Family Day and Family Knits

Yesterday was Family Day here in Ontario, Canada.  A day to celebrate the importance of home and family.  So I didn't write my blog or newsletter as I normally do on a Monday morning, but spent the day with my son and his family. Oh and Hello Bob too.l

First off we went to the Snowflake Festival here in the village...played with ice balloons, had roasted marshmallows, took a wagon ride, played at the library before coming back to ours to have more fun in our back garden.  On the snow hill. As you can see, someone stole my scarf again!!  I need to hurry up and finish his.  He calls it a neck warmer ha ha.

As I played with the kids, and chatted with my son...it made me think of my knitting.  As it does...as it does!  I suddenly realised that this year, so far...I appear to be doing more Family Gift knitting, than knitting for myself.  Which is making me feel so happy, so content. Each stitch, knit with love.

So far I have made one Emotional Support Chicken for my East Coast Grandson, and one almost finished for Tristan.  Yes, when he was here yesterday he needed to see the progress.

I am knitting Tristan the Do Not Disturb Shawl by Louise Tillbrook, which he has promptly relabel the Crocodile Neck Warmer. Think the "Geen" yarn has something to do with it.

I am trying to finish Bob's sweater...The Pemberton Pullover by Bobbi Intveld. Something I started ages ago and have added it to my Gideon 6 list...and I have to say I am really enjoying knitting it again.  I am sure I will finish it for him this year.

I have cast on the Musselburgh Hat by Ysolda Teague for one of the boys....depending on who's head it fits!!

And I am designing a new pair of socks as part of the "Mommy and Me" series which will go to one of my daughter in laws, and one of the grandkids.  Again...not sure which one yet, depends on who they fits ha ha.  

Of course, there is still a bunch of blankets on needles, and a shawl....maybe one of them will be for me.

What about you....do you do much gift knitting?  I would love to know what your favourite gift knit is too!!

Until next time......

Carnival - A Puzzle Mystery Quilt

 Some of you will know that at the beginning of the ........pandemic......I taught myself how to quilt.  I already knew how to sew dresses and the like, heck I made a wedding dress for a friend and all my own maternity clothes.  Plus I dabbled in bag making....you will all remember The Netherwood Bag, named after my family.

The Netherwood Bag

However, I never really understood the craze for cutting perfectly good bits of fabric up, to sew it all back together again.  Wierd.  Or so I thought!!

At the beginning of my quilting journey, I was not that great at cutting the fabric.  Didn't have all the correct rulers etc.  Or the knowledge of how to get the best use out of a fat quarter, let's say.  What's a fat quarter??  Yeah took me a while to learn all the different cuts like, fat quarters, charm pack, mini charm pack, jelly roll and so on.  All complicated stuff for a newbie.

                                               Beautiful Blooms Fabric by Sherri & Chelsi

Now you also know how much I love mysteries.  Well fast forward to the day I found Cotton Cuts Puzzle Mystery Quilts.  Wait what!!!  Yes, a quilt that's a mystery.  Best part....it arrives monthly precut! Let me say that again....PRECUT!  Yep, you just open the package, grab the handy dandy colourway booklet, the printed instructions and away you go.

It really is a treat to get these little packages each month (or you can opt for getting them all at once in a cute box) and spend a lovely hour putting them together. Now, when you do put them together, you will see from above photos that each quilt piece does not resemble a normal quilt block....at all!!  That's because they are like puzzle pieces.  So you pop the sewn puzzle pieces back into the labeled bag and wait till month 10.  Yep, trust me.

Month 10, and your package arrives with border fabric, and finishing instructions.  You then get to put all the puzzle pieces together to form a beautifully designed quilt. THAT my friends, is my favourite part. I just love putting them together, digging through the bags for Clue 5A to sew to Clue 2B and so on.  So much fun. 

The first Puzzle Mystery Quilt I did was back in the fall of 2021 and was called Olympia.  The colourway I chose was named Dorothy.  My mums name.  I decided to make it and gift it to my Dad in memory of my Mum.  

I am working on my 4th puzzle mystery quilt right now, it's called Carnival and the colour way I am doing as you saw above is Ferris Wheel.  The 5th one....Tree of Life, IS ON THE WAY....I am so excited.  You may still have time to sign up.  Go to Cotton Cuts Get Started to select your colourway, and at checkout mention my name to get a free gift with your first order.  Yep, I am an ambassador for them. Great company, fab customer service. I highly recommend you give their puzzle mysteries a try!!  I am keeping my Tree of Life colour way a secret...for now.

Also, quite often I do video tutorials on how to put the clues together, is this something that your interested in?  Would you prefer a LIVE tutorial where we can sew and gab together??  Let me know below and I will set something up on my Tobyknits Youtube Channel.

Until next time....