Pattern by Request

This little quilt was a UFO for way too long. It was quilted, trimmed, and sat waiting for binding. It was photographed in various stages by several customers who saw it and liked the pattern. The fabric was purchased online, and it was not a brand-name fabric. The quality is OK, not as nice as Moda for example.

It’s a super easy pattern – it was made from pre-cut strips that were cut 2 ½” wide (sorry I don’t remember how many strips.) You can make this with any size strips – they don’t have to be the same width, but the effect will be a bit different if they vary. Stay tuned for future stash-busting versions!

• Sew strips of one each light and dark together (or light and medium, or medium and dark).
• Press towards the darkest fabric.
• Use a triangle ruler and cut triangles – mark the size with masking tape at the base so they are a consistent size, making sure the triangle is level at the bottom edge. If you like you can move the ruler up so the ¼” tip is cut off—I just put my point at the top of the strip set. You will alternate cutting one with a dark base, light top and the next light base, dark top.
• Use two dark base and two light base triangles for each square. The seams will end up going alternate directions where the strip sets come together.

My blocks finished at just over 7”, and the quilt is about 64 x 56”. If you used three strips per block, you’d get larger blocks. I had very little fabric leftover, though a couple of the blocks are different color combinations.

The Lists

My husband was horrified when I told him that my Unfinished Project List (sewing only) had 58 items on it. He relaxed a bit when I further explained that some of these projects are just ideas – PIM or Projects in Mind. This is the smallest category – 7 items.

The PIG category – Projects In a Grocery sack (usually plastic shoeboxes or Ziploc bags) are projects a bit further along but not yet started. These are usually a bundle or scraps of fabrics with a pattern or notes on what they will become. This is the largest group - 35 items.

The actual UFO or Unfinished Object category includes projects either started (or repurposed), set aside for thought, or just waiting for motivation and decisions to finish. There are 16 items on the list, and one more quilt binding in progress on a quilt that hadn’t made it to the list.

Ravelry is where my knitting projects are listed. There are only three current projects, and a few that are designated as “hibernating”. That’s a good description for projects that I’m not actively working on or even thinking about. My queue of patterns that I would like to make recently got a clean-up, and a few projects to be started in the near future moved to the top. They also have a favorites list, where patterns for future reference are listed.

The lists are helpful to keep track of things and also to prioritize them. My sewing list also has a location for the projects—the only downside to my nice cabinets is that they tend to hide things. With the sewing project list sitting on the table top, there is a visual reminder of what is there before I try to start something new.

Of course there are projects that never make it to the list, as every project that I start doesn’t get added, and many times are finished in a short duration. Projects with deadlines naturally move up in priority, and so I’m trying to group certain projects to have a finish date, such as making charity quilt tops to be done and delivered before the next Project Linus work party at a local store.

Down to the Wire

Just the gift wrapping was last-minute. Usually I don’t even do the wrapping, but we switched things up this year. One year I was finishing the binding on a quilt on the way to the Christmas Eve party. Yes, there were two quilts finished on Wednesday the 23rd. But it was a realization last week that one top was finished, the other was partially assembled, and with an empty quilt machine, I had decided that they were good gifts for two 4-year old great-nephews.

Making seven knitted gifts was very doable. Four were machine knit scarves. One skein of a subtle color changing mohair blend with just a hint of silver glint was knitted in stockinette, two skeins of kid mohair/silk blend with a simple pattern made by skipping some needles made a generous scarf from each, and one long striped scarf from two colors worked up very nicely by changing colors on alternate sides, and using a crochet hook to attach the carried yarn to the edge. The two cowls were made on circular needles with different patterns, and the lacy scarf had been started early enough—even after deciding to order a second skein of yarn.

And now back to regularly scheduled projects – plus some. I committed to making 10 squares for charity by January 1st, and knocked off 2 ½ squares in one evening, using double crochet. There is a large lace knitted shawl that needs to become my go-to project when I can work from the chart without interruption. A few new bundles of fabric are sitting and waiting to become new quilts (from fabric gifted to me, sorted into donation, projects and an up-for-grabs bag to bring to the next meeting.)

It’s curtains

The kitchen was repainted this summer, and the curtains must have been held together by cobwebs. The eyelet lace fabric was in no shape to go back up. So the kitchen has been free of curtains for several months. That is, one curtain and six valances. The curtains on the driveway side of the kitchen hadn’t lasted through the labs’ puppy hood, and it still is not practical to replace them.

Last weekend was time to get sewing. The large curtain was finished first and hung up, and the valances hung up as they were finished. I used a scrap of bias binding for the hem on the large curtain, and made binding for the rest from scrap muslin and my trusty Clover binding tool, as it made a nicer, flatter hem. The lining is stitched at the sides and the main fabric folds around the edges, and twill tape makes the casing at the top. I stuck to a simple gathered casing and dropped the original idea of box pleats. They're quite different, but they work with all the wood and tile in our kitchen, definitely an upgrade.

Christmas stockings were mailed off, and placemats for Meals on Wheels delivered, so of course I was twitching to start another stash reduction project. I was of course gifted more stash two weeks ago—what goes around comes around. It has been sorted for donation (largest pieces), two charity quilt bundles (fabrics for top & back for both), bags (3 finished) and giveaway. The new project is another Heartstrings quilt, this time using the pages from the small yellow pages that isn’t needed, in a rectangular shape that will make diamonds. I’ve sorted and cut navy strips for the centers, and blue, white, cream, red and gray fabrics for the rest of the strips.

Knitting and spinning have been happening two, one Christmas cowl is complete (done by hand), and a striped scarf knitted by machine just needs the ends woven in and blocking. 440 yards of stockinette in less than three hours, which included moving the machine carriage from side to side and crocheting in the trailing yarns over color changes. Also a airy scarf from two skeins of Rowan Kidsilk Haze done by machine in just over an hour. Two bobbins of the auction fiber are spun, and DH made me a new, heavier Lazy Kate so when I’m plying the eventual three bobbins the Kate won’t be pulling across the floor.

Charity Stockings

21 finished, and they'll go off in the mail tomorrow.

Plain

Fancy

Projects A-Flying

The October sewing retreat with the ASG group pushed me through several projects:

• Orca quilt binding – pushed myself to quilt it the weekend before, so just the binding to finish. It went off to the dorm before I could get a picture.
• 9-Patch swap blocks (the blue ones) – set on point, values giving a 3-d or Baby Blocks effect.
• 9-Patch X quilt quilted and ready for binding.
• Little Bear Quilt – leftover panel fabric from a swap, bears fussy cut and set into a square in a square – blocks ready for quilt top assembly.
• ASG Project – Troop Bags, drawstring bags that will be filled with goodies and sent to troops. After making 6 with given instructions using French Seams, need to re-write for serger, using a buttonhole in the casing.

Latest charity project: Christmas stockings for Toy Rescue Mission in Tacoma; 10 finished so far. Started with felt, and moved onto printed cotton (11 more cut out)

Spinning is still going slowly, though have finally learned to pre-cleaning dirty fiber (pulling out several yards and picking out the veg matter). Pulled out my spinning guide card and was surprised to look at how fine my spinning is now. I love to ply and prefer lighter yarns, but at some point will need to practice spinning thicker, and learn to be consistent at that weight.

Dyeing: Pale yellow yarn + red dye = red yarn (NOT orange, unless you pull it out of the dyepot early). Apparently even after re-reading the directions, I’m still putting too much dye for the fiber and getting very saturated colors. Forgot how much water dying takes (mostly in the rinsing). Does this justify buying beautifu hand-dyed yarns from someone else?

Knitting: Finally finished the Daily Sweater – took me almost a year from start to finish, with a couple of long breaks (doubt, summer heat). What I learned: don’t buy a yarn on sale unless you’re really happy with the color—it would be better to spend full price and get a finished product I love. Made two more kitty blankets for my sister's cats, finished with crochet edging.

I'll post about Christmas knitting next time...trying to find a reasonable number of small projects. Hats! Scarves! Gloves! Now that it's getting colder, I want warm things myself, and am also thinking about family...

Falling for the New

Do you ever fall head over heels for a project? The color, the pattern, the fabric or fiber? Sometimes it’s a quilt, sometimes it’s a fabric, other times it’s a sweater (usually a sweater, not something small like a scarf or hat). For the knitting infatuations I’m using Ravelry to my advantage by queuing or favoriting the project, then doing some research by looking at projects made by other people. What did they think of the pattern? The yarn? I’m also trying to use my stash listing to link to these projects. The last two sweater pattern I fell for are still in my queue, and though one required purchasing a back issue of Vogue Knitting, both are tagged with yarn already in my stash.

Quilts often get drawn up in Electric Quilt 6, and good notes are taken so five years down the road I won’t think it was something designed by me. It’s great fun to resize the blocks and use my own colors and fabrics. I’ve scanned my own fabrics a couple of times, but find it easier to find the images online and just import them. The Electric Quilt website has tips and links for doing this, and they also have lots of free fabric libraries to download. Sometimes I stalk fabric online for a while before purchasing it. I thought I had waited for a good price on a quilt kit at an online store only to discover that the discount was only that the kit no longer included a backing. Fortunately I was able to find the same backing online and even on sale—this was one of those fabrics that really wanted to be a backing: XOXO The Cat by In The Beginning, with hilarious notes from the cat.

Machine knitting is still very appealing, though the blanket that I thought was going to charity is now the cat’s. The piece was over 40” wide on the machine (and it was knit very tightly), and I used basically all of the wool that was the same weight for a length over 30”, and once it was removed and blocked, it is much smaller than the minimum size requested. It shrank almost 7” in width alone.

By doubling some 14/2 linen, I machine knit some great washcloths that have just a bit of scrubbing power, and are more absorbent that I would have guessed. I was contemplating trying to make some felted boxes on the machine, but after re-reading the pattern realized that they will probably be too bulky, as they are knit with bulky yarn doubled. Browsing Ravelry I found a cute pattern for a worsted weight spinning bag that looks like it can be converted to a flat piece and seamed before felting.