My Latest Obsession

It all started with this little book that I had ordered from Sue Spargo.

 

 

It came spiral bond which makes it so easy to use when trying out a new stitch.  No more fighting to keep your book open.

 

 

 And then I had an ah-ha moment.

  I can take my books and get them coil bond.

 

This is the first book I dropped off.  For less then $5.00 at Staples they will cut off the bond edge of your book and add a coil binding. 

 

  I ordered these.

 

 

 And they became spiral bond also.

 

 

The latest book to be coil bond is my Great American Aran Afghan book. I normally copy the pattern I'm knitting from whatever book I am using but because the way the pages are shaded in this book it is very hard to read the charts on the copies so I have been using the actual book and fighting with it - now it works great!

 

Now off to see what other books I can have spiral bond.

 

 

 

 



Needle Case

The other weekend before the Man child arrived for his spring break visit  I headed two hours north to Chico, California to attend a workshop taught by Sue Spargo at Honey Run Quilters.  Sue Spargo creates wonderfully colorful folk art quilts using hand-dyed wool, silks, velvets, threads and embellishments. 

Before attending class I did my homework like a good girl which involved cutting out wool circles and whip stitching them down on to a base.

For this workshop we learned 8 stitches which we practiced on the back of the needle case and then combined those stitches to create the front cover.  The thread we used was a #8 pearl cotton by Valdani.

 And here is the finished needle case.

 

A sampler of stitches.