Quilts!

I finally got to a Vintage Stitchers meeting!

You have already seen quilt tops and UFOs from Barbara's friend who passed away. The one above is a duplicate of one Barbara has already made (I think with different fabrics), so she was looking for a good home for it. It's machine-pieced and hand-appliquéd. The fabrics are mostly from the same Robyn Pandolph line I had used to make this quilt for DDIL1 a couple of years ago.

Since she's a quilter, and it coordinates with the other one, I thought DDIL1 might like to have it to quilt.

Barbara also has this one from her late friend. She will be taking it to be quilted. With luck (and fewer blizzards), you'll get to see it finished.

Speaking of Barbara's finished quilts, you may remember this one as a finished top.

Carol was putting the binding on this quilt, a BOM on the theme "Nursery Rhymes" made with '30s reproduction fabrics.

Marilyn had finished this machine-embroidered Christmas quilt.

Janet had helped a friend new to quilting make this T-shirt quilt. This is the friend's second quilt. (You can only see part of it, but there is a very large pope in the upper left-hand corner, doing a thumbs up.)

Barbara had just picked up this cross-stitch of hers from the framer. It will go on the wall to represent summer.

After Vintage Stitchers, I stopped by Davidene's to drop off my Kaleidoscope quilt for quilting and select some backing for it.

This is the top I made using the Kaleidoscope line from Connecting Threads. It was inspired by the line of fabrics on the back of the catalog. It has been finished for a long time, but I haven't had the money to get it quilted.

Speaking of quilting, I made some progress on my "Sistine Chapel" quilt. The Delectable Mountain blocks alone one side are half done.

My Impari Shawlette is done. I wore it on Sunday with my yellow turtleneck and navy cardigan and slacks.

We finally had a break in the weather, so I got outdoors to get a photo of Vroni in her new sweater and hat in real snow. She had the hat on, but the girls were throwing snowballs, and she got hit in the kitty ear. (There was a lot of giggling.)

I decided to make a steeked Fair Isle sweater for one of the dolls using the leftovers from my "So-not-my-palette Cardigan." I'm hoping it will fit Dolly. We'll see. I actually have three in my head, with different structure and different colors. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, Valentine's Day is almost upon us, so I snapped this photo of the "girls" sharing their Valentine chocolates with Vroni. (They've been telling her that chocolates aren't fattening if they are given to you by someone who loves you.)

I'm not sure she's buying it.

What's on my needles: Still the Impari Shawlette. The March of the Fibres is still waiting in the wings. Still hand-quilting my “Sistine Chapel,” working on the first border.

What's on my Featherweight: Still waiting for a new assignment.

What's on my loom: Still the leftover warp from the Multi Scarf. I still don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet..

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is set up again with more Full Circle spinning fiber, but feeling lonely.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Footsteps in the Dark, a mystery by Georgette Heyer. Then I listened to The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz. I had listed to it on CD from the library years ago, but I found it refreshingly pertinent to today’s world, even though it was set in the ‘90s. Now I’m listening to Pets on the Couch (nonfiction) by DVM Nicholas Dodman. He’s a behaviorist, and much of what he has learned over the years has human applications. On the Kindle app, I gave up on The Housewife Assassin’s Deadly Dossier by Josie Brown. I had a hard time finding the plot in among all the sex. I haven’t really decided what to read next.

What's in my wine glass: Glen Ellen Reserve California Merlot, 2014 vintage. Very nice.

What's my tip of the week: When picking out quilt backing for a quilt that has lots of plain white or other very light background, be sure your backing won’t “visit” the front when you’re done. A fabric that’s printed on the right side but almost white on the wrong side will work well, or another light color. Place the backing wrong-side-up on a table or counter, and put your quilt top over it in a single layer. If you can’t see the backing with no batting in it, you won’t see it after it’s quilted. If you can see it, try with a bit of batting between the layers.

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.

Can I Take a Nap?

Common Threads met at Janet's on Thursday.

Janet was sewing the binding on Joanie's pine tree quilt. This is a wall hanging we (Joanie's friends who quilt) helped Joanie make, using a very simple paper-pieced design. The concept and the fabric choices were Joanie's, and she made one of the blocks. We had a work party at her house and helped her. Julie donated the batting and the machine-quilting services, and Janet, as I've said, is sewing on the binding. 

Margareth has turned into an accomplished quilter. She has just finished this queen-size quilt top for the bed in her cabin. She put a lot of herself into the design. (If you look closely, you can see a bear cub in the tree next to the moose, who looks concerned about the activities of the beaver.)

Her first quilt is all done but finishing the binding. This was a log-cabin pattern, to which she added bear appliqués. It will go on the wall of her cabin.

Susan, one of our part-time members, showed up with this lovely scarf.

She also brought this shawlette. The edges fall in a delicate spiral.

The Women's March on Saturday had a Park City location. This was complicated because, as you can see, the Sundance Film Festival had begun. It took us an hour to reach the staging area by car. (Georgette's DH drove us.) It was only 13 miles, but it took us an hour because of the snow and traffic. About double the number of people turned up as were expected, and authorities estimate that there were 8,000+ people in the march, not counting the festival goers who didn't participate (some did) or the skiers. 

Our "plan" was to take the bus back to Quarry Village, the last bus stop, where Lynda had left her car. The buses covering the route we needed to take couldn't get back to the transit center a block off Main St., and buses were unable to turn around in the transit center because of all the people. We were unable to board any buses for a while, because they were full. We had to walk to the Deer Valley bus stop and wait for a bus to take us out of the area to a place where we could catch the bus we needed. The next bus that came was going off duty for his lunch break, and the one after that didn't go where we needed to go, but we took it anyway, because it got us closer. Rather than wait at the next bus stop for another hour, we walked about half a mile to the bus stop where we could catch the correct bus. There was another 45-minute wait before we finally boarded the bus that went to Quarry Village. There were no seats, and it was a real crush, but eventually enough people got off so we were able to find seats. When we arrived at Quarry Village, we were exhausted and hungry, so we decided to go to Billy Blanco's for lunch.

When I got home, I crashed on the couch and took a nap with the pups. We've been having a lot of snow lately. When we had one day with a few hours of sun in the middle of the week, I took the pups out for a romp. (The snow is deeper than it looks. The pups don't sink in very far.)

Dusty and Rocky have become good pals. Rocky loves is little brother so much he actually is willing to accept some kisses. (I think it's why they're called "French" poodles.)

My fiber fun this week was to finish dressing Gabi and Dolly. After I gave away most of their clothes, leaving them with only summer attire, I found I couldn't look at them without feeling cold. Debonair Designs is having a Polarscape KAL (Knit Along) featuring her newest pattern, and it seemed a good time to join in on a fun project and make the girls look warmer.

I CO Gabi's sweater a week ago Saturday, so I would have something small to take along when we went to the theater that afternoon. After I finished the sweater and hat, using Knit Picks Palette in "white" held double, I took Gabi out to get photos in the real snow.

The pattern is designed for Götz dolls, which are slimmer than American Girl dolls. Gabi is closer to their size, so it worked out well for her as written. Dolly is almost the same size as most of the American Girl dolls, though. When I tried the sweater and hat on Dolly, it would close in the back, but the button band stretched out, and the sweater and hat both looked tight. I wanted to try working the sleeves in the round anyway, so I went up a needle size for both ribbing and body knitting to get a looser knit and produce a bigger sweater. I worked the sleeves in the round using two circular needles.

Using larger size needles makes the fabric longer as well as wider, so, to keep the sleeves from being too long, I stopped the sleeves one pattern repeat (one cable) short for the BO for the underarm. I described my modifications on the Ravelry page for the project. It was snowing yesterday when I finished the hat. I'll try to get photos out in the backyard when the sun comes out again, hopefully in a day or two.

I worked Dolly's hat in the round with two circular needles. It required a bit of though, because I had to reverse the stitches in the instructions every other round, not just K to P and vice versa, but also working backwards on those rounds from how the pattern was written. It worked out well, though. Gabi's hat has no pompom, but I improvised one for Dolly's hat. It's nice to have the girls hang out in my fiber studio without feeling cold every time I see them.

I'm ready to CO for the Impari Shawlette using the yarn DDIL2 gave me for birthday (Twisted Owl Superwash Merino Worsted). She and I are going to knit these as a KAL. I may get back to my Trickle Brick Socks, but I also have plans to start the March of the Fibres sweater for DH.

My priority this coming week will be to work on the scarf on my loom and the hand-quilting on my "Sistine Chapel" (Delectable Pathways) quilt.

What's on my needles: The Trickle Brick Socks, and just CO the Impari Shawlette. The March of the Fibres is waiting in the wings.

What's on my Featherweight: Still waiting for a new assignment.

What's on my loom: No progress on the scarf for DD this week, but I went to the loom and admired my progress a few times. 

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is set up again with more Full Circle spinning fiber, no progress this week.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen, a very interesting story. I think I have another series of stories to listen to. Now listening to All the Winters After by Seré Prince Halverson. Very interesting so far. On the Kindle app, I'm reading Mistletoe at Moonglow by Deborah Garn. A cozy story in the tradition of Debbie Macomber and Marie Bostwick. Nice for bedtime.

What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec, one of our staples.

What's my tip of the week: When taking photos of quilting or textured knitting (such as Aran, cables, etc.), don't use a flash, diffused or reflected light or other light source from the same direction as the camera. Placing the quilt or knitted item with a light source from the side creates slight shadows that emphasize the quilting or the texture of the stitches.

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.

Mostly Beds

Vintage Stitchers is meeting again after the holidays.

I took my finished Kaleidoscope quilt top to lay out on Janet’s lovely big floor. Most of the fabrics for this quilt are from Connecting Threads Kaleidoscope line, but a few from my stash thrown in. The background fabric is Kona Snow. I adapted the pattern "Fresh" from "Simply Retro with Camille Roskelley: Fresh Quilts from Classic Blocks.” I just changed the block to eliminate most of the extra seams. I also matched up the fabrics in each block, so there are only four different fabrics in each block plus the background fabric.

Janet is making the same quilt, but according to the directions in the book, with the extra seams and the scrappy look.

Janet has finished this Christmas quilt top, one she has been working on for several years. It was a BOM from Thimbles and Threads in Draper.

She also showed us this Posy quilt top.

Barbara also has finished a BOM quilt top.

When she was choosing fabric for the alternate blocks and border, another customer in the store kept telling her she had to use brown. We think the red is just the thing. In quilting or knitting, “one man’s meat,” as they say. Some people like meat, and some are vegetarian. There are no rules for color, only suggestions to use if you can’t come up with what you like on your own. It's "play," after all.

Marilyn had finished this French Braid top for a table runner. It doesn’t go with her decor, but it does go with Rebecca’s, so Marilyn gave it to Rebecca to finish.

Julie was working on this machine-pieced Cathedral Windows piece for a pillow.

She and her daughter bought a layer cake jointly. Julie liked these fabrics, and her daughter liked some of the other fabrics, mostly black patterns, so they shared it.

Julie, Janet and Carol, from Common Threads, have all been taking the Stitching Society class in wool and flannel appliqué at Davidene’s. Julie has finished this piece:

Janet has finished more hexagons for the class:

Barbara had seen Julie’s needle case for the class and copied it:

Carol has tons of yellow and grey fabrics left over from her foray into that colorway, so she’s making a Dresden Strip quilt:



Rebecca is going to appliqué these Kaffe fabric hexagon patterns onto a background.

I also used Janet’s nice big floor to get a photo of my Crystal Stars (aka “Ocular Migraine”). The direction of the light source really shows off Julie's lovely quilting.

This quilt was one I designed after Connecting Threads “Sumptuous,” which was available in a kit but not the pattern alone. I eliminated a lot of the seams for it, too, as described in this previous blog of mine.

Remember the Kitty Julie made for her granddaughter for Christmas? She now has a nightgown.

The Kitty is from Little Cotton Rabbits. They also have a bunny, a fox, an elephant, a mouse and a monkey. You can pick a girl or a boy.

Julie improvised this dress.

Here's another dress.

The monkey is for Julie’s younger granddaughter.

Meanwhile, Dolly’s adventures continue. Remember that extra skein of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino left over from the Valentine outfit I couldn’t bring myself to take back to Wasatch & Wool? The planned cardigan turned out nicely.

Lana on Quilt With Us told me about making a bed for 18” dolls using a plastic tote, and offered to loan me the pattern. I went online and found instructions here. The mattress goes on top of the lid, and the doll’s clothes and accessories can be stored inside.

O. M. G.! Lana opened up another rabbit hole for me, and down I went. Of course, I took liberties with the instructions. It’s my way. I mentioned it in the American Girl Knitters group on Ravelry, and inspired Shaggytoby to make the project, too. We have been bouncing ideas off each other.

I used a Sterilite Underbed Box 28 Qt., Model #1846 DH found at Walmart for $4.38. To keep the mattress from sinking into the depression when Dolly lies down, I cut a piece of an old political sign the same size as the mattress, which is 16 X 23”, 1” foam (left over from Dolly’s chair), and put it in the under the foam in mattress cover at the base. I put the seam in the middle at the bottom, so it wouldn’t show. Dolly doesn’t sink in, but the mattress is still nice and soft, so she can sleep well.

The dust ruffle is four 7" WOF strips of quilting fabric sewn together and hemmed 1/4" and an additional 1/4", gathered at the top and sewn with a 1/4” seam to a piece of muslin cut the shape of the lid of the storage box.

The bedding for Dolly’s bed is coming along. The pillow and the sheets are done.

Dolly is showing you how I made the “fitted” bottom sheet like a pillow case. It took a little more fabric, but no elastic (which I’ll be needing for Dolly’s dresses) and the sheet will stay “tucked in” while she sleeps. All bottom sheets would be made this way, I think, if we could lift our mattresses as easily as we can lift Dolly’s. So far, I haven't bought anything new for this project except for the container. Everything else was in my stash or left over from other projects.

The body of Dolly’s crossover sweater is blocking. I found my sewing “ham” perfect for the job.

Now working on the second sleeve.

Spinners, don’t forget, we’re having a Spin Along on the Knitting Community if anyone wants to join in.

Where? Right here, in the Knitting Community Spin Along.

When? Noon on Friday, February 5 - noon on Monday, February 8, 2016, in whatever time zone you're in.

Equipment: Spindle or wheel. (If you want to use the pencil method to spin, that's OK, too.)

Materials: Any spinable fiber. (Dryer lint, anyone?)

No prizes, no pressure, just spinning together and sharing what we’re doing.

What's on my needles:  Dolly’s Crossover Cardigan for “Dolly’s Out for Shopping” outfit. The Trickle Socks, waiting.

What's on my Featherweight: Kaleidoscope Quilt top finished. Now working on bedding for Dolly’s bed.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished The Dead Key by D.M. Pulley, from Audible. Just started listening to The Final Empire by Bandon Sanderson. Got a special deal on it, along with the next book in the series. Still reading The Other Harlow Girl by Lynn Messina on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Twisted Old Vine Zinfandel 2013, in honor of one of DDIL2’s favorite yarn shops, Twisted, in Portland, Oregon.

What's my tip of the week: If you’re breaking eggs, and a bit of eggshell gets into the eggs, you can use the shell already in your hand to remove it. Nothing cuts through raw egg like eggshell. I like to remove eggs from the carton from the outside in (the last eggs on each end first), to keep the carton balanced. If the carton is at all flimsy, one end can tip, spilling an egg or two onto the floor.

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.

A Look Back, Part I: Knitting

While I'm on vacation, I thought I would report on some knitting projects I've made over the years, before I started my blog. For example, this is the first sweater I made for Charlie (my DH). 

As long as I've known him, he's been an avid skier. (It's funny; he didn't look like this when I married him. He's still pretty cute, for an old guy, though.) The pattern is from "Hand Knits for Men in Bear Brand and Fleisher Yarns, vol. 56. Bear Brand "Shetland and Wool" Purchased at Menlo Yarn Shop in San Diego, 1964.

I made this sweater for him in 1965. I wonder if that what why he proposed.

I made this one for myself in 1965. I was tired of the motifs I used for the previous sweater, so I used the same pattern but designed my own motifs.

This Fair Isle vest was completed in 1988 using wool yarn purchased in London in 1988. The pattern is "Katie's Fair Isle" from The Traditional Sweater Book by Madeline Weston, 1986. It's also found in her new book, Country Weekend Knits.

I found the yarn for this in Pitlochry, Scotland, in 1988, and bought enough for this coat and the afghan. It was hand-spun and cheap! The pattern is from Wendy #588 "Outdoor Arans", #1, Ladies Cardigan, shown on the cover, only I exchanged the chain cable for wishbone cable. I made it super-long just because.

Here's the Aran afghan from the hand-spun yarn I purchased in Pitlochry. I finished it in 1989 in California. Pattern is "Killarney," from the Spinnerin book, Fisherman Afghans, 1972.

Here's the intarsia cat pullover I made for our daughter in 1989 from Cat Knits by Melinda Coss. the mice are 3D, and each one has his own pocket. Besides the one you can see, there is one on the sleeve and one on the back.

This Fair Isle card vest I completed in 1989 using yarn purchased in London in 1988. The pattern is "Diamond Fair Isle" from The Traditional Sweater Book by Madeline Weston, 1986.

This Kaffe Fassett's "Carpet Pattern," made with leftover yarns and sale bin finds, using intarsia. It's from his Glorious Knitting, 1985. I also made the coat in that chapter in the book.

Persian Poppy Waistcoat from Kaffe Fassett at the V & A. Finished in 1989. Used miscellaneous bits and pieces of yarn for this project.

Sunbeam’s 1157, Aran jacket. I used an acrylic yarn, which I had on hand. I made this while we were living in Indonesia for a holiday trip to New Zealand. The photo was taken during a day cruise on the Milford Sound on the west coast of South Island. Matching hat pattern was not included in the pamphlet.

Cable-down Raglan from Interweave Knits Spring 2007. Made from Countrywide Windsor 8 ply D.K. from New Zealand, 100% wool. Completed in time for Easter, 2007.

There are more, but I hope you'll find something here that inspires you to knit a sweater for yourself or others. Next week I'll show some of my older quilts.

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.