Scarves

I've been super busy lately, but I always get in some knitting time in the car.  When my DH had his table saw accident, there were a few months that he couldn't drive.  I was happy to do the driving, but I must admit that I missed my knitting time.  He's driving again, and I'm knitting again!

I made 2 drop stitch scarves.  This is a really easy stitch that is simple to memorize and great for knitting in the car.  To do a drop stitch, you wrap the yarn around the needle between knit stitches.  On the next row, you drop the wraps.  For this pattern, the wraps range from one wrap, to two wraps, then 3 wraps, then back to 2 wraps and then one wrap.  In between the wrap and drop rows, you do a few knit rows and it creates the wavy pattern.

I LOVE this yarn!  It's Merisoft Hand Painted merino by Punta Yarns color HP71.  The picture doesn't do it justice.

Same pattern in Glenisla Print.  I misplaced the wrapper with the color.

The pattern is a free download on Ravelry.  It's called Drop Stitch Scarf by Christine Vogel.  I've talked about Ravelry a lot.  If you knit or crochet, you HAVE to check out Ravelry!!!

We're harvesting the lavender!

FINALLY!  We started harvesting over the weekend.  We cut about 75 bundles yesterday.  I did my first farmers market of the year last night and I have a few each week now for the remainder of the month. 

We ship fresh bundles.... on their way to you within hours of harvesting.  You get a generous bundle of fragrant long stemmed Grosso lavender wrapped in pretty paper with a ribbon.   I can put two bundles in a mailing tube, so there is a discount for buying 2 bundles.   Click here to be directed to my website to view the lavender products.  We can only ship the fresh lavender to US customers.  I'll have a separate lavender website eventually, for for now, I sell the lavender through Alderwood Quilts.

That's all for now.... it's back out to the field with me!

The winner is....... drumroll please........

The winner of the autographed copy of The Quilt Life magazine is Gale, Ky Quilter.  Gale is a fan of Alex and Ricky and I'm sure she will give the magazine a good home.

This was a REALLY popular giveaway!  Lots of people entered.  I WISH, I WISH, I WISH I had a hundred copies to give you all!  When I first started doing monthly giveaways, I had only a handfull of entries and I wrote the names on pieces of paper and picked them out of a bowl.  I now have to use a random number generator because there are so many.

I'm also having trouble getting to sending you all a reply.  I honestly try to send everyone a personal reply to comments but I have gotten so terribly far behind, I'm going to just start from current time and try to do better this month.  If you commented on a post in June and I didn't reply- I DID read it and I thank you very much for taking the time to comment.

Why am I so busy?  Lavender, of course!  I'll be posting about it and I'll give you information on purchasing a bundle if you're interested.  And..... gee..... I think we should do a lavender giveaway in July.... don't you?  No, no.... don't reply to this post to enter.  Wait for the next post about the lavender.

Congrats, Gale!  I'll send you an email.  You lucky, lucky, lucky girl!!!!!

New Look!

You're not in the wrong place!  I'm playing with the blog a bit... just messing with background and colors.  What do you think?  I want a little more color--- I'll keep playing.

Busy in the field!

My goodness!  What a slacker I've been about blogging!  I have a good excuse though.  Have you ever weeded around 300 lavender plants?  Yes... I have weed cloth out there.  But the little buggers still grow right at the base of the plants.  I don't know how I could keep up with it without the landscape fabric (weed cloth).  It's important that there are no weeds in the bundles when I harvest so I'm going through and cleaning things up one last time before they show their little purple faces.  :-)

Here's how the field looked yesterday.  I have 2 main varieties- half Grosso and half Gros Bleu.  The Grosso is a little earlier than the Gros Blue and it's looking a little bigger right now.  These photos are of the Grosso.
 

Compare this to the field a month ago!  (below)

Here are a few more from this weekend:

The spikes are shooting up and the buds are setting- but nothing is open yet. This is the first time the plants have actually touched. 

I asked DH to stand in back so you could get a perspective on the size.  That's his muddy knee in the back to the left.

The field is almost 3 years old.  This is our third harvest.  We planted 300 little 4-inch plants in the fall of 2007.  I expect to harvest somewhere in the neighborhood of 1200 bundles next month.  I now know the meaning of the phrase, "Be careful what you ask for.... you might get it!"

If you're interested in reading more lavender posts, look over to the right for the list of labels (topics) and click on Lavender.  That will take you to the posts I wrote about lavender last July.

Keep watching- I'll be posting updated photos.

Carrie Nelson's Schnibbles

 

 Carrie Nelson is another great designer I met at Quilt Market. She is the creative woman behind the very popular Schnibbles patterns.  Above is a photo of Carrie autographing a copy of her new book to me.  She's a delightful lady and it was a pleasure to chat with her later in her booth.

 

Let's see how well I can do at describing what "Schnibbles" are.

"Schnibbles" are "little bits".  Carrie explained to me that they are little pieces.... little leftovers or little samplings.  Her Schnibbles patters are to make little quilts.  Most of these gems measure about 30 inches square.  They are not to be confused with miniature quilts.  They aren't miniatures with the teensie weensie seams and tiny blocks.  The blocks aren't big, but they're "normal" small blocks.  There's just aren't very many of them.  

Her new book, "Schnibbles Times Two", features a small Schnibbles and a little bit "less small" quilt.  She gives instructions for quilts that are about 30 inches square and then the same quilt measuring about 70 inches square (give or take).

I've had requests from several friends and customers to carry Schnibbles patterns and kits, and even a few requests for a "Schnibbles of the month" kit.  Waddaya think?  Carrie says you can make a 30 inch top in about a day.  There's a pretty darned good chance that you're going to see them on my website soon.  I'm trying to decide if I should just carry the book and patterns or if you would like kits.  I'd love to hear your feedback.

I'm thinking that a new little quilt would look great on my dining room table- instead of the traditional table runner- a new one each month.  I don't know where I would hang all these little quilts, but I could have one dedicated spot for them and rotate them- hanging different ones when the mood strikes.  Have any of you made any Schnibbles, and how do you display them?

As if I needed another reason to like Carrie, her helper is a Golden Retriever named, Rosie.  (see below).  This old girl has seen a lot of quilts in her day!  What a lucky furry friend to have Carrie for a mom.  We're a family of pet-lovers.  If you'd like to see a picture of my Golden or of all my grandpuppies and grandkitties, I have them all in my gallery. Speaking of the gallery- I'm pathetically behind on adding photos to it.  So many thoughtful customers have sent me photos of their quilts and I have been delinquent in getting them loaded onto the gallery.  That's on my short list of things to do.... I'll let you know when I get it updated.

StoneGable Giveaway

I found a pretty "foodie" blog.  Pretty pictures, pretty decor ideas and table settings, and what looks like some nice recipes.  This nice giveaway ends soon.... I'm entering.... hoping to be the lucky one!

Edyta Sitar and Laundry Basket Quilts

More from Quilt Market.....

 I think my new favorite pattern designer/ book author is Edyta Sitar. She does amazing piecing and applique.  And when I heard her speak at Quilt Market, I was captivated.  She is very personable and it's a pleasure to listen to her speak.  Her accent is charming and she speaks comfortably to her audience, as if she were conversing with a few friends. 

Behind her is the quilt from the cover of "Hop To It".  She learned during this class that the book is now an award winner.  Her publisher surprised her with the honor just moments after this photo was taken.

Here's a closeup of the breath taking quilt.  It's even better in person than on the cover of the book.

And the bunny block.  :-)  The applique on this quilt is all fused/ raw edge.  Her stitching is so clean-- right on the edge of the pieces.  It's hard to tell that it's raw edge without getting very close to it.

The rest of these photos were taken in her booth.  It was hard to photograph them because the booth was so crowded.  She was VERY popular.

These patterns are so amazing.  I think they will be showing up on my website!

This was very pretty in blue and white.  She generally uses more color and I was surprised to see this one.  Very nice!

 A VERY pretty pineapple.

 Beautiful!

Spring 2011 Quilt Market

The caption here should read, "Ready to SHOP!".  My friend took this photo of me at the entrance of the Spring 2011 Quilt Market in the Minneapolis Convention Center.  Quilt Market is held twice each year.  It's in Houston in the fall, and it's held in different cities each Spring.  Attendees are wholesale customers in the quilting industry.  The majority of the shoppers are quilt shop owners- or those who support the industry such as long arm quilters.  Vendors include mostly distributors, fabric manufacturers, pattern designers, book authors, and suppliers of specialty notions.  For the most part, a shopper such as myself doesn't come home with anything, but places orders for product to be shipped in the near future.  That, of course, doesn't explain why I had to go to Target and buy a new duffel bag so I could get things home that I somehow "accumulated" while I was there.  I have no idea how a "few" catalogs and samples filled another whole bag to check on the airplane.

I really enjoyed Minneapolis.  I had never spent any time there before- other than layovers at the airport which really doesn't count.  This photo was taken right outside the convention center.  The whole area has these overhead enclosed walkways connecting the convention center, hotels, parking garages and shopping.  Once you figure out where you are, it's pretty cool.  I was impressed by how clean the city is... at least where I was.

I had dinner with my friend, Sandy Pennington (Quilted Roses) at Britt's Pub.  What a fun place!  We sat outside and did some people watching with a glass of wine and some yummy burgers.  It was a very pleasant evening with a good friend.

Here's a random item that caught my eye. Buttons are attached to the ends of floral stems and they are placed in a vase.  I'm not sure I'll ever take the time to make this, but it just tickled me for some reason.

I met a lot of designers.  This is me with Marilyn Foreman.  Marilyn is the designer for Quilt Moments.  I carry most of her patterns and have Celebration as a kit.  I love the way she writes patterns.  She has you make blocks from the inside out, and square them up as you go.  I find that I do very accurate work when I follow her patterns.  Marilyn is a very nice lady and it was fun to meet her.  It was also fun to see the quilts in person that I had only seen on patter covers before.  They ALWAYS look better in person!

I have more pictures of quilts and designers...... I'll post more tomorrow.

June 2010 Giveaway- Alex Anderson & Ricky Tims autographs!

When I was at Quilt Market in Minneapolis a few weeks ago, I stopped by The Quilt Life Magazine booth.  The Quilt Life is a new magazine with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims.  They offered to autograph a magazine for me to give away on my blog.  They both autographed a premier issue of the magazine (Alex is holding it in the above photo). If you aren't familiar with Alex and Ricky, they are accomplished quilters and quilt educators.  In addition to the magazine, they have both designed fabric and patterns, written books, produced DVD's and they have an internet show.  The Quilt Show is an invaluable internet resource for all quilters.  It's free to log on, but a nominal subscription gives you access to the weekly show as well as patterns, a huge gallery and more.

Silly me!  I didn't think fast enough to ask them for a second one for me!  I briefly thought of keeping it, but I love you guys so much that I couldn't do it.  So here it is!  The June Giveaway is an autographed copy of the premier issue of The Quilt Life Magazine!  The magazine is really great.  I have read this copy, and the second one that is on news stands now.  It's entertaining and educational and full of inspiration.  But what else would you expect from these two!?!?

I'll draw a winner at random on July 1st. Previous winners and international entries are welcome.

To enter- all you have to do is reply to THIS POST and let me know you'd like a chance to win.  You receive a second entry if you let me know that you are a follower of this blog.  For a third entry, if you have your own blog, tell your readers about the giveaway and link back to it.

It may be worth a bazillion dollars to a collector someday... who knows?  But I do know for sure that it will be worth every minute of your time to read this wonderful new magazine.

May Giveaway Winner

The winner of the Mary Englebreit chair pincushion is Debra from  Missouri.  Her blog is Deb's Place.  She's a brand new blogger with just a few followers.  Check out her beautiful quilts and sign up to follow if you like them- let's get her going on her blogging! 

I'm sorry I didn't get the winner drawn yesterday- it was a crazy day for me!  Does anyone else wish there were just a few more hours in the day???  I'm super behind on blogging.  I have some great things to share with you.

I have to get some orders out and return a few calls.  Later today I'll post the June Giveaway.  You are NOT going to believe this one..... I'll give you a little hint..... it was given to me by Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims at Quilt Market just for you!

Happy June, Everyone!  And CONGRATS to Deb!

The Lavender is Waking Up!

We had beautiful weather this past weekend and I spent a lot of it out in my lavender field.  I have over 300 plants in our little lavender farm.  This will be our third harvest.  The plants will be ready to harvest in July.  I did a LOT of blogging about lavender last July and my readers seemed to enjoy it.  This year, I thought it would be fun if I took photos in the field every weekend and posted them on the blog.  Over on the sidebar, I'll have the most recent view. You can watch it grow and bloom along with me... but you don't have to do any of the work- just enjoy the view!

The black stuff is landscape fabric.  It's a mesh that allows water and air to circulate but won't let the weeds come up.  It doesn't look great, but it saves me a bazillion hours of weeding.  It also allows me to keep a weed-free field without chemicals.

This past weekend, I pulled the weeds that were around the base of the plants, and I gave them a little haircut.  I just trimmed a little- shaping them and removing any stray sprigs.  It's important to keep lavender in a nicely shaped ball.  One of the most common questions about lavender is why it gets "leggy" and woody.  You have to harvest the lavender (either while it's in bloom or after it's done), and keep the plant groomed into a nice "ball".  If you don't, it will send off woody shoots that can't be neatly trimmed.  If you cut that woody growth, you just get a hole, and if you don't cut it, the plant takes on a weird shape.  And on top of that, you don't get as many blooms.  Some people prune in the spring, some in the fall.  Actually, I like to do it a little earlier but we've had a chilly spring.  If you have a scruffy-looking, leggy lavender plant, just tell it you're sorry, dig it up and toss it.  This is a great time to plant a nice new little lavender plant.  For tips on planting, look back at my posts from last July.

I'll be shipping fresh bundles anywhere in the US in July (sorry no international sales of fresh lavender).  I sell fresh lavender in July and dried lavender buds and other lavender products all year on the Alderwood Quilts website.

Cirque du Solei

We went to see Kooza, the Cirque du Solei traveling French circus show last night.  How amazing!  No animal acts- all comedy, clowns, contortion, acrobatics, and music.  We've never seen anything like this.  It's not what I normally think of as a circus.  It's much more of a show.  In fact, I know they do a lot of this in Vegas.

Contortionsits.

High wire act.  The men on the bottom were on bicycles on a high wire.... supporting the man on the chair above them.

And the crowd favorite- the Wheel of Death.  These guys are beyond belief... spinning and running and flipping inside and out of the rings. 

The show is in Portland for a month.  Our son called us yesterday and said he had tickets for us.  What a surprise! We had an evening to remember.

Social Butterfly Socks Finished

These socks were a KAL with the Knitters Brewing Company on Ravelry.  I started them in March and had the first one done and second one half done by the end of March... but it took me a while to get up the enthusiasm to finish the second sock.  I'm glad I did because they turned out cute.

This is the first time I ever knitted beads into a project.  The butterflies on the leg and top of foot have beads in the design.  Don't look too closely.... the are far from perfect!  But if they're on my foot, and my foot is on the floor, and if other people are looking at them from about 5 feet off the floor- they look pretty close to perfect.  :-)

Here's a picture of the back of the leg and the heel.

I love this yarn.  It looks solid from a distance, but close up, it is variegated with the colors very close.  It's a nice soft yarn, too.

I have another challenging sock in progress- one down, one to go.  I think I'll take a little break and make a simple sock- no fancy stuff.  After I finish the basic sock, I'll go back and finish the second challenging one.

I've mentioned Ravelry a few times before, but here I go again.  If you like to knit or crochet and haven't checked out Ravelry, you're missing a LOT.  They have tons of free patterns and inspiration, not to mention a fun community of yarn-lovers.  My Ravelry user name is SueHauser.

May Giveaway

The May giveaway is an adorable Mary Engelbreit pincushion.

To enter, just reply to this post and ask to be included.  You get a second entry if you let me know that you are a follower (long time follower or a newbie!).  And for a third entry, mention my giveaway on your blog and let me know.

I'll select a winner at random on June 1st.  Good luck!

The Winner Is......

(drum roll, please.....)..... GERRY!  She won the April blog giveaway, which is the tiny little iron and two sparkly fat quarters.   Gerry's blog is GerryArt.  I'll send you an email, Gerry.

I have the May giveaway ready- just need to take a photo of it and get it on the blog.  Look for it to show up this coming week.

Congrats, Gerry!

Louisa Smith's Swirl Quilt

Isn't this a show-stopper?  I called Louisa Smith to order some templates and books, and we chatted about the "Swirl" template set.  She offered to send me a photo of her sample for this template set.... isn't it gorgeous?  This wall hanging is made of 16 blocks- 4 groups of 4 blocks each.  Each block is made of 3 pieces, cut from the template set.  If you just look at a group of 4 of the blocks (one of the swirls), one color, or color group, is used for the small piece on one block, the middle piece of the next block, and the outside piece of the next block.  Once you see how it works, it's not tricky at all.  Louisa really has an eye for creating amazing art quilts.  Some of the pieces are cut from strip sets and some of the pieces are cut from fabric alone.  Louisa says that she she shows this sample, the Swirl template sets just fly out the door.  I can see why!

A tip I got from Louisa a while back:  For the strip sets, Louisa often uses fabric she really doesn't care for by itself.  Since you only see a small strip of the fabric, the print is much less important than the color.  She looks for COLOR, not for the design the color makes.  That's not the case with the focus fabrics- just for the strip sets.  She finds focus fabrics she loves and then looks for fabrics that go with it based on COLOR.

I always enjoy chatting with Louisa- she's such a nice person.  Check out her blog... I can't believe she has so few followers.  Wouldn't it blow her away if all of you signed up to follow her blog (hint, hint)???  I don't know all of my suppliers personally, but I love marketing and highlighting products designed by really nice people like Louisa. Thanks so much for sharing this photo with me, Louisa!

Blocking

I've been knitting most of my life, but I've never been much of a blocker... until now.  I recently made this Fishtail Scarf".  It was really lumpy bumpy and the holes looked pretty messy.

 

I did some reading on blocking, and for this project, I learned that I need to pin the piece in shape on a blocking board.  I went to some yarn shops and saw very nice systems with very high price tags.  I'm happy to spend money at yarn shops, but I want to spend it on YARN!  So here's my brainstorm...

I got these interlocking spongy rubber mats that are used in garages.  I know people who put them around their long arm quilting machines to ease foot and back pain standing for long periods. 

They interlock, like puzzle pieces.  I can change the configuration to make a long mat for a scarf, or a large square for a sweater.  

I put a few towels over them.  I'll probably get some of that flannel fabric with a 1-inch grid to put over it for projects that need to be blocked to a particular measurement.  But for the scarf, the measurements weren't critical.

I soaked my scarf in SOAK.  I have also used a product called EUCLIN.  This was the first time I tried Soak.  (Just follow the directions on the bottle).

 

Then I gently squeezed the water from the scarf (emphasis on GENTLE and SQUEEZE (not wring)).  Then I put the scarf on a clean towel and rolled it- and gently squeezed the towel roll.  This gets most of the water out of the scarf.

Then I took lots of pins and stretched it and patted it all down where I wanted it.  It's important to put lots of pins in so you don't get funny places where the pin pulls it.  You need enough pins to make it smooth.  The pins go right through the towel and into the squishy floor mats.

Here's my scarf- all pinned on my new "blocking boards".  It's important to just leave the item alone until it's dry.  I visited it in the laundry room a lot-- giving it nice little "pats".

And the finished product!  The Soak made the scarf soft and it smells really nice.  It almost looks like it was ironed, but it's not smushed down like it would have been if I ironed it.  (Not to mention the fact that ironing it would have felted the wool).

And the best part?  The garage floor mats cost $12.95 and the blocking boards in the yarn shop were about $50.  That leaves more money for yarn- yea!

Fish Tail Scarf

IT'S DONE!  I've been working on this one since last summer.  I went to the Sock Summit in Portland with my niece, Meredith.  I saw this scarf and fell in love with it.  So... I got the pattern and the yarn and proceeded to cast on.  Hmmm.  That should be the easy part.  Step one... cast on 350 stitches.  Jeez!  I messed up that first row and started over so many times I think I could have knitted a sweater in the same time!  When I did the cast on, I kept losing count.  And then I counted them... and counted again and came up with a different number,,,, and then counted again and came up with a third number.  Then... when I had the right number cast on, I did the first full row and didn't come out right at the end.  You get the idea.  It wasn't pretty.  I learned a lot with this scarf.  The holes were a little different, but hey... I love to learn.  Well... half way through this scarf I was longing for a good ol' garter stitch scarf.  But, by the time I was coming down the homestretch, I was almost wishing it wouldn't be done.  I finally caught on and started to like the pattern.

The yarn is Kauni and the pattern is by Lucy Neatby.  Both the yarn and the designer are top notch, in my book.

When I was finished, the scarf was pretty lumpy bumpy and the holes were all over the place.  I haven't been much of a blocker, but this was clearly a case for blocking.  I used Soak (I also like Euclin).  After blocking, the yarn was so much softer- as if it "relaxed".  And it was all nice and flat and the holes are all lined up.  It looks and feels soooooo nice, and it even smells nice!  I'm now a confirmed blocker!  I made a major discovery about blocking.  I'm going to do a separate post about blocking- I have a great tip to show you!

The only regret I have about this scarf is that I didn't make it longer.  But then... if I wanted to make it longer, I would have had to cast on 450 stitches.... AAAHHHH!!!!!! 

I have a little yarn left over.  I think I might see if I can get some fingerless mitts out of it to match the scarf.

The weather's warming up- guess I'll have to wait for next winter to wear it!