Google Image Search

This is sooooo incredibly cool and amazing.  I just noticed that Google has a new image search where you can actually drag a photo into the search box to find similar images.  They've posted four images to demo it.  I thought that was too easy and dragged in one of my own photos, the one of the quilted rocket ship I just made.  Look what it found in 44 seconds.  I am all astonishment!

 

To learn more click here.

Here's an example of what it does if it can't find the exact image, in this case a close up of a seagull in San Francisco.  Kinda funny.  It seems to match color patches.

Paper-pieced Rocket

I'm part of a Long Distance Quilting Bee.  Last month's theme was space - outer space, inner space, time/space continuum, whatever space.  After searching cyber space for a free pattern and having no luck, I decided to design my own.

Not wanting to destroy my original, I photocopied the sketch and sewed it onto lightweight green masking paper to extend the pattern to the right size and shape.  I also extended the sewing lines onto the green paper.

Below is the final product.  I'll change some things about it before making it again, but not too shabby for my first design.  I'm not crazy about the rocket fabric, but that was the best I could come up with from my stash.  I love the exhaust fabric though!  And, can you see who's in the capsule?

Did you notice that the shape of the exhaust is different in the sketch and in the quilt block?  My hubby politely informed me that the physics of the exhaust was wrong in the sketch. 

World Wide Knit in Public Day

I just thought you would all want to know that June 11th is World Wide Knit in Public Day.  This makes me laugh because in college I used to hide my knitting, especially if there were boys in the vicinity.  It was not cool back then or maybe I just wasn't cool enough to make knitting look cool.  I would have been mortified for anyone to see me knitting other than my roommates.  If I was knitting in the living room of the Garden of Eden (the name we gave our apartment - ha!) and someone knocked on the door, I would hide my knitting before answering the door.  I didn't want people to think I was a boring old lady!  

A few years ago celebrities like Julia Roberts started to knit in public, which generated more interest in knitting.  It's so unfair that you have to have a beautiful smile, great hair, and a gazillion dollars to be able to make knitting look appealing.  Anyway, grab your knitting bag and head for an event near you.

Just One Star

In March, Deonn (my Salt Lake City roommate of loooong ago) posted about the Just One Star quilt project by Moda.  In honor of Deonn's son, I made ten quilt blocks for the project.  As I create this post, I'm realizing that I was supposed to use cream fabrics for the background and not just light fabrics.  Oops!  Do you think they'll still use them?

Here are four of the ten blocks that I made.

This was the best quilting service project ever because I got to send these off for someone else to trim, sew together, sandwich, quilt and bind!  Here's what the finished quilts are going to look like.

 Click here for source

By the way, back in the day, Deonn taught me how to speed sew - pin and sew lots of stuff in assembly line fashion.  She also taught me how to do a wicked peacock call.  Ask me to do it for you next time you see me!  If you can't wait that long, watch this - to the end.

The Red Bolero

My friend, Ann, bought red yarn to knit a bolero sweater to match the cute smocked dress she had made for her daughter.  Then she had twins!  She asked if I would be willing to knit the sweater for her and I agreed.  She sent me the yarn and I discovered that there was enough yarn to make two sweaters, which I did, so that the twins could wear them some day.  Now the pressure is on for Ann to make another dress.  Here's her cute daughter sporting the dress and the sweater.

The sweater sans Ann's daughter.

Here are the details of the process if you're interested.  Ann and I both became addicted to ravelry.com while searching for the perfect free bolero pattern.  We found this one:

Click here for pattern.

Ann thought it would be nice to add a simple pattern to the sweater so I went to my 'go to' knitting book, The Harmony Guide to Knitting.

I used the All-over Eyelets pattern on page 124.

I have this long mental list of things I've always wanted to try.  'Design a sweater' is on the list.  After this experience, I've decided that designing sweaters is not my thing.  I found it frustrating just to redesign this one.  And I didn't even redesign it really, just added a different stitch to the body of the pattern.  I've been a fan of designer Debbie Bliss for decades.  My respect for her work has grown leaps and bounds after this experience and I think I'll leave the 'designing of knitwear' up to her.  I can cross another thing off my bucket list.  Thanks for the opportunity Ann!