Obsession

Well ... what else would you call it. Up before anything to print the shapes, and then rush home from work, and do nothing but the most cursory of stuff in the house, all in order to be able to sit down and make the next block.
When you look closely at it, you can see that it is exactly the same block with regard to shapes used and their position, compared to the one in the previous post, but it almost defies belief, seeing that they are so very different. And all due to choice of fabrics and their placement relative to each other.

I am in love !

What a header, eh ?

Read on, and you will know more.

It was my b'day yesterday, and a very dear freind sent me a book as a present. It got here two days early, and I *had* to open it. It contained Diana Boston's book about Lucy Boston's quilts (and in spite of what it says on the website, it is no longer out of print).

Now, I know that many, MANY Inklingoists love Lucy Boston's Patchwork Of The Crosses (POTC), and I think it a fine quilt too, but I can resist that.

Even in spite of Linda Franz's book and printable Inklingo collection for it.

What I could not resist, was the Passacaglia-quilt in that book, and I'm sorry, I am unable to find any pictures on-line of that quilt, so you will just have to grin and bear it, and wait for my showing pictures of the individual blocks here, as I progress.

ANYway, I fell in love.

Hard.

Really, really hard ...

Like a ton of bricks :-)

It is quite a while since I fell this hard for a quilt, and felt that I had to make it. Now !!! Oh, I have lots of quilts I want to make, and quite a few that are being made, but I think the last time I wanted this desperately to make a quilt, was when I started my Dear Jane quilt 10 years ago.

Anyway. All this conspires to the fact, that the first block is finished, and that I got up early this morning to prepare the second one before leaving for work. That way, I can dream about getting home and sitting down to stitch immediately.

I think it is called "obsession" :-)

The picture here, is my version of the simplest and most boring of the blocks in the Passacaglia-quilt. The next one will be slightly more fun. HOWever, you can see - on this one - that the basic unit is the LeMoyne star. I'm using the 6" Inklingo collection, but you can make the blocks with the Free Collection too :-)

Knitting Socks

Knitting socks is - to me - a lovely, mindless way to spend an evening in front of the telly. I don't really have any quilty handwork, and I'm too, TOO fidgetty to just sit there. If I do, I end up snacking a lot, and end up feeling bloated, fat and uncomfortable.
SO, knitting socks it is.

But really ... knitting the same type of sock all the time tends to be boring, SO when looking through the summer issue of knitty, I found this pattern, and since I already had this yarn (and no, you really, really don't want to browse that shop ... it will probably be very, very expensive to do so), and the double-pointed needles, I started.

Now, some of you who read this blog probably already know, that English is not my first language, but I usually have no trouble with it, so I forged ahead.

I have not unpicked this much in the longest time !

Oh, well. BUT, sock # 1 is now finished - as can be seen from the picture - and so far, sock # 2 is much smoother sailing.


... but let me tell you, taking a picture of a sock on ones own foot is not quite as easy as might be imagined. Oh, well. It looks as it looks :-) and I like the way it looks, actually.

Another Sneak Peek on the Sampler

And these are the blocks that I've finished - so far - for the Inklingo Sampler blog. It is still loads of fun, and I'm learning such a lot about machine-piecing patchwork.
I am not very good freinds with my sewing-machine, so I am definitely out of my comfort zone here. HOWever, it is fun.
All of the above blocks are 6" square. Some started out being 5", but were log-cabined with a strip on all 4 sides.
BUT, I'm hand-piecing too :-)
All the non-square (i.e. hexagonal) blocks, are hand-pieced or hybrid pieced. Same goes for the square, but absolutely wrong size blocks I've made using the LeMoyne star 6" collection. Blocks can be made with the free collection too.
ANYway, these are the blocks that will be published on the Inklingo Sampler blog in the course of the next few months.

Super Karla is finished !

The Super Karla shawl is finished.

It was loads of fun to knit, and perfect for someone as impatient and easily bored as myself.
Lots of different lace-patterns in there, so ... might be said to be a sort-of lace-knitting sampler.
I added an extra row of squares, because I had lots of yarn left when I had finished the last full row of squares in the pattern. IF you decide to knit it, 2 skeins of Noro's Kureyon Sock-yarn will get you there with the pattern as it is.


Since I added another row of squares, I broke into the third skein for the border ... but not until then !

Materials : Kureyon Sock-yarn from Noro, 3.5 mm needles, and pattern from Karen Noe.

My Design Wall

Well, this is what it looks like at the moment.


I'm really sinking my teeth into the Sampler, and I am enjoying every moment of it. This is fun !
Those of you following the Inklingo Sampler blog, can see many of the blocks that I'm planning to keep you entertained. Most of what happens until the end of August is up there.
And yes, there are hexagon-blocks in there as well :-)
They can be made square or be left as they are, and be made into their own project.

Boredom and remedies

I knew I would be bored at work yesterday. I am a sub. at that place, and have a 3 hour break in the middle of the day some days, seeing that it's a public office, and we have to have a late opening day at least once a week. So, everything closes down from 1 to 4. And since it is not "my" office, I cannot do any of the zillion small tasks that are postponed. I can only do "this much" and nothing more. The tenured staff needs their priorities, filing and organizational systems respected. Also, I live too far away to go home, and 3 hours really is a lot of time, if you are on top of your work. I am fortunate enough to be that at the moment so ... what to do.

Well, I came prepared.

I brought some sewing and a DVD to watch on the 'puter. The newest BBC "Sense and Sensibility", (imdb-entry with list of cast etc. here)and my present "carry along and work on forever" project. Rectangle hexagons.

Got another rectangle made, and watched most of S&S at work, and finished it off when I got home.
And how do I like it ?
Well ... its major flaw is, that it is not the Emma Thompson version. The only thing that was clearly better in this one, was Edward Ferrars. I like Hugh Grant a lot, and find him charming in 4 weddings and Notting Hill, but I think his playing EF in the old (movie) version, was the one disastrous mis-casting in that one.

The major flaw with the new one, however, is (to me) that I cannot see Willoughby as instantly appealing. He is not at all appealing, romantic or dashing to me. I found his acting in Mamma Mia flat and unintersting, and thought it probably had to do with having a quite uninteresting part, but that does not seem to be the case. To any and all of you who love him, I apologize. He simply does not click with me.
I can sympathize with Marianne not falling instantly in love with Brandon in this version, and her eventual joining up with him, but ... Willoughby ... no.
I guess that Willoughby, Wickham (in P&P), and Henry Crawford (MP) have the same problem. They need to be charming, handsome and urbane, but also need to be seriously bad news ... and to find a young enough actor to pull that off seems very difficult indeed.

So. Do I recommend this version ? I really don't know. As I wrote, the major flaw is, that it is not the Emma Thompson movie, and for someone who does not have that sort of prejudice, or disliked the movie, I think this one could be a very good introduction to S&S.

And this concludes my first "task" in the Jane Austen Challenge.

Announcing a new blog

So, it is July 1st, and I have (yet another) blog.

You would think, what with the two I am already running (Inklingoprojects and this one), I had enough on my plate.

But no.

Maybe it is because I bore so very easily, and my present projects are all at a pretty boring stage, that I have felt the urge to actually do something I've been thinking about for a long time : Making a sampler, using Inklingo.

So, here it is : the Inklingo Sampler blog. Not very interesting - yet - but the plan is, that for as long as I've got the stamina for it, I will publish a new block every Friday.

So far, all the blocks are really simple to make, can be fully or partly machine-pieced, and the majority are 6" finished ... or smaller, so they can be log-cabined and still end up 6" unfinished.

The picture in this post, shows the blocks I've made so far. Most of them are made with Inklingo shape-collection # 2 (which is extremely good value for money, but, alas, only for Windows-users and only on CD), and more will be coming. You can, however, make many of the blocks using the free collection. The blocks will not finish at 6" then, but at varying sizes if you do that. Bottom line, however, is that it is a fun, easy and very inexpensive way to try out Inklingo.

Today's post on the Sampler blog is merely to announce that I'm here, I'm making blocks and I'm inviting you to join me. It also has links to much of the free stuff you can find that centers on Inklingo, including the free collection.

More Lace

Well, Super-Karla shawl is moving forward rapidly !
It is so much fun to do, that I have to do "just" another square ... and another ... and another.
Also, I've added a row of squares. It simply is not big enough (in my pretty arrogant opinion) with only 8 rows of squares, it needs the 9th ... and as I have plenty of yarn still, another row was added.

Now it's onwards and forwards, next comes the border ... with 400+ stitches in every row.

What's wrong with this picture ?

Well, I was making an Ohio Star block. Very simple thing. Make some QST (Quarter Square Triangles) with Inklingo, and hey presto, no guesswork, no errors ... so ... what's wrong with this picture ?
Can't you see it ?

I place the fabric with the wrong (wrong) side towards the right (right) side of the light fabric, rather than right sides together.

Result ? Mr. Seam Ripper got an outing, and frog-stitching happened.
Then they were placed the right way, with right sides together.

Piecing happened, and the star was finished.

Very simple ... if you know what you're doing and bring your brains to the sewing-room. Not always that simple :-)

Austentatious

OK, "Stephanie's Written Word" blog has a Jane Austen challenge, and I think I might as well jump in. It runs from July 1st 2009 to January 1st 2010, and the challenge is to pick out "six Austen-themed things you want to finish to complete the challenge"
So ... what do I want to do ?

1. Well obviously watch my favourite Austen movie : Persuasion with Amanda Root. Lovely, lovely movie and with a feel very close to the book.

2. Start on my "Fassets of Austen" quilt. The plan is to make a version of the Austen coverlet using Kaffe Fasset fabrics. I will - naturally - be using the Inklingo collection for that. And I do write "start" because I am quite confident that it will not be finished. "The Jane Austen Patchwork Mystery" (book), can be found here. The collection for printing is right here.

3. Try out at least 3 different recipies from "The Jane Austen Cookbook"

4. Watch "Lost in Austen" with my DD (age 14).

5. Acquire (and watch) the old BBC-adaptation of Pride and Predjudice, the one Fay Weldon adapted ... and failing that, re-reading "Letters to Alice" by Fay Weldon, which is her (funny and well-written) introduction to the world and the novels of Jane Austen.

6. Watch the newest Sense and Sensibility adaptation. I have it, but have not (yet) watched it.

... and then - naturally - re-read any and all of The Novels :-)

Oh, and I'll mark all my postings relevant to this challenge with the label "Austentatious" :-) So you should be able to find my (irrelevant) musings.

This should be fun :-)

Knitting lace

OK, so I haven't exactly been sewing these past 2 weeks, BUT, I have been doing needlework :-) I've been knitting. Lace-knitting to be more specific.
Finished one shawl on Friday, and started the next one.
The first one is knitted with a 100 % Alpaca yarn (lovely and soft, brand-name Indiecita), is newly washed and has been stretched gently to show off the lace ... but do you have ANY idea how difficult it is for an indifferent photographer like myself to take a halfway decent pic of lace knitting ? No ? Well ... just be grateful that I went through all the trouble to show you that pic. Teddy Bear is my oldest, still extant, freind. We became buddies the Christmas 'of 59, and his name is Palle Lykke.

And here's the new one. I've been pretty obsessive with it :-) so it is amazingly far advanced.

Unfortunately, it is not only finished lace-knitting that is difficult to take pictures of, lace-knitting in progress is not much easier, and doesn't really show much, but there it is anyway :-)

Noro-yarn, variegated, knitted on 3.5mm needles.
Shawl is called "Super Karla's Fantastic Dream Shawl" and is designed by Karen Noe
... who has the design out as a pattern in both Danish and English.
It is really fun to knit. It is lace, in many different varieties, knitted square-by-square in the technique known as "neverkont" in the Scandinavian languages and "entrelac" (or so it seems) in French. What it is in English, I have no idea. Great fun to knit, particularly since you have to do "just one more" in order to see how it looks now. My kind of pattern :-)

Wombat resolved

The give-away is over.

And I went to the random number generator , and it threw up # 11 !

SO, Brenda, looks like you'll have some hexagons soon :-)

I'll send it sometime next week :-)

Boxed Stars

This is originally a Jinny Beyer pattern from her "Quiltmaking by Hand", however, I adapted it to suit my own purposes. The original pattern uses 2.5" diamonds, I used Inklingo and the 2.25" diamond in Collection 3. I also used a "same background colour" fabric to tie the stars together and frame the boxes.
Jinny Beyer doesn't call it Boxed Stars, but I do. I love the way the boxes and the stars interplay, and the way the graphic of the piece shifts as you shift your focus just a tiny bit.
The ... funny thing about this is, that I started it by picking out all the most boring and drab browns and darks I could find in my stash, then I added a few soft rose fabrics, and a very small handful of golden-hued scraps. The intention was to make a "neutral" and mostly harmless / boring quilt. My DH tells me I failed :-)

It is about 96" and we had to stand on the low stone-wall to hold up the top.
Not yet quilted ... I (still !) need to remove a lot of cat-hairs before I can send it to a pro for quilting. I started doing it myself, on the machine, and the effort was pathetic.
ANYway, the top is finished, only the cat-hairs to remove now.

Lone Star

Lone Star, or Star of Bethlehem, or Mathematical Star, or Morning Star or whatever-you-want-to-call-it Star ... Well, it's one of those patterns I've wanted to do "forever", but frankly, the thought of doing it by hand was too daunting, and the thought of doing it by machine-piecing strips and then sub-cutting into the 45-degree angles, hoping to place your ruler the same way on every strip-set ...
Too, too intimidating.
BUT, then came Inklingo, and then came the 6" LeMoyne Star collection. Now, those of you who knows me, also know that I'm not particularly good freinds with my sewing-machine. I don't enjoy it very much, and it usually ends up in tears ... or at least in un-pointy points and less than happy intersections.
Well ... I decided that now was the time to put my theories about making a Lone Star with the Inklingo 6" LeMoyne Star collection to the test, so ... Thursday May 21st, 2009, I started picking out fabric, and printed the first strips.
Yesterday, I was rather miffed, because the centre would not lie flat.
Today, I added the 4 corner-squares and 4 centre triangles that are the background-fabric, and after that, I pressed well with a good iron, and ... now it lies flat :-)
So, just under 2 weeks to make an 84" finished top, all machine-pieced ... that's rather good, won't you agree ?

WOMBATs

Do you you know what that is ?
I don't mean the cute looking animal, I mean the quilty wombats :
Waste Of Money, Batting And Time.

It is a highly personal thing what might become a wombat, but I have found that I have one.
Picture on the left.

It is a Strippy Scrappy Hexagon project.
I've printed lots of Civil War reproduction scraps, and some that are not repros, but are compatible with them. Not all of the printing is equally visible. Some of the fabrics turned out to have quite dark backs, which does not make for visible printing (until and unless someone knows of someone who produces white ink ?)

I've pieced long strips of hexagons on the machine (50 or 51 hexes to a strip), making 40+ strips.
I've started joining the long strips to each other with hand-piecing, because I can't really see any other way of doing it .... and I'm bored stiff !
What is worse, I don't really like the result when I do a mock-up like on the picture.

So the question is : is there anyone out in blog-land who is dying to get a project like this ?

There probably is :-)

Which is why I'm going to celebrate my return to blog-land by giving it away. A project that I dislike (now), but which might be loved by someone else. Fabrics are good quality, are washed, and come from a home with 2 cats and a rabbit (so pet allergics, beware !)

There are 40+ strips, each sewn with 50 hexagons. The side of each hexagon (finished size) is 1", which means about 2" across from point to point. 20 of the strips have been joined in pairs, forming 10 pairs of strips. The finished quilt should be in the vicinity of 60 x 90"

To have a chance at winning, here's what you do :

Leave a comment on this post before noon, GMT, Friday the 12th of June.
In the comment let me know which quilt-pattern you have never made, but would love to do.
Some time after that dead-line, I'll pick a winner, using a random number generator :-)

G'day late May

Well ... it's been almost a year since I last wrote. Even the most die-hard readers of this blog must have given up on me.

So, what happened ? Did I fall off the face of the earth, or what ?
No. I got work. And worked quite a lot in the beginning ... like ... many hours every day .... and the blog slipped from my list of priorities.
BUT, I hope that it is back now.
At least I have a huge back-log of pictures to show everyone.
Lets start with this one, the first quilty finish of the year 2009, my tiny Apple Core bag.

I made it with the Inklingo Apple Core collection, and "just because" I made a pattern out of it.


You can go to my Just Giving page, and see how you get the pattern.

Hello again ...

Well, it's been the longest time, hasn't it :-)
The good thing about that is, that projects are finished and others are progressing.
The "(two inches wide)" quilt is finished. Quilted and bound :And here is a detail of the quilting, where you can also see the pink binding. The pink is the same fabric that is used in the blocks so it all ties together nicely :What you cannot see is, that the quilter not only threw bubbles all over the place (which I like), but that she also used a variegated thread for the quilting, which sort-of "lifts" a quilt that could have been very dark in the general tone.

Active at the moment are just two projects. I know the sidebar says 3 projects, but Lollipops are not being worked on unless I'm travelling, and seeing that I'm biking to work right now, there is no time to sew on that one. SO, what I am presently actually working on are :
Boxed Stars (which is not what Jinny Beyer calls it, but I cannot remember her name for it in "Quiltmaking by Hand", so I use my own). This picture is
1. A mock-up on the design-wall.
2. Just a small fraction of the blocks I have made so far, but I'm more than half-way with the blocks. That, however, does not mean that I'm more than half-way with the quilt or even with the top. Never underestimate the border, and never underestimate the time and effort that goes into putting a top together !

And then a true scrap-project. 4" scraps, many from a charm-club I belonged to for a year or two waaaay back, the rest from my own scrap-bag. I've cut 700+ tumblers using an Ardco template for it. This quilt is truly scrappy and it is pieced in a truly random fashion ... the latter meaning that red will touch red and that there will be "runs" of lights together etc. It is a rag-bag of fabrics and colours. Machine-pieced and will be machine quilted too.Halfway with the piecing of the rows on that one too.
So, that is one of the reasons you haven't heard a lot from me. I'm working, both paid work and on projects ... and then - of course - summer is here, which means less time at the 'puter and more time on the deck.

Finally sending off !

Right after posting the winners of the Inklingo give-away, I got work, and have - literally - been working every day since. Today is my first chance at mailing anything, or - indeed - posting here.

SO, the 4 of you who have sent me your snail-mail addy : Your muslin-bits are on their way !
The rest of you : why didn't you contact me ?

There is still time :-) I still have plenty of muslin hanging around here :-) needing to be used :-)

And, as you can see, no comments with street-addresses have been published on my blog, so ... don't be afraid. I won't tell the world where you live :-)

And the Winners ...

PLEASE NOTE :
This drawing was held in May of 2008 !!
There are no more muslin bits to give away now.

HOWever, if you want to try out Inklingo, Linda Franz has a free collection that you can download. All it will cost you is your e-mail addy and a password. You can see it right HERE
And to see some suggestions on what could be done with the free Inklingo download, please go HERE

So, please. No more comments asking to be in the drawing. It is over and done with, and has been for a loooong time :-)
Thank you.

- - -

And the winners of the Inklingo-printed muslin are :
ALL of you who left a comment :-)
Yes. Only 11 people have commented, and one doesn't even want any muslin, so ... that's 10 of you who need to contact me with your snail-mail addy.
The easy way to do this is, to leave a comment on this posting. As most of you have found out, I moderate all comments on this blog, so ... putting your address in a comment does NOT send it out on the www, only into my postbox.
So. Let me have your full name and snail-mail addy. Yes ye in the US and Oz-land too :-) and I will send two sheets of muslin, printed with Inklingo HST that finishes at 1½".

Congratulations :-)

Top finished

Yes. The Indigo-and-Shirtings top is now a finished top.

And the picture here is just the top. There will not be much difference between this one and the finished quilt, so this might be all you get.
HOWever, to become a quilt it needs to be quilted.
To become quilted it needs to be basted.
To become basted, I need to clear the table and put leaves in it, find and iron backing, find and hang batting to "even out" ....
I hope to baste tomorrow ...

Half Square Triangles with Inklingo

What do you do with an excess of muslin cut-offs. They are good quality, but I have no clue which ones (if any) tie in to the other muslins I have on my shelves.

First : wash the fabric. I live with 2 teen-agers, 2 cats, and a rabbit. It has probably been washed, but heaven alone knows who has been in it since then ... with what.
So, washed it is.

Iron freezer-paper to the right side of it. No, wait, this is muslin, so it really doesn't matter which side it is. Now, for the sake of frugality, I ought to cut custom-sizes of the freezer-paper, to give me the best use of both fabric and freezer-paper, but I really can't be bothered.

Trim the fabric from the edges of the freezer-paper.

Re-iron the edges and corners (just to be on the safe side)

Pop your Inklingo, shape-collection # 2 into the 'puter (no picture. I tried, but I am *not* a good photograper)

Print 1½" half-square triangles (HST). Inklingo gives you the finished size, so what comes out will finish at 1½". Printed, each shape will be more like 2½", but ... that includes seam-allowance on all sides :-) I have chosen to print this sheet of muslin in Inklingo colour # 02. I probably could get away with using the lightest colour (# 00), but ... my eyes are becoming middle-aged :-) besides, it doesn't seem to show on the front. Still, the lines are not nearly as visible in the picture as they are in real life :-)

Repeat the above as desired.
Trim.

Layer with coloured fabric
Sew along the dotted lines
Cut apart on the un-dotted lines. Trim.
Iron.
You are now ready to roll, making some of the many blocks that are possible with HST.

The real beauty of this is, that there is no measuring. No cut-off points (if you've followed the sewing-lines). Perfect size. Every time !!!
And *that* is why I love Inklingo.
Preparation is extremely fast, and the results are as close to perfect as it can be, if I just follow the lines :-)

And honestly ? My opinion is, that Inklingo is bloody brilliant (pardon my French).

P.S. You can download a free trial-version of Inklingo right here. And yes, it is a LeMoyne star, and yes, it has triangles, 45-degree diamonds and squares. Lots of shapes for you to enjoy.

May goals

I'm back from my road-trip. Great and stress-free. No kids. No DH. No cats. No rabbit. Just me to consider. Sleeping in. Buying fabric (yes). Stopping at sights and get an icecream. Moving on when I felt like it.
Very nice. I think I'll repeat it soon :-)

Above is how far the Indigo-and-Shirtings quilt got before I went away. Time to focus on it again ... which leads me to my May goals ... sewing-wise, that is. I like to set up goals for me. Not too hard or demanding. Just enough to help me keep at it. And this May, my goals are to keep on keeping on with the following :

1. Indigo and shirtings (with the provisionary name of "Perfectly good").
2. Boxed stars
3. Lollipop Trees

That's 3 big quilts. I hope (plan) to at least finish the Indigo-and-Shirtings top this month, and to move the two others forward.

I have started applique'ing the first Lolipop-block and ... whoah ... that's the easiest and fastest applique I have ever done in my life. HUGE bits :-) and next to no tricky inner points that frays and acts up. I am beginning to think this top might be finished in less than 5 years :-)

Oh, and via a comment on a previous post, I found out that there are at least 4 others out there in blog-land doing Lollipop trees : Kathie over at "Inspired by Antique Quilts", and her freinds at "Sew Easily Distracted", "Canterbury Quilts" and "Will Work for Fabric".
Now, what I find really ... interesting :-) is, that these 4 seem to be doing Dear Jane blocks (and I am a Jane ... have one finished full-size Jane-quilt, and lots of small ones), AND they are doing Feathered Stars. I have not started on a Feathered Star quilt / block yet, but ... I recently acquired Marsha McCloskey's book, and look forward to doing (at least) one.

Have a wonderful week-end

Spring has sprung in Copenhagen. Pear-tree (and apple-tree) is in bloom.
Lovely, isn't it ?

I'm off on a road-trip and will not be back until Sunday. Visiting freinds and quilt-shops :-)
Life can be hard :-)

Much more to my taste

Here's the glue-basted block # 2 of the Lollipop Trees (or, as my DH referred to it "That Candy Plantation")
MUCH more to my taste. With kick ... donkey colours :-)

And as I was putting things away yesterday evening, I suddenly realized exactly what it was that was all wrong with the first block. Or at least, why it was so very displeasing to me :-)
That is now emended.

You might not be able to see what has changed, but the general feel of the block is very different to my eyes. 4 circles out, 4 new circles in. Easy :-)
Anyway. Two prepared, 14 to go ... and then lots of small blocks. But at this rate, preparation will be a piece of cake.

Back to Lollipop Trees

Well, "(two inches wide)" is now a finished top, and is winding its way towards the LAQuilter who also quilted "The Advantages of Natural Folly" ... with which it shares colours, fabrics and history :-) Anyway, here it is :
And then ... do you remember the Lollipop Trees ? That I started last year, and found so ... disenheartening that I decided to stall the project for as long as it took to either get me exited about it again, or decide to not do it.
Well. The first block (that disenchanted me somewhat, seeing that it is too bland for my taste), is now (finally) basted and ready to roll. The background fabric for this one is a soft mauve with leanings of green. I cannot say that I love this block, and I might decide - in the end - to re-do it entirely. Time will tell.

This time, with advice from the creator of the pattern and the original quilt, Kim McLean, I have started the other way round : by picking the fabrics. Block # 2 will be fuchsia and cobalt on a bed of very light green.
The selection has been made, and the 3 fabrics for the "big bits" has been chosen. So ... lets see how this one plays out. The fabrics I have pulled look harmless enough when presented like this, but they do have more zing than the above block, and that's what I want.
This one will be glue-basted, and - in the end - have a big basting-stitch run through all the bits (on the machine) to ensure that they stay put until the block is finished. This might take a while, seeing that the ambition is to prepare all the applique before starting to actually sew :-)
... 'tho I just might bring block # 1 for a week-end at freinds' place.
... just to see.
BUT the plan will still be, to prepare ahead as fast as possible. Project preparation is my achilles heel when it comes to quilts. I find it to be mostly boring and definitely time-consuming. The strategy of preparing "everything" ahead worked wonderfully with SE-2, so I hope it'll work with this one too.

The easiest shawl in the world !

Standard knitting abbreviations (at least I think they are) can be found at Knitty.com
Disclaimer : I take no responsibility for your possible addiction to making these. They are really fast to make, very easy to do if you can just do the knit-stitch, and the "long" edges means that it is great to snuggle in to on cold days.

Use any sort of good, fine yarn. Preferably one with a bit of texture on its own. The above is knitted with a mohair-yarn, which needs a size 4 needle (European), or - if you want to have a loopy and lacey quality, something larger. I have used a size 8 needle for the ones show in this post (there are two more, made with variegated yarns, below).
It runs 300 m to 100 gram (and if you want to translate that into US measurements, you can go to this converter site)

To get a nice edge (on any knitting): On every row, take the first stitch off without knitting it. If you - like I have done on this shawl - only do knitting and no purling, take it off as if it was a purl-stitch. You will get a lovely, even edge this way. Over at Knitty, they call this :

slp slip one as if to purl

You will also need to increase with 4 stitches on every other row, and (again from Knitty), they call this :

m1 : Make 1 stitch: Insert left needle, from front to back, under strand of yarn which runs between last stitch on left needle and first stitch on right needle; knit this stitch. 1 stitch increased. If you "just" knit, you will have a "hole" in your knitting, and for this shawl, I consider it a desired effect :-) If you don't want that hole, knit through the back loop.

And finally, the directions :

Cast on 5 stitches, any old way you want :-)

All un-even number of rows (1, 3, 5 etc) : slp, knit the rest.

2. slp, k 1, m1, k1, m1, k 2 (7 stitches).
4. slp, k1, m1, k1, m1, k1, m1, k1, m1, k2 (11 stitches)

- and now the "fun" begins :-) I would advise you to put a thread loosely in there, just before the middle stitch, to help yourself keep track.

6. slp, k1, m1, k3, m1, k1, m1. k3, m1, k2
8. slp, k1, m1, k5, m1, k1, m1. k5, m1, k2

Every other row, the amount of stitches between the first two and the last two increases, are +2. The bold-type above
And now, you just go on this way, until you run out of yarn :-) I can make a "big enough" shawl, using a good quality, fairly thin, fuzzy yarn, with 150 grams ... that would equal 450 meters of yarn on needles size 8 :-)

As announced : two other shalws knitted from this pattern. Both with a variegated yarn.

Two Inches Wide - again

Well, you have now seen the big diamond-quilt "The Advantages of Natural Folly", and one or two might remember the layout I had on my designwall, using some of the full-size diamonds that didn't make it into the big quilt, and some half-size ones as well. The working-title of that one is "(two inches wide)" seeing that that is indeed the size of the smaller diamonds.
Well, the top is almost finished. Still needs the final border.

And yes, the small diamonds used to "set" the larger ones are really only 2" wide. And each side is 2" too. Half-size.
I put it together on the machine. Not my favourite way of doing things, and there are points that do not meet as perfectly as they would have done, had I put it together by hand.
So, not perfect, but - with the words of a fellow struggler against UFOs - perfectly good.

And then I had the inspiration to take the top out into our tiny yard, to set off the colours with the spring-colours found in the yard right now ... and this is what happened :

Rabbit was told "munch and die" so ... after a little while she pottered off the top, and I could put it back on the safety of the wall.
What is it with critters and quilts ?

Old news

I realized that there are actually 3 quilts that I have only shown partially or unfinished. My 3 most recent big-quilt finishes ! SO to amend that, here are 3 pictures :-)
The "oldest" finish, from the summer of 2007 "The Advantages of Natural Folly" :

Then comes "The Sampler", made mostly with blocks from Dear Jane and Dear Hannah, but the blocks are 6" square rather than the 4½" found in DJ and DH. Finished in February this year

Finally, SE-2. A not-quite copy, but close sibling to the triangle-quilt I made for Brenda and for the Dear Hannah book. Got it quilted exactly like the first one :-) And the first one, which is in the Dear Hannah-book, and lives in the collection of Brenda Papadakis, is called Sara Eleonora for my DDaughter. Hence the name SE-2 :-) Finished in March this year.

FINISHED !!!

Yes. "Allsorts" the applique album quilt with 96 blocks each 4½" square (and then sashed so the quilt got a decent size), is now FINISHED.


Quilted, bound and signed (with a pigma-pen on the back, but signed !)
And here it is :-)
First block sewn on June 1st 2003 (!), quilting started October 29th, 2007, last stitch on binding taken yesterday evening, April 16th, 2008.
Hand applique. Hand quilting.
Go me :-)

I forgot ...

Being organized in one (small) area of one's life does not of a necessity indicate, that one has it all together. SO, here's a picture of the finished Raspberry Truffle quiltlet. 22" square (or thereabouts), made with 2 sets of charms and some added chocolate-fabric. Not by any stretch of the imagination is it great quilt-art, but ... it's a nice enough piece. Useful and cute, and really ... how much more can one expect :-)


And here's a closer look at the binding. Not huge, but wider than I usually make them ... if not, how could one see that it is indeed chocolate-fabric on the edge :-)