Updates

This week has been very unproductive. Not sure how I managed to get a respiratory infection in August, but the fact that I'm still alive is a pretty great accomplishment in my book. (No, it's really not that bad, but it feels like it should be.) I have made a lot of progress on things before this week, but I haven't had a chance to get pictures. I'm pleased report that the top is finished for Coffee Lover's Delight. (Hopefully I'll get some good pictures sometime this week and can share with you next Saturday.) I've also made a lot of progress on the first Christmas present. I have the back, left side of the front, and a sleeve finished. All I have pictures of though is the back.

If you're wondering what I'm making I'm using the Northshore Cardigan pattern from Lion Brand Yarn.

Pinwheels of the Past Part 3

You're going to have to forgive me with this post. I've been working on this quilt and randomly taking pictures in preparation of sharing them with the blog, but since I wasn't actively posting at the time I wasn't focused on taking good pictures. It also meant that when I got the quilt put together I was so excited I pinned everything together and began hand quilting without taking pictures of the finished top. I did go back and take pictures of the half that doesn't have quilting on it and it gives you a pretty good idea of what the whole quilt will look like. (Sorry for the poor lighting. It was late at night. When the quilt is finished I promise I'll take it outside and find a good setting for the revealing shots.)

It will be a very long time until the quilting is finished so I've decided to give you a sneak peak of the quilting too. I found a quilt stencil that I'm using on the white squares. It doesn't show up very well in the picture, but the thread is the same teal as the boarder. In the pinwheel blocks I'm doing in the ditch quilting around the pinwheels and the outside of the blocks.

Pinwheels of the Past part 2

Last week I showed you how to make the first part of the pinwheel blocks. After you've sewn your four half square triangles (HSTs) together you'll have a pinwheel block. Lots of quilts can be made with just this block, but I chose to take mine a step further. Last week I mentioned that I used three charm packs for this quilt. I chose to use the more solid colored charm squares as my pinwheels and used the more patterned pieces as the background fabric. The first part of the block uses one and one print squares to create your pinwheel.

Next I took the remaining two squares of print, cut those in half, and added them to the pinwheels.

Ignoring the fact that my block has magically changed colors this is what the finished block looks like. (Did I mention you're making 24 of these pinwheel blocks?)

Pinwheels of the Past

I went to post more pictures of the Hobbit quilt and discovered I didn't bring my camera. (I'm writing this at a coffee shop so I can't run across the room and get them. Sorry.) Since Coffee Lover's Delight is on hold until I can get my machine fixed I decided to share another quilt I've been working on. I don't know how many quilts one person should have in progress at a time, but I may be approaching that number.

This quilt is called Pinwheels of the Past and has been in the works for a year now. I received the fabric as a birthday present two years ago. My husband works overnights and my sewing space is about 30 feet from our bed so I try not to sew when he's sleeping. The result of this is that I had a pattern figured out and my fabrics divided into blocks and then spent three months waiting to find time to sew. After waiting patiently (as patiently as I could at least) I decided to piece the quilt by hand. If my great grandmother and the thousands of quilters who came before me could quilt without a sewing machine, why couldn't I?

I used three charm packs for this quilt. (For those who are curious I used Just Wing It by Moda.) To begin with I sewed two squares together around all four sides. I used a pencil and drew in my quarter inch seams. As I got more practice at hand piecing I just sewed with a hem gauge and checked my seams every few inches.

After sewing all four sides I then cut my pieces in half diagonally.

And then I cut them in half diagonally again.

It may seem strange, but when you press them open it starts to make sense.

Rotate your pieces, sew the four blocks together and you have the first part of the pinwheel!

*I first saw this technique for sewing pinwheels on moda bakeshop's page. 

I was looking through my old posts and realized I haven't made any updates on the Hobbit quilt. This quilt has been so slow going. It probably isn't the quilt to learn paper piecing with, but the subject appeals to me a lot. I've loved Lord of the Rings for years and was inspired to read the book because of this project. Here's two more of the blocks.

Dwarves' Cloaks in the Hall

The Road out Bilbo's Door

For patterns please visit Fandom in Stitches There and Back Again. I've got three more blocks done so check back next week to see some more of what I've finished.

Christmas in July???

I've heard of Christmas in July, but I don't think that they meant starting on the Christmas presents you want to make. I've had a list growing of people I want to knit for. Right now my list only has two presents that are definite (read that as I've bought the yarn for the items.) Last Christmas I woke up early Christmas morning so I could finish sewing the seams on my husband's sweater. I can't promise I won't put myself in the same bind, but I'm going to try to do it with a bit more sanity this year. One reason I've decided to start for a holiday that is still 6 months away is I'm challenging myself to learn new techniques. I started knitting a year and a half ago and haven't moved very far beyond the knit and purl stitches. In the six months since Christmas I've learned how to make socks and now I'm challenging myself to cable. So far I have seven inches on the back of my first cardigan done.

Those lucky enough to be on the knitting list know that I can't keep gifts a secret so I'll publish the items as I make progress on them. I will however keep it a secret who's getting what and recipients will just have to hope the item they like best is for them. (Or that the things they hate aren't headed their way!)

Coffee Lover's Delight part 2

I got a little side tracked with Coffee Lover's Delight. I went to my local quilt shop (LQS) to purchase fabric for the sashing and the back of the quilt and discovered they had two charm packs of the Java fabric line left. I was a bit worried about the quilt being too small so I snatched those babies right up. I started laying things out and realized I only needed 10 more squares, but since I had the previous 20 squares from the first two charm packs laid out with duplicate prints in the corners I decided it was okay to only use half of the fabric in each charm pack.

I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures of the new blocks, but they look like the others. I have gone off of Mary Lane Brown's quilt pattern a bit. To really make the Xs and Os pop I wanted to add sashing between my blocks. I cut the brown 2.5"x10" and have added 2.5" white corner stones to each block. The result is a 2" sashing that's the same width as the center squares in my blocks. For this quilt I decided to add the sashing on two sides of each block and then sew the blocks together rather than trying to wrestle with long pieces of sashing and creating more points to get off. When finished there will be brown on all sides of the block and white squares at each corner. Here's what two of the blocks look like with the sashing.

                 

I have all of the rows sewn together and have half of the rows combined for the top. Unfortunately my machine has broken down and the repair shop is an hour and a half away so it will be a while before there are any more updates on Coffee Lover.