New Additions

I finally did some retail therapy.
And came home with all of the above. The top picture is of fabric that I bought for quilting, and the second picture is fabric that I bought for bags.
I have yet to work with it and was thinking of getting to it after cookie season, but that of course coincided with spring house cleaning and the kids school break, so it is still sitting in a pile waiting for me to make something fabulous with it.
I hope I am up to the challenge. HAHAHA

The Time Just Goes By Without Me......

Good

Better

Best

I have not been sewing lately, because I have been working on these little hats.

My Girl Scouts and I have been taking lessons on Knitting so that we may earn our Junior Bronze Award (the highest award you can achieve as a Junior Girl Scout). The first of three awards that you can achieve in your Girl Scout Career as you get older. I had read an article about another troop out West that had done this and so I put it to the girls and they agreed that this would be a great project. So since October 19th we have used our meetings to learn how to knit. Lately we have also been having Sit N Knit sessions at my home during the week. This helped the girls when they would get stuck or mess up.

The idea is that each girl makes twenty hats and we donate them to the local hospital nursery unit. Now this is a large project for 4th and 5th graders, so the Mom's and I have also been learning so that we can help the girls along the way and also make up the difference if a girl is short and if not then we will have more hats to donate.

The first two hats I had to make using the pattern of knit a row, purl a row, knit a row. I just couldn't get my hands to change the direction of the yarn to do it the way the pattern said too. I also figured if I was having trouble the girls would too, so this method seemed the way to go to start. As you can see my hats turned out OK (no holes).

After that I followed the pattern that was knit 2, purl 2, until you decreased to close the top. I got better and better and told the Mom's and Girls that they can switch to this method after they had made two hats the other way.

I have now made fourteen hats and figured out that I can make a row in 4 minutes, and a hat in 6 hours. Of course this means that I don't get time to be on the computer as much and I have to put any sewing on hold until this project is finished. I am hoping that we can deliver A nice assortment sometime in June.

It really does seem that time just keeps passing me by, but I know that I am making progress on these hats.

Little Known Secret

Ok, I know this has nothing to do with quilting, but while I was looking throught the templates from the cutestblogontheblock.com, I came across a neat background design.
It is called the Candy Cane. Now most people know that my name is Candace, it's in my header, but what you don't know is that my maiden name was Caines. As a teenager I was called Candy and only started using Candace when I was working in an office and my business cards looked better using Candace instead of Candy. So I have added the new candy cane background in my blog for the time being.

Waiting for Ideas to Jump Out at Me

Ok, I have not been sewing for the last couple years like I had or would like to be. As in past posts I have mentioned that the well has run dry for me and I can't seem to find a fill up tank. But for the last six weeks I have been on medical leave from work due to a neck problem which is probably turning out to be a pinched nerve. I will be seeing the neck specialist on the sixth. Anyway, one of the problems was numbness in my thumb and hand. So even if I wanted to sew, this was really putting the breaks on any sewing work I might like to do. Lately, through physical therapy I am feeling better and so I decided to try by sewing the most recent patches my kids have earned through scouts on their vests. After finishing that I was looking at a pile of scraps from my two projects made in my serger class and started cutting up 3 1/2 inch squares of the above fabric. Now I am waiting for ideas to come to me. I sure wish they would hurry and come to me as I will have to go back to work soon and then who knows when I will have time to sew again.

Class #2

In yesterdays Serger class, Lizzy and I made tote bags. Lizzy used a sea animal pattern, and the tote will end up being a gift for her swim sister at the end of the swim season in November.

I used a cute penguin pattern and do not have a person in

mind for this tote. Also, I put corners on mine and Lizzy left hers square.

Our next class was not decided yet by the teacher, she was too busy and over extended, so she did not have time to come up with an item. She is however, thinking of doing a two month project that would use both September and October.

Serger Club

Lizzy and I had our first class of the Serger Club. I got to use the store machine and Lizzy use mine. The first item was a table runner, that was actually so easy to make, that you could make several before you would get bored.

I did mine with Christmas fabric and since the backing was purple flannel, I just picked purple for the top.

Lizzy used Halloween fabric with a purple flannel backing. The backing is flannel to make the top heavier. Our next class is on the 12th and we will be making a tote bag. So now I am sewing again, however it is just during these classes. I need to find time to spend sewing, but I seem to spend my free time cleaning, weeding, lawn work, reading and playing on the computer. Oh well, one day at a time will see what happens that way.

Friends Swap

Today my gifts came from Mary, my partner in the Friends Swap. Don't they look cute in the wrapping paper? As you can see my partner really got my sweet tooth going with the boxes of Mike and Ike's, but I love the cute little green frogs. They are so sweet. I have been noticing that I was not as good a swap partner as I could have been. I did spend lots of time to give just the right grifts to my partner and I wrapped each present separately, but I never even thought to label each gift with the letter to spell friends. Since this is the first swap I have ever been in, I hope that my partner and Khris can caulk it up to inexperience and will let me join in another swap in the future.