Snowball Rail Fence. Quilt-As-You-Go quilt

I started a class last week Tues at The City Quilter in New York.  This one is a Snowball Rail Fence, and it is constructed as a quilt-As-You-Go quilt.  I'm having such fun with it.  I can make my mismatched seams and wonky lines, and it looks adorable.  Clearly I'm not meant to be a traditional quilter.  I'm too innacurate for that, but I have mastered wonky.  Not by choice, but because that's the way I sew.  So here's a pic of what I have so far.  I don't think it will be much larger since it's meant to be a little wall hanging.

Those turquoise corners turn the square into a snowball.  Neat, huh?  Yep, all you experience quilters, I know.  This is not brain surgery type of quilting, but it suits me just fine.  There will be a little bit of that turq fabric put in where the blocks come together.  Cute and fun as can be.

Here's another layout:

I'm using all batiks.  I just love them to pieces, literally.  And the colors are glorious.

So which do you like better?  I'm leaning toward the top layout.  I did try alternating vertical and horizontal blocks, but it looked too mish-mash for me.  If you look at each block, you'll see that none of my stripes are the same width.  This was actually done on purpose.  I decided to embrace wonky-ness.  Also, some of them are on a bit of an angle.  That was also done on purpose.  OK, I lied.  That's the way I sew, but I've also embraced that bit of off centered stuff, and I like it.

Am I ever going to be an ace quilter?  Are you kidding?  But I'm having the time of my life with this.  Elder DD already wants a real quilt made this way.  For that, I'd make the blocks bigger.  She'll have to pick out fabric with me.  It's a tough life, but someone has to make these decisions.  And then I thought I could make place mats using this strip method.  A busy print on the other side (these things are reversible), which would hide the Hub's food messes (evil laugh here), and an assortment of something or other on the front side.  Again, I'll have to make the sacrifice of buying more fabric, but I'm tough and can handle that.

Knitting is proceeding apace.  I made an idiotic mistake on the charting for Arachne's Delight (see previous post), but I think I fixed it.  DragonYady, the poor soul, gets to test knit it, so keep your fingers crossed that I've repaired my goof.

Otherwise, I'm making socks for me.  Nothing exciting, in fact I'm using some of my patterns which are on Ravelry.  I like the patterns, haven't knit anything beyond basketweave in many months, so I'm happy to repeat some of what I've already done.   Pics?  Boring.  They are just cute socks.

Sharon - I wonk; therefor I am, I guess.  I think wonk comes naturally to me, precision is totally not me.
 Henya - It's not particularly difficult, the problem lies in my inability to both cut straight lines and sew a straight seam.  So, to compensate for that, I've decided that wonky quilts will be my forte.  If you can't beat 'em, you might as well join 'em.

Light and Dark Lace Club - October is here

It's time to sign up for the October shipment of the Light and Dark Lace Club!  This month, we're using real lace yarn as a change from the fingering yarns we've been knitting.  Here are the colorways:

In order from left to right:  Hot Chocolate, Woods Edge, Moody Blues, Bodacious, Roasted Pepper, and Toffee.

The yarn is Lili Lace yarn.  100% SW merino, 2 ply and slightly heavier than regular lace yarn.  850+ yards of lacy goodness.  It knits up so beautifully, you get all these lovely lacy holes, and it's a joy to work with.  Because it's superwash, it loves dye.  Hand wash even though it's superwash.

If you are new to lace weight yarn, this is a great way to get your feet wet.  If you are an old hand at lace, you'll love this weight.

The mystery pattern is called Arachne's Delight, and it's as airy as can be.  Three lovely patterns, the first one being rather sneaky.  A less sneaky pattern for the second one, and the border (aka the NEB - the never-ending border) is such fun to work.

Price for the package is $35 + shipping.  I mail out first class, both domestic and international.  I have a lot of yarn, so you can purchase whatever you wish.  If you buy more than one skein, I'll refund you the extra pattern cost.

Questions?  Ask me here or in our Ravelry Group:  http://www.ravelry.com/groups/light--dark-lace-club

Where to purchase?  http://fritzl.etsy.com

Do the Day - Steam is my best friend! Got a pic?

Lacy Angles is here.

Do you  need a lacy little shawl to keep your shoulders warm and to look elegant and lovely?  Look no farther than here.  Presenting Lacy Angles Shawl, a shawl of slanted stitches.  A mere $6, and you can knit it too.

And she's now available for purchase.  This was the June selection for the Light & Dark Lace Club, and I've released it on Ravelry.  Yay, Ravelry.  I love Rav to pieces.

 

Lacy Angles is knit top down with a center and a wing on either side of the center pattern.  The shawl is ended with a NEB (never-ending border), which is fun and finishes the shawl as you knit along.  When you are done with the NEB, all you have to do is weave in the beginning thread and the last stitch.  Block, and then you are done.

It takes one 400 yard skein of fingering weight yarn, size 5 circular needle, tapestry needle, stitch markers.  An intermediate pattern, although a confident beginner could do it too.

Thanks, Henya!
krayolakris - I kept saying it as Angeles. 
 Wall-to-wall books - They're not that difficult.  I've had beginners knit them with great success.  I'm about to post the Oct edition.  Wait until you see that one!  Well, you won't see it 'cause it's a mystery KAL, but you'll get to see the yarns!