Friday, December 29, 2006

È rifinito!

I love the internet. You can go to Dictionary.com and translate any text about 24 different ways. I mean, this kind of stuff used to be hard. You used to actually have to crack a book for this, and putting together a sentence would take several minutes. Now, we're down to SECONDS. Three words: internet = awesome.

Anyways, here's the finished product! Let me know what you think. Here are the pretty buttons I sewed on:


I also added a little red leather button closure at the top. It needed some type of a closure if I was actually going to use it.

An Oldie But a Goodie!


I know this is cheating, but.....I've been wanting to post these pics since I started this blog. The quilt and the accompanying pillows were HALF created by me, and so I figure they have a place here. Back when I was a sophomore in college my mom and I decided to make a fun quilt for my dorm room. I picked out all the different fabrics...there's an assortment of reds, yellows, purples, greens, blues...in different prints: books, coffee, woodland fairies, stars, and '30's and '40's old reprints. I wanted it to be bright, and have an artsy flair to it. I think that was accomplished!

My mom quilts ALL THE TIME. This is no joke. She's been quilting since long before I was breathing. Used to sell her own pattern back when there was no internet and so I remember boxes and boxes of plastic pattern bags in our house. I'm not sure I could guess how many quilts she's made in her life-time, but it's gotta be up there in the numbers. There are quilts all over my parents house, in every room, hanging on the walls, in chests or dressers, and on the backs of chairs. She's given many away as gifts too...I have 3, besides this one (the one in the background is another of
hers!).
So, this is why it was the
perfect project for us to work on together!

Here are two blocks close up...










Embellishments-Schmellishments


So the purse is done! Well...almost. Now for the really fun part - I just have to decide which buttons, and what design to put on the front/back. The lining of the purse took a bit longer than I expected, but was worth it. And I got to use my new sewing machine to make it! Thanks, Mom. =)



I found a pretty red and white "fan and flower" printed flat quarter to make the lining out of, sewed in a pocket, and touched it off with one of those "Handmade By ___" labels, to give it a more detailed look. Then I stitched it around the top to the edges of the bag fabric, stitched the sides together, then stitched the handles onto the bag. In hindsight, I kind of wished I had put a magnetic button at the top, to clasp it together. Oh, well, will do that with the next one!

Let me know if you have any suggestions about the buttons. At first I was going to stick with just the crystal/glass/white flower ones, but I'm starting to think a variety of colors, with some wood or leather buttons in there might add a nice pop of color.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Ah ha!

The other night I finally figured out how to "bind off" on the fabric for my cablenon purse. The purse had been sitting on the pretty red knitting needle, last row complete, for about 2-3 weeks now. I had attempted to understand the diagrams of binding off before, but sometimes you just have to take a break from something and come back to it and it will make more sense. I also have been Tivo'ing the HGTV network's show, Knitty Gritty and watching a lot of that lately. I think that just gave me a feel for how to read the diagrams in a fresh way. That show is awesome!

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Non-Crafty Perks

Steve travels most of the time for work, which is not always fun for me. But there are perks. For one, I have more little shampoos and lotions than any sane person should have. It's kind of our routine. Which hotel did he stay at? Oh, the Hilton? That's Crabtree & Evelyn! The Omni carries Molten Brown. Usually he just comes back with 3 or 4 for me, but this last week he hit the jackpot. Check out this booty:




Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Cable-knit Purse?


My first knitting project! After it's completed, it will be folded in half, a lining will be sewn in, and I will stitch it onto a cute set of wooden handles. I admit, the cables are a bit hard to see, and I don't think I can really blame it on the color of the yarn. =)

Making Fudge for Christmas!

Thought it would be fun to make fudge this year to give out as Christmas presents to people. Spent a whole day grating the chocolate for 4 batches. Here's a picture of Steve helping with the grating!It's really imperative that I get this stuff packaged up quickly. The longer it sits on my kitchen counter, the more I keep nibbling at it!


My Own Star-filled Night


Every now and then I get the itch to paint. It's just something I've always liked doing, since high school art class. One of my favorite painters is Van Gogh. Here's my much simpler rendition of Starry Night. You'll notice I left the little village at the bottom out! I just didn't want to ruin a good thing...

Hello!

Inspired by all of the very crafty blogs I have seen out there, I have decided it would be fun to start one myself! Hopefully this will help keep me motivated and on track with some of my projects that otherwise tend to get forgotten somehow. While the name of the blog is Suki Knits, that is really only because I wanted to incorporate a picture of my cat with knitting needles in the headline somewhere. =) There will be other things besides knitting crafts on here. Knitting just happens to be my most recent adventure in the DIY arts!