I decided to go right along with my 80's quilt and on to block 3, otherwise known as shoo-fly (though I've also seen it called churn dash or wrench among others). I wasn't sure how to go about this one; not math-wise but fabric-wise. the original used a print and two solids (a medium and light green). I really didn't feel like getting another grey solid to coordinate with the slate I'm using. luckily I have some hope valley in the stash; the small print reads as a solid as you step back. problem solved!

this was a pretty relaxing block compared to the first two with all those half square triangles. rectangles? yes please.

you want to cut out:

(4) 2.5 x 4.5" of your solid
(4) 2.5 x 4.5" of your second "solid" (the hope valley print)
you'll make four pieced squares

(2) 4 7/8" squares of your solid
(2) 4 7/8" squares of your main print (timber)
you'll make four hst's out of these

(1) 4.5" square of your main print for the center

last night I had to fend for myself dinner-wise, which meant reheating some leftover pizza and a lot of time on my hands. since I couldn't work on my circles quilt I decided to finally start my "80's quilt". what really spurred me on was the fear that amanda was going to come back from vacation with a million blocks finished and I would have nothing.

so far I have the first two rows sketched out and almost all of them have some sort of math behind them. there are some blocks with curves which look frightening and are stumping me. more on that later. I decided to go with these first two blocks since they seemed manageable and the math was easy to figure out.

I wanted to get away from the hunter greens and white of the original quilt. run away is more like it. I'm using amy butler slate as my solid and mixing up some nicey jane and modern meadow so far. you can basically get the math for these two blocks if you visit rachel's pinwheel along . I changed my block placement to match the old quilt, but it's basically the same as rachel's block one or three.

I'm still iffy about the second block. part of me doesn't like the way the two prints work together. maybe I should have used an orange or pink print to make it punchier. other times I look at it and like how quiet it is. I figure I'll keep it for now and I can always make another block along the line once I have more of the quilt done.

while I go find some more batting and decide how I want to quilt the circle quilt, can you decide which fabric I should use for the binding? thanks

I'm leaning towards one, but I won't say which. also, the heather bailey dots (on top) is only a fat quarter so I would have to go find more. ok go!

here's a little reminder:

it's sunny and in the 60's today, a welcomed change from this past weekend's non-stop rain. I totally think that working on this quilt this weekend helped bring the sun around! I pieced it on saturday, quilted on sunday, and finished the hand binding this morning. I had a couple of goals with this quilt: a baby quilt that wasn't too babyish, balance a modern with a vintage feel, and totally surprise my friend. I'm hoping I hit at least two out of three.

I used the wonderland prints as the color inspiration and went from there (after many txt and email messages with rangsiwan and amanda!), mixing some very modern fabrics with the more subdued katie jump rope prints. I wanted to stick with primaries without it screaming pre-school if you know what I mean. I also played with the idea of a "charm quilt", throwing in the wonky nine patch blocks to make it more playful. I sashed the 9 patch blocks with some essex linen and left them wonky for some movement. I basically cut them down to size unevenly depending on how I felt the prints were moving (wow, that sounds crazy).

I kept the back pretty simple, piecing some essex linen (in putty) with some carolina chambray and "recess" by american jane. I thought this was the perfect print since the dots with the flowers has that modern/vintage mix I was looking for. I love how playing with fabrics can make a very simple quilt fun and modern. hopefully my friend will love it as much as I do and that it will fit in the baby's room. well, she has to love it because I hand sewed the binding! my shoulder hurts, but it's hard to beat the look of hand binding.

the only issue I had was the actual quilting. this was the first time I tried free-motion quilting and it was hard to get the tension just right. not on the top, but the back which really played with my head. I already get scared that the quilt will just come apart every time I was one for the first time and this didn't help matters. thankfully it just came out nice and wrinkly! I did notice the thread becoming slack randomly which would create a weird long stitch, which probably means it's time to take my machine in for service this week. it's almost been a year after all.

I've learned a few things during my morning crafting sessions:

1. the stitch the sewing machine manual suggests to use with the 1/4" foot does not create a 1/4" seam. move the needle to 5.5, instead of 3.5, for that perfect seam.

2. gift sewing, just as gift knitting, brings about anxiety and self-doubt. stop over-thinking things.

3. opened seams make for easier cutting when working with crazy nine patch blocks.

4. you bought the 'best press', now use it.

5. if you're going to steam press something, then make sure you're wearing pants.

I think my favorite part of quiltmaking is playing with colors. maybe because I don't really do this in my knitting? I don't do colorwork (yes, I'm limiting myself), I rarely knit a non-self-striping stripe, and mostly limit myself to one color for my projects. my socks are pretty colorful, but I didn't come up with the color combinations or have a say in color placement. with quilting though, there's a whole world of possibilities to someone like me.

ok, so I'm pretty restrained when it comes to my "personal" palette. most of my sweaters are grey, blue, red or some shade of purple. and now that I just wrote that, I notice that these images are pretty much that except for the orange. so I guess I'm not going that far out of my comfort zone with this next quilt. mixing all together is the big deal for me.

also, being able to imagine what the whole quilt will look like is apparently very hard for me which leads to a lot of second guessing. the quilt I'll be working on, along with amanda and rangsiwan, is a sampler of sorts. it's going to be based on a quilt I found at my in-laws. the original was made my a group of ladies that raffled it off for charity. it was definitely hand quilted and, I think, hand pieced. but this was in the '80's. so there's a lot of hunter green along with the white they used. the batting is pretty thin, almost nonexistent in some places.

I'm going to update it for myself, in grey and turquoise with touches of berry and orange. it's going to be a very relaxed quilt-along, maybe a block or two every week or so. it'll be fun to see our different interpretations of it. I already know some blocks are going to be a lot of fun to piece and some, not so much.

for now though, all I can do is think about it. there's a green quilt calling me.

baking

and eating

now I just wish they lasted longer. how was your weekend?

my arm has been acting up for a little while now. a couple of weeks ago I tried to finish a sweater and just after a few rounds in the sleeves my wrist was on fire. I honestly think the culprit was this cowl I knit in january. I probably should have taken my time with it but that malabrigo silky merino was just calling out to me. the yarn was a gift from stef and I had to put it to use right away. straight up stockinette on 4mm needles, I love you but I hate you. no, I love you. the pain is almost worth it. this cowl is so cuddly and I love the shimmer in the yarn.

oh wait, maybe it was the other super long stockinette scarf/cowl I was knitting at the same time. this time with some malabrigo in natural and shokay in azure with 5.5mm needles. I started this over christmas as a way to stashbust and for something to do in car rides. I may even love this one more, it's that snuggly.

after a few weeks of doing nothing craft wise, I started up a new schedule for myself. I've been sewing a little bit each day, usually in the morning with some tea and npr. I love it, it feels like a little treat before I have to jump into the minutiae of the everyday. a little bit each day and I finally have all the rows for my next quilt pieced. now I just need to figure out how and if I want to appliqué some circles and how big of a border to make.

I've noticed that a lot of knitters have been turning to sewing and quilting lately. nothing like another obsession to increase our stashes I say.

I thought I would help spread the word about the modern quilt guild. the original branch was started by julie, she's been putting everything together for us. I think it's going to be fun meeting up with other quilters beyond the internet.

I'm still in the middle of my quilting frenzy. I've been slowly working on my third quilt while following along with the fourth round of the orb quilt along. I'm loving all the greens I'm working with. it will eventually be a mix of nine-patch and string blocks with curved piecing and appliqued circles. I haven't dared touch the circles yet! but that's ok since I'm only halfway through my string blocks.

I reached my goal of finishing everything that was on deck before the new year. barely. I was still binding the quilt new year's eve night until we had to go out. I love the way it came out (and having it finished!) and wish I had photos showing the whole thing. but being short and not finding an empty enough wall have made that hard. I might trick tom into helping me next weekend though; I didn't have the heart to make him stand outside when it was super cold this weekend.

I originally started quilting in close together, vertical wavy lines with grey thread. after eight lines and what seemed to be eternity, I decided that this wasn't the way to go time and texture wise. I really wanted this quilt to be soft, something I could sleep under. the close lines were creating a stiff and rough fabric. of course this change of plans meant I had to rip out all the quilting, which doesn't sound like a lot until you sit and do it. remember, this is a queen size quilt! I started over, this time with orange thread in random diagonal wavy lines. sooo much faster and drapey and so much easier to maneuver. the binding is carolina chambray in peacock, the best color ever.

with all this finishing, I have nothing on the needles or by the sewing machine. there are worse problems to have I'm sure. but now I really don't know what to do with myself, there are almost too many opportunities. I know I want some cardigans and socks, I'm just not sure which cardigans and socks. this makes me realize how lucky I am to be able to walk to one of my bookshelves, grab some fabric or yarn, and make whatever I want. I think this is going to be my goal for this year, just being thankful. let's face it, sewing and knitting aren't the cheapest hobbies out there- especially if you add stashing (and a love for cashmere) to the mix. this year I just want to use what I have and enjoy the moment. not really a resolution, but more of a reality check.

I know I said I wouldn't start any new projects until I cleared my old ones out. but I also did mention there were a couple of exceptions. and, really, ishbel knits up so fast that it hardly counts as a rule breaker.

pattern: ishbel
yarn: colinette jitterbug, fruit coulis, 1 hank and a smidgen
needles: 4mm
date started: 12.10.09
date finished: 12.21.09

this ishbel isn't for me, but for my lovely friend amanda, she asked if someone would knit her an ishbel in exchange for a mini quilt. I jumped at the chance, I love amanda's quilts (and every other project she makes)! just check out her flickr stream.

it actually would have been done sooner, but I ran out of yarn eight rows before the binding off. luckily I have friends in high places that were able to send me another hank that eerily matched. the funny thing is illanna is the one who originally got me the first skein of jitterbug a couple of years ago. so this officially makes her my jitterbug-go-to-person.

I got amanda to choose a yarn from my stash and she went with this pink and purple mix. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this yarn, but I pretty much fell in love with jitterbug and its plump stitches. I knit the small version, but it came out a little bigger than I intended it to. I hope amanda still loves it, I think it's a nice wrap around size.

now I need to figure out what to knit with the three ounces I have left of it!

starting a quilt is pretty easy, almost too easy. just grab some fabrics and cut, cut, cut. it's the sewing and finishing that are hard. piecing, pressing seams, actually quilting, and binding. that's a lot of stuff for a procrastinator. on a side note, how do some people finish two or three quilts a week!?

let's just say thank god I started early. how early? sometime in july. I didn't mean for this to be a christmas present, it was just a happy accident. I started with guns a blazing. I cut out the fabric and started piecing the rows. but then my ocd got the best of me when I noticed that some of the zigs weren't matching up with some of the zags. I figured it was my wonky cutting and ran to the store for a 4"x4" ruler. after cutting all the squares down they still didn't really match and now my quilt was a lot smaller than I wanted it to be.

last week I got myself motivated and decided that some sashing and extra squares would do the trick. the fabric is hello betty in the '30's palette with kona cotton in white. the binding is from momo's wonderland and the back is some kaffe fassett ikat dots I had in the stash. the batting is a bamboo / cotton blend that is super soft. I was really tempted to get some flannel to make it a snuggly baby blanket, but I didn't feel I had time to go out and search for it. I really love how it turned out though. the front is vintagey while the back and binding modernize it.

I stuck with some simple quilting because I don't feel I'm ready for anything beyond this yet. and to be honest, I really couldn't picture an all over pattern over this quilt.

the finished size is about 36"x48". I have to admit I was scared of throwing it in the washer. I kept picturing all the quilting getting ripped out and the whole thing ending up a sad mess. thankfully my fears were laid to rest when the quilt was nice and wrinkled out of the dryer. .

I had planned to post earlier this month about a finished vest, but things didn't pan out. oh, I finished it the vest. I just hated it. my pattern indecision should have been a sign. it doesn't usually take me weeks to find a pattern to knit. I'm the person that has way too many pattern ideas floating around. OK. so I don't like vests. there, I admit it. more to myself than you, but it's out. you know what else went wrong? not only did my gauge swatch lie (actually, I think I liked to myself just so I could get started), but I think the pattern lied as well. it told me to knit 10" armholes. 10"?! I'm not sure why I blindly followed this. never mind that the schematic clearly shows a 9" armhole. so not only should I not knit vests, but I shouldn't try to knit during thanksgiving weekend since apparently I ignore all sense when stuffed with too much food (and perhaps alcohol).

so what else is going on around here? I decided to force myself to clear out my wip piles that were taking over our apartment before I was allowed to start anything new. well, with an exception or two of course. so I've actually been making and finishing things! it's a crazy concept. the seeded jacket was unceremoniously frogged. the fabric felt heavy and too drapey. the first thing I decided to actually finish was tom's pentagon aran cardigan. I only needed to weave in a few ends and sew in the zipper.

pattern: pentagon aran cardigan
yarn: jo sharp silk roan aran tweed, brindle (121), 14 balls
needles: 4mm and 5mm
date started: 08.11.08
date finished: 12.07.09

this cardigan was first going to be an anniversary present (our first one!), then a thanksgiving present (who gives presents for thanksgiving?!), then christmas, then birthday, and now it's just a take this damn thing will you/ fake christmas present sweater. such indignities this sweater has faced. it really didn't need to take me over a year to finish, it just kinda got ignored. I had good intentions at times. I dragged it with me to maine last year to finish; when it was still dubbed an anniversary sweater. I even picked up the zipper this spring when I had hopes of this being a birthday present.

the zipper. I think that's what really stopped me in my tracks. I just didn't want to deal with it, so I stubbornly ignored it. of course, once I finally forced myself to sew it, it took less than an hour. the trick was to use double sided tape to "baste" it. then I pinned the hell out of it and sewed it with no fear. you can't have fear because the sewing machine can smell fear. it'll eat your fabric or make your zipper wonky at any sign of weakness.

besides the zipper, I loved working on this sweater. the pattern was straight forward and the cable pattern kept my interest throughout. I pretty much followed it as written, except I used a tubular cast on and cast off. the only issue I had was with the sleeves, they were way too wide and long. I simple ripped a few inches off and reseamed. talking about seaming, don't use this yarn for seaming! it'll just break in the middle of a seam. I know they tell you to seam with a yarn that's a similar color as the main yarn but I didn't bother and used some leftover koigu kersti. love it! it's like a little secret built in.

over a year later you would think tom would wear the hell out of it or, at the very least, feign excitement. I got nothing. part of me can't blame him. as much as I love the sweater, I don't love it on him. it's too loose in the body and his shoulders aren't broad enough for a drop shoulder design. in my mind he's more of a raglan man. he most likely let me carry on with this project more for my entertainment than his actual desire for the sweater.

of course, I had to make him something else to make up for it. definitely a much quicker gift that Ill show you soon.

pattern: owls
yarn: louet riverstone chunky, neptune, 5 hanks
needles: 6mm and 6.5mm circs
date started: 10.31.09
date finished: 11.04.09

for the most part, I ignored the owls sweater because as cute as it was I wasn't sure about the actual owls. would it fit with anything else I wear? and what about the round yoke, I've never knit or worn one? the owl bug hit me once amanda and amanda started talking about knitting it on flickr. all of a sudden I wanted to join in; it was perfect timing since we were driving down to florida, how much more concentrated knitting time could you ask for? I was in the mood for a long sweater I could cuddle up in during the winter. I didn't cast on until we hit virginia and the body was done in no time, at one of the carolinas. the next day I worked on the sleeves while we listened to lemony snicket but took a break once the heat outside was too much.

this knit might have been a little too fast for my own good. as I knit the body I noticed that width didn't look right, and since I wanted a long body I added length after the increases like the pattern states. this just didn't work on me (can a more obvious statement be stated?). this didn't become completely obvious until I was almost done with the yoke. I finished just to finish and then bugged rangsiwan over txt the rest of the night. I basically made myself a heavy carry-on for the flight back. I've left it alone since we got back unsure if it was worth saving or not. that's where my flickr friends come in, all them told me to save it. so I guess I'm saving it. my plan of action is to cut the body below the front short rows and knit down starting the decreases right away. of course if you have another idea I'd love to hear it.

pattern: aestlight
yarn:shibui knits sock, sand, 4 hanks
needles: 4mm
date started: 06.29.09
date finished: 10.28.09

poor aestlight. what can I say about it? you know it's a bad sign when it takes you four months to finish a shawl. for a while it seemed the fates were against her and wanted her gone. she lived through some indignities, including traveling the east coast while stuffed in a bag, surviving a puppy mauling, and just plainly being ignored.

I cast on for aestlight as a little knit along with rangsiwan, and amanda. the garter stitch triangle went by super fast and then I hit the lace section. this is where things start to drag. part way through it dobby decided that I should start the lace over, which totally killed my mojo. when I finally tinked and got everything back on my needles I dragged the shawl up to a weekend at kripalu. unfortunately for me, someone took one of the pattern pages as scrap paper! so I basically had to sit in the car and just mentally scream. no matter how much I tried to will it back, the pattern was gone. I asked for it again when I flew down to miami with the same person around labor day. umm they threw it away!

if I'm honest with myself all these setbacks were just excuses. I kept saying that I NEEDED the pattern page because my notes were on it. but I could have easily counted the stitches on the needles to figure out where I was in the lace section. I finally did that a few weeks ago, when the sad looking pile of knits got to me. it turned out I only had a few more rows to do until I got to the edging. the edging was another source of angst, mostly because I was so close to finishing yet so far away. I plowed through it though because I knew I would love this shawl once finished.

and oh how I love it! the garter stitch is so squishy and the merino so soft. I'm glad I chose a neutral colored yarn so I can wear it with more outfits. the only thing I found odd was the amount of yarn I used. I should have used only three hanks according to the pattern, but I definitely had to use a bit of the fourth one. also, my shawl came out bigger than the pattern states; I could have used two blocking boards if I had an extra. I guess my gauge must've gone crazy somewhere in the middle. it's ok, I think this is the perfect size for me.

after four months, aestlight was definitely worth the wait (and tinge of hatred). how about you? do you have any projects that just don't want to be finished?