Ring it in...hello 2012!

2011 was a good year and in many ways I'll be missing it.

For the holiday we did a little travel to see family which was really fun, but we saw old friends too and had quite a busy time.

For Christmas my DH gave me a new drop spindle from Golding Fiber Tools which I knew would be pretty.  It is crazy or maybe just a leap of faith to purchase a spindle without trying it but people say that these spindles are very nice.

I was thinking gee, they are beautiful, and I'm sure they spin well, so why not try one.

Well, let me tell you...they are certainly worth all the fuss people make over them.  I am not sure my other spindles will be getting much love from here on out.  Sorry!!  This Golding is my new best friend for spinning.

I did not end up finishing the sewing project I was working on for the kids before the holiday but I DID finish it just in time for our road trip.  More on that next time with some photos.

I was looking through my posts from last January to see if I was crazy enough to make any resolutions.  I may have been smart enough not to do that.  Whew.  No guilt.  That was smart. 

If I were to resolve to do anything differently this year, I think it will be to try and enjoy the ride.  Things seem too busy these days.  Time seems to be rushing past at a faster pace now that the kids are getting a little bigger.

Okok and I'll confess that in the deep dark recesses, I have a personal hankering to buy a little more Japanese fabric...I'm thinking it would be fun to pick it out myself in Yuzawaya.  We'll see if I pull that off.

Happy New Year!

The stockings are hung...but I'm still sewing...

Are you still trying to finish up those Christmas gifts you decided it was a good idea to make? 

I'm sure you are smarter than that.

Really, who on Earth would still be sewing on Christmas Eve Day??!!

Only the crazy people.  OK so count me crazy.  The last minute is sometimes the only minute that I have.  Who knows if I'll finish or not, and I actually don't mind if I don't make it.

In the end, the kids will have a cool hand made gift - eventually.

Hope your holiday plans are cooking up beautifully.  I'm still here with my needle and thread...and loving every moment of it.

The above patchwork ornament was made for my sister's new baby who is celebrating her first Christmas this year.  She's like a living doll.

Merry Christmas!! 

-Marisa

Little Elf Under My Tree

I took a few photos of my little one playing with the Thomas train under our tree.  He loves to operate it even though sometimes it comes off the tracks and he needs a little help to get it going again.

This time of year we try to cut over to some Christmas themed kids books during evening story book time.  Even though Velveteen Rabbit was first published in 1922, it starts off with the rabbit's arrival in a Christmas stocking, so I like to re-read it.  So timeless.  My older one just loves it.  

I'm about to start to play with my patchwork ornaments.  Most of the shopping is done now, and the time for resting with family feels like it's getting nearer.   I'm looking forward to not having to wake up early, and to have little boys bouncing around in my lap.

Busy times for my friends these days:

My friend Sharon of Knits are for Kids is off spinning up a very colorful storm.  Check out her latest hand spun yarn here, and her flickr stream here for some beautiful photos.

My friend Susan of So Sue has been off taking in the sunshine in Hawaii, but managed to tear herself away from the beach to review some local quilt shops for you here. She's also been doing some beautiful paper piecing (adorable).


On my to-do list for an eventual trip to Southern California is to stop in at Down Home Country Antiques as Dawn of Collector With A Needle mentions.  You know I'm a sucker for an antique quilt.


When I was reading this post at Quilting with the Past, I got interested in making some knit ornaments from the "55 Christmas Balls to Knit" book.  I have some yarn imported from Norway that would be perfect for these.

Going In Circles

We just had our end of the year party for my knitting/quilting group.

It was a blast.  There is always an exciting white elephant exchange where beautiful and coveted items are lovingly exchanged and stolen and re-stolen among friends.

We had a nice warm dinner, and some naughty but nice ice cream and key lime cookies for dessert.  

Even some charming husbands joined us, so it was a nice way to basically wrap up our creative year.

I ended up spinning some yarn for the exchange, and it went to a very good home.  That's me at my Matchless wheel above, spinning around and around and around

Photo by my beautiful and talented photographer-sister.

I'm always curious to see what people do with my yarn.  I'm still learning about how it will turn out as a garment.

It feels like Christmas is only around a week away.  Oh right...it basically is!  I'm ready to spend some serious time with the kids.  That's what I'm asking Santa for. 

Did you ask for anything special this year?

It's begining to look a lot like...well, you know

Our household spent the greater part of the weekend decorating for Christmas.

- Lights on outside of house: Check!

- Christmas tree:  Check!

- Stockings hung by chimney with care: Check!

It's full steam ahead towards the holiday season, my favorite time of the year.

We had our monthly gathering of my small quilt group last weekend and I took a photo of the beautiful ornaments that my friend Carol made (above).

She has been making these for friends since the 1970's or so I believe.  She's promised to teach me how to make them, so I'm very excited about that.  I secretly wonder if you could use very thin handspun yarn instead of DMC floss...but maybe I should walk before I fly here.

Anyhow, thank you Carol for the beautiful ornament (she gave me the red one shown here, and I have a couple others from past years) and for allowing me to photograph these beautiful creations.

I love to make patchwork ball ornaments, but have been a bit behind in making them for the kids every year.  Didn't manage to make any last year...wondering if I'll end up having a few spare cycles this year to come  up with a few.  They take me around 3-4 hrs each, but they are hand pieced and quite relaxing to sew up and even more fun to stuff.  Time to break them out methinks. 

Hope that the spirit of the season is bringing some extra happiness your way.

Holiday gift for quilters: 2012 Quilt Calendar

It isn't always easy to get the quilter who has everything a perfect holiday gift.

I've found that a new calendar is always appreciated and a beautiful one can be the perfect addition to your creative space.

This year I have a special treat for you:  two versions of the calendar!  Quilts and Yarn.

It's a labor of love to put these together since it takes me a lot of time and thought, but flip through and check out the photos if you have a chance.

The quilt calendar is light and airy looking, similar look to the photos I shoot for my blog.  The yarn calendar has a darker pallet in color and is more dramatic. 

To see all the photos included in every month, click the button below, click the title, and then click "Preview".  Enjoy!

 -----------------------------------------------

Quilts

$29.99

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 Yarn

$29.99

Thanksgiving - thank goodness

This Thanksgiving was like a lot of others that we've had:  lots of food, lots of family...which adds up to a lot of love and relaxation time.  Thank goodness for all the yummy food and for grandparents watching kids while parents (me) take a nap.  Ah...I do love Thanksgiving.

We are lucky to have the chance to spend some time with our extended family this week and to enjoy being away from the usual routine.

My son found my dad's typewriter and typed a little note in the above photo.  The typewriter was a novelty to him.  It was kinda magical putting one letter at a time on the paper.  Funny how it doesn't seem so antique to me.  Ok, I'm old now.

I did a little bit of knitting during quite moments which was fun.  I'm off to the races, starting a hand quilting project as soon.  More on that next time. 

If you haven't watched the Marcel the Shell video yet, you must, but if you live on this planet, I'm sure you already have.

My kids are starting to make their lists of gifts they want to send to Santa already.  A spy kit seems very popular with the 6 yr old. 

The haven't asked me for a necklace made out of Barbie doll body parts yet, which is I think a good sign, since they are boys. 

I think the holiday season is officially upon us.  Yeah!

1st Grade Humor

My son says, "Mommy, what's your name?"

I say:  "Mommy"

He asks, "What's this body part?" (pointing to his nose)

I say: "Nose"

Him:  "What's in my hands?" (holds up both hands making a little cup of air)

Me: "Nothing"

Get it?  Mommy knows nothing!

Ok, try that on your friends if you need to lighten up the mood.  Isn't first grade the best?

Our weekend is basically house chores and the quiet before Thanksgiving. 

For my eyes:  Looking at all the finished modern house blocks in taupe fabrics makes we want to finish up the rest of them.  I think they all go together pretty well.

For my ears:  I've been listening to a couple of podcasts and some music

• Knitmore Girls episode 136: I wrote in and asked a question about plying spinning fiber and they answered my question on the show.  How cool is that?! 

• Spin Doctor eipsode 26:  half way through this episode, but it talks a lot about using dye on fiber and is pretty interesting.  Very informative interview with Deb Menz.

• The Gotan Project:  a band that makes tango music, I'm enjoying their Revancha Del Tango album. 

• The Nights Lights: cool chill music, good for dinner time.  Discovered by my DH.

For my taste:  Orenchi Raman is the hottest new noodle house in silicon valley.  Always too long of a wait to get in.  We are trying to try it by storming the place before it opens.  I'll let you know if it's worth the bother.

How to keep your kids in line

My friend Marianne made a couple of mochi mochi knit toys for my boys and they have become really attached to them.

They begged me to get the book and knit every last creation that it has patterns for.

I got a copy of  it, Teeny -Tiny Mochi Mochi by Anna Hrachovec.  Some of the creations are easier to make than others, but I started with the volcano.

It was one of the easier ones.  The kids have a queue of other toys they want, and even my husband claimed the little dino I made, so you know they are actually pretty darn cute.

They are only about an inch or so tall and they go together pretty fast if you don't mess them up and end up knitting them twice (like I did).  More info on my ravelry projects page.

My kids will stand on their heads for more of these.  I think I may have finally figured out how to get them to behave.  Well, at least for as long as I can keep making these little mochi's.

Japanese quilting fabrics: more is more

This block above is the 8th block in the series of California Bay Area modern homes that I'm working on.  

The house itself is located in Berkeley, CA and is known as the Fish House by locals but is actually the Tsui House.  It looks like it would be more at home under the sea than on a relatively normal street.  I used taupe fabrics that sort of looked like the ocean to me.

In other news, I was looking at Deborah Kemball's applique recently.  Have you seet it yet?  It's so detailed and beautiful.

Sometimes I really look forward to the weekend because I have something special going on.  This Sunday, my friend Sharon and I are taking a sweater making class by this famous designer named Ysolda Teague.

It's up at Verb of course, and although I don't really knit sweaters, it will be fun to meet her and to learn something that is really new to me.  And to relax for a bit of course.

Hope you have a chill weekend planned too.  Or unplanned for that matter.

Quilt Borders

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the modern house hand applique blocks I've been making this year.

Even though the house blocks are not all complete, my mind wanders to thoughts of designing borders.

For a quilt like this, only a spectacular border will do.

When I was getting coffee this weekend, I stopped into where I usually get coffee, and they also have the most beautiful flowers. 

This time I could not leave without picking up a couple of stems of amazing Protea.  I think Sierra Azul nursery in Watsonville might carry the plants themselves.

I am not sure if I have the guts to try to grow them, although I would love to try someday (anybody brave enough to have tried this out there?).

Not sure if the entire border will be made up of these little beauties, but thinking about using them somehow in the design.

Top 5 of my weekend:

1)  Finished a pair of socks for my son - only took a single 100g ball of yarn, superwash merino, by A Verb for Keeping Warm in Magic Bean colorway.  Used size 2 needles and 36 stitches.  Easy Peasy.  Okok, I still had to look up kitchener stitch video to finish the toe, but I'm not really a knitter...remember?!  I fake it.

2)  Made carrot ginger soup:  Saute half an onion, add tons of cut up carrots, 1 box of chicken broth, a splash of white wine, and grate in some ginger.  Best soup ever. 

3)  Felted wool Christmas ornaments:  Looks like fun to make these, but not sure I could bring myself to use glue.  Think I would probably sew the flowers together instead.  Very cool tutorial here at Betz White blog.

4)  Dreaming of visiting Napa again someday (sans kids).  Would love to stay at Napa Farmhouse Inn, owned and run by my favorite coffee shop owner:   Napa Farmhouse Inn 1277 St. Helena Hwy South, St. Helena CA 94574,  707-968-5441 - Someday!

5)  Turning the clocks back for Fall - when else can you get an extra hour in the day?!  That should happen every weekend in my opinion. 

Your weekend top 5?  Go!

Yarn Balls: less work than having a pet goldfish

I end up with small amounts of yarn after I finish up a project.  

My friend Susan got me hooked on making little yarn balls with them by winding the yarn around my thumb.  It is strangely enjoyable.  If a yarn ball sits around too long I get the urge to wind it into one of these.  It's an addiction really.  I may soon need a 12 step program.

Anyhow, if you are a fellow detail freak and have some yarn on hand, there's a couple you tube videos that show you how.  The one that is similar to what I did is located here (but there are lots of them out there).

My sister sent me flowers recently and the 'fish bowl' looking vase has become my table center piece.  No cleaning of the tank required.

Life is getting in the way of my quilting a bit this week but will hopefully carve out some time to enjoy some this weekend when I'm not busy eating a Bavarian Breakfast at Esther's Germany Bakery (check it out if you're in the bay area).

600th Post: Here's to a handmade halloween costume

It's a bit crazy that I have had 600 blog posts.

I should figure out some big post party or a giveaway or something.  I think I said that on my 500th, and am still living in guilt of not taking any action there.  Oops, oh well...too busy to let it fester much!

The above photo is my little one in his handmade Halloween costume.  He's ready to rock this holiday.  He kinda looks like he's casting a spell on the neighborhood.  Count me in as one of the smitten.

When I made the costume, I basically got a ton of purple felt, laid the kid down on the fabric, and started cutting it out around him.  I sorta remember making my DH help cut out the stars and moons very late at night.

I think he would have prefered to be Iron Man or some branded character (sigh, the media) but after a lot of 'testing out' of the costume, I think he's finally embracing it.

We have a nut-free Halloween due to diet restrictions, so we got our candy from Peanut-Free Planet.  It's an awesome place to get treats if you have little ones that don't do nuts.

What are you going to be this year?  Have a safe one!

Taupes, Taupes, Taupes

The nice folks over at One World Fabrics sent me a little gift of fabric recently and I wanted to share a quick photo with you.

Their bite sized taupe fabric packs are very high quality and I have already been enjoying using them in a quilt block.

There are general two types of fabrics that they carry:  one is the 'print' taupe fabrics that are similar in concept to American printed quilt fabric.  They are not double sided, but they are beautiful and have those muted tones that I love working with.  The other type is the yarn dyed which are woven and more or less the same on both sides.  These are my true love.  So many beautiful browns....sigh...just awesome.  I made an entire quilt out of these with my sister once and I'm using them also for the birthday blocks for my younger son.

If you have been working with taupe fabrics, I think you'll enjoy what One World has to offer.  When I need a quick online fix I will end up heading there to see what there latest packs have in store.

I also have another finished modern quilt block (in taupes), but will save that for the next post.

PIQF 2011: Market Goodies - Oakshott fabric

At PIQF this year I did not manage to visit all the shopping booths, but of course I had fun anyhow.


I never skip the Pinwheels booth.  It's brimming over with beautiful Japanese taupe fabrics.  By the time I got there, fabric was going fast and serious Japanese fabric addicts were snapping up the good stuff as quickly as they could.  I bought what I could get my hands on.  I think it was a mistake not going there first thing in the morning.


The above fabrics are from an English company called Oakshott from their Lyon line and as far as I can tell, these fabrics are not carried by any other shop in the US besides Pinwheels.  I wish I could pick them up at my local quilt shop, but alas...I get them each year at PIQF.


You probably need to see them in person to appreciate their true beauty.  In case you missed a look at the quilt top I made with them some time back...check out this post.


Other Daiwabo taupes were also there for the blissful taupe-a-holics and I'm using a couple of them in my next house BOM.  


Places I also enjoyed:

• YLI thread:  They had some new metalic + silk threads.  I have never seen these before so I got some to try.  They also had their hand quilting thread in a 2 ply, instead of 3 ply...so thinner.  We'll see if it holds up to my hand quilting strength requirements!

• Cindy's Antique Quilts:  If you collect quilts, this booth is a do not miss booth.  Her quilts are all in really nice shape and prices are basically market value.  There was a yellow lone star quilt here that I almost bought but I didn't want to have to eat ramen noodles for 2 weeks over it.

• Reets Rags to Stitches:  I like to play around with felted wool, especially hand dyed.  She had some cool colors and I picked up a few pieces.  I use these in the birthday crowns I make for my kids, and also in other kid projects.  The fun colors really scream 'kids!' to me.

• Morgan Quality Products:  I picked up hand quilting stencils here.  They have some very nice ones.  If you love to hand quilt, you will love their selection.  Lots of Amish looking designs which are my favorites.  I also ended up trying their soap stone quilt top marking pencil.  I haven't tried it yet, but am thinking of doing a test run soon to see if it really comes out.  I picked up a pack on their Bohin needles (from France!) to try some applique.  I found them too flexible for my needs so I'm going back to my Jeana Kimball ones.

Lastly, there was a flier to advertise the upcoming East Bay Heritage Quilters guild show - Voices in Cloth, so I've marked that on my calendar:  March 17-18, 2012.  I hear it's worth seeing.  I'm looking forward to checking out the special exhibit by the African American Quilt Guild of Oakland.

PIQF 2011: Pacific International Quilt Festival - wanna attend?

If you wish you could attend PIQF 2011 in person you have two options:

a)  Take a red eye to San Jose, California, as there is still time left: the show continues through tomorrow (Sunday).

b)  Save yourself the travel headache and hunker down with a nice cup of tea to view my latest photos....links below.

The show was pretty neat, and I really enjoyed going with my friends Marianne and Susan.  We saw all the quilts and most of the vendor booths. 

Overall, not a lot of hand work in the show, but that is the norm these days I think.  Some of the hand work we did see was awesome, and some of the machine work was also very beautiful.

The photo above is from an entry from Germany, called Annual Rings by quilt maker Petra Niermann.  Looks so Amish, but more modern with the rectangles.  I loved this quilt.

For your viewing pleasure:

Flickr set of photos here, slide show directly accessible here.  Just under 350 photos for you this year, so set aside a few minutes so you can enjoy them.

My favorite quilt in the whole show may have been a hand quilted beauty seen here.  Quilt maker Myrl Lehman-Tapungot.  No ribbon, boo!

If you have a favorite from the slide show, let me know which one it is.

A couple of highlights: 

There were also some beautiful Dear Jane quilts in the show which I included in my photos.  I met some 'Janiacs' who had not only finished one Dear Jane quilt, but had completed a 2nd one.  That's dedication for you.  They were super fun and one of the gals was the aunt of a quilt maker who had her completed Dear Jane on display here (also no ribbon - ??? Judges - what is going on?)?

I also ran into Annie Smith of Quilting Stash quilting podcast.  It was so fun to see her.  If you listen to her podcast already, you know it's one of the better ones out there.

Joe Cunningham was spotted there as well (he doesn't know me) but I did a double take when I ran into him. 

I'll cover more about the vendors in my next post.  There were some good ones and I picked up some interesting new things.

If the slide show of this year isn't enough for you, I have a lot of historic photos of PIQF through the years:

PIQF Photo Collection: 

1350 photos from the last 7 years of the show, organized by year, 2005 - 2011.

If that doesn't keep you entertained, I don't know what will.

Japanese Crafting: Home Made Notebook with Washi Tape

I did a search recently for Japanese Crafting blogs and it is a shame that there are not more of them out there since Japanese Crafting is so unique and beautiful.

In an effort to make something Japanese and Crafty...I created this little notebook with washi tape.

Washi Tape is basically the cutest thing since sliced bread.  Why would anybody ever use boring old scotch tape again, I'll never know, but I digress.

The basic construction of the book itself was inspired by this post on Angry Chicken blog that shows you how to make some simple board books to keep notes in.

I covered the top cover with washi tape, left some room to write a title on there, and decorated the back with more crazy calligraphy.  More photos on Flickr.

Ages ago I did a little calligraphy tutorial, so if you're bent on making one of these, you can read about it here.

I made some of these books for my applique quilting 'students' (read 'friends') for them to use as a mechanism to track the fabrics in their quilt.  More on that in another post.

Ok, so who went to PIQF today?  Are you out there?!  I'm going tomorrow....hopefully you left some fabric for me to buy!  Only a few photos have turned up online so far.

Langston - a sweater for a pinkalicious girl, and a big event

I finished knitting a size 2 sweater for my sister's older girl recently.

The pattern is called "Langston" by Teresa Cole.  I found the pattern pretty easy and it did not consume a lot of yarn so it was a good use for a relatively small amount of handspun.

More info on it with more photos on my ravelry page.  I am tempted to knit another one of these it was so fun.

The yarn itself came from naturally dyed 50% silk 50% merino by A Verb for Keeping Warm in this super yummy pink colorway.  I forget exactly what the colorway is called, I'll find the tag it came with eventually - hopefully!

Having some silk mixed in with the fiber content really takes the 'itchy' element out of the mix for little ones.  I am sure that my niece will love it, and if she doesn't maybe my sister will make her wear it anyhow.

In other news, my son (with a little help from daddy) decided to ride his bike without the training wheels.  I was such an awesome sight to behold.  I was so proud of his new skill.  I called all of my family to let them know of the big event.

I was reading Ann's blog - Notes from the Quilt Lab -  and she did a post on an antique hot pad from around the 1850's.  I am so amazed that something like this could survive that long and loved seeing it.  Check out her post here. 

Paper Piecing: new class

Just a quick post to mention that I decided to teach a paper piecing class up in Oakland at A Verb for Keeping Warm.

Paper piecing is something that I have loved for ages.  I'm really addicted to the 'for free' perfection of it.

We'll be making a hot pad that you can use as a holiday gift. 

If you cannot join us because you are not local to the bay area, feel free to give me links to your blog posts about paper piecing you have done.  I love to see what else is going on out there.

One quick question for you - has anybody seen the Richard Scarry fabric in local quilt shops?  I'm looking to get my hands on some (at PIQF maybe?).

Indigo Quilt Fabrics and PIQF 2011

I have spent what feels like a lifetime collecting Japanese Indigo fabrics.  

There was a quilt shop a long time ago when I lived in LA that carried a lot of these sorts of fabrics because there was a Japanese owner and she had a passion for them.

These days, my new indigo fabrics come from here and there.  I don't have a great source of them actually. 

I used some in the above quilt block for a baby quilt.  You can see the half square triangles that I made if you squint and look really hard.  Can you see them?  I can almost see them.

I am looking forward to PIQF though, maybe there will be some good indigo's there. 

PIQF - AKA Pacific International Quilt Festival 2011 is taking place in about 2 weeks here in San Jose.

I'll be taking the day off to run around the show with my quilting friend to take photos and see what the booths have to offer.

Of course I'll post all the photos up for you, but you may want to attend in person if you can figure out how to get there.  It's worth the trip.

Anybody else out there planning to go?