Full string quilt

Taken just now on a sunny (and cold) day outside. I love making string quilts.  It's all about the color!

A new spring quilt!!

 I love making string quilts.  Anything goes, and they are mindlessly easy to do.  So this is the latest one.

A little bit of patchwork

 2 more blocks today.  I'm the world's slowest quilter because I don't sew assembly-line style.  I like to choose my fabrics as I go along.  It's the best part of the process.  Speed?  Meh.  Pretty?  Yep.

They do look wonky, and probably are, but when assembled, quilted, and washed and crinkled, they will look just fine.  I think I'm the Wonky Quiltarian.

More blocks

4 more blocks for B's quilt.  I must be the slowest quilting in the country.  Takes me forever, not that I'm in a hurry.  The best part of quilting is picking out what fabrics go next to each other.  That's what takes me so long.

Knitting?  Same old stuff. 

Knot a Garden

She's sort of like a knot garden, but not a knot garden, so her name is Knot a Garden quilt.

Differences in colors are due to sun or shade. 

A couple more photos.  I'll post more pics after she's been quilted.

Feels like

Spring is in the air.  Not really here, of course, but you can almost taste it. 

Here's my ode to the imminent season:  Spring Has Sprung!  Hourglass blocks surrounded by a border of green sprinkles on a white background, sort of like early grass.  Bad photography because the borders look more turquoise or blue that white with green leafy blades.  Ah well, maybe next time I'll get better pictures.

Maybe I'll even get it done by the first day of spring.  Possible.

Progress

Here's the layout of my Cranberry Chutney quilt.  It hardly looks like cranberry let alone chutney.  I need a new name.  The photo is not great.  The blues are pretty accurate, but you can't see the warm beige of the contrasting blocks. Ah well.

I now have 2 rows sewn together.  It goes very quickly since I don't have to match anything except for the points of the block.

Now what to make next?

Bardy's quilt

Bardy was a very dear friend. I was one of his opera dates, and we went to many concerts at Lincoln Center.   He passed away a year and a half ago.  I was so pleased when his wife asked me if I could make a quilt from his shirts.  And here it is!  The pictures don't do justice to the fabric, but trust me, the quilt is so lovely. 

As I was going through the shirts, I realized that turquoise was a main color.  So, Bardy, here you are.  I hope that Sue Ellen can curl up under your quilt and feel you there.

Happy all new projects year!

I kind of fell off the radar since the beginning of Chanukah.  What with holidays, company, dinners, all the usual frivolities of a combined season of Chanukah, Christmas, and New Year, I just forgot to post.  What I finished is not photographed:  3 pairs of socks for Little Kid, a sweater and some mismatched socks for Miss P, etc.  I finished the Bardy quilt, but I haven't photographed it yet.  I'm moving at a snail's pace these days.

But, I'm happy to report 2 socks on needles, both for me, a top-down sweater on fingering wt yarn (takes forever) also for me, a scarf for my SIL (needs 2 more inches), and I just finished all the blocks for a new quilt.

Ta da!  My take on the Cranberry Chutney quilt.

Mine is done in muted blues and creams, not my usual crazy color choices.  I had a bunch of blues/cream fat quarters that had been marinating on my fabric shelf for centuries.  I saw this pattern and thought that this would be fun to do, and it was.

So here's my pile of 64 blocks, just waiting for me to lay out and sew together.

And that's where I am.

Strings and Blobs

So I have another quilt that needs to be bound. This one is my usual string quilt, which is my all-time favorite quilt to make:  all the fun of color play, and mindless sewing.  I just finished cutting off the backing and batting, and the quilt is hanging out on my dining room table.  I'll make the binding later on and then sew and hand-sew.

And, here's the latest lace blob picture.

And the lace blob on top of the string quilt.

And that's it.  Whirligig proceeds slowly, so not much point in taking a picture of an added block.  But stay tuned, at some point I'll photograph something here.

Lots of goodies

I've been remiss in keeping up this blog, but I haven't been unproductive.  Here's what's in progress:

Quilting

 

One lonely little Whirligig block in progress.  Karen from Quilts...etc. has decided to take the plunge and make this quilt, too.  Given how awesome a quilter she is, she'll be done way before I even finish the next row.  Just take a look at her hand quilting and applique.

My Cake Mix quilt is now being assembled.  Top pic is of my placement.  Bottom one is actually sewn together.  I do love these Cake Mixes; it's the way for me to go with half-square triangles.  Perfection and no bias mess.  I ordered Brenda Henning's Triangulations for future HST moments.

One Exploding Block quilt back from the quilter, and now being bound.  I do love hand stitching my binding down.  Can't tell you why, but it is satisfying.

Knitting

One lace shawl needing a good blocking.  Mostly garter stitch with some easy and interesting lace bands.  Two skeins of sock yarn with leftovers, which will go into Miss P's never-ending mismatched socks.

The boring sleeve from Miss P's yoke sweater in progress.  I sent out a sleeve and the body for her to try on.  She's at least 5'7", so I can't base the fit on my size.  Now the pieces are back and make perfect TV watching knitting.  I'm looking forward to working on the yoke.

A brand new lace shawl from the amazing Anna Victoria.  This one is Mermaid's Lair, and it is a lovely challenge to knit.  I like her charts very much.  I'm not one for written directions, but give me a chart, and I'm a happy camper.  

Yes, the shawl looks like an old rag with a lot of holes.  In actuality, that's what it is:  a piece of knitting with a lot of holes (yarn-over) and decreases.  Wait until it's blocked!  I've stretched out a bit at the top so you can get an idea of who it will be.

And that's all.  Pardon me, now, while I get back to work on any and all of these goodies.

Some layouts

The donkey work continues, but it is very pleasant to do.

So I started to play around with possible layouts.  It's amazing just how many ideas there are.  In no particular order, here they are:

Just looking at them now, I think I like #3 and the last one the most.  It's funny how a photograph gives me a better idea of how they will look