Blog Archives - Lots of Knots

Lovely starts her blanket

2/25/2010

We started our one-on-one blanket lesson this afternoon, and boy did we have fun. We laughed and joked around all afternoon. Lovely did a great job of smoothing out her fabric, pinning it, cutting the corners, and getting one side cut and tied. She loved the tying part, but was exhausted after that and decided to continue the lesson later. We sat down and ate, and then she taught me some sign language. I tried to help her with her homework, but I have a long way to go before I am fluent in sign language. It is really fun!

Her blanket looks great and I hope she is very proud of herself. She did a wonderful job. We will meet in a couple of weeks at the Houston Low Vision Club in Bayland Park and I will get a chance to see if she decided to try to do some more on her own, or if she is going to wait until our next nightly meeting. We also ordered some audio tapes of the books that we will be reading in the Book Club, so she will be able to participate in that also. All in all, it was a fun day full of laughter and accomplishments.

Martha C. dropped another blanket off for our delivery on Monday and I was able to give her another bag of books donated by Cheri J. The Star of Hope is going to love us between the blankets, scarves, and books that we are donating. I can't wait to get there Monday. We have four plastic containers of blankets and scarves to give them. Thanks so much for all of your hard work.

Delivery to Star of Hope on Monday

2/24/2010

I spent yesterday afternoon sewing labels on all of the blankets that we are going to deliver on Monday. Once again, I have learned a lesson the hard way. It would be easier to sew the label on the material with the sewing machine before assembling the blanket. Of course, I didn't have the labels before the blankets were made, so I did the best I could. They are sewn in by hand (not my greatest talent), and I'm glad they are able to tell everyone that they were handmade by our group. I am wondering how they will decide who gets these adorable blankets and scarves? The last time I heard from them they had over 350 children staying there, so I'm glad I don't have to make that decision.

We are leaving from my house at 9:30 on Monday morning, so if anyone else wants to join us, we would love to have you. I know it will be a great feeling to meet the representative and give her the things we have worked on for so long. We are also going to go on a tour of the Women's and Children's Transitional Center. Please come with us if you can.

I am working on Low Vision Group things today, and tomorrow Lovely is coming over for her private lesson on her blanket. I will be happy to do that for anyone else that needs a refresher course. I have another one scheduled for next week. Just e-mail me or call me and I will be happy to set it up. I am also going to help her read some of her schoolwork and film her doing sign language for another course she is taking. She is truly a wonder. I'm hoping that some of the sign language will rub off on me. I have always wanted to learn it.

I got all of my new books yesterday, and I am so excited. I wonder which one we will choose for May. They all look great! Hope all of you are enjoying this beautiful sunny day.

Notes on February Evening Meeting

2/22/2010

We had a great group as usual. Thank you to everyone for participating in our "business" meeting. We needed to discuss a few things before we started our book discussion and project work. The main topic was the fact that Star of Hope needs blankets. I asked every member to make a commitment to make at least two blankets this year. I know many of you will make more, and that is wonderful, but some people aren't comfortable making the blankets and haven't tried one yet. Since this is what the shelter needs the most, I thought I would ask our members for that commitment. If we all do it, we will have at least 50 blankets to donate by Thanksgiving of this year. Now that we have a full year to work on them, I would like to make our donation for 2010 before all of the cold weather starts, so we will plan on making our donation between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

For those of you that have not been able to attend our meetings, but are showing your support by being on our mailing list, we are asking for a donation of material or money to make two blankets per person. I will be happy to make those blankets in addition to the ones I am making myself. Rachael has agreed to help. The average blanket material costs $15.00 (on sale), so a total donation would be $30.00 or a trip to JoAnn's to pick out fabric. Whatever is easier for you will work out fine for us. This way, everyone in our group has an opportunity to participate. We have labels to sew in the blankets saying that they were made by Lots of Knots. If you decide to donate material instead of money, I suggest that you go when JoAnn's is having a sale. Otherwise the cost may be more expensive.

I talked to the representative at Star of Hope and they are thrilled that we are doing this. We will make our delivery for 2009 (even though we are a little late) on March 1. Since we got such a late start in the year, we had to wait until we had a substantial amount of blankets to donate. We will continue to donate knitted baby hats and blankets to John Knox Presbyterian Church, and they donate these hats to Hermann Memorial Northwest Hospital and Texas Children's Hospital.   Our knitted scarves, fleece scarves, and adult knitted hats will go to the Star of Hope. You can see photos of all of these products on our Homemade Products page.

We also had a great book discussion. It was very relevant to what we are doing, because one of the main characters was homeless for so many years, and the other main characters helped him and ultimately became close friends with him. It was very inspirational and came recommended highly. The book is Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. There is more about it on the Book Blog. Our understanding is that it will be made into a movie soon, and it will be good material for a movie. I wonder who will play the major characters? I understand there is also a sequel out, but I don't know the name of it.

I would like to welcome our newest member, Lovely Washington. She has a great sense of humor, and kept up laughing the whole time she was here. She is extremely interested in making blankets and is coming over at the end of the week for a one-on-one lesson. Anyone interested in that type of lesson just needs to let me know. I will be happy to share my hints to make an easy and cozy blanket. Lovely even laughed when Daisy, my lovebird, flew across the room and landed in her hair. She called me the next day and told me she told that story to everyone she saw Saturday.   She is also interested in the book club, so I know she will contribute quite a lot to our night meetings.

I want to thank everyone for contributing to our group. I hope that it makes you feel as good as it makes me feel to be making new friends, becoming closer friends, working on community projects to help others in need, and reading and discussing books. It is great to see all of you and hear your opinions. Thank you so much.

Rag Quilt Finished!!!!

2/22/2010

I know that it is hard to see the ragged edges in this photo, but I didn't want to make the photo too large. I am so proud that I finished it, and I can definitely say that this is not a beginner's pattern. I am going to make another one that is just a basic patchwork block and I know that it will be much easier. JoAnn's has their flannel on sale now, so I guess I will be making a trip there this afternoon. I will be happy to teach a lesson on how to do the block pattern. It feels very cozy and soft, but it takes up too much time, effort, and expense to used as our donation blankets (in my opinion). These items will be reserved for gifts only. Maybe some of you quilters out there would have an easier time of it. I loved doing it, and I loved having to figure it out. We will see if my next one looks more professional :)

This is the back side (the smooth side) of the rag quilt above.

Sangria Recipe

2/20/2010

Ingredients:

1 Bottle of red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Rioja, Zinfandel, Shiraz)
1 Lemon cut into wedges
1 Orange cut into wedges
1 Lime cut into wedges
2 tbsp. sugar (I left this out)
Splash of orange juice or lemonade
1 small can of diced pineapple (with juice)
4 cups of ginger ale (I put more)

Preparation:

Pour wine into a large pitcher and squeeze the juice from the lemon, orange and lime wedges into the wine. Toss in the fruit slices or additional cut up slices or wedges (leaving out seeds). Add pineapple and juice with splash of orange juice or lemonade. Chill overnight. Add ginger ale and ice just before serving. If you'd like to serve right away, use chilled red wine and serve over lots of ice. However, remember that the best Sangrias are chilled around 24 hours in the refrigerator - allowing the flavors to really marinate into each other.

Happy Valentine's Day

2/14/2010

Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day, and I hope to see you at the meeting Thursday. I have lots of new "stuff" to share, so don't miss it. I also have some ideas that I want to run past everyone and get some feedback from you. We will have a new member joining us that is very excited about being here, and we have our book to discuss. Lots of new things going on. Enjoy today!

Houston Low Vision Club Meeting - Bayland Community Center

2/13/2010

We had the best time! Thank you Lee for inviting me to speak and participate in the meeting. I met so many wonderful, positive, energetic people! We had several speakers - Lovely Washington spoke about health and exercise. She has her bachelor's and master's degree from University of Houston, and is going to U of H full-time now to pursue this field. She was so funny and uplifting. I am happy to say that she was thrilled with the blankets and will be joining us at our meeting Thursday evening. She called me about an hour after I had gotten home and was so excited about it. She and Martha, one of the other ladies at the meeting, talked about it all the way back home, and they both decided to come. I believe that Martha will be coming to the morning meeting next month. I am very happy to have new members, and ones that are so excited about learning what we do. The whole group wanted to go on a field trip to Jo-Ann's. It was fun to see such enthusiasm.

I also spoke to them about reading to them, and they were very excited about a book club. The problem is transportation, and they can't get there every week to continue a book. All agreed that trying to read once a month wouldn't work, so we are going to start with a short story. They left it up to me to decide. The group is a mixture of men, women, young, and older, so I'm not sure what will appeal to them, so I will have my work cut out for me. If I don't make it interesting from the start, I will lose my audience. Sounds like a challenge and I like those.

It was a very uplifting day and one I would recommend to anyone that could join us. I came back totally rejuvenated and grateful. I am going to try to get my mother to go with me next time. It would have been the perfect thing for her. Stay warm this weekend and I hope to see many of you at the Thursday meeting. You have to meet Lovely. She is as lovely as her name is.

Update on Rag Quilt

2/11/2010

This is a photo of the new squares I was able to cut from the extra material I came home with in my shopping bag (with Charlie's, of course). When I left the lesson, I only had 16 squares total. This made such a small blanket that I wasn't sure it was worth it. When I got home and saw how much material was left over, I started cutting more strips and squares. I ended up with 49 total. I don't know why the teacher made me make mine so much smaller than the other students except she must have gotten confused about the amount of material we needed (even though she was the one with the pattern). Anyway, I sewed over 100 strips together today and will have a very nice sized rag quilt. I would never recommend this pattern to a beginner (back has a pattern also), and I don't think I will probably make it again either, unless this turns out too beautiful to believe! The basic square one should be a lot easier, and I think that one might be the one we teach if we still have interest. If you are searching for directions on the internet, let me tell you that it is a lot easier when you have someone to help you one-on-one---just like the no-sew blankets. I know if I am able to finish this that I will be very proud of myself.

Tuesday Morning Meeting & Challenge

2/10/2010

Well, it seems like almost everyone had something else planned this Tuesday and could not come to our meeting. We did have a new member and I would like to welcome Martha Camero. Martha came ready to get down to work. She had cute pink fleece picked out that had different colored hearts and was ready for her blanket lesson. We spread it out on the kitchen table and started to pin and smooth. She was very eager to learn how to make the no-sew blankets and is particularly excited that we are donating to the Star of Hope Mission. Her son, Mark, is an Eagle Scout, and is collecting children's books in order to set up a children's library at the Women's and Family Transition Center at the Star of Hope. Thank you so much to Uzma and Cindy for donating lots of books. I also donated a box, so she had plenty to load in the car when she left.

She also said that she is setting a goal for herself to make one blanket a month for the rest of this year. She mentioned that if each one of our members did that, we would have at least 100 blankets to donate by the end of this year. I think that sounds like a great idea! I'm going to challenge everyone to try this. Once I take the ones I have to the Star of Hope, we will be starting over again.

Rachael stopped by to drop off the blanket that she made this month. She wanted to make sure we got it before our donation time. Yesterday was her birthday, so she skipped the meeting to go to lunch with her husband (excused absence:), and I truly appreciate the donation of another blanket by Rachael. Check out the photo page to see many of the blankets that she has made.

I spent hours today working on this Rag Quilt. I will write and post a few pictures later. Stay warm. Hope to see you next week.

Rag Quilt Lesson

2/9/2010

Well, I went for my first Rag Quilt lesson today. There were six of us in the class and the teacher was great. She was very patient and helpful. The only problem was that everyone in the class had already made rag quilts before and were there to learn this pattern. This is obviously not a beginner's pattern and I am a beginner. The second problem was that she said I didn't have enough material. That was interesting because she was the one that told me how much to buy when I went in to sign up for the lesson. Long story short, she said I had to make my squares smaller and my quilt would be smaller. I was disappointed, especially considering how much I had paid for the material, but I figured at least I would know how to make the quilt. We started tearing the material and sewing, and I am so excited to say that I was able to do it. My squares are much smaller than everyone else's, but when I got home I realized that I have a lot of extra material left over, so I am thinking that I might have had enough after all. I am going to try to use the extra material today to construct more squares and then cut the squares for the back of the quilt. We will put it all together at the lesson next week. She will really be surprised when she finds out I was able to make it larger after all. Everyone else had 20 10-inch squares and I only had 16 7-inch squares. I am hoping that I can fix it. Anyway, the main lesson here is that this is not the pattern to start learning about rag quilts. Hopefully Jodie will still be willing to help us out at a later date with an easier pattern.