Keeping in Stitches

The Busy Bee Throw is done.

I blocked it after it was sewn together, which was a challenge. I didn't have enough blocking mats, so I used what I had to make a frame and put plastic lawn bags in the middle, so it wouldn't get the rug wet.

The throw is going to come in handy this winter, and it was dry just in time for our first snow of the year. I used City Tweed DK in most of the colors, using "Obsidian" for edging the hexagons, sewing up and a final sc border around the whole thing. The designer is Shaina Scott.

The Kaleidoscope quilt is coming along. I have all the fabric cut and completed two more blocks this past week.

Most of the fabrics are from Connecting Threads' Kaleidoscope line. The pattern was inspired by "Fresh" from Simply Retro with Camille Roskelley: Fresh Quilts from Classic Blocks. I removed a lot of the seams. It takes a little more effort to assemble the blocks, but as my background is in hand-quilting, I'm always looking for ways to eliminate extra seams. I'm having to take some care with bias edges, and some of my fabrics have a direction (one way is right-side up, like having a nap), so I'm having to pay attention to how I put those fabrics together if I don't want the seam to be obvious.

I needed a small project to take with me when we went to the theater during the week, so I CO the Trickle Socks by Katie Douglass. There's not much to show yet, but it will be easy to keep in my purse. I'm using KP's Stroll Tweed in "Firecracker Heather."

Finally (and I mean finally), here's the third (and final) quilt shop in St. George visited with Vintage Stitchers a few weeks ago: Scrap Apple Quilts.

144 W. Brigham Rd. #23

St. George, UT 84790

(435) 628-8226

(800) 994-0097

Hours: 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday thru Saturday

https://www.scrapapplequilts.com

Thanks for giving me a reason to revisit these great quilt shops.

Oh, and one more thing: I'm still out a car. DGD went to pick up her new car on Monday, and over the weekend, someone decided she needed to come up with $1,000 as a down payment. We were trying to work it out, but later in the week they wanted $2,000 down with no change in interest rate, which was exorbitant. She scrapped the whole thing for now. Fortunately the two jobs she works are very close to each other and not far from our home, so we can take her and pick her up when DH and I both need cars. But still. [Sigh!]

What's on my needles:  Hand-quilting the Delectable Pathways and Trickle Brick Socks.

What's on my Featherweight: Kaleidoscope Quilt, four blocks finished.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Just Deserts by Jinx Schwartz, then listened to Sea of Stars by Amy A. Bartol, the second in the Kricket series. This book was left up on the air, so I immediately downloaded the third book, Darken the Stars. (All of these were from Audible.) Still reading Three Silver Doves by Deborah Garn on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Rex Goliath Free-range Shiraz. Yum.

What's my tip of the week: When making socks, if you find yourself with "ladders" where you switch needles, try switching one or two sts at the end of one needle to beginning of the next needle (whether dpns, two circs)  every so often. It's easier to avoid ladders if the new needle starts with a K st. Just be sure you put in a marker for the beginning of rnd, so you don't get your pattern off.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.