The other day I mentioned a couple new projects on the go. The first is a birthday quilt for my sister-in-law, Jenn.
When I saw Paisley over New Year’s, I asked her for her help picking out fabrics for a quilt for her Mom.
She chose this collection (Moon Shadow), which I had in 10″ squares
I then went to work finding a pattern, and finally settled on Quatrefoil.
Normally, when I make a quilt, I usually build it one block at a time. But for this quilt, it made more sense to build some units first… ie, all those four patches.
That’s 80 of them… it took me all afternoon, but it was worth it. Now I have to snowball 80 squares to make the “petals” of each block, but that will have to wait for another afternoon.
Still… I couldn’t resist doing just enough to complete just one block…
With the latest flurry of piecing, the Leader and Ender Geese have been piling up. In fact, I’ve blasted through all the scraps I had cut, and assembled them into final blocks.
It was time to lay them out and see how many I had. I want to make this a full-sized quilt…
As you can see, I’ve still got a ways to go… but just how far, exactly? That depends. I could just make six more blocks (48 more geese) and call it a day. Or I could go whole hog and add another column AND row (104 more geese), and make this one REALLY big.
Decisions, decisions….
While I’m deciding, here’s where everything else is at:
Spring Blossom – Still making beautiful batik blossoms
Royal Stars – Still buildings stars – this one is not a fast project
As promised, I got Meow-lky Way quilted and bound before the end of the weekend.
It’s been nothing but wet snow/rain the last few weeks, so getting outside pictures without getting the quilt dirty was tricky – the whole yard is just a mudhole! (and with Relic in and out, my floors are just disgusting!)
I do love the colours of this one – all bright and cheerful – the purrfect thing to cheer up the January blahs.
The quilt finished up at about 52″ square, so it’s a nice cuddle size for the sofa, or a really big baby blanket.
And let’s take a look at that backing fabric again…
As I mentioned, it’s a cute flannel print that’s been in the stash for ages. It was a clearance bin buy from at least 10 years ago. I’d bought it intending to make myself pj pants. I never got around to it, though. I had six yards of it, and way back in 2012, I gave Sam half of it to make some pj pants for Lily. The three yards I had left has just been languishing since then. Obviously it was waiting for this project! It’s so nice to use up old stash!
There hasn’t been a tonne of knitting time these past few days, but when I have been clicking the needles, it’s been on Dave’s Hamilton sock (oh poor neglected poncho, I’ll give you some love soon.)
As you can see by the picture on the left, the first sock is done. And it’s got the most gorgeous texture – all sturdy columns and bold diamonds.
The only difference between this and the ladies’ version is an extra column of garter rib.
Dave is back to work this week (after the holiday break.). And I’m going to use those evenings to finally get the patterns together for release. You all deserve to make some Hamilton socks too!
If all goes as planned, I could have them together by the end of the month. Of course, that could be pushing it, so I’m giving myself a deadline of the end of February.Until then… lets just admire all those lovely stitches!
A couple more afternoons saw the rest of the cat blocks completed, and then sewn together in a clowdor.
Burton oversaw the process and made sure each cat was placed just so. Okay… not true. He napped and I pretty much just placed the cats randomly. As you can see, some cats face left, and some face right. That was done at random as well.
It’s about 43″ x 52″ so a nice small lap quilt. I’m very excited about the back I have for this one.
It’s the cutest piece of flannel – another great find from the clearance bin! I’m hoping to get this one quilted on the weekend – so watch for an FO post soon.
I know I’ve told you that Dave teaches music (guitar, bass, ukele, banjo, piano, drums…), but I don’t know if I’ve ever told you that he also repairs things related to music (instruments, amps, stereos…)
He especially loves anything that involves fiddling with tubes (ie, old technology). Well, way back in mid-October, he came home with this…
And RCA Victor model 88K. A coworker at his school got it with the intention of restoring it, and soon realized he was in over his head. He asked Dave if he’d like it. And of course, Dave said yes. From what we can tell, it was made between 1937 and 1940 in Montreal.
As you can see, it was in pretty rough shape. But Dave soon had it’s guts out and it’s body stripped down.
I bought him stain and clear coat, and we got some new speaker cover fabric at Lens so he could bring it back to its original beauty. He kept it original as possible (we were even able to get new water slide decals to replace the old ones), but made a few minor modifications. He did something with the wiring so it will play stereo instead of mono, and he added an input jack so I can use it to play music from my discman or phone. We talked about changing the stereo so it was both AM and FM, but my discman has a radio in it, so we decided to keep the stereo part original.
The day after new years, it was finally ready to go. I cleaned out the corner by my couch, and moved my side table*, and she got put in her new home.
Isn’t she gorgeous. He said I’m not allowed to put any plants on her, but I did manage to sneak my air plants up there (in the gravy boat). The silver speaker is one of the rears for our TV surround, and it will get a new home eventually. The only thing it needs now is a little Nipper dog… and he’s been ordered!
Here’s a little side-by-side…
What a difference! That guy of mine has some serious talent. I may just keep him!
*I’m happy to report, that in cleaning out the corner, I FINALLY found the missing ball of Twinkle Cat from my gloves. It was inside one of the shelves at the very back. Once the poncho is off the needles, I’ll make my cowl!
I had just four blocks to complete for Meow-lky Way, so I decided last Sunday was the day to get down to it…
They didn’t take long. Once you know what you’re doing with these blocks, they really fly. Since it was barely past noon by the time they were done, I decided to see if I could finish the whole top before dinner time.
The first task was getting the blocks laid out in a nice order.
If you’re going to make this quilt, I suggest paying attention to your lights and darks and planning their placement carefully. I did not (I was limited with the fat quarter pack I was using), and as a result, the diagonal effect of the pattern is lost a little in mine. You can see it better in the original quilt.
Just a note: Relic isn’t snoopervising… he’s giving me the stink eye for disturbing his nap. Also because it was pouring rain outside and I couldn’t magically make it stop for him.
My layout isn’t perfect, but the blocks went together surprisingly easy!
The original quilt doesn’t have a border, but I felt mine needed one.
These little lineart cats came in a mystery bundle of fabric from Missouri Star Quilts last year, and as you can see, they were waiting for the purrfect project. They were just the thing to finish this top off.
For backing, I’ve got these cute Japanese Cats in a nice soft flannel, and the binding will be the lovely green leafy fabric on the right.
Now, with any luck, as you’re reading this, I’m up at Mom’s quilting it. It looks like it will be my first finished quilt for 2020!
With Christmas done and dusted, I can finally show you an FO I completed ages ago. But first a warning…
If you are offended by, or just don’t like the sight of male genitalia (not real, but crafted), skip this post.
Now… let me preface this post by explaining something. I come from a family with a very … quirky…. sense of humor. My brother exemplifies this – he’s always been the joker of the family. And one of his favourite things to joke around about are penises. He draws penises on his friends dirty cars, in the snow, in the sand… wherever he can. He collects pictures of things in nature that look like penises (trees, carrots, etc). I don’t entirely understand why… I think it all started with a small statuette my Great Grandmother had. It was a little carved wooden dude, inside a barrel. But when you lifted the barrel, he had a giant penis. As a child, my brother thought this was the most hilarious thing ever. (In fact, I think my brother inherited said barrel man and he’s still kicking around today).
Over the years, and much to the chagrin of his wife and daughters, I’ve fanned this flame – usually in the form of gag gifts. Last year, I found a hand carved penis-shaped bottle opener, and stuck it inside the socks I made him.
Well earlier this year, I came across a very special quilt pattern, and new instantly what I was making my brother for Christmas.
Now I wasn’t about to make him a whole quilt of penises (Jenn would kill me!), but I thought just one on a pillow would do!
I knew right away that I wanted to make it pink. And my brother is a guitarist, so I thought, why not make it musical? Believe it or not, it took me ages to get pink music fabric. Not because it’s hard to find… it’s just hard to find without paying a fortune in shipping. But I prevailed and well…. you can see the results!
I did a little bit of stitching in the ditch, and a 1/4 inch around to give it just enough pop.
And I added a zipper on the bottom to so he can remove it for washing.
And for a little extra credit… I’ve also got to show you his birthday gift.
This too requires a bit of a story… my Grandfather collected clowns – especially hobo clowns. My brother inherited a few of those too. This fall, I was mucking about on the internet, and somehow (I don’t even remember how) I came across a hobo clown cactus planter… not just any planter, one my brother would love.
I couldn’t find any already finished, so I had to get a plain bisque one, and paint it myself. My hands aren’t as steady as they used to be, but I managed a decent enough job…
It was finding a tiny cactus that fit, that was the real challenge, as Mr Hobo is only about seven inches tall!
There hasn’t been a tonne of knitting time these past few days, but when I have been clicking the needles, it’s been on Dave’s Hamilton sock (oh poor neglected poncho, I’ll give you some love soon.)
Until then… lets just admire all those lovely stitches!
These little lineart cats came in a mystery bundle of fabric from Missouri Star Quilts last year, and as you can see, they were waiting for the purrfect project. They were just the thing to finish this top off.
Wandering Cat Studio 