Hats for the Homeless

Last year my goal for the year was to knit one hat every month to donate to our local homeless shelter in downtown Knoxville called Knox Area Rescue Ministries.

Along about October I realized that 12 hats would not be a drop in the bucket so I began to knit hardcore. My younger sister Diantha knit 4 or 5 hats for me, and I found a couple laying around the house I'd knit for no one in particular so I washed them and tossed them in the pile.

I ended up with 36 different hats!! That's more than twice my goal!
I don't know if I'll do it again this year; I wanted to. But it made me so sad when I dropped them off, it was not quite cold enough to snow and even though it was only about 2 in the afternoon the streets around the shelter were already lined with homeless who were sleeping or just hanging out on the sidewalks. I was thinking maybe my time and money would be better invested to buy in bulk things like sweatshirts, tube socks, etc? things that would help more people than just the few I was able to help this year?

I haven't decided yet; I'm still thinking about it. Whatever I decide, I'm pretty pleased with my turn out last year and I was excited to get to try some new patterns like the HeartFail hat (pattern on Ravlery) which was just great. Will definitely have to knit it myself again.

If you'd like to cruise my ravelry projects, most of the hats are listed as projects there. If you're not a raveler, here's a picture of all of them together just before I dropped them off!

Quilts, Quilts, Quilts!

I am sooo behind in blogging. Allow me to try to catch up.

The last 2 weeks of October and the first week of November was Massive Quilting Time around here as I prepared to do a craft show. I had plenty of quilted bags, though I did also put together 3 Learning Purses to take with me.

I made several lap quilts, one was huge--nearly twin and then a wall hanging. I, of course, true to form only sold ONE batik tote at the show and right before we shut down the final night. Oh well. I've sold 3 of these quilts out of my etsy shop since, and one actually before the show, so I am not complaining.

First we had Whirlwind which was a lap quilt made from a fall 5" charm swap I'd participated in through the Quiltsy etsy street team. It's a Disappearing Nine Patch pattern and actually this also was my Weird and Ugly Challenge entry for the N2Quilting yahoo group I'm in. I cut the W/U fabric into 5" charms and dispersed it throughout the quilt top. It is sold.

Then I made a simple pinwheel quilt from 50 different red charms and one white on white print fabric. I called this one The Red Queen and it is still available for purchase in my etsy shop here: the Red Queen

Mine of Moria was one of my favorites and actually took me the longest to do because I left it on my design wall for months so I could rearrange the squares here and there until I got them just how I wanted them. It's a Jewel Box pattern and done with a single White on White print and a ton... I think around 100?... of different batik fabrics. I named it Mines of Moria after the mines the dwarves dug in the Lord of the Rings... 'cause I'm just that cool. This one has (thankfully!!) already sold! It was the biggest too, almost twin sized.

I finally finished the Primitive Nativity folk art quilt I'd been working on for years. I'd made the top but had never gotten around to stitching down all the shapes or quilting it. It is finally done!! A nice Christmas wallhanging, it made it thru the holiday season and is still for sale in my shop here.

Then I put together a very simple charm quilt from a moda charm pack someone had sent me last year. I pulled all the pink and lime fabrics out of it and arranged them in a checkerboard pattern. Then I appliqued huge whimsical flowers around the borders with some moda fabric from the same line that I picked up at the quilt shop. I love how cute and simple this one turned out to be!! It went to a new home just before Christmas! I called it Printemps which is French for "spring."

It had been a long time since I'd done any quilting, piecing or actual quilting, and I really enjoyed putting these together!