On my Needles

I've made progress on my Pinery sweater. I've divided the sleeves off, so the part that takes the longest, the yoke, is done. It's working up much faster this second time around, probably both from the larger needle size, and the first practice run through. I'm still enjoying this pattern and the softness of the wool, so it's a good thing. Not much else new around here. I've been busy working on quilts for clients, and with my own sewing. I'm currently working on bow tie blocks, in preparation for tomorrow's aqua blocks. The 3 inch ones are done, and after I link this up to Judy's On the Needles, I'm going to go back and start the six inch ones. I want to get these done, because it turns out I'm going to be doing some garment sewing for my daughter. She came downstairs a couple of days ago, armed with the Sears catalogue, and a big grin on her face, and asked me "guess what I'd like to have you make for me out of this?". Of course, my first thought was she was going to show me some maternity clothes she wanted. But no, that was a false alarm and wishful thinking on my part, she just had some things she saw that she liked and wondered if I could make them for less than the cost of them ready made. So, tomorrow, we're going to have some mother daughter bonding time, and go pattern and fabric shopping. Sounds like a good time to me, and I've always loved sewing for her. And now, back to my aqua fabrics, with pictures tomorrow.

Sunday Stash and Stitching , week 10, 2014

I've found the pattern for this quilt, and I've figured out where I was when I abandoned it years ago. Even more important, I've gotten some hand stitching done on it, and have figured out how to proceed from here. The centers are on the 2 small compasses, and I've done some of the red tear drop shapes onto the parts that have already been pieced together. So, from here, I'm going to piece together the corner sections of the quilt. Then, I'm going to piece together the long sashes that need to go between the long center section that is already done and the corner sections. I'll hand sew the long sashes to the center section, since I don't want the machine stitching to show on the back. Then, I can machine piece the corner sections to the long sashes. After that, I can machine piece more fabric to the backing, and get some batting into those sections. Once that is all done, I can load it onto the long arm to baste for the hand quilting. It's still going to take quite a while to get it done, but at least I have a plan of attack. It was the lack of that plan that had this sitting in its box for so long. My plan for today is to bet some of the green leaf shapes prepped and more of the red tear drops done. onto the sash sections.

I missed last Sunday's Stash report, so this is for 2 weeks this time. I added some fabric that I simply couldn't resist. Two yards of this really fun fabric.

I have no idea what I'll do with it, but it was impossible not to come home without it. Maybe I'll make some pillow cases for camping, or something like that.


Used last 2 weeks:                        3.2 yards
Used this year:                              26.7 yards
Added last 2 weeks:                        2 yards
Added this year:                           14.25 yards
Balance:                                     12.45 more yards used than added.
I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

Scrappy Aqua for March

I've been working on the Rainbow scrappy blocks today and yesterday. All of the triple four

patches are done. The colours in this picture aren't quite accurate, the colours are a bit brighter in real life. But the sun was down, and I'm taking the picture by indoor light, so this is as good as it gets. I spent the afternoon over at Gail's and finished these there. Then I got the binding for my Thanksgiving Leaves all sewn together. It needs its final iron, and then, after I make a hanging sleeve, I can get the binding onto it. Yeehaw!! Everyone but Scott and are are away from home this weekend, so I think I'm going to throw myself a quilt trimming party, using their dining room table, which is the biggest free standing surface in the house. There might be some wild jumping up and down and happy dancing done once this monster of a quilt is finished. In the meantime, I'm linking up to the Scraphappy Saturday.

On and Amost off the Needles...

 I'm almost finished this pair of socks. All I need to do is graft the toes and sew in the end at the cuff. And since these socks are more or less done, I cast on for my Pinery Sweater for try number 2. I have the right sized needles this time, and I also changed the neck by adding some ribbing. Hopefully this sweater will be ready to wear by the time the semi-warmer weather comes. It knits up faster with the larger sized needles.

The neck still isn't sitting right, since it's still distorted by the cables, but I figure I can finish the edge of the neck with some crochet stitches to even it out. I'm linking up to Judy's On the Needles.

Sneak Peak

I'm about halfway done my Thanksgiving Leaves quilt. Now that I am doing what it wanted, it's going much better. Another day like today should finish it. 

Customer quilts

Here's another installment of my still very far behind, documentation of the quilts I've been doing for my customers. It's a good thing that I get the quilting done on them a lot faster than I get the writing about them done.

These quilts all belong to Amalia. She is a very prolific piecer. The variety in the fabrics she's used from quilt to quilt is quite fun. I am really drawn to the colours in this first one. Something about just using variations of one colour, and in solids, is very graphic and appealing. I've never made anything even remotely like this, But because of doing work for others, I get to play with it, without having to make it. It is quilted using the Square Spiral pantograph by Keryn Emmerson. The strong diagonal of the quilting fits quite well with the strong horizontals and verticals of the piecing.

 This next one is made of a bunch of lovely florals, pieced in large sections, which gives the fabrics a wonderful opportunity to shine. The addition of the pieced hearts is so much fun. It was lovely to look at the floral fabrics as the snow kept piling up outside.

 I quilted it with a free hand floral. The hearts are outlined, and then echoed inside the hearts.

 Here's her spinning four patch. She made a wonderful fabric choice here. I really like the blues and greens against the black.

I quilted a spiral feather inside inside each of the blocks, with the feathers extending out into the sashes. The spiraling of the feathers increases the motion that already exists in the blocks. These were so much fun to do.

Design Wall Monday, March 3, 2014

 Here is Cactus Rose once more. She keeps showing up every now and then, and then disappears and retreats back into her box again. I'm hoping this time, to get it finished. I have designated this as March's assignment for the Lovely Year of Finishes Challenge. I'm going to say that I will get 2 more borders on this month. I'd like to think I'll get all three of the curved borders finished this month, but I don't want to put that much pressure on myself. There's too much other stuff going on these days.

This is a closer look at the piecing. The whole thing has been paper pieced and then appliqued. I've lost count of the number of times while working on this that I've decided that the men in the white coats really need to come and take me away. One of the reasons I've been putting off finishing this was lack of someplace to put it. However, I measured the walls on my studio a couple of days ago, and discovered that it will fit on a wall in there, which gives me added incentive to get it finished.
I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday and the goal setting party for A Lovely Year of Finishes