Crochet Fun

After working hard on my secret sewing project; that I cannot disclose until a later date, which means until it’s done and I’ve gifted it to the unsuspecting recipient; and watching some Whose Line is it Anyway? I pulled out a skein (that’s your $10 word for the day) of yarn and started crocheting. The yarn I chose was fairly thick, and I used a 9mm crochet needle (also called size 13, or M/N; take your pick). My crochet buddy zonked out on me part way through:

Apparently it was past her bedtime :P. For this little impromptu project I was thinking of making it a washcloth, then I decided on adding some kind of hanger to it and making it a pot holder. Though I wouldn't really suggest using it to pull something hot out of the oven, but it would work for placing on a counter/table and putting a hot bowl on it I think. I used the basic single crochet stitch for this potholder, so with the thicker yarn and larger needle, this was done in about an hour. For a handle, I braided 6 pieces of yarn and put a knot on each end of the braid. I then pulled the knots through stitches in the pot holder to keep the handle in place and you get this!

My ongoing crochet project is a blanket that I have been working on for over a year now. For this blanket I'm using a half double crochet stitch. This is what I have done so far:

Still quite a bit to get done, but this was my very first venture into crocheting and I'm really excited about how it's looking! Since it was my first time crocheting, I made my base chain wayyy too long. So this is going to be a very long blanket :P.

Happy Crocheting! :)

A Quilting Project

First and foremost, JoAnn Fabrics opens today!! I am officially dubbing July 26^th a new town holiday! That’s right y’all, JoAnn Fabrics is coming back to town! I am uber excited :P. We used to have one, then it went away, and now *it’s back*! Totally planning on throwing some money away after work.

On to other news, I told you I’d share my quilt show purchase, and here it is!

My parents saw this at the quilt show and loved it, then turned to me and asked what I can do with it. I've never made up my own pattern yet for a quilt, so this is my first! If you're interested this panel can be purchased from Honey Fork Fabrics, it is called Moda-Beautiful Blessings Panel (Jewel). 

This is the quilt pattern idea that I came up with for this panel:

It's not drawn quite to scale, but I did get all my measurements figured out and written in. My parents wanted a throw size quilt, so the completed quilt will be 50"x60". They also plan to put this quilt over the back of the couch, which is why I faced the larger panels/words this direction. The large panels and 2" squares will be the only color in this quilt, the rest is going to be a neutral light color. This way the colors will pop out and they'll appear as if they're floating.

I'm pretty excited about this project, let me know your thoughts on it!

No Touchey the Quilts!

This past weekend I went to my very first quilt show! Lots of beautiful quilts and nice little old ladies (not all), it was a really fun time. If you have never been to a quilt show (I didn’t know they existed either, until I started quilting), my only advice to you is, do not touch the quilts!! There’s a story behind that comment, I will share another time.

So at this quilt show, you walked in the front doors of the building where it was being held, and there were two women at a sign in table. You got to put your John Hancock in the guest book to state that *you were here*.  We were then given a little slip of paper that you were to write the name of your favorite quilt on after walking through. I went with my parents on this fine adventure, and my mom’s first comment is “how do I pick only one!?”  Mind you, we hadn’t even seen the quilts yet, and she was already being indecisive :P. So her brilliant plan, which both my dad and myself utilized as well, was to write all of our favorites on the back of this slip of paper and pick one in the end. So once we had this crisis all figured out, we moved on to actually viewing the quilts!

Actually no, we moved on to the next table the two women pointed us to, where we got to buy some raffle tickets to try and win a quilt. So we bought some raffle tickets, spat on them for good luck (just kidding), annnnnd we never got a call so we’re out $6. Sadness. And *now* we moved on to checking out all of the quilts.

They were all absolutely beautiful, I wish now that I had actually taken more pictures. What I noticed about most of them was that they were quilted with fancy patterns. Which then got me wishing that I had a long arm quilting machine, buttttt, those cost anwhere from $5,000 and up, and yeah I can’t afford that luxury. This is the longarm I have my dream eye on at the moment, the RAM by TinLizzie. But, alas I’ll be sticking with my sewing in the ditches. Not quite as pretty, but it works.

 

As a side comment, there were signs evvvveryyywherrrreee stating *do not to touch the quilts*! As we were walking down a hall looking at all of the quilts, a little old lady comes out a side door with a white cotton glove on and informs us that if we'd like to have a closer look at the quilts, to let her know. That's why she's the one with the white gloves. That's right ladies and gentlemen. We take this quilting stuff seriously, you do not touch peoples quilts with your hands so that you keep your gross little hand oils to yourself! Yes, I understand, the dedication and time it takes to do these quilts is astounding and they're pieces of art in and of themselves. But, I'm also of the belief that they're quilts, they're meant to be loved and used and abused-just a tad. My mom spent the whole time using her pen as a pointing wand, with my dad cringing every time her pen got anywhere near a quilt! I promise it never made contact! Well except for that one time.........I kid! I kid!

After it was all said and done, my dad had written 1 quilt down on the back of his paper, I had written 2 quilts down on the back of my paper, and my mom had about 5-6 quilts written down on her paper. She narrowed it down to two somehow and had to go back for a second look to make her executive decision :P. This is the quilt that I chose as my favorite:

 

 

 

The quilt my dad chose had fabric panels depicting soldiers and scenes of the civil war and the quilt that my mom decided on had a whole lot of purple (her favorite color).

 

There were vendors selling all kinds of fun quilty stuff...note to self for the future, bring more cash! I'll share my purchases and plans for these purchases on my next blog, so stay tuned! Untili then, just keep sewing, just keep sewing, just keep sewing, sewing, sewing.....

Welcome! :)

Welcome to my “Becoming Ms. Suzy Homemaker” blog and thank you for stopping by! The purpose of this blog is to share my current and upcoming crafty projects with all of you. Eventually I want to do some giveaways of some completed projects, and hopefully have auctions where the proceeds will go to local charities. I have big plans for this blog, and I’m glad you’ve come along for the journey!