cluck cluck

QUEEN OF CHICKENS!!!

yarn bombing

my friend maggie alerted me to this little yarn bombing in town today. (hi maggie!) there are some truly spectacular instances of yarn bombing out there! just  "google image" yarn bombing and you will see things like this:

some images from here.

hmmm...........

warm up #2

bake lots of cookies.

eat them.

bulk.

you need bulk.

wolf moon

tonight's full moon was called the "wolf moon" by indians who would hear hungry howling outside their villages in the cold january winters.

i learned the other day that small birds like chick-a-dees, finches, and titmice hole up together in hollow trees or other enclosed spaces to keep warm at night. lots of them, and even different varieties, pile in together! yay for warm birds!!

kitchen close-ups

or maybe kitchen CLUTTER.......i am just not one of those minimalist people!

happy weekend!

winterland

since the "whirlwind" of THE QUILT has ended, i'm finding new things to occupy my time. i bought some crazy yarn for socks(love the tag!), and have been spending just a little time outside, very bundled up(2 degrees here this morning!!)

happy happy wednesday!!!

p.s. isn't rosco so freaking adorable in his little sweater?????

warm up!

if you are cold right now, go find your cat because i guarantee you, that cat is warm!

go ahead, sit on the radiator! you'll be glad you did!

60's/70's quilt finished!

it's done! i think after 10 years of use, washing and fading it will be perfect.

violet definitely likes it-meow!

go acrylic!

let's talk about acrylic yarn. i'm a bit of a yarn snob, i'll admit, and never, ever thought i would use acrylic yarn, for anything! even for baby sweaters i'd rather use washable wool. it seemed silly to do all that work in anything but a natural fiber.

then i learned to crochet. i LOVE to crochet, and it's quite fast, so you can do a lot of crocheting in a shorter time than if you were to knit the same thing. i wanted to make a blanket, so for my first blanket i used a nice cotton yarn, and it was not cheap. i wanted to make another blanket, but couldn't really justify the cost of all the yarn it would take for another blanket. it takes LOTS of yarn. then one day i was at marden's. now, if you live in maine, you've most likely heard of marden's. marden's is a chain of stores that sells pretty much anything you can think of, and really really cheap! there's a lot of crap there, but for some reason they have a big fabric section, and it's really nice fabric! mostly discontinued stuff, but i've found designer fabrics there that sell at other stores for two to three times as much. sometimes they get yarn. that day they had a lot of acrylic yarn-the vanna white brand that i would never have dreamed of using before. but it was, i think, $1.99 a skein, and it's actually fairly soft and they had really nice colors. so, for $29.00 i bought enough to make a blanket. and i LOVE this blanket! love it!  i sewed on a few vintage doilies from the flea market, and they were perfect! certainly if i were made out of money i'd go for a more luxurious yarn, but i have changed my attitude toward acrylic. i won't be knitting sweaters with it, but it's great for a big project like a blanket.

i've been busy tying my quilt, and i'm hoping to finish it this weekend.

happy friday!!!

60's/70's quilt

saturday i finally got inspired to work on the quilt top i had started this summer. my goal with this quilt was to use all vintage 1960's and 1970's fabrics and sew it all with the 1964 singer that i bought at a yard sale this summer. so after sewing for about nine hours straight, the top is finished!! and, i'm not sure how i feel about it...i wasn't going for "pretty", just scrappy and random, and that it certainly is. it's growing on me, and there are a couple of things i'm going to do that i think might make it just right!

and how great is this logo??

i especially love the bavarian fabrics!

so here it is. there is about another third of it folded over the backside. the snow was too deep to show the whole thing.

my favorite square:

so, i decided to tie this quilt, and to make it look very 1970's i'm using yarn. red yarn. red acrylic yarn! i found this quilt on line that i love, so i'm thinking the red ties will do the trick!

this quilt is from the blog crazy mom quilts. if you like quilts, this woman is amazing!! i also bought some very pretty fabric for the backing, so hopefully i will soon have a quilt that i am happy with!