Affliction, affection, attention, whatever its name...

I have finished my Color Affection shawl.  I have called it everything but its right name as have several in my Noble Knitters knitting group.  Love this shawl.  For anyone knitting one, I highly recommend a stretchy bindoff.  My bind off was too tight so I have to tink back, reknit a couple of rows and bind off with a stretchy one.  It worked like a charm.  This shawl has already seen lots of wear.  Great for wrapping around your shoulders and hitting the pavement. Mine was made with Miss Babs in 3 different colorways which I purchased at Stitches South.

In The Yarn Grove news, Hiya Hiya SHARPs continue to be a very hot seller in both fixed circulars and interchangeables.  Love love love them. I am currently fully stocked in all the interchangeable cables as well.  Time to be thinking of gifts for others as well as yourself.  I still have no updated news on when the Hiya Hiya LARGE interchangeable SHARP sets will be available.  I'll continue to keep you all posted as my list grows and grows of customers wanting these.

My sewing machine has been going full steam ahead. Last year I made each of my grandboys a Halloween quilt and this year decided to make them a Charlie Brown Christmas quilt.  Now that I have 3 grandboys, two, who are brothers, will have to share.  I bought these as a kit from my local quilt shop Intown Quilters and let me just say, the pattern was a challenge for me.  Lots of measuring and I even had to enlist hubby for his math skills.

Once the tops were assembled, I decided to stich in the ditch on the actual "film" strip and begin my jaunt into Free Motion Quilting.  Why?  Because I had just sent 3 rather large quilts to my longarm quilter and I know they will cost a small fortune.  2 are gifts and I will show when I get them back in 2 weeks.  Anyway, on to my first Free Motion quilting projects. I first watched a youtube video and read a lot of info from my machine workbooks.  Finally I just dove in it and while it took me a little while to try to get the stitches even, I was happy with the look.  I think my next one will be perhaps a pattern that I draw on the quilt and follow it.  I had virtually no puckering on the back because I used 505 spray to sandwich together.  Worked like a charm.  No gunk on my needle or fabric either.

The only thing left is to embroidery my quilt tags for my babies and I'll be done.  You know the holidays are creeping up on us rather rapidly...  Scary stuff....