Saturday, January 29, 2011

Jaliyah's quilt update

Today I'm working on finishing the quilt top.  I'm up to putting on the borders.  Here's what I have so far.


This picture actually gives a pretty good rendition of the colors even though I used a flash.  I'll be adding white borders tonight.

"J" is for Jaliyah!



I'm not the world's greatest at applique, just haven't had enough practice, but I thought this came out pretty good.  I had to track down a font that wasn't all curlicue because I just couldn't deal with it...lol  And I wanted a letter that was a little more modern.  Considering I have a Baltimore Album quilt as one of my "to-do's" I'd better start practicing more.  I did needle turn applique on this one, maybe freezer paper would have made it easier.  Anyway...moving on to the borders now. 

Monday, January 24, 2011

A little glitch

Working away on the baby quilt.  Finally found a font that I could live with for the letter J that I'm putting on the quilt.  Trace and cut out the letter, pin it to the block and quickly discover that I haven't got any thread to match the letter.

Well, I do, but it's in storage with ALL OF MY OTHER STUFF!  Sorry to shout, but it was really frustrating.  So now I've put it aside until I return to work on Tuesday when I'll pick up the thread I need.  The worst part is that I know I purchased the color I need to work on some quilt blocks for a swap and not only can I not find the thread I can't even find the bobbins for my sewing machine.  One of which would have had enough thread for me to use for the applique.

Instead of continuing to pout I pulled out the afghan I'm crocheting for my sister and worked on it a bit.

Lory's Warming Stripes Afghan in progress

I really like this stitch, it's a crossed single crochet stitch. You skip one and then go back to crochet in the one you skipped.  It gives it some interesting texture.  But being single crochet, it takes a while to get some size going.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

First quilt start of the year

My cousin became a grandmother for the first time in September (of last year).  I decided to make the baby a quilt.  Chose the pattern, purchased and prepped the fabric and haven't touched it since then.

Today I cut all of the pieces and have started piecing it together.  Not a difficult pattern, but I love it.  I'm hand piecing it, which is actually my preference and will probably hand quilt it as well.  Here's my progress thus far.




The pictures aren't that great, but this is the center portion of the quilt and I will be appliqueing the letter "J" to the center of it in a shade close to the dark pink in the roses.

This is actually the first quilt I have pieced in about four years.  Way too long.  Time to hit the fabric stash with a vengeance.  Cutting out the pieces and sewing them have reminded me of how much I love to quilt.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Some finishes for January

I've actually been getting a few things started and finished.  They aren't huge items, but I like them.  First up, pigs with wings



Well actually one pig with wings and one with a white band.  I'm still thinking about giving him wings, but I'm liking him like he is right now.  Also need to get some seed beads for eyes.

Next up are two very cool dishcloth patterns that I found at neatlytangled's Etsy shop. The first one is A Practically Hyperbolic Dishcloth.  All I can say is it's 9 rounds of perfection.  It's just plain fun to make.






I used a self striping for the multi-colored on and a variegated for the blue one.  This dishcloth almost screams for bright colors but I can see it in softer ones too because of the great waves it has.

The next one is Scrubbing Ruffles and is also from neatlytangled's Etsy shop.  I didn't block this one, I just took it when it was done.  It's like a granny block that's gone all curly on the sides.





And finally for this session are these which if I remember were supposed to be sunflower colored, but I took some liberties with the petals.






I wasn't too happy with my center round because it's all lumpy, but I can fix that in later attempts.

I'm attempting to get an 11 month start on Christmas this year.  I'm hoping to do at least 2 dishcloths a month for use in gift packs at Christmas.  I think I'm seeing a lot of hyperbolics and scrubbing ruffles in my future.

I'm also working on the sofa throw for my sister.  I started over and made it longer that the original pattern.  It's rows of a crossed single crochet that alternates colors every two rows so it's going a little slow.  I've done about 10 rows and it feels like it's not getting anywhere...but I'm determined to get it finished.