Winner & Swap Goodies & More

Hi Knitters,

Hope you are all having a good weekend. I am having a fun weekend because I had a visit from my new boss lady. I don't why but I think "boss lady" is funny and I always will. She is comfortable and funny and cool and smart and inspiring. I even got to meet her parents and her son. Plus she liked my coffee which some say is too strong. What more could a girl like me ask for? 

I've got a winner for some fabu Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille! Four watermelon colored skeins are coming to.....

Barbara Chrisman in Waco, Kentucky!!!!!

Thanks to all who purchased the Watermelon Washcloth pattern at the sale price (it is still on sale by the way). This has been a popular pattern for sure. Thanks, too, to the fantastic Susan Druding, the owner of Crystal Palace Yarns, for the support of my washcloth project. I have to say it every time because she has made it so fun by including the yarn giveaways as a part of the new patterns. Thank you once again.
I know, I messed up the link on the fabric bundles I was talking about in the last post. Look here to see a fantastic selection of fabric bundles. I can't even say enough how thrilled I am with the fabrics and colors. They are playful and different and I even got some Jay McCarroll (season one winner on Project Runway) garden friends fabric in the bunch. Love his tomato fabric. The frog is my new free pattern that you can find here! There is a bouncy surprise knitted right inside.

Now I am scouring books and online resources to try and figure out how to make a quilt. I literally am clueless but I think I am going to start by making strips of varying widths and lengths of squares. I can keep making different strips all the same length and keep going with the strips to get the width I want for the total quilt. I don't want anything too precise because that doesn't work for me. I want it to be a little crazy and not too thought out. I have my fabrics all washed and pressed and ready to cut, so maybe later today I will start.

The other thing is that I love stippling or free motion quilting that is done on a machine. Can I do this with the regular foot on my machine? I want to figure this out. I love all of that crazy stitching that is neither here nor there. I may end up doing straight lines for the quilting every inch or so. I don't want to get bogged down in precision. A girl just wants to have fun! Right, Cyndi?
I got a sweet little treat dropped off on my doorstep a couple of days ago. Remember I posted the ribbon hat I made (you can find out more about this swap on the link) and sent to Canada? Well, this is the hat that was sent to me and I love it. The funny thing is that my sender lives in Stoughton, Wisconsin which is really close to Madison. She had her friend who lives nearby drop off the package to me. Look on the table and you will see a little patterned chicken dish, fantastic, and dove dark chocolates, yummy!
The ribbons are fresh and fun. There are sheep and cows in the midst of the green and yellow. It is sweetness. Jill knit the hat in Spud & Chloë Sweater yarn on a size 8 needle. It worked great. I love the entire package and I already have a baby in mind for the hat. Thank you, Jill.

I need to get over to Stitcher's Crossing to take photos of my trunk show they have on display right now. This is a terrific quilt and yarn shop that is on the west side of Madison. You should pop in there if you get a chance. That is one nice shop with a super helpful and kind staff. The Itty-Bitty Nursery trunk show is going to be displayed for the entire month of July. They are having a cupcake theme throughout the shop. Love that.

There was a wonderful article about Madison in the New York Times a week ago so here it is if you are interested.

Here is a fabric flower technique that I am going to try.

At some point I am going to try all of these, very soon I am placing my order. 

I have been thoroughly enjoying the story of this blog, you might, too.

Here is one more simple quilt that I probably should do as a first project but I like to make things painful for myself for some reason. I think I will make this quilt for my kids sometime soon. Love that fabric.

One more crocheted item I think The Collector would enjoy is this. I could see her taking this with her everywhere. 

We are headed out today to collect wildflowers for a wreath for her head. She saw this in Family Fun magazine and has to make one. I couldn't find the link for this specific craft so I'll take some photos to share. My friend Betz has a craft in the current issue called, The Foamerator. We made these yesterday and they are fun.

Betz also has a new fabric and pattern line coming out that looks like winner! Can't wait! One last thing, Betz sent me this incredible flooring idea and I want to share it with you.

Phew! Once I started I couldn't stop, so much to share with you. Have a good Sunday, Knitters.

best, susie