Quilt Retreat

Here are some pictures from quilt retreat...It is a little deviation from crochet, but it's quilting...which is still ok... I went for four day, Thursday through Sunday to a camp in the middle of Wisconsin and quilted all day long. It was a fun time and I can't wait to go back in November.
This is an image of my first quilt block I have ever made. I am making a fishes and waves quilt for our upstairs spare room.



This is a picture of one of the ladies from the quilt and what she was working on. It is a beautiful quilt she had seen a picture of and decided to make it. It's amazing for her second year at quilt retreat. I am thinking of finding something complicated and fun to do next November.

This is what I refer to as trouble times three, or the three amigos...they are the funniest women I have ever met. Don't ask what they are doing...you probably don't want to know.

Here is an example of how I was inspired at Quilt retreat. This was a Turning Twenty quilt that I loved the fabric of, and I was so inspired that I went out and got red, white, and black fabric to make my own.
This is the fishes I complete up on the wall where all complete works go at quilt retreat. When you finish, you hold your work in the air and people clap, and use clappers and bells, and then you hang it on the wall, it's inspiring to see all the works around you.

quilting weekend

I spent the last four days at a camp in Wisconsin. We quilted and crocheted and knitted, and scrapbooked...I will post my pictures soon.

baby hat and on the hooks

I finished a baby hat from The Happy Hooker yesterday. I started it in the car and finished it last night at my parent's house. Now I am making a blanket to match. At the end of April my sister is helping host a silent auction for money towards research on the genetic disease Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). She usually crochets sweaters and blankets and quilts lap afgans or baby blankets. This year I am hoping to get a few more of my crochet items done to help the cause.

Two pictures:This is the hat I finished. There were suppose to be braids off the end of the ear flaps but the yarn I used frayed easy, so I left the braids off. I am thinking of adding a row of single crochet around the outside to make it complete and make up for the braids.

This is what is on my hook, a blanket to match the hat. I like it. I have deviated slightly from the pattern, but I also didn't check my gauge right away and this is a bit smaller than it's suppose to be (the yarn selection being lighter and smaller than what was recommended.)

I have to get back to working on my recipe scrapbook exchanges, so I can then use the next to days to crochet and get ready for a quilt retreat. More later.

Crochet Hook Caddy

Here is the latest project I have just finished. Three projects down and many more to go. The pattern I found at Sarah Anns. It is a caddy for my crochet hooks and other notions, needles, sissors, tape measure, stitch counters, and safety needles. I took pictures of the caddy closed with the decal of the 6 petal flower from an earlier post: and one picture with the caddy open with all my things I have so far in it:


I am very excited too because my eldest sister, Tia, has some duplicate needles for me. Which is great for me, since I now I have a caddy to put them in! I am getting an E, I, J, K, 0, 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, and 10. Plus she has a big bucket of Red Heart yarn for me! I am really excited to get a big stash.

Granny Squares

This is a WIP (Work In Progress). It's going to be a Granny Square afgan. I have 13 squares done right now, and have 137 more to go. The pattern is another one from The Happy Hooker book. I don't think I am going to make it a color bar one, like in the book, but I am using the pattern with Jewel tones in Red Heart yarn. These are the colors:

6 petal flower motif

Here is something I was experimenting with, a 6 petal flower Motif for an afgan. I believe it's my first WIM (Works In Mind). I like it so much I think I am going to make a huge blanket out of a bunch of them.

I found the pattern at Lion Brand Yarn's website. You need to sign up for membership (it's free) but then you get linked to a TON of free patterns.

Anarchy Hat

After finishing the scarf, I wanted to make something smaller that would be quick, but just as fun to make. So when I was out on Valentine's day i found this great book called:

Stitch and Bitch, The Happy Hooker, by Debbie Stroller

I was leafing through the book in the store and saw this hat, and had to make it for my husband for two reasons. 1. It's an Anarchy A hat, which is his favorite symbol, and 2. there are 42 rounds on this hat, which is the ultimate number (see Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.)

So I started it last night, and it was a fast and easy pattern of mainly single crochet. I finished it late last night and here are two pictures of the hat. The first is one of my husband, Jeremy, wearing the hat while he sleeps. Who knew, it doubled as an eye mask!The second picture is a detail of the A:

I was really impressed with this pattern for it's quick build and easy. I am thinking of making another one in red with back trim and black letter. We'll see.

New blog, new hobby

I am starting this blog to track my progress on crochet projects. I decided to teach myself to crochet because it's hard for my mom and sister to teach me (they are right handed and I am left handed). So I got into this hobby. My first project I am going to do is a Harry Potter Gryffindor scarf. It is going to be in maroon and gold. I started working on this and finally finished it after a couple weeks of evenings working on it.

I also am adding in a picture of the length of this scarf because it's kind of funny.