Shop Hop Part Two (6 more Shops)

So in order to be eligible for prizes you need to visit 16 stores.  With the bus that covered my first ten.  So on Friday I stopped at the three most local to me, and yesterday got the last three more on the way to Mount Rainier.

I picked up my giant length of white for my wedding quilt, the grey background for my guestroom top as well as several bits and pieces for both the wedding and dinosaur quilts I have on the idea board.

Day Two Fabric Haul

And if you recall the Seattle Fabrics I picked up last year and still haven’t made a project with… well the last shop we stopped at had a Washington Fabric that has similar themes…. so I got some of that too.

Washington Fabric

My fabric stash is piling up… I’d best get to work!  Though I will leave you with a teaser of the latest quilt idea I have been working on.

Fishpond WIP top

Shop Hopping Year Two

Yesterday was the North Bus Trip of the Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop.  I decided to do the trip again this year, even though Jean wasn’t going… and as usual its a pretty good time if you are a quilter.  The shops offer a free pattern and at least some of the themed fabric to make their square design.  They can also offer the remaining fabrics or other notions as a finishing kit.  If you visit enough shops you can enter to win some great prizes.

I tend to shop with an objectives list as it gives me a bit more focus and I tend to not go as overboard.  So the first thing on my list was fabrics for my wedding decoration and quilt.  I finished up the first block (minus the embroidery) on Tuesday so I would know how much of various colors I might want or need.

Wedding Quilt Block

The second project on my buy list was for a quilt for our guest room.  We repainted it this year and so most of my pale blue and pink was not fitting in.  So I picked up several yellows and greens for that.

Guestroom Fabric

Now, to be perfectly honest… there is always more shopping than just the needs.  Apparently this year I needed some whales, dinosaurs and cats.  As well as a quilters map, and the knitting related fabric.

i also fell a bit in love with this pattern for a modified Dresden and flowers.  The shop had a sample quilt on display and it was AMAZING.  I am thinking of going a bit scrappy with it, as I’ve been piling up a “few” scraps.

Dresden Blooms

This year the shop hop was happening at the same time as the Row by Row Experience, which is a nationwide event.  The shops offer a free pattern for a row.  They can also offer a kit to complete their row which may have a cost. I did pick up patterns, but only a few of the kits.  I seem to have quite a bit of blues in my stash and the theme this year is H2O… so I’ll see if I have the time to assemble some rows.

So here’s my pile of patterns and kits from the hop and the Row by Row.

Hop Kits

Hollywood Socks: Fixing it in Post Production

Ok, so you may recall that I made a nice set of beaded socks for Sock Madness that were a bit too long in the foot for me. Well during Sock Madness there are specific rules per pattern to help ensure that at least everyone knits a standard requirement.  For me, that meant my sock feet were too big. So technically they were finished, but then I needed to re-finish to make them wearable.

Mad About the Gals original finish

Mad About the Gals original finish

I did realize that my socks were going to be too long so I did put a stitch marker at more appropriate measured row for starting my toes and did not weave in my yarn tails, just tucked the toe yarn inside the sock.  So the first step was to un-kitchener the toe.

Here you can see my marker for the earlier toe transition point and I've unworked the kitchener stitches.

Here you can see my marker for the earlier toe transition point and I’ve unworked the kitchener stitches.

Since I have quite a bit to frog back, I decided to just pull back like one would frog the entire item, but by keeping a handle on how fast and far I was pulling, be able to re-pick up my live stitches at or around the row I’d marked.

Once you have your stitches picked up again, you just use your directions to re-knit them to the correct length.  Here’s a photo of the first sock re-completed stacked on top of the other sock in the original finish so you can see the foot length difference.

Sorry about the lighting... I was working on these while taking a drive to Oregon.

Sorry about the lighting… I was working on these while taking a drive to Oregon.

After you have finished the first, then you work the second just the same.

It was a beautiful day for a drive.  I still have some green toes, but not as much and the socks fit.. which was the most important part.

It was a beautiful day for a drive. I still have some green toes, but not as much and the socks fit.. which was the most important part.

In semi-related news.  I also finished my second Woodruff Sock, which is my first colorwork sock.  They are a bit roomy, but not too big I think if I were to knit them all over again I’d probably go down a needle size, but we shall see after the first real wear and block.  Here’s some beauty shots.

In time for a summer road trip

So there was a post earlier about large scale appliqué with a bit of a teaser on this one.  But its so exciting when you get to post it as finished instead of just a work in progress.

TA-DA!

TA-DA!

And here’s the back

Ta-Da Part two!

Ta-Da Part two!

I am actually quite happy with how the quilting of this turned out considering I struggle to draw straight lines WITH a ruler sometimes.   I quilted the outside of the logo on the front and then an all over diamond design.  The back logo was hand sewn on so that it wouldn’t be quilted through to the front.  Its a fleece back with cotton top.

Hopefully this one is a bit better on the backside quilting.

Teslabackzoom

I started this one just prior to a road trip to Idaho with my fiancé, and finished it just prior to our next trip to Oregon.