Connie

Amy's MIL Connie is a big quilter. Due to failing eyesight and portability, she only works on hex quilts these days, and they are done completely by hand. She likes to test the limits of the hex while remaining true to the traditional quilting patterns and methods. I was visiting Connie the other day to do some finish work on her bookshelves. She's also in a state of divesting her quilt library. Welcome to MY new quilt book collection: While I was there, I chatted to her a bit about her quilts, and managed to get some pictures of her 3 most prized quilts, which are the main features of 2 bedrooms in her home. This first one is made from 2" hexes. Connie collected fabrics from all of her neighbors and students and parents and all the people in her life at the time, and made this fantastic traditional flower hex quilt. She said she enjoyed working on the hex quilts while her kids were young due to how easy it was it was to take along with her. The quilting itself took longer than the top - she couldn't take it with her, and had to work on it in spurts here and there. But she got it done! Connie decided to take the hexes a step further - this next quilt is constructed of hexes that end up being 1/2" once sewn. She says this is the smallest reasonable (HA!) size to work with and still have shape and pattern recognition in the finished quilt. This quilt is BANANAS. Due to the excess material behind each hex piece, the finished quilt has a slightly puffed-hex feel to it. She opted to maintain the hexagonal edges on this one. The finished piece is about 40" x 30". I got the impression from Connie that the quilt she is most proud of is her Bicentennial Quilt. It's a red-white-and-blue hex quilt that is chock full of fussy-cuts. In talking with her, she mentioned that many bicentennial quilts were constructed to include parts of ancestral centennial quilts that were never completed! Connie didn't have any of those on hand, but she also did not want to leave her children with an unfinished quilt. She opted to have the hand-quilting done by someone else, but maintained the traditional quilting patterns. She also "signed" it in 2 corners, with fussy cuts of her name. Connie's asked me to help her sign the back of these quilts by embroidering her signature on the back of each. Hooray! It will be great to get a better feel of how they're made. More Connie chronicles to come - she claims to have some unfinished quilt pieces to pass on to me, and I'm sure to be inspired by this bundle of books!

On Hand-Quilting

It's been cooling off a bit this week (finally!) and that means I can get back to some quilting! I've had a few quilts in assorted states of non-completion due to hand-quilting. I thought I'd chatter a bit about hand-quilting and how I do it, when I do it, and all that jazz. I hand-quilted all of my quilts for a few years, simply due to the logistics of having to cram an entire queen-sized quilt into my wee machine and definitely wanting to work from the center out. In my thinking about it, I was pretty convinced that the maneuvering of a large quilt in the machine would take me about the same time to quilt as it would take to work it up by hand. I've since learned that this is not true, and I've become quite comfortable with machine-quilting. But every once in a while a quilt demands hand-quilting! Right now I'm working my way through this Retro Flowers quilt. I'm working 2 lines of quilting within each petal of the flower (I can go back in and do another round if I think it needs it). I knew that I wanted to quilt this within each petal, and I machine-quilted 2 petals and did not like it one bit! The curve of the petals is a bit too tight to be able to comfortably manipulate the entire quilt through. I ripped that stitching out (...before getting a picture, sorry!) and decided that hand-quilting would be the best way to go. I tend to do any hand-quilting using 2 strands of DMC floss rather than traditional quilting thread. I also work the stitches to be a bit longer. I figure if I'm going to go to the trouble of hand-quilting the whole thing, I want it to show, to be a design element. I also find that it lends itself to a stronger motif on the back of the quilt: For some quilts, the decision to hand-quilt is largely a logistical issue. I've decided to hand-quilt the Vortex Quilt because the quilt is IMMENSE - it's ~80" square. I also thought it might be a bit of a beast to run through the machine, as there are many many many tight seams piled up very close together toward the center. Due to the size of this quilt and the overwhelming task of hand-quilting it, I've had the help of some friends! It's getting quilted up bee-style, with each person working on a different portion of the quilt. While this leads to a bit of unevenness in the stitching, I'm not too concerned - I think the quilt is large enough and things are distributed enough that it won't matter in the end. (Also, it will be DONE!) This simple Crosses Quilt also received the hand-quilt treatment: Again, I think this was a decision based on size. I find that I am also more prone to hand-quilt if the quilt-top can be broken down into a base shape - squares, circles, petals. That way I can gauge my progress a bit more, and I can set "goals" for myself when I'm working on it (...only 2 more squares...) For this green quilt, I treated the large empty squares with diagonal stitches of tangerine and mimicked the lines of the pieced blocks in white and green. That was all to make the back nicer: I also love how the hand-quilting feels in the completed quilt - it really puckers it up nicely. This embroidered bird quilt got it too: Again, largely due to the size of the quilt. But also due to the bird images - any all-over pattern would interfere with the embroidery. And the combination of embroidery with machine-quilting on this Did. Not. Work. If I recall, I may have also been of the twisted mind "Hey, I've already put 600 hours of work into this, what's another 20?" It was definitely the right thing to do in this case. So, that's how I feel about hand-quilting and why I do it sometimes. Stock up on DMC, get your needles and thimbles, and get to it! It's quite satisfying.

Retro Flowers!

Sometime in September I stumbled upon The Retro Flowers Quilt and fell in love.  It was charming!  Simple, bold, striking!  So many possibilities!  I had some leftover fabric from the Vortex Quilt, and set out to recreate the Retro Flowers in solids.



I cut out all of the colored bits and *most* of the white - I used some scrap muslin from one of the sample dresses from my wedding.  And I started sewing.  And sewing.  I worked on this project off and on - whenever I got the sewing machine out, I'd sew up another flower square, bundle everything back up, and let it rest again.  My project rhythm was broken up a bit when I had to cut out more of the white arcs, and that's when the project went on a many-months-long hiatus.

The other day I got everything out again - it was time to just Finish This.  And so I did:



I made 17 flowers, so there will be one included on the back of the quilt.  The top measures about 60" or so square - I put a few inches of sashing around the whole thing.  I ended up supplementing the leftover solids with 5 more colors.  Next will be finding a suitable backing fabric and quilting this baby up!

This project was immensely satisfying - once everything is cut, the flowers go fairly quickly, and it's wonderful to have a completed square in a short time.  I didn't spend too much time figuring out he final placement of the squares - at that point I just wanted them all attached, and I figured it would look fine no matter where they ended up.  I'll likely make another one of these - I think it would be a great stash-buster to make one with prints!

Everything's Coming Up Rabies! I Mean Babies.

I'm in mega-making-things-for-babies mode.  Yet another racket!  Crib sheets are all sold in overpriced sets, everything is too precious.  Taking a hint from knotty bits, I picked up some fabric and made some crib sheets (so fast! so easy!).  Next up: The Quiltening.



Baby quilts are so fast and fun and easy.  It's great to be able to pick out a pattern knowing that you don't have to commit to making enough to cover the whole bed.  I tend to not be as fidgety with baby quilts either because I know they'll just be covered in bodily fluids instantly.  And they're easy to run through the machine for fast machine quilting!  And you don't need mega-yardage.

Anyway, this one.  I picked up that adorable bear fabric awhile back.  I had wanted to make a Carpenters Square Quilt for quite some time, and this seemed a reasonable opportunity to try it out.  It's a piece of cake!  Though I will say that before it got that brown stitching it was a little bit retina searing. 

Next up:



This is one of those Faux Chenille Baby Blankets and Boy Howdy is it easy to make.  And pretty fast!  It is super plush and delightfully soft and cuddly.  I think the rounded corners are charming as well.

I took a break from the quilting and moved on to some knitting and made this little Snug:



This was a super fast knit.  I think I knit it up on US7s?  The yarn is a 3-ply explosion of Hello Yarn goodness in 3 colorways and fibers: "Kale", "Fresh Start", "Spring Loaded" (Falklands/SAF/Merino).  I spun this up 2.5 years ago with no real plans for what it would end up as.  This seems as good a knit as any.  The pattern is clearly written and it is FAST.  It is also *almost* seamless.

I travel next!  Expect adventures and knitterly visits, cheese and mustard, and maybe some Big Sky :)

Spiralling

Two months ago, The American Folk Art Museum held the "Infinite Variety" quilt show in New York for 4 days. Sadly, I did not get a chance to see it in person, but the pictures that were popping up all over the place were inspiring. I was especially intrigued by this one - the optical illusion effect, the simplicity of the design, the whole thing! I HAD TO FIGURE IT OUT.

So when I'm still thinking about it two months later? Yeah, that's a sign that I have to make it. I got out my handy protractor and started to chart the whole thing - I planned on using this lovely pile of colors that I picked up with Kelly in January:


We got a 1/2 yard of each of those 12 Kona Solids - the idea was to make a quilt using those solids and white. I had no ideas.

But then it all started to come together! There was some tweaking, some long division, some cursing, but with much perseverance......


And then the tough part, getting it ALL together.......


It's GIGANTIC! It's about 78" or so across. The center seams are incredibly, um, unseemly - there are 48 seams all converging on one point, making for a LOT of bulk, and a bit of a mess. I appliqued a little quarter-sized circle over the whole mess, and I think it's fine. But the center circles are still all quite thick - it's 3-4 fabric thicknesses for the center foot or so. I'm sure the quilting will be a BEAST - I'll be hand quilting this, as it's just too big to think about running through a machine, and it will gain me a bit more control over the lines and colors. Hoping to begin to tackle the quilting this weekend!

Catching Up

I've been quilting up a storm recently - I decided to make YET ANOTHER Color Wheel quilt, from "Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts". I believe this is the FOURTH one of these that I have made, but I just can't help it! They are really fast, and very satisfying.



I also cut out the arc pieces for 3 more of these while I was in fabric-cutting mode, and those are being distributed to some lucky quilters. One of the sets is heading out to Chawne, who is a gigantic quilting inspiration with all of her lovely, incredible, adventurous, tiny, meticulous sewing. I'm doing a trade with her for a mini-quilt - my end of the bargain was simple: fingerless gloves.



I opted for Eunny Jang's "Endpaper Mitts" (again, knitting these for the FOURTH time) because I ADORE mine and wear them constantly. I love the length of them - there is no chilly exposed wrist when wearing them with a jacket. I knit them to be fairly snug, knowing they may stretch out a bit. The yarn is SCF Club from forever ago, in the "Hades" colorway. It's Polwarth/Tencel, and has a most delightful sheen to it. I spun it up as a 3-ply last year during the Tour de Fleece. I hope she enjoys wearing them as much as I enjoyed making them!

I've been teaching a bit:



Limp Vellum, my favorite binding structure to teach, and such a satisfying book when done.



I've been converting people to "Settlers of Catan", it's such a great game, and has been perfect for kicking the winter doldrums.

Some Things, Completed!

I've actually managed to FINISH some things these past couple of weeks. This may or may not be snow related:



First, this gigantic bundle of handwoven Wensleydale came off the loom. This is handspun Hello Yarn Club Fiber from August 2010 in the "Heirloom" colorway - I spun it into a 2-ply and wove it up on my rigid heddle loom. I currently have one looooong piece of cloth, at about 10 feet x 22 inches (or so). I'll be starting the process all over again in order to get enough cloth to cut up and make a cute swingy jacket. Eventually. Hey, I'm halfway there, right?



Second, I finished this Golden Wheat cardigan, using handspun made from leftover test bundles when I co-dyed with David at Southern Cross Fibres. Mods? Of course. I knit this on US 7 & 9 needles, made it a little bit longer, and I'll be adding a buttonband backing of grosgrain ribbon this afternoon. This sweater is so comfortable and soft! The yarn is delightful - I had some concerns about the skeins not blending well enough, but I'm pleased as punch with how it looks. The fiber that I started out with had no business plying together into something this awesome.



Third, these divine mittens! Okay, I made these a few months ago but they were a test-knit so I couldn't talk about them. BUT HERE THEY ARE NOW. "Flocked Mittens" from Adrian Bizilia, knit in Quince&Co. "Lark" in Split Pea and Glacier. The lining is some brown alpaca that I had hanging around. These are super comfy cozy warm. These have become my go-to shoveling mittens around here.

All of this spinning and weaving and knitting (and teaching!) has been fantastic, and completing things is a good feeling. But I've also got one project looming, this quilt project:



A few weeks ago I made the mistake of fabric shopping with Kelly & Maritza. Kelly had this luscious bundle of solids out, and we each decided to get a half yard of each color to make one big quilt with. So all these rich colors, and white. Those are the only rules. I've been thinking maybe a double wedding ring quilt? Any ideas, suggestions, thoughts on this or OTHER quilts would be great!

End of August

While most people are panicking about the end of August signifying the end of summer, I am breathing a sigh of relief. This summer has been so abominably hot and unbearable, and I am pining for cooler days (and nights).



I finished up this woolen vest, and I am anxious to wear it! It's a handspun blend of 3 Southern Cross Fibers (“Deep Thought” - Oatmeal BFL, “Homeward” - Falkland, “Desert Sky” - Polwarth)with a wee bit of Cascade 200 and unknown wool to finish off the collar and sleeve edges. I knit this completely in the round and steeked it, which I really feel is the way to go with things like this - so fast! So fun! That daring edge of CUTTING your knitting! It's delightfully squishy.

And then I kept knitting.....



I've been wanting to make the Fresco Legwarmers for ages, and when I got my order of the new Quince & Co "Chickadee" yarn I figured it was finally time to cast on. With a few mods for color, and then again for almost-running-out-of-yarn (whoops!), these legwarmers FLEW off the needles. The Quince yarn is wonderfully plump and squishy, and made for a lovely fabric on both US3s and US5s. The stitch definition is wonderful and even - and this is all before blocking!

And I've kept up the quilting, but with a twist:



This is a test square (18" - for a pillowcase) using origami crease patterns. I recently saw the documentary "Between the Folds" which is all about origami and the people who make it. Many of the crease patterns for some of the more complex pieces can be found, and I loved how they looked, so decided to try my hand at translating that to a quilt. This is The Garden Spider. I'm going to try out a few more pillow cases before going big and making a full-sized quilt!

Here it is being sewn:

Actual FOs. Yes. Believe It Or Not.

DONE.



The bird quilt, completed. Just needs a delicate wash and dry, and I'll get some big pictures.

I ended up handquilting the entire thing - I figured I had already put so much time and care into it, a little hand-quilting wouldn't kill me. I didn't use a frame or hoop. I quilted just inside each of the bird squares, and created similar squares in the side panels. I also echo quilted around each bird so there was more stability to the sandwich - the bird squares are each 9.5" and they needed to be quilted down a bit more in the centers.



I've also been test-knitting a bit - I knit this lovely, simple, fast, beautiful shawl for Kirsten Kapur of Throughtheloops:



This the Roma Shawl pattern. I knit it up on some merino/silk sock yarn from Nakedly Knitting, with Koigu KPPPM for the bottom detail and edging. This pattern is delightful - easily memorized, quick, and lovely. This shawl has a GREAT drape to it.

Twenty-Nine.

And then, 3 years after it started, the State Birds Quilt was.....



...NEAR finished.

Okay, so I finished the birds - 29 of them! The embroidery took So long! But finally, finally, 29 birds done. Many states share birds, and DC is included in there as well. Since I've had 3 years to think about the layout of this quilt, 29 actually worked better for me than 28 - I decided to do a 5x5 centerpiece, with bands on the side and the remaining 4 birds on the corners. With sashing:



The actual piecework of this quilt top? Including trip to fabric store for fabric and batt and all that? ONE DAY. Yeah, after 3 years of embroidery, things are moving pretty quickly.

I decided to handquilt it - this is a BEAR of a quilt, at around 76" square, and I couldn't really deal with the thought of throwing it all through the machine. Also, each bird panel is about 10" square, so there would have to be some quilting around the birds. I decided to echo-quilt around each of the birds. yes, I know, it's not quite around "the birds" as I am including any foliage they are on. And this had me worried - would the other side be too blobby? would it be weird? I decided to go with a rather small, busy, floral print for the backing in order to hide most of the quilting and blobbiness.

As it stands now: 80% of the handquilting done on the top, hoping to finish tomorrow and add binding. This thing *may* be done by the end of the week!

TdF Wrap-Up & OSBeeeeee!

As happens this time every year, I have been obsessively watching the Tour de France and spinning for the Tour de Fleece. This year, as most, was EPIC! My goals for the Tour de Fleece were to spin as much as possible, and attempt to get caught up on my Club fibers from Hello Yarn, Southern Cross Fibers, and Spunky Eclectic. I also had some bits and bobs of random fiber around that I was hoping to take care of. A few weeks before the TdF I (finally) invested in some more bobbins for my Majacraft Rose, bringing my total up to 14, and mid-way through the tour I replaced the entire head assembly of my wheel, which had been giving me some difficulties (and being LOUD) for some time now. I learned that my wheel is 10-12 years old! Next on the maintenance list is a new drive band.

But the spinning! I spun the equivalent of a CAT this year!



That's 8 lbs, 03 oz. of fiber, for a total length of 8489 yards (15,648 yards pre-plying). I've got 2 sweaters' worth of yarn in there, a honking skein of color progression laceweight singles, some low-twist singles slated for a woven project, and much much more. My stash runneth over!

I did take some breaks from the spinning - I worked on my first assignment for One Scrappy Bee! Julie Frick requested some Vortex Blocks featuring bunneh fabric:



I couldn't resist giving him fangs. But then the second bunneh seemed to be lacking.....



..so this one got sexy lady eyelashes. I believe rabbit embellishments have been added to her OSB Assignments :) I'm really enjoying this Bee - I love seeing everyone's interpretations of the assigned patterns.

Oh yeah, I knit something too:



This is the Annis Shawlette from a recent knitty. This was a great stashbusting project - I have had this 300 yard skein of alpaca from Touch of Twist for a few years now, and this pattern seemed simple enough, and while it used slightly more yardage, I opted to knit it anyway and go down a needle size. As it is now, it's lovely and light and ethereal, though a bit of an odd size - neither here nor there.