Hooked on Needles


Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Liz's Rainbow Quilt

What quilter can resist colorful fabric squares? Not me, that's for sure! A few years ago, I participated in quite a few fabric square swaps through flickr and various blogs that I follow. I ended up with quite a large selection of 4-inch squares of top quality quilting cotton in every color of the rainbow. I wanted to highlight the variety of prints and colors in a baby quilt, so I designed my Rainbow Quilt and wrote a free tutorial for it which you can find HERE. One of my readers, Liz, used my tutorial to make a quilt of her own and recently she sent me some pictures of it. I asked if I could share them here at Hooked On Needles and she said yes! So here is Liz's rainbow quilt...


I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves...





I think Liz did an awesome job piecing and quilting this quilt. You can see some little feet peeking out the side of that last picture. They belong to her little girl who, I've been told, loves this quilt too! Thanks for letting me share your beautiful quilt with my readers, Liz!

Another reader also made use of my tutorial and posted a picture of her own version of this rainbow quilt HERE. She used 6-inch squares and 3-inch sashing so that her finished quilt would be larger. This one turned out just fantastic too!

I have just recently gotten some dates with the long arm machine, so I will hopefully have some quilting pictures to show off again soon. Seems like forever since I've actually sewn something! It's good to be back! Do you have any colorful quilting projects going on right now?

Happy Stitching!

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Hookie Happiness ~ New Crochet Hooks

If you are a crocheter, you know how good it feels to sit down with a ball of yarn, your favorite crochet hook, a pattern or idea, and a little time. Up until last week, I had plenty of yarn, lots of favorite crochet hooks, too many patterns and ideas to count, but alas, very little time to enjoy it all. Those of you who are followers of Hooked On Needles know that I went back to college last fall and have put my blogging on hold during my school time so I can devote my full attention to my studies. So now that I am finished with school until the fall semester begins in September, my poor neglected blog will get some of my attention and I'll be able to share with you some of the projects I was able to sneak in between studying for lab exams, chapter quizzes, finals and all that other fun stuff that comes along with taking Anatomy and Microbiology in the same semester! And in case you are wondering, my GPA for the fall semester (4 courses) was 4.0 and for this semester (2 lab courses) was 3.94, so I guess sacrificing a little hookie time paid off in the end!

So let's get to it! I have admired Lucy's (from Attic24) crochet hook since the very first time I saw it among all her bright colored yarn many years ago. It looked so cute and comfy to hold. She mentioned on her blog one time that it had been a gift to her and she didn't know who made it, but she said she loved it. Obviously she did love it, because it's the only hook that ever shows up in any of her pictures! So one day a few months ago, I came across Lisa's website called Polka Dot Cottage. I had seen a hexagon granny afghan she was making and had to check out her tutorial. While there, I discovered that, besides awesome crochet, she also does cool stuff with polymer clay. Ah ha! This was my chance to try out a crochet hook like Lucy's! So I ordered one hook from Lisa's store and fell in love with it the first time I used it! Wanna see it? Keep on reading...






Isn't that a cool looking crochet hook? I love the colors and the funky swirly design Lisa made with the clay. And look at the little end piece Lisa puts on her crochet hooks with the size stamped into it...


Isn't that clever? It's a size H which is what I generally use for most of my crochet projects. The polymer clay feels so good in my hands while I'm crocheting, and with the shaft of the crochet hook being just that much bigger, my hand doesn't tire as quickly.


You didn't think I could stop at just one, did you? Of course not! But I already owned several hooks in different sizes, so I asked Lisa if I could mail some hooks to her for covering. And that is just what I did.


I mailed her a G hook and an I hook, and she used some really wacky mixed up clay that I had seen on her blog and liked to cover my hooks.


I also asked her to make the handles just a bit thicker and to add the flattened thumb rest at the top, which she was kind enough to do for me. These hooks would be a wonderful help to anyone who has carpal tunnel syndrome or arthritis, or any condition that makes it hard to hold small items for very long.


So now I have three custom covered crochet hooks that are easy to hold, feel good in my hand, and allow me to crochet my evenings away, now that I don't have to worry about studying for a while!

Happy Stitching!

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