SOOOO CLOSE ....

Isn't this beautiful ! I'm so proud but no it's not hooking, stitching or knitting - It's a hand pieced block that "I" did all by myself. Here's the story:

The hooking retreat was great - I was very diligent with the pomegranate runner and I came SO close to finishing it up - However I was distracted by the evil temptress (df Karen) who pulled out some of the most lovely repro fabric on Saturday afternoon and said "we are going to have a little lesson now on hand piecing" She had made me wonderful little templates for the Bonnie Blue quilt pattern we bought this summer called Secondhand Clothes or something like that. It is supposed to be a scrapey quilt. Anyway - here is my block that "I" hand pieced under the watchful eye of DF Karen.

Karen is a great teacher - as you can see my block is pretty dang good - I have not done any hand sewing for many moons but I have threatened from time to time to try hand piecing and hand applique. Karen - evil temptress that she is has led me down the road to ruination. She gets all the credit for creating the darling little pin pillow out of my hand pieced block. She took this beautiful artful photo among the miniature machines at the Olde Green Cupboard. We looked around and found these lovely shell buttons that complimented it perfectly. Oh my - all this bragging over one little pin cushion. All kidding aside - THANK YOU KAREN for taking your time to show me how to pin and sew this block. Thank you also for putting together a wonderful little remembrance of yet another fun weekend of hooking.I decided not to show another WIP of my pomegranate runner but just to wait a few more days and hopefully show a finish photo.

I also did quite a bit of knitting this weekend and started a great new pattern that has been gnawing at me since I bought the book in early October. It is a Debbie Bliss pattern for a cape done in Donegal Tweed Chunky. I had this lovely burnished gold color on hand and decided to repurpose the yarn for this wonderful and versatile cape. It is done on 10 needles which I definitely do not prefer but you get quick results with big needles.

Sorry about the big glare on the pattern but I think you can still see the cape pattern and also the stitch is easy and fun - you k1, p1 on the right side and then you purl back on the wrong side - mindless but a little more interest than plain garter or stockinette.

Absolutely NO stitching progress to report - I have not worked on my samplers in a while but hope to remedy that on my 4 day weekend. My one serious goal is to finish that hooked runner - aside from that I hope to have some relaxing time with my dear family and take many happy stitches and I wish for all of you the same.