FO Friday - 11/13/2015

I completed my donations for the St. Demetrios Greek Festival (this weekend, starting today - you should go) and took them to the church yesterday.

Pillowcases:

Kitchen towel/hot pad sets:

Little dresses:

And the hat and booties sets y'all saw last week.

It's not much, but the few dollars each will bring in is much appreciated by the church.

MK out.

I'm Sewing Along...

I am participating in a Sew-Along...because you know, not enough to do. Seriously, I have several of Marti Michell's template kits and I haven't used any of them until now.  Remember, I'm not a quilter, but for some reason, I felt the urge to purchase almost all the Marti Michell template kits that The Loopy Ewe sells. I'm not a quilter; I swear I'm not.

I have this book because the blocks are so cute, and vintage, and I really am meaning to make some things with them...but I haven't made anything yet. Then, this book came out and I bought it too, because I liked the colors, the 1930s vintage fabric and the blocks and, you know...I was meaning to make some of the blocks.

Then, I heard about the SAL (Sew-Along) and I heard that Marti Michell (MM) was going to make conversions of the blocks using her templates, and I thought it would be a win-win - make blocks out of the Farmer's Wife book AND get to play with the templates.

What's so great about the templates? Well, one thing is that they facilitate cutting the little dog-ear corners that just add bulk to the seams when the blocks are all assembled:

See how I've cut off the corners in the top square?  I cut the smaller square using MM's Log Cabin ruler which doesn't have corner-cutting capability.

Never fear, MM has a a ruler that allows one to cut the dog-ears off the most commonly used quilting shapes. Cool, huh?

Another cool thing about the MM templates is they help one line up the pieces - which takes the guesswork out of the operation. It makes for a smoother quilting experience...even for non quilters.

See how nicely the pieces line up on the left side of the block?

This week in the SAL, we are playing BINGO. Five blocks were chosen and we have to link them to the BINGO post.  Here are my renditions of the blocks:

I like the trick in the middle of the back of this block. 

One swirls the seam where the four corners come together in order to orient the seam allowances in such a way as to decrease bulk.

Four of the blocks took an hour to complete from cutting out to finish.This one took about two-and-a-half hours. 

I kid you not. I sewed every single seam at least twice, and some four times...because I'm not a quilter.

MK out.

(Remember to click on the pics to see them in their entirety.)

FO Friday - 11/6/2015

I have stuff! Unfortunately, it's not newly finished stuff, because I can't seem to do the finish work on my Loopy Academy semester projects for some reason...

The Lone Star State Knitters had a scarf swap this fall. I had to get the package for my recipient ready ahead of time, since we were going to be out of town when it was time to mail them. In my haste in finishing it, wrapping up the package and giving it to my neighbor with instructions to mail it out on October 1st, I forgot to take a picture. Thankfully, my recipient did and here it is:

I used the Gallatin Scarf pattern and the yarn is Universal Yarn Cotton Supreme Batik.

Anyway, back in September when we were in Europe, I made some hats to give to the male relatives. The gift box is heavy on girly things - I had plenty of gifts for the female relatives...but for the males, well...not so much.

So, I made these hats:

I used Encore for the ease of washing. The pattern is a slightly modified version of my go-to-boy-hat aka #30 Cool Hats by Nancy J. Thomas. The recipients liked them.

In October, I finished three hat and booties sets to donate to the church for the Greek Festival.

I winged the hat and topped it with a Chrysanthemum flower. I used the Seamless Baby Booties pattern for the feets covers.

I winged this hat too - pom pom and all - and again used the Seamless Baby Booties pattern.

For this ensemble, I used the Apple Hat and Baby Booties patterns.

I used Sirdars Dreambaby DK leftovers for all.

I am working on Loopy Academy fabric and yarn projects, as well we fabric projects to donate t the church. Hopefully, you will see them soon.

MK out.

Movie Monday - 11/2/2015

Yes, I realize it's Tuesday, but I've got a backlog of movies to discuss. If I don't do it now, next Monday may come and I may not be able to do a post for whatever reason...because that has been the pattern lately.

Carey Mulligan and Michael Sheen star in Far From the Madding Crowd. It is an adaptation of the novel by the same name by Thomas Harding. I have never read the book; so, I cannot comment on the strength of the adaptation, but I thought the story was wonderful. The scenery was beautiful and the acting was very good. I loved this movie.

The Water Diviner is set just after WWI in Australia and Turkey. Russell Crowe stars as Joshua, an Australian farmer and water diviner. His three sons fought the Turks in the Battle of Gallipoli four years prior and, having never returned home, they are presumed dead. When his wife commits suicide because her grief has completely overcome her, he vows to go to Turkey to find the his boys' bodies and to bring them back to bury them with their 
mother. It was a great story with good acting. I really liked it.

I finally was able to watch Her. Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore, a guy who pens love letters for a living, but who is unlucky in love personally. He purchases an OS with artificial intelligence (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), designed to grow and evolve in order to better help its owner. She names herself Samantha and she is very helpful. Soon, the two have a very close relationship. Amy Adams, Rooney Mara and Olivia Wilde also star. After all the hype, I thought it was just alright.

Last awards season, there was some controversy about Jennifer Anniston being passed over for an Oscar nomination for Cake. She plays a woman who had been injured in a terrible car accident and who is living with chronic pain. As can happen in these situations, she is addicted to medications and is a bit of a drug seeker. She's also pretty cranky, but I'll give her that because...chronic pain. After seeing the movie, although Anniston delivered a decent performance, I personally didn't feel it was one of her best. It was alright.

Le Divorce is an older film starring Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts. Hudson plays a single girl who goes to Paris to visit her pregnant sister (Watts) who is going through a divorce. Without giving anything away, I really liked this film. Maybe, I was in the mood for this soapy, convoluted plot, but I was highly entertained. 

That's it for this week...

MK out.