The Inevitable

The inevitable happened: I labeled all the scissors in our house.

I walked into Curt's office the other day to find my fabric scissors on his desk. He swore he didn't use them, that he was just "carrying them around" (right....) but I wasn't about to take any chances. I rescued my scissors and proceeded to label all the other ones too, just so there is no question. I know it sounds a little kooky, but I like to keep my scissors separate. The truth is, there are three more pairs of scissors in the house- kitchen scissors, my hair cutting scissors, and a thread snipper. But those are obvious and shouldn't need labels. Yet.

Awhile ago I got a couple autumnal charm packs and I finally turned them into completed table runners for my mom and MIL. I made both of these out of one Moda Gobble Gobble charm pack, and I love the fabrics so much! They are fall colors without ugly fall images, rather, cute pumpkins, flowers, and doodles with plenty of stripes and dots.

These were quick to piece together, just rows set on an angle. I free motion quilted them with brown thread, the backs are just tan muslin or something, and the binding is a different tan color.

In knitting news, I've been wanting to knit a pair of the squirrel mittens since I first saw them and finally got around to it. I don't want to say my grandma is a crazy squirrel lady, but she names her neighborhood squirrels (and can identify them) and feeds them peanuts. They have become so comfortable with her that some will even take peanuts from her hand. We discourage her from this, of course, but she doesn't seem concerned.

I knew these mittens would be perfect for my grandma, an homage to all the squirrels that became roadkill she has lost.

I opted to make two squirrels and ditch the oak leaf motif on the original pattern. The palms are according to the pattern, although I kind of messed one of the thumbs. Grandma will never know.

I hope they fit, because like many people commented, they are very small! I have small hands and they fit me comfortably, I'm assuming my grandma can't have hands much larger than mine. I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Snickerdoodle and Fairy Tale. This was my first time knitting with WOTA and I'm not sure how I feel about it. The price is right, it's not too itchy, but it has that wooly smell. I'm working on another pair of mittens with a different color and they are very itchy, I'm planning to line those with fleece. 
Here's my Ravelry link.

I also finished my Recession Hat. This was made out of scraps I had on hand, tiny balls left over from socks and other projects. Most of the yarns are Knit Picks Palette. I just held two colors, knitting every other stitch, for any random number of rows, blending the colors together by switching one color at a time. I love the way this turned out, it's a nice little beanie, perfect for fall weather.

Best of all it didn't cost a dime and used up some of my stash!
Here's my Ravelry link.

With the turn of the season came changing quits out. This is the first quilt I ever made and it has a very fall color scheme. And a new quilt means new pillow cases. I love making pillow cases because they are like mini quilts with a purpose.

I made Finn pose for this picture. I love his face, like- "Okay, do you have the picture? I have bones to chew." He left the couch immediately after I took this picture.

I made the patchwork pillow following this tutorial. Very easy, perfect corners, and a fun way to use up even the tiniest scraps.

I free motion quilted the top with grey thread.

The back is a recycled t-shirt, I just used the bottom hem so there was no extra sewing to do. Envelope pockets are my new best friend, quick, easy, and I love being able to rotate my pillow cases.

This pillow is 16X16.

The reverse side of the crocheted pillow is:

Granny squares! I wanted to give them a try with some stash yarn. When I put them all together I realized it would kind of match the other pillow and quilt. The other side is in the picture up top there, that's just one giant granny square stitched up around a pillow. I like this pillow because it's very kitschy in the so-ugly-it's-cool kind of way. Curt thinks it's just plain ugly, but it will be out by the time Christmas comes around and he will forget about it ... until next fall when I pull it out again.

We had some visitors from Canada the other morning.

This was the first time I saw geese on the golf course (aka backyard). If it was actually a backyard, I might be mad, but they were just so cute wobbling around on a rainy day. You can also see the start of colors changing on some of the trees. All the trees are catching up to that gorgeous red one, I'll be sure to take some more pictures when they get there.

a family affair

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from the wedding we attended in Michigan a couple weeks ago. The bride was my cousin Sara, she'd been dating Brad for a long time and I was so excited we could make it up to Michigan to celebrate with them and the rest of our family. 

Sara & Brad with my Aunt Robin & Uncle Larry

Dad, Mom, Bri, Me, & Curt. We got new dresses for the occasion!

Most of the Wilson clan, minus quite a few grandkids. 

My sister & me .. we took about 20 photos trying to get a good one of both of us, 

this is the best we could manage.

There was plenty of dancing - the Wilsons know how to get down! 

These people are not family - but they were those kind of dancers.. you know the ones- homely man with his pretty date, first on the floor, outrageous moves, boogie the night away. There's a pair at every party and these two were just too good to pass on a sneaky picture. 

I mean, would you look at his form?! 

We all had a great time, ate yummy pie (the bride doesn't like cake), wore ourselves out dancing, and enjoyed spending time with family. 

I've been working on a few small projects and will have to take pictures tomorrow if the weather cooperates. It has been raining for a couple weeks here in Nashville and the temperatures drop every day. I made cheesy broccoli soup the other day because it was just a soup kind of day. Today was a chili kind of day, but I'm not really in the mood for chili.. time to search for recipes. 

What's your favorite fall dinner? 

ArtPrize

This past weekend, Curt and I traveled to my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan for my cousin's wedding. More pictures of that later, but first: ArtPrize. 

You can learn more about ArtPrize on their website, but to sum it up, the city of Grand Rapids opened its doors to artists to display their work downtown. Many buildings became venues to display indoor art, and sculptures and other outdoor features are scattered downtown. Visitors can vote for their favorites and the winner will receive a $250,000 prize!

The top 10 were announced over the weekend, and this moose was one of them:

He's made entirely out of nails, life size and cute to boot. 

There was lots of walking, admiring, and wondering just what the heck we were looking at. 

It was cold and drizzling for most of the day, but we still really enjoyed ourselves.

Car in the pavement

Dad excited about something...

Someone was supposed to jump off that a la David Blaine, but the weather was too bad.

Curt modeling a metal dress.

Curt, my sister, and my mom with the moose.

Bri riding a motorcycle made of all household parts, no actual motorcycle parts. 

I couldn't find what this was truly supposed to be, but I assumed a ball of yarn!

Giant table on the bridge.

Down by the river, trying to stay warm.

Nessie on the Grand.

We saw only a fraction of the exhibits, but it was a lot of fun. After making our way down to see Nessie at the river, my mom finally said "Enough of this ArtPrize crap, let's go." Chalk it up to nasty weather and hunger .. we went out to dinner and enjoyed the rest of our night inside. ArtPrize is only going for a few more days, so if you are near West Michigan, definitely check it out, there is something for everyone!

another set of baby stuff

My little sister's BFF is preggers so she asked me to make some baby stuff. Katie is decorating the nursery with a sports theme in an Americana color scheme. 

So off I went to Joann's, found some colors to match the bedding and made everything I could squeeze out of a few yards of fabric and into a long weekend. 

A quilt, complete with baseball fabric, sweet polka dots and dashing plaid. Oh, and a cute fleece baseball mitt and ball. It's made out of polar fleece and very soft.

The backing is a matching flannel. 

To match the quilt: 

Fabric cubes.

Baby shoes lined with polar fleece (the baby is due in January in Michigan)

Two bibs with terry cloth backing.

A tag-along blankie. Backed with the flannel from the quilt.

And two curved burp cloths to match the bibs. Backed with flannel and absorbent as hell for that slobbering ball of baby. 

Also, I finally finished my Hedgerow socks, and I love them so much! The second sock took me forever to finish, but I'm so glad it's done. I wore them to bed last night because they were so comfy, and boy was I glad I did - it's been getting very chilly here at night! Fall is certainly here, loud and proud, and making me wish I had spent more time at the pool this summer. Alas, here comes the cold weather and with that means I need to start wearing socks again. What's a girl to do when she needs new socks? Knit them, of course. It's a curse.

I'm planning to cast on tomorrow while we travel to Michigan via aircraft. Nic is watching the puppy dog so I have to go pack his overnight bag. Yes, a weekender bag for a dog. And we need to pack for the weekend too. Forecast in Michigan? Colder than here, I'm sure. 

What do you wear to a wedding in October? Oh, that's the reason we're going home. My cousin is getting married and Curt is playing at the ceremony. So we have to look extra spiffy. 

So anyway, what should I wear to a wedding in October?

God Is

I saw this video on Matthew Paul Turner's blog and loved it enough to share.

Yup, that about sums it up. 

And if you've never visited Jesus Needs New PR, please do. I find it highly enjoyable. And for all you crafters out there, check out his wife's blog, The Mom Creative. She is an amazing scrapbooker! 

I've been working all weekend, long, busy shifts at the restaurant and I get to do it all again tomorrow. Plus the second job I've picked up at the ice cream store after my lunch shift is through. But more about that later, I've already stayed up way too late!

Stolen Trailer, Please Help!

I don't know how many people truly read my blog, but this is worth a try. 

This morning while driving to work, I noticed the trailer we just bought for the band was missing from its parking spot. I called Curt right away, he rushed home from work, called the police and filed a report. The lock we had on the hitch was lying on the ground, cut apart, so it had obviously been stolen. There was all our merchandise stock in there, plus a few other random things we were storing (a garbage bag full of alpaca fleece!) Curt also filed an insurance claim right away, but it will not cover everything.

Curt's manager said this has happened to two other bands he works with, and each time the trailer was recovered. We are keeping an eye out around town for it, hoping they haven't driven it out of state yet. If you live in the Nashville and surrounding areas/states, keep an eye out.  

Here are some specs: 

6X10 Enclosed Trailer 

Brandywine/Maroon color 

Freedom brand 

It's a flat top with a side door, ramp door on the back side. 

Brand spakin' new, no license plate, no nothing, we just bought this a few weeks ago.  

If you happen to find a trailer that looks like it might be ours, contact me here or email brittneydanderson[at]gmail[dot]com. 

First person to find it will be rewarded :)  

Thanks, and I will keep you posted. I'm feeling very optimistic that it will turn up soon and we won't have to worry about this anymore.

Sending and Received (Part 2)

It was my grandpa's birthday a week or two ago and I was sending a package their way anyway, so I wanted to include something for him. I decided on a nice cable hat, and used this pattern. If you check Ravelry, there are obvious issues with the decreases. I didn't even bother reading the pattern at that point and just decreased as I saw fit. It turned out pretty darn cute and hopefully he will enjoy wearing it in the coming months. It's not super warm, but I think it will be the perfect hat to wear during the fall and early winter. Maybe for Christmas* I will make him a nice fleece hat to take him through the bitter Michigan winter.

I used I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby and US7 dpns. This yarn is cheap and soft and perfect for quick, simple projects like this.

For my grandma, and my grandpa too, I suppose, I included a crocheted dishcloth and scrubby.  I used this pattern, here it is on Ravelry, with Sugar n' Cream yarn. The pattern was quick to crochet, easy to memorize, and should prove to be a good scrub because of the texture from the tulip stitches. The scrubby was just two crocheted circles stitched together for some added omph. If you ask me, one can never have too many handmade dishcloths.

For my secret pal last year, I knit 12 dishcloths, one for every month of the year. I think they are a perfect little gift, especially with the matching srubby. Not to mention I have cotton yarn coming out of my ears.

Tomorrow I will send the hat, dishcloth, mitts, socks and messenger bag in one big package, and they can find their way from my grandparent's house. 

Today my DQS7 came in the mail all the way from Greenwood, Ind. I had to laugh when I saw that- my best friend lives there and our last home was about an hour away from Greenwood. The quilting world is such a small circle when you get down to it. 

Look how cute this butterfly is, Jamie did such a nice job appliqueing and quilting it! So cute, now I have to figure out where I want to put it :-)

I'm slowly finishing my Hedgerow socks (link here). I turned the heel on the second sock and have made it about an inch or two into the foot. I was feverishly working on these during Feedback weekend and made some great progress. I've been working on them between other projects and in bed before I fall asleep. They will be finished by the time the cooler fall weather comes around and I actually need to wear them. This pattern is quickly become a favorite of mine and I will most likely knit another pair in the future. 

*I'm trying to start making my handmade Christmas presents right now so I will have them all ready by the time Christmas rolls around. I'm thinking lots of hats, mittens, scarves and mini quilts. Things that aren't huge undertakings, but still cute/useful and hopefully appreciated because they were made with love by me :-) 

What are your favorite handmade gifts for adults?