Starts with Q, ends with -ing

Howdy knitting neighborinos! Whats new & exciting? Let's just pretend as if I haven't been a way that long, okay. I'll try not to keep this post too long because you know how I can get when I return from an extended absence. Why don't we start with whats new and exciting for me right now....Quilting.

Yup I'm totally hooked, even though I have yet to actually finish one. I don't know where the urge came from but I can remember looking for a shoe under my bed and noticing my overflowing fabric stash and thinking that I've got to do something about this. Since I couldn't bear to part with any of the fabric for the simple fact that....well....for no other rational reason other than its mine, I figured I could use it up if I did some patchwork. I quickly googled the subject to find all there is to know, purchased a couple of books and thought that I knew what I was doing. I jumped head first into my scraps and thought "Shoo, I could wing this, who needs to draw out a pattern". All was going well until I held up my little 15 inch piece that I had been working on for a while to my SO and he's like "Uh, you know what that looks like right" I took a second look and sure enough one out of my four blocks resembled a certain racially charged hate symbol and thats all I'm going to say about that.

Needless to say, I have thoroughly planned the quilt I am working on now. I saw the pattern on my new favorite show Simply Quilts and I knew I just had to have it. I picked out the fat quarters from my newest pusher The City Quilter. This picture doesn't reflect true color but more or less I'm pretty pleased with my progress. The only thing I'm on the fence about is the hot pink. It doesn't really mesh well with the other colors, but at this point I'm not changing it. Lets just call it a character element. that draws your eyes to the center.

If you can't tell already I've fell back in love with my sewing machine. I made a couple of bags but they were gifts so of course I don't have any pictures. I have a crappy cell phone pic of the bag I made my boss from this book.
I also made the scrap pincushion from said book. You don't know how badly I needed one. I had been using an old rolled up crochet swatch as a makeshift one for the longest. It didn't hit my until I stuck myself so hard that my finger was bleeding.


For some strange reason it seems as if all knitting mojo goes on hiatus around this time of year. I don't know, is it just me? I lost my knitting mojo around the end of February and its slowly starting to return. I've been busy lately cranking out the baby gifts and my ravelry can vouch for that. I just have one more shower in April which I think I may do a baby quilt/knitted sweater combo. I did fall head over heels in love with one of the new patterns in Knitty. Any reason to use handspun yarn is swell in my book.

The pattern is Spirogyra and I spun the yarn from one of Abby's Luxury Batts. I believe its a mix of merino/silk/nylon/sparkly stuff. I spun it as a 3 ply and its roughly 12-14 wpi. I spun it a while ago so I can't remember if I blocked the yarn or not. I'm thinking that it'll bloom either way once I soak these babies.

OK, I said I wouldn't keep this post that long (yeah right) so I'll wrap it up. If you read through all of that, then congrats, I may have a prize for you. I missed my blogiversary (yeah, 2 years, I know!) last week so I'm gonna have a little contest. I'll pick one winner randomly from the comments. Oh and you also have to put the letter Q (for quilting, tee hee) somewhere in your comment to to be eligible. It can be in a word or just by itself. Just want to make sure you're paying attention. Almost forgot, the prize will be a hand sewn (by moi) sock knitting drawstring bag in the 2 colors of your choosing (lining/outside fabric). Contest ends on Monday the 24th and I'll pick a winner on Tuesday although I may not announce it for a while, ya'll know how I am. Thats all kiddies, take care, comb your hair.