wip wednesday 2/27

Tags

citron feather quilt, february lady sweater, Millwater, wip wednesday

Having WordPress issues (probably related to having started this post on my iPhone, and then trying to update it on my MacBook? TOO MANY iDEVICES.) but it’s still Wednesday! We will try again:

 

My three most pressing WIPs are:

1) Citron Feather Bed Quilt: glacial progress. I’ll be nine left-side feathers short. Between seven and nine right-side feathers short, I think. I stash-dove and pulled up these three citron fabrics that I think I’ll use to cut whole-fabric feather halves. (I’m kind of over the strip-pieced slab cutting at this point.) What do you think of the navy blue dot for an oddball feather or two? Do you think pink, plum, or orange might be a better interest color?

 

2) February Lady Sweater: frogged. 2/3 buttonholes were awful; funny nipply places created by weird increase/decrease issues at the eyelet increase round. I will try again! After I finish

3) Millwater: pattern at ravelry, blatantly copying Angela @ Fussy Cut’s first Millwater, which is so lovely, who would not want to copy?! I feel like a real knitter every time I cross one of these cables. I’m working with Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted in Message in a Bottle, which is a grey made of purple + green. The photo just looks grey, but sometimes, my cowl is purple; sometimes, it is green. I love it no matter what color it is. And truly, this is an easy pattern to knit, even though it looks like magic.

Took some time off sewing/knitting on Monday-Tuesday to let Little Bit splash in some mud puddles. We had a great time!

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finished: liberty geese quilt

Tags

liberty geese quilt, quilting, quilts

Here’s what I did when I wasn’t here for a week (!):

Waaay too much this.

Not enough this.

I spent four naptimes densely straight-line quilting my Liberty geese quilt, and the fifth tacking down the binding.

Thread tangent: I went to Joann’s three. times. for thread. Coats and Clark, I know, I know, but the Old Linen shade perfectly matched the Moda Dove background fabric. I told my husband that while I don’t like to cheap out on fabric-thread-yarn, I really felt like the poly C&C performed much better than any of the other threads I’ve used for machine quilting so far. Next month I may give Aurifil a shot, though it’d have to be pretty awesome to beat the ease of C&C.

Bear with me through some awful photos. The weather was appalling for the third weekend in a row, and I didn’t want to take my prized Liberty quilt out in winter mix for photographing.

You can see a peek of the backing in the very first photo, where it’s crammed in the throat of my machine. I backed it in a piece of the “Catherine” print that I bought to make myself another Tova. (Ha!) And then I pieced the last scraps of the background, and two colorways of the Charles print, and quilt back. The binding is the “Dorothy” print in navy.

Was I successful in making flying geese my own? Eh. I don’t know. I tried my hand at making something different happen in that one vertical strip, wanting the geese to look like they were rising up as a flock. You know, geese flying = order; geese taking off = chaos. I find myself not particularly caring, having wanted for so long to make a flying geese quilt. I’m also pleased with this use of my precious Liberty fabrics. (Though, shhh, I bought a FQ bundle of the brown colorway and have other plans for it.)

Linking up with the Let’s Get Acquainted Blog Hop, this week over at Better Off Thread! 

wrinkles

Tags

liberty flying geese quilt, liberty geese, quilting, quilts

1) I’m tired of February. Aren’t you? Snow (only 2”, but RIGHT AT THE WRONG TIME) canceled another one of my fun mom-day-out weekend plans.

2) So now I’m extra February-crabby.

3) And basting is SUCH a chore. So many wrinkles to smooth out!

4) And I’m not sure that having added the two blue solids to this quilt top is working for me. It’s sure enough different, but do I like it?

 

I keep squinting at the layout like I’m trying to make it work, or figure it out. The top is together now, and I’m not likely to unpick, and I’m really feeling the need to just SEW SOME LONG STRAIGHT SEAMS. So I’ll pin, put the walking foot on my machine (another hate chore!) and sew sew sew.

Until I’m not crabby anymore, or until it’s not February anymore, whichever comes first!

finished: rikke hat, (another) pleated tote

Tags

Finish It Up Friday, pleated tote, rikke hat, stamped tote

I finished three small projects this week, while I was busily working on my Liberty Geese. Here are two of them!

1) Rikke hat: I posted a little sneak peek of this hat as a WIP last weekend. I started knitting it the Monday before the snowstorm, worked the bulk of it while we were snowed in, and finished the crown this past Monday. I didn’t love the process. Love of this yarn kept me going. (And I decided that I love madelinetosh above all other yarns, and joined the Magnolia Society yarn club, in a moment of snowbound weakness. Watch this space for the fallout of this and other snow-related moral failings.) 

But the finished hat! The color goes great with my purple coat, and I’ve worn it nonstop since I finished it. Garter stitch in the round was way worth this finished product. Get the pattern free on Ravelry!

(Also, check out those clear beads: my Valentine’s gift from my husband, from Kenton Beadworks. This is my FOURTH bead necklace from there and I love them all to distraction. Unpaid advertisement here. I just love, love these beads. )

2) Pleated tote: I’ve made one of these before in two different Stamped Prints. I made the pleats too deep, and wonked up the dimensions of the bag. The finished product was still cute enough to gift, so I needed one for myself. A chance to get it right!

I used Ellen Luckett Baker’s tutorial as posted on her blog The Long Thread. This is one seriously cute bag, and it sewed up very quickly. Since I finished it two days ago I’ve used it as a combo purse-diaper bag for little errands when I don’t want to carry my leather bag and a separate diaper bag, or when I don’t want to overload my good leather bag with too much junk. It’s also the perfect size for a library haul:

You can see a peek of the lining, which is Madrona Road Wild Carrot in Straw, which has turned out to be a surprisingly useful and versatile stash fabric. I’m sad that my 1-yd cut is almost gone! Outer fabrics are from Stamped by ELB for Kokka.

One final note re: this bag pattern: don’t be a lazy dummy like I was the first time I made this bag–BUY the fusible fleece, DON’T sub batting scraps and steam-a-seam, even if you’ve got them already laying around and you’re trying to be thrifty (ahem). Save yourself a panicked call to your sewing machine dealer, and two hours of wrassling with your machine, and just buy the fusible fleece. The end.

My third small finish was a little iPhone pocket (in some treasured Charcoal Sketch lined with some blue solid–also, fusible fleece!) for my husband, who tried to buy a fabric iPhone sleeve for $13 from Amazon while I was sitting right next to him. Eyeroll. I don’t have a picture, because he’s tried it and found it acceptable and it’s with him now!

Linking up to Finish it Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts, yay!

wip wednesday 2/13

Tags

feather bed quilt, february lady sweater, liberty geese quilt, wip wednesday

I finally got it together to participate in Lee @ Freshly Pieced’s WIP Wednesday linkup for the very first time, what what?!

I just deleted a paragraph of blather about linky parties. I’ll spare you. But…thanks to the well-established bloggers who host them, and thanks to everyone who participates in them! I think they’re a great thing, and hope to participate in them more often from here on.

WIP list:

1) Liberty geese: all geese made.

(I know all these pictures look the same. TRUST me there are 396 of these geese made.) Now, I need to work out whether I want to introduce a second and/or third solid (some Moda Bella blue and blue-green–that greybrown I’m using is Moda Bella Dove), and how exactly I want to lay out the “interest strip.” GOAL: quilt top by Friday evening.

2) Feather Bed Quilt: Oh, buddy, I started this one in November. I have one block made, and some feather halves cut. Pulled the whole mess back out and onto the table. Will it be queen-sized, replacing the torn Pottery Barn duvet cover currently on my bed? I have to see how many feathers my citron fat quarter set will buy me, first.

 

3) February Lady Sweater: I cast on for my first sweater last night, standing at the kitchen counter watching the dinner cook. Knitting happens when it can happen; naptime is sacred sewing time. I’m working with Cascade 220 in Anis, a blue that’s more spring than winter, I think! If it all goes to heck, the return policy on the yarn is excellent (I only wound the one skein, fully expecting this to go poorly) and I didn’t spend but $33 on the wool anyway.

 

Glimmers in my eye: 3.5” square scrappy throw for dogwood quilting practice; Icona Pop “I Love It” pillow for Lucy; bunting for Lucy’s birthday/room; Lucy’s big girl quilt (Lizzy House, piles of Sketch in cream and coral, Pearl Bracelets in Peach, Elizabeth Hartman’s Glam Garlands pattern); SewCraftyJess’s Lucky Squares pattern in FMF 2012?; Amy @ During Quiet Time’s Indie Vibrations quilt pattern in Chicopee; brown Liberty triangles quilt. Whew.

Ought to keep me busy. 🙂

 

home, buddies

Tags

liberty flying geese quilt, liberty geese, quilting, rikke hat, snow

I was supposed to be in Phoenix visiting dear friends this weekend. On my first overnight trip away from this one, in her almost two years.

Thanks to the 26” of snow she’s enjoying there, my flight was cancelled and I’m home, buddy.

So there was lots of quilt nest time, and some Rikke hat knitting (Tosh Nassau Blue, on Merino DK, if ONLY the color could get me closer to warmer climes). And yeah, I’ll confess, there was quite a bit of bad attitude on my part.

But I did add to my flock of Liberty geese. I finished cutting and marking the background today (for sure the most tedious part of this project) and hope to make even more this afternoon. As we left the apartment on Friday morning, to go to Joann’s like crazies before the snow, Lucy and I heard honking overhead. Geese! Two dozen or so, flying in three perfect small V’s to beat the storm. We stopped to look up, and were glad.

And I guess I am glad to be home with my buddies in the snow excitement, too.

finished: twister baby quilt

Tags

finished quilts, quilting, twister baby quilt

 

Yeah, so, I’ve been on a roll.

But I’m done now. I promise. (Until I finish my Rikke hat. Heh.)

This little lovely came together so quickly with the help of a Twister ruler, and Aimee of Salt Marsh Designs, who taught the Seacoast Modern Quilt guild how to use a Twister or a Mini Twister at our February 2 meeting.

I spent longer digging in my fabric pile than I did piecing this.

It’s quite a small quilt, 30”x38” or something. (So I didn’t have to piece that Kaffe spot backing, one yard of which was just waiting in my stash for this exact quilt.)

It’s my second FMQ quilt. It went poorly, in general. Some spots were great:

and some totally gnarly.

But I’m still pleased with this little project. I love the colors. This deep into winter, I start craving bright colors that I can almost taste.

It is a baby-less baby quilt. I don’t have any friends who are pregnant right now, which is a little weird. I’ll put it in my pile and wait for someone to need it, or else I’ll donate it after it’s hung around for a few months. This project was so quick and fun, that there may be more Twister quilts in my future!

finished: a lucy hat for me

Tags

finished knit, knitting, lucy hat

Bad Mom knits hats for herself, not for her kid.

(You like the chocolate chip stain on my oxford shirt? Toddlers.)

Especially when the hat is knit of Tosh Vintage. I’m not sharing that.

I bought two skeins of Tosh Vintage (French Gray, Molly Ringwald) with my Christmas money, planning to make this hat. It’s the Lucy Hat, pattern by Carina Spencer, published in a recent issue of Knitscene. This seems to be the hat of the moment over at Ravelry. 800ish people are doing it. So, even though I’d never knit a hat before, I figured, if 800 people are doing it, how hard could it be?

I surprised myself and worked this up in two days flat. And I made only one tiny silly unnoticeable mistake. Even though I’d never knit with two colors before, and when I tried to do short rows on my ugly sock I cried and cussed and ultimately threw poor ugly sock in the trash, this hat was so easy to knit. I had a ton of fun making it.

And I blocked it. Yep. I didn’t have any Soak Wash (it’s on its way from Amazon to me right now) so I just used water and a vintage Pyrex bowl, but I did block it.

Be jealous of my decreases.

Love it. And, as a bonus, I have enough leftovers to do a Regina Hat in opposite colors (an idea I gleaned from other Ravellers who are all smartly doing this).

Hat mania is beginning.

february challenge: make geese fly.

Tags

february challenge, liberty flying geese quilt, quilting

I didn’t do one of those 2013 quilt goal posts. Because frankly, my 2013 goal for January was “don’t die.”

But when The Girl Who Quilts (whom I recently started following; a good quilty choice to add to your Reader!) posted a link-up about her FEBRUARY quilt goal? Well. Resolutions and goals that start in February are something I can totally get behind, because I am perpetually behind.

Here’s my February goal: make a quilt without a pattern, and without a photo “inspiration” mined from flickr/Pinterest/blogland.

I find originality the hardest part of quiltmaking. I’m not an artistic or creative person. In fact, I’m drawn to quilting because I’m drawn to order. (If you’ve seen my apartment please don’t laugh.) I’ve assumed that an ability to be original would come with quilt experience, but it’s been three years this month, and I’m still struggling not to copy other quilters’ quilts. Lately I’ve been conscience-stricken, and I know I can do better about making designs that are mine.

So, with originality in mind, and making strides in the “cut your good stuff” department, I started my next quilt yesterday. I know! Flying Geese! So original!

BUT I’ve wanted to make a FG quilt since I first started quilting, and since I saw Alison Bechdel’s drawing of a childhood FG quilt in her memoir Fun Home. The same quilt shows up again in Are You My Mother?. Time to make some geese fly.

I have some ideas for making this my own, so I think it qualifies as not just copying Bechdel’s drawing. We’ll see if we all agree that I’ve succeeded at originality!

PS Using this tutorial to make 4 at once. They’re turning out great, just look at those points (gloat) and I don’t want to die just yet.

PPS hit that Girl Who Quilts button up there, stop by her blog, and check out the other February challenge participants!

finished: scrappy TAL quilt

Tags

finished quilts, quilting, scrappy TAL quilt

Surprise! I don’t think I’ve even mentioned this quilt here on the blog.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it anywhere: quilt guild, to my mom, etc. You see, it’s an unloved. A sick-day quilt–you know, the one your mom lets you cuddle under on the couch when you’re home sick, because she doesn’t mind if you barf on it? The one you use when you have to sleep on the hide-a-bed with Fuller? (My big nerdy family says this re: the displaced person sleeping on the loft floor at Christmas.)

Sick-day quilts are my favorite kind, though. They’re the ones you grow up with. The ones you use and use. The ones your mom lets you build forts with, and put your feet on, and maybe barf on, because she didn’t slave over it and it’s just scraps anyway and let’s face it it’s kinda ugly. Here is Nate, already disrespecting it. Perfect.

I don’t have much to say about making the quilt that others haven’t already said. I’d bet there’ll be 500 more of these in the world after this month than there were in December. It was super-fun. I chose to use fabric uglies, instead of choosing scraps of my very-best. (Have you seen the one someone did in all Denyse? Or the one in all Lizzy House? Bananas. In an awesome way.)

Best part is the backing. I chose to use Sketch Flannel in Yellow. It’s so warm and soft, and because I chose to quilt only simple squares (like, one line every four 2” squares, so it’s just 4” square quilting) it’s heavy and drapey. I cut the backing too short width-wise, so had to resourcefully piece extra strips down the length to cover my ass. It all worked out OK though. I had extra backing too! I just cut it too short. Binding is Sketch in Lipstick, quickly becoming my fabric obsession.

One final note on the flannel: I never pre-wash anything anytime for any reason. And I also did not prewash the flannel. I was scared spitless to wash this quilt but it came out perfect. I bought high-quality flannel, though, and would likely have fared less well if I had bought cheaper.

Here are Lucy’s “friends” enjoying the quilt. Happy trip-a-long, to all of you finishing up your versions!

PS if you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s the original tutorial, and here’s the flickr pool.

PPS edited to add: linking up over at Plum and June’s Let’s Get Acquainted Monday Blog Hop! My first (of what I hope will be many) Plum and June Monday link up, yay! 🙂