Lost no more

For a couple of days now I have been looking for a quilt top (or flimsy, for those of you down under) but it just didn't want to be found. I kept looking in the same places, moving things, thinking I really should clean up some of the piles and then I moved some more fabrics. I knew it wasn't upstairs in the closet that I took over in one of the bedroom. It just didn't feel right even though I looked there a couple of times. I looked some more and then I looked one more time, thinking I could re-arrange another closet just outside my sewing studio. Well, there it was, in one of the plastic see-through containers that I keep a project or two in.

It's called Juniper Hollow and was a free online pattern from McCall's Quilt Magazine or Quick Quilts. It needs a border and shouldn't take too long to quilt but I won't be quilting it next. I have a turquoise and brown quilt to get done for my youngest daughter. But this has now been found and I will keep it in sight to remind me to finish it.

 The beige rectangles are not all the same fabric. I think I used 3 different ones for the large rectangles. With this one, I reversed it. I thought the right side was just a tad to strong in colour. Once again, it's a poly-cotton. All the applique is needle turn. I am still missing one or two other tops but I'm sure they will turn up one day. This is the one that was constantly in my head because I wanted to get it completed.

Preemie hat number 5 is now complete. I hope you can tell that this has some very delicate colours. I have a jumbo ball of this yarn and plan on making a lot more hats with it. I may even make a sweater - who knows.

Have a great weekend.

Works in Progress

They have multiplied.

I am now working on preemie hat number 5 but who wants to see some unfinished knitting.I added my glasses to the photo so that you can have an idea as to how small these are. I dislike photos that show you something and you think it's huge, only to find out that it is small. That pink hat was just a tiny little tightly wound ball of leftover yarn I found and thought I would see if I could get a hat out of it. I am using different patterns just to try them out.

The binding is being put on today.

This is the backing fabric.

 I chose not to double the fabric for the binding. I happen to be very partial to turquoise (it's polyester cotton, too, for those of you who care) and I have very little left. I'd like to know when and why doubled fabric became the norm for binding. All the tutorials suggest you cut wide strips of fabric and then iron it double to use for binding. I even have a kit for a wall hanging and in it, it asks that you cut the binding 3 inches. The seam allowance to sew it on is a half inch so you see more of the binding which is OK because it enhances the rest of the quilt but still, it could have been cut much less. The quilt above is 57" X 64" and since I like my binding fabric, I cut it 1 and 3/4 inches wide which saved a lot of fabric for some future project.  My friend Marg has made many bed quilts in her 30+ years of quilting and she says that none of the edges have needed repair. They are all a single layer of binding and most are being used.

I'm linking up with the Needle and Thread Network. Go ahead and check out what others in Canada are up to this week.
Also linking up with Esther's blog.

A small diversion

As you can see, the quilt has shrunk in the frame. I have been doing other things and weekends are taken up with family.

I did get a bit diverted. Red Heart yarn sends me some "push" advertising via email and just last week they mentioned making items for charities. Preemie hats came to mind and when I was at Zellers (Canada's department store chain) I saw this fun yarn and it just inspired me. I also saw the gorgeous little hats on Ulla's blog. She is a much better knitter than I am but I did manage to knit up this little hat. There are so many free patterns out there once one searches for preemie knitted hats. Lots of crocheted ones too. My goal is to make a whole lot and donate them to some small town/city hospital. Big city hospitals always get more than they need or want and some are even picky as to what they will accept (no pom pom, no acrylic or no wool, etc.) I wish they would put something on their web sites so that we can donate to the place that will accept them. Humane Society web sites quite often have a page dedicated to their wish list so why not have one for hospitals?

And lastly, I did buy some new fabric. Zellers is close to Fabricland and I had seen some of that fabric with the words on it about a week prior only it was in beige and I thought it would make a nice addition to my stash. Well, the beige was not to be found but there was this gray on white so I bought some of it and then I spotted these two white and black fabrics that I figured could be put to good use in a future project. The middle one would make a nice little shirt for Luc too so I picked up a bit extra. It's wrinkled because it is cotton and I already washed it.

I am, once again, linking up with the Needle and Thread Network.

Update on quilting

The quilt boards got new fabric put on and the quilt went on the frame.

I have spent a few hours each day quilting it. I can't overdo it since the fingers under the frame get raw and sore. Sitting hunched over the frame is not good for the back either. I'm not in that much of a hurry to finish it.

I've rolled it a couple of times from both sides.

I decided to quilt an X through all the yellow rectangles.

This is my helpful lamp for those times when I need more illumination on the quilt to see exactly what I'm doing.

It takes a regular light bulb so it doesn't get overly hot and it has a fairly long reach.

I've had it for years and still managed to keep the original box.

For those of you curious about how a quilt gets put on a frame and how it is quilted, I did two posts in 2010 about it and you can see them here.

http://truebluecanadian.blogspot.ca/2010/09/how-to-quilt-old-fashioned-way-or.html

http://truebluecanadian.blogspot.ca/2010/11/how-to-quilt-old-fashioned-way-part-2.html

A slight change

Last year, I made a Potato Chip quilt. Kay Koeper Sorensen at Quilts Plus Color had a tutorial for her version that she named Sunrise-Sunset. So, I set about to make my version from her tutorial.

I was always bothered about the lack of yellow in the middle and I didn't like the two long strips  (actually there are 3) of green strips with only a bit of yellow on either end. So, I took out the stitching from the middle and flipped one half of the quilt.

This is the result. Not much of a difference but at least there is some yellow in the middle now. I could probably do more to change it up but I won't. This is all I wanted to do. It's a big lap size quilt and will be going on the frame next. The backing is sewn but first I have to...

staple some fabric onto these boards. I took the fabric off to wash it. One is done but there is an issue with the staples. They won't lie flat so I need to get the hammer out  to smash them flat. I also have to find some fabric for the two boards that are missing them. I have to go through the stash to find something that is a bit heavier or at least has a tighter weave. There is no need to mark the quilt since I will just be stitching in the ditch along either all the strips or every other row. I will see how it goes once it's on the frame. The quilt measures 57" by 64" and will just be bound once it's finished. There will be no border at all.

Go take a look at Kay's version and if you want even more inspiration, go to her list on the right side of her blog where you will find "Labels" and click on Potato Chip Quilt. At the moment there are 21 posts with a lot of different variations.

I’m linking up to Works In Progress Wednesday at The Needle and Thread Network. Go have a look at what other Canadians are up to this week.

The Surprises and Satisfaction of Hand Quilting

I'm working on a quilt at the moment and it's a joy.

It's so much fun to watch a flat piece of fabric...

come to life with the stitching.

 I love the way the shadows play on the fabric - even if it's a print, the quilting does show up. I just hope it's noticeable once it's off the frame. Hand quilting a design on a quilt always seems to delight me.

Holes

I went for a walk this morning. I took my son's little dog for a walk and on the street we passed a young lady wearing jeans with holes in both her pant legs. It amazes me that some people actually pay money for jeans that already have a tear here and a hole there. Now, I don't know about you but I stop wearing my jeans once they have a hole in them. I don't even patch my own jeans. They become too uncomfortable to wear if there is a hole in the knee (which is where my jeans wear out) and they especially are a pain to put on. How on earth you don't make the hole bigger when putting on those holey jeans is beyond me. Anyway, it takes a lot of wear and tear to get denim to wear out, unless...

this is your favourite mode of getting from place A to place B. It really doesn't matter if the surface is soft, like grass...

medium-hard, like wood...

or really hard, like a rocky dirt road in the country, somehow, denim will eventually...

get a hole in it. Some holes start out bigger,

and some are not too noticeable in the beginning. 

So, you see, it doesn't even matter what size the jeans are... 

denim is not indestructible and will eventually, get a hole or two - even from a one-year-old.