This is the last item that I made for K&M’s baby girl. It is a crocheted version of their Siamese cat, Malcolm. This is my first attempt at crocheting a cat, and it turned out pretty well for a first try. K loves it and has displayed it proudly, so that’s the important part. The pattern is from Ravelry, it’s free, and easy to follow.
xo Saree
Continuing on with the gifts for K&M’s baby girl, I appliqued some onesies. The fabric is from Fabricworm and is called Chick Chick by Mod Green Pod. K has been very involved in poultry research, so I wanted to incorporate some chickens into the gifts. I hand sewed the fabric onto the onesies, and I think they turned out really well. They also have the pink and green that will be in the nursery.
xo
Saree
My good friends K&M are having their first child, and I am so excited for them. They know it’s going to be a girl and I already got the nursery colour details from K (pale purple, pink, green, and yellow), so I got started on their quilt.
For the quilt top, I found a great FQ pack from Fabricworm by Jessica Swift, called Preeti in pink. I also purchased the custom bundle Boardwalk, and used Robert Kaufman Kona cotton jelly roll in white. Jessica Swift’s Peacock Feathers in Taupe is the backing (K loves peacock feathers), and Michael Miller Dumb Dot in Charcoal is the binding.
The pattern comes from the Quilting Quickly II class on Craftsy. It recommends using all jelly rolls and then you can get 6 small squares from each 6 strips, but because I had FQ, I could only get 2 small squares from the shorter 6 strips I cut. It made it a bit more tedious, but I really liked the fabric I used.
This is probably the most complicated quilt I’ve done so far, since there were many seams to match up, but I think it turned out great. I can’t wait to meet K&M’s little one and see her with this quilt.
I’ll be sharing another project I did for K&M later.
xo
Saree
It was almost two years in the making, but the circle quilt is finally complete. Back in April of 2010, Julie of Jaybird Quilts blogged about her Circle Along quilt making the cover of “Quilts and more” magazine. She offered kits in her shop and I took the opportunity to buy one. Finally, this week, I set to work on this quilt. What took me so long? Well, I was busy doing other things, it was a pretty large project, and circles were new to me. Sometimes new skills can seem daunting. After signing up for some Craftsy classes (Quilting Quickly II, in particular), and building my confidence with other projects, I felt ready.
The quilt measures 70″x90″. It uses all Freebird fabrics from Moda and is quilted with simple diagonal lines. It’s a great pattern and fairly quick, since it uses layer cakes.
I have more projects coming up, including another baby quilt and some onesies.
xo Saree
I finally made a new quilt! Another friend is having a baby and the sex is going to be a surprise, so I wanted a fun, unisex quilt. I found the plus quilt from here and knew it would be a quick project and something I hadn’t tried before. I used various fabrics from my stash and found it to be pretty easy, although it was tricky making sure everything lined up. On this note, I’m thinking about taking some online courses from Craftsy so that I can improve technically. Pretty much all I do is self taught, since I learned some basics from a friend, so I’m thinking I would benefit from more instruction on the ‘proper’ way to do things.
Anyway, back to the quilt. The backing fabric is Modern Whimsy Sheep Park and it is perfect for M. M and I were lab mates doing ruminant research together, so the sheep fit with our scene. I quilted it using a wavy line and bound it with Dumb Dot in charcoal. This is my first official binding since my first quilt (which was supervised). Normally, I just fold the backing fabric around to the front, but I wanted to do the charcoal dots on this one, so I machined the binding onto the front and hand sewed it onto the back (trying to machine sew it onto the back was a disaster). This was also my first time hand sewing and I found this video really helpful. The hand sewing was my favourite part, believe it or not! It was so relaxing and fun. I may need to do more binding this way.
So, there is my latest quilt. It was full of firsts and I feel like I learned a lot. I hope M and his wife really like it!
xo Saree
Let me start by saying that I am not a wine expert. Not at all. In general, I’m not a big wine fan, but once in awhile I find a wine that I love.
A and I live very close to the Niagara wine region and we will often head to Niagara-on-the-lake to do wine tastings. A couple years ago we went to the winery Stratus, and I fell in love with their 2007 Red. I find this to be a bold wine with berry tones. A finds it peppery. From their website:
“The hot and dry vintage of 2007 is a hallmark for the Niagara Peninsula. The vintage was ideal for the art of assemblage and each varietal was able to show signature typicity. Made up of predominately Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, other varieties were included to lift the body and nose. The result is a concentrated, complex and ageworthy wine that expresses the diversity of our vineyard.”
Unfortunately, this wine is $44. We bought one bottle and received one as a gift, but the price keeps me from buying more. We can always stop in for tastings, though.
My next discovery is more affordable. I was tasked with purchasing a wine for dinner with A’s parents. His parents are wine appreciators. A’s advice was to get something bold, with a good rating. I purchased The Black Chook Shiraz Viognier 2009 from Woop Woop winery in South Australia. It was excellent! It reminds me a lot of the Stratus 2007 Red, but at a price of $17.95, it is easier to purchase. Plus, there’s a chicken on the label.
Here’s the description:
“This 2009 Shiraz Viognier was matured for 10 months in French and American oak, 30% new. Deep garnet purple in color, it has intense cherry and crushed blackberry aromas with an enticing fruity lift and just a touch of peachiness. A solid backbone of high acidity and medium- firm fine tannins support the fleshy, medium-full bodied palate, finishing long. Approachable now, it has some capacity for development and should cellar to 2016+. Score: 90 LPB”
If you want to get your hands on the Stratus 2007 Red, it is available in some LCBO vintages, but the best way is to go to the Stratus winery. It’s a gorgeous building and they have many wines and ice wines to try. Here’s their website: http://www.stratuswines.com/
For The Black Chook, check the LCBO website for availability. You have to search for this wine. When I found it again, I bought 4 bottles, just in case.
xo Saree
Every year I try to make a couple of different cookie recipes to take to my parents’ house. This year I went with ‘white chocolate topped gingerbread cookies’ and ‘lemon burst cake mix cookies’. A is a big fan of lemon, so these were really for him. The lemon cookies needed to be baked about 1 minute longer than the recipe called for, but they were super easy to make. A liked them, but I wasn’t as keen. The gingerbread cookies were perfect, though. I will definitely be making them again.
{Lemon burst cake mix cookies}
{White chocolate topped gingerbread cookies}
xo Saree
Since my last post about infinity scarves here, I made another scarf using a bulky yarn from Bernat. I used the same pattern and like it much more as a soft and thick scarf.
My other project was the Divine Hat from the free pattern here. If you are new to crocheting, or just new to making adult hats (as I was), I will include some links that I found useful. The first is how to make an adjustable ring, which you will need to start this hat. Next, this hat uses the stitch fpdc (front post double crochet), which has instructions here. At the end of the pattern, there is also the stitch bpdc (back post double crochet), which is explained here. Finally, the pattern suggests H and J hooks (5 mm and 6 mm, respectively). I only had 5 mm and 6.5 mm hooks, so on the body of the hat, I used the 6.5 mm (K). This didn’t seem to make any difference in the finished product, but I was trying to crochet a bit tighter than normal. In the end, the hat is really comfortable and warm. I added one round of a lighter pink yarn for a bit of detail, but the spiral stitches turned out great. I really recommend this pattern, especially for beginners.
xo Saree
We went to the Imaginary Cities show at the Casbah on Nov. 10th and it was great! You can find out more about them here. Marti is a phenomenal live singer and had a ton of energy. Lots of fun.
They toured recently with The Pixies, but if you have a chance to see them, I highly recommend it!
Anyway, for Song Saturday, I thought I’d share their song “Say You”. It can be found here.
xo Saree
First, I’m still alive. I started in a midwifery program and I’ve been swamped, so there hasn’t been a lot of blogging. I feel bad. Sorry.
Second, I wanted to share this infinity scarf tutorial. I came across it on Pinterest. I wanted to make an infinity scarf that was big and chunky, like this one:
I really love the colour of yarn she used too, but I didn’t have chunky yarn, so I ended up making this one in a tweed:
I see a chunky infinity scarf in my future. I’ll post pictures when it’s done. Patterns can be found here.
xo Saree
