Lisa Kay Knits... and Quilts!

Hello after a long hiatus... I have been distracted down a different road, recently, that of quilting. I still knit, also, but quilting seems to be my main passion, lately. I made several last year, even hand quilting two myself, but also having some machine quilted by others (mainly Itchin' To Be Stitchin' in Staunton, IL). I'll include some pictures of last year's quilts at the bottom. It tugs at my "do it yourself" gene to pay someone else to quilt my quilts, but I just haven't been able to manage large quilts on my home sewing machine. I'd really like to get a long arm quilting machine, and I'm looking and scheming, but I'm not quite there. Maybe soon. I'm particularly intrigued by the combination of ruler work and free motion quilting (FMQ) done by Judi Madsen . In addition to her quilting, she and her husband run an on-line shop, Green Fairy Quilts . She's my hero. I've watched all three of her on-line/DVD quilt classes (at ...

Back in late 2007, my mom and I were shopping at the Galleria in St. Louis, and we happened upon this sweater in Brooks Brothers. I had never actually bought anything in Brooks Brothers, and it seemed at little bit "out of my league," to be entirely honest. I thought the pink and brown Fair Isle sweater was the bee's knees, and my mom purchased it for me as my Christmas present that year. While it was my first thing from Brooks Brothers, it wasn't the last. They usually have a few Fair Isle sweaters each year, and I keep an eye on them. It is one of the few stores where I've seen wool Fair Isle sweaters, ready-made. Fair Isle is usually hard to find, often only in two colors, and typically not wool. The wool yarn, to knit it yourself, is generally more expensive than a store-bought sweater (even at Brooks Brothers), and a store-bought sweater is instant gratification! One of the benefits, also, of a store-bought sweater is that they are machine-knit, which all...

I've been trying to figure out a problem with my camera (and trying to lose weight), and I haven't gotten any pictures of anything I made in the last year or so. Now that I've worked through both of those things to various degrees, I figured I'd better catch up on statusing my knitting. My latest sweater is Norah Gaughan's Joyella , an interesting knit out of joined hexagons. I finished another Einstein Coat, this one using alternating colors of Lite Lopi. My first Einstein Coat is posted here and here . I made a simple top-down V-neck cardigan using two colors of Creatively-Dyed Woodbrook, alternating colors for a bit of a transition. I used the "Pink" pattern from Wendy Bernard's "Custom Knits" book, a pattern I've used before, here . I made a Debbie Bliss " Drop Collar Cable Cardigan " with several mods, including changing out the cable, adding a 3-stitch slip stitch edge to the front (a feature I learned on Nan...

I see it has been almost a year since my last blog. I've knitted a few things in the interim, which I should get photographed and posted. I'm also doing a bunch of wool applique and embroidery. Still, this is more of a family post, the latest vacation adventure. I finally coerced Chris and Mitchell into airline travel with me, which was a first for both of them in their lifetimes. Perhaps not so surprising for an 11-year-old, but a pretty big deal for the 48-year-old. We went to Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, and stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, which was right on the beach and had a boardwalk/stair exit from the pool area to the sand. I spent some time under an umbrella, sewing. These are the borders for the 2016 Sue Spargo Block of the Month, "Cuppa." And this is my view from under the umbrella. We went out to Pensacola to see the National Naval Aviation Museum. We played miniature golf one evening. But we mostly hung out at the pool an...

When tomatoes tell lies. Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

I took a detour from butterflies and other projects-in progress-to make a quick gift. My sister-in-law's mom is going through some challenges, and I saw a coloring book that made me think of her. (I have no idea whether or not she will actually like a coloring book.) I also found some clever "twist up" coloring pencils. While I hadn't thought about sewing anything, it struck me to make a little pouch for the book and pencils, and the project kind of took on a life of its own over the weekend. I had started sewing little hexagons on papers while I was on travel last week, thinking to start a "box of hexagons" using scraps. I didn't have a specific project in mind, just to start collecting scrap hexagons. However, I took them out and thought about using some of them. I had 35, which was exactly enough to make five flowers. That seemed kismet, so that's what I did. I sewed them on some fabric charms I had in my stash, added some sashing to make it tal...