Happy Halloween!

To get into the Halloween spirit, I thought I would share some photos I took last weekend when my husband and I took a trip down to Portland, OR to spend some time with my sister and brother-in-law. We all went to an organic farm on Savie Island (just outside of the city) to pick some pumpkins, eat some carmel apples, and traipse through the Dracula-shaped corn maze. The weather was perfectly crisp and felt very fall-like. Luckily we didn't get any rain (although the sky looked like it was ready to start pouring). 

Introducing the Holiday How-to Series

I'm excited to finally be able to share with you what I have been working on for the past couple weeks and announce the upcoming Holiday How-to Series, this November, at Echinops & Aster! Starting next week, and continuing throughout the month of November,  I will be posting a weekly holiday inspired tutorial featuring a fun, festive project to add some handmade to your holiday season. There will be some great giveaways from some awesome sponsors too, so I do hope you'll stop by to join in the fun! I will be kicking off  the series next Friday, Nov. 4th with the first tutorial and a giveaway. Hope to see you then!

WIP Wednesday / 10.26.11

I can hardly believe that a whole week has come and gone since the last WIP Wednesday post. I have been busy working away on (and finishing) a number of different projects, which I unfortunately can't share just yet. All I can say at the moment is that November will be a very exciting month at Echinops & Aster, and I do hope you'll stick around for the fun! ;) 

Even though I can't show you much just now, here is a sneak preview of a lovely stack of fabrics that I am currently working with. I just picked them up this past weekend at Bolt while on a shopping excursion to the Alberta Arts District in Portland, OR. I also had the chance to stop by Modern Domestic (just down the street) to pick up a walker foot for my sewing machine and have a nice chat with the ladies who work there. Both are great shops and wonderful resources for sewists. I highly recommend stopping by if you are in the Portland area.

New Projects
- None this week


Ongoing Projects
- 2011 Felt Christmas Ornaments
- Top Secret Projects: Will be able to share more about these soon! Stay tuned for this Friday's post.


Completed Tops Awaiting Quilting
- Just Wing It (Embroidery 101)


No Progress
- Daybreak Knit Shawl 
- Prince Charming quilts


This Week's Stats
Completed projects - 1
New projects - 0
Currently in progress - 8

Christmas Gifts for Quilters at Lily's Quilts

Lynne over at Lily's Quilts has been posting a great holiday series called "Christmas Gifts for Quilters". She has been featuring some great gift ideas to give the other quilters and sewists in your life, as well as ideas for items you just might like to snatch-up yourself (just saying!). So while you are busily creating a whole host of handmade gifts for your friends and family in the weeks ahead, take a moment for yourself to check out some of the awesome gifts Lynne has posted and feel free to enter a few giveaways (there is one going on now for a cute paper-pieced "winter woolies" pdf pattern by verykerryberry at Etsy). Also leaving your browser window "strategically" open to your favorite gift posts is certainly acceptable and recommended (by both Lynne and me). ;) Happy list making!

WIP Wednesday / 10.19.11

Today I am going to do my first official works in progress breakdown (drumroll please!). It's exciting, I know. ;) For this week, I have only (only!) picked up one new project after finishing the quilt top for the Just Wing It, Embroidery 101 quilt, and it's a knitting project. I love to have something to work on while watching movies or TV at night (just can't sit still otherwise), so after completing all of the embroidery work on my quilt blocks, I decided that I needed to get another project in my hands. I knew just the ticket. I have had my eye on making a Daybreak shawl/scarf ever since first seeing the pattern all over Ravelry. 

By Sonali at knittingowl on Ravelry

The Daybreak is a triangle shaped shawl that has a nice drape, perfect for wrapping around your neck and shoulders on a cold day. The pattern is by Stephen West of West Knits and it comes in three sizes: small, medium, and large so that you can make anything from a small bandana-like scarf to a large cozy shawl. I am opting to make the medium since I wear scarves pretty often and don't see myself getting a lot of use out of a large shawl (unless of course in the near future I decide to have my Stevie Nicks phase; then I'll make a shawl!).

The Daybreak pattern uses fingering/sock weight yarn. I am making my scarf using a solid (for the main color) interspersed with variegated stripes. For the solid, I picked a lovely light gray alpaca sock from Classic Elite Yarns. For the colored stripes, I am using a multi-colored wool/silk blend by Noro (silk garden) that has lots of blues, greens, and violets (it reminds me of a mossy, fern covered forest).

If you are curious, feel free to stop by my Daybreak project page on Ravelry to check out my project details and find out more about the yarns I am using (although in general, my Ravelry account is pretty spare. I really need to post more about my knitting projects there). 

New Projects
- Daybreak Knit Shawl


Ongoing Projects
- 2011 Felt Christmas Ornaments
- Top Secret Projects: I have a few of these that I will reveal shortly. ;) All I can say now is that they are also holiday related.


Completed Tops Awaiting Quilting
- Just Wing It (Embroidery 101)


No Progress
- A stack of Prince Charming meant for a pair of quilts...more on these soon


This Week's Stats
Completed projects - 1(ish)
New projects - 1
Currently in progress - 8

Embroidery 101 Quilt Top Done!

So let me first start this post by saying it is about 20% harder to photograph a quilt top properly than it is to a) pick out the fabric, b) piece the blocks, and c) sew them all together. While this figure hasn't been scientifically proven as of yet ;), I feel pretty comfortable throwing it around after taking what seemed like about 100 photos today (thank you husband for your patient help!).  That being said, I really am happy with my completed top and wanted to share some (breezy) photos of it with you! The colors are so vibrant and I like how the sashing really sets off each block. Thanks to everyone who commented on my photoshop post for your wonderful input!

Blog Updates

I just made some corrections to the blog design in case anyone was having trouble with the fonts and color/value of the text and banner. After being told by my husband that the blog looked a bit "indecipherable" on his PC, I realized that he was right (yikes!). Hopefully this will fix any issues anyone may have been having, but do let me know if something is totally off or if the text looks unreadable.  Thanks for your patience!

"I Have No Issues" by Kelly Mark, 2008

Do you Pinterest?

Long Pom-pom Cowl by Molly of Purl Soho

Pinterest, for those who haven't heard of it, is great website/online tool to keep a visual collection of online images, links, and how-to's that are just so darn useful, beautiful, interesting, inspiring, (you get the picture) ;) that you can't live without them. The best part about Pinterest is that it catalogues all of these bits of information that you want to save using an image with its corresponding link. You can then place these images onto "boards" that allow you to organize your interests. Can't remember where you found that great tutorial? Well if you "Pinned it" and added it to one of your boards in your personal collection; then voila! you now have a saved link, with an image as a your visual cue, to help you track down that amazing how-to (or post, or conversation, or recipe) the next time you need it. This has certainly helped me to save and organize all of those links that somehow seem to evaporate once I leave the computer.

Testing Sashing Options Using Photoshop

I am getting close to being finished with the last block for the Embroidery 101 Stitch and Quilt Along at Clover and Violet (Hooray!). As I mentioned before I have been considering adding sashing in between the blocks to add a bit of breathing room to the riot of color and pattern in each block and to help hide any seams that don't quite match (OC tendencies might be kicking in here). 

I decided to quickly mock-up the quilt top in Photoshop to test a couple of different ideas for the sashing. I find that using a computer graphics program, like Photoshop, is a great way to visualize different design options for quilting and other sewing projects. Because I almost always have to see something before knowing whether or not I like it, (and because I currently don't have space to set up a design wall) I have used my computer to test different ideas throughout the process of making this quilt: from choosing the fabric and arranging the colorways, to drawing the embroidery designs, to finally visualizing the completed quilt top. 

Embroidery 101 Quilt Progress

Embroidery in-progress

Since the beginning of the summer, I have been working steadily on a quilt for the Clover and Violet Embroidery 101 Stitch & Quilt Along. The great block design, created by Jennie, is pretty simple and offers plenty of room to get stitchy in the center. I think she wanted to make the block a quick one to piece so that the bulk of our time could be spent working on new embroidery stitches.