Vegan Craftastic

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Friday, January 13, 2012

I Will Always Put A Bird On It!

Yesterday marked my triumphant (at least to me) return to sewing! After a too long hiatus, my knitter's (and more) project bags are making their way back into my Etsy shop. On a related note, my Etsy shop had it's 1,000th sale yesterday and I just wanted to thank all of you guys for your support over the years, I couldn't have done it without you! Anyway, the first bag I have up in my shop is the Blue Bird Knitting Bag, because if anyone's going to Put A Bird On It, it's me:

If you haven't seen the Put A Bird On It skit from Portlandia you really must, it's hilarious:

What I love about that show is that it pokes fun at a lot of things I'm into myself, like putting birds on things! Being able to laugh at yourself is so important, I don't know how people who take themselves dead seriously make it through life, it's such a drag!

-kala

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Quilt Planning

Hey, look at me blogging regularly again! Scary, eh? Anyway, yesterday I bought some fabric for my block of the month quilt at my local fabric shop, Treadle Yard Goods, here's what I got:

I'll be picking up a lot more fabric as the months go on, but I figure this will get me through at least 4 blocks. The fabric on the far left is my neutral background fabric and I love it, my husband says it looks like rice. It was oddly challenging shopping for fabric that wasn't for my shop, I kept seeing prints and thinking "oh, that would make a cute pin" and have to stop myself and think QUILT! But I'm really happy with what I picked out, I was going for bright and fun as always.

Which print is your fave?

-kala

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Not So Finished Projects

So you know how I'm doing that free block of the month quilting course through Craftsy? Well, I though it might be fun to dig through my fabric stash and see if anything would work for that project....and I ended up unearthing all sorts of unfinished quilting projects, oh no! In another life I was a big time quilter, I was even in a guild when I lived in Northern Minnesota. There is an armoire at my parent's house that is full of finished quilts that I made while living there, and I have a couple here too that you've seen in various photos on the blog. But the thing that I don't like to think about is the stack of nearly and not so nearly completed quilt tops. I'll share a few of them in the coming weeks (especially the shameful lack of progress on my wedding quilt) but I think I'll start with the Hillbilly redwork quilt that just needs borders:

Here's a closeup of one of the blocks:

I hand embroidered these blocks using patterns from a dishcloth pack from Aunt Martha's Embroidery Patterns, an awesome source for all things kitchy and retro. I was (and still am) a big fan of redwork (embroidery done all in one shade of red) so that's what I went with for this quilt. The fabric for the sewn blocks is from a collection of reproduction feed sack prints, perfect for the hillbilly theme! I really do love this top, it's fun and silly which I of course love, so I really need to find the perfect fabric for the border and get this thing done!

-kala

Monday, January 09, 2012

Ritz vs. The Wand

It's time for another cute little Ritz video, because really, what the internet needs is more cat videos, right? ;)

This is Ritz playing with his favorite toy, the Cat Dancer Cat Charmer wand, he has lots of fun with this thing! If you have a kitty, you should really pick up one of these wands, it's the one toy at the shelter I work at that just about every cat loves.

What's your cat's favorite toy?

-kala

Sunday, January 08, 2012

Quiltalicious

Because the sewing bug has bit me once again, I've decided to sign up for the free Craftsy Block of the Month online quilting course! I saw this via Emmakat on twitter today and thought it looked like an awesome way to get some quilting in even though this year is going to be crazy busy. There are instructional videos that show you how to sew all of the blocks and forums for asking questions and learning new tips and tricks. I'm pretty excited, I can't wait to pick out some fabric and get sewing. Let me know if any of you guys sign up too!

-kala

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Back in the Groove

The sock groove that is! It's been quite a while since I've been inspired to knit socks, which is shocking considering they used to be my absolute favorite thing to knit. But on my last trip to the library, I saw Sock Knitting Master Class on the new arrivals shelf and thought I'd give it a whirl, I mean it's a library book, there's nothing to lose right? Well, I was not disappointed, I found a sock pattern that made me excited about socks again, and that pattern is Almondine by Anne Hanson of Knitspot. This pattern has all of my favorite things: an easy (but not boring) pattern repeat, instructions for working on dpns, and top down construction (toe-up socks are of the devil.) I finished up the heel flap last night, I would have worked on turning the heel, but I was at knit night and didn't want to muck it up like I have in the past. Progress:

Nice, right? The color in real life is closer to the name of the colorway I'm using, Ketchup. The yarn is Panda Cotton from my stash and it seems to be working nicely with this pattern, yay!

Working on anything fun lately?

-kala

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