My latest quilt idea is to take the kitty designs on two Japanese fabrics and make appliqué kitties. I've thought about this idea for a while, and finally started the process. First I scanned the fabric, enlarged the images and traced the kitties. Then I re-scanned the tracings and enlarged them. It took a fair amount of editing to clean up the edges and alignment of the individual pieces to be able to make appliqué shapes from them.
I pulled one of the images in EQ6, and traced it as a rough appliqué to start playing with quilt layouts. There are several on the worktable, and so far my favorite has a simple windmill block called Twin Sister as an alternate block, which can be colored so the appliqué block appears to interweave with the alternate blocks.
I had all kinds of ideas about using fabrics from my stash for the appliqués. However, once I started pulling fabrics out, it was obvious that it would be too busy, since the kitties already have collars, bells, face details etc., so I started looking for plain fabrics or those with subtle prints. There is enough of the dark navy kitty print to use for sashing or borders, and those kitties are cream or white, with bright accents. The background for the blocks will probably be a chambray blue, with white and cream kitties. The kitty details won't get lost on these plainer fabrics.
The purple baskets quilt is quilted - just needs some thread clean-up, trimming and binding. It was a useful exercise, the resulting quilt is cute. If I decide to use the rest of the foundations and make the large quilt version that puts four basket blocks together to make large "flowers", I'll make the handles with bias strips turned under, rather than fabric tubes that feel too lumpy.
Large knitting finish - the
Storm Water Shawl for my sister. Though I had read rave reviews of
Seasilk yarn, it did not charm me. It does not have much stretch, the white lint balls all over it were not appealing, and there isn't much shine for the amount of silk. It really feels more like cotton string. The pattern does show up nicely. We celebrated her birthday yesterday, and she loved the shawl and the shawl pin that was a useful complement.
Two small knitting finishes - two charity hats from yarn leftovers, and a third is already on the needles. It's the easiest pattern, great for TV watching, and my sticky Swallow Casein
dpns work great as the yarn doesn't slip off them. The pattern is the Simple Rolled Brim Cap from www.chemocaps.com.
New sweater started - Radiate Inside Out, my version of the
Knitty.com
cardigan with stockinette and purl lines (indented) rather than the reverse stockinette and raised knitted lines. I'm knitting it with my acrylic
KnitPicks circular tips with Reynold's Gypsy cotton yarn--these tips are about as sticky as my
dpns, but a slightly sharper tip. It is a bit odd to be able to see through your needles though, and as the yarn is a very loose twist I have to make sure it's not being split. The yarn is denim blue, and I'm hoping it lasts to give me at least 3/4 sleeves.
