A Lovely Year to have FINISHED.

2014 was a challenge.

No.  Really.  Not my best work.  But I made it through & have high hopes for 2015!!!

I'm not going to recap what made the year so challenging.  Ick.  But I WILL recap my Lovely Year of Finishes for 2014!!!

I finished 6 (plus a December finish that doesn't count as I failed to photograph & to post).  

Lovely Recap Collage

Links to the Finish Posts:
January - A French Braid for KT
February - Clean, press, cut, & sort all my Tree Cloth
April - Broken Dishes
May - Colleen's Jacobs Ladder
June - Aloha Quilt for Tutu
July - A knitted scarf with a PATTERN even!!
(and December - table runners for gifts)

Now it's 2015.  After some thought, I decided to give it another go.  Even if I only do 1/2 the finishes, it's still fun to take pictures and post.  And without a deadline - even a fun one - most of those projects would have drifted on and on.

So 2014, thanks for...whatever.  And come on, 2015.  Let's make some stuff!!!

xoxo
auntiesash

Wait is it bi-monthly or.... whatever

So - having missed November entirely, let's just move along, shall we?

I did so WELL on finishes for the first 1/2 of the year.  Let's see if I can at least pull one off here in December.

Over the long weekend, I had some unexpected down time and whipped up a Christmas table runner. 

I used a charm pack of Blitzen by Basic Grey

Charm packs are so adorable!

                

              Pieced, 

                   layered, 
                        quilted,
                             done!!  

How gratifying!

       (And a FINISH picture would go here if I'd thought to take one - d'oh)

Late Breaking News!!  The manchild sent me pictures!

Back - quilting & a little I-made-the-front 48"-&-width-
of-fabric-is-44"-&-why-didn't-I-think-ahead? edge detail

So my goal for December is to make 

two more table runners to give as holiday gifts.

(Here's a close up of the snowmen from the line because they are just so cute!)

xo
sash

Bridgeport Boogie!

My New Project?  

Creating treasures for a raffle at this event:

Wanna Join Us??

One stash becomes two!

     A Lovely Year of Finishes        T-Shirt Quilts 

    T-shirt yarn (but for heaven's sake use a rotary cutter!!) 

       Woot!                   POUF(except I'll knit one)

Happy cutting & quilting & knitting!!!

sash

Count on me!

Who would have suspected that the Math Babe would get tripped up by counting?  
(Answer? Anyone who knits!)

I finished my scarf - and here it is:

I made a SCARF!

Not bad, right?  I mean - clearly scarf-like, reasonably even, no major holes or gaps - so I'm pretty pleased.

OK - it's not exactly like this picture I was aiming for when I set my ALYoF goal for July (link here):

Notice the nice diagonal lines all running parallel the length of the scarf?  

And on mine...not so much?  

There's that pesky counting issue.  

I started off a little sketchy (right hand side of the picture above).  I did start to get the hang of it but, somehow I lost count again, and the diagonally changed directions.

I paid more attention and got more practice and even figured out how that happened, so the rest of the scarf I would do 3 repeats of the pattern and then deliberately put in an extra row to change the direction.  That made the accidental turn look intentional.

Well - Semi-intentional

Here - a handsome male model stepped up to really show off my handiwork:

L'ours, il adore son écharpe!

A successful completion for my Lovely Year of Finishes.  

Also a GREAT learning experience 

(& not a bad 2nd knitting project!)

Now back to Ravelry.com for my next adventure....

xo

sash

Road Trip!!!

I'm SUPER excited to be heading "home" to Montana at the end of this week.  The trip will be part solo, part old-home week, & I'm looking forward to miles upon miles of Harry Potter on audiobooks and handiwork in my lap.

I'm going here:

To watch this:     Missoula Marathon!!  

And wade in this:

And, in general, be out of pocket, offline, & on vacation for a full WEEK!!!

I have some paper piecing I'm going to work on but mostly I'm going to work on my knitting.  

Yeah.  I said knitting.  Yep - I'm learning to knit!  

I've finished one little piece (except for the blocking - it's too HOT to turn on the iron).  

 I've played with some other yarns.  Now I'm ready to tackle this scarf:

(I think)

The nice people over at Ravelry.com said it was a beginner piece & I understood all the markings on the instructions.  We'll see if my powers of concentration can last through an entire scarf & make an actual,recognizable pattern appear.





And that will be my project for A Lovely Year of Finishes for July.  We'll see how it goes with a non-quilting finish.  Fingers crossed that it will look just like the photo (except in some festive bright color).

Now 4 more days until I hit the road.  WoooHOO!!

xoxo
sash

I'm such a heat weenie...

... but the quilt is done.

Here's a picture:

The sashing is much more golden than it looks here.  Backing is black minky.  Binding is off white batik.  I did stitch-in-the-ditch on the sashing and then mandalas in each block with variegated thread.

So another finish for ALYOF. If it weren't for the last minute, I wouldn't get anything done, right?

Here's the link to all the finishes:June Finish Party!
And the link back to where I set this goal: Aloha!


Now I'm going to get away from irons, computers, & anything else that generates heat.

xoxo
sash