Making Blocks

These are the blocks I pieced this week!

This week's 365 Challenge blocks - 3" blocks. Still lots of fun to sew (I am a bit surprised that I am still making them, I have done twice as many as I originally thought I would).

This week's Circa 2016 blocks (12 Nine Patches) - 2+1/4" blocks.

Plus this week was the start of the Westering Women BOM. This is a 12" block - it was so nice to work with big pieces of fabric for a change.

These are the 9 Pineapple blocks I made this week. I also figured out that I cut 2,597 pieces for this quilt (53 pieces per block, and 49 blocks total), so only 2,120 pieces left to sew! These are 14" blocks.

I also did some knitting this week -

The Lintilla I am working on is progressing nicely.

I started another Moebius knitting project. This pattern is Knitting in Nature Beaded Moebius (I am knitting it without beads). I am pleased to be using up some left over hand spun yarn.

This week I also finished spinning some yarn - some Polwarth wool that I dyed and spun as a gradient from light pink to dark purple.

It started out as this fibre. My plan is to used it to knit a stranded colour work hat, with some black yarn.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Old and New Blocks

I finished piecing the Flowering Snowball quilt blocks (42, 12" blocks). I just need to play with the layout a bit more and then sew the blocks together.

It was time to cut out another piecing project. This is all the fabric cut for a 98" square Pineapple Quilt (49 blocks).
I chose the Marti Michell Pineapple ruler because other ways I saw of piecing pineapple blocks involved piecing large strips of fabric and trimming off the corners - which seems wasteful to me. This method I was able to cut all the pieces out ready to just be sewn together.

These are 1" finished strips, and the blocks are 14" square.

First 4 blocks so far. They went together beautifully - all the pieces are trimmed perfectly with the ruler, to make piecing so easy.

I plan on this being my year project, for when I just want to go sew for a while.

3 rabbits in the yard seems to causes problems!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥

Another Year of BOM's

I like to start the year off with a plan, and since it has been a few years since I have participated in long term blocks of the month (or little quilts of the month), I decided to try a few for this year.

I am still working on the 365 Challenge blocks. All 3" blocks so far. The blocks seem to be following patterns in piecing  - straight lines, squares and now we have been making half square triangles, so it is interesting to see what the next day brings.

Today is the start of the new quilt along from Temecula Quilt Co. This one is Circa 2016. There will be new blocks each Friday 'until the quilt is finished'. All the blocks will be either 2+1/4" or 3", these four pinwheels are the small size. This will end up being a small quilt (48"x55"), and seems like a great way to use scraps.

Next Wednesday is the start of another year long, quilt along from Barbara Brackman, on the Civil War Quilts blog - this one is called Westering Women. There will be twelve, 12" blocks, posted on the last Wednesday of every month (plus a little history will be included with the pattern).

Here are some other things that I have worked on this week.

I dyed some fibre - merino wool, alpaca, tencel (a rayon silk), plus some icicle (a sparkly fibre),

and blended it will some white tencel and some silver angelina (more sparkly stuff),

to make this yarn (155g, 410m, about fingering weight).

With blended fibre there are still different colours without being too 'stripy'.

I tried Moebius knitting for the first time! Much easier than I imagined it would be. This is a Felted Moebius Basket, the ingenious pattern is from Cat Bordhi. It just took a few hours to make. I knitted it with some of my first hand spun (originally a scarf that I didn't wear, so I took it apart). This only has one edge and one surface - true Moebius knitting!

Before felting.

It makes a perfect, light weight yarn bowl for my current knitting project.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥

Keeping Busy

My stack of 365 Challenge blocks is growing nicely - these are all 3" blocks (so far I am enjoying the challenge of a block-a-day).

I have also been cutting out a fat quarter pack (24 FQ's of 'Ticklish' by Me and My Sister). The apple core and the tumblers were cut out using the GO!, and the little thimbles using a rotary cutter and template (I have cut out 200 thimbles so far and have lots of little scraps to cut). The apple cores will make a lap quilt and the tumblers a baby quilt, not too sure what the thimbles will make yet. I find that these three dies and templates are a fabulous way to use a fat quarter pack and there is very little waste. These will be charity quilts - I've cut the fabric, my Mother will do the piecing and I will do the quilting.

I just finished knitting a scarf - the pattern is Windward by Heidi Kirrmaier.

It is a lovely pattern to knit because there are sections of garter, stockinette, and reverse stockinette, plus different increases and decreases to create interesting shapes.

The yarn is Polwarth wool that I dyed and spun (lace weight).

Gradient dyed. When I mixed the dyes for this they were shades of dusty purple, so I was surprised that after steaming it came out shades of black and grey.

Now I am knitting another 'Lintilla' by Martina Behm. This is the yarn I spun at the beginning of the year - it has a lot of angora and feels so soft!

I also put a project of the loom - this will be a long term project. I am trying out Saori weaving - a free form type of weaving. It should be interesting.

I am using yarn that I dyed and spun for this project too. This is the first time I have used lace weight yarn for weaving.

The rabbits seem to enjoy all the trimmings from pineapples, but especially the tops.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥

A New Year!

 The start of a new year is always an exciting time to plan for the upcoming year!

I decided that I would 'start' the 365 Challenge - a block a day for the year! This seems like a big commitment for me, so I have chosen to make a scrappy sampler - I hope to make enough for a bed quilt, but really, it might end up being a table runner!  I'll see how the year goes. The first 7 blocks are just 3", but there will be 6" blocks too.

This is the fabric I am using for the Challenge (if you click on the 3 little lines in the top left hand corner of the challenge website you can sign up to have the block instructions emailed every day - so simple).

This is a skein of yarn that I spun during a New Year's eve spin along - angora, merino, alpaca, silk and sparkling angelina.

Made from fibre that I dyed and blended.

My year seems to starting off very bright!

I wish you all the best for the new year, and thanks for stopping by!♥︎