WIP Wednesday: Guild edition

I have joined a Guild. And not a WoW one either. The nerd in me is jumping up and down for joy right now. Last month I decided to attend a meeting of the Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild. They meet once a month and talk and plan and have a show and tell of quilts. It is hosted at Sewtropolis and a lot of fun.


And boy did I choose a good month to come! In July they decided to start TWO that is right TWO challenges. At the time I could only pick one. I went with the rainbow-y one (big surprise) But today I stopped by and picked up the fabric for the second one. That is a lot of free fabric for this very happy little girl!

The First one which I started planning and cutting immediately is the Kona Soilds challenge where you are given a charm pack of Kona solids to do with what you please. You can only add other Kona solids into the mix. I picked out the ones I am planning on using and getting to work. As a Guild we decided to impose another challenge on ourselves and that is that we must use half square triangles to make these.

Oh you notice something? That my half square triangles are already stitched? Well that is because I JUST got my sewing machine back! (YAY!) For those of you who aren't ravelry friends with me. After the awesome Kay gave me a sewing machine I managed to/ It broke on me. In about 10 minutes. turns out it had a broken part that needed to be ordered. But I just got it back in time for happy quilting times YAY!

The other challenge that I picked up today is the Jay McCarol challenge. I received a fat eighth of eight of his fabrics from his line to make something out of. Aren't they pretty? The guild imposed challenge on this one is "wonky" I have an idea in my head. And just randomly cut strips out of my fat eights and I am about to go work on them now as soon as I am done making this blog post.
The more I look at these fabrics the more I like them. They don't all exactly match but I think that is part of the charm right? AND Jay McCarol is the season 1 winner of Project Runway! I had no idea he was designing fabric now. But he definitely has a flair for it.


I'M SO EXCITED TO BE QUILTING AGAIN! AHHHH

PS: I'm trying the Mr. Linky on Tami's blog for the first time today! check out other WIP

WIP Wednesday: Clockwork Rainbow

You can't quite tell yet but this is going to be a rainbow scarf/shawlette/ Hipster Scarf I'm really excited because I'm a little less than half way done and I can already tell that it is going to be a visual stunner (I hope)

It's for the MOHS June KAL- Let's Hear it for the Boy. Which is actually being hosted by yours truly. The Pattern is Clockwork by the immensely talented Stephen West.

I have a big blog project coming up soon that I just decided to do today so I'm making a quick update post and then I'm going to get planning!

The rainbow yarn is Kauni which is famous for its long color changes and for being quite a visual stunner. I don't actually like the yarn that much it's a bit scratchy for my taste. But the colors might just make it worth it.

Why friends are awesome

This post could also be titled I had to work yesterday and didn't get to take pics in time to make a WIP: Wednesday post.

Last week my Rav friend Jen and I struck a good deal, in which I came away with a pound of unwashed alpaca (I wanted it! even though it is covered in poop!) and her second hand but still in great condition ashford hand carders. And Jen came away with money to buy some more yarn of course!

I've washed a little bit of the alpaca but haven't gotten it too clean, mostly because my dog keeps on trying to eat it. And I'm nervous my mom will discover just how dirty the alpaca is and will get mad that I brought it into her house. Instead I will wait until I am back in my own apartment with the aid of some rubber gloves and then I can get my hands all dusty and dirty all on my own.

In the mean time. Some great news. Steven's Point Wisconsin now has its very own LYS! It is called the Wisconsin Wool Exchange. It is a little store that specializes in local yarn, and it is absolutely adorable and I can't wait to go back when they are fully set up (I went in on their first day open in their new location).

While there because I wanted to play with my new carders, I bought roughly 3 oz of merino wool in cordinating colors that I could blend together.

I'm still playing around with the blending but it looks like it is going to be a very nice light shade of greyish purple. I'm carding them in all sorts of different ways and I think it will turn out to be a very subtle striping that will be very pretty. (I hope).
So my work in progress this week is really me learning how to card (oh and the other 2oz of my merino to bend together)

Mostly I am just incredibly happy that I got some carders to play with. And that Jen was nice enough to sell them to me even though she wasn't planning on selling them. and that I get to play with putting colors together! Everyone knows I'm a total sucker for colors. I am quickly turning into a jack of all trades, but master of none.

And Don't forget there is still one more day to enter in my very first giveaway! (see post below).

WIP Wednesday: The never ending scarf

Last week when I posted about my sewing machine being broken? Well it still is. Still waiting for word on it. And as a result I've thrown myself into my knitting specifically a strange determination to make a scarf that is comically long. Currently it is hovering around 6 feet long. Here is my roommate indulging me for a photo op.

I've also spread it out on our couch...


on a nicer day I will try to take more accurate pictures of the colors because they're really quite nice. Unfortunately I live in the midwest and today it has decided to snow. SNOW at the end of april. Sometimes I just don't get it.

WIP Wednesday: The Best Laid Plans

For FO Friday last week I really wanted to show you my finished Who's Hungry? Quilt, and then I had already decided what my next quilt was going to be (hint: more owls). Unfortunately my sewing machine Shannon had different ideas. I had the thread in hand, used the hand wheel to catch the bobbin and then the needle came up and wouldn't go back down again. It was jammed =(

Here is my quilt sitting on my floor done except for lack of binding:


Here are some pictures of my adventure with my sewing machine today:


It took me two buses, half an our and a trip to St. Paul to get it looked at. And when your sewing machine weighs about 20lbs trust me it is a haul. Look at all that metal!

And the worst of it all?

The person looked at it and said it might not be fixable =( a real tragedy.

In better news WIP Wednesday news

Here is the progress on my noro scarf for the My Other hobby swap Knit-a-long I'm using sock instead of the prescribed worsted and cast 33 instead of 39 stitches I'm hoping to make a somewhat comically long skinny scarf. I'm still trying to decide if I like the fact that it currently looks like a completely different scarf on the section I'm working on than the start.

WIP: Wednesday Who's Hungry?

I know it seems like the only project/thing I've been blogging about lately is my Who's Hungry? quilt. And you might have a point. But it's just that I recently decided that I really wanted to finish it the blocks are easy so why haven't I finished it yet? even more recently I decided that I was going to finish this quilt (including the quilting) in April. Seeing as it is not april yet it looks like I'm probably in pretty good shape. However, my boarder number 1 fabric isn't supposed to get here until April 5th. Wish me luck!

Enough talking time for quilt progress:
I am eight blocks from being done with the block part of the quilt top

They mostly made out of blocks with a corduroy middle, but them a few of them are a semi irregular four patch ish type block made out of the middle scraps like this one:


They are not intentionally wonky... I'm just not good at peicing lots of little squares together, I don't think the tape marking 1/4 inch is straight on my machine right now. I should try to fix that.

WIP: Wednesday quilt making

Why, what is this held up with command strip hooks and painters tape? sitting up in my corner so nicely?


Maybe you need a better look, perhaps one further away?



It's a design wall! when I was cleaning my room a while back I decided I needed one. since I live in an apartment with three roommates and I'm not allowed to put holes in the walls or damage them in any sort I had to be creative with how to attach the wall. as you can see by the space it takes up that there isn't too much room for it.



Now for the quilt top. if any of you have been reading my blog you will know that this set of fat quarters was my christmas present from my sister. I'm turning them into 7.5 in squares. Not to sure how I'm going to put them together yet but this is what I have so far.


I especially love the owl fabric and turning the owls into little one eyed monsters at the seams.

Sorry for the crappy picture quality I don't know what is going on but if you

WIP: Wednesday

It is really satisfying to take something from the beginning all the way to the end. Someday I hope to sheer my own sheep wash the wool prep it spin it, dye it, and knit something pretty out of it. The best I can do right now is to take this lovely bump of roving dyed by the awesome woolgatherings who paints some of the best rainbows ever. It is a merino, bamboo, tussah silk mix which is some of the nicest fiber I've had the pleasure to spin.

Last week I had this vision of a rainbowy mixed up shawl from my own handspun. right after finishing my arabella, which I will post about soon. I was itching to do another shawl. I put it off for a while but then I could resist. I spun it up and then started my shawl