A Dog Sweater, Finished

I recently started back to knitting.  Well, to be honest I never really was a knitter, even though my grandmother taught me to knit sometime before I was 10 years old.

My Gramma was born in England, near London Bridge actually and she taught me what is now called the English Method...  At age 10, it seems my mind absorbed things it is only now realizing that it learned so long ago!  Good thing too, because if I had to learn how to knit now, I'm not so sure that I could!

 

So I have been practicing my stitch tension by making a few cotton dish/face cloths...

I had promised a niece of mine that I would make a doggie sweater for her 'not-for-profit' dog rescue that she is the organizer for in Manitoba.  Her group does not actually rescue dogs to be re-homed.  Her group raises funds and goes into small northern communities and provides veterinary care to dogs that would otherwise never be seen by a vet.  Mainly they spay and neuter any of the dogs in the community many that are feral (and then release them) or if residents request that their owned dogs receive the service.

So I finished up my first completed sweater, tho it has a couple of "oops" in it, it looks like it is supposed to!   This sweater is made with Red Heart Supersaver -- this is a great yarn for trying out one's skills, because it is not so expensive to waste on a novice project.   I quite like how it turned out...

In fact, I so enjoyed the process that I have started a second dog sweater!  The first one, in the photo above is a middle size for a dog such as a American Cocker or perhaps a Havanese or a Shih tzu.  My second project is for a smaller breed, like a Pomeranian or a Chihuahua.  I am getting a bit fancy in that I am giving this sweater stripes, turquoise and bright red!

So, hopefully these sweaters can be sold at her next fundraiser for a good price and perhaps help out some outside dogs that would perhaps have a bit better life.

I haven't committed to further items for this organization, but hey! perhaps my crafty streak can be more effective.   I don't know about you, but after awhile of making and giving, crochet or quilted items I have got the distinct feeling that some times people don't really look forward to these kind of 'gifts'...

If a person were to buy what I make then you know they want and need it...

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And unusual - Archie, my Siamese rarely poses for a picture, but today the sun was streaming in the kitchen window and he was enjoying the warmth of it on his back so I took the opportunity to catch him, catchin' a few rays...

The Absolutely Most Common Quilting Dilemna

Scraps, yes scraps are our most common quilting dilemma!  I don't want to call it a Problem because, really, How can fabric be a problem?

I am talking about a couple of solutions to this actually great and wonderful dilemma!  Having scraps means you have already been sewing for awhile.  So you are a very rich and somewhat experienced quilter!  How wonderful!

For the past few years I have been working at organizing and re-organizing and sorting and arranging and sifting through all my piles of fabric....

A couple of years ago -- the summer of 2012 to be exact-- I spent the summer with my sewing machine and cutting table set up out on my backyard deck and made a dozen scrap quilts that I donated to a charitable quilt distribution program run by my local quilt guild in the fall of 2012.  Click on the tab above if you want to see the quilts that I made - Super Summer Snippy Challenge)

But.  That project did not make a very big dent in what I had on hand!  It did help my community and kept me busy and engaged for 4 months, which was a very good thing.

My next step was to resolve not to buy ANY new fabric -- and I haven't!  That means tho I have had very little new INSPIRATION for quite a while.  Then my Janome 6600 developed a problem and until just this week, I have not been able to afford the repair...  I don't think that not buying fabric has been very successful...  The main reason is because I am not INSPIRED to work with just what I have!  I think a injection of a new fabric in combination with my stash fabrics would have kept me inspired and producing quilts or other sewn items.  So ultimately, even tho the stash has not increased, it also has not decreased...

Well, now, my Janome is at the sewing machine repair guy, and I figure I have a week or so to do something with this wonderful conundrum of too much
fabric...

I came across a suggestion, just this morning, so I am thinking, that since my husband doesn't have to go to work today, I will use him as a assistant organizer -- he did spend most of his working years as a warehouse worker guy doing everything from organizing cleaning supplies to shipping and receiving hazardous waste materials, and sorting and moving a warehouse from an old building to a new built facility -- so he should be a good helper, you think?  His "life's work" has been as an ORGANIZER!

(the first step is to iron all your scraps so you can cut them into the appropriate sizes but there is always something or someone who insists on interfering in the process!)

So, basically the idea is not necessarily to actually use up the scrap stash right away, but it is to stack and organize what I have into 'categories' or potential shapes and begin cutting the scraps into squares, rectangles, strips or maybe even into triangles and then to put like shapes and sizes into boxes or containers or baskets -- which I already have an abundance of!  (I also have a tendancy to SAVE shoe boxes and now I know why!)

Check out this post from  Martingale Publishers - Organizing quilt scraps blog pages (written almost 1 year ago)  so this will be my current WORK IN PROGRESS...  I suspect I will be at it for quite awhile, but I hope that my stash will become more compact and manageable.

I do suspect that much of what I create in quilts will be SCRAPPY!  I think tho, that with alot of scraps I will be able to allow myself to buy an occassional fabric to FEATURE in a project, perhaps as background or sashings or borders....  I'm already thinking about what would go with what!!

Here's hoping that Third (system) time is the CHARM!

Now, you must realize that I have not done all of this in one day, in fact, I have for years kept a box of 2.5 inch squares cuz they are just so darn handy!  The hexagon box is also a work in progress that I have been hand sewing hexagons together and adding cut hexies as I need them...

 I am planning to increase the selection of sizes - one of those boxes contains 6 inch by 10 inch cut pieces because a few years back I made a "Broken Crayons" Quilt (http://www.abbotsfordquilters.org/broken_crayons_instructions.pdf) I wrote these instructions for my guild newsletter but got the original idea from another guild website and re did the instructions to make them a bit easier to understand.  ** the instructions are free to use but if you reprint, it would be nice if you could link back to my instructions -- but I'm not going to sue you if you don't**

So, I think this is a reasonable start, with even a growing collection of selvedges that I am sure I will find a use for -- as you see, I made a cover for a journal with a previous bunch of selvedges...

Little Granny Lost...

On Monday of this week, I decided to go for a wander around my local Value Village store.  I don't seem to be 'hunting for treasures' as often as I used to -- perhaps because I already have too many 'treasures' and am more often looking for ways to get rid of them!

Well, I came across a couple of things but the one that really fired my imagination was a small bag or granny squares.  They looked to have been made quite a long time ago as the colours were a kind of 'muddy' selection.  Turned out there were 36 squares in the bag, but two were really not well made and were unraveling, so I chucked them in the waste basket.   I kept pawing through the remaining squares, piling and re-piling them and finally decided there was no single favourites.   The pile of granny squares sat on my little chair-side table while I thought about what I could use them for.

Even tho I had made myself a new "purse" just before Christmas, I was again thinking perhaps a crochet "project bag" might be in order...

So I began.  I decided to just pick up the little granny squares without too much decision making and using a favourite joining method I started.

The joining yarn, a bright red -- really was the only yarn I had in the same 'weight' as the grannies had been created in, so I settled for red -- but then I really like RED!  So that was okay...

I have been noticing quite a few granny square projects on Pinterest, so I suspect that is why I bought that little bag of squares at Value Village, plus, they were only $1.99!   Some of the granny square projects, especially the ones that were made into bags, were made wider, but I just wanted something to carry one small project in, and maybe my wallet, so I decided a classic simple rectangle shape... BUT, it did take a bit of figuring on how to connect the squares to make a bag without having to cut off any square...  It was an interesting puzzle getting the squares to conveniently fit together!  16 squares only!  And just the right size!

A year or so ago I saw a crochet 'braid' in a book or magazine and since it has stuck in my mind I decided to use it as the handles for the bag.  Have you tried this one before?  It is much like a knitted "I-cord".  Chain 6 and join to form a circle.  Then single crochet in each chain but do not join with a slip stitch, just keep going round and round and round, making sure to maintain that 6 stitches around.  Make the 'braid' as long as you need.  I really like this and have even used it as an edge on crochet hats and a few other things as a detail edge.  It is simple and quick and is easy to attach, longways or just at each end to make the handles for the bag.

The granny squares all connected and looking like a very bright little bag -- it has the 'feel' and 'look' of a time gone by -- it very much reminds me of a "Hippie" style from the late 1960's or early 1970's -- Very Vintage -- Ah Well, that is my Vintage too, so we should work well together!

Well, then.  Keeping with that 'Summer of Love" idea I thought I would check through my fabric stash, as I was sure I had a couple of fat quarters of cotton sheet fabric from that era...

I put the lining together, simply by tracing around the crochet bag shape, which when the seams were sewn allowed the lining fabric to fit perfectly inside the crocheted bag.  I did put a pocket into the lining -- just in case I wanted to carry a small item or two, like a pen or a crochet hook, that is always hard to find when it is just plopped into the bottom of a bag...

And there.  My 'Summer of Love' Project bag!

And.

I have enough granny squares still to make another one!  But do I need two such bags?  I don't think alot of other people really would want to be seen carrying something so "old fashion" but like the poem by Jenny Joseph says 

"When I am an old woman I shall wear purple. With a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me, And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves." 

Enjoy your Sunday!

Beginnings - 2014

It has been a month since I wrote anything on this blog.  I have been thinking about a slight change in focus here...

Now, to me Susan Being Snippy has always meant that I am trying to nicely say that I am a bit of a contrary person...

I have to find things out for myself - even though I wonder sometimes why I just don't take well intentioned and truly good advice.  Some things I should have listened to but was too pig headed to follow and often paid for my folly in some manner.

My very favourite thing to do has for many years been quilting, quiltmaking, fiber art, sewing and anything that falls into that category.  And I mean anything, from handpiecing hexagons to creating a crazy quilt with every seam embroidered with different stitches and patterns of stitches to making a series of wool and beaded quilts, experimenting with pieced images, and just plain quilt blocks sewn for fun or to make quilts to give to charitable causes.  I have loved sewing since I was a child.

Something has happened to my enthusiasm for sewing in the last few months.  I am not sure why I am not inclined to sew...  I think about colour and pattern and wake up with ideas for quilts or projects swimming in my head and I go into my sewing room, look around and go out of the room again...  It must be much like what a novelist calls Writer's Block.   I do believe I have Sewer's Block.

I have let go of some of the extra things that I do that goes along with my quilting interest -- membership in my local quilt guild, participation in writing for the Canadian Quilter's Association (a feature on the members page), and no interest whatsoever in creating in or taking part in a local quilt show, something I have done at every opportunity.  Yes, definately Sewer's Block!

(on Christmas Day, everyone, even the animals are waiting for dinner!)

So, to refocus myself for a time and yet to keep my blog current, I think I will be posting a variety of opinions or statements or ideas.  And I hope that there will still be a bit of a craft focus as I do seem to be doing crochet and even knitting.

I do have to say, one of the reasons that I have refrained from posting for the last month is because I have very contrary ideas about the consumerism of the past month.  It upsets me.   My immediate family stopped buying stuff during the shopping frenzy of what is referred to has the holiday season -- we have not done the traditional gift exchange for close to 10 years now -- most people think there is something WRONG with us because we don't need that part of christmas.  So rather than 'buck the trend' openly, we just quietly let it pass us by...

                  (sun in my kitchen window -- thats a shadow of a holly tree)

Back to a couple of posts a week, beginning this week! So here's hoping to get back into a rhythm with perhaps an bit more attitude showing...

Come along and explore a few new subjects with me!

( I have a large plastic bin full of quilt batt scraps and my cat thinks it is the most wonderful place to make a nest)