Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.
We have been offline getting working on sending out packages to distributors and following up on our contacts from Fall Market. Our last event was the beginning of December and we were all excited about having some down time to get caught up around here.
I enjoyed the chance to spend some time working on some personal projects for Christmas and some soul mending personal time. I still managed to create some new projects for the fabric companies and am working on putting the patterns together for the new year.
We have also been working on creating a downloadable cart here on the website so that we could make our patterns available for PDF download. That endeavor will take a little longer than expected. So in the meantime… we are working on uploading our best designs to our new pattern page on Craftsy.com.
I am a huge fan of Craftsy and have been working on convincing everyone I know to try their hand at something new on the site. Our newest girl has been looking for a hobby and of course that was the first place I sent her to check out what’s available. I love the site. Even though I don’t really need any quilting classes anymore… I have enjoyed taking some other classes on the site on garment sewing (which is not my strong suit). I love sewing… I am just not the best at reading a sewing pattern and I am always excited about new opportunities to learn.
My most recent class was Crochet Lab. My grandmother crocheted and I had always wanted to learn. I thought it might be fun to make a granny square afghan just like I used to nap under at my Grammy’s house in the summer. Here is a pic of her lovely afghan that is more than 40 years old now.
So this was a gift to myself this holiday season… an opportunity to honor my grandmother and teach myself to crochet. I began by making myself a scarf to practice my stitches. I had a blast with the scarf. It traveled all the way to NYC on the train with me and was completed in time to wear on the last day in the city.
After I had practiced my stitches I picked out some modern colored yarn and a smaller needle and went to work on my granny squares. Here is the beginning of my first block.
I had to check the pattern for the first few blocks to make sure I had it memorized. Making the blocks was so much fun and all December they have gone everywhere with me.
I started making one every morning over coffee and one every night before I went to bed. Before you know it I had a nice little collection.
I decided on a 7 x 8 block layout (slightly smaller than my Grammy’s) with a gray heather sashing. This week I began assembly of one of the rows.
I started putting the sashing on the block sides and the inside of the first row. I will put the border along the outside of the afghan when all the rows are assembled. I think it’s looking pretty good so far. It’s nice to take a break from my quilting while still doing something creative.
I would love to see what you are working on. Can’t wait to show some of my other projects that I made this Christmas. Of course… I want the recipients to see first. Check back and check out some of my projects. Also… don’t forget to check out my Craftsy pattern store.
Oh… and we would like to thank Contemporary Sewing Materials out of Richmond, British Columbia, CANADA for being the newest Distributor to carry our products. Welcome to the Cabin in the Woods Family.
Merry Christmas everyone… and a VERY VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!