Eep!

My Magnolia Lane Mini is a finalist for the final month of Celebrate Color! I'm so excited!!

There's lots of great entries in each category; I'm interested to see which projects win this month!
If you haven't already, be sure to vote for your favorites!

Oh, also, I'm having a cookie making session with my mom and sister this weekend.
Do you have any MUST MAKE recipes to share?

I might have to make these this year...

FO: Stockings for Jill and Ryan

Whew! What a nice long weekend! For those of you in the states, I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving with your families. I got a lot of time with my family and Elliott's. And yes, I'm engaged! I don't have any details to share on the when or how, but we know it will be sometime next year! For now, I'm just enjoying the feeling. I'll share more with you soon!

In the meantime, I crossed a couple of things off of my gifty list this weekend.

My sister asked me for Christmas stockings, personalized for her and her boyfriend, Ryan. Using Fabricworm's tutorial and some Alexander Henry Holiday Hoot fabric, I came up with some pretty fun stockings!

I worked on the embroidery over the holiday, and finished them up yesterday afternoon.

It's always fun to stitch up words in embroidery. And of course, Bella always likes to help.

The pattern was very easy to follow, and the second one came together better than the first.

I'm linking up today with Megan this morning!

Gifty to-do list, part #1

Let me preface this entry by saying, my list of things to finish before the end of the year is twenty-one items long.
And to answer your question, yes, I'm a little crazy for that.

However, I got down to business this past weekend, and was able to cross several tasks off the list.

Item #1: My November "Love" do.Good Stitches blocks
I'm in a new group this month, and Lee chose these fun asterisk blocks.

Item #2: I'm in a secret santa swap via twitter, hosted by Sukie, and I finished my first item over the weekend. There is a cost limit of $15 for the swap, which is a fun challenge! I used Ayumi's super adorable fabric basket tutorial. I want to make more of these. LOTS more.

Item #3 (in progress): I'm making stockings for Jill and Ryan this year.

I'll share more from the list throughout December. Hopefully, I can get everything finished in time!

What's on your gifty to-do list?

(nearly ) Wordless Wednesday

Details forthcoming!

FO: Kate's Plus Pillow

I finished the first of the giveaway pillows. Kate received her pillow this weekend, so now I can share it with you!

Kate adores green, and I just happen to have lots of green in the stash (I love it, too!).

I've been dying to try a plus quilt, and when I looked at Kate's favorites, I knew this would be a perfect excuse to do so.

Honestly, the layout is the only tricky part (and I can imagine doing so for a full quilt is pretty arduous, especially with curious kitties!). I LOVED making this! I used Essex Linen with the prints, which include a recently stashed Suzuko Koseki, some favorite dots (Amy Butler, Ta Dot and It's a Hoot!), Joel Dewberry faves, Leaf Dots, Sundae Stripe, etc. Ah, lots of favorites here, really!

I quilted the front, and resisted the urge to make this an envelope style pillow.

I installed a zipper, which I then had to rip out and try again. My first zipper looked nice, but was not big enough to wedge a pillow through! Ha. Lessons learned! So, a second zipper was installed, but next time, I'll stick with what I know!

I think Kate was really pleased with her pillow! It was especially fun to make this for her since I met her at Sewing Summit.

In other pillow giveaway news, the first winner that didn't respond sent me an email the same day I posted about the replacement winner.

Virginia had never won anything on a blog before, so I decided I will honor her winnings. So, two pillows left for the giveaway. I've started on the second pillow. Hopefully, I'll be able to share it in the next couple of weeks!

A surprise from Jessica

Do you know Jessica? I really enjoy her blog, and her adorable crafty style. She's made some really fun things for her kiddos, and I'm really in love with her recently finished Loulouthi Tiles quilt from Rachel's free pattern.

So, several weeks ago, I sent Jessica some patterns I received at the Sewing Summit. The patterns were for little girl's clothes, and I thought she would enjoy them.

Well, fast forward to Friday afternoon, I get a surprise package from Jessica. In a completely unexpected and generous gesture, she made me a fabulous mini quilt!

How fun is that??!??

She also included a very sweet note, so thanks again, Jessica. You completely made me day!!

Yesterday, I tried to spend some time cleaning up my sewing area, and that included hanging some of my recently acquired minis.

On this wall, we have the Solids swap quilt I received from Shape Moth, and Jessica's mini.

Above my sewing area, I have the Post-Summit swap mini I received from Di. I still have two more minis to hang, so my collection is steadily growing! Ah, happy walls.

I've got lots of sew-y progress to share with you asap!

Post-Summit Swap: Received

I have been so fortunate in the swaps I've participated in. The Post Summit Swap is definitely not an exception. Here is the mosaic I created as an inspiration for my partner:

Please click through to see image sources

And my partner, Diane totally rocked it!! She made me an adorable mini quilt in the always awesome grellow color scheme:

Please excuse the bad lighting, but you can see how gorgeous it is! And look at that little pouch! A kitty! What???
Here's a better shot of the pouch that Diane took. So yeah, I truly love these goodies she made me!

Thanks again, Diane! I intended to get it up on the wall this weekend, but hopefully, it will be hung sometime this week!

Misc. sewing ramblings

So, I never heard back from one of the pillow winners, and gave a deadline of Sunday. So, without further ado, the new winer is #7, Ella! Oh, and I'm hard at work on Kate's pillow. I hope to have that one in the mail this week! I'll share pictures once she receives it!

Also, I realized I hadn't shared my latest Swoon blocks with you. I finished these on my vacation a few weeks back.

Swoon #5, using Modern Meadow Plaid and Kona Teal Blue.

Swoon #6, using Modern Meadow Herringbone and AMH Innocent Crush "Maybe".

Only three blocks left to go! Woo!! Can't wait. I have high hopes to finish this lovely up before the end of the year (possible, but not probable!).

I also finished up Bottled Rainbows block #5, in what I think is Kona Caribbean. Love! Who knows when I'll finish this quilt? Not anytime soon, but I hope to get a block or two more done before the new year!

Card making party

My sister and I had a little girly get-together this weekend. We invited several friends over, scoured pinterest for recipes (and came up with some real winners!), and even had party favors. We spent Saturday getting ready for the party, and then enjoying our friends' company and making cards.

Unfortunately, I was too busy having fun to take pictures during the party, but I do have some prep shots to share with you, as well as links to the recipes we used.

Links to recipes (except sangria, corn chowder and caramels):
Veggie tartlets with pesto sauce
Roasted squash and red pepper quesadillas
Ginger cider bourbon (we tweaked the measurements to: 1.5 parts ginger ale: 1 part cider: .5 part bourbon
Maple Apple Tartlets

The apple tartlets were the only food I got a finished shot of. They were delicious and easy to make!

I mentioned party favors, too. Jill and I went a little overboard, but we had a lot of fun with it.

Jill got little Yankee candles and some homemade jam from etsy for everyone, as well as sharing some scrapbook paper and adhesive. We also shared little rolls of washi tape, purchased here on etsy.

I made coffee cozies, using Jeni's tutorial. I loved making these, and I actually have a few left over to gift next month.

Here's mine!

So, that's the party recap. I made some sweet cards (including one with a robot!).

I hope you had a fun weekend, too!

FO: Magnolia Lane Mini

Back in May, I started a new project using Oh Fransson's Map of the States tutorial. It's the block we used back in February, for do.Good Stitches, and I enjoyed it so much, I thought I'd do it again.

Using mostly Laura Gunn's Magnolia Lane line, which I love, I added a few coordinating stashed fat quarters. Unfortunately, I lost steam and only finished three of the blocks and then the project sat. Until last month, when I accepted that I would probably never make enough MOTS blocks for an entire quilt. As much as I love them, they're not the fastest block to complete.

So, a mini was born.

I added my favorite shade of Painter's Canvas - the hunter green - to finish out the front.

For the back, I used a leftover piece of Magnolia Lane along with Kona Brick. To quilt, I wasn't quite ready to try free motion, but I made a semi circle in the corner, and then from there quilted diagonal lines radiating from it, sort of like sunshine, I suppose!

For a little FMQ experimentation, I added my initials and the year in the corner. I've never really labeled my quilts, but I'd like to start, and I like the way this little addition looks. I really love the yellow border I chose. I was initially going to use Kona Brick (same as the side back piece), but the yellow really pulled everything together (I think it's Kona Curry?).

I was extra motivated to finish this last night (although it's not yet been washed!), so that I could link up with amylouwho's mini party. I'm also submitting the mini to Celebrate Color this month!

FO: Opus Spicatum

Before I get into today's post, I have to share two things about the SGS pattern. First, pattern writing takes serious attention to detail. The proof of this is that I made a VERY simple mistake. Hopefully, any of you that have started knitting so far caught the error, but my cast on number is 33 stitches. It should be an even number. I have fixed the pdf to call for 32 stitches of cast-on. I'm so sorry for any confusion that error may have caused. A big thanks to Rachel for catching my error.

Also, Claudia shared her SGS Scarf progress! I'm so excited about this. Claudia, thanks for giving it a try! It looks awesome so far!

So, on to today's post!
Colorwork freaks me out. I LOVE it (as evidenced by my growing pinterest board), but I find it really daunting. Last year in late October, I decided to cast on for a much-loved pattern, Opus Spicatum. I tried two colorwork tools to see what worked for me, this metal one, and this plastic one. But because of my knitting style (not really correct, but a version of English style), neither of these tools really worked, and I left my progress here:

Yeah. For pretty much an entire year, that's how it looked.

But then, while I was on my little vacation, I knew I'd be finished with the SGS Scarf pretty quickly, so I grabbed this to work on. I'm so glad I did, because I was able to finish it.

I don't know if it was the time away from it, or the fact that I got more comfortable with holding the two colors of yarn (with no tool, just held them both in my left hand), but something clicked!

I used two lovely shades of RYC Cashsoft Aran, and size 7 needles for the brim/size 9 for the body. Followed the pattern exactly!

Raveled here

Now, I'm trying to decide what colorwork project to knit next!

I'm entering this into Celebrate Color.

Wordless Wednesday

SGS Scarf Pattern

I have to say, I've always had aspirations to write my own patterns.

Then Rachel gave me the push I needed when she asked me to contribute to Celebrate Color. I was thrilled, and a little scared. I originally started this scarf pattern back in June, but when I made a trade on Ravelry for this gorgeous wool/alpaca blend in my favorite color of the season, well, I was inspired. I love, love, love this shade of yellow. And I didn't think I could wear the shade, but I think it works!

I'm proud to share with you this free scarf pattern.

I hope there are more patterns in my future.

SGS Scarf Pattern - Jaceycraft 2011

You can click on the link to download the free pattern, or you can also find it on ravelry later today.

Thanks to Rachel for the push that I needed!

I hope you will try out this pattern. If you do, I'd love to see!

I think the gathered stitches make such a great texture! The pattern is easy enough that you can probably knit one up quickly as a gift. And don't be intimidated if you're new to knitting; this pattern only uses: knits, purls, K2Tog (knit two together), and KFB (knit front and back). I recommend Knitting Help if you need help with these stitches.

And here's a shot of me (and the scarf) with the cutest kid ever.

Oliver (Elliott's nephew) is so sweet and special to me!

I used a DK weight yarn for this scarf, but a worsted weight will work just fine!

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment here or email me!

Thanks for checking out my first pattern. I hope you enjoy it!

Unplugged

I didn't intend to be offline for most of my vacation, but that's what ended up happening. I ended up out of town for the majority of the week, but I'm back to regularly scheduled programming, with a mere 747 entries in Google Reader. Hmm. That's going to take a while...

So, a few quick things to get the week started:
-Tomorrow, I'll be sharing my first knitting pattern, and it's free!
-I received a Versatile Blogger award from Shannon of Hello, My Name is Quilt(!), so I'll be posting about that soon.
-My sister and I are having a little fall party this weekend, so I've been hard at work on some coffee cozies using Jeni's tutorial

-I also bought some washi tape to share with the guests!
-I still have not heard from one of the pillow winners, VeeBee (blogless), so if you're reading, please email me! I think I'll wait another week, and then pick another winner, if they don't respond. I have not started on Kate's pillow yet, but I will this week!

I have a few other things to share, but all in due time!

I'll see you tomorrow for that pattern I promised!!