This week’s prompt for my Round Robin quilt was “plus signs” and I admit, I struggled with it a bit. I couldn’t quite figure out how to make it work with my quilt. Piano keys work quite nicely with Jane Austen… but plus signs….? They don’t seem very Austen-ish.
So I pondered it for a day or two. Finally, as Burton and I were cat-napping on the couch,
…it came to me. The next day, I got cutting and sewing.
Four plus signs were made, and then I got to sewing strips.
Not long after that, my plus signs became the cornerstone of a pretty blue border.
I love how it looks, and I’m definitely enjoying this challenge!
With the Winters Frost socks off the needles (thank you for all the lovely comments – the day I posted we got hammered with snow, so I finished them just in time!), I had nothing else on the needles. At all!
That just won’t do. And with Valentine’s Day just a few short weeks away, I really should be motoring on a pair of socks for Dave. It’s pretty standard that I give Dave a pair of socks for V-day (and some jelly beans and jujubes). So now….
… that’s just what I’m doing. The pattern is Walking with Emma. It’s a nice, unisex, cabled sock pattern with four different variations in the pattern. I’m doing variation C. The yarn is some Alley Cat BFL I dyed up in man colours for Dave a while ago (last year I think, but it might have been the year before). AS you can see it’s a lovely mix of blues. I worried it might be a touch too busy for the cables. I tried it on his Petty Harbour socks last year, and it was definitely too much for them.
But it’s not too bad here. And those cables will pop even more when stretched out on his leg and foot. Now I’ve got about 18 days to finish them. It will be tight, but I’m pretty sure I can do it!
It’s a big one, at about 90″ square. As you know, we don’t do a lot of huge quilts, but it was so easy to make these blocks, and I had so many scraps, it would have been a shame to make this one small.
Although you can see it’s more or less the same pattern as Mom’s, how we put the blocks together made a bit of a difference. Mine also doesn’t have any fancy quilting like hers… just my usual loops. Still, I think it’s pretty wonderful
You all know how I feel about diagonal plaid, and I think it was the perfect thing for border and binding. There was one small hiccup though. You may recall that I planned to use a striped fabric for the backing. Well, it turns out I did my math wrong, and didn’t have quite enough for the back. Mom came to the rescue with this beautiful royal purple fabric.
The aqua stripe would have been nice, but I think this one is pretty grand too.
If you’re interested, this royal beauty is available in the shop now!
Just in time for a serious dip in the temperature, I finished my Winters Frost socks.
They are an “Almost Vanilla” sock with just a touch of pattern down one side. It’s a style I’m coming to love more and more. They fly almost as fast as vanillas, but have just enough pattern to keep them interesting. In this case, it’s a little bit of vine lace, which is just so elegant.
The yarn is Paton Kroy FX, colour is Seashell colours. It’s much nicer in person, with shades just like Mother of Pearl – pink, purple, grey, blue and cream. Kroy isn’t the softest sock yarn, but it washes up nicely, and wears well. My only complaint is that the yardage on them seems to have gotten lighter. I had enough to finish this pair, but I have small feet (size 7), and the leg is only five inches long. Were I making a longer pair for one of my friends with bigger feet, I probably would have run out. Mom said she’s found the same thing with the last few Kroy pairs she’s made. If she’s making men’s socks, she always buys three balls now.
Still, they are warm, and pretty, and I’m thrilled to have them done – so I can start something new!
As you may recall… I made my brother a nice flannel quilt for his birthday in December. Or at least I thought I made it for my brother. Someone else had other ideas…
That’s my brother’s cat, Zappa. Zappa thinks the quilt was made just for him. Since I was getting ready to mail all the Christmas gifts to the family, I decided I could sneak an extra present in just for Mr. Z.
Burton helped me pick out enough flannel squares from our scrap basket and decide on a layout.
And then I got to work. It didn’t take long to put the top together. And since it was such a simple, small quilt, I decided to quilt it on my machine – just some nice, plain straight lines. Soon enough I had a finished quilt, fit for a kitty…
And… since Mr. Z. isn’t an only cat, and it was so easy to make….
I made one for his sister Pou’Bella, too!
As you can see, they aren’t fancy.
Each one measures 27′ x 36″. Just the right-size for a cat nap. I used the same flannel on the back for both of them – simply because it was just enough for the pair. The bindings came from my scrap bin, and I don’t think they could have worked out better.
And…. as you can see, they’ve been thorough inspected and approved,
So I’m sure Mr. Z. and Bella are going to be very pleased.
With the old Leader/Enders done and sewn into a top. I needed a new L&E project. While the last one wasn’t terribly complicated, I decided to go even simpler this time.
Like many of my fellow quilters, I have a pile of random blocks. They are leftover from other projects where I made too many, or changed my mind about things. I call it my orphan block bucket. In there were several 4.5″ HSTs lefover from a couple different quilts.
They are all light/neutral fabrics on one side, and dark, busy fabrics on the other, so I figured they be a good start to an Around the World quilt.
I went through my scrap bins and pull a bunch of lights and a bunch of darks. Each pair will give me two HSTs.
Because they are only 4.5″, I’m going to need a lot to make a good-sized quilt, so it should be a nice, long satisfying L&E project.
Here’s where my other projects are at:
Into the Mystic (baby owl quilt) – Four more pinwheel flowers to go, and then I have to decide on a border
Cluckin’ Eh! – Sewing those adorable chicks
Shave and a Haircut – Sewing strips, making blocks
Homecoming quilt – First round done -waiting for round 2!
This week’s prompt for the Round Robin quilt was piano keys – basically, a simple pieced border. I’ll be honest, while I love how they look, I normally avoid pieced borders like the plague, because they involve doing your own quilt math.
Quilt math is harder than regular math, because it involves cut sizes and finished sizes, and it always gets me confused. But my last year with the Blockheads has helped me improve my quilt math, so I was fairly sure I could tackle this if I kept it simple
I planned for 2.5 x 4.5 strips in four different fabrics, laid out in a repeating sequence, and an alternate 4.5 square for each corner. But once I started getting things together, I decided on something else…
While the centre square on each side looks like a solid square, thanks to the busy print…
… but it’s actually two strips. It wasn’t until I had the four fabrics cut and put together that I decided I liked them mirrored better. Had I thought of this at the start, I would have cut a square. But as I didn’t, I wasn’t about to rip out stitches, and waste fabric.
And I’m pretty pleased with the result. My quilt math worked out and it went together with minimal issues.
Burton inspected every seam after it was finished…
As you know, hot on the heels of finishing Paisley’s cardigan, I cast on a hat for her boyfriend. In just a couple evenings, it was finished.
The pattern is Two by Two. A simple ribbed hat. As I said in my last post about it. I was playing yarn chicken… and I think it was a tie. The hat is supposed to have a folded brim. As I was knitting, it was apparent I wasn’t going to have enough to do that, so I started the decreases earlier for a plain beanie style. I can live with that.
It’s a touch large on me (though the ribbing gives it a secure fit) so it should fit Cameron just fine.
I will make the pattern again – it’s a nice, standard man hat. However, I will change the top a bit – this one, as you can see is a bit pointy. It doesn’t matter much when on, but I’d decrease a little differently to get a rounder top.
I used the Cascade 220 Wave that was leftover from Ray’s socks, and you can see the subtle ombre effect the yarn has. I think it gives an otherwise plain hat just the right amount of interest.
Now… January chill has set in, and my feet are cold. Excuse me while I got finish MY socks!
