Here we are, officially a month from Valentine’s Day…

And these sad little rows of ribbing are all I have to show for the second Hamilton sock.

I generally only knit in the evenings (day time is saved for day job and sewing), and there hasn’t been a lot going on. Work got crazy again, so I’m usually too zonked by the time the sun goes down. When I have had enegery for the needles, I’ve been working on the poncho.

Still… I have a month to finish this poor second sock. It’s more than enough time. If I actually work on it. I may have to put a row minimum on this, just like the poncho.  Gotta get those stitches in!

And now for a post about that second new quilt I told you about last week….

In late 2019 I added a few charm packs to a Missouri Star order, one of which was Moda’s Safari Life

And on my last trip to Lens, I picked up a remnant of aqua fabric what was just perfect to pair with it.

I chopped it up into 5″ squares to pair with the charm pack and set to making HSTs. Now, I love HSTs – they are easy to make and so versatile… but…

Trimming them to size is soooooo tedious. And there were 64 of them! Still, I stuck with it and after what seemed like ages, they were all ready to put into the final layout.

A simple, but effective chevron pattern. It’s one I’ve wanted to try for quite some time. Once it was all sewn together, it was a little smaller than I wanted, so I dug into the stash for something for a simple border. The only thing I had in the right quantity was some marble fabric leftover from Dave’s quilt. It did the job, and brought the final size out to a respectable 39 inches square.

Some time in the near future, I’ll get up to Mom’s and get quilting…

… and it will be finished off with more of the aqua fabric for the binding, and these cute flannel lions on the back.

And if you’re wondering about the title for this post… it’s inspired by a silly song from a silly site. Enjoy!

I have no finished quilts to show this week, because I didn’t make it up to Mom’s this weekend. Instead, I went to visit Sam and her wonderful family for our annual holiday get-together. We were supposed to do it a couple weeks before Christmas, but the weather interfered. As both our schedules were too full after that,  this was the first opportunity we had to see each other.

But I’m soooo glad we waited because…

THEY GOT A NEW PUPPY this weekend!!!!!!! Meet Calibre (Cali for short), the cutest little Beagle ever born. She’s only 10 weeks old and soooooo tiny!

That’s her beside Sam’s hand. And Sam does not have big hands. She’s just a wee little thing.

And so full of energy. It was hard to get a picture of her when she was awake.

And sleeping… well she’ll just melt your heart. You may or may not know, but Sam’s already got a full house – two labs (Dozer and Moose), and three cats (Ezra, Ruby and Marlin), and though Cali has only been there a short time, they are all adjusting very well.

As long as Cali doesn’t get too pushy! And of course, as long as the boys still get plenty of the attention they so deserve.

And as cute as wee Cali is, I don’t envy Sam and her early morning  outside pee sessions…

I’ll definitely stick to cat. At least they potty in a box!

The poncho is progressing. But as a snail’s pace… or at least that’s how it feels.

I don’t have a big enough spot on the floor to lay it out for you (and it’s too darn muddy outside… aren’t we supposed to have snow in January?? It feels like April right now), so here it is folded up on the couch.

That little blue/green line is them middle point (and eventual neckline). As you can see, I’m only a few inches further from where I last showed it to you. And I’ve got lots and lots of inches to go.

She was much neglected over the holiday, but I’m back to trying to put at least four rows on her each night. I’d love to have her done by the end of January, but I think that’s probably too ambitions. Maybe by March… ?

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…

This is going to be a fun one!

Make the bed is always a bit of a chore, but making the bed with a cat…

Well now that’s a challenge!

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
• Only in Kenya – A new one I’ll show you soon.
  
• Moonshadow – Another new one. Stay tuned
• Leader and Ender quilt – Time to cut more scraps!

 

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.