I have completed a couple of rosettes for the Paper Bag Roses quilt. This will be slow going for awhile. Not because it’s hand sewing, but because I have managed to injure my shoulder! My sewing and knitting have to be substantially curtailed until I recover. These rosettes were finished before the injury became painful.

I won’t join the rosettes to each other until I have made enough for the whole quilt. The blue fabrics are for rosette #3, and haven’t been sewn together yet. I’m using lots of different fabrics, combining rose prints with geometric and tone-on-tone designs. All of the fabric in the photo is from Japan (Lecien). I may add other florals to the Japanese fabrics, but I’m hoping to have enough fabric to make the whole quilt from Lecien’s florals.

Why am I calling it “Paper Bag Roses”? The name comes from the method I use to choose the fabric combination for each rosette. I don’t want to choose too carefully, because I want the quilt to look very scrappy–I think I have more than 30 different prints to use, and I don’t want to blend them too deliberately. To make the choices more random, I put the fabrics in a paper bag. I reach into the bag, without looking inside, and pull out one piece. This is the piece I use for the center of the rosette. For the petals of the rosette, I make another “blind” choice from the bag. Because I am using 2 fabrics for the petals, I then look in the bag and pull out a coordinating fabric for half of the petals. These fabrics don’t go back into the bag until every fabric has been used once. Then they all go back in, and so on until the quilt is done.

I was doing a little tidying the other day, and found a little project that I crocheted a couple of years ago. Clearly, I have a bit of a thing for hexagons.

My swap partner really did a great job figuring out what I would like. This is the first swap I have done within the Ravelry community, and it was a great experience. I just sent a package to my swap recipient on Tuesday. She should have it by the middle of next week or so. Look at what I scored:

The hat is Fleece Artist Casbah, in the amethyst colourway, which just happens to be one of my favourites. The rules of the swap were to knit one item for your recipient, and then include other gifts, with a minimum and maximum dollar value assigned to the package.

Pamela sent me a skein of Fiesta Boomerang in “Pansies”. It will make a good pair of thick socks, I think. The See’s chocolates are fantastic. One of the little tins is “Rose Salve” which I haven’t opened yet. The little tin with the roses on it contains little chocolate candies that are like the world’s smallest M&Ms. It will be great for holding applique pins when it’s empty. Pamela is curious about what was in that tin, so I took a not-so-great photo of it (sorry, it’s dark here already):

Thanks, Pamela, I love my swap gear! Michelle, I hope you will love yours, too.

I really enjoy hand piecing. For some time, I have been searching for the right tools to help me make a Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt. I wanted to be able to simplify the English Paper Piecing method so that I didn’t have to do any basting or whipstitching, and wouldn’t have to remove the templates afterward. I wanted the stitching to be invisible from the front. I did not want to have to mark the fabric with a stitching line, or do any running stitch to sew the hexies together. Impossible? I thought so, for a long time, but finally have found a collection of products that will make my hand piecing dream come true.

The template material was the most important consideration. Since I didn’t want to have to remove it, I started evaluating different types of wash-away stabilizers. Some were not stiff enough to be used as templates, some didn’t get soft after washing. The one I finally settled on? Ricky Tims’ Stable Stuff poly (sorry about the camera flash).

It comes in standard size sheets, so it will go through my computer printer. That’s important because I use software to print my English Paper Piecing templates.  It is stiff enough to substitute for paper, and when it is washed, inside the finished quilt, it becomes soft and flexible so that the quilt is not stiff.

In the photo above, you can see how English Paper Piecing is done. The hexagon shape is cut from the white stabilizer. A piece of fabric is cut, approximately 1/4 inch larger than the template on all sides. Normally, that excess fabric would be folded to the back of the template and stitched in place temporarily, through the stabilizer. Instead, I use fabric glue to stick the seam allowances down. The 4 hexagons that I stitched together on the left are a sample I made to test different types of stitching. I found the best results came from using a small curved needle and ladder stitching the hexagons together from the wrong side. The stitches are invisible from the front. If you click on the photo, you can see the needle resting on the white hexagon template on the lower right.

Just to be sure that everything would wash up nicely after piecing, I made a rosette from 7 hexies and then layered it with batting and backing, quilted it, washed it, and let it dry. It’s just as soft as if there had been no stabilizer under the fabric, and it was much faster to put together than if I had needed to remove basting stitches and paper templates before quilting. The experiment has been a success, and now I can begin the actual quilt!

I love beef stew so much, I have been known to make it in July, when opening the oven door could give you heat stroke!  With the arrival of autumn, I couldn’t wait to get out to Metro this afternoon to buy some stewing beef and inaugurate the season of the stew. And now it is in the oven.

For some reason, I can’t figure out how to edit my post so that the ingredient list isn’t double spaced, so bear with me a moment:

Beef Stew with Tomato Sauce

1 pound stew beef

2 red potatoes

3 celery ribs

1 small bag of ‘baby cut’ carrots

1 can pasta sauce

1/2 cup of water

splash of Lea & Perrins Worchestershire sauce

Chop the meat and veggies into bite-size pieces and put them in an oven-proof pot with a lid. Add about a cup of the pasta sauce, more if you like it really tomatoey. Mix in the water and Lea & Perrins.  I also like to add a bit of italian herbs and pepper. Cover the pot and place in a 350 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours. Enjoy! This usually makes enough for Denis and I to enjoy for supper, and some lunch leftovers. The dog loves to beg for a taste, too, but I’m not sure how great an endorsement that is.

I heart Chapters.  They have a great selection of knitting books in the Crafts and Hobbies section.  On Sunday, I picked up Kathleen Taylor’s latest book, and I’m really pleased with it. 

For some time, I’ve been looking for a book of sock patterns that are similar to those that Patons used to publish for their Kroy sock yarns.  Socks that a man wouldn’t consider too feminine to wear in public, but would look lovely and girly when knit in the right colour.  There’s at least one chapter in this book that fits the bill.

And as someone who is very afraid to try stranded colour knitting,  I have to say that there are colourwork socks in this book that I really want to knit.

There’s something for everyone in this book. Really simple designs, highly textured knitting, and even a pattern for toe socks!  Did you have a pair that were knee-length and rainbow coloured in the 1970s?  I did.

These socks are from Wendy Johnson’s “Socks from the Toe Up.”  I have attempted to knit along with the KAL group on Ravelry, but I can’t seem to stick to the timeline. These socks were July’s selection, and I finished them in August.  The yarn I used is fantastic–it’s Juniper, from Alchemy yarns, and the colourway is called “Dragon.”  It is a tightly-twisted yarn that gives great stitch definition, and it is nice and soft (merino wool, so what else could it be ?) My only tiny quibble is that it is just a bit splitty.  Why are they called “On Hold?” Apparently, Wendy designed the lace pattern for these while she was on the phone.

I know they clash terribly, but I just had to photograph these on the new mulberry polka-dot sheets I bought last week. They are my new favourite thing.

The suspense is driving me nuts!  My Sock Wars target was supposed to receive her ‘death socks’ on Saturday.  When USPS couldn’t deliver, they left her a notice to pick them up at her post office.  They’re still sitting there and, surprise, she won’t answer my emails now.  I’m glad I paid the outrageous price to send them with delivery confirmation and online tracking, otherwise I would have no idea what was going on.  I didn’t have to deal with this kind of childish behaviour in Sock Wars III, and it’s a bit disappointing.

However, there is lots of fun fiber play to distract me.  I pieced a crazy quilt block for a Yahoo group stitch-along.

The theme is “Under the Sea”.  I was glad to be able to use the ’silkie’ mermaid image.  It’s been in my stash for awhile.  The ribbon is not stitched down yet, as I am not committed to keeping it there.  The fabrics are almost all cotton, but one piece of silk dupioni crept in there.  I started out as a ’sane’ quilter and the cotton-snobbery of those days is hard to overcome.  Silk is starting to win me over, though.  Let the embellishing begin.

I’m thrilled about the KAL (knit-along) on Ravelry that’s based on Wendy Johnson’s book of toe-up socks.  This month’s sock is the Lacey Rib (darn, is it Lacey or Lacy?), and I’ve made some progress on sock one.

The toe and heel are both knit by the short-row method.  This yarn is impossibly soft!  It’s Claudia Hand Painted fingering weight merino, in the Strawberry Latte colourway.  I’m a first-timer with this yarn, and I absolutely love it.  Did I mention it is soft?  It gives great stitch definition and isn’t a bit splitty.  Also, it is really really soft.  The needles are Addi lace, size 000.  Yes, that is 1.5 mm.  Would you believe I knit so loosely that these are the needles I have to use to get 8 stitches to the inch?

Last year was the first time I participated in Sock Wars, and I felt pretty lucky to have successfully taken out one victim.  I am the world’s slowest knitter, after all, and some people were completing a pair of socks in less than 48 hours!

It was fun, so I decided to try my luck again this year.  As of today, I have not been taken out yet, and I just mailed this to my current target:

The socks are hard to see inside that plastic bag, aren’t they?  I was in such a hurry to take the photo and get to the post office.  My target is in Texas, and Canada Post, bless their hearts, tells me it will be up to 9 days before the socks reach their destination. 

Last year, my victim actually sent me a skein of gorgeous yarn after she received her “death socks”, and I thought that was nice, so I’m sending a few extras along for my victim.  Maybe that will take the sting out of being eliminated.

I have had bad eyesight for most of my life.  When I started having trouble seeing the blackboard at school, at age 7, my parents’ solution was that I should move to the front of the classroom.  It took several months to convince them that my vision was compromised to the point that I needed to wear glasses.

The day I finally took possession of my new glasses could have been the last day of my life.  I was 8, and my mother had taken my brother and me to the mall to pick up my glasses.   What a revelation, seeing things clearly for the first time!  I didn’t want to take them off.

We had to take an escalator back down to the main floor of the mall.  My mom was busy with my brother, who was about 4 at the time.  They got on the escalator and proceeded down.  I was behind them, realizing for the first time that seeing more clearly was going to take getting used to.  I had no depth perception with the glasses on, and when I stepped forward, I missed the escalator stair and started to fall.

I was a long way up, and there was no one in front of me to break my fall.  If I had fallen, I would have been killed.

With amazing reflexes, a woman beside me grabbed my left arm, pulled me back and held me, it seemed, until we got to the bottom.  I was  panic-stricken and had started to cry, and never said a word to her.  I think she may have asked if I was okay, and I may have nodded, but I don’t really remember anything except being scared witless.  My mom and brother had no idea what happened until they reached the bottom and stopped to wait for me.

I don’t know whether anyone thanked that woman for what she did.  I hope so.  For many years, I couldn’t ride an escalator (up or down) without holding the handrail in a strangler’s grip, frightened out of my mind.  I would get off as quickly as possible and then, once I calmed down, I would remember my heroine and offer silent thanks to her again.

I haven’t thought about that day for a long time.  She was gray-haired when she saved me, and probably passed away years ago.  Today, on my birthday, I need to thank her one more time.  You saved my life.  Thank you.

Harlan Ellison is 75 years old today.  You may not know his name, but you have probably seen something on television or the movie screen that he had a hand in creating.  Google him and be amazed!

I was introduced to his work at a convenience store in Winnipeg, circa 1978.  I was about 14 years old, and a voracious reader.  I bought this book because I was in the mood for something new to read, and the spine was labelled “science fiction”:

This was the first time I understood the value of a handmade book cover.  Pulp fiction-style artwork aside, the short stories inside were appealing, and I went on to read as many of his books as I could get my hands on.  He also wrote a great deal of nonfiction, including critical essays about TV shows and movies.  His work had quite an influence on me.  I was raised in a dysfunctional environment, and the moral philosophy that was the undercurrent in Ellison’s writing gave me inspiration that was otherwise absent from my life.

Tomorrow is my 45th birthday, and I’ve been thinking about the people who have inspired me and made my life better than my 14-year-old self could have imagined.  Harlan Ellison is one of those people.  There are three others who deserve my thanks, and I’ll talk about them over the next couple of days.  I had thought of honouring them in the order that they came into my life, but Ellison gets to jump the queue because it’s his birthday…he was number two.  Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about the first person who saved my life (literally).