Only Good Things to Report

My Go With the Flow socks are both going and flowing.



My latest and hardest Dear Jane block came out pretty well.



23 pieces! Woof.

I had a group of friends over on Sunday for crafting. Amanda is trying out English paper piecing. She handed me a stack of paper templates. "Here," she said, like a dealer, "why don't you try it?" And, like a junkie, I was immediately hooked.



My dog is still really cute.



She is HUGE. People keep asking me if she's part Great Dane. I'm hoping not but she is definitely a very tall girl. And sweet as pie.

Moving On

Thanks for all the get well wishes. I have a mighty assortment of welts and bruises but I'm getting around just fine. I'm in denial about the dishwasher. The last time I lived somewhere with no dishwasher was the summer of '91. For now I'm just letting the dishes pile up in the sink.

So what else have I been up to? Even though it's barely had a mention on the blog since I started it, the Tangled Yoke is slowly creeping toward the finishing line. I am a few rounds short of a full tangle on the yoke. I believe this photo of a crumbly, gray mass explains why I haven't been taking a lot of pictures of my progress.



Since this project is far, far from portable, I cast on a new pair of socks.



This is Evelyn Clark's Go With the Flow socks in STR Chapman Springs colorway. I started these socks once before and ripped them out. These are going splendidly and I'm not hating the variegation. I started working on them yesterday while on the way to a quilt show with Molly. It was my first quilt show. It was really interesting to see all styles and skill levels represented. I found that I am always drawn to the hand-quilted ones. I bought a few fat quarters in 30s reproduction prints while I was there. I got some of these at the Sew Expo a few weeks ago. Love the 30s stuff.



I also bought one piece of vintage fabric.



When I pulled it out to photograph I realized it matched the large-scale floral in Blossom I got for the border on my Four Square quilt.



There were two quilts based on Dear Jane at the show too. I came home and finished a block, Dad's Plaids.



This one has reverse applique and regular applique. I think I'm improving since the last one.

I also knocked off two tiny new sewing projects. A needlebook and a camera case with a quilted lining for my new camera.

At Least I'm Consistent

I've been working pretty diligently on my Noro shawl. It's not done yet but I'm getting there.

I took a break and went to the Sewing Expo in Puyallup yesterday with Amanda. It was okay. There was a lot more machine embroidery and garment sewing than I had hoped. I bought a few fat quarters of 30s reproductions for my Shadow Star quilt. It got me thinking about my many languishing quilt projects. When I got home I got back to work on my Four Square.



I got it up on the "design wall" (aka large piece of cheap felt) and arranged all my squares. I'm in the middle of sewing on all the sashing. I bought my border fabrics a few weeks ago. I love them.



I love them.

Then I decided to wind some yarn for my Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan. It's next on my list as soon as I finish the shawl, and Tangles Yoke, and my gloves, and my baby sweater...



Completely matches my Four Square.

Screen-Full Sunday

A few weeks ago at Purlygirls I was shocked, shocked, to discover that most people there had never heard of Rosalind Russell.

"Auntie Mame?"

Blank stares.

"She starred with Cary Grant in His Girl Friday."

Blank stares.

So tonight I had movie night. I invited over a group of knitters. Wes set up a projection screen and we watched His Girl Friday. I had to run out in the middle of it to take Wes to the emergency room. He got jabbed very hard in the eye by our younger son this afternoon in a coat-putting-on accident. It turns out he got a corneal abrasion. He has to wear an eye patch overnight. Arggh, mateys! He should be better tomorrow.

Anyway, the film was viewed and I don't know if anyone enjoyed it as much as I did (and always do) but I felt I did my part to spread the word on great classic films.

I also finished stitching down the binding on my coins quilt and threw it in the wash. It's drying right now.

I've been knitting steadily on my Tangled Yoke. I have the body and one sleeve done. I haven't been blogging it because stockinette in charcoal yarn makes for terrible photos and dull blogging.

Change of Quilting Course

Over the weekend I started seriously considering making the Stacked Coins quilt from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. Then on Tuesday, coincidentally, I saw that the Doll Quilt Challenge for March/April is a Chinese Coins quilt. So Tuesday night, while listening to primary results, I pulled out all my fabric scraps. I took anything that was 4 inches or larger and put it in a bin. I rotary cut pieces freehand to 1-4" long, then I sorted the contents of the bin by color. I laid them out in a stack and started chain-piecing them into 2-piece units, then 4 and so on. I trimmed them to about 4" x 24".



On Wednesday, I took these strips to the fabric store to pick out something for the sashing. After looking around for a while I decided that I'd just use some muslin that I already had at home.



On Thursday, I pieced a backing from some of the Peas and Carrots fabric.



As soon as I had the top and backing ready I realized that what I really wanted to do was hand quilt this. It's kind of old-fashioned looking and I thought the hand quilting would really add something special. And I've never hand quilted and this little quilt would be a great practice piece. I went off to work. Then I found out the baby had arrived. No time for hand quilting this time. After spending quite a bit of time staring at this top I can't decide how to machine quilt it. I think it would look great with a meandering or stipple quilting but I don't think I have the skill for that. I'll probably end up just quilting grid lines on it.

Four Square Stacking Up

I was consumed by quilting this weekend. After spending most of the day on Saturday working on the two Harry Potter blocks and my final Quiltalong block I was looking for something else to work on. I bought a jelly roll of Blossom and some Anna Griffin fabric months ago to make the Four Square quilt from Cozy Quilt Designs. I cut all the pieces on Saturday night and started piecing. I stayed up insanely late then spent the night dreaming about sewing strips. I woke up and went straight back to my machine and sewed more strips. I had a little break in there to hang out with some Purlygirls for knitting and lunch. Then right back to the machine. I just have to sew on the last strip for the basic log cabins. Then sashing. Then borders. This project was made for chain-piecing. I put together a stack like this one and stitch until they're all done.

More Harry Potter Blocks

You can see all my completed blocks here.

Quick Quiltalong

All my blocks are done!



1. Quiltalong Week 9, 2. Quiltalong Week 12, 3. Quiltalong Week 11, 4. quiltalong10, 5. Quiltalong Week 8, 6. Quiltalong Week 7, 7. Quiltalong Week 6, 8. Quiltalong Week 5, 9. Quiltalong Week 4, 10. Quiltalong Week 3, 11. Quiltalong Week 2, 12. Quiltalong Week 1

That was so fast and easy. Now I need to figure out how to put them all together and how to quilt them.

Quiltalong at Halfway

The colors are terrible. I can't seem to catch the sun when it's out.

Quiltalong

When Crazy Mom Quilts announced her Quiltalong in November I thought, "Oh, that sounds fun. I want to do that." Each week I saw the new block and thought, "I'm totally going to do that." This week I realized we were on block 11 out of 12! Whoops.


Week 1


Week 2


Week 3

These blocks go really quickly and are freaking huge. Plus it's a great stashbuster. I do love busting stash.

Errol

I haven't done one of these Harry Potter blocks in a while. This block still needs to be pressed to keep the upper right corner from flipping up. The pattern for this block printed out smaller than the others. I didn't notice until I finished it. I'll add sashing eventually to make it match the others.

Spider Quilt

Pattern: Designed by my 9 year old
Size: 50" x 50"
Fabric: Tonga batiks
Notes: Machine-pieced and quilted (basic stitch in the ditch).

Okay, everyone who's seen The Simpsons Movie sing with me!
"Spider quilt, spider quilt. Does whatever a spider quilt does."

Sewing, Knitting, the Usual

I took a class on how to use my sewing machine this weekend and it got me all fired up to sew. I finished the quilting on my son's spider quilt. I just need to bind it. I wanted to watch a movie but I also wanted to keep sewing so I pulled out my Dear Jane stuff and knocked off two blocks.



These have the most pieces I've done so far. The second one is not as wonky as it looks in the this photo. It would be nice to actually scan in all my blocks so far. Trying to take a dead on photo is hard without casting shadows.

I've also been working on my Tangled Yoke Cardigan.



I got it started to take to Long Beach with me thinking it would be easier to work on than my Bayerische socks (which also got worked on this weekend). Silly me. Dark gray yarn with garter ribbing on an airplane at 6 am. There are mistakes. Many mistakes. Some I was able to fix. I also have some serious gauge issues with this project. I ended up finally getting stitch gauge on US2s instead of 5s. But my row gauge is very compressed. I'm going to have to make a lot of adjustments when I get to the yoke decreases.

I've got to run to work. He's a cute doggy photo for you.

Awesome Quilt

Check out this great Tetris quilt. You can even make your own.

Scrap X Quilt

Pattern: Scrap X Quilt from Happy Things
Fabric: Loads of scraps
Notes: This is really fun to make. Just grab scraps and whack 'em all together. I made my first pieced border adding in leftover strip sections. If I make another I will mix up my strips to make my Xs. I put all four of each kind together and they didn't match up well. I also used unwashed cottons and then threw the quilt in the washer and dryer. I love the rumpled vintage look.

A New Quilt

Rather than finishing any of the many quilts I have mostly done, I started a new one this weekend. It's a very quick scrappy doll quilt based on this tutorial.



This project is so much fun. No fussy measuring. No planning. Just cut strips and sew. It goes very quickly.

Cheating Cheater

I cheated on Screen-Free Sunday today. But I have a really good excuse. I was interviewed by Jenny and Nicole of Stash and Burn! As Jenny would say, "Yay!" It was really fun to talk to them. I felt like I knew them already from listening to their podcast so much.

I finished the first Pomatomus last night. Just for kicks I weighed the remaining yarn. 47 grams. Okay. Then I weighed the completed sock. 67 grams. Crap! I'm going to knit the second sock with one less repeat on the leg then I'll rip back the first sock to match it I guess. What a waste. They're so pretty all nice and tall.

I've been doing a little bit of spinning lately. I'm finally spinning all the samples I made in Jill Laski's fiber blending class at Madrona last year. The fiber is lovely to spin but the colors were *ahem* experimental. I also overdyed the cormo/silk I dyed a few weeks ago. I got closer to the color I wanted. If it doesn't morph into something heinous overnight I think I'll call it good.

I also made a trip to a fabric store. I tried to resist all the fabric but a pretty good chunk came home with me. I basted my son's spider quilt to ease my guilt feelings. I now have four quilts that need to be quilted (three are partly quilted).

Another Screen-Free Sunday

The Gee's Bend show was wonderful. I wish I had had the foresight to buy tickets to the panel discussion with some of the quilters. I had an epiphany standing in the gallery looking at the quilts. The quilts of Gee's Bend made me want to make quilts. I love their improvisational style, their organic forms and the sense of history and time about them. I wasn't attracted to fussy, "perfect" quilting. Then, once I started making quilts, I went straight toward the fussy/perfect ideal and left spontaneous and lively by the wayside. I want to have both. I spent some time in the Open Art Studio at the museum with Wes and the kids and made a "paper quilt." Even just gluing random strips of paper down was very liberating.



Can I work in a plug for museums here? You know how people always say no one on their deathbed ever thought "I wish I'd spent more time at work." Well, I have never left a museum thinking, "That was a waste of time." I always find time at a museum interesting and enriching. So I would strongly recommend a trip to a museum for everyone right away!

I finished my first Broken Cable sock in the car on the way to Tacoma.



I started number two last night watching* Hot Fuzz** with Wes.

I've got my yarn on the drying rack but I have no idea when it will actually get dry. The weather forecast is for lots of rain for the entire week. I hope it can dry before it gets mildewy.



This was kettle-dyed for a variegated effect. The final color isn't what I had hoped for (it never is).

Screen-Free Sunday is still working remarkably well. We went to the museum, did some shopping, came home, made dinner, cleaned the house, reorganized some of the kitchen cabinets, did laundry and dishes! We ate dinner at the dining room table all together! Plus I had time to finish spinning the singles for my current project and start plying. (No photo). It's amazing and embarassing how much time gets sucked up by the computer around here.

*The screen ban lifts once the kids are in bed.
**Very light and funny but the second half was a little too drawn out. The outtakes are priceless though.

I Had to P

You're Just Wild About Harry

There have been lots of questions about the Harry Potter blocks. So here's more information.

The block patterns are designed by Jennifer Ofenstein who has made a full Harry Potter quilt. They are available here for free. There is a LJ community that is testing the patterns. They are 5" blockas and are all paper pieced. Jennifer has just added a video of how this done to the pattern page if you're not familiar with it. It's the same method I used to make these blocks and these.

Here's my latest block.

Pottering Around

What started this morning as a passing interest in trying out a new quilt block ended with me near tears tonight. But I ended up with four new quilt blocks instead of just one.

It began with the wand.


Then the lightning.


Then Voldemort.


And finally a dementor.


These blocks have about eighty billion itty-bitty pieces. They're maddening. And yet so much fun. One trick I figured out after sewing and ripping multiple times (the rest of you probably already know this). When sewing two parts of the blocks together instead of lining up the edges or the corners I stuck a pin straight through the cross-section of the seam allowance in the corner to be seamed and went through the same cross-section of the second piece. I did this in both corners and it got my seams lined up really well.

September Doll Quilt Challenge

Pattern: Fresh Tradition Doll Quilt
Fabric: Peas and Carrots, Aunt Grace 15th Anniversary and assorted reproduction fabrics.
Size: 23.5" x 20"
Machine-pieced and quilted.

Things are Coming Together

The Seamless Hybrid is coming together. The sleeves are now joined to the yoke and my favorite part begins--the raglan decreasing.



I got a surge of energy last night and put the doll quilt together. I pieced the backing, basted the whole thing and started quilting. I ran out of steam with only a tiny bit left to do. Word to the wise, don't start free motion quilting after midnight. No good can come from it.

I've been catching up on Netflix lately.
Weeds, Season 2: What a well done show. The cast is great. Incredibly entertaining.
The Shop on Main Street: Czech drama set during WWII, a very gently told dark story with lovely flashes of humor and tenderness.
Last King of Scotland: Maybe everyone has already seen this. Forest Whitaker is riveting as Amin. The narrative feels a little rushed.
Extras, Season 2: Ricky Gervais's style of squirm-in-your-seat comedy isn't for everyone. I happen to love it. This series is hilarious. I woke the kids up from laughing so loud. The guest spots this season are killer.
House, MD, Season 1: Nope. Didn't like it. Couldn't get into it. I love Hugh Laurie but the writing is so weak in the first few episodes. Wes and I were completing everyone's sentences because the dialog was so obvious.

En route, Rome, Season 2 and Dexter, Season 1!

Lazy Friday Night Post

Just a little update on what I've been doing lately.
My Seamless Hybrid has a body and nearly two sleeves. I didn't take a picture because a) it's boring and b) all three parts are in different rooms of the house and I don't feel like gathering them all together.

I started to quilt County Lines. So far I've just done a little stitch in the ditch. I need to do lots more and then I think I might do a bit of free motion in the rectangles.

I've made more half-blocks for my foundation-pieced quilt. It's called Shadow Star. I have 24 half-blocks done.


Sorry for the crummy photos, it's dark!

I've been wondering what to do with the billions of scraps this quilt is creating. Then the Doll Quilt Challenge posted it's September challenge. Perfect! I dragged out my scraps and started cutting. I've got all my half-square triangle squares stitched.



This sucker comes together quickly. It's a tiny quilt. Mine will be slightly larger because I misremembered the square size. Doesn't matter.

I'll be working all weekend. Have a good weekend everybody!

So What's New?

I accidentally left my knitting bag at work last night so I started a new quilt project.



More foundation-piecing. I love the effect but could live without all the stitch, trim, press. You hop up and down so much making these blocks it's nearly an aerobic activity.

I've also been working on a Gypsy Shawl, by Evelyn Clark, at work. It's in Cashsoft 4-ply.



It's not looking like much yet.

Then today we were headed downtown and I needed something to work on. I briefly considered starting the Tangled Yoke Cardigan but I didn't have time to wind the yarn and I also think I want to *gasp* swatch before jumping into the project. Instead I grabbed a skein of Cotton-Ease and a needle and cast on for a Seamless Hybrid by EZ.



It's also not looking like much yet.

We all went to the art museum. We haven't been there since it reopened in May. I love the changes. They've made it even more family-friendly. There is a children's area on every floor. There's a Gee's Bend quilt in the permanent collection. The kid's like the cars. Lunch in the cafe was really delicious. Not super-overpriced. And the children were remarkably well behaved.

Then we headed to Kinokuniya and it's overwhelming assortment of craft books. I didn't see anything in knitting or quilting that really grabbed me but lots of incredibly wonderful felt books. I didn't get one though. It's not like I need to start any new projects these days.

Lotus Charm Quilt

32" x 40"

Fabric: Amy Butler Lotus Collection
Notes: I had a set of charm pack squares which I made into half-square triangles, then added 5" borders and bias-binding. I like the barber-pole effect of the stripes on the bias. The border, backing and binding is also from the Lotus Collection. I did simple stitch in the ditch quilting with triangles on the border.

Baby Quilt

The center squares were foundation-pieced using the "Peter's Quilt" block from Quilt Block Bonanza. The fabrics are from Peas and Carrots by American Jane and Aunt Grace 15th Anniversary Collection.
Machine-pieced and quilted.
19" square.

3

You know that thing I do when I ask for all of your opinions and then I just do whatever I want instead? I did it again.

While you all thoughtfully weighed in on which block arrangement I should do I just went with #3. I was worried that all the tiny bits in the corners would be lost in option #1.



It's just 19" square, backed with a stretchy terry kind of fabric I got ages ago for who knows what. I did some simple stitch in the ditch quilting. It made a cute design on the back.



And now for the dreaded binding. I still haven't stitched down the binding on the Lotus quilt. I'm kind of mad at it still.

Setting

I finished three more foundation squares last night. (I'm tossing the one I accidentally cut too small). They're 5.5" squares. I'm just doing the four and adding some borders. It's for a little baby gift. So now that the squares are done I have to decide how to lay them out.


Possible setting #1


Possible setting #2


Possible setting #3

What do you think? I was thinking #3 but now I'm leaning toward #1.

Do I Know How to Party or What?

Wes and the boys went off to visit my in-laws this weekend. I went pretty nuts.
First, on Friday night I went to spinning at the shop. I'm ashamed to admit that it was the first time I touched my wheel since the first Friday of last month.
Then when I got home I tried to tackle continuous bias binding for the Lotus quilt.



It's a little mind-bending. Then I spent a very, very long time trying to make the two ends of my binding meet at a nice 45° angle. There was a lot of cursing and ripping out. I finally just fudged it. It looks fairly shitty in that one spot. I can live with it.

On Saturday I went to Bainbridge Island with six other Purlygirls. We hit the sale at Churchmouse, visited the farmer's market, got lunch and went to the fabric store. When I got home with all my fabric goodies I saw that I really have a problem. There was a fat quarter bundle waiting on the front porch that I had mail ordered. I had just bought a fat quarter of one of the fabrics. Then I realized that I had already bought one last week. This is the third time in the last few weeks that I've purchased fabric only to find that I already own some. At least my taste is consistent.

Before Wes left I asked him to turn the water heater all the way up. After nearly killing myself getting in to the shower (hot!) I knew the water was hot enough to clean some fleece. I pulled out the corriedale I bought this year at Black Sheep. It got two good, long, hot soaks. It came out very clean. This evening I cleaned the rest of the targhee I bought at Oregon Flock and Fiber. It came out very clean too. Mostly. It's very clean, fluffy and white with hardly any grease left but there are still patches that are unspeakably filthy. I don't know how to best deal with this. I guess I'll collect up the grossest parts and send them back in for another soak. The entire house smells sheepy and warm right now. I think it's wonderful. For Wes and the boys, not so much.

So Saturday night Wes snuck back to Seattle and we went out for dinner at Tilth (so delicious) and we saw The Simpsons Movie. If you like The Simpsons you will love the movie. I laughed very hard. Wes then had to slink back to his parent's house. I stayed up way too late sewing the borders on the County Lines quilt and piecing the backing.

Today I had to work. But first I ran to Jo-Ann's to get batting for County Lines. A word to the wise, don't buy white batting in a dark colored shirt. I spent the rest of the day covered in white fuzz.

I started a Gypsy Shawl for the shop out of Cashsoft 4-Ply.



Even thought I'm on the really easy part of the shawl right now I made some strange little error that I tried and tried to fix. I finally gave up and ripped but then realized after knitting several rows that I hadn't ripped back far enough. I did this over and over. I left work with 3 rows fewer that I had at the beginning of the day.

Evelyn Clark stopped in the shop today so I got to show her the quilt I finished last week. She'll be delivering copies of her book to us on Tuesday!

Then tonight I made my first attempt at foundation paper piecing. The first square went pretty well.


Messy foundation block


All clean!

The second block was like the shawl. Stitch, rip, curse, repeat. I finally got the damned thing finished and accidentally trimmed off the seam allowance on one side. Shit! I decided I'd just trim them all down and I'd have blocks that are half an inch smaller. I may change my mind tomorrow and just scrap that block. I'm only planning on making four or six to make a little baby quilt. We'll see how I feel about it later.

I'm No Superwoman

I didn't mean to give the impression that I had sewn the entire Lotus quilt top since Saturday. It was this far along nearly a month ago and has sat waiting for borders, backing and quilting.

Quick Report

I just finished up the Baby Russian Prime from camp this morning. It's not blocked yet.



A lot of my time this week has been spent with my new sewing machine.

I got the borders on my Lotus quilt and did all the quilting. I just need to add the binding (which will take me days, I'm sure).



I bought some super-cheapie pre-printed panels from the clearance section of Joann's and am practicing free-motion quilting on them.




Super fun! Like doodling with thread.

My County Lines quilt is all ready for the outer border.



Now I need to finish my second Unst sock and get cracking on my Giant Latvian-Mitten Cardigan. I've also been thinking of knitting a Pi shawl with some of the angora yarn I got at camp. Seems fitting.

Must run. Whiny children abound.

Completely Fallen Behind

I'm sorry! I never announced the winners for last Thursday's contest. I just couldn't pick from all the great entries so I used a random number generator and picked two winners. Catherine M. and Rita W. (both blogless) have copies of the Schoolhouse knitter's journal on their way to them right now.



I've been puttering along on the first sleeve of my Baby Russian Prime and I can't get over how slow I am at it. I'm magic looping after having to fiddle way too much with double points on such a small circumference. The magic loop involves quick a large bit of fiddling too. It's all a warm up to my Giant Lativan-Mitten Cardigan. My yarn is Satakieli.



I've been a little distracted from knitting since yesterday. I stopped at a quilting shop that is having a moving sale. All their Bernina sewing machines were 35% off. Throw in some no-interest financing and I was a goner. I now own a Bernina Aurora 440. I'm completely unworthy of such a lovely machine. I sewed on it all last night. Then today I had Amanda, Sarah and Sasha (Sasha's our speed demon. She finished one project start to finish and already has a photo up on her blog!) over for more sewing. Love. It.

I'm in the process of turning this Bleeker Street fabric into a County Lines quilt.



I have all my blocks done. Time to cut a billion strips for sashing.

Love the machine. Love, love, love it. Love.

Simple Zen Quilt

My first quilt top that I sewed has been machine-quilted, "stitch in the ditch" style, and bound. This is my oldest son holding it up for me. His feet, like his father's, are shown for scale. It's about 38" x "43".

(Sorry most of my pictures have been blurry and/or overexposed. My camera seems to be crapping out on me.)

Again With the Quilting

Saturday night I prepared the backing and batting for the hexagon quilt (this is a bigger image than the last one I posted).

Then I wanted to try some free-motion quilting. To practice I had heard somewhere that pre-printed panels were quick and easy to use. I remembered I had one that I got in a fabric grab bag that I would never use for anything. I got some batting and backing fabric and pinned it all together. Then I went at it with the sewing machine. I found the feed dog cover for my machine and I had gotten a darning foot a while ago. Free-motion stitching is really bizarre. The fabric just sits there unless you're moving it. Working out the timing of how fast to move the fabric and how fast to move the needle is tricky. And my machine does not have a very sensitive pedal so I can pretty much go fast and super-fast. Fortunately fast is a good speed for machine quiting and I started to feel like I was doing all right pretty quickly.


Click for bigger

First I tried outling the baby's face which didn't go that well. Then I did some of the swirls around the sides. In the blue section at the bottom I made stars that came out really well but are very hard to make out in the photo. Then I wrote my name along the bottom. Woohoo.

So today I took my quilt, backing and batting the The Quilting Loft to use their workroom to pin it all together. It was a lot more comfortable then crawling around on the floor. I got some cool green variegated thread to use for the top and some plain white for the bottom. When I got home I started quilting it. I've only done about six straight lines of quilting so far to begin to stabilize the whole thing. Then I'm going to flip it over and do some free-motion quilting around the cow spots on the back.

I also spent some time last night and tonight tacking down the binding on the Simple Zen quilt. It's still taking forever but my stitching looks remarkably better. I still can't miter a corner worth a damn. Hopefully I'll have this one finished on Tuesday and will post some pictures.

My Welsh socks should be finished shortly and the spider monkey still needs a lot more sewing. I'm currently knitting the tail.

Socky/Quilty/Spinny

In case any of you were concerned, I still knit.
I'm coming in to the home stretch on my Welsh Stockings.



I finished the cutest baby sock at work.



It's Juta's Stockings from Folk Knitting in Estonia knit in the leftover Sea Wool from my BSJ. Super easy lace in a lovely little pattern written for three sizes.

I'm also quilting. My boss expressed concern yesterday as she narrowed her eyes and asked accusingly, "You're not going to get all quilty on my, are you?"

I stitched together this little top from the half-square triangles I showed the other day.



You can also see in the photo that I selected a backing fabric (left), border fabric (middle) and binding fabric (stripes on the right). I'm going to attempt a Kaffe Fassettish bias binding to create a barber-pole effect with the stripes. That's "attempt." I'm making no promises about the outcome.

And tonight I spin!

Just Another Block

I sent Wes off with the camera today (reason to be revealed later) so all I can show you today is this, my third hand-pieced block for Dear Jane.



I definitely seem to be getting better and faster at this as I go. I'm very pleased with how well the seams match up. Of course, this is one of the simple blocks. It just gets harder from here. Next up is conquering foundation piecing and applique.

There will be much more later including my first completed quilt and knitting.

It's Not Me, It's You or This Foot Was Made for Walking

My quilting has been at a standstill because of my walking foot problem. I finally got a chance to take the machine and the foot to the shop. After a bit of fiddling they concluded that they had sold me the wrong foot. It was such a relief to know that it wasn't my mistake. It's amazing what a blow to your self-confidence something like this can be. They did have another foot that works that was the same price. So I came home all fired up to quilt.

First I quilted my little disappearing nine patch practice quilt. I also sewed on a binding using the instructions at Heather Bailey's site and this video. I'm still in the process of hand-stitching the binding down. It's slow going and a total pain.

So I took a break and machine quilted the first top I made. It went from simple zen to 70s guest bedroom. I used synthetic batting and it's so puffy. I machine-stitched the binding on using the same method for the first quilt so it's also waiting to have the binding hand-stitched down.

I worked some more on the first binding. Then I got bored.

So I decided to do something with the Lotus "Jolly pack" I bought a few weeks ago. (I went to The Quilting Loft in the morning for their first "Strip Club." It's a monthly free "club" where they debut a quilt made from pre-cut strips. The patterns are free. While I shudder at the name the quilt pattern they gave out looks really fun and easy. I wasn't in love with the color scheme they were offering (aquas, browns, rust) so I'm saving it for another time. But I did learn the following technique for charm squares while there--even though it isn't used in the quilt they were showing.)



I marked the diagonal line then stitched 1/4 inch away from it on both sides.



I chain-pieced them so it went really quickly.



Then I sliced them down the middle.

And, like magic, I had a bunch of squares made up of triangles.





This is just a sample layout with half the squares.

Next up, putting the borders on the hexagon quilt.