Organized chaos

My sewing room is also our guest room, but we haven't had any house guests since Paul's brother was here for a long weekend last fall.  If guests do come, I will happily clean the nooks and crannies of the room.  I use the double bed as a design wall and a place to organize and sort fabrics for various projects.  Under the bed are tubs for batting scraps, linens (for the bed), and knitting supplies as well as dowels and curtain rods for hanging quilts. 

 Right now, the top of the bed is strewn with boxes and piles of stuff in preparation for Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery quilt extravaganza.  (Sorry the photo is so dark  - it's November)  This year's quilt, beginning on Black Friday, is called Grassy Creek.   I'm making my quilt in different colors than she suggests - cranberry, medium blue, bright green, and pink - but I am using her neutrals and grays.  I have made a little chart and marked the bags with my various fabrics so I don't get too confused about those substitutions.  

My biggest problem with mystery quilts is not knowing how the colors will "play" together.  But I do like the intensity of this particular mystery series.  It gets my mind off the constant nattering on TV and elsewhere about what we should be doing for "the holidays."  

Meanwhile, I am pecking away at the holiday list in my own fashion.  Last week I started knitting some slippers for my sister Jenny.  I got to a slightly difficult section requiring double-pointed needles, but I could see immediately that stitches would slip off too easily.  I have been avoiding trying the "magic loop" method with circular needles but could see that this was really the time to use it.  With trepidation, I tried it Sunday... and it worked!  I'm not going to start using the magic loop to make socks or anything else right away, but I now have a little more confidence in my ability to do it.  

The first slipper took 3 days, and I should finish the second one today after starting it yesterday.  Will try to take a photo when I have them stitched up.  I think I should try to get some suede to sew onto the bottoms to help make them non-slip.   Uh oh - I feel another trip to Joann's coming on.  :-)