Jen's Popperie

I am in the process of making 2 different quilts for 2 different wonderful grandmas for Christmas this year. This is the idea for the 2nd quilt. After getting the new book, Stitched in Time, by Alicia Paulson, I was inspired. She had taken black and white photos of family members and put them in a collage on a pillow. Ok....so I was in need of a quilt idea, and I tweaked the pillow thing into the quilt. I used the COOLEST material...printable fabric. You can run it right through your ink-jet printer. Way cool! So much better than the iron-on kind of thing (which I would have worried about peeling off). There were many varieties, and you can even make your own. After researching, and reading many horror stories, I decided to pay up for the convenience of buying it. I got the colorfast kind, so it will be machine washable. Not that I expect it will be washed that often, if ever.

My sis-in-law, and cousin and I spent last Sat. night sewing together all of these photos (these are the actual fabric-printed photos). The original plan was to have all of the photos black and white...after readjusting the printer settings, half of the photos turned out blue...and yes, my cousin, Kelly and I look a little like Violet from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory after she turned into a blueberry...but hey...it's fun! At first I was really annoyed...spending a not small amount of money on the printable fabric. I didn't really want to re do and reprint them all. So, we cut them all apart and laid them out. Now, I'm actually liking the mix of the blue with the black and white.

So, here is the first step. The photos are now sewn together in a random assortment like you see above. The next step will be to applique it onto a black fabric that I got. Then, we have a fun and funky flowery fabric for the back of the quilt. This is designed by Heidi Grace, for Joann Fabric. I love her line of fabrics and will definitely be making other quilts and things out of them in the future! So, it's a little retro, and a little family. How fun! I love to see the generations all come together in one big piece! I can't wait to see it all finished!

Here is the Christmas Quilt my Grandma E. and I made for my cousin TJ for Christmas. Here we all are. Grandma and I were busy with that and another for Brian.

Also, I tried making a Curly Q scarf for myself in early Jan. It was a basic scarf. I started with 100 stitches cast on and doubled the amount of stitches each row by stitching 1, increasing one each time, until I had 1600 (yes, that sounds like a crazy amount of stitches, but it works). Then I cast off. I used one skein of a moonlight mohair from my stash. I just ran out before the end of the scarf as I was binding off. The only thing I'm not sure about is my scarf is more curly-Q ish on one side than the other. I will probably try another one, but wait a bit until I finish a few more projects.

These are actually the "North Iceland" Mittens from Marcia Lewandowski's Folk Mittens
I used Patons Merino Wool. I LOVE WOOL..the way it knits up, holds its shape, and works on the needles....I will probably branch out and try another brand of wool in more shades and colors, but for now, I'm happy.


These have yet to be given, but are gifts for someone....they are done using scratch art, a technique I have my 5th graders do for their own self-portraits. Its a project they absolutely love...although it is challenging, it is easier than it looks. These are the wonderful boys that I took care of this summer!

How can I already feel a crunch time for Christmas and projects? Maybe I just like to make too many things, and get too many ideas. It seems to be that way. On the adgenda, on the list in my head, I have a ton of things that I want to create and get done. Many of these things are gifts, but I also want to make a couple of things for myself.
Grandma and I had quite the night last night. We hit up the mall and the fabric store last night and picked out some fabric to make a couple of throw quilts. Here is what the pattern looks like. (photo courtesy of quiltmaker.com). I really like the randomness of it, and it looks a little more modern than some other quilt designs. So, on the list:
a couple of quilted throws...


Some marvelous mittens from this GREAT book (I would highly recommend it.) I love all of the stories and history that is included in the book, beyond all of the wonderful patterns. Anyone who is afraid of 2 toned knitting, this book is a great help! It makes it a lot easier than it looks! amazon link here.

my tree sweater (Zephyr)
paintings?
my Halloween costume...

It's been fun to have a new little kitty in the house. Even when muggles was creeping cautiously around the house the first night, as soon as I brought out the knitting, she was up in my lap, slowly pawing at the yarn. When I was cutting fabric for my Halloween costume, she was also pawing at it...and yes, sitting right on top of it. She's going to be a crafty kitty!

This was taken on Christmas Eve at my parents' house. You have to love the suprised look on Amy's face. My mom and I totally thought they knew...guess not!



So, it has been a while, huh? The holidays keep me busy, even when I'm off of school. I have finished LOTS of projects since I last posted. The biggest being the quilt that my mom and I completed for J&A for Xmas. I thought they may have an idea we were making one, but they had no idea. FUN!



I have a friend who just had a baby girl on New Year's Eve (Kaia--hope you don't check this out just now...I'm hoping you are a bit busy with little baby Sappington!) I finished a sweater in just 3 days, I guess you can do that when you don't have to work for a bit. Anyway, it ended up being larger than expected, but she'll just have to grow into it. I guess that's the good thing about knitting baby/kid clothes. It was very exciting, because I even added the 2nd color and adapted the pattern myself with this. It was going to originally have a zipper, but somehow in between moving the sweater from one floor to the other, the zipper evaporated. I figured it would be quicker for me to knit button holes instead! HA!

This has to be the most random thing that I have ever made. But, it's inspired and in loyalty to Concordia and being a Cobber. I had to make something "Cobberesque" for Kaia and Will's new little baby girl! It's very random, I know!

I got a great folk mitten knitting book from my mother-in-law for Xmas, and I am loving all of the funny details of the history of knitting from around the world. I love all of the mittens too. I've started one pair, it's tricky, but turning out well so far. I started taking orders for mittens for next Christmas. We'll see how tired I grow of them! :)

Current projects in progress:
cabled tunic from knitty.com
black "boob-holder" sweater
(These are the first two things I have ever knit a gauge swatch for, being the first things that have to actually "fit" me. I hope they turn out alright!)
mitten pair #1
I also finished one of my favorite baby clothes..."Anouk" from knitty.com
It is definitely also one of my fav. websites for knitting...absolutely free stuff! I suppose it is going into the great box of "someday" for when we have kiddos. Who knows if we will have girls/boys, but it's always good to have a stash of clothes since I don't think I'll probably have as much time to actually knot anything.


When visiting my Grandma Edith, I also had her show me how to tie a quilt, since I've only done the sewing. This was a baby blanket that my dad and Uncle David had on their crib when they were babies. It is now a little updated, but it's kind of cool to have something kind of antique. I'm sure my dad would love to hear that! HA! I just sewed on some new fabric for an updated background look.

Back in June I co-hosted a baby shower for my friend Angie. These are some of the fun things I made for her. I couldn't resist the sweet "pea" pod filled with diapers. I did this in place of the typical diaper cake.
Below is one of the softest blakets ever! I want a giant blanket like that for myself!


My second quilt was a little smaller...my mom and I took it on with a little more time to spare. It was for my wonderful friend, Angie's little girl as a shower gift.


And here is the funniest thing I think I have ever knit in my life. In the book, it was such a cute idea...a little bunting. I know, who puts their baby in a bunting for real, right? Anyway, it turned out pretty huge...and the pompom took up about an entire skein of yarn! Maybe it's just the pom pom that threw it off a little bit. The hole is where the baby is supposed to have it's arms and head free. It just looks funny to me. Maybe a second attempt will be better. I guess it still is functional...maybe? I don't know how realistic it will be for a little one. I guess I'll have to see.