things that = good

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Let me be honest: I’m currently sick and grumpy. I’ve had a bad cold since last Wednesday and then I lost my voice on Friday. It’s now almost a week later and my voice is still nowhere to be found. It really sucks.

However, here is a list of things that are currently making me happy:

*Watching Curling on the Olympics. I watched an hour of it yesterday in between my napping and I found it completely intriguing. I have no idea what the heck was going on, but boy, I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. I need to learn more about it so I can become a hard-core curling fan.

*Having a freshly organized shelf of cds. I will be the person who buys cds up until they stop selling them in stores. I just can’t get behind the idea of spending money on a downloaded song. I need the cd in my hand so that I can leaf through the liner notes. I’m fuddy like that.


a clean house

*Knitting socks! I ended up going with the green yarn for my socks, and despite several false starts, I’m off and running on the Interlocking Leaves pattern. So far, I’m very happy with them.


sharing the couch

*Ice cream. ‘Nuff said.


yummers

*And a nap to top it all off!


2.52 cat nap

sock knitting as sport

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I easily get all wrapped up in group projects. Every October I get all riled up to knit only socks for Socktoberfest and then this past November for Vestvember I knit my first actual wearable garment. There’s just something fun about knowing that a group of people with a shared hobby are working on the same things you are. So, beginning tomorrow night, I’m going to try knit a full pair of socks for Ravelympics 2010.


decisions, decisions

I want a challenge, but I don’t want to knit something so tough that I won’t be able to finish. I’ve pretty much decided that I’m going to knit a something toe-up, which is relatively new skill to me. I had pulled out these five yarns hoping that one of them would inspire me to pick a pattern, but I’m still torn. I’m thinking I’d like to use the green (Dream in Color Smooshy, in Happy Forest) to make the Interlocking Leaves socks. However, I could still persuaded to pick something different. I just can’t make up my mind.

I can start casting on tomorrow night as the Olympic opening ceremonies begin. I have this feeling that I’ll still be having trouble deciding what to make.

picking back up

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This little blog is a funny thing for me.

I love keeping it. I hate feeling like I have nothing to say. And I would be crushed to end it.

But I worry about what I should say. Does anyone really care about what I make? Should I write only about quilting or knitting or both? What if my pictures are lousy? Will anyone leave comments anymore?

Ultimately, I’ve decided that I cannot worry about those things. I cannot worry about whether or not people like what I make, like what I write about, or like the pictures I take. If I want Hip To Piece Squares to live, then I need to keep this blog for me.


picking back up

So this is where I’m beginning at again. I’m working to encourage myself to finish projects that I’ve started ages ago…not because I NEED to finish them, but because I still love them. They need my attention, and not my anxiety of worrying that they won’t be perfect. That’s the way that I need to think about this space. I don’t need to keep writing because it’s something that I need to do, but because it’s something that I love.

what I’ve forgotten to say

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Hi. Wanna see what I’ve been up to in the last month and a half or so?
Okay. First off, I knit an Ishbel shawl. We’re getting married sometime, because I love it so much. (See the Rav specs.)



Ishbel

I did a super awesome crochet potholder swap where I made five potholders:



my potholders

and got five beautiful potholders back in return. Good crochet practice for me, and even better mail in the end. I love them all.



potholders received

I made some new patchwork pouches, eye pillows and journals. Some are in the shop right now, if you’re interested!



new shop items

I got some work done on quilt tops. I finished this one that was sitting in my “fix” pile for about 5 years. Now it’s sitting in my “quilt pile.” No idea how long it’ll sit there.



blue and yellow quilt

This top was meant to be finished for my friend’s baby…over a year and a half ago. Now I’m working on the quilting and will hopefully have it finished up soon.



Evan's Quilt

And then I started this one. It’s far from being done.



blue, green and yellow quilt

Then it was the 4th with all the picnic-y goodness and fireworks:



4th of July

I made some progress with another new crochet project.



Granny squares blanket

And finally, I came up with a new design last week. It’s in the shop, too.



Lunch Sack

Okay. All caught up. Lots of new things being made!



Go Team Make Stuff!

blocks for a bee

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I’m constantly amazed by the opportunities for real life connections that the Internet has brought me over the past few years. From all of the kind comments that are left here on my blog and on my photos, to swaps and friendships that I’ve made online, I cannot imagine my life without it.

So, in the newest of those opportunities, I joined a project called the 12 Squared Quilting Bee. It’s interesting how it works: for the next 12 months, we’ll all be making blocks for each other. One person sends her fabric out to the other 11 quilters, we make blocks to her specifications, and then send them them back to her. This month I made blocks for Valerie–month one down!



May blocks

Truthfully, I was really overwhelmed when I got the fabric for May. I loved the fabric, but together they’re big and bold and just not what I’m used to. Plus, seriously! It’s nerve wracking to make parts for other people’s quilts.



Block No. 1

But I really didn’t need to be worried, because Valerie has a great sense of color and pattern. The first one I did, I pieced like how I do my quilted totes. No plan whatsoever.



Block No. 1

But this one is my favorite. I love the fabric in the center of the block and I really felt that it needed to be framed by a log cabin.

Looking forward to next month’s set of fabric!

mini quilt FAIL

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There are those projects that are destined to be failures even before they start. This is one of those projects.



doll quilt swap

On first glance, it doesn’t look like a fail. Looks can be deceiving though.

I signed up for a doll quilt swap back in March (or maybe earlier, I can’t really remember), and had really good intentions about getting something started. Between the combination of lack of inspiration, other projects I was more interested in, and good old fashioned procrastination, I managed to hold off beginning this until about the last week in April. Turns out, if I had read the information (at all) I would have noticed the quilt was due the last week in April. Well crap.



doll quilt swap

In the meantime, I received my super awesome quilt from Alison. It’s so fabulous. I love everything about it–the colors, the design, the quilting. She did a fantastic job, and sent along a handmade pincushion to boot. She’s so talented, and I was lucky to be her recipient. Did this help me be a better swapper? You be the judge.



doll quilt swap

But finally, I managed to finish the quilt earlier this week. Since I decided to hand quilt it, it took a longer to finish, but it looked good. I ended up buying a store bought, pre-made bias binding for the edge (which I’ve never done before, but why cut all that fabric when I just wanted a red border?) and at that point, thought I was ready to go. A quick toss in the sink, then a run though the dryer and I’ve got a soft, wrinkly doll quilt.



doll quilt swap

Did you know you have to wash store bought quilt binding? Neither did I.

The red dye from the binding was everywhere. I took to the quilt with a bleach pen. It seemed to work, but at this point, I had to come up with a way to get the bleach out of the quilt. I took a chance and washed it again in colorsafe bleach. It took the dye out, but now, the water had soaked the bleach through all of the layers and dyed the back of the quilt. Splochy and overall ruined really.

I couldn’t bear to take a picture of the quilt afterward. I sent it out anyway, with an apology note and a few other goodies to make up for my craptastic swap.

So….who’s interested in doing a swap?? I promise it can’t get any worse than that.

gifts for a wee person

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Wee people are surprisingly easy to make gifts for. Find cute stuff, make it, and present to wee person’s keeper (or mom). Simple.



monkey onesies

I do not have wee people. I have a dog. And I work with mini people at work everyday. Although I do not currently have the desire to own my own wee person, I apparently have an intense drive to make cute embroidered onesies for other people’s wee people. Monkey onesies!



all of em

Despite saving these until the last minute (and staying up most of the night before the were due) I was overall happy with them. I used a Sublime Stitching iron on pattern, and other than figuring out that I had to use an interfacing under the stretchy material, the whole thing couldn’t have been any easier.



baby chalice blanket

I also wanted to knit a blanket, and being that the wee person will be arriving early this summer, I went with something lightweight. I used the Baby Chalice Blanket (link here if you’re on Ravelry) pattern, with in Knit Picks Comfy. It’s a 100% cotton yarn, and while I’m not usually a fan of knitting with cotton, this stuff seemed really nice to work with. Plus, it should help the wee person’s mom and dad when she spits up all over it and it needs to be washed about 15 times a week. No worries about felting it all up.

piles and piles

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What makes me happy these days?



scraps

Three bins full of fabric scraps to be re-sorted, cut, ironed and used.



full desk

A messy desk filled full of projects in progress.



what to do?

Happy, but maybe a little overwhelmed, I must say.

p.s. A few new items are in the shop. I’d love it if you’d take a look!

sidetracked by hexagons

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I am so easily swayed by peer pressure. Okay, so nobody pressured me, but I still couldn’t help myself.



didn't need a new hobby

So yeah, I’ve got a bit of a crochet addiction now. I kept getting caught up in all of the new crochet that kept popping up in my photostream on Flickr in the past month, but then! I found out there was going to be a crocheted potholder swap. And then I may have signed up…without completely knowing how to crochet.

I do know how to do some basic crochet. Very, very basic. So, to work on my skillz, I thought I’d step the difficulty level up an notch and try the hexagon pattern that I found at this lovely website. They turned out a little like this:



yarn bowls

Not so much what I was hoping for. I don’t know if I’m just reading the pattern wrong or my stitches are too tight, but I added a few chain stitches here and there, and a few more stitches in the final row, and things are looking so much better.



didn't need a new hobby

So much better. It looks a teeny bit different than the pattern wanted them to look, but I’m happy with them. I hadn’t intend on wanting to continue on with these, but I think I’m going to attempt a full afghan of them. We’ll see though…I’m easily sidetracked.