a home for my interchangeable needles

Guys, I am totally obsessed with knitting right now. Really, I can't stop. And I have a gazillion things I want to make! Gazillion! Really, I have enough to keep me busy for years all planned out I think, and ever since my parents brought me some very belated birthday yarn last week, I have been going to town. I can't wait to show you what I am making, and I think I will be done by the end of this week! That combined with my avoidance of my pony club quilt (yep, still avoiding, but much closer to actually doing it) got me rethinking my knitting needle storage. Ultimately I need 2 cases, this one which is for my knitpicks interchangeable needle set that I am slowly collecting, and another for the rest, which I have thought out and designed, I just need to buy a few things and get to work.

Anyway, this needle case, I love. It is kind of from a tutorial I found in French, which I got the gist from and then got to work. It actually works out super well, with a place for the needle points, a snap pouch for the cables and a zip pouch for the little extras. I opted to change the closure to a tab with a magnetic snap. This color scheme, it just makes me happy. It was fun to make and while it is a bit wonky (like most things I make....we'll call it character....) it holds things just perfectly and will have space for any new needles I may acquire.

At least my avoidance is getting other things crossed off my list. Except for the totally not on the list pencil case I obviously *need* to make. But seriously, I really do plan to have a finished pony club quilt top by next week. If I can make myself stop knitting that is......

sleepy sack

I kind of wish I was here to show you a finished pony club top. Instead, I got stuck on cornerstones and am doing various other smaller things in avoidance. So there's that. I still can't decide between the safe choice (crosshatch) and the more bold choice (dots). I tend toward bold but instagram seems to be trending toward safe. So I continue to debate and ponder and work on other things. I am about halfway done knitting my next project so I'll share my progress on that soon, and I am hard at work designing myself some new knitting needle cases, but for now, a near win.

As the weather warms and the nights aren't so cold, we were in need of some cooler sleep sacks for the little. The long sleeved fleece was a bit much and since it is just about outgrown, we needed something else. We had one aden and anias muslin sleep sack and while I loved it, it was ripping all over.

Since we had a couple muslin swaddling blankets, I decided to have a go at making a new one. I opted for a double layer so it's a bit warmer but still pretty cool, and I kept the construction pretty much the same. I put in the zipper (reused from the original) and then treated the double layers as single layers to put the rest together. It was pretty simple and came together nicely. I made it a bit too big though when I traced it since it really didn't need seam allowances with the bound edges, and somehow my pieces ended up a little wide. Maybe I stretched it too much while I was tracing?? I ended up going back and putting a huge pleat in the back so she doesn't wiggle out of it at night. The neckline is just huge, as you can plainly see haha.

My other problem is the thinness of the muslin. Now if I had been thinking, I would have serged the entire main edge with all the layers together and then bound that, but I wasn't so instead I just bound it and have already had to go zigzag the entire thing to keep it together. The neck and arm holes were just fine, I guess the extra layers were a bit much. It does make a nice sleep sack that I kind of wish I could wear, but we'll see how it holds up over washing and all that. If it holds up it should fit through the summer I think, so that's good. Can't win them all I suppose, but it was a nice attempt at at least it only took a couple hours.  And maybe at some point I'll try again knowing what I know now.


So, that's what I've got today. And one of these days I will really get the chance to go have someone take pictures of me in the clothes I've been making recently. At least I plan to. I hope. Maybe this weekend?? If I keep it up, my knitting will be finished before you see it. So far it is shaping up to be an awesome finish! Have a good weekend everyone!

the end of the pony club blocks

And so, it is done. After finishing up 21 blocks over the past handful of days, I have completed 90 pony club blocks, every one in the book except one which I have replaced. I got the sashing, I just need to wash it and get it ready. This, my friends, is going to be epic. Nevermind the fact that I have no idea how in the world I am going to lay it out to decide where the blocks are going since I don't think I have any space large enough, but I'll make something work. Here are the final beauties!!

pig's tail

ribbons

railroad crosing

homeward bound

rambling road

rain or shine

sugar bowl - i had a problem with one of the templates not being the right size on this one which is why I am missing just about every point.....I'm trying not to worry too much about it....

summer's dream

sheep fold

star of hope

floral bouquet

seminole square

sunshine

telephone

trail of the covered wagon

virginia

verna belle's favorite

village school house

western star

young man's fancy

fusion star - this was my addition. It is a free paper piecing pattern from sew what, sherlock? that I printed at 1/3 size. I am in love!

I can't believe they are all done! Next week, after my parents have visited, I will get to work putting this quilt top together and I am so excited! In the meantime, I am going to try not to get distracted and go clean up before the visitors arrive. Hope everyone is having a good week!

yep, still at the pony club

No kidding, I really did mean to not dump another 20 blocks at once, but here we are and I have actually been doing 10 blocks every other day. I spend one day printing/cutting the templates and choosing/cutting fabric and the next day I sew them all. It is a bit insane but so much fun! Now I am up to 69 blocks and only have another 20 to go plus a replacement that I have yet to choose. The sashing is ordered and will hopefully be here soon. I can.not.wait! I'll be honest, these blocks are getting pretty insane. I have been tending to defer to the 3.5-year-old pretty often for fabric choices so some of the combinations got a little...crazy, especially the second half. I just tell myself it is going to make my finished quilt that much more interesting and since this will likely live in the living room, it will make a little girl very happy. So here they are!

kansas

lightning

lucky star

mother's delight

miller's daughter

mountain maze

minnesota

maud's album quilt

morning star

mayflower

north carolina beauty

next door neighbor

new jersey

norway pine

north star

new york

old indian trail

pansy

patience corners

pleasant paths

I assume I will be back early next week with another 10....or maybe the rest of them, I guess we'll see how the weekend goes. I wish I could do another group shot, but to be honest, I don't know where I have space for so many blocks. I am still trying to figure out how I am going to lay them out when they are finished. I will figure something out though. Happy Weekend!

back at the {pony} club

Guess what I've been doing! I am sure you've already guessed that I have been making pony club blocks again. Lots of them actually. Another 19 are done and I have passed the halfway point, which is super exciting! I am up to 49 blocks finished. I skipped one (indian on horseback was simply not working for me) so I will need to find something cool to replace that with so I still end up with 90.

I was sitting around this past weekend trying to figure out what I wanted to work on. And the truth is, I have both my pony club quilt and my DWR quilt taking up quite a bit of space. I debated working on the DWR and did do a bit of cutting, but I have decided that it will be better for me to just pick one to finish and get out of the way and then focus my attention on the other. The pony club quilt won the toss and I am now on a mission to get it done. I have 10 more all cut out and will start piecing them today hopefully; picking fabric has been fun and I love having a little {3.5 year old} helper to bring new ideas and combinations to my attention. I even picked out sashing, so I'll need to order that soonish so that I will be ready to go. So this is the quilt that I will be focusing on for the time being. And maybe after that I will let myself pick out one of the baby quilts on my list to make and get back to that DWR.  And now, since I have neglected to post these as I go, I will bombard you with 19 new little 8.5" blocks :)

eastertide quilt

ella's star

everybody's favorite

fishing boats

flying clouds

friendship star

good cheer

girl's favorite

girl's joy

grandmother's favorite

gold nuggets

gretchen

handy andy

hen and her chicks

home treasure

ice cream bowl

jewel

july fourth

john's favorite

And all 49 of them together

I am so in love! It's funny how I each block is so totally different and somehow they just go together to create a beautiful mess. I am hoping that these go fairly quickly so I can get a quilt top together and see how it turns out. I also kind of want to back it in voile and hand quilt it, but I haven't decided if I am that crazy yet. In any case, that's where you'll find me for the time being :) Hope everyone is having a good week!