super soft yumminess!



I am also knitting the Ballerina Tank top using SWTC's Bamboo yarn.The picture is HERE. The blue tank top which really looked good on the model.

I bought the yarn from Babetta's a long long time ago (about a year or so) and got the freebie pattern. There are some errors in the pattern. I googled for erratas but found none, checked SWTC's website, Soysilk.com and again, no errata. So, I emailed them and found out that they are aware of the errors and have since pulled the pattern from circulation because of that. Oh good, so I can play with the pattern as much as I want.

But what if I was a novice knitter? How do I get help? If I was the designer, knowing that the pattern has been distributed, at least post the corrections on the website! What the heck?!!!?

So, here I am, attempting to help, hoping that someone, under the same predicament I'm in, will somehow google this.

First: I know I'm right on gauge (of course I knitted a swatch and I have proof too, he, he) but I doubt I can fit into this:


Well, maybe I can, if I block the heck out of it. Or maybe, if I lost some weight? hmmm....


The purl side is supposed to be the Right side. But then, this is my top, and the purl side looks ugly, so I'm making the Knit side my right side.

Second: There is waist shaping and I'm supposed to do the decreases every 4th row 11 times with corresponding increases 11 times. My problem is I am short with a short torso. Not gonna work for me. I reduced it to 8 times. Worked out good!

Thirdly, and here is the blatant error:

Knit the back for 14" from the hem and knit the straps for 4". Oookay.

Now, knit the front for 16" and knit the straps for 6". What the ....?

What I did is I knitted the back for 16" and the straps for 6". I will knit the front for 18" and shorten the straps to 4" because I don't want to reveal too much cleavage or in my case, a bony chest.

Oh by the way, there is no armhole shaping either. What fun!

The lesson here is: Be fearless. Don't be afraid to make changes. You don't have to follow instructions to the letter specially if your gut feeling is telling you it's wrong. It's your garment. Knit it to suit you. And if it turns out butt ugly, rip it out or wear it at home and enjoy!

Whoa! I'm spinning again !!

This is Merino/silk blend that I handpainted last year and never got the time to spin. Chocolate brown and Cherry red colorway.


Unspun


Spun

I bought some fat quarters from a new online store here in Elk Grove, CA TheQuiltShoppe.net. She doesn't have an actual storefront. I'm quite impressed with the service. I didn't need to buy the whole bundle and only needed 8 FQs of each collection. I emailed the owner, she got them cut for me, nicely bundled and ribboned, and got them right away! Reasonable shipping charges too. I really liked the Surf and Sand collection (I'll turn them into purses) and Sandy Gervais's Red, White and Bold set.