finished: bargain basement quilt

Tags

bargain basement quilt, finished quilts

Nate: That’s a cool quilt.

L: thanks.

N: Those colors are kind of fall-y!

L: that’s because I picked out the fabric in October, started the quilt in November, and I’m just now finishing it.

 

When Rachel @ Stitched in Color, Amy @ Badskirt, etc started their Value Added QAL last fall, I was so buried in Christmas gifts that I knew it was a horrible idea to take something else on. Then Amy started posting details about her fantastic Bargain Basement quilt pattern…and the pattern was just too genius. I couldn’t help myself.

 

After I compulsively pieced the first four blocks, I had visions of queen-size dancing in my head. (Also I was Christmas-crafting-delusional at the time.) Then I back-burnered the project, and it got slow. And guilt-ridden. I’m looking at these lovely fall colors, thinking, why isn’t this done? And I’d sew all day, piecing blocks, and I’d be like, why isn’t this quilt getting bigger? And then I got super-sick and didn’t sew at all, and this was the guilt project I was obsessively not-sewing while I was couch-surfing.

And THEN I ran plumb out of fabric. Paper piecing uses a lot more fabric than I’m used to!

 

So this is really a very little quilt. The triangles are 2” wide and 4” tall. The whole quilt is like, 45” x 45”. It’s just this side of big enough for a throw quilt.

Lucy is crazy about this little quilt. It’s small enough for her to drag around, plus she’s currently nuts about 1) flowers and 2) the alphabet. So when she sees the quilt, she’s likely to either sniff-sniff the printed flowers and say, “good” (for “smells good”), or start belting the alphabet song.

 

The backing prints are from Punctuation by American Jane for Moda. I actually bought them to make Lucy’s crib sheets (and thenshecameonherduedate and I ranoutofcraftingtime).

 

Finally, this is not only the first quilt I paper-pieced, it is the first entire quilt I FMQ’ed. I used a wonky-boxes pattern, and I love it on this piecing. Here’s a closeup of my big piecing mistake, do you see it?!

I’m super-proud of this little one. It was a challenge, I learned two new things while I did it (and I really think I got better about seeing “value” in prints–it worked). And the result is pretty cute!

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desperately trying to finish Friday?

Tags

bargain basement quilt, quilting

I’m sure I’m not the only one who rushes around like a crazy on Fridays, trying desperately to finish something for Finish it Up Friday.

Failed again! See those little doodads on three of the sides? I gotta date with my seam ripper after Lu goes to bed. It’s all going to work out though, and I am SO RELIEVED to have gotten this thing this far today.

Lucy says it is “so pretty,” “orange,” and “triangles.” Yep, that it is, kid.

More on this one very. soon.

finished: SMQG madrona road challenge pillow

Tags

madrona road challenge

Against my better judgment, I joined the Seacost Modern Quilt Guild’s Madrona Road Pillow Challenge back in December. They cut up the fabric, the blue-gray-yellow colorway of Violet Craft’s Madrona Road for Michael Miller, packaged it up, and asked me if I wanted some. Um. Yes?

We decided as a guild that we would make pillow covers for our challenge. (You will see around the internet that other guilds have chosen to go all full-quilt on this one. I’m glad this was only a pillow!) I waffled and procrastinated. I thought about adding the pinks and oranges from Madrona Road, as, really, my heart is with pinks and oranges.

But I’m glad I didn’t! I added only the grey Sprout print and the white Memoir print, from my stash. I wanted to do a design with some harder edges to contrast all the sweet, lovely florals in this line. Don’t get me wrong, I love florals. But with the grays and the blues, I thought it was fun to give this some…teeth.

I’ve posted about Badskirt Amy’s Bargain Basement paper piecing pattern, and the blocks I started for the Value Added QAL. I’ve added 15 more blocks to the first four, but have a long way to go. I needed some…motivation. I needed a finished project to remind me how fun the blocks look in the end. So I pulled out some templates, paper-pieced some triangles, and laid them out end to end instead of in interlocking crosses like in Amy’s pattern. If you’re interested, she’s shared her pattern here.

 

And, because I always feel like my pillow covers are so sloppy, I used Svetlana at s.o.t.a.k. handmade’s excellent tutorial for installing a zipper in a pillow cover. I’m never ever going to do an envelope closure for a throw pillow again. Her tutorial was clear, and easy, and uses less fabric than an envelope closure. I never thought I’d say this, but I had fun putting in the zipper!

It’s small, but it’s a finish, and my first finish of 2013. Yay!

cowl mania (and the art of the super awkward self portrait)

Tags

big herringbone cowl, cowls, easy one night seed stitch cowl, honey cowl, liberty cowl

It may be time to admit that I don’t really need any more cowls.

 

That’s five. Five. Since I knit the first one at the end of October (bottom right). We are not counting the four currently in possession of my siblings: three “short” Honey cowls, and one “man cowl” (another genius, and free, Knit and Bake knitting pattern), which I cannot photograph, because presumably they are on the necks of my best-loved in TN.

So. Nine cowls. Notes on the five I own!

Cowls #1 and #2: This pattern from Knit and Bake. I can’t recommend it highly enough, it’s simple and genius. I used the Bernat Roving Yarn that she recommends, in Low Tide (#1) and Putty (#2). The Putty one came out much better than the first one, because I finally tightened up my yarn tension and made better stitches. And had to do less frogging. I love this one for when I’m actually wearing a coat, and don’t want a lot of extra material around my neck.

 

Cowl #3: The Honey Cowl, a free pattern by Madelinetosh. Because I was still not sure of my knitting abilities when I started this in November, I bought three skeins of Martha Stewart Crafts Extra Soft Wool Blend Yarn, color Gray Pearl, from Joann’s on sale. (I figured if I had to waste $18 of yarn, I could stomach that better than wasting $40-$50 of lovely hand-dyed Madelinetosh yarn.) It took a solid month-6 weeks to knit. But, oh, it was so worth it.

I can wear it long:

 

Or I can go luxe and wear it doubled:

 

Lest you think I’m hating on my Martha yarn, really, it is lovely. It’s a bit heavier than the tosh DK recommended in the pattern, but it makes for a heavier, drapier, squishier cowl. Oh my.

Cowl #4: (after knitting two short Honey Cowls with tosh merino DK, in Edison Bulb and Pop Rocks, be still my beating heart) The Purl Bee’s Big Herringbone Cowl, knit the week after Christmas. I made another yarn sub, using two hanks of Malabrigo Worsted Merino in Apricot. I’ve been on and off with this cowl. I made a lot of mistakes while knitting it, and have a funky “seam” running diagonally from top to bottom. The pattern was kind of a reach for me. But, look look.

 

That? is pro pic material. It’s the cowl I have on right now, as I write. The Malabrigo knit up into a soft, itch-free, comforting cloudy fabric, and has been such a comfort to my sore and swollen neck this sicky January.

Possibly it also needs to be blocked. If I am anything it is lazy. Moving on!

Cowl #5: Yes, quilters, you can cowl too! Of course you’ve seen/made/drooled over Anna Maria’s Figure 8 scarf by now. I’m thinking for spring I will treat myself to some voile and make one up for me too. In the meantime, I saw the Patricia Infinity Cowl tutorial posted by Shannon of luvinthemommyhood. Not kidding, 24 hours later, I had made mine. It took literally 30 minutes from the rummage in the fabric box to the wearing on my neck. I didn’t have any Rock n’ Romance (sads 😦 ) but what I did have was a big hoarder-esque pile of Liberty Bloomsbury Gardens. It was meant. to. be.

 

Of course, this is my favorite cowl, because it is fabric, and it is prints. I love that if I arrange it super-carefully, I can see all six Liberty prints I chose. At first my husband thought it was too wacky, even for me, but admitted it grew on him. Which we all know is a scientist’s way of saying, “I really like your cowl.”

Sheepish confession: I may have yarn for *just* one more cowl in the mail. 🙂

Happy Friday! Make something that makes you feel comforted and pretty this weekend. I hope to!

 

 

on the road

Tags

madrona road challenge, quilting

Two weeks without a post!? Turns out that last productive day I had two weeks ago was like a foreboding, a sign that things were fixing to get real and ugly and fast. We won’t talk bad news but the good news is I’m finally feeling well enough to take the cover off my sewing machine again.

I did start knitting a super-ugly sock while I was parked on the sofa. Maybe I’m sewing today just so I don’t have to look at the sock?

And I’m working under deadline for my Madrona Road SMQG challenge pillow. Had plenty of ugly-sock-knitting-pillow-scheming time. Here’s the fabric, we have the blues and grays and yellows. Seasonal. I love Madrona Road, it surprises me every time I sit and actually look at the fabric.

Wash your hands, folks, and no flu for you. L&L out.

back in the swing (or, test pattern)

Tags

bargain basement quilt, liberty cowl

We’re back in the frigid north. We are also all sick. So, an Instagrammed view-from-my-face for you, patient reader. A glorified test pattern of sorts.

(Sewing IS happening: you can see a peek of my new Liberty cowl, and Bargain Basement scraps!)